CHRISTMAS is the
season of Pantomime, in London at any rate, and a few Christmases pass without
the story of Dick Whittington being told again at some theater or other. The
children never tire of hearing the story of little Dick and the chimes –
children as a rule are good judges of Spiritual Truth. Although we shall never
be sure of the cold facts about Sir Richard Whittington who flourished at
Guildhall so many years ago, the Spiritual Truth about little Dick Whittington
and what happened to him that evening on Highgate Hill is eternal.
For the benefit of any
who may not have heard the story, it can be said that Dick Whittington was a
little boy who lived in Old London in the Middle Ages, that he was an orphan,
and quite friendless, and that he was working in the scullery in the house of a
wealthy merchant of Cheapside. He was very cruelly treated, however, by the
other servants, and so at last, in desperation, he decided to run away. He had
no one to help or advise him, no one to whom he could look for shelter or
encouragement, and the place in which he found himself having become
intolerable, little Dick did what so many other people so – he ran away from
his problem.
Of course, he had
not the faintest notion where he was going to run to, or what he would do when
he got there. He just felt that he must move at any cost, and so he ran away.
This running away from one’s problem is probably the most futile thing in the
world, for the simple reason that all your problems are really in your own
consciousness and, your consciousness being the essential You, it is not
possible to run away from it. It does not make the slightest difference how
fast you run, or how far you get; you will have to stop running some time, and
when you do stop there you will find your problems all lined up waiting for
you. Having brought your consciousness -- that is, yourself – along, you will
naturally have brought your problems along too, unless and until you have
solved them – in consciousness.
And so Dick started
off, making a beeline away from Cheapside, and striking due north into the open fields, which he very soon
reached, for all this happened a very long time ago. He followed a country road
until presently he reached Highgate Hill, which he climbed. Beginning to feel tired by this time, he sat
down near the top of the hill to rest. We are told that is was a beautiful
summer evening and presently as the sun began to set, the chimes of Bow
Church came floating across the fields to where he sat. Bow church stands
in Cheapside, just near the house from which he was running away, and after St.
Paul’s itself, it was, and perhaps is, the most important church in the City of
London. If you are born within the sound of Bow
Bells you are genuinely Cockney, but if not, not; so you will see how
important it is. For Dick Whittington, however, the chimes of Bow Bells were to
mean a very great deal more than that, for , in spite of all his trouble, Dick
had the spiritual faculty all but matured, and was ready to speak in the New
Tongue (Mark(16:17).
“But how can it
be,” you may ask that anybody with a spiritual consciousness should be having
difficulties? Are we not taught that health, happiness, and prosperity are the
fruit of just this thing? And this is an important point, and worthy of
consideration. It is perfectly true that the possession of spiritual faculty
does guarantee, and is in fact the only possible guarantee, for all these
thing. But the spiritual faculty has to be recognized, realized, and brought
out into manifestation. In its latent state it cannot demonstrate. It is
proverbial that most people who do develop the spiritual consciousness through
“coming into the Truth,” do so as a result of finding Themselves in
difficulties, or being down and out, to use the colloquial phrase, either physically,
financially, morally, or otherwise. The reason for this is obvious once you
have the key to it.
The children of this
world are wiser in their generation than the Children of Light. Worldy, materially
minded people – not necessarily evil people in any sense, but people without
much spiritual development – are well adapted to worldy conditions, and, if
they are reasonably sensible folk, they get on well enough with the world as it
is. Those, however, who have developed and
brought into manifestation the spiritual faculty are of another order. They
are the Children of Light, and they can no longer live or move, or breathe
freely in the pagan atmosphere of mammon. They are no longer under the lower
law, but under Grace. And being under Grace, which is the Divine polity of God
– gracious and graceful too – all goes well, and all things are added as the
needs arise.
But between these
two states there is a transition stage, when the spiritual faculty has been
developed, but is, so to say, still in the matrix of the soul – not yet born
onto the plane of manifestation; and this is the stage where so much trouble
appears. In this stage your spiritual faculty, the Wonder Child, is mature
enough to have unfitted you for the atmosphere of the world, but is not mature
enough to take charge and manifest your affairs in the light of Spirit. And now
you are likely to have a bad time. Because you do not belong to the world, it
will kick you about like a football, and the harder you struggle, the worse
things will get. This, nevertheless, is the time to rejoice and lift up your
heart, for now, if you are faithful, your salvation is very nigh. These hard
knocks are the indication that you are no longer in bondage to material law.
The darkest hour is always just before the dawn.
As little Dick
Whittington sat on Highgate Hills, the bells rang out the call to evening
prayer. How many thousands of other people around London heard those chimes
too, but found in them nothing out of the ordinary – How many tired and heavy
laden men and women in the streets and alleys of the great city, or out in the
fields and lanes adjoining, heard the very same sounds that summer evening as
they floated over the roofs of the houses, and across the quiet English
countryside; and yet received from them nothing to help them on their way?
Dick, however, had the spiritual faculty well developed, although as yet he je
knew it not, and to him they spoke out clearly and unmistakably. Pulling him up
short, drawing the scales from his eyes, and showing him with instant clearness
the next step he had to take. They said distinctly, startlingly, “Turn again,
Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London.” Dick was thunderstruck at this message, but at the same time so
completely convinced that he never for a moment doubted what he had to do. He
immediately retraced his steps; hurried back to Cheapside, and, so the story
goes, not only faced up to the problem from which he had been running away, but
solved it in the most complete and far-reaching manner. The Wonder Child was
born.
It appears that he
first demanded and obtained his rights in the kitchen, then graduated into the
shop, gradually rose through a combination of inspiration and industry to be a
partner in his own master’s firm, married the daughter of the house, became the
leading merchant of the City of London, and, finally, as the bells had
foretold, Lord Mayor.
It interesting to note
here that the old legend bears all the hallmarks of its inspiration in detail.
The step that Dick had to take was the last thing that he would have thought of
doing on his own account. That is usually what happens when the Holy Spirit is
guiding. When self-will whispers, the message is generally the kind of thing
that we want to hear, the kind of thing that we have always approved of, the
kind of thing we should have done in any case. The Holy Spirit more often tell
us to face right about and reverse our policy. Again we notice that, having
received this guidance, there was no shadow of doubt or wavering in his mind.
When you are doubtful or confused about a thought, it is probably not from God.
When the voice of the Lord speaks it is likely to be clear and unmistakable. It
is by no means true that the thing you want to do is necessarily the wrong
thing, but it may be. Some people have made a rule for themselves of thinking
that the thing they want to do is probably wrong. This is a relic of the old
theology. If you have been praying regularly, especially in the scientific way
called Treatment, it is quite likely that the thing you wish to do is the right
thing, but you have to make sure. The way to make sure is to go on raying until
you get a clear lead. When you feel confused or uncertain, pray for peace of
mind. Usually it is better to take no steps as long as you are in doubt. Do not
hurry; God never does.
If your guidance is
not coming though, it is either because in your heart you do not really want
it, having already made up your mind; or it is because you are too worried or
tense to hear it. If the latter is the difficulty, claiming peace of mind will overcome
it. When I treat for guidance, I always say: “The Holy
Spirit is God, and God always finishes His Work, and delivers His messages
satisfactorily; so my guidance must come through in a way that will be quite
clear to me; and I say that it will.” And it
does.
From Power Through Constructive Thinking by Emmet Fox 1932
Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423)
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