Chapter 1
NEW THOUGHT
DEFINED
Abel Leighton
Allen
The Message
of New Thought
"O we
can wait no longer,
We too take ship, O
soul;
Joyous, we too launch
out on trackless seas,
Fearless, for unknown
shores, on waves of ecstasy to
sail,
Amid the wafting
winds,
Chanting our chant of
pleasant exploration.
O my brave soul,
O, farther, farther
sail,
O daring joy, but
safe, are they not, all the seas of
God?
O, farther. farther
sail."
WALT
WHITMAN.
NEW THOUGHT is not, as
many believe, a name or expression
employed to define any fixed system of
thought, philosophy, or religion, but
is a term used to convey the idea of
growing or developing thought. In
considering this subject, the word
"New" should be duly and freely
emphasized, because the expression "New
Thought" relates only to what is new
and
progressive.
It would be a misuse of terms to apply
the expression "New Thought" to a
system of thought, because when thought
is molded and formed into a system, it
ceases to be new. When a system of
thought has reached maturity and ceases
to grow, expand, and develop, it can no
longer be defined by the word "New." It
follows, therefore, as a necessary
conclusion, that no system of new
thought, or no system of thought
defined by that expression, now exists
or ever can exist. "New Thought" is the
result or creation of perpetually
advancing mind. The growing mind is not
content with the past or its
achievements. It is not satisfied with
systems of philosophy or religion
originating in other ages and handed
down through succeeding generations.
They do not satisfy the wants of the
mind. Systems do not grow, mind
develops. It wants something larger and
better; it wants improvement, growth,
and development. It is merely the
logical and natural effort of the mind
in its struggle for advancement; it is
following its basic and inherent
law.
As the growing mind applies thought to
whatever enters into consciousness, it
gains new and enlarged conceptions and,
therefore, grows, and what it thinks is
new. New Thought has been defined as
the latest product of growing mind. A
distinguished writer has characterized
New Thought as an attitude of mind and
not a cult. Those who grasp the true
meaning and spirit of New Thought, or,
as it is sometimes called, progressive
or unfolding thought, do not conceive
that a finished or completed system of
thought, either philosophical or
religious, is a possibility. All
systems of thought change with the
flight of time. Decay follows growth.
The philosophies and religions of today
differ from those of yesterday, and
those of tomorrow will be unlike those
of today. History alone demonstrates
the truth of this statement. This
conclusion is inevitable also from the
very laws that govern man's growth and
existence.
Man's body is not the only result of
the processes of evolution, growth, and
development, but his mind is likewise
the product of the same great law. Man
is an evolved and evolving being,
physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Change and growth are the silent
mandates of divinity. The eternal
current ever moves onward. We do not
reckon with all of Nature's forces.
Back of all, unseen yet all powerful,
is the one universal law or cosmic
urge, forever pushing and projecting
man forward into higher physical,
mental, and spiritual
development.
Through the principle of evolution,
physical man was brought to his present
state of development. By the same
principle has he come to his present
mental and spiritual condition. It is a
principle operating throughout the
universe. Evolution is a movement from
the lower to the higher, from the
simple to the complex, from the
inferior to the superior. How can there
be a fixed system of thought, a
complete philosophy, a perfect
theology, or a defined religion? For as
man grows mentally and spiritually he
moves away from such limitations. As
his mental and spiritual visions
expand, the very laws of his being lead
him to higher and still higher
conceptions of philosophical and
religious truth. "Through spiritual
evolution are we led to
God."
Every system of philosophy or religion
is the result of an evolutionary
process, the product of the human mind
and understanding. When thought
changes, when the mind develops, when
the understanding is enlarged,
philosophies and religions must
likewise change. This is a self-evident
truth. Were it otherwise, systems of
thought, philosophies, and religions
would be greater than the minds that
created them and launched them upon the
world -- the things created would be
greater than their creators. Were it
not so, systems that have no inherent
power of growth would become greater
than man, whose very law is
growth.
Moreover, fixed systems of thought,
either philosophical or religious, are
impossible, because they are not the
same to any two persons but convey
different meanings to each individual.
No two persons think alike, or have the
same conception or understanding of any
important subject, least of all of a
philosophical or religious subject. No
two individuals are alike or think
alike. Duplicates have never been
discovered in all the broad domain of
Nature. Scientists tell us that even
the molecules of which our bodies are
composed differ one from the
other.
"No two men in creation think
alike,
No two men in creation look alike, No
two men in creation are
alike,
No worlds or suns or heavens, but are
distinct and wear a separate
beauty.''
No individual can convey his thoughts,
ideas, and impressions entire to
another. Language, either written or
spoken, is but a symbol, and at best an
imperfect vehicle to convey thought.
