What is it that Aimee had? Gypsy Smith? Billy Sunday? The present-day Billy Graham,Monsignor Sheen,Norman Vincent Peale?Belief—faith,fundamentally,and the ability of a staunch believer to pass it on to the other fellow.It's the very keynote of all great religions.All big things are started by one person,one believer.It makes no difference where he got the idea originally.All great inventions are the outgrowth of the whole scheme of faith,faith,belief in yourself,your ideas,your ability to put them over.All super salesmen know this.They use the power.That's why they are super salesmen,of religions,commodities,projects.Every community drive,every forward movement,everything worthwhile succeeds because some one person has faith,is the prime mover,the sparkplug,the central fountain,and is able to sell what he has faith in to the multitudes—to pass faith on like a contagion.Think about that.Then think about it some more,and think of it again.Meditate over it,and you'll realize that every word is true!
You have faith in a religion,a commercial product,a community drive because someone,originally,gave you faith in it.You accept certain people as authorities because you believe in them.What they tell you,you believe,without question,and you take or buy what they offer you.That's faith.
Occasionally some clever person will mislead you and cause you to believe in something that isn't so; and when you discover this,you are often bitter and disillusioned.You say,"I'll never believe in anyone again," but you will,because to believe is a fundamental trait of human nature.You instinctively want to believe in others and in yourself.This would be a terrible world if we couldn't trust anyone.
"Foghorn" Murphy,the famous umpire baiter,said over the radio on Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" show,that the "cheapest" thing a person could do was to be nice to other people,greet them with a smile and trust them—that this paid the biggest dividends.He's a thousand per cent right: genuine faith in the other fellow always pays off.You may misplace your faith a few times,but this is a rarity.Most people make an extra effort to live up to your faith in them.They may fail others,even take advantage of them,but they are so appreciative of your faith that they won't let you down.
I've had men and women say to me: "What are you wasting time on that drunken,no-good deadbeat for?He can't be depended on.He'll steal you blind or take advantage of you at the first opportunity."
Well,I've placed my faith in hundreds and hundreds of men and women thus far and I haven't been intentionally let down yet.Some of the folks I have trusted were just too weak to keep on an even keel,but they didn't go out to "take" me.They felt worse than I did about failing to live up to my estimate of them—and most of them have picked themselves up and have been trying,again and again.They know I still have faith in them ...that I haven't condemned them ...that I'm always willing to help,when and where I can.But they know,too,that it is basically up to them,that—no person can be helped beyond a certain point,that they've got to do the job of getting back on their feet themselves,through faith.
The power within cannot operate for you unless you have faith in it!
Put your belief to work!
Experience is the greatest and,at the same time,the severest teacher.Through experience you know what you've done wrong,it beats in on you eventually.And after you know,you start to work setting yourself right,by realizing that you need some power greater than yourself to help straighten out your affairs and start you thinking right.So—you discover "that something" within and you say,"I believe!" And this sets up a magnetic current in you which commences to attract what you believe in....And when you can feel and see coming to you the things that you have pictured,through faith,you say: "…and it is so!"
That's the process of rehabilitation in a nutshell.It may not be religious in any orthodox or creedal sense,but it's spiritual,metaphysical.It's what the spiritual leaders of all time have been talking about,reduced to everyday language.
There are countless organized campaigns going on whose purpose is to get you to believe in this and that—right along! Pause and think for a moment.What is propaganda,any kind of propaganda,the good and the bad? Often nothing more,nor less than well-developed,ingenious plans to make you believe.You've seen it work in previous war days,and if you're wide-awake to what is going on around you,you know that it's being worked more than ever in every line of human endeavor today; just as it was worked thousands of years ago and as it always will work.
The battle is on for the minds of men all over the world—in free and slave nations,behind and in front of iron curtains.Take great care about what you are enticed to believe in,be sure you are in unprejudiced,truthful possession of unaltered facts.If not,withhold judgment and don't permit your reason and intuition to be swept aside by convincing sounding emotional appeals.
If when you are reading your newspaper,listening to the radio,viewing television,you keep in mind my theme,you will realize that all the speeches of our leaders,our great executives,coming to us with clock-like regularity,are being given with a purpose—to make us believe.These men know this.Even so: study everything that is said today,draw your own conclusions,make up your own mind as fairly and as unprejudicedly as you can,before you believe.
Everyone of us,if put on the right track,can accomplish what he is after by keeping before him my own expression: "If you believe it—it's so," and by adopting the old adage: "Where there's a will,there's a way!"