Page 21 - 102717-James Allen-Byways to Blessedness-flipbookversion_Neat

BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS 17

Take up the psalm of life anew;
Sing of the good, sing of the true;
Sing of full victory o’er wrong;
Make though a richer, sweeter song;
Out of thy doubting, care and pain
Weave thou a joyous, glad refrain;
Out of thy thorns a crown weave thou
Of rare rejoicing. Sing thou, now.”

I will give my cheerful, unselfish, and undivided attention to the doing of all those things which
enter into my compact with life, and, though I walk under colossal responsibilities, I shall be
unconscious of any troublesome weight or grievous burden.
You say a certain thing (a duty, a companionship, or a social obligation) troubles you, is
burdensome, and you resign yourself to oppression with the thought: “I have entered into this, and
will go through with it, but it is a heavy and grievous work.” But is the thing really burdensome, or
is it your selfishness that is oppressing you? I tell you that that very thing which you regard as so
imprisoning a restriction is the first gateway to your emancipation; that work which you regard as
a perpetual curse contains for you the actual blessedness which you vainly persuade yourself lies
in another and unapproachable direction. All things are mirrors in which you see yourself
reflected, and the gloom which you perceive in your work is but a reflection of that mental state
which you bring to it. Bring a right, an unselfish, state of heart to the thing, and lo! it is at once
transformed, and becomes a means of strength and blessedness, reflecting back that which you
have brought to it. If you bring a scowling face to your looking glass will you complain of the glass
that it glowers upon you with a deformed visage, or will you put your face right, and so get back
from the reflector a more pleasing countenance?
If it is right and necessary that a thing should be done then the doing of it is good, and it can
only become burdensome in wishing not to do it. The selfish wish makes the thing appear evil. If it
is neither right nor necessary that a thing should be done then the doing of it in order to gain some
coveted pleasure is folly, which can only lead to burdensome issues.
The duty which you shirk is your reproving angel; the pleasure which you race after is your
flattering enemy. Foolish man! when will you turn round and be wise?
It is the beneficence of the universe that it is everywhere, and at all times, urging its creatures
to wisdom as it demands coherence of its atoms. That folly and selfishness entail suffering in ever-
increasing degrees of intensity is preservative and good, for agony is the enemy of apathy and the
herald of wisdom.
What is painful? What is grievous? What is burdensome? Passion is painful; folly is grievous;
selfishness is burdensome.

“It is the dark idolatry of self
Which, when our thoughts and actions once are done,
Demands that man should weep, and bleed, and groan.”