Working with the Law: Powerful Principles for Abundant Living

By Raymond Holliwell

Chapter 6: The Law of Compensation

“Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7

“THE world owes me a living,” you hear people say; often with a reckless attitude of determination that they will collect that living in the easiest way they know how. It is current talk at the fireside, across the table, over the radio, and even a political issue that so-and-so should receive a pension in order that he might live on a sum of $200.00 per month, more or less. Therefore, the statement is familiar to most of us when we hear it. “I don’t deserve this,” or “How unjustly life has dealt with me,” are common expressions of defeat and failure. Why should that person have more than I? I am just as good as he is. We hear these remarks again and again.

The early religious teachings were that justice might be expected in another life. The rich and the powerful, assumed to be the wicked and the overbearing, were bound to receive their punishment in the end. While the poor unfortunate ones, the wretched ones, were to be devoted to their religion and their church; then they were sure to be bountifully rewarded in the next life. The promise of heaven and all that glitters has ever been held over them as a hope of future attainment to make up for their shortcomings on this plane of life, but no such attitude is ever accepted from the viewpoint of Truth when you know the Law.

Sooner or later we must come face to face with this Law of Compensation, and inevitably our own comes to us, and only what is our own. As we apply it to life and watch its certain results, do we find a balance for the effort of living? Are we satisfied with the good we are receiving? Are we getting fair returns for our efforts? Do we feel that our own has really come to us? Most people are dissatisfied. There are some who even go so far as to say that life is not worth living. The great majority declare that injustice is riotous in the world and more especially in our own lives, that unhappiness, sickness and poverty exist through our living.

In the study of the laws of Truth we learn to apply them so that they will dissolve all our adverse thoughts and conditions. The mistakes of a school boy do not come through the wise operation of the Law; they come through miscalculation. These mistakes will continue so long as he continues using the Law without correction. These mistakes will continue until he changes his way of using the Law. He cannot change the Law to suit his mistakes, but he must change his use of the Law to its correct application. The laws of successful living are the same as the laws of science; the supply and the possibility is ever the same and at hand, but it is our problem to change the use or application of the Law in order to bring about conditions better than those we have had.

The purpose of this lesson is to show you that you can use the Law to lift yourself out of the place where you are to the place where you rightfully belong. Your right place is where you can enjoy success and plenty; this is natural, as the Law intended; your failure to realize these things is a miscalculation, a mistake. The Law does not need to change. Success or prosperity does not need to be made, it always is. But you, in turn, must change; then your affairs will follow the change. Where do you change? Well, the seat of all movement, the controller of all activity is your thought.

“The key to every man is his thought,” says Emerson.

Why do prisoners strive to get the warden’s keys? That they may gain their freedom in the outer world, because there is no other way out. Neither can you be free of your bonds except through the key, through the right use of your thought. The key to successful living is the right adjustment of your thoughts. If your thoughts are constructive and proper, you cannot remain imprisoned. If you are dissatisfied and unhappy, you will be inspired for something better.

If you want prosperity and success but do not strive to change in any way, how can you expect things to be any different? A drunkard never becomes reformed until he decides to stop drinking. If some habit possesses or obsesses you, you are not the master of your life until you decide to change the habit. If you have been brought into the world amidst lack and limitation, you can never get above it until you change your ideas about it.

There are many, many people who live and die and never know anything different from what has been handed down to them. Once you have changed your vision, you will change conditions. Only when we cease to recognize a condition do we cease to attract it. The only way we can cease to recognize things is to change our minds about them.

Have you visited several homes and found them all different in some respect? They were neat, tidy, clean, orderly, bright, cheery, or dull, gloomy, disorderly, dusty, uninviting. The home is a reflection of the ruling mind. Its appearance speaks its keeper’s mind. If you are working for success, look at the home; if order is the first law, then it must also be your first application.

No, lack of money is no excuse for a disorderly home; it can be neat and clean even if you are using store boxes for furniture. If you wish a better home, a finer environment, nicer furnishings, you must alter your mind right where you are to receive better things. It is the little things that count, and many little things make a big thing. It is useless to pray for a new home if you cannot take care of your present one.

A couple operated a fish store in our neighborhood. They neglected to keep the store tidy, were not always courteous in their dealings, nor prompt with deliveries. Becoming discouraged from repeated losses they closed out, selling what equity remained. The couple who bought the failing business and the fixtures moved in, rolled up their sleeves, scrubbed the room clean and dressed it up with tile boards, making it appear attractive and prosperous. They attracted business at once, established a name for quality food, cleanliness, and courtesy.

Their business, in spite of former conditions, steadily grew until it was necessary to lease an adjacent room and increase the size of the store. Some years have passed and these two people have enjoyed an enviable success in the same business and location where others had failed. The Law helps those who help themselves. The law of Compensation always works that way.

When you perform your tasks to the very best of your ability, or when you are thorough in your work and do it well, you infallibly bring out the best there is in you. Otherwise expressed, you grow more capable and efficient. You become better, and thereby show your growing superiority. And the Law is that he who becomes better will attract the better and be given the greater things to do.

