A point on which students of mental science often fail to lay
sufficient stress is the completeness of man—not a completeness to be attained
hereafter, but here and now. We have been so accustomed to have the imperfection
of man drummed into us in books, sermons, and hymns, and above all in a
mistaken interpretation of the Bible, that at first the idea of his
completeness altogether staggers us. Yet until we see this we must remain shut
out from the highest and best that mental science has to offer, from a thorough
understanding of its philosophy, and from its greatest practical achievements.
.
To do any work successfully you must believe yourself to be a whole man in respect of it. The
completed work is the outward image of a corresponding completeness in
yourself. And if this is true in respect of one work it is true of all; the
difference in the importance of the work does not matter; we cannot
successfully attempt any work until, for some reason or other, we believe ourselves able
to accomplish it; in other words, until we believe that none of the conditions
for its completion is wanting in us, and that we are therefore complete in
respect of it. Our recognition of our completeness is thus the measure of what
we are able to do, and hence the great importance of knowing the fact of our
own completeness. …
