“Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
In living the new life the first essential is to abandon the idea of competition and of a limited supply. Too many people who consider themselves practitioners of the new thought never entirely succeed in doing this.
Competition in business originates in the idea of a limited supply. It grows out of the supposition that because there is not enough to go round, men must compete with each other for what there is.
Many people who have a partial grasp of the new thought still suppose that it is necessary that some should be poor in order that others may have enough, and believe that wealth is possible only to those who have superior ability, or the power to attract to themselves a larger portion from the limited supply.
These people try to apply the new thought principles on the competitive plane, and they do so with a fair degree of success; they try to develop a superior attracting power; they inject new motives and new energy into competitive business methods; they assert, “I am success,” all the while believing that they can succeed only because ninety-five per cent of all others fail.
The majority of these competitive new thought people do achieve a great measure of success because their faith gives them just the energy, push and optimism which are necessary in competitive business. The confidence born of their belief makes a majority of their actions successful actions; their partial application of new thought ideas makes them exceptionally able competitors, and they attribute their success to thought-power and to affirmation when it almost purely competitive. This so-called new thought is really only the highest and most fully perfected form of the old thought. It only sees Caesar’s kingdom after all; it has no conception of the kingdom of God.
All the final results show that these new thought people are only a part of Caesar’s kingdom. Their fortunes fluctuate. They meet with losses and their business suffers from panics. Their prosperity is checkered by periods of adversity. Their sense of safety is mere self-confidence; deep in the subconscious they always carry the germ of secret fear.
No one can ever be wholly free from fear who recognizes any limitation in the supply, for if there is not enough to go round, we know that our turn to go without may come at any time.
The lapses and failures of new thought people are traceable directly to the idea of a limited supply; to the idea that success and the attainment of wealth are possible only to a part of us.
Is there any truth in this idea that competition is necessary? Let us see. The things that are essential to life and advancement, mental and physical, may be roughly grouped under five heads, and these are: Food, clothing, shelter, education and amusement. For three of these, food, clothing and shelter, we look to the world of nature for supply. These three with their appurtenances and extensions in the way of luxuries, decorations, art and beauty, constitute what we call wealth. Is there any limitation to the supply of these?
Take into consideration, first, the question of food supply. In this country we have not yet begun to sound the possibilities of intensive agriculture, making four blades of grass grow where one grew before.
It is a fact capable of mathematical demonstration that the single state of Texas, if all its resources were organized for the production of food, would produce enough to feed the whole present population of the globe, and feed them well.
Our food products range from wheat in the Dakotas to rice in Carolina; from northern fruits in Michigan to oranges in California and Florida. This country, intensely cultivated, would feed the inhabitants of ten worlds like this. There is no lack in the food supply.
When we pray to our Father, “Give us our daily bread,” we should never forget to add a thanksgiving that He answered that prayer when He laid the foundation of the world.
Remember, too, that the work of men like Burbank has just begun; the food supply is capable of infinite development. There is, therefore, no need for men to compete with each other in order to get enough to eat.
As to the second essential, clothing, we find the same to be true. The United States can produce cotton for the world, but it is not necessary to dress the world in anything so cheap as cotton fabrics. We have sheep ranges to supply the woolen goods for all, and fields in which to raise the flax for fine linen; there are great wastes of land, now barren, where we might grow enough mulberry trees to feed the silk worms necessary to clothe the world in silks; we even have the deserts on which to raise ostriches for fine plumage. We have resources sufficient to clothe every man, woman and child in raiment finer than that of Solomon in all his glory. And there are undreamed of possibilities in the despised weeds by the wayside; some Burbank will presently develop them into the raw material for fabrics more beautiful than the world has ever seen. The supply of clothing is inexhaustible. No need to compete with another here; no need for one to go in sackcloth that another may wear purple and fine linen; there is purple and fine linen for all.
Taking up the question of shelter we find the same conditions prevailing. There are great banks of clay waiting to be made into bricks and tile; there are vast ledges of building stone un-quarried as yet; we have learned that brick may be made of sand and lime, and that cement is excellent building material.
It is an indisputable fact that a mansion finer than Vanderbilt’s might be erected for every family in America, and when all were finished we should hardly have made a scratch on the surface of our supply of building material. No need for some to live in hovels in order that others may be delicately housed!
And the supply for interior furnishings – for furniture, carpets, books, musical instruments, pictures, statuary, everything to delight the eye and mind of man is just as unlimited.
Truly, there is no scarcity of things; nor is there any lack of work that ought to be done. There is no necessity in nature for competition, either for things or for jobs. There is enough useful and beautiful work waiting to be done to keep us all busy all our lives.
And it may be well to point out here that there is no lack in the supply of finished products because labor is not productive enough to keep pace with the demand. Modern machinery has solved the problem of production. The producing power of labor has been multiplied by six hundred in a little more than a generation. In making nails, for instance, one man does the work which required a thousand men one hundred years ago; and the same is approximately true in all lines of industry; and the end of the increase in producing power is not yet. There is nothing in which further improvement is not possible. Six hours’ work a day, by all of us, would produce all that we could use, including every known luxury.
With such abundance in the whole, we do not need to compete for a part; we do not need to take thought for tomorrow; we do not need to experience panics or reverses.
We need only to seek for the kingdom of God, and His righteous relations toward each other, and all these things shall be added unto us.
And what is the kingdom of God?
The Law of Opulence | Закон Богатства
