Chapter - 7

Overcoming Fears Of Tomorrow In Our World Of Today

There is no place to hide from God and progressive good . . . The dream that makes men great also makes them fearless and free . . . there are no problems beyond man's solution . . . our fears are man-made . . . the evil in men cannot overcome the goodness of God.

Report From Life:

They Have a Dream in Their Heart
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind.-II TIMOTHY 1:7

Future historians surely will write of our day as the Age of Fear. The late John Foster Dulles once remarked that we are living "from brink to brink." A great many people seem to think we have nothing to look forward to but slavery or extermination.

For several years, while working on this book, I collected information on what kind of people in America are and are not afraid of tomorrow and exactly what they fear. After listing one hundred and fifty named fears I found they could all be classified under thirty-six headings—the fears of modern man. Further analysis proved these were all contained in the three basic fears we have talked about in this book; fear of loss of life, love and liberty. Or fear that the individual would be prevented from trying to fulfill his desires for more of life, perfect love and ever-expanding freedom of body, mind and spirit.

Happiness is the goal of every soul and is back of our hunger for perfection. Like God our Creator, we want everything to be good, very good. Threats of nonfulfillment of our good desires bring unhappiness and fear to some but not to others. Why? The longer I worked, the more a "why" began to appear.

My research uncovered a great many people in high places who do not fear tomorrow. But the viewers-with-alarm are more numerous, more vocal and seem to be gaining ground. Personally, I do not fear tomorrow. I greatly wanted to know how ordinary people like myself felt and whether the trend of "why" would run true with them as with the Big Names who make news.

Then quite unexpectedly I had the opportunity to make a personal survey which covered more than six thousand miles, six months' time and involved my questioning and listening to hundreds of people from many walks of life. The sudden loss of my husband in April had left me shocked with grief. But I was surrounded by the love and wisdom of my children, grandchildren, students and friends. Knowing me so well they decided work would be a stabilizer for me. At their insistence and with their loving plans and help, I set out early in May.

A full report of my findings would fill a book several times the size of this one. Here, I can give only a few highlights and some conclusions. To make these clear I must first tell you about where I went, how I worked, and the kind of people I questioned.

Where I went:

First, by jet plane, tourist class, to Hawaii, our fiftieth state which is made up of eight islands. After covering 2,550 miles in five hours' flying time, we landed in Honolulu. I was met by my friends Mr. and Mrs. Howard W. Wickersham and blanketed with leis, their warm welcome and enthusiasm for living. After newspaper photographs and a news story, the Wickershams, who have lived in Honolulu some fourteen years, lost no time in proving to me that there is much more to Honolulu than the hula. They drove me around the island to get my bearings, winding up at their lovely new home in Kailua, where I was to spend some time. It is complete with swimming pool, indoor garden with blooming orchids and, that afternoon, one bravely exploring lizard.

Howard is a supersalesman with City Mill. Eloise is secretary to Mr. H. W. B. White, Executive Vice President of the International Market Place Corporation. Their daughter, Joyce, attends the University of the Pacific at Stockton, California. These two energetic, happy, fearless and busy people were the hub of a wheel, with spokes of information and inspiration that reached out in every direction to the very rim of the wheel of island life and much knowledge of the Orient. I met many of their friends, including the famous writer, Anne Powlison, whom we visited in her home which is built in and around and on top of a rock—with a million-dollar ocean view. No fears there.

From the first I picked up the thread of the "why" I already had discovered. It was the Wickershams who "wrapped it up" for me—the essence of what my survey had uncovered and what we ought to do about it. But this point must come later.

Next, I went in an airplane not much larger than an overgrown bumblebee to Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molo-kai Island which was established in 1866 as Hawaii's leper colony. There I spent a few days in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Harry P. Kramer. Dr. Kramer was then in charge of the Hansen's Disease (Leper) Hospital, where he had been for nearly four years. (He has since left it to set up in private practice in Honolulu.) These two good Dutch people, made out of pure love, courage and ability were a great help to me. Even their dog, Whiskey, proved helpful. He was a living example of the fact that animal pets take on the disposition and some of the habits of their human owners. Every time Dr. Kramer kissed his lovely wife Meike, or made a remark of love to her, Whiskey, very old and somewhat feeble, lying with eyes closed, thumped his tail on the floor in happy approval. When Meike spoke to Whiskey, or petted him, he let her know he was grateful and filled with love.

