# The Life Triumphant/Faith and Courage

FAITH AND COURAGE
FOR those who will fight bravely, and not yield, there is triumphant victory over all the dark things of life. I state this at the beginning, that the reader may know there is no uncertainty about it; and in the course of this book I shall show what are the elements, in character and conduct, which go to build up the life of calm strength and superlative victory.
To stand face to face with Truth; to arrive, after innumerable wanderings and pains, at wisdom and bliss; not to be finally defeated and cast out, but to ultimately triumph over every inward foe—such is man’s divine destiny, such ​his glorious goal; and this, every saint, sage, and saviour has declared.
In the present stage of the life of humanity, comparatively few reach this place of triumph—though all will reach it at last—yet there is a glorious company of perfect ones who have attained in the past, and their number is being added to with each succeeding age. Men are as yet learners in the school of life, and most men die learners; but some there are who, in this life, through fixity of purpose and strenuous fighting against darkness, pain, and ignorance, acquire a right knowledge of life, and pass joyfully beyond the pupil stage. Man is not to remain for ever a school-boy in the universe, to be whipped for follies and errors; when he wills and wishes, he can set his mind upon his task, and master the lessons of life, becoming a confidant and skilled scholar, living in understanding and peace, and not in ignorance and misery.
The sorrows of life are profound and ​deeply rooted, but they can be fathomed and rooted out; the passions and emotions of human nature are, in their ungoverned state, overwhelming and painfully conflicting, but they can be so softened down, harmonized, and wisely directed and understood, as to become obedient servants for the outworking of enlightened purposes. The difficulties of life are great, its battle fierce, and its wished-for issues are uncertain and elusive; so much so, that every hour men and women are breaking down under the strain; yet these conditions have no objective and arbitrary existence; in their true nature they are subjective and purely mental, and can be transcended. There is no inherent and permanent evil in the universal order; and the mind can be lifted up to that moral altitude where evil can touch it no more.
A steadfast faith in an Eternal and Universal Justice, in an over-ruling Good, is the prelude to the Life Triumphant. ​The man who aims to become strong, serene, and steadfast at heart, must, at the outset, have no doubt that the Heart of Life is good. He who is to gaze upon the Cosmic Order, and experience the rapture of emancipation, must realize that there is no disorder in his life but that which he creates. This realization is difficult, so prone is the mind, in its imperfect stages, to self-pity and self-justification, but it can be attained, and must be attained by him who is to live the freed life. At first it must be believed, and the belief must be adhered to until it ripens into realization and knowledge.
The sufferings of life are greatly reduced when they are accepted as disciplinary experiences, and the man of faith does so accept them. The sufferings of life are transcended and put away when all experiences are accounted good, and are utilized in the development of character, and the man of knowledge does so regard and utilize them.
​Faith is the grey dawn which precedes the full and perfect day of knowledge. Without it there can be no attainment of strength, no permanent security of heart. The man of faith does not succumb when difficulties present themselves; he does not despair when troubles overtake him. However steep and dark his path may seem, he looks forward to a brighter pathway ahead; sees a destination of rest and light beyond.
They who have no faith in the triumph of good, ignominiously succumb to the elements of evil. And this must be so; for he who does not elevate good, elevates evil, and, seeing evil as the master of life, he receives the wages of evil.
There are those who, having yielded to defeat in the battle of life, talk thoughtlessly about the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of others. They believe—and try to make others believe—that they would have been ​successful, or rich, or famous but for the treachery and villainy of those about them. They tell, for the thousandth time, how they have been deceived, defrauded, and degraded by others. They imagine that they themselves are all trust, all innocence, all honesty and good nature, and that nearly everybody else is all that is bad and malicious. They tell how they would have been just as prosperous and honoured as others if they had been as selfish as those others; and that their great drawback, and the chief source, in themselves, of their failures, is that they were born with too great an endowment of unselfishness. Such self-praising complainers cannot distinguish between good and evil, and their faith in human nature and the goodness of the universe is dead. Looking upon others, they have eyes for evil only; looking upon themselves, they see only suffering innocence. Rather than discover any evil in themselves, they would have all humanity bad. In their hearts ​they have enthroned the wretched Demon of Evil as the Lord of Life, and see in the course of things only a selfish scramble in which the good is always crushed, and evil rises triumphant. Blind to their own folly and ignorance and weakness, they see nothing but injustice in their fate, nothing but misery and wretchedness in their present condition.
