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1 he Chemawa^American
Printed at Che maw a, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education
Vol. XXVI
Wednesday, April 29, 1925
YOUR MIND IS THE BARRIER
No. 28
thought himself to be.
How many men are like the elephants of Sir Charles
When Sir Charles Napier and his expedition party
cornered a large number of elephants in Bengal, they Napier which walked up and down, to and fro, with
in the bamboo stockade, never making any real effort
were at a loss to know how they could confine them.
Someone suggested that they build a stockade of bam to escape and to get their freedom because they thought
boo poles around the elephants, so large as to appear they were behind inpregnable walls!
The consciousness that you were free-born, as was
to be a formidable barrier thru which they could not
break. This they did, and it proved so successful that Paul, the consciousness that you have the power with
the elephants never made any attempt to break thru in yourself to break thru the bamboo stockade and get
the flimsy barrier which kept them in captivity. They your liberty, will free you from all slavery, my friend.
were slaves to captivity simply because they thought But you must first believe that you have power to do,
or you will never make the necessary effort. You
they were confined within solid barriers.
How many human beings are just as foolish as were would be free, except that you believe you are tied,
these deluded elephants? We imagine ourselves held are convinced that you are tied, with something that
back by all kinds of impediments; we are the slaves of is strong enough to hold you, but which you could
break thru without effort.
all sorts of bamboo barriers.
If the elephants in Sir Charles Napier’s bamboo
There arc bamboo habits which arc sapping our vi
tality and seriously interfering with our success in life. stockade had ever leaned against the walls, they
On every hand we see men who are held in slavery by would have gone thru it, but they did not even try.
drugs, immorality, inertia, laziness, selfishness and They believed that they were strongly imprisoned.
You are not the slave of sickness, of ill health, of di
greed, imprisoned within bamboo stockades, which
they could break if they only believed they could and sease, of poverty, of failure, of unhappiness, of unfor
tunate conditions, of an unfriendly environment.
would exert themselves.
We knew a man in New England who used to drive a There is a power right within you to break away from
beautiful horse from his country estate every morning, all of these things which enslave you.
The truth that will make you free, that will cut the
tie the horse with an apparently very flimsy halterstrap,
and leave the horse all daj' while he went to town. cords which bind you, will be the conciousness of your
When he returned, the horse was not even unchecked. divinity, the conciousness of your freedom from all
Now, why did that horse, so powerful that he could slavery by virtue of your birthright, of your divinity,
easily have broken away, stand such treatment? He the omnipotence which you have inherited.
Lincoln said that this country couldjnot long endure,
would stand for hours in the hot sun, without any
thing to eat or drink, waiting for the man to return. half-slave and half-free. Neither can individuals.
It was simply because he thought he was so fastened The majority of men are more than half-slave to vices,
to weaknesses, to habits which devitalize, which de
that it was impossible for him to gain his liberty.
A horse will obey our slightest suggestion. He will moralize them and seriously interfere with their get
respond quickly to the least pulling of the rein this ting on in the world. Multitudes of people are the
slaves of sickness and weaknesses which they imagine
way or that wav. You would think he is subject to
they have inherited or acquired.
his master, until some day something frightens him
How many of us have a strong, deep-seated con
and he takes the bit in his teeth. Then, for the first viction that we are not strong and never will be, that
we must go thru life seriously handicapped on account
time in his life, he finds he is master and is pulling
of
poor health. We do not realize that we must think
at the rein. The man at the reins is but a baby, com
health, that we must believe it is possible for us, that
pared with the horse’s power. He runs away, with
it is our birthright. We must think health, talk health,
very little hindrance, in spite of all his master’s efforts before we can be healthy. Just as we must think pros
to stop him. For the first time in his life he tastes perity and success before we can become prosperous
or successful.
power, and realizes that he is not the slave that he