The principle involved is that when you become too large for your present place you will begin to draw yourself to something larger; you cannot attract the better until you first become larger. You must earn what you receive or you cannot keep it. If an individual appears to do so, it will not continue; for, in accordance with the Law of Compensation, that person will find his true place.

Or, as popularly expressed, “Like water, he will find his true level,” or “You can’t keep a good man down.”

In truth, the only bar to your advancement is your own unfitness. In other words, he who more than fills his present place will, sooner or later, be advanced. Were it not for this principle, there could be no progress, no growth, no development, no evolution.

If the office is all cluttered up with papers, magazines, and bundles, if the boss’s desk is stacked with mail, and some a week old, the office force is careless. The business reflects the mind of the organization. The organization reflects the mind of its chief. Where do we go to find the cause of any leaks? We go to the head; we change his ideas, and the whole organization is converted directly. Change the mind of the general and you have changed the route and purpose of the whole army.

To blame your difficulty on outer conditions or on other people is not correct. It is not the Law, it is You who are wrong. You have a snag in your mentality somewhere. Check back and readjust your ideas; they are creating and bringing forth your conditions. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Jesus included this Law as a supreme factor in His doctrine. “Give and it shall be given unto you: Judge not that ye be not judged. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.” And Paul said, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

The Law that we reap what we sow is mathematically accurate.

Each experience through which we pass operates ultimately for our good. If we attract the unpleasant, it is often because some dormant or neglected phase of our nature needs to be awakened and developed; also, we learn from the experience to create something better. Hence the degree of contentment and satisfaction attained in whatever sphere of life we may dwell is largely dependent upon our ability to use constructively the experiences of life; for, in every case, the Law of Attraction will only bring what may serve us in our upward development.

To interpret this Law in a simple form, it should be stated that whatever we attract we require, and whatever we need is always good. This is a correct attitude to adopt, because all experience is for our good and we must be able to see it in that light.

While pursuing this practice you may not always secure the precise form of results desired, but you will steadily build up your mind and character in harmony, beauty, and strength; because all such effort to realize the ideal is highly constructive and develops in you the very qualities and conditions repeatedly pictured in mind. Clear, strong, positive thought along ideal lines is a wonderful preventive of morbid mental states and negative thinking, which leads to misdirected actions and conditions of weakness, misfortune, discord, and trouble.

By constantly trying to meet and to deal with everything on its better side and to use the good it may contain to promote improvements, you are giving the whole attention to the Ideal and cooperating with the Law’s fundamental purpose.

Crowd out all inferior thoughts by superior thoughts, evil thoughts by good thoughts, ugly thoughts by beautiful thoughts, distressing thoughts by pleasant thoughts, and you will begin to overcome the growth of all negative and confused states of wrong and discord. In other words, learn to think constructively of all persons, all things, all events, and all circumstances. Appraise them from the ideal point of view. As you do this you will gradually transform your whole existence for the better.

These are the means whereby you may steadily promote your welfare and advancement. As you train yourself to mentally look for the good, you will move towards the good; and as you form higher and larger conceptions of the good, these elements will begin to find expression in your words, acts, character, person, talents, powers, attainments, and achievements; that is, all things in your life will commence to improve as the direct result of your improved thinking.

This process does not imply, however, that you are to ignore the wrongs of life, the empty places, and the undeveloped states of being; but that you are to think right through and beyond them towards the hidden Good or the Principle within that is ever seeking a higher and fuller expression. You will, therefore, cease to condemn and to criticize in a destructive manner; instead, you will seek to bring out the good in yourself and in others, and to discover and develop the greater possibilities everywhere.

Whatever we possess today is our just reward. Very often it does not make us happy; we are dissatisfied with it, but still it remains ours. This fact would prove hopelessly discouraging were it not for a great truth that teaches us how to be free from every difficulty, released from all bonds, absolved from every debt. If you want success in living life, you must exercise an intelligent discrimination of your thoughts.

When you talk hard times, money scarcity, limitation, you are sowing that type of seed. What kind of harvest do you expect to get if the farmer sowed thistle seed, and then complained that his field did not bring forth wheat?

You would say, “Foolish man! Didn’t he know he could only expect what he had planted?” Never make an assertion, no matter how real it seems to be to you, if you do not want it reproduced or continued in your life. Do not say money is scarce; the very statement will send money away from you. Do not say times are hard; this will tighten your purse strings so tight that even God will not be able to slip in another coin. Do not say you are not loved, or not interested in other people’s lives. Truly you will lose their interest and their love.

The Spiritual Supply from which the visible comes is never depleted. It never runs out. It is with you all the time. It will yield according to your demand upon it. It is not affected by your ignorant or blind talk of lack or loss; only you are the one affected, and you control your demonstration with your thought. The unfailing Resource is willing to give, it has no choice in the matter; if you continue to pour out your thoughts into this substance, this will prosper you. Turn the energy of your mind upon ideas of plenty, love, happiness, joy, health, and they, in turn, will appear.