He who would have even a useful and successful life—much more so a spiritually noble and victorious one—must at once root out and cast away this wretched condition of mind that negatives all that is good and pure, and gives the preeminence to all that is base and impure. Misfortune, misery, and defeat most surely await the man who believes that dishonesty, deceit, and selfishness are the best weapons whereby to achieve a successful life. What courage, and strength can a man develop, and what quiet and happiness can he enjoy, who believes that in order to keep pace with others he must continually deny and ​discourage the better qualities of his nature? The man who believes that evil is more powerful than good, and that bad men have the best of life, is still involved in the elements of evil; and, being so involved, he suffers—must necessarily suffer—defeat.
It may appear to you that the world is given over to wickedness; that the bad prosper, and the good fail; that there is nothing but chance, injustice, and disorder; but do not believe this: regard it as an illusive appearance; conclude that you do not see life as it really is; that you have not yet fathomed the causes of things, and that when you can look upon life through a purer heart and a wiser mind, you will see and understand its equity. And truly when you do so look at life, you will see good where you now see evil, order where now appears disorder, justice where now injustice seems to prevail.
The universe is a cosmos, not a chaos, and the bad do not prosper. It ​is true there is much evil in the world, otherwise there would be no necessity for moral aims, but there is also much misery in the world, and the evil and misery are related as cause and effect. It is equally true that there is much good in the world, and much abiding gladness, and the good and gladness are related as cause and effect.
He who has acquired that faith in the power and supremacy of good which no apparent injustice, no amount of suffering, and no catastrophe can shake, will pass through all emergencies, all trials and difficulties, with a sublime courage that defies the demons of doubt and despair. He may not succeed in all his plans; he may even encounter much failure; but when he fails, it will be that he may frame nobler purposes and ascend to higher achievements. He will only fail in order to reach a success greater than that of which he at first dreamed. His life will not, cannot, be a failure; some of its details may fail, ​but this will be but the breaking of weak links in the chain of character and events, in order that the whole may be made more strong and complete.
There is an animal courage which can calmly face the fire of an enemy in battle, or the fierce rage of wild beasts, but which fails in the battle of life, and breaks down when confronted with the beasts that rage within one's own heart. It requires a higher, diviner courage to remain calm in the hour of deprivation and calamity than in the heat of battle, to overcome self than to overcome another. And this diviner courage is the companion of faith.
A mere theological belief (commonly confounded with faith) will not avail. Beliefs about God, Jesus, Creation, etc., are mere surface opinions (derived chiefly from custom) which do not reach down to the real life of a man, and have no power to bestow faith. Such beliefs may accompany faith, but they are distinct from it. Frequently those who ​hold most tenaciously to particular beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, are most. lacking in faith—that is, they give way to complaint, despondency, and grief immediately some petty trouble overtakes them. If one is given to irritability, anxiety, hopelessness, and lamentation over the untoward things of life, let him know that, in spite of his religious belief or metaphysical philosophy, he lacks faith; for where faith is there is courage, there is fortitude, there is steadfastness and strength.
The opinions of men are lightly to be considered, for they are changing with every new breeze of thought. They have very little part in the reality of things, being the bubbles of a surface effervescence; but behind all opinions there is the same human heart. The “godless” are they who are goodless, even though they be members of churches and make great profession of faith in God. The “godly” are they who are goodly even though they make no ​profession of religion. The complainers and bewailers are the faithless and unbelieving. Those who deny or belittle the power of good, and in their lives and actions affirm and magnify the power of evil, are the only real atheists. Faith bestows that sublime courage that rises superior to the petty and selfish disappointments and troubles of life, that acknowledges no defeat except as a step to victory; that is strong to endure, patient to wait, and energetic to struggle; that perceives the benign law of Truth in all things, and is assured of the final triumph of the heart, of the kingly power of the mind.
Light up, then, O man! the lamp of faith in your heart, and walk through the darkness guided by its illuminating rays. Its light is dim, and cannot be compared with the sun-like effulgence of knowledge, but it suffices to lead one safely through the mists of doubt and the black darkness of despair; along the narrow, thorny ways of sickness and ​sorrow, and over the treacherous places of temptation and uncertainty; it enables him to ward off and outstrip the foul beasts that rage in the jungle of his heart, and to safely reach the open plains of a pure life and the mountain levels of conquest where the dim light of faith is no longer needed, for, leaving behind him all the darkness, all the doubt and error and sorrow, he enters into a new consciousness and upon a higher round of life, and works, acts, and lives self-contained and peaceful, in the full and glorious light of knowledge.
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