During my travels I met many dogs. Every one of them reflected the courage or the fear of their owners. (Whiskey is the only dog name I recall.) I long have believed that where there is life there is love on some level and a desire to express it. If we would love as much as Christ Jesus did we would also learn how to cooperate with this love in all life, and so, to do the miracles he did by working directly with the power that controls the atoms and molecules.

The Kramers took me to see the rugged north coast of Molokai at Kalawao—the original site of Hawaii's leper colony. I absorbed the early history of the place as we visited the Church of Father Damien, the Catholic cemetery and the Siloama Protestant Church. I heard the story of the suffering, the courage, faith and hard work of the people who struggled with the dread disease of leprosy in those early days. And once again I was reminded that man was born to conquer, that there is a power within him that can overcome any threat outside of him. For today the leper (outcasts even before Bible times), or Hansen's disease, patients, get well and stay well. Even the idea of "unclean" and of a stigma is passing away. On Molokai I met many wonderful people through the Kramers and what time I was not talking I was listening. Some people were afraid of tomorrow; others, like the Kramers, were not.

Returning to Honolulu, I stayed at the Halekulani Hotel. There I talked to strangers, hotel guests, on the beach of Waikiki in the afternoon and in the surf at seven o'clock in the morning. I talked to the help, to people in shops, bookstores, drugstores, lunch counters, everywhere within my walking distance. Some were afraid; others were not. The "why" was holding true.
Friends came to Honolulu while I was there and so I met both the Lurline and the Matsonia. Going down long before boat time I talked to cab drivers, lei sellers, people old, young and middle aged; Oriental, Hawaiian and white Americans. Some lived there. Some were tourists. Some were stationed there and lonesome, homesick for the mainland. Some loved the island. Others hated it. Many were afraid. A few were not.

Several mornings I had breakfast under the spreading haw tree at the Halekulani with Dr. Gladys Falshaw, an authority on some of the questions of modern India. She had just returned from India where she had gone for additional information for the book she was writing, and for a personal interview with Nehru. Deeply religious, selfless and fearless, and having spent many years in India, she was a storehouse of facts and inspiration. Through her I met a great many other people, all well informed, all busy, all happy. None of them was afraid of tomorrow.

The leaders of the local group of Seicho-No-Ie, which is a Japanese Christian Truth movement under the guidance of Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi in Tokyo, invited me to speak to them one night and I accepted. These men and women were aged about twenty to forty. After my lecture they gave me their opinion on the very points of fearing tomorrow that I wanted to know. One young Japanese man gave me a quick run down on the theory of American freedom and why we will have to fight for it if we hope to hold it. He explained what he and others he knew were doing about it. I found no fear at the meeting. The "why" was there.

After the meeting Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Nakata, a handsome young Japanese couple took me to a midnight Japanese supper where I ate (not too bravely) several varieties of raw fish and listened to further ideas of fearlessness and plans of tomorrow.

I also visited in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gale Bake-well. He is a retired businessman who keeps up with the world. Elinor, his wife, is writing a book about Hawaiians along with her church work and many other activities. Former Pasadena residents, their views and interests are worldwide. Just home from a trip, they were planning another. From the lanai of their home where we sat talking, we looked out over their brightly blooming garden, rimmed with tall coconut trees, past the swimming pool, on out to the far garden wall whipped by ocean spray at high tide and beyond to the vast blue Pacific where we could see ocean liners heading for the harbor.

Some facts I had been reading in a book picked up at Bishop Museum came to mind: "Bordered on the west by the continents of Asia and Australia, and on the east by North and South America, the Pacific covers one third of the globe. Within its confines are thousands of islands."
"Is it all just a sitting duck?" I asked, thinking of those tiny eight dots on the map, entirely surrounded by water, and remembering Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

They did not answer me. They were too busy talking about their plans, their son Ted, his lovely bride, about the hopes of a good world, what they had learned on their trip. During the whole afternoon not a word of fear was spoken.

