Excerpts from
WORKING WITH GOD
Awakening the Genii Within
Your Mind
by
Gardner Hunting
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Book Description
This
book is about YOU! It will show you that you have been using but a
small part
of your real abilities—that back in your subconscious mind, or
"subliminal
mind," as the scientists sometimes call it, is a sleeping Giant who,
awakened, can carry you on to fame and fortune almost overnight! A
Genii-of-your-Mind
as powerful, as capable of satisfying your every wish, as was ever
Aladdin's
wonderful Genii-of-the-Lamp of old.
This
book Working With God by Gardner Hunting was first published
in 1934 by the Unity School of Practical Christianity and has been read
by
countless Unity/Truth students the world over ever since. It teaches in
plain
and simple terms how one can enhance and even transform their living
experience
through a correct understanding of the unchanging spiritual laws.
It
is a tremendous link in our objective to discern Truth. We are treated
to great examples of God's laws, miracles, desires, giving, goodness,
hurry,
what will people think, reciprocity, and news.
The
spiritual laws outlined in this book are timeless and unfailing - the
same yesterday, today and forever. "Law always works - anywhere -
everywhere - now and forever. Two and two make four, by mathematical
law, in
New York or Kansas City, in Paris or Tokyo, in the cathedral or in
prison, in
the home or the dive, on earth or Mars, today or in Caesar's time, now
or in
eternity."
As
explained throughout this book, there is a principle to receiving from
your Genii Within which involves you giving in order to receive. You
must
become an open channel through which God’s abundance can flow freely,
not only
into your own life but into the lives of others also though
you.
It is
recommended that you read this book through
completely from start to finish and then re-read it from time to time
in order
to refresh your memory. The mind is apt to revert to its old ways of
thinking
given half a chance, so it will pay dividends for you to keep reminding
yourself of these great truths by re-reading the book often.
The
principles outlined and explained herein have
worked for countless thousands of people in the past, and thousands
more are
proving the truth of them daily. No matter what your present
circumstances in
life may be, the Genii Within your Mind is waiting patiently to give
you your
heart’s desire.
Chapter 1
THE COME-BACK
Why
not have what you want? Have you settled down with a notion that you
can't get it?
Are
you accepting a disappointment as something you must suffer?
Do
you look at the thing that you really desire as being far beyond your
reach?
Do
you carry around with you a heartache because you think your heart's
desire is finally and forever denied you?
Do
you look on yourself as being down and out, with no chance to get
back?
Do
you think you are too poor to buy the things you like or even the
things you need?
Have
you done something that you think has brought a penalty on
you—sickness,
poverty, loss of freedom, grief?
Well,
before you give it all up as hopeless won't you just read along a
little way in this discussion to see if your case is as bad as you
think it is?
I am not writing to sell you anything or to teach you anything or to
persuade
you of anything, but just to share with you the ideas that changed the
life of
a man who used to think as you do and who thought he had good reason to
think
so, but who has found out that he was mistaken and that life is not
hopeless at
all; and who believes that what helped him may help somebody else who
is under
a cloud similar to the one that he once lived under. Many things you
want most
are now within your reach.
It
has been said that if a man were to offer twenty-dollar gold pieces
for sale on the street at fifty cents each, there would be few buyers,
because
nearly everybody would leap to the conclusion that he was a fraud. If
you will
study the real reason why people instinctively feel that way, you will
find in
it the very secret of success in getting what you want.
You
have heard it said a thousand times that "you can't get
something for nothing." You may or may not think that you believe this
to
be true, but it is true, whether you believe it or not; and everybody
deep down
in his inner nature knows it is true. That's why he is shy of any
promise that
promises too much. That's why you are probably skeptical about the
promise of
this little piece of print. But just let this idea get a foothold in
your mind:
If it is a law that I cannot get something for nothing, then it must be
true of
this law, as it is of all genuine laws, that it works both ways; it
must be
true that I cannot give anything without getting something for it.
Ever
think of that?
