A CHRONIC disease of the race is its submissive belief in the influence and bondage of inheritance, of position and of environment. This disease belongs to the past. to the unthinking, following herd or race belief, but to the present consciously awakening mind it should be given its proper position or relation. Let the being realize that neither position nor condition, pre-natal or inherited, has the power to dictate to him, but that they are material presented for him to reform, to remold, to utilize. They are his stock with which he is equipped to launch forth and manipulate life, and to bring forth that which he wills out of them. Let the soul understand that these factors are privileges and elements in his qualifications or equipment: that in his use of these qualities that have been as the old man of the sea upon the unthinking race may become to him his mounting block, his stepping stone, his flood-gate through which he may pass out into a greater depth and toward a greater, broader field of expression and manifestation.

Let the thought of this lesson be the Nobility of Self-Reliance, the consciousness that, after all, al of these situations we find ourselves in are not to be resigned to, but are to be made use of. We can induce any state of consciousness we will to. It is within our power to induce a state of consciousness which is Master-full Causation, which is creative and constructive, which will bear fruit of its kind. It is possible for us to conceive our ideal of our disposition, our ideal of an individual strong and powerful and victorious and to hold that ideal up before us in the positive and constructive mood, to persist toward it, idealizing it no matter what the situations and experiences around us may be, no matter how the billows may surge at the foot of this great rock, the rock of faith in ourselves and of determination to master and to mould our destiny. Let us have the to induce a state of consciousness that is greater than effects, greater than appearances, greater than the seeming obstacles which may stand forth as a blank wall before us, yet which are so moulded and penetrated through by our convictions and faith that we can do and will do this: we will discover the way, the truth, and the light, we will arouse and call into full expression the masterful wisdom that will discover the way, that will win and will triumph.

"What is this before me and how shall I handle it? How shall I transmute it into a stepping stone, a mounting block by which I may ascend to greater heights?" This thought should be uppermost in the mind of the individual rather than, “What have I to meet and what it do to me?" It is not well to ask of the nature of the situation so much as it is for us to remind ourselves of our nature toward any and all situations. We can go forth in this state of consciousness, meeting each situation with that joyous, exhilarated consciousness of faith in our innermost power, faith in our love and patience, faith in our wisdom and knowledge, faith in our strength, faith in our Divine Nature, faith in our consciousness that all things are possible to him who believeth, and knowing, that it is possible for us to induce whatever degree of belief we feel to be essential for the occasion. This practice, this living life scientifically, masterfully, with discrimination and with expectant enthusiasm, yields back to the living the fruits of its kind, which are joyous and satisfactory, which are entirely shorn of the disappointment and inconveniences that come continually to the mind that is out in the realm of effects, that is living among conditions and appearances, that is mixed up with life instead of standing over it, consciously realizing that we are amid it to use it, to manipulate it, to direct it, to follow, to express through it.

It is how we live that is accomplishing. It is not that which is about us that is of consequence. If, however, we first seek the Kingdom of Heaven all else will be added unto us. The Law of Correspondence is, indeed, an immutable law. And if we will, at the heart, at the center of Causation, at the seat of induction of power, induce the quality of mind which is creative and constructive and discriminating, if we will, at the center of our being, maintain the poised equilibrium of a wise one, a child of the Living God, a child who knows its lowly state of power is mighty, if we maintain the privileged consciousness of these qualifications which are indeed ours, we then are causes, we then are producing causes which, far out, will relate up to effects, will produce effects that will harmonize with, be at-one with, correspond to, the qualities which we induce within.

You are taught that it is to know thyself, to be thyself, to rely upon these latent powers that are within, waiting to be called forth into usefulness, that it is the consciousness of our potentialities that helps us to move forward to the manifestation of our potentialities . It is by recognizing this that we can move steadily onward, forward, and upward to the goal of fulfilled possibilities.