Tom Dickerson, formerly of Hollywood, a taxi driver in business for himself, was better than a guidebook. He not only answered every question I asked, from "What is the name of that tree?" to "Why is it you do not fear tomorrow?"—for obviously he had no fears of any kind. Another taxi driver who also told me he was from Hollywood said he cursed the day he had arrived on the island. He voiced sixteen of the thirty-six popular fears of today while driving me from the Halekulani to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

A very wealthy man whom I met at the Halekulani, retired, bored, doing nothing further with life, answered my question with: "The whole world is a sitting duck for Communist warfare." But he thought it didn't matter anyhow. Civilization already had gone to the dogs. Labor unions would yet ruin this paradise. He talked well and at length on all thirty-six fears.

Everyone said to be sure to talk to Dr. Alexander Spoehr and his charming and capable wife, Anne. "He has done a tremendous job in building up Bishop Museum until it is favorably known over the world," they said. "Anne is an artist and sculptress and has done outstanding work for the museum, too," they boasted. Fortunately, I did get to see them.

Dr. Spoehr is an anthropologist and museum director. The biographical data on this youngish man fill two newspaper columns. Yet from the moment I stepped into their home, high on a hill, and met their teen-age son and daughter, and was almost knocked down by the joyful welcoming of their dog—large as a colt and twice as strong, and filled with love—I felt at ease. The greatest people always are the easiest to get along with. They never have to pretend; never are uncertain of their position. They know what they have accomplished and what they are. "They're not afraid of anything," I thought. And all our talk before, during and after dinner proved this to be true. They were getting ready to welcome one thousand scientists who were coming to Honolulu for a convention, to talk shop, to exchange ideas. When all was sifted down it would be found that those ideas were all about how to create a better world for all men. For a true scientist is a man who "thinks God's thoughts after Him"—even if he starts out in believing in no God at all, as the Russian Communist scientists are said to do.
There were heartening, sparkling conversations, pictures of hopes of earth, assurances of the power of man to overcome any and all obstacles, and great respect for what early man had done. Talk of how man has overcome and will continue to overcome threats of nature. They were worldwide informed, with worldwide interests. Since my visit there, Dr. Spoehr has accepted the position of Chancellor Director of the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.

People who understand the East-West problems see this new Center as a great step forward in people understanding people. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson has said it could "play a direct role in breaking down the barriers that keep men apart and that promote international tensions." Fearless people get the big jobs done.

I visited churches, talked to members, ministers, teachers, tourists, beach bums, housewives, architects, building contractors, two bankers, and some very practical businessmen. Now, a woman can do a lot of talking and listening if she has nothing else to do in the amount of time I had at my disposal. On the jet plane, first class this time, going home, I felt I had used my time well.

Home, I sifted and classified my wealth of information, compared it with the answers to letters I had received from queries sent out before. These queries had gone all over the United States and mostly to people whom I never had seen, readers of my books. The trend of "why*' was holding.

After resting a while I began the second part of my travels, going frequently within easy driving distances of my home in Pasadena, over Southern California. I have space here for only two examples of what I found:

First, there was Budd Ross, in Los Angeles, who has traveled around the world for the past forty years, and was just home from a worldwide cruise. He said, "We are nearer world peace than we ever have been." He goes to Europe often—made five trips in one year. He said, "The intelligent Europeans do not expect war. The Russian Communist leaders are more afraid of the United States than we are of them."

Second, there was the family in Orange County who sold out, lock, stock and barrel to go live in the desert to avoid bombs and fall-out.

Finally, in September, I took the third part of my journey of questioning. By jet plane to San Francisco, where I stayed at the Sir Francis Drake and covered the Bay area. Later I went on to Chico, Sacramento and Nevada. Again the "why" some are, and others are not, afraid ran true. For example:
There was Peter James Wikel, certified public accountant, and his wife, Florence. They live in Larkspur. He drove me around San Francisco showing me improvements, talking of world conditions, including all the threats to humanity and the growth of his own business. After we had crossed Golden Gate Bridge he drew up at a vantage point where we looked back at San Francisco, bright in the afternoon sun. This fabulous city, on seven hills, whose buildings reach for the sky had a storybook look.

