Editorial October 17, 1942 Issue

Normal Living

Peter V. Ross

Napoleon looked for lucky generals, so it is said, by which he meant those generals who do not associate defeat with their campaigns. There are plenty of people today to whom the thought of failure or sickness seldom occurs. They are not lucky; they are normal. Divine Mind diffuses spiritual ideas in man—thoughts of strength, confidence, gladness, plenitude. Listen for them and act upon them. "Hear, O Israel," is the commandment, is it not? We are not lacking resources, stamina, and ability, but lacking appreciation of their presence. Assurances of present abundance are not farfetched. Think them out and dwell upon them, whether they pertain to career, home, or health. Put forth industrious effort to bring these assurances to pass. Then will this supposedly grudging world begin to yield more bountifully. Spiritual law is made operative in human affairs.

What are some of the ideas to be listened for? activity rather than the Micawber or swivelchair habit, better ways to do this or that, new enterprises or businesses, willingness to perform common everyday tasks. Doing ordinary things extraordinarily well, men find themselves lifted to unexpected heights, as Saul, dutifully looking for his father's donkeys, found a kingdom. Granted that the only income is the income of divine ideas; nevertheless ideas, in order to be tangibly productive, must be captured and put to work. There is no royal road to success. We have not so attained that we can dispense with mundane effort.

Our present state of existence is often characterized as a dream; and such it is to a considerable extent, for we are altogether too little awake and deplorably too willing to slumber on. But it is by no means entirely a dream. This world is packed with realities, however dimly discerned, through which a tremendous purpose runs. Everyone has intelligence; everyone possesses life. Yet there is only one Life; there is only one Mind; and they the Eternal. Whenever you manifest animation and intelligence, in their genuineness, and you are doing so constantly, you are in a degree in contact with reality. Always and everywhere, then, are you at one with Life and Mind, that is, at one with God. Emphasize this truism rather than the dream. Doing so faithfully, you will emerge from the mist of mortality to acclaim with the poet:

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The Scientific Explanation of Evil Is Its Destruction
October 17, 1942
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