Emmet Fox - Around the Year with Emmet Fox: A Book of Daily Readings

D uring Emmet Foxs lifetime, when he was speaking week after week to one of the largest audiences ever to gather to hear one mans thoughts on the religious meaning of life, it was not surprising that the mails were heavy with expressions of gratitude from people who felt that he had given significance and satisfaction to the living of their days. Indeed, the most common phrase was, You made over my life. Nor was it surprising that the publication of his seven books and many pamphlets should bring nationwide response that swelled to worldwide response as some of his books went into translation.

The surprising thing, even to his publishers who knew something of the extent and depth of his influence, is that seven years after his passing the response continues. Lives are still being changed by the impact of his books. And the impact appears to be the personal sort that is always most arresting, most overwhelming, most rewarding: one individual finds his own attitudes completely transformed and forthwith shares the source of his strength with some other who is in despair, frustration, or sorrow.

Hence the idea was born that a book of daily devotions for his friends and followers might be made from Emmet Foxs unpublished lecture notes and manuscripts. But in order to give the full message of the Gospel as Dr. Fox himself would have wished, an editorial decision was made to lift from both his published and unpublished works the essence of his message. Poetry meant much to Dr. Fox; thus, readings for three days carry only a favorite poem and appropriate Scripture.

In this volume will be found not only these hitherto unpublished directions for daily living but also passages beloved by those who have worn thin a first edition of The Sermon on the Mount, say, or Power Through Constructive Thinking. But this book in no way takes the place of those fuller discussions of transforming themes, and it is hoped that the abbreviated messages presented here will lead the reader to the older books.

The Sermon on the Mount is now pushing the million-copy-circulation that its author envisioned, and it may go far beyond that number with the increasing need for a handbook of spiritual development that is both inspirational and demanding of personal dedication. The day-by-day perusal of this new volume should bring to life Emmet Foxs wordsand, as he would have preferred, the Word.

The Publishers

T here exists a mystic Power that is able to transform your life so thoroughly, so radically, so completely, that when the process is completed your own friends would hardly recognize you, and, in fact, you would scarcely be able to recognize yourself.

It can lift you out of an invalids bed, and free you to go out into the world to shape your life as you will. It can throw open the prison door and liberate the captive.

This Power can do for you that which is probably the most important thing of all in your present stage: it can find your true place in life for you, and put you into it.

This Power is really no less than the primal Power of Being, and to discover that Power is the divine birthright of all men.

the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added (Matthew 6:33).

January 2 THE POWER WITHIN

B ut where is this wonderful Power to be contacted? The answer is simplethis Power is to be found within your own consciousness, the last place that most people would look for it. Within your own mentality there lies a source of energy stronger than electricity, more potent than high explosive; unlimited and inexhaustible. You only need to make conscious contact with it to set it working in your affairs. This Indwelling Power, the Inner Light, is spoken of in the Bible as a child. The conscious discovery by you that you have this Power within you, and your determination to make use of it, is the birth of the child.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

This is a marvelous description of what happens when the spiritual idea, the Child, is born to the soul. Walking in darkness, moral or physical, dwelling in the land of the shadow of deaththe death of joy, or hope, or even self-respectdescribes well the condition of many people before this light shines into their weary, heartbroken lives; and the Prophet rises into a paean of exultant joy as he contemplates the deliverance.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isaiah 9:2).

January 3 LET GOD HAVE YOUR BURDEN

O nce you have contacted the Power within, and have allowed it to take over your responsibilities for you, it will direct and govern all your affairs from the greatest to the least without mistakes. The govemment shall be upon his shoulder. You are tired, and driven, and worried, and weak, and ill, and depressed, because you have been trying to carry the government upon your own shoulder; the burden is too much for you, and you have broken down under it. Now, immediately you hand over your self-government, that is, the burden of making a living, or of healing your body, or erasing your mistakes, to the Child. He, the Tireless One, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise, the All-Resourceful, assumes it with joy; and your difficulties have seen the beginning of the end.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee (Psalm 55:22).

January 4 A NEW BIRTH

T he prophet Isaiah speaks of the Name of the Child, and if we know something of Bible symbolism, we know that we are now going to learn something fundamental, for in the Bible, the name of anything means the character or nature of that thing. A name is not merely an arbitrary label, but actually a hieroglyph of the soul. We are given no less than five names or qualities of the Child.

First Isaiah says that the name of the Child is Wonderful. The word wonderful used here requires careful scrutinization. As employed in the Bible, it implies a miraclejust that, and nothing less. The Bible repeatedly says that miracles can happen, and it gives detailed and circumstantial accounts of many specific cases. Moreover, it says that miracles always will happen if you believe them to be possible, and are willing to recognize the power of God, and to call upon it.

As soon as the Child is born in your consciousness, the miracle will come into your life. This does not mean simply that you will become resigned to your present circumstances, or that you will then be enabled to meet the same difficulties with a higher courage or a clearer brain. It means the miracle.

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

January 5 YOUR COUNSELOR

T he prophet Isaiah also calls this Child Counselor. A counselor is one who gives guidance. If you are worried because you do not know whether to take some important step, to accept a business offer, to sign an important document, to enter upon a partnership, to resign your position, to trust someone, to say something, the Child will be your Counselor.