"One bomb in the Bay," said Mr. Wikel, "and all of it—" indicating the whole Bay area, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, with a sweep of his hand—"boom—gone!"

"Leveled," I agreed. "Then what?"

Mr. Wikel smiled as only a man who lives his Christian religion could, and started the car.

In their home they showed me pictures of their travels, told me their plans for the future, and shared with me stories of people they knew who had overcome tremendous problems in life. They also knew some who were afraid. They talked of their daughter and her good husband and how the young couple built their home with their own hands. They drove me endless miles. No word of fear.

A hotel maid told me she "hated God." She expected we would all be blown up. She had no plans, no hope for tomorrow.

Another maid in the same hotel told me happily of life in America, her deep gratitude for the privilege of being here and what life had been like under Hitler and of her abiding faith in God. She was filled with plans for tomorrow.

By private car I went to Chico where I talked with ranchers and others. I heard a lot about rotting food, surpluses, labor union problems, water problems, marketing conditions, extravagant government spending and horrible mistakes, but nothing of fear. By Greyhound bus I went from Chico to Reno. The long trip gave me hours of talking and listening. For example:

A man in a soiled suit and his wife in a rumpled dress told me they were going up to Reno "to do a little gambling." Nothing mattered anyhow. Humanity was lost. And gambling was fun. Especially when they won. They were living on California old-age pensions (charity). He told me about his new glasses "for free," and she told me about all the new dental work she had just had done which "cost her nothing." They had many fears and they felt it was wrong of the government to send money to foreign countries when the "old people of America need it more."

In Reno I was a guest in the pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Atkins, the first time I ever had seen either of them, but they were not strangers to my heart. Of grandparent age, each had been alone for some years, and were newlyweds of a few weeks and radiantly happy. They were anxious for me to know there is more to Reno than gambling. They talked about their church, his work, their lives, books, past history, God, present world conditions, threats of man against man. He is an attorney and part of the colorful past history of Tonopah, Nevada. Information flowed from their minds as freely as the bubbling water in Truckee River that flows through the town. Mrs. Atkins drove me around to see the beauty, worth, creative and constructive part of Reno, introduced me to friends, the minister of their church, and brought others into conversation. They knew fears all around them. They had none of their own.

Then my friend Mrs. Emory M. Marshall came to take me to her ranch home near Minden and Genoa. We took turns talking and listening, pausing only when her car, with a built-in-conscience squawked unpleasantly when she pushed it past eighty-five miles an hour, which was easy to do on those great broad highways. Mrs. Marshall—Helen—was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her husband was a mining engineer. They had lived in many places and had traveled widely. She was just home from Europe where she had gone to see her son Mike and his family in England before he took off for Nigeria where he is adviser to the Nigerian government. By the time we came to historic Carson City, we had warmed up in our talking.

We sat in her comfortable, beautiful home, a great two-story brick, a hundred years old, painted white, tiled and carpeted and modernized inside, and talked about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Her dog, having accepted me, took me on long walks on the afternoons when she was busy and showed me the spots nearby where the Mormons had made history years ago, and where the Candy Dance is held Saturday nights.

On free afternoons we sat in the vast enclosed shed, covered porch, that faced east and looked out across the empty spaces of Nevada countryside. It was soul developing, mind-stretching and spirit healing for me. At about three in the afternoon the mountains behind the Marshall home started to cast a shadow that flowed, a creeping carpet of changing colors past their acres, down and down the gently sloping fields toward the highway miles beyond. After a while the shadows completely covered the great valley and the little towns and ran up the slopes of the mountains on the far eastern side of it.

