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Note carefully that there is no virtue or advantage whatever in being persecuted or annoyed by other people. Nothing can come into our experience unless it finds something in us with which it is attuned; and so, to have trouble and difficulty is only a sign that our own mentality needs clearing up; for what you see at any time is nothing but your own concept. There is at this point a grave danger for weak, or vain, or self-righteous people. Because others do not treat them just as they would like to be treated, because they do not get consideration that they probably do not deserve, they are often inclined to claim that they are being “persecuted” on account of their spiritual superiority, and to give themselves absurd airs on this ground. This is a pathetic fallacy. In consequence of the great Law of Life, of which the whole Sermon on the Mount is an exposition, we can get only what belongs to us at any time, and nobody can prevent our getting that; and so all persecution and hindrance are absolutely from within.

Despite the sentimental tradition which clings about it, there is no virtue in martyrdom. Did the martyr but possess a sufficient understanding of Truth, it would not be necessary for him to undergo that experience. Jesus was not a “martyr.” He could have saved himself at any time had he wished to avoid the crucifixion. It was necessary that someone should triumph over death, having actually died, to make that demonstration possible for us. But he deliberately chose to do a certain work for us in his own way, and was not martyred. We must not in any way depreciate the splendid courage and devotion and heroic self-sacrifice of the martyrs of all ages; but we have to see that their understanding was incomplete, or they would not have been martyred. If you fix your attention on martyrdom, regarding it, as so many did, as the highest good, you will—as with anything upon which you fix your attention—tend to bring it to yourself. While we may well envy them the moral and spiritual heights which they did attain, we know that, had the martyrs “loved” their enemies sufficiently—loved them, that is to say, in the scientific sense of knowing the Truth about them—then the Roman persecutor, even Nero himself, would have opened the doors of their prison; and the fanatic of the Inquisition would have come to reconsider his cause.

CHAPTER 3

As a Man Thinketh

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

(MATTHEW V)

IN this wonderful passage Jesus is addressing those who have awakened to the understanding of material bondage, and have acquired some spiritual understanding of the nature of Being. That is to say, he is addressing those who understand the meaning of the Allness of God or Good, and the powerlessness of evil in the face of Truth. Such people he describes as being the salt of the earth, and the light of the world; and, indeed, that is not too much to claim for those who understand the Truth, and who really live the life that corresponds to it. It is possible, and in fact, only too easy, to accept these vital principles as being true; to love the beauty in them; and yet not to put them consistently into practice in one’s own life; but this is a perilous attitude, for in that case the salt has lost its savour, and is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot.

If you understand and accept the teachings of Jesus; and if you make every effort to practice them in every department of your own daily life; if you seek systematically to destroy in yourself everything which you know should not