The Victorious Attitude

by Orison Swett Marden

"I and the Father are one." "I am the vine, ye are the branches." We are as closely united one to the other, and all to the Father as are the branches to the parent stem. When we are conscious of our union, of our co-partnership with the Infinite, we feel an added power, just as the branch feels the force of the life currents flowing into it from the vine. Severed from the parent stem the same branch would not feel so confident. It would soon find that of itself it could do nothing; and in a short time it would wither and die.

The moment we pluck a flower from its stem it begins to wilt and fade because it is separated from the source of its life. Cut off from the great chemical laboratory of Nature, from the creative, miracle-working energy of the sun, the soil, and the atmosphere, it dies within a few hours.

The moment we are cut off from our Divine Source we begin to wither, shrivel and die. As long as we remain separate nothing can stop this fatal blighting process. When we are not fed from our Source we are like the branch severed from the parent vine, like the flower plucked from its mother stem.

My experience has shown that people who, from different causes, feel cut off from connection with the Divine Source of things suffer intensely from fear. They are filled with a vague, but overmastering terror which presses upon them with greater force because it is unseen, unknown. They dimly feel that like meteors in the sky which have passed beyond the controlling gravity governing the other heavenly bodies, they are separate, unrelated human atoms without assurance that they are under a protective, guiding, sustaining power.

Victims of extreme nervous diseases are often overwhelmed with a sense of utter isolation, of being cut off from every sustaining force, and they are terror stricken, just as a child who has lost its way, and knows not where to turn. Temporarily, and in a lesser degree, people who are terrified in a thunder storm and rush to a cellar, anywhere to hide themselves from threatened danger, suffer from this feeling of separation, of aloneness.

All who are affected in this way would be greatly benefited by dwelling on such Biblical passages as, "In Him we live and move and have our being," "The Father in me and I in the Father." These are strictly scientific truths. We could not live or move or have any being apart from the Power that made us, that sustains and supports us, and the consciousness of this gives a steadying, buttressing sense of security and safety that nothing else can.

Our individual strength comes from our conscious oneness with Omnipotence, just as our national or corporate strength is derived from union with one another. Each human being is like a drop of water in the ocean. He is not independent. He cannot work alone. Consciously or unconsciously he is a part of the masses all around him. He is touched by other water drops on every side, and his existence, his success is largely dependent upon his union with the others. Even if a drop of the ocean could separate itself from the mass and should try to live its own life in its own way it would soon cease to exist as a drop. A man cannot accomplish much alone. His success depends on his union with other men. His dignity and strength are reënforced by the organization or association of which he is a unit, as a cable is reënforced by the sum of the strength of its separate wires.

"Nature," says Humboldt, "is Unity in diversity of manifestation, one stupendous whole, animated by the breath of life." When we come into conscious realization of the truth that we are a part, the most important part, of the stupendous whole created by God, and that we are working in coöperation with Him, we will come into possession of a power and dignity which will make our lives sublime.

The greatest minds of all ages have drawn their strength from the invisible Source, from their vital connection with the Power which creates, and works through every one of us. They have also believed in the great mission of the race; believed in a divine plan running through the universe which works for righteousness, and shapes the destiny of the race. This faith in the Godward movement of the great human current has characterized even those who did not openly profess any religious faith. Their belief in the divinity of humanity has been a strong factor in their character, and the root source of their power.

This same faith, this unquestioned confidence in the divine cosmic Intelligence, has given more comfort, has brought more peace of mind, and happiness to vast multitudes of human beings than any other thing. Indeed it is the only thing that can bring us true peace, enduring happiness.