Helen and I talked about going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. We had much in common, for each of us had lost her husband since our last meeting. We found we feared no evil, however deep the shadows of the afternoon, however long the night, however threatening the problems of the world. Helen talked of Europe, people, music, trends, books, which she has by the hundreds—several written by her sister Ruth—her church, her children—Mike, Pete, John, and Bonnie, all in different parts of the country and the world, all working at great problems. About her grandchildren—their future and the great-grandchildren. She was getting ready for a one-woman show of her paintings and thinking of going back to Berkeley to live. She showed me some thirty of her paintings which sang with the desert colors and pleased the eye with form. They reminded me of God, peace and eternal life. No daubs of confusion. Helen had managed to get her own strength, courage, faith, love and a sound mind into her paintings. They helped further to heal my grief. Perhaps beauty and harmony, growing out of love, always heal.

Helen took me to visit friends at Lake Tahoe. Another day, to meet her son Pete and family who run the "big ranch." Watching their Basque sheepherder tromp newly shorn wool into a woolsack (so expertly that he gets four hundred pounds into the sack), with the blue sky and bright, hot sun overhead, and peace like a benediction over all the Nevada land, it was difficult to imagine that the American people ever could be afraid of anything. But they are, as my records continued to prove.

Taking a Greyhound bus from Carson City back through Reno and down to Sacramento, some talked about their fears. Not all. One seat companion, a young widow, with a daughter just through school and starting out in the business world told me of her great good fortune just at hand. She was overflowing with joy, gratitude, love of her daughter and of life, liberty and her "little office job" that had seen her through and let her give her daughter a good education. She laughed at American fears. She hadn't a one.

In Sacramento Teresa Hihn Moore, a dynamo of energy, a guidebook of reliable information and an expert driver of her Mercedes-Benz took me around, even to Folsom. But we did not visit the prison. We looked at valuable real estate. We visited a friend of hers, now almost eighty-five years young who was busy writing a book which I believe will startle the whole thinking world when it is published. We heard about her plans for an own-your-own apartment for retired people to be built on her twenty-five acres. We looked at her unusual button collection and met her daughter who is a successful playwright and her son-in-law who travels for the state of California. They were just home from a trip to Alaska. Dozens of interesting, crackling, creative ideas, peoples, and plans came up for discussion. They knew many people who are afraid of tomorrow but they were not.

Staying at the Senator Hotel, I took time to talk to strangers and employees. Some were afraid; others were not. I walked in the Capitol grounds and talked to more people, attended church and heard a fearless sermon by the Reverend John Hinkle, minister of Christ Unity Church whose congregation is so large no church holds it. They meet in a theater. I talked to Michael Arnold, minister of the Church of Religious Science there, and author of Blessed Among Women and other inspiring books. I met many members of their church and heard about their plans for a new building. But no word of fear.

By train from Sacramento to Oakland and from there by bus across the Bay Bridge back to San Francisco, I had more opportunity to talk. On the train, which had started from Chicago, there were a young couple with five red-headed children, the youngest an infant in arms. They had pulled up stakes and left everything for greater freedom—more life, out West. Their problems and their courage put my heart on its knees in admiration. Pity them I could not. They had no fear. But in the same car was a well-dressed, middle-aged couple obviously unconcerned about money, so fearful of tomorrow that their faces were drawn, their eyes filled with discouragement and unhappiness. Well educated, they talked of the world's problems and thought the United States was doomed.

Coming home from San Francisco by train I continued to talk and listen. Some had fears. Others had none.

What does all this vast amount of information, the thoughts, feelings, faiths and fears of these hundreds of people, which adds up to thousands when we include the people known intimately and talked about freely by the people to whom I talked? What does it add up to? Hope of Earth! A way out of fears of tomorrow! Let me tell you.

People without fear of tomorrow all have one thing in common, regardless of how widely they may differ in all else. This: they all have a dream in their heart which they expect to make come true. And this, without a single exception. The greater number of them were well informed on current events, past history and trends for tomorrow. Having a real stake in the future kept them informed of the day. They saw life as unlimited.

