Wise or Wretched [Pre-Lude]

The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. Though one differs from the other as the light from the dark, both are right. Each is accurate in his own specific point of view, and this point of view is the determining factor in the Life of each. It governs whether there is a Life of Power or of impotence, of Peace or of pain, of success or of failure.

The optimist has the Power of seeing things as a whole and in their truthful associations. The pessimist airs from a restricted, one-sided point of view. The one has his considerations lit by wisdom, the comprehension of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each is building his world from within, and the product of that construction is determined by their point of view. The optimist, by his greater wisdom and insight, is making his own Heaven, and in the degree that he makes his own Heaven is he helping to make one for all the world aside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own hell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to make one for all mankind.

You and I have the dominating characteristics of an optimist or the dominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, moment by moment, our own Heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for all the world aside.

The word Heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English hell, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be helled was to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony there must be that something one can be in right relation with; thus to be in right relation with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if there is such a thing as being helled, shut off, separated from, there must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or separated.

-Red

Come With Me [Pre-Face]

There is a golden thread of Truth that runs through every religion in the world. This golden thread of Truth runs through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world's history, through the lives of all men and women of truly Great and lasting Power. All that they have ever done or achieved has been done in full accordance with the Law. What one has done, all may do.

This same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, in this demanding work-to-live world of ours, would exchange impotence for Power, weakness and suffering for ample health and strength, pain and unrest for perfect Peace, poverty of whatever Nature for fullness and plenty.

Each is fabricating his own world. We both erect from within and we attract from without. Thought is the Force with which we build, for thoughts are Forces. Like constructs like, and like attracts like. To the degree that thought is spiritually charged does it become more refined and powerful in its workings. This spiritualization is in accordance with Law and is within the Power of All.

Everything is first decided in the unseen before it is manifested in the seen, in the ideal before it is made real, and in the spiritual before it expresses as material. The realm of the unseen is the realm of cause. The realm of the seen is the realm of effect. The Nature of effect is always determined and conditioned by the Nature of its cause.

To point out the Great facts in relation to, and the Great Laws fundamental to the workings of the interior, spiritual, thought Forces, to point them out so simply and so clearly that even a child can understand, is the goal. To point them out so simply and so clearly that all can perceive them, that all can take them and infuse them into every-day Life, so as to mold it in all its details in accordance with what they would have it, is the purpose. That Life can be accordingly molded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory, but a matter of positive knowledge.

There is a Divine order running throughout the Universe. Human will does incessantly work above, below and within the Divine will. To come into harmony with it and in doing so, with all the higher Laws and Forces, to come then into association and to work in combination with them, in order that they can work in association and in combination within, is to come into the chain of this wonderful sequence. This is the secret of all success, to come into the possession of unknown riches, into the realization of unseen Powers.

-Red