THE NEW AGE--January 1990--PEALE01.SRJ


Traditional American Values

NORMAN VINCENT PEALE, 33, G...C...
Guest Speaker, Biennial Session of The Supreme Council, 33
P.O. Box FCL, Pauling, New York 12564


	Rev. Ken Kleins, in his warmhearted and very generous
introduction, referred to "Babe" Ruth.  He hit a lot of home runs,
but he had more strike-outs than any great player.  If I were a
negative thinker I would dwell on that.  But as you know, I am a
great advocate of positive thinking, so let me say that it is a
great honor and privilege to be here today with your Illustrious
Sovereign Grand Commander and with all of you Masonic leaders from
three-quarters of the United States and many foreign countries.  
	I had a job early in my life as a utility boy in a grocery
store in Cincinnati where I grew up.  The owner of the store and
I took care of the business.  He took care of the financial end,
and I ran the errands.  He was somewhat of a character, a big
fellow, physically and mentally as well.  He was a Mason and he was
very proud of the fact.  He had a Masonic ring on his finger and
a watch chain draped across his ample middle from which dangled a
Masonic emblem.  He was always in church on Sunday and at Lodge
meeting, I think, perhaps Tuesday night.  He was a Mason and a
Christian and a solid, old-time American.  And between customers
he used to lecture to me a little bit.  I was rather awed by him. 
	"Norman," he said, "you have to first be a good upright
Christian boy.  And when you get that attended to, you have got to
become a thinker because nobody amounts to much in this world who
does not become a thinker.  So try to be a thinker."
	Recently, I was reading the biography of the late Justice of
The Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the famous poet
and a distinguished man in his own right.  He lived to be, I think,
93 years of age, and he retired from the Court here in Washington. 
On one occasion the President of the United States called to see
the aged and distinguished Justice, and to his surprise, the
President found him reading a book by the philosopher Plato.  And
the President was surprised--that apparently wasn't his type of
reading, and he said, "Mr. Justice, I'm surprised to see a man of
your age reading such a tough book as one by Plato.   Why are you
doing it?"
	The Justice said, "Mr. President, I'm trying to improve my
mind."
	The President is reputed to have said, "That's a good idea."
	Gautama Buddha who organized the Buddhistic religion was a
scholar in his day, and he is reputed to have said, "Mind is
everything."  We become what we think.  I have a book in my library
which I read every year at least once.  It's called The Meditations
of Marcus Aurelius.  He was an ancient philosopher and an Emperor
or Rome.  He was one of the wisest men who ever lived.  He said,
"Our life is what our thoughts make of it."
	Some people think the greatest mind ever developed in the
United States of America was that of Thomas Alva Edison, the
inventor.  He said, among other things (this is not an exact quote,
I got it from his son who said his father said something like this
often),  "The only use of the body is to carry the brain around."
If we could do it any other way, we wouldn't need our legs.  It's
another way of saying you are what goes on in your mind and not
what you look like physically--and that's a fact.  Inside the brain
is the mind by which we remember, by which we consider, by which
we reason, by which we know Almighty God.
	And another famous man was a professor at Harvard University. 
He was a professor of psychology, philosophy and theology, all at
the same time.  You might say he was a professor of body, mind and
soul.  His name was William James, and his most famous remark is
this:  "The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human
being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind."
	Therefore I feel that one of the great American values which
was used throughout our national history, but which is not now
being used as much as it has been in times past, is reliance on
thought by the average citizen of this Country.  Now, why don't we
think like our Forefathers did and produce achievements that
correspond to the greatness of theirs?  Is it perhaps that we have
allowed other ideas to infiltrate our thought processes?
	For example, I was down South; I think it was South Carolina. 
I was down there speaking to a big sales convention, and I was
staying overnight in, I think, a Holiday Inn.  And I went down to
breakfast the morning after the convention and was greeted at the
entrance of the dining room by a middle-aged waitress who had on
a kind of golden uniform, and her face was wreathed in a beautiful
smile.
        She said, "Welcome Reverend Peale to our lovely dining room.
I'm going to give you a regular, old-time, down-South breakfast." 
	Well now, I knew what that was, and I said, "Ma'am, I'm on a
diet."
	The smile left her face.  She said, "What's your diet?"
	I said for breakfast it's one poached egg on plain bread
without butter.  Just one lonely, poached egg on a plate.  The most
discouraging sight known to man.
	She said, "You won't get that in my restaurant.  I'm going to
give you a good down-home breakfast."
	Well, you know, I don't like to hurt anybody's feelings, and
I said, "Bring it on."  And I must confess that I masticated
all of it.
	As I was consuming this breakfast, she regaled me with good
humor and a positive outlook. She said, "I've got two daughters. 
Both of them went to a fine college, and you know what that cost! 
And I put them both through.  And I have a son coming along in the
Armed Forces of the United States."
	I said, "You're a wonderful mother.  I don't want to be nosy,
but I've got to tell you that anybody who is as positive and
dynamic as you are just must be a good, religious person."
	"Oh," she said, "Praise the Lord, I am born again."
	I said,  "Tell me how you found the Lord."
	"Well," she said, "I found Him through a verse in the
Scriptures."
	I said I would be interested to know this Scripture.  She said
it is Luke 9:1.  Then she continued saying, "Now I don't need to
say more because I know that you, being a man of the cloth, are
acquainted with every text in the Bible and that you know more than