Have
you ever been surprised to find that when you liked or disliked a
man or a woman, that person was sure to return the feeling you had for
or
"gave" to him? Have you ever noticed what a railroad company does
that enables it to take in money? It gives transportation that is
needed by
people. Have you ever wondered why Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller
are so
rich? Whatever else you may think of them, you must see that the world
gives
them money because they give something to the world—the one, a good low
priced
car; the other, good oil at a reasonable price. What does a department
store do
before it gets regular customers? It gives service, courtesy, good
will, a
square deal, accommodation, and so forth, to a community, which brings
in the
trade as the direct and inevitable result. What does an employee do
before he gets
wages or a salary? He gives a day's work or a week's or a month's. What
gets
him a raise? Giving a little more than he is paid for, nothing else.
What does
a farmer do before he gets a crop? He gives the seed to the ground and
gives it
water and care. How does an artist or a writer win fame? By giving the
world a
work of art or some great literature. How do I win a friend? By giving
him
friendship, and in no other way.
Sometimes
people say—and maybe you are one of them just now—that there
are people who get something for nothing; who give nothing for what
they
receive. Did you ever study such cases or do you take somebody else's
word for
it, as most of us do in such matters? Well, are you from Missouri? If
you
honestly want to be shown, you are on the only sound ground that there
is.
Now,
who gets something for nothing? The man who finds an oil well in his
back yard? The woman who marries a rich man? The miner who stumbles
upon gold?
The fellow who wins in the lottery? The thief who takes a purse or the
contents
of a bank vault? The swindler who cheats the unwary out of his
property? The
real estate shark who sells worthless lots for big prices? The
bootlegger who
makes his own liquor with wood alcohol, puts bogus labels on it, and
sells it
as "just off the ship"? The heirs who destroy the old will or forge a
new one so that all the property comes to them? The counterfeiter who
makes
hundred-dollar bills out of mere paper and ink? The chap who raises a
thousand-dollar check to $10,000? Do all-or any-of these get something
for
nothing? I used to think they did. Often it looks so.
But
the more you watch the individuals who do these things, the more
you'll see that the law works with them just as it works with you and
me. It's
law—just as truly as the law of gravitation is law—and I can't break
it.
Neither can you. Neither can anybody else. Did you ever know a gambler
who got
rich? Did you ever know a burglar who had anything left after his pals,
his
fence, and his lawyers got through with him? Did you ever know a
counterfeiter
who had cars and a country home and a yacht? Did you ever know a woman
who
married for money and was happy?
"Maybe
not," you say, "but they got away with the profits
of the crooked deal!" Did they? How long did the profits last? Do you know?
Did
you ever know anybody to keep the money he won in a lottery? Did you
ever know the "lucky" finder of oil or gold, who hadn't given
something for it, to profit by it?
If
you will let go of the rumors and fabulous stories about riches'
coming to people for nothing, and get right down and investigate,
you'll be
surprised. Study the history of "depressions."
What
is success in business made of? I mean any success in any business.
Some persons will say, "Hard work." But that is not always true. Hard
work alone will not insure success. You know plenty of persons who have
worked
hard but have gotten almost nothing for it. Does honesty make success?
Not
necessarily. Does dishonesty pay? No! Terribly upsetting, isn't it, to
be told
that neither crookedness nor honesty succeeds? Well, that's where you
and I
have been making a mistake. We have swung like pendulums from one
extreme to
the other. First we've tried to succeed by one method, then by the
other. When
crookedness fails, men preach honesty; when honesty fails, the
preachers are
dumbfounded and other men turn bitterly back to crookedness. What is
the
reason? Simply that neither mere dishonesty nor mere honesty pays; nor
mere
laziness, nor mere hard work. Nothing really pays but obedience to
law—not man's
law but God's law.
Gravitation
is one of God's laws, isn't it? Who uses the law of
gravitation? Anybody? Does it make any difference whether he is good or
bad,
honest or dishonest, crooked or straight, saint or sinner, rich or
poor, fat or
lean, white or black? It does not; the law of gravitation works for him
infallibly, invariably, inflexibly, eternally, regardless of who or
what he is.