People with fear may be divided into many classifications according to their specific fear and how many different fears they entertain. But they all had one thing in common, without a single exception. They had no big personal plan, no dream in their heart even though they were working to earn a living, and many of them were fighting for freedom on one or more fronts. Many were life-long church members. A minister's wife was one of the most fearful of all. The quality that characterized the most fearful was that they looked backward. "Things will never be as good as they once were," they moaned. The fearful limited God, themselves and their fellow men in their views of tomorrow, even those in high places.

Now, we must take a closer look at the fearless ones if we are to benefit by the survey and overcome our fears of tomorrow. We should first look at the dream in then-heart.

The dream in their heart:

1. The big plans of the people who do not fear tomorrow were as varied as the people themselves. But their dream is essentially the same. All of them are dreaming of something bigger, something better, something more than they now have, or are, or know or can do. It is the dream of expansion, growth, but always it is to bring more freedom of body, mind and spirit when it comes true. Their dreams are not just for themselves alone; they include a better world for all men.

2. The more their dream means to them the more sure they are of the future.

Theirs is the dream that makes men great, fearless and free. It is the dream that never dies. It never is completely fulfilled for no sooner has part of it come true than the dreamer sees farther ahead, feels new desires for more and more. They are constantly seeing new possibilities for themselves and the whole human race. Something leads them on and on.

3. This group is in the minority, and greatly so. People with a dream in their heart keep their consciousness on such a high level of faith that all their acts and thoughts and plans are creative of good. They simply do not tune in to failure, defeat or fear ideas. I think of them as the "remnant" of earth who always exist in every age and who pick up the pieces and rebuild the world after the other class has destroyed things.

4. Theirs is the Dream of God.

Their question is, not how soon will nuclear warfare begin or at all, but rather: Can we trust God to see us through the threat and probability or actuality of such a war? These people with God's Dream of expansion and growth say, "Yes, and all the way."
Yes, the findings would fill several books but we must hasten on to a few conclusions.

1. There is no place to hide from God and progressive good.

More people, money, ideas and love are working for the fulfillment of men's good desires than ever before in human history. We are not going from brink to brink of despair and ruin, but from peak to peak of achievement. The trouble is, we are moving so rapidly we hardly have time to cover the lowlands between the peaks. This creates confusion which opens many to fear. All the frightening and knotted problems of today are man-made and can be solved.

2. Humanity is not going to the dogs.

It is going to God. For to find God, the final part of the Who, What, Where, When, How and Why of the story of man is man's greatest desire. Science, religion and philosophy are headed in that direction. They always have been. But now, each recognizes the claim of the other and all are working together. A few evil men with blood on their hands and fear in their hearts and therefore lies and violence, cannot stop tomorrow's good. Evil breaks the law of love and is therefore stupid and doomed to eventual failure. Good is from God and good men will bring it into reality. There is nothing bigger than a good man except God.

3. Nature will never run dry of creative ideas.

Civilization will not break down, wear out or blow up.

The human race seems to go down for a while, but never out. During the time immediately after Napoleon had wasted Europe with war, many wealthy and titled men committed suicide because the end of things had come for humanity. But right then steam came in and a whole new world of wealth, wisdom and happiness followed.

4. Peace for profit and progress.

This is the electronic and space age. What will we not do? And find? And learn? If we can keep the peace we will discover we do not need a war economy which so many fear will break America. We may well have come to the end of the threat of war because there now is no alternative to peace but death. All the leaders in the world know this. People do their greatest growing in years of peace. We are coming to it, peace for profit.

5. Money is not security.
The popularity of what I call the Communist "belly security" is fast losing ground. Millions already are learning the fallacy of money being security. "Security is never enough. To all of us must come the knowledge sooner or later that the only true security is of God," said Arthur J. Morris, banker and founder of the Morris Plan. The many are starting to talk about what the few always have known: security comes from knowledge, ethics, morals, character, love at work in individuals. Millions are now agreed that men, arms, firepower, laws of the land, cannot save even our lives, let alone protecting us from fear. Some are learning cooperation. But are there enough? And in time? Yes. For example:

Einstein said that if two per cent of the people on earth would decide on what they wanted to do with the world they could control it. People with God's dream in their heart do not want to control the world. They want conditions set up so that every man can carry a dream in his heart and be left reasonably free to try to make it come true. They see that in this method lie the safety and growth of the human race. That necessary two per cent already exist and are learning of each other. They will not stop their fight for freedom until it is won.

