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The Mastery of Destiny

by James Allen

Chapter 2 of 10 • 318 min read • Published 1909

Chapter 2. Part 2

alter his deeds, and 2)eed0t Gbaracter, and Besting 9 every time he acts he modifies his charac- ter, and with the modification of his character for good or evil, he is pre- determining for himself new destinies — destinies disastrous or beneficent in accordance with the nature of his deeds.

Character is destiny itself; as a fixed combination of deeds, it bears within itself the results of those deeds. These results lie hidden as moral seeds in the dark recesses of the character, awaiting their season of germination, growth, and fruitage.

Those things which befall a man are the reflections of himself; that destiny which pursued him, which he was power- less to escape by effort, or avert by prayer, was the relentless ghoul of his own wrong deeds demanding and en- forcing restitution; those blessings and curses which come to him unbidden io Cbe /Raster^ of Besting are the reverberating echoes of the sounds which he himself sent forth.

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It is this knowledge of the Perfect Law working through and above all things; of the Perfect Justice operating in and adjusting all human affairs, that enables the good man to love his ene- mies, and to rise above all hatred, re- sentment, and complaining; for he knows that only his own can come to him, and that, though he be surrounded by persecutors, his enemies are but the blind instruments of a faultless retri- bution; and so he blames them not, but calmly receives his accounts, and pa- tiently pays his moral debts.

"f*But this is not all ; he does not merely pay his debts; he takes care not to contract any further debts. He watches himself and makes his deeds faultless. While paying off evil accounts, he is 2>eeDe, Gbaracter, and Destiny 1 1 laying up good accounts.

By putting an end to his own sin, he is bringing evil and suffering to an end. «-J~ And now let us consider how the Law operates in particular instances in the outworking of destiny through deeds and character. First, we will look at this present life, for the present is the synthesis of the entire past; the net result of all that a man has ever thought and done is contained within him.

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It is noticeable that sometimes the good man fails and the unscrupulous man prospers — a fact which seems to put all moral maxims as to the good results of righteousness out of account — and because of this, many people deny the operation of any just law in human life, and even declare that it is chiefly the unjust that prosper.

Neverthe- less, the moral law exists, and is not 12 Gbe dftasterg of Dcetin^ altered or subverted by shallow con- clusions. It should be remembered that man is a changing, evolving being. The good man was not always good ; the bad man was not always bad.

Even in this life (without, for the moment, going back to former lives), there was a time, in a large number of instances, when the man who is now just, was unjust; when he who is now kind, was cruel; when he who is now pure, was impure.

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Obversely, there was a time in this life, in a number of instances, when he who is now unjust, was just; when he who is now cruel, was kind; when he who is now impure, was pure. Thus, the good man who is overtaken with calamity to-day is reaping the result of his former evil sowing; later he will reap the happy result of his present good sowing ; while the bad man Deefcs, Character, ant) Desting 13 is now reaping the result of his former good sowing; later he will reap the result of his present sowing of bad.

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