Who uses the laws governing the burning of gasoline to drive a car? Who
uses
the laws of friction to stop a car? Who uses the laws of electricity?
the laws
of light? Does it make any difference whether one is handsome or
homely,
whether he is freckled or pallid, whether he smokes or drinks or swears
or goes
to church or tights or steals or kills or loves? It does not. A
murderer can
drive a car or stop it. A clown can ride in an airplane. A fool can
start or
stop a dynamo. An idiot can set a fire. A preacher or a moron can
explode
dynamite. A sister of charity or a woman of the street will burn a hand
on a
hot stove. Good or bad, saintly or vicious—law works alike for all, and
everything works under law.
But
some laws seem to be greater than others, to include others, to
transcend others. For instance, the laws controlling the airplane seem
to
enable it to break the law of gravitation. Of course, they don't; they
simply
enable us to counteract the force of gravitation. The laws of the radio
release
us from conditions to which we have thought ourselves limited by other
governing laws—laws of sound transmission. By studying these things I
see that
so soon as I begin working by any law I begin to benefit by it,
and no
other law can stop me; because all the laws of nature fit together,
work
together, help one another—they never work against one another. The law
of
gravitation helps me to use the airplane, it holds me down against the
air. If
it did not, I'd be flung off the world into space, airplane and all—not
to
mention other things that would happen. When I start my car, the laws
governing
the action of the engine seem to overcome the laws of inertia and
friction—but
no law is broken. If it weren't for inertia there would be no momentum;
if it
weren't for friction my clutch would not grip and my tires would not
take hold
of the road. I do not break laws; I use them.
Now,
a law that works at all always works. You say conditions affect
laws? No; fog, for instance, only obscures the light of the stars to my
eyes—the
stars still shine. Static interferes with the radio only as it obscures
the
broadcasting for me; the broadcasting is there just the same. Law always
works—anywhere—everywhere —now and forever. Two and two make four, by
mathematical law, in New York or Kansas City, in Paris or Tokyo, in the
cathedral or the prison, in the home or the dive, on earth or Mars,
today or in
Caesar's time, now or in eternity.
If
this law that I cannot get something for nothing, and that therefore I
cannot give without receiving, is law, then it works with the same
infallibility and continuity as all other laws. It makes no difference
who I
am, where I am, how much I weigh, what color my hair is, or what my
character
is, this law works for me just the same. It is commonly called the law
of
giving and receiving, and it can be stated this way: What I give out
comes back
to me—multiplied—always. The "Come-back" is like the yield from seed.
Now,
if you agree so far, don't you see where this has led you? It has
led you to recognize that you are where you are today because of what
you have
given out. You are getting it back multiplied, just as I'm getting
mine. But
what else does it mean? It also means that what you start giving out
now is
also going to start coming back to you—multiplied. You can change the
crop you
are reaping, but there's just one way to do it: you can change the seed
you are
planting—change the sort of thing you are giving out. I did. It works,
and
nobody can stop it; nothing can stop it, no circumstance, no apparent
handicap,
no apparent misfortune, no "bad luck," no enemy, nobody who "has
it in for you." What you give out comes back to you—what you begin
giving
out begins coming back to you. Any man, woman, or child can transform
his life
by transforming the thing he gives out.
Of
course the first question that comes up in your mind (it was the first
in my mind) is "How long must I suffer for what I've already done?"
That's an interesting point. Suppose we think a minute about law: If I
am
working a problem in arithmetic, and I have been getting the wrong
answer over
and over and over again; and if I suddenly find that I've been trying
to work
the problem by the wrong method—contrary to principle—in opposition to
law; and
if I stop going contrary to law and work with law, how long does it
take me to
get the right answer? Suppose that I am learning to drive a car, and I
try to
start it by stepping on the gas without shifting into gear; the car
does not
start. But when I shift into gear—in other words obey the law governing
the
case—and then "step on the gas," how long does it take the car to
start? Suppose I have a boat with a hole in it; I find that when I put
it into
the water, it fills and sinks. Suppose that I obey the law governing
boats, and
stop the leak; how long does it take the boat to float? If I am locked
in a
room and don't know how to unlock the door, I stay there till I learn
how, do I
not? But when I learn how to turn the key in that lock, how soon do I
get out?
