of
the thing. You will never win out if you persist in tearing your hair.

Before he crossed the Rubicon Julius Caesar was staggered at the
greatness of the undertaking before him. The more he reflected and
took counsel of his friends, the greater loomed the difficulties of
the attempt and the more appalling the calamities his passage of that
river would bring upon the Roman world. But when at last with the cry,
"The die is cast!" he plunged into the river, there was an end for him
to mental dissension, a freedom to plan and execute, an expansion of
courage and power.

[Sidenote: _Conquering Indecision_]

So it will be with you. With doubt and uncertainty the pressure may be
high in the gauge, but the engine does not move. Make up your mind,
and you release energies previously wasted in conflicts between
opposing thought complexes struggling for supremacy.

[Sidenote: _Why "Christian Science" Works_]

A fine illustration of this is shown in the religious experience known
as conversion. To the convert, conversion means the profound
acceptance of a mighty spiritual truth. It means positive knowledge
taking the place of doubt or indifference. Conflicting ideas are no
longer present in his consciousness. Pent-up energies are released. He
wants to do things. His soul is fired with overmastering impulses to
action. He wants to go forth and preach the gospel of his faith. He is
lifted to a high plane of exhilaration. He experiences the "peace that
passeth understanding."

"Christian Science," "Truth," "The New Thought," and similar movements
all achieve their really marvelous results in much the same way. All
proclaim doctrines of exuberant optimism, having a tendency to banish
fear-thoughts and self-consciousness and self-depreciation, and to set
up in their stead ideas of courage and of achievement and of
individual power. If these teachings are successful--that is to say,
if they inherently possess the right appeal for the particular
individual--they have the happy effect of begetting a stoical
indifference to petty physical disorders and social vexations and
bringing about a concentration upon the main business of life of the
mental energies thus previously wasted.

[Sidenote: _How to Release Pent-Up Power_]

Decide the matter that is troubling you. Make an end of hesitation and
uncertainty and fear. Your very act of decision will release large
stores of pent-up mental power and add immeasurably to your
effectiv