The Profits of Religion, Fifth EditionSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
As in the case of Christian Science, these New Thoughters have a
fundamental truth, which I would by no means wish to depreciate. It is
a fact that the mysterious Source of our being is infinite, and that
we are only at the beginning of our thinking about it. It is a fact
that by appeal to it we can perform seeming miracles of mental and
moral regeneration; we can stimulate the flow of nervous energy and of
the blood, thus furthering the processes of bodily healing. But the
fact that God is Infinite and Omnipotent does not bar the fact that He
has certain ways of working, which He does not vary; and that it is
our business to explore and understand these ways, instead of setting
our fancies to work imagining other ways more agreeable to our
sentimentality.
Thus, for example, if we want bread, it is God's decree that we shall
plant wheat and harvest it, and grind and bake and distribute it.
Under conditions prevailing at the moment, it appears to be His decree
that we shall store the wheat in elevators, and ship it in freight
cars, and buy it through a grain exchange, with capital borrowed from
a national bank; in other words, that our daily bread shall be the
plaything of exploiters and speculators, until such a time as we have
the intelligence to form an effective political party and establish
Industrial Democracy. But when you come to study the ways of God in
the literature of the New Thought, do you find anything about the
Millers' Trust and the Bakers' Trust and how to expropriate these
agencies of starvation? You do not!
What you find is Bootstrap-lifting; you find gentlemen and lady
practitioners shutting their eyes and lifting their hands and
pronouncing Incantations in awe-inspiring voices--or in Capital
Letters and LARGE TYPE: "God is infinite, God is All-Loving, #GOD WILL
PROVIDE.# Bread is coming to you! #Bread is coming to you!! BREAD IS
COMING TO YOU!!!"
You think this is exaggeration? If so, it is because you have
never entered the building of the pretty ladies, and sat in the
gray wicker chairs of the metaphysical library. One of the highest
high-priestesses of the cults of New Nonsense is a lady named
Elizabeth Towne, editor of "The Nautilus"; and Priestess Elizabeth
tells you:
I believe the idea that money wants you will help you to the
right mental condition. Be a pot of honey and let it come.
I look over this Priestess' magazine, and find it full of testimonials
and advertisements for the conjuring of prosperity. "Are you in the
success sphere?" asks one exhorter; the next tells you "How to enter
the silence. How to manifest what you desire. The secret of
advancement." Another tells: "How a Failure at Sixty Won Sudden
Success; From Poverty to $40,000 a year--a Lesson for Old and Young
Alike." The lesson, it appears, is to pay $3.00 for a book called
"Power of Will." And here is another book:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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