The meaning of truth is deflected in
its transmission. "Thought is deeper
than speech; feeling deeper than
thought; souls to souls can never teach
what to themselves is taught." The
mental and spiritual visions of man
differ as the stars differ in
magnitude. The same light does not
shine with equal brilliancy on the
pathway of each individual. What is
light to one, may be a shadow to
another.
Nor are our ideas changeless and fixed.
Our thoughts, conceptions, and
understandings change with the
advancing years, as the soul receives
new influx of light. As each morning
bathes the earth in new light, so each
returning day and every recurring
season bring new meanings and
understandings to the
soul.
The greatest gift from God to man is a
growing mind, one that expands from day
to day as the light of truth breaks
upon it. Were it otherwise, were our
ideas fixed and changeless, life would
be intolerable and existence a sterile
waste. It is the new conception that
thrills the soul and broadens the
understanding, as the influx of new
life brings physical health and
growth.
In the search for truth each ultimate
fact becomes a cause, a starting point
for the discovery of more truth. Every
attainment is the beginning of the
next. "Every end is the beginning." The
discovery of a law of Nature is only
the forerunner of a more universal law.
Thus in the search for truth the
endless tide of progression rolls on,
forever conveying to man broader
conceptions of truth and carrying him
into a higher realization of his
relationship with
divinity.
As man renews his mind and reaches out
for larger conceptions of truth, his
understanding is enlarged, he gains new
viewpoints, his expanded thought is
translated and externalized into life,
he grows, he advances, he comes into a
closer union with
God.
Thought is not final. What we last
think may be our best thought, but it
is not our ultimate though. It is only
the fore-gleams of greater thought --
we may not encompass the whole truth,
but we can enlarge our conceptions of
truth and thus bring ourselves nearer
the reality. We all live, move and have
our being in an atmosphere of truth;
truth is only assimilated by the
individual. It is not susceptible of
monopoly or systematization. It is not
encompassed by institutions, but its
living spirit is present in every
manifested form and object of
Nature.
We hear much at times about systems,
established religions, and settled
creeds. Every institution insists on
laying its foundation on a dogma. It
has been well said that when a church
is built over truth, truth flies out at
the window. Every creed and every dogma
offered to man undertake to show man's
true relationship to God. The major
premise of every dogma rests upon an
idea of God, and yet no two persons can
be found with the same ideals and
conceptions of God. Man's idea of God
is but an image of himself. The major
premise of every creed is the
conception some man had of God. To talk
about settled creeds, the indisputable
presumption must be indulged, that all
other men have the same conception of
God. To have a finished system of
thought or a definite creed respecting
man's relations to God presupposes a
perfect and complete knowledge and
understanding of that relation, which
is beyond man's comprehension in his
present state of development. When he
has attained the mental and spiritual
growth necessary to comprehend that
relationship in its fullness and
entirety, he will possess all knowledge
and all wisdom, he will be
omniscient.
It took the Christian Church until the
fifth century to formulate its creeds,
and yet for fourteen centuries it has
been striving to settle them and mold
them into an acceptable system. Has it
accomplished it? Are its adherents any
nearer an agreement? It is no nearer
the coveted goal than it was fourteen
hundred years ago. It is creed against
creed, dogma against dogma, and their
adherents still continue to look
outward for
truth.
Man has caught only a few rays from the
great light of truth. Even the agencies
of external Nature transcend and baffle
our understanding. We use electricity,
it is in our bodies, we see its
manifestations, we harness it, we
regulate it, but we know not what it
is. How light reaches the earth is a
puzzle to the understanding. Because we
do not understand these familiar
agencies, the meaning of Nature's
symbols, must we relinquish all efforts
to discover their meaning and to find
the laws that govern them? Must we
desist in our search for
truth?
Science is a search for the secrets of
Nature. It is an attempt to find the
laws governing the universe. The laws
of the universe are the laws of God.
Science, then, in its broadest aspect
is a search for the knowledge of God.
As man delves more deeply into the
secrets of Nature, the mysteries of the
universe, his spiritual visions will
expand and he will have broader and
more comprehensive conceptions of God.
Yet we are told that religion must be
let alone; that creeds and theologies
must not be disturbed, that they are
not the subject of inquiry. How futile
the attempt to set bounds to the
processes of thought; why should not
man seek for a better religion as he
struggles for better government?
Thought was the first step toward civil
liberty. Thought is the first step
toward the soul's
liberty.
Truth is the understanding of the
principles underlying the universe.
Truth is as illimitable and boundless
as the universe itself. Principles and
laws are changeless, but our
understanding of them changes as our
minds gain new conceptions of truth and
as they grow and develop. Only as the
mind dwells on principles can it
advance to a larger understanding of
truth and higher conceptions of life.
