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Emmet Fox (1886-1951), notable New Thought leader
and writer, was born in Ireland but lived most of his life in
England before moving to the United States. He became interested in
the New Thought movement as a young man and gave his first
metaphysical lecture in London in 1928.
During a visit to the United States in 1931, Dr.
Fox accepted the position of minister of the Church of the Healing
Christ in New York City. As a Divine Science minister, he was highly
successful for the rest of his active life.
Emmet Fox had a high regard for Unity and its
co-founder, Charles Fillmore. In 1944, Dr. Fox authorized the
special Unity edition of his pamphlet, The Golden Key.
As part of the Unity Classic series, this
pamphlet presents important beliefs and ideas of one of the early
New Thought leaders. The teachings of any movement evolve over time,
and the material included here represents the author's
interpretation of New Thought ideas at a given period in history.
Note to the Special Unity Edition
The Golden Key has been the means of helping
many people all over the world solve all kinds of problems and
overcome all sorts of handicaps, and in the present edition, it is
finding a new field of usefulness.
I am happy to cooperate in this way with the fine
Unity work in which I believe so heartily.
May The Golden Key be the means of opening
your door to health, freedom, and knowledge of God.
—Emmet Fox
The Golden Key
Copyright © 1931 by Emmet Fox
FOREWORD
I have condensed this message into five pages.
Had it been possible, I would have condensed it to five lines. It is
not intended to be an instructional treatise, but a practical guide
for getting out of trouble. Study and research are well in their own
time and place, but no amount of either will get you out of a
difficulty. Nothing but practical work in your own consciousness
will do that. The mistake made by many people when things go wrong
is to skim through book after book without getting anywhere.
Read The Golden Key several times. Do
exactly what it says, and if you are persistent, you will overcome
any difficulty.
—Emmet Fox
The
Golden Key
By Emmet Fox
Scientific prayer will enable you to get
yourself, or anyone else, out of any difficulty. It is the golden
key to harmony and happiness.
To those who have no acquaintance with the
mightiest power in existence, this may appear to be a rash claim,
but it needs only a fair trial to prove that, without a shadow of
doubt, it is a just one. You need take no one's word for it, and you
should not. Simply try it for yourself.
God is omnipotent, and we are God's image and
likeness and have dominion over all things. This is the inspired
teaching, and it is intended to be taken literally, at its face
value. The ability to draw on this power is not the special
prerogative of the mystic or the saint, as is so often supposed, or
even of the highly trained practitioner. Everyone has this ability.
Whoever you are, wherever you may be, the golden key to harmony is
in your hand now. This is because in scientific prayer it is God who
works, and not you, and so your particular limitations or weaknesses
are of no account in the process. You are only the channel through
which the divine action takes place, and your treatment will be just
the getting of yourself out of the way. Beginners often get
startling results the first time, for all that is essential is to
have an open mind and sufficient faith to try the experiment. Apart
from that, you may hold any views on religion, or none.
As for the actual method of working, like all
fundamental things, it is simplicity it-self. All you have to do is
this: Stop thinking about the difficulty,
whatever it is, and think about God instead.
This is the complete rule,
and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will
disappear. It makes no difference what kind of trouble it is. It may
be a big thing or a little thing; it may concern health, finance, a
lawsuit, a quarrel, an accident, or anything else conceivable; but
whatever it is, stop thinking about it and think of God instead—that
is all you have to do.
It could not be simpler, could it? God could
scarcely have made it simpler, and yet it never fails to work when
given a fair trial.
Do not try to form a picture of God, which is
impossible. Work by rehearsing anything or everything that you know
about God. God is wisdom, truth, inconceivable love. God is present
everywhere, has infinite power, knows everything, and so on. It
matters not how well you may think you understand these things; go
over them repeatedly.
But you must stop thinking of the trouble,
whatever it is. The rule is to think about God. If you are thinking
about your difficulty, you are not thinking about God. To be
continually glancing over your shoulder in order to see how matters
are progressing is fatal, because it is thinking of the trouble, and
you must think of God and nothing else. Your object is to drive the
thought of the difficulty out of your consciousness, for a few
moments at least, substituting for it the thought of God. This is
the crux of the whole thing. If you can become so absorbed in this
consideration of the spiritual world that you forget for a while
about the difficulty, you will find that you are safely and
comfortably out of your difficulty—that your demonstration is made.
In order to "golden key" a troublesome person or
a difficult situation, think, "Now I am going to `golden key' John
or Mary or that threatened
danger"; then proceed to drive all thought of John or Mary or the
danger out of your mind, replacing it with the thought of God.
By working in this way about a person, you are
not seeking to influence his con-duct in any way, except that you
prevent him from injuring or annoying you, and you do him nothing
but good. Thereafter, he is certain to be in some degree a better,
wiser, and more spiritual person, just because you have "golden
keyed" him. A pending lawsuit or other difficulty would probably
fade out harmlessly without coming to a crisis, justice being done
to all par-ties concerned.
If you find that you can do this very quickly,
you may repeat the operation several times a day with intervals
between. Be sure, however, each time you have done it, that you drop
all thought of the matter until the next time. This is important.
We have said that the golden key is simple, and
so it is, but of course it is not always easy to turn. If you
are very frightened or worried, at first it may be difficult to get
your thoughts away from material things. But by constantly repeating
a statement of absolute Truth, such as: There is no power but
God; I am the child of God, filled and surrounded by the perfect
peace of God; God is love: God is guiding me now; or, perhaps
best and simplest of all, God is with me—however mechanical
or trite it may seem—you will soon find that the treatment has begun
to "take" and that your mind is clearing. Do not struggle violently;
be quiet, but insistent. Each time you find your attention
wandering, switch it back to God.
Do not try to think in advance what the solution
to your difficulty will be. This is called "outlining" and will only
delay the demonstration. Leave the question of ways and means to
God. You want to get out of your difficulty—that is sufficient. You
do your half, and God will never fail to do God's.
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved" (Acts 2:21).
UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY
1901 NW Blue Parkway
Unity Village, MO 64065-0001
www.unityworldhq.org
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