The Sermon on the Mount_ The Key to Success in Life - Emmet Fox [50]
Above all things, be chary of forcing the subject of Truth upon the people with whom you have to live and work; especially in your home. It is easy to make yourself nothing less than a constant nuisance by forcing your ideas upon people who cannot appreciate them, because they are not ready. As members of your household and business associates have naturally to see a good deal of you, and you of them, such a policy will probably give rise to a good deal of friction, and even ill feeling. Try to realize that in the absence of your personal awakening they cannot possibly see the thing as you do; and that they are therefore seeing something else. Also, you may not be very skillful in expounding your ideas in the best way. Finally, remember that those with whom you associate closely will have your personal conduct under constant inspection, will be familiar with many of your faults and weaknesses, and, if you talk too much and without a good deal of wisdom concerning spiritual enlightenment, will be sure to look for a greater demonstration than you may be able to make in the beginning, and they will have to be of rather more than average humanity if they do not sometimes point out discrepancies at most unwelcome moments—if you have been too aggressive. In other words, “hasten slowly” is here the watchword. It cannot help the spread of Truth at all for you to get the reputation of being a crank or a nuisance. The quickest way to spread it is by living the life yourself. Then, people will notice the change in you, and, as they see improved health and prosperity in your life, and happiness shining in your face, they will come round of their own accord, begging to share your secret. They will require no urging to drink the waters of life.
When you are desirous of introducing the Truth to a particular person, or to a group of people, the proper course is to prepare yourself by a special daily treatment for several days, or better still for a week or two, in advance. Work for Intelligence, Love (to overcome impatience, and to help you to meet ridicule or seeming unkindness), and, above all, for Wisdom, which, as we have seen, is the right union of the other two. Claim that the action of God will make you say the right thing when the time comes, and that it will also endow your listener or listeners with the same qualities. Do not allow yourself to care in the least what the actual result of the discussion may turn out to be. Voice the Truth, and leave it. You will often be amazed at the results you will get following a few days’ spiritual preparation of this kind.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
(Matthew VII)
This is the wonderful passage in which Jesus enunciates the primary truth of the Fatherhood of God. This truth may be called primary because it is the foundation stone upon which the whole structure of true religion is built. Until men could understand the meaning of the Fatherhood of God, and something of what that implies, they could hardly obtain any satisfactory religious experience. As long as men had believed that there were many gods, a sound religious experience was not possible, for all genuine religious experience is a search for conscious union with the One. Many gods must necessarily be gods of limitation; and as they were always, and necessarily, represented as