You
may think out as many other examples as you like of how law works for
you the moment you begin to obey it, of how obedience now
cancels the
mistakes of yesterday, or of last year. Then come back to our argument
and
think this one over: So true and far-reaching and fundamental is this
law of
giving and receiving that it extends into our thoughts. There's a lot
of talk
these days about the power of thought, and some persons are disposed to
sneer
at it. But there's more in it than these persons suppose, and they
suffer
because they don't realize the power of thought. It is true, too, that
what you
think comes back to you, multiplied. Is there a laugh in that for you?
Well,
can you do anything without first thinking about it? Is any discovery
or
invention, any work of art or book, any newspaper or tool, any
manufacturing or
any crime, any deed good or bad ever performed without some one's first
thinking about it? In other words, everything that you do is first an
idea in
your mind. That is where it is first "created." If you make a chair,
or a plan, or a steamship, or a printing press, or a bomb, or a broom,
it must
first take shape in your mind, as an idea. As a matter of fact, the
idea of a
thing is the real creation of it; the physical putting it together
afterward is
a mere copy of the idea in your mind.
We
are accustomed to think that a certain amount of time and energy is
required to make the visible copy of the idea—the visible chair, or
plow, or
broom. But the more perfectly we think it out—that is, create it as a
complete
idea in mind—the more quickly and perfectly we can create it in visible
form;
and as we think it out better and better, we find that we require less
and less
time to make the visible thing-and less and less energy. Newly invented
machines, for instance, are usually crude, cumbersome, heavy, and
require a lot
of power to operate them. But as they are perfected—that is, as they
are
thought out—they become lighter, simpler, more efficient, are operated
by less
power, and do their work more quickly. In this process the time always
comes
when the thing that once took a long period and much labor to make is
made at a
speed so high that the production is in some cases almost
instantaneous. If,
when we began making this thing we had understood all the laws of its
making,
we could have made it instantaneously without going through the process
of
learning how.
But
that would have been a miracle! Exactly! The difference between what
we call a natural process and what we call a miracle is largely a
matter of the
time required to reach the desired end. But doing a "miracle" is
merely a matter of understanding the laws by which it is done. The
first Ford
car required months of grueling labor to build; today the Ford plants
can make
about five and one half cars a minute—or one about every ten seconds.
Is that a
miracle? Wouldn't it have been a miracle to produce a Ford every ten
seconds,
say thirty years ago? What makes it possible today? Knowledge of the
laws.
Knowledge
of the laws involved in anything is not only the most valuable
knowledge that we can have but it is absolutely essential. Mr. Ford
never would
have made a car if he had started with no knowledge of the law. But he
began by
using what he had—probably by using something that he had been told, or
had
read, about the laws of mechanics. As he used the knowledge that he
had, his
knowledge grew—just as your muscle grows as you use it—or as
intelligence grows
by use—or anything else. And wouldn't Henry Ford have been foolish not
to try
out his first bits of knowledge about law?
Think
this over and you'll see that anything men ever achieve is
accomplished by knowledge of the law. Health, wealth, happiness,
success,
prosperity, freedom! Anything you want literally will come to you if
you will
obey its laws just as literally as you obey the law of gravitation.
Now,
of course you see the direction of this argument. A man's work or a
woman 's work is not primarily to do something hard that brings the
sweat,
breaks the nails, tires the muscles, and exhausts the wind—something
that is
drudgery. Not at all. The secret of getting what you want lies in
obeying the
law governing getting what you want.
What
is that law? Why, it is just what we've been talking about—the law
of giving and receiving.
Now,
what is your first thought at this suggestion? You think, "What
have I to give?" Perhaps you conclude that you have nothing. But Henry
Ford had nothing—at the start—nothing but an idea. Heinz, the pickle
man, of
"fifty-seven varieties" fame, had nothing at the start—nothing but an
idea. Woolworth, the five-and-ten-cent store man, had nothing at the
start-nothing but an idea. Golden Rule Nash, the tailor, who built a
business
up from nothing to $12,000,000 in six years, had nothing at the
start—nothing
but an idea. But the curious thing about it is that these men all had
the same
idea. What was it? It was the idea of giving the world something that
it needed—something
of value. When they began acting on the idea by giving what they had to
begin
with, they learned how to give more, and so received more; and when
they gave
that, more came—until every one of them reached the point where he was
successful and famous, and money rolled in upon him faster than he
could use
it.
