Chapter 8 - By Crooked Paths

The Rev. R. F. Horton tells a little story of a remarkable answer to prayer.

He was with a party of tourists in Norway. In exploring some wild and marshy country one of the ladies lost one of her “goloshes.” The overshoe could not be replaced short of Bergen, at the end of their tour, and it was out of the question to attempt to explore that wild country without rubbers. The golosh must be found, or the tour curtailed.

As you may imagine, every member of the party set diligently to work to find the missing rubber. Over and over they hunted the miles of glades and mountain sides they had traversed At last they gave it up and returned to the hotel.

But in the afternoon a thought came to Dr. Horton -- why not pray that they find the shoe? So he prayed. And they rowed back up the fjord to the landing of the morning, and he got out and walked directly to the overshoe, in a spot he would have sworn he had before searched repeatedly.

I remember a similar experience of my own. There were four of us riding bicycles along a rather sandy road some distance from town. Two were spinning along on a tandem some distance ahead of us, on a down grade, when a rivet flew out and the chain dropped. The tandem ran for a quarter of a mile on down the hill and slowed up on the rise beyond, so that our friends were able to dismount without injury.

By this time we had overtaken them, having ridden in their track, and learned for the first time the cause of their halt. Of course everybody’s immediate thought was, “Oh, we can never find that tiny gray rivet in this gray dust -- probably the other bicycles ran over it -- and home is three miles off!” But we all retraced our steps, diligently searching.

Two of the party are crack shots with the rifle, with very quick eyesight. I thought one of these two might find the rivet. But we all walked slowly back, far beyond the point where they became conscious of their loss, and no one spied the rivet.

Then it occurred to me that the high spirit within had not been called to our assistance. Immediately I said to myself, "Spirit, you know where the rivet is! -- please show it to me!"

I thought of the spirit as the Law of Love or Attraction, which is the principle of all creation, and instantly the idea came that the little rivet could attract the eye's attention if the eye were willing to be attracted. These words floated into my mind, "Rivet, rivet, rivet my eye!"

By this time I had fallen behind the others. So I walked leisurely, calmly along, eyes willing, and those words saying themselves over and over in my mind.

And the rivet riveted my eye! I, who considered myself very slow of sight, found the rivet. And I know it was because I turned to the universal self, to God, to the Law of Attraction for the help needed, for the knowledge which not one of us had in consciousness, but which was certainly present in the universal mind in which we live and move and have our being.

Just the other day I had a little experience which illustrates the “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity” idea. For years I have said I could never find ready made garments to fit me. Have tried many times; waists all too short and narrow in front, sleeves skimpy. But I keep trying, every year; for everything is evolving you know, even clothes and tailors.

I wanted a new white lawn shirt waist and wondered if I couldn’t find one ready made. I tried the biggest suit house in Springfield; no good.

Then one day I had an impulse to try the best places in Holyoke. I found one or two “almosts,” but nothing that would quite do. So I gave it up.

Then I had another impulse to try a store of which I have always said, “I never found there anything I wanted.” I nearly passed the store, saying to myself, “No use to try there, and it is late anyway.” But there came the thought, or rather impression, that the spirit impelled me and I would better go.

“We’ll see if it is the spirit,” I said to myself -- “I believe it is.” It was. I found the [shirt] waist I wanted, and I found a pretty white lawn suit besides! And it was found in the most unlikely corner in the vicinity, according to my judgment and experience.

There is a little law in here that I want you to notice. The spirit leads us through impressions or attractions; and it is limited in its revelations by our mental makeup, which is the conscious and ruling part of us.

Why did not the spirit impress me in the first place to go to that store, where that [shirt] waist and dress had been waiting for me since spring? And I had wanted them since spring. The spirit did impress me about it, but when the spirit said “shirt waist” to me I said, “Springfield -- if they haven’t a fit there they won't have it anywhere; and anyway I know I’ll never find it.” But I tried -- without faith. That shut the spirit up for the time. But at the very first opportunity, on the first afternoon when I wasn’t too busy to even think about such things, the spirit whispered “shirt waist” to me again. And I didn’t let the spirit get any farther with its impressions; instead of asking the spirit where to go for a shirt waist I said, “Oh, yes, shirt waist -- of course -- I’ll go to A.’s and B.’s and C.’s, where I generally get other things that suit me.”

You see, my habit mind, preconceived opinions, again settled the matter. It was not until I had given up finding anything at these places, and was going right by the door of the other store, that the spirit had a chance even to whisper its name to me. The spirit had to lead me around all my prejudices in the matter, before it could get me to think of that place.

My mind was open to the thought of the shirt waist, but it was closed hard and fast against the idea of that particular store. At least the direct mental route to that store was closed. So the spirit had to lead me around by back-alley brain connections. But now the direct route is open.

The spirit always goes shopping with me, and nearly always the direct mental routes are open, so I have lots of fun shopping, never waste a lot of time at it, and I nearly always get just what I want, many times at bargain prices, though I almost never look at bargain ads in the papers. But many, many times have I gone into a store to buy a certain thing and found a big special sale on, of that very item.

Do you think these are very trivial things to be bothering the spirit about? I don’t. The spirit is all-wise, all-powerful, everywhere present, and its chief end and joy is to direct folks aright.

The spirit is a sort of universal floor-walker to straighten out the snarls between supply and demand in all departments of life. And I think it is a pretty heedless or foolish individual who won't consult it in every little dilemma.

And I notice that, in spite of this thought, I find myself ignoring the spirit -- thinking I know of course where I’d better go for a shirt waist.

It seems hard to remember that Life’s store is always growing and changing, so that we can always save time, money and needless meandering, by asking the spirit.

Herein lies the secret of all our little experiences when it looks as if our leading of the spirit was all wrong and our prayers, longing and desires all unanswered: The spirit never fails us. It is we who grow weary following the spirit; which must lead us to the desired goal by way of our own mental paths.

You see, it is a matter of cutting new streets in our mental domain, so it won’t be necessary for the spirit to take us by such roundabout ways. It is a matter of clearing out our rocky prejudices so we’ll not have to travel around them.

And here the spirit helps us again. As soon as the spirit succeeded in getting me around all my prejudices and into that store I wiped away the prejudice. So there is a straight mental street now where none existed before. The next time the spirit says “shirt waist,” to me it can send me straight to D.’s if it wants to.

Yes, the spirit “moves in a mysterious way its wonders to perform.” It looks mysterious to us until we are led back by the straight way. Then it is so simple, so easy, we can hardly believe the spirit would condescend to it!

Ah, but it does! Nothing is too small, or too great, for the spirit’s attention -- if we believe. When we don’t believe we are to be pitied -- and the spirit keeps discreetly mum.