If you want a better home, make the one you have as nice as you can. If you want new furnishings, new clothing, don’t condemn or belittle what you have, but enjoy them to the fullest. If you want a position or a new one, get yourself in readiness to fill that position or improve the one where you are. Hence, your failure to meet your demands of life is not a failure of the material; it is but a failure within yourself of the lack of understanding or the lack of application. No matter what your problem is, the Law can work it out, but you must adjust your thinking to work with the Law.

Do not expect that in just a few moments or a few applications you will realize a full consciousness of plenty. A builder does not erect a beautiful spire or dome to a million dollar cathedral without foundation; he must first have support to hold that spire aloft. He builds walls and cross braces to hold each wall, and each wall is built slowly and perfectly, stone by stone. You must realize that by working and proving the Law, you do so step by step, with each step bringing you closer to your goal.

In Philadelphia a man boasted that he was a success, he rose above his competitors, he drove them off the street, some of them out of business. He founded his business upon competition, but I learned only recently that his business had dwindled down to the place where he was forced to close out and move to a smaller town. The Law of Compensation works slowly but surely; one cannot build upon the substance or the virtue that another has created. You can only build on that which you create.

Competition in business is a rivalry, or strife, for two or more people. Fearing there is not enough for all, they fight with one another to get all they can. Don’t fear your neighbor is getting more out of life than you are; don’t try to compete with anyone or anything. It has been said that competition is the spirit of business, but I do not think that competition in the form of rivalry and strife, of arguing and fighting and lying about each other and each other’s business, is the right spirit. I know it is not.

Rather than call competition the spirit of business, let us call it compensation. Compensation means equal returns for that which is given; it means a balance of that quality or service that is extended to another. I am certain that if you conduct your life, which is your business, along the path of compensation rather than competition, you will find it more enjoyable to compare your quality and service with another.

The better your service, the greater the reward, the more business you will attract. If you follow this Law, you will find that it is the golden rule in any life or in any business. You will be certain to succeed no matter if there are other so-called competitors seeking business in the same block.

If you are not succeeding, if you lack any good thing, look more closely to the cause. It is not outside; it is somewhere within. See where you fail to use the Law correctly or where you fail in your consciousness to think rightly. There are three points common in everyday life where one may fall into a snare and a delusion.

First of all: Do you EXPECT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING?

Does it make you feel good, pleased, when you get something without paying for it? If so, you are violating the Law. Your returns will always be unsatisfactory. No matter where you go, be willing to pay your way. Have you known some people who hang back when you go out for an evening’s entertainment?

They stand back and let the other fellow pay for the show. People like that lose hundreds of dollars when they try to save themselves a paltry fifty cents. The quality of thought they entertain repels many dollars they rightly could attract. If you, knowingly, cheat another one of a dollar, it may cost you many dollars for the mistake.

Second: Do you hunt for things that are called cheap?

Are you A BARGAIN HUNTER? Cheap thoughts can only bring cheap returns. You who wait for bargain days will always have to take bargains, but remember, there are no bargains in life.

If you have gained monetarily, you may have lost in other ways. You place yourself in a vibration that lowers your present state. It forces you below your proper level. It limits your thought to a state where you support underselling, cutting, bankruptcy and dishonesty on the part of the seller. He must lie, or deceive, or cheat somehow about the price of the bargain or some other article, because he is in business to make a fair profit. Thus, you become a party to the violation and come under its penalty.

Third: Do you begrudge spending money?

Do you HATE TO PAY YOUR BILLS? Release your money cheerfully even if it be the last dollar you have. Decide what your need is; if it is of more value than the dollar in your purse, then spend the dollar cheerfully. In this way you comply with a law. Often when we get to a low level we begin to tighten up on our purse strings. We begin to hold back. This is like closing the faucet, limiting the supply from pouring in to you.

I remember a man telling of a time when he had an urgent need for a thousand dollars. He had but a ten dollar bill in his purse and he was holding on to that bill like a drowning man to a straw. For days, he said, he carried it about with him, afraid to spend it for fear of being broke. Suddenly it occurred to him that he was pinning his faith more on the ten dollars than he was on the true source of supply.

He was closing his faucet with a mere ten dollar bill; it had grown to become a fearful obstruction. When he realized this truth, he sat down at once and mailed the bill to a nearby church, and following the release of the bill, supply began to flow in to him. Before that week was out, he received his thousand dollars, enough to pay the month’s obligations. He added, “Never since has supply failed to flow to me, for I learned my lesson.”

The Law inevitably produces its own exactness as a rule of action. It is a Divine Law and tolerates no violation. It does not bring forth figs from thistles. If man misuses the Laws of harmony, health, or supply, the Law of Compensation becomes manifest.

We are free agents to choose the method of procedure in our life. The Law is infinite, and through its expressions all things are possible to us. Every time we choose a good thought, we make a good investment.

What is life giving you today? Health, happiness, and abundance or sickness, misery, and lack?

Whatever it is, it is your own. It belongs to no one else but you. You make your investments and you are daily enjoying the profits or losses. If you are dissatisfied with your investment, it may be wise for you to note what you invested. Only your own can come to you, and be sure that all that is yours will become manifest. It is your responsibility; no other person may share it. Your own and all of your own will come to you.

“I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate, For, lo, my own shall come to me.” John Burroughs