"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."___Matthew 6:33.

"The race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong."___Ecclesiastics 9:11.

Our world is not run according to the rules most people believe it to be. The two biblical statements above give an inkling of the real nature of the system that prevails in our lives. Biblical writers of the above phrases were trying to inform us that, although often the race is to the swift and the battle to the strong, there are good and valid reasons under the Laws that are not fully understood by most men take precedence over those usually applied.

For instance, under Natural Law the race would, indeed, be to the swift and the battle to the strong. These results would involve the Laws of Logic and Statistics. They are the Law as understood by every scientist, statistician, and politician.

Their faith in these Laws is not misplaced most of the time. These Laws of fast against slow, strong against weak operate unerringly in relationship to all inanimate objects and all creatures below the status of man.

This was the fact that Darwin and his associates noticed when they investigated the nature of animal life and formulated their Survival of the Fittest concept. The scientist absolutely depends on the Law of Absolute Action and Reaction in his calculations and experiments. If he could not depend on this Law, he knows that chaos would soon reign and his work would be of little or no value.

Man's Duality

If all this is so, why then should man be different? He is different because he is a dual being and therefore lives under dual Laws. That part of man which is of the Earth must follow the Laws. The part of man which is of the Earth must follow the Laws of the Earth like the other animals that inhabit it. But man also has within him a Divine Spark ("The kingdom of God is within you") which functions under the Law of a higher realm. The Law of this higher realm always takes precedence over the Laws of the lower.

It is to this Higher Law the biblical writers referred when they wrote the verses cited at the beginning of this chapter. Under Natural Law these verses would not apply; only under the Higher Law are they applicable. Under this Higher Law, moral and ethical considerations come into operation, and good by its very nature of being good will always triumph in the end. The reason for this is not based so much on altruism as it is on the basic nature of good and evil.

Evil, by its inherent structure, is disorder. The reason for this is simple; anything that is orderly (in harmony with the Laws of the Universe) is good. Therefore, only those things that are disorderly can be considered as evil. That which is disorderly carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Its inherent disorder will, in time, first cause fraying of the edges, then an adverse vibratory rate will begin to upset the crystal structure of the evil, and finally the complete fracture and disintegration of this structure will result.

Examination of human history provides numerous examples of this procedure. Because time is required for this process to take place, many of us think we can get away with evil and not get caught. But as the old adage admonishes, "The mills of the Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine."

When this Law is applied to our physical world, we can reach some interesting conclusions. Many existing institutions are considered evil by many people. But are they? How are we to judge? There are two possibilities: Either they have not existed long enough for their molecular structure to break down or they have enough good in them to survive.

No person or institution can be expected to be all good. That quality is left for God alone. The most that can be expected is a predominance of good. Under the higher spiritual Law this predominance is enough to hold the structure together. The good in this instance serves as a matrix of cement to hold the nongood from self-destruction. There is a critical point, of course, at which the amount of good is not sufficient to hold the evil in check, and at this point the structure will begin its process of disintegration. Thus, we may see once noble and honorable institutions fall due either to their loss of good or to the increase of evil (disorder).

Surprisingly, we humans frequently do not want the Laws of Natural Order and Strength to succeed. Almost all of our literature and drama is based on the underdog winning over the superior odds of evil opponent. This is particularly true of those who came to America. Most immigrants to this country fled oppression to come to the land where even the lowliest has a chance to succeed.

Yet in our own life we often are not sure that this can work. If we can come to understand the spiritual Laws which govern in our lives as Children of God, rather than think only of the cold Natural Law, we can really begin to live the life intended for us.

Operation of the Law

Under the Laws of our more Godly nature, the race is to the good and the battle to the just. This Law must work in the long run, although it may seem that for a while it is no longer functioning. The reason we may not obtain the results we expect is often due to indebtedness from past incarnations. (For further information on this subject see the volume, The Circle of Lives, by this publisher.) We may have a great deal of indebtedness to pay in this life and therefore much of the results of our good deeds may be used to reduce this indebtedness.

For example, assume a person had many debts to pay during this lifetime. He may pay them in two ways: one, by experiencing the reaction of them as pain, suffering, or some loss in his daily life; or, two, by counterbalancing them with good deeds in this life. However, the second method is like paying the debts of a divorced spouse. Be cause you cannot remember creating the indebtedness in the first place, you have to pay off something you did not even have the fun of creating. Therefore, most people find it difficult to accept with much glee the contention that, even though they may not see the direct benefit of their goodness, it is in place, manifesting in the form of old debts paid off. The mere fact that this takes place, and that now these debts will not be called when the person can least afford it, seems little solace to most of us.

This is how the world is run, however, and the sooner we are willing to accept this procedure and govern ourselves accordingly, the quicker will we repay our past debts and begin perceiving the direct results of our goodness - all this in the manner of the husband in the above example who has finally paid the old debts of his former spouse and can mow begin to apply the results of his efforts for his own present needs.

The qualities that make for the good life, that is, those which take the most useful advantage of the Laws of our second or better nature, are none other than those that have been handed down to us by the great sages of the past. And why not? After all, love, generosity, kindness compassion, nobility, graciousness, chastity, honor, and all other such beatitudes cannot change any more than the human heart and Soul can change. These are the rallying point of all true winners. They are the qualities of those who win the final race and who are victorious at the final battle. All other human thoughts and actions pale in comparison to these virtues. These virtues from a shield of protection around all who exemplify them and guard these dear souls from all harm.

No one has an option on goodness. It is to be found in the most unexpected places because all goodness must begin in the mind. We must first want to be good. Then as this desire grows, the mind is taken up with ways to accomplish this good. From this thought and desire, finally, will come the actions that give the thoughts of the good manifestation. Every normal human being can use this procedure to improve all the qualities of his life and to place around himself the protective shield spoken of earlier.

But, you say, "Before we can think of good or do good we must know what good is. How can we know what is good? Although in an academic environment this subject can be and is argued hour on end, in the real world good is not so difficult to define. Anything that brings order out of disorder is good. That which makes the world a cleaner, more beautiful, healthier place to live is good. That which gladdens men's hearts, without later recrimination, is good. Good is really not hard to define, only hard to find.

Each morning when we awaken, we have before us a canvas upon which to paint the events of a new day. These events can be good or nongood, designed to increase the orderliness of the world or to promote further chaos, executed from our spiritual self or our material self. The choice is up to us. The first change for the better must occur in our own thoughts and desires. From this center of our imagination can come power to make a world savior or a world destroyer. Which it will be is entirely up to each one of us.
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