I do about Luke 9:1."
	Well, I confess to you I hadn't the slightest idea, but I
didn't want to show my ignorance, so I said:  "Ma'am, you know
there are many versions of the Bible.  And I'd like to know which
version you used to find the Lord."
	"Why," she said, "I'm a King James woman.  Praise the Lord!" 
	I said, "Praise the Lord, so am I."
	I still didn't know how Luke 9:1 read, so I said, "Ma'am, I
would like to hear you say that verse so that I hear it in your own
lovely voice."
	That got her, and she recited:  "And Jesus called his twelve
disciples to together, and gave them power and authority over all
devils, and to cure all evils."
	"Well," I said, "just how did that passage of Scripture turn
your life around?"
	"Well," she said, "you see pastor, I had a devil.  A terrible
dirty devil.  And that devil was poverty.  I was raised in poverty
and I married the boy down the road who was raised in poverty and
all we did was merge our poverty.  And I hated poverty.  I hated
anybody who had anything at all.  I hated the United States
government because I had to go to it for a handout, and I was
angry.  I guess I hated myself.  Hatred was my constant companion. 
We were poor because our minds weren't working.  We were absorbed
in hatred.
	"And there was this little church down the turn of the road
that was having what they call revival services.  Well, there
wasn't anything else to do.  We couldn't go to the movies; we
didn't have a dime.  So we went to the revival service.  And the
preacher was a big, bear-like kind of a man.  And he looked down
at all the people in the congregation, and he said, `You know
something folks?  I love you all, and I want you to live happy
lives.  And if any of you are unhappy, it is because you're on the
road track, especially if its the hatred track.'
	"Now he described what hatred does.  It gets into the brain
and it closes off all beauty and inspiration.  And he said, `I'll
tell you what.  I'll give you an invitation to come up here and
get happy.  And to do that you must get hatred out of your mind and
all this other stuff that interferes with your mental attitude.'"
	And she said,  "My husband kneeled with me at the altar of the
Lord, and we really found out what mattered.  As we walked home,
everything seemed greater.  Even the moonlight seemed better that
evening.  The hatred was gone.  And night after night we would sit
talking to one another.  And one night my husband said to me,
`Honey, I have an idea.  With a little bit of effort we can make
some money and get out of this miserable poverty.'  And we talked
it over and thought it out.  And now we could think.  I felt my
head really working for the first time in my life, and we worked
hard to evolve a little business, and that's how I was able to put
those two girls through that expensive university!"
	I said,  "Well, you have made so much money.  Why, now that
your real life's work is done, do you still keep on working?"
	She said, "It gives me an opportunity to witness to sinners!"
        I got up and shook her hand and said,  "Ma'am, I am glad to
meet you.  You are a great lady.  You are a great American, and you
are a great Christian."
	Now I see in this little incident a demonstration of American
values in action, and if we want to save America's values--and we
all do--the best way to do it is to have a resurgence of
fundamental basic beliefs among the American people. Holding
American values means being a believer.  But a believer in what? 
Naturally, the first is to be a believer in God and then, I think,
it is to be a believer in your company, in your employer, in your
associates, in your wives, in your husbands, in your children. 
Believe in them and believe in the yourself.
	And, finally, the old-time Americans that built this Country
weren't as educated as we are, but they had respect for themselves
as children of God.  They believed in the future of their Country
and they believed in their personal religion.
	I and my associates publish a magazine called Plus, The
Magazine of Positive Thinking.  In the August issue we had a story
by a little elderly lady, as she called herself.  She tells about
how, as a teenager, she had an inferiority complex and low self-
esteem.  She was sure she was little.  She was insignificant
looking in her own eyes, and so she became insignificant in the
eyes of others.
	But she was fortunate one summer to get a job in the office
of Fiorello H. La Guardia--later Mayor of New York City.  One day
she found herself in an elevator alone with Mr. La Guardia.  He
was kindly, dynamic man, and he was very perceptive, so he took one
look at her and said, "What's the matter with you, honey?"
	And she said, "Mr. La Guardia, I've got an inferiority
complex."
	"Why?" he said.
	"Because I'm short.  I'm just a little thing.  I'm an
insignificant person."
	And La Gaurdia, who was a stocky, well-built but small man
himself, said in a very loud voice,  "Young lady, you listen to me,
I want to tell you something, and I know what I am talking about. 
You trust in God and believe in yourself and you can do anything."
	Just then the elevator stopped, he exited and was gone.  She
said, "Well, he's short, too!  Like me, he's barely five-feet tall! 
But he is a giant of a man!"
	And she became a giant of a woman!
	Americans, believe in God and man!
	Believe in ourselves!
---------------------------------------------------------------  
                    
	"The only use of the body is to carry the brain around." If
we could do it any other way, we wouldn't need our legs.  It's
another way of saying you are what goes on in your mind.  Inside
the brain is the mind by which we remember, by which we consider,
by which we reason, by which we know Almighty God.

	Now I see in this little incident a demonstration of American
values in action

	Holding American values means being a believer.  But abeliever in what?

	But she was fortunate one summer to get a job in the office
of Fiorello H. La Guardia--later Mayor of New York City.  One day
she found herself in an elevator alone with Mr. La Guardia.  He
was kindly, dynamic man, and he was very perceptive, so he took one
look at her and said, "What's the matter with you, honey?"
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