The man who got up

Let me give you a concrete example. I know a man in Chicago whom I had always considered to be quite materialistic. He had made several successes in life; and also several failures. The last time I had a talk with him he was practically “down and out,” as compared with his former business condition. It looked as if he had indeed reached the end of his rope, for he was well advanced into the stage of middle-age, and new ideas came more slowly, and less frequently to him than in former years.

He said to me, in substance: “I know that all things that ‘work out’ in business are the result of Thought; any fool knows that. Just now, I seem to be short on thoughts and good ideas. But, if this ‘All-Mind’ teaching is correct, it should be possible for the individual to attain a direct connection with Infinite Mind; and in Infinite Mind there must be the possibility of all kinds of good ideas which a man of my courage and experience could put to practical use in the business world, and make a big success thereof. It looks good to me; and I am going to look into it.”

This was several years ago. The other day I heard of this man again. Talking to a friend, I said: “What has become of our old friend X? Has he ever gotten on his feet again?” The friend looked at me in amazement. “Why,” said he, “don’t you know about X’s great success? He is the Big Man in the ‘_________ Company’ (naming a concern which has made a phenomenal success during the last eighteen months and is now well known, by reason of its advertisements, from one end of the country to the other, and also abroad). He is the man who supplied the BIG IDEA for that concern. Why, he is about a half-million to the good and is moving rapidly toward the million mark; all in the space of eighteen months.” I had not connected this man with the enterprise mentioned; although I knew of the wonderful success of the company in question. Investigation has shown that the story is true, and that the above stated facts are not exaggerated in the slightest.

Now, what do you think of that? To me, it means that this man actually made the direct connection with Infinite Mind – Spirit – and, having found it, he set it to work for him. He used it in his business.

Does this sound sacrilegious or blasphemous? I hope not; I do not mean it to be so. Take away the implication of Personality, or Magnified Human Nature, from the conception of the “The Infinite,” and what you have left is the conception of an Infinite Presence-Power, the Quintessence of which is Consciousness – in fact, at the last, Spirit. As this man, also, at the last, must be considered as a manifestation of Spirit; there is nothing sacrilegious in the idea that he, being Spirit, should so harmonize himself with his Origin and Source that he would be able to manifest at least a minor degree of its Power. All of us do this, more or less, when we use our minds in the direction of Creative Thought. This man did more; he went about it in an intensely practical manner.

I have not consulted him about his method of procedure, though I intend doing so at the first opportunity, but he not only drew upon the Infinite Supply for the ideas which he needed and which formed the seed of his success, but that he also used the Creative Power of Thought in building up for himself an Idealistic Pattern of that which he hoped to manifest in material form, adding thereto, changing, improving its detail, from time to time – proceeding from the general outline to the finished detail. I judge these to be the facts of the case, not alone from my recollection of the conversation a few years ago, but also because I have found the same thing to be true in the cases of other prominent men who have made similar manifestation of Creative Thought.

Those who may shrink from this idea of employing the Infinite Power to aid one in his work in the material world should remember that if the Infinite objected in the least to such a procedure, the thing could never happen. The Infinite is quite able to take care of Itself.