It
will work for you—this law. It has worked for me. It is working for
you and for me whether we know it or not—whether we believe it or not.
What you
give out comes back to you—multiplied. If you don't get what you want,
it's
nobody's fault but your own. If I don't get what I want, it's nobody's
fault
but mine. The law works. If it works for me slowly at first, that is
because I
must learn by giving what I have, before I can get more knowledge of
the law
and thus have more to give. But if I will give what I have, where I am,
to
someone who needs it, I'll gain the knowledge and the things that I
need. As I
go on giving, I rapidly rise toward the point where I shall do easily
and
instantaneously the thing that now takes me a long time to do—just as
my hand
gains skill and speed and ease with a hammer, or a drill, or a needle,
or a
baseball, or a boxing glove, or a hoe, or a tennis racket, or a camera,
or a
motor car, or a dynamo. Eventually, by using all the knowledge I have
of law,
in giving service to the world, I shall gain the ability to do seeming
miracles—as
Henry Ford, Ty Cobb, Wm. Tilden, Barney Oldfield, Mary Pickford, Thomas
Edison,
and Luther Burbank have done.
If
you believe that the foregoing argument is sound, has it occurred to
you that the conclusion is not new? It's at least as old as the year 33
A. D.
In other words, it has been taught to the world more or less ever since
the
time of Jesus Christ. In fact it was and is His teaching. Many people
overlook
the real teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. But listen: Didn't He say,
"Give
and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and
running over"? Whatever you think about Him religiously, did He know
what
He was talking about? Did He state a law?
We
believe that Jesus of Nazareth did not merely found a religion, but
that He taught a way to live—to live happily, successfully,
prosperously.
Didn't He say, "I came that ye may have life, and may have it
abundantly"? In other words, He taught not merely a way to be good and
moral and honest and industrious and all that, but a way to live by the
law
that brings success and money and fame and love and all the other
things that
we want. And the law He taught was give—and give first—if you want to
get
anything. He voiced the Golden Rule "Whatsoever ye would that men
should
do to you, do ye even so to them." The wisest of the world's cynics say
that you have to pay sometime for whatever you get. Jesus of Nazareth
says,
practically, "Pay as you enter." Select what you want, and pay first.
Maybe
this sounds impracticable to you. It did to me. But try it out. I
did. You'll get results. I did. It won't fail you. It hasn't failed me.
Why?
Because there is just one maker of law in the universe and that is the
power we
call God, and that power made the law of giving and receiving. Give the
best
you have and look for the best in return. God challenges you and me to
prove
the promises He makes in the Bible, and these promises are simply
statements of
law that never fail of fulfillment. "Prove me now," says God,
"whether I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a
blessing
greater than ye are able to receive." His only condition is that we
shall
"give first"—that's all. Commonly we do not take this sort of promise
seriously; but it is sound and true. Is there anything wrong about the
foregoing argument? God is the law. He is the law of love,
which is only
another name for the law of giving and receiving. If you will stop
thinking of
God as a joke, or as a terror, or as a myth, or as a dream, or as
something far
off and outside everyday life, and will think of Him as the Maker of
the law of
gravitation and of the law of love, one of which is just as real as the
other—you'll
get somewhere.
If
you want to know how, the whole secret lies in beginning. The way to
do it is to do it. Right where you are, now, begin to give something
good to
the person nearest to you, and keep on doing it, no matter what you
seem to get
back at first. Do! Don't talk! And you'll lift yourself out of
your
troubles, no matter what they seem to be or how deeply you seem to be
sunk in
them. Try it. You'll be surprised. I was. Try it as patiently and as
hard as
you would try to get a drink of water if you were very thirsty. You'll
get a
return, a reward, that you don't even dream of yet. You will!
Don't let
anybody fool you about it.
And
besides, if it doesn't work, you don't have to keep on with it. But
you will keep on—if you give it a fair chance to prove itself.
Because—it
works.
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