The Sermon on the Mount_ The Key to Success in Life - Emmet Fox [47]
A beautiful description of the Law has been written for English-speaking people by Sir Edwin Arnold in The Song Celestial:
It will not be contemned of any one;
Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains;
The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss,
The hidden ill with pains.
By this the slayer’s knife did stab himself;
The unjust judge hath lost his own defender;
The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief
And spoiler rob, to render.
It seeth everywhere and marketh all:
Do right—it recompenseth! do one wrong—
The equal retribution must be made,
Though Dharma tarry long.
Now we see that we had better not do to anyone else anything that we do not wish to have done to us, because that is what will happen. Particularly is this the case if we act badly toward someone who is in our power.
But it is a poor law that does not work both ways, and so it is equally true that for every good deed that you do, for every kind word that you speak, you will in the same way, at some time or other, get back an equivalent. People often complain of ingratitude on the part of those whom they have conferred favors, and too often with truth; but this complaint shows a false attitude of mind which it is important to correct. When you feel hurt because someone has been ungrateful for your kindness, it shows that you have been looking for gratitude, and this is a great mistake. The true reason for helping another is that it is our duty to help others insofar as we can do so wisely; or because it is an expression of love. Of course, love will not look for a quid pro quo, and to have done one’s duty should be its own reward, remembering, if we wish, that in some other way the deed will surely be recognized. The very fact that one is looking for gratitude means that he is putting the other person under a sense of obligation, and that person will probably get this subconsciously and resent it strongly, as such a thing is highly repugnant to human nature. Do your good deed, and then pass on, neither expecting nor wishing for personal recognition.
Is it not a beautiful and encouraging thought that all the prayers you have ever said in your life, and all the good deeds and kind words for which you have ever been responsible are still with you, and that nothing can ever take them away? Indeed, our prayers and our words and acts of kindness to others are the only things that we do keep, for all the rest must disappear. Errors of thought, word, and deed are worked out and satisfied under the Law, but the good goes on forever, unchanged and undimmed by time.
Students of Scientific Christianity who understand the power of thought, will realize that it is here, in the realm of thought, that the Law finds its true application; and they will see that the one thing that matters, in the last resort, is to keep their thoughts right about other people—even as about themselves. The right thought about God, and the right thought about fellowman, and the right thought about one’s self; that is the Law and the Prophets. Knowing that Dominion is located in the Secret Place, it is on the Secret Place that they will focus their attention in observing the commandment—judge not.
The Golden Rule in Scientific Christianity is: Think about others as you would wish them to think about you. In the light of the knowledge that we now possess, the observance of this rule becomes a very solemn duty, but, more than that indeed, it is a vital debt of honor. A debt of honor is an obligation that cannot be enforced at law, but depends for its discharge upon the honor and self-respect of the debtor, and, in like manner, since no one can know or prove how we are thinking, we are not responsible for our thoughts to any tribunal but the highest one of all—the Tribunal which never makes mistakes, and whose decisions are never evaded.
The student having now gained an understanding of