Principles are the landmarks to which
all things are tied. When man departs
from them he enters the jungle of
uncertainty and confusion. To gain
higher conceptions of the principles
and laws underlying the universe is the
real work of man. As he comes into an
enlarged understanding of these
principles, he directs the current of
his life in accordance therewith. He
grows into a closer harmony with
Nature, and enters a richer and more
satisfying field of
experience.
A moral and religious life must be a
growing life, an advancing life, a life
positively and constantly constructive.
Man is either progressing or receding;
spiritually and mentally he cannot
stand still. All Nature, with her
actions and reactions, proclaims this
great truth in every moment of
life.
All useful discoveries in science have
been the result of progressive and
continued thought, thought applied to
the discovery of the secrets of Nature.
Each discovery has been a
stepping-stone to the next. The
discovery of each law became a light
for the discovery of more laws. Each
discovery in Nature is a benefit to the
race, a step forward, and enlarges
man's understanding of
God.
Man can grow into a knowledge of his
relationship with God and reach out
toward the divine goal, only as he
renews his mind, only as he enlarges
his conception of what is within his
consciousness, only as he presses
forward into a higher spiritual and
mental
development.
Why should not new conceptions be
applied to religion as well as
governments? Religion relates to man's
life and destiny: Government regulates
man's relation with his fellow-man.
Governments have existed as long as
religion. They both sprang into
existence with the dawn of reason. They
traveled side by side down the ages.
They have changed as man has progressed
in
civilization.
We do not yet concede the existence of
a perfect government. The model
government is not yet in sight. The
struggle to improve government goes on
as relentlessly as ever before in
history. The rights of man forever
assert themselves. They have been
improved and secured only as he created
new ideals of government, only as he
applied new thoughts and new
conceptions to existing
governments.
The creeds which attempt to set bounds
to religious thought, which endeavor to
define man's conceptions of God, were
given to the world when scientific
thinking was unknown and by men whose
conceptions of Nature were no better
than idle superstitions. The
formulators of the creeds, in their
blind endeavor to set up a system
founded on the oriental allegory of the
Garden of Eden, apparently did not know
that truth has no terminals and cannot
be defined or circumscribed. If they
had looked into the great laboratory of
Nature and given thought and study to
her processes, they might have there
read that Nature tells no falsehoods
and that her very law is growth,
development, and eternal progress. They
might hug the delusion that creeds are
static, that they are fixed and final,
bur they could find nothing in Nature
remotely to hint at limitation or set
bounds to her modifying processes.
Change is written everywhere in her
symbols. Her pulsations of life growth
and decay, the morning and evening, the
return of the seasons, all bespeak
eternal change. There are no fixtures
in all her domain. She has her
seed-time and harvest, her summer and
winter, her heat and cold. Her pendulum
always
swings.
Everything vibrates and oscillates
through the broad stretches of
infinity. Since motion produces change,
everything in Nature is passing through
perpetual
change.
Let us apply the analogies of Nature to
man, for is man not a part of Nature?
The physical man is changing as the
moments speed away. Scientists at one
time said our bodies were entirely
renewed once in seven years. Now they
have reduced the time to twelve months
or less. Man is constantly putting off
the old and putting on the new, but
Nature ever tends toward perfection.
From the amoeba to man was a long and
tedious struggle, but it marks the
developing and perfecting laws of
Nature. Her movements were ever from
the lower to the higher, by the
ceaseless and tireless processes of
evolution, to the highly complex and
individualized man, conscious of his
own personality and
existence.
We recognize man as a co-worker with
Nature, and his right to assist her in
her efforts toward perfection. He
applies thought to her processes, and
with her aid brings the flower, the
fruit, the nut, and the animal to
perfection. Is not Nature a part of
God? Are not these symbols through
which God finds expression and speaks
to man? Why not Burbank religions,
creeds, and theologies, as well as the
fruits and products of the
earth?
When man is a co-worker with Nature he
is a co-worker with God; he applies
thought to the processes and laws of
Nature, and behold she smiles back with
fatness and plenty. Then let us, with a
sublime courage and kindly spirit, turn
the God-given mind in each to higher
ideas of God, and God will smile back
with prophetic glimpses of the eternal
peace and beauty of true
religion.
All thought is new. What we know, what
we understand, we do not think about.
It is only the new that creates
interest or enthusiasm. It alone
awakens the mind and soul to activity
and effort. The soul is always thrilled
with the reception of new truth.
Without enthusiasm nothing great was
ever accomplished. It has ever been the
propelling force of man in every
important and momentous undertaking. We
instinctively turn from the old to the
new. It is the law of mind, it is
Nature's method, it is God's plan of
teaching man to
grow.
