Article November 28, 1908 Issue

OUR MENTAL HOMES

ETHEL E. WALTON

As we are thrown into daily contact with people at large we wonder how it is that some of them not only accomplish all that comes their way to be done, but still have sufficient time and energy to help others to accomplish their daily quota of work. We ourselves are often possessed with the impulse to help others, and even go so far as to offer help, but when the time comes for us to fulfil the promise we find that our hands are full with our own work, and that it is with a great deal of effort, and perhaps self-pity instead of joy, that we accomplish the fulfilment.

The first impulse may be to magnify our own duties and burdens and to indulge a sense of injustice because the same measure of freedom has not been bestowed upon us as has been bestowed on our neighbor yonder, who always seems to have his work done and is ready and glad to lend a helping hand to some one else, or perhaps we quiet ourselves into the old inactivity with the thought that our friend has been blessed with greater ability than we have and should of course be able to do more. Thus mortal mind attempts to justify its own lack of understanding, its own weakness or laziness, by throwing the responsibility on that power from which all things emanate. It is ever ready to accuse Deity of injustice. But let us be thankful that back of this mortal mind and far beyond it lies the conviction that justice is a fact, that there is a reason for everything and therefore a reason why one person can accomplish more than another, the secret of which, if understood and applied, would bring about like results in every case.

Let us, then, as reasonable human beings, divest ourselves of the belief that God can be unjust. When we have lost the false notion that somewhere above and beyond the reach of our understanding there is a power which arbitrarily deals out to its victims both good and evil in whatever measure it deems fit, then we begin to ask and seek for the reason of things and to analyze the make-up of those who seem to gather unto themselves a greater measure of dominion or success, of love and of joy, than we do. Humbling ourselves as little children, we are brought to the point where we can say, "Teach me the secret of true power;" and we find we are at last in the mental attitude which is ready to receive the truth. Then, and then only, have we opened the door, walked out into the real world, which is full of wonderful possibilities, and put our feet on the first round of the ladder which leads to spiritual attainment and true success, and thence to peace.

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