6. The American people still believe in their own power.

They still have the spirit and mind that gets things done. They still believe in the integrity, goodness, power and common sense of their fellow Americans and other peoples of the world. If for no other reason I feel my survey was worth all I put into it to learn this much about our America. People with God's dream in their heart prove the truth of Paul's statement which heads this chapter. He says:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." It comes in a letter from Paul to the young Timothy, to encourage him. The truth it contains is just as alive and reliable today as it was the day Paul wrote it some nineteen hundred years ago.

Paul's words imply that the spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind are directly opposed to fear. In life that is exactly what we do find as every psychiatrist, psychologist and religious counselor can testify. That is what I found: the spirit (intent, purpose, nature) of love, power and a strong mind is absolutely and irrevocably opposed to fear. It is psychologically impossible to think of God as all power, all wisdom and all love and to continue to fear. This is the dividing line between fear and faith in tomorrow. It is the "why" the survey uncovered. As one doctor put it, "Anybody who is afraid of tomorrow is just plain nuts."

7. Tomorrow's world will be free.

The fight for freedom will go on. No man, no race, no country, no church, no political organization can for long keep other men imprisoned if they want to be free. This is the age of revolution which will eventually be proved to be good. All men instinctively know they were born to be free. There is something inside human beings that is bigger than prison bars, armies, guns and unjust laws of the land. "There are more men ennobled by study than by nature," said Cicero. And today millions realize there must be liberty in which to study and learn. We work against nature at our own peril. And nature says, "Grow, forever."

8. Public freedom is assured.

There are two sides to freedom. We must look at both of them. The freedom of the individual as given in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights will come for millions and sooner than many may now think. This public freedom of press, speech, peaceful assembly and religion, once experienced, is dearer to man than life itself. These conditions are necessary before man can work through to the higher or private, individual freedom.

9. The higher freedom will come slowly.

This is the point that was so clearly seen and "wrapped up" for me by Howard and Eloise Wickersham in Honolulu, briefly noted before. We sat talking for hours after dinner one night, aware of, but not unduly listening to, the glorious tropical storm that was whipping and pouring down outside their home. We were listening, I think, to our own souls' promptings. Together the Wickershams got it into words about like these:

"The public freedom will come, but happiness or good will not necessarily follow. Look at what millions of Americans do with it now. Unless we go on to that higher freedom what hope is there for the individual at the mercy of the mass?" This higher freedom they—Truth students for years—said "must be what the teachings of Jesus explained. Each man must learn to use his powers in such a way that no other man ever can take advantage of him again. Nor harm him. Each individual must become as self-sufficient as was Jesus Christ. Each man should be able to overcome sickness, poverty, worry of all kinds. There should be more to life than just working to earn a living. There should be a joyous use of the power to create."

Exactly! And it comes now only to the few who learn how to stir up the gift of God within them. This gift of God is the power within us which we are to use to make our dreams come true. In doing so, many are now learning to use the power inside themselves to create and to control conditions in their individual world outside. This truly is the higher freedom and is the final great aim of man on earth. This the Bible clearly teaches from Genesis to Revelation. We can expect a tremendous change in the Christian world as more and more leaders begin to see this truth about life. When we start to learn how to use the power God gave us we put aside fear forever.

10. My final conclusion:

We have too many "groan" people and not enough "growing" people.

How can we overcome fears of tomorrow in our troubled world of today? We can learn to trust God all the way. To do so is to take step eight in overcoming fear.

"Well, yes," someone may say, "it is true that God cannot be mocked. But He can be refused. We do have free will. What about all those people who use their freedom for destructive ends? If it will take a long time for individuals to grow into the higher freedom, what is to become of us meantime? The very weight of numbers of those other people . . ."

Let us go on to our next chapter and take step nine to overcome fear. For this, we shall find, is the most important one of them all.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...