Emerson said, "What is the ground of
this uneasiness of ours, of this old
discontent? What is this universal
sense of want and ignorance, but the
fine innuendo by which the great soul
makes its enormous claim?" Progress is
the law of the soul. Evermore the mind
stretches forth toward the infinite, to
grasp and reduce to understanding her
mysteries, her wanders, and her
secrets. To bind it to a fixed creed, a
defined religion or system of thought,
is as impossible as to pluck the
Pleiades from the galaxy of the stars.
The mind that can flash its thoughts
across billions of miles from star to
star in the hundredth part of a second,
as the scientists tell us is possible,
cannot be fettered by fixed creeds,
dogmas, or systems, or bend to the
authority or edict of an
institution.
As we constantly advance to higher and
more perfect ideals, we obtain clearer
conceptions of the principles of truth,
we expand and extend our spiritual
horizon. We thus come to a better
understanding of ourselves, our powers
and forces, and the meaning of our
existence.
Man grows only as he enlarges his
thoughts. How can his thoughts be
enlarged except as he takes on the new?
By no other process can he enlarge his
conceptions and understanding of life.
As his ideals expand he comprehends
more truth, he moves forward, he
extends his visions, he grows, he sees
beauty, harmony, and law in all created
things.
Hence New Thought is a synonym for
growth, for development, for perpetual
and eternal progress. It recognizes the
superior and excellent in man; it deals
not with limitations; it sets no bounds
to the soul's progress, for it sees in
each soul transcendental faculties as
limitless as infinity
itself.
But, someone asks, has New Thought
nothing but uncertain and shifting
conceptions regarding man's relation to
the universe? Is New Thought a mere
tramp in the field of philosophical and
religious thought? Is it anchored to
nothing? These inquiries do not create
surprise, since for centuries past men
have been told that a belief in certain
formulas war the first step in a
religious life. They have become
habituated to creeds, beliefs, and
churches of authority and therefore
deeply impressed with the thought that
without them religion must decline and
cease to have any vitality and
strength. New Thought may be said to
possess one fixed creed, that of an
eternal search for truth. It is
anchored to that one thought. It
believes in truth, but it does not
accept every conception of truth final.
It realizes that attainment of truth is
a process of evolution, growth, and
development.
Man can acquire truth only as he is
mentally and spiritually prepared to
receive it. New Thought is anchored to
the idea of finding the good and the
beautiful in life, the development of
latent possibilities in man, and that
law reigns supreme in the universe.
Anchored to these principles, New
Thought moves forward in its quest for
more truth, in its search for greater
light that leads upward and onward
toward a unity with God. It has not
come to eradicate the old, except as
the old fades away before the advancing
light of the new. However, we have been
told that it is dangerous to put new
wine into old bottles lest the bottles
may break. New Thought is constructive,
not destructive. It is not here to tear
down, but to build up. It employs
addition, not subtraction. Its symbol
is plus, not
minus.
It recognizes that the universe is
supported upon the enduring foundation
of changeless principles and fixed
laws, the result of an infinite and
divine intelligence. It realizes also
that man may grow into a knowledge and
understanding of those principles and
laws only as his conscious ideals grow
from day to
day.
Its goal is the understanding of life,
of man, and a conscious unity of man
with God. If its adherents differ, it
is only in methods and not in the end
sought. It does not enjoin methods.
There are many avenues leading to
truth. The arc-light sends out a myriad
of rays, but they all lead to the one
light.
The adherents of New Thought worship
the omnipresent God, the indwelling
God, in whom we live, move, and have
our being. They do not conceive of God
as distant or separated from man, but
as a universal Spirit permeating all
Nature, finding its highest expression
in
man.
No better conception of the God of New
Thought can be expressed than was given
by Pythagoras to the world six
centuries before the Christian era.
Listen to the great
message:
"God is the Universal Spirit that
diffuses itself over all Nature. All
beings receive their life from Him.
There is but one only God, who is not,
as some are apt to imagine, seated
above the world, beyond the orb of the
universe; but being Himself all in all,
He sees all the beings that fill His
immensity, the only principle the light
of heaven, the father of all. He
produces everything. He orders and
disposes of all things. He is the
reason, the life and motion of all
things."
New Thought teaches that the revelation
of God to man is a continuous process
through Nature, through reason, the
whispering of intuition through the
events and experiences of life. The
objects of Nature convey their message
only as they awaken the divine impulse
within, the desire to come into harmony
with
God.
Molding our lives more and more into
the divine likeness is the essential
thought in any worthy religion; as
Plato taught, the highest aspiration of
man is "the free imitation of
God."
To teach man to
come into a conscious realization of
the divinity within, and the unity of
man and God, so that out of the
sublimity of his soul he can say with
the Gentle Master, "The Father and I
are one," is the supreme purpose and
meaning of New
Thought.
Chapter
2
* * * * *
The Message of New Thought
Table of
Contents
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