The Sermon on the Mount_ The Key to Success in Life - Emmet Fox [30]
In the same deadly spirit some teachers forbid their students to read any religious books except those of their own school. This is such an appalling crime against the very life of the soul that no words can be found adequately to characterize it.
On the whole, the most important application of this injunction against making hard-and-fast rules lies in the matter of our prayers. Many people have made rigid rules for the conduct of their personal prayers or devotions; but these are sure to destroy the spirit of the thing sooner or later. People say: “I always start with the Lord’s Prayer,” or a certain Psalm, or something else. Others say: “I begin every treatment in such and such a way.” All this is a mistake. You should always pray as you feel led to do by the action of the Holy Spirit in your soul at the moment. It is the spontaneous prayer, the thought that is “given” to you at the moment, that carries power. A thought that is “given” to you in this way has ten times more power to demonstrate than one that you consciously select for yourself. Remember, however, that it is only hard-and-fast rules that are to be avoided. It is a good thing to have some kind of schedule of prayer to fall back upon at times when nothing better presents itself, and, in fact, most beginners will need a schedule for some time. The essential point is that you must always be ready to drop it at a moment’s notice, under the leading of Spirit. People sometimes find themselves in a condition where their prayers appear to be bringing no result, and this is most often due to the fact that they have simply gone stale on fixed forms. If this happens, feel out mentally for inspiration, and then use the first thought that comes; or try dipping into the Bible at random.
This section further teaches us that we must not undertake to bring about particular events or conditions, or particular solutions to our problems—what is technically called “outlining.” When you find yourself in difficulties, you should pray for harmony and freedom, and expect to get it; but you should not seek to select the exact arrangement that will come about, or the course that things will take. If you make up your mind very firmly that you are going to get a particular thing, you may, if you have a certain type of mentality, bring it about; but this exercise of will power is almost certain to land you in difficulties—you will get your own way, and then you will bitterly regret it.
Yea, yea, and nay, nay, stand for what are called in scientific prayer the Affirmation and the Denial, respectively. These are the Affirmation of Truth and Harmony and the Omnipresence of God in Reality; and the denial of any power in error and limitation.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
(Matthew V)
Jesus is the most revolutionary of all teachers. He turns the world upside down for those who accept his teaching. When once you have accepted the Jesus Christ Message, nothing is ever the same again. All values change radically. The things that one spent time and energy in striving for are felt to be no longer worth the having, while other things that one passed by on the way with scarcely a glance, are discovered to be the only things that really matter. Compared with Jesus, all the so-called revolutionists, radicals, and reformers of history are now seen to have been merely scratching the surface—rearranging unimportant externals—whereas Jesus went down to the root of things and attacked that.
The Old Law, designed to maintain some degree of order, however rough and ready, among a barbarous people—for any kind of law is better than anarchy—had said an eye