This page offers you a daily dose of James Allen. Here you’ll find today’s entries from James Allen’s book of meditations for every day in the year and Morning and evening thoughts:
previous day - September 22nd 2019 - next day
All temptation comes from within.
MEN fail to conquer, and the fight is indefinitely prolonged, because they labour, almost universally, under two delusions ; first, that all temptations come from without ; and second, that they are tempted because of their goodness. Whilst a man is held in bondage by these delusions, he will make no progress ; when he has shaken them off, he will pass on rapidly from victory to victory, and will taste of spiritual joy and rest.
The source and cause of all temptation is in the inward desire ; that being purified and eliminated, outward objects and extraneous powers are utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation. The outward object is merely the occasion of the temptation, never the cause ; this is in the desire of the one tempted.
A man is tempted because there are certain desires or states of mind which he has come to regard as unholy.
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals;
cherish the music that stirs in your heart,
the beauty that forms in your mind, the
Loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts,
for out of them will grow all delightful
conditions, all heavenly environment;
of these, if you will remain true to them,
your world will at last be built.
Guard well thy mind, and, noble, strong,
and free,
Nothing shall harm, disturb or conquer
thee;
For all thy foes are in thy heart and mind,
There also thy salvation thou shalt find.
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream
so shall you become. Your vision is the
promise of what you shall one day be;
your Ideal is the prophecy of what you
shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first
and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps
in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg;
and in the highest vision of the soul
a waking angel stirs.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial,
but they shall not long remain so when
you perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.
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