A Light Set Upon A Hill

A LIGHT SET UPON A HILL

by WALTER CLEMOW LANYON

International Lecturer – Author of:
Thrust in the Sickle 
A Lamp Unto My Feel 
The Temple Not Made With Hands 
Out of the Clouds
The Eyes of the Blind
The Laughter of God 
Impressions of a Nomad
London Notes and Lectures, etc.

London
L. N. FOWLER & CO. LTD.
7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, E.C.4

 
Made and printed in Great Britain
By The Camelot Press Ltd
London and Southampton

To N. S.

“ That which is given in love is beyond price”

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

1. BEFORE YOU ASK I WILL ANSWER 
2. LO AND BEHOLD
3. CLOUDS WITHOUT RAIN 
4. THE SPACE BETWEEN
5. TO THE POOR
6. THE PERMANENT IDENTITY
7. BEGGARS OF LIFE
8. CONCERNING MASTERS
9. IT IS SO
10. NOT THAT WHICH GOETH IN
11. LIFE
12. THE VERY PRESENT HELP
13. THE APPROPRIATE HOUR
14. THE SPIRIT DESCENDED
15. THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH 
16. THE SECOND COMING
17. THE PROMISES 
18. ENTERING THE KINGDOM
19. THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD 
20. THE WORD
21. THE HEALING VOICE .
22. LEAVE ALL—FOLLOW ME
23. THE FATHERHOOD -DEGREE
24. ASCENSION

FOREWORD

In completing this, the twenty-seventh book on the revelation of the Inner Christ, I found myself constantly returning to the simplest statements of Truth. The desire to make these statements unqualified, and in many instances. unexplained, caused me to know that the book is for those who have arrived at a certain stage of development where a more or less established base of the WORD is recognized. For example, “Ask whatsoever you will,” when first heard, is the unattainable ; then it becomes perhaps possible; later it may become more or less of a reality; and finally it is accepted, understood, and acted upon. So is it with this book—the statements herein are revelation, and yet so simply put as to perhaps seem to the casual reader almost trite.

While repetition is necessary from the standpoint of the letter, there is in reality never a repetition, as the Spirit revealed through the letter is different each time. “Having eyes, ye see not,” or else, “ Having eyes, ye see.” If you see, you will understand ; if not, you will look only to the dead letters and find nothing of import to you. To some Jesus Christ was and is a liar; to many he is a Truth sayer. You arrive at your opinions and beliefs through the “ glass darkly” of your own thinking. What you think or see does not make it so for anyone else. Your sizing up of the teachings of Jesus Christ only expresses your own limitations.

Because you cannot grasp the simple statements of Jesus Christ as the most profound laws of the universe and the easiest to understand does not mean that this is not true. “Awake, thou that sleepest ”—we are taking off from a new level of consciousness.

1. BEFORE YOU ASK I WILL ANSWER

“BEFORE you ask I will answer, and while you are yet speaking I shall give it unto thee.” A statement purely of fourth-dimensional capacities, since no amount of human reasoning can arrive at such a possibility. It is impossible from the human standpoint to be answered before having asked the question, and to receive the finished results before the request. It is well to constantly bear in mind that “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God” is a basis or a premise from which to take off into this “new day,” or the NOW of Heaven on earth. It is impossible to reason from a basis of what is, or what has been, or what is to be, and arrive at anything but the same old, monotonous pattern of human existence. It is impossible to reason from the basis of appearances and arrive at any of the conclusions of which Jesus spoke. “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God” shows how clearly impossible it is to get anywhere with the revelation of Jesus Christ if approached through the “glass darkly” of man’s best findings of life. Hence the statement “Before you ask I will answer” is as utter folly to the human, scientific intellect. It just cannot be and that is an end to it— just as an incurable disease is incurable, and a hopeless condition is hopeless, and so on.

No one is refuting this, because it is so when measured by the standards of conscious thinking. There is no argument. That is why Jesus said, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him” What is the good of argument? If you know that disease is real and incurable, so be it unto you. No amount of argument is going to change that fact until it is changed n within your consciousness, and then it will be by recognition of some power which completely transcends all of the most cherished beliefs of man. In other words it will have to be performed at the point of recognition that “the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God ” is true.

So, in approaching the solution of your problem, it is not as one approaches a mathematical problem, although it has much in common, differing, however, in this point; the answer to the mathematical problem is recognized as existing eternally, i.e. the result of two plus two is four. Even if you do not know it from proof, you, along with every other thinking individual, will say, “ Yes, the answer exists.” In the case of your-personal problem, you, and every other “knowing” mind, may “know” that it is impossible to solve, and there is nothing you can do about it but suffer and bear it.

At the outset your problem comes under the heading of the “impossible.” If it had been possible of solution, you would have worked it out long ago. Do you begin to see how necessary it is to get “started” right if you are to “Follow ME”—the Christ consciousness ? Also why it was that Jesus kept admonishing, “Judge not from appearances, but judge righteous judgement”? Do you begin to see why it is necessary to forsake all appearances, testimony, findings, etc., regarding your problem if you are to set in operation the law of the next dimension? The infinite quality of the Christ Power makes it impossible to put it in the finite language we speak, without apparent contradictions and absurdities of expression, but “He that hath eyes will see and he that hath ears will hear” and will know the revelation that is given between the lines.

A thousand illustrations, however well put, are inadequate to give more than a glimmer of this wonderful revelation, yet until such time as the “inspiration of the Almighty” has come unto you, or is recognized as an indigenous quality, these illustrations must serve as the bridge to carry you over into the “Promised Land of attainment.” This quotation, “Before they ask I will answer,” then becomes a little clearer by the illustration of the fruit tree in winter. Suppose we take a fruit tree which has a recognized capacity. Let us say twenty bushels of apples is the yearly yield. You view” this tree in winter as it stands leafless. You realize that from the “nowhere” will come the substance from which twenty bushels of fruit will appear. Can you explain it? Do you see it? Can you handle it? Can you do anything with it but “let” it into expression by a perfect co-operation with the law? That it is there in its incipience is true. Do you begin to see that the same thing is true of you as the “ Temple of the Living God” only a hundred times more certain and sure of success? When you can see that your body is the tree through which the Sap of Spirit flows into manifestation, you will understand how it is possible to “feed my sheep,” to loose the glorious manifestation into being. In other words, you begin to thrill with the glorious revelation of the Power to “answer before the call.” All this is so far outside the human reasoning of the “how, ‘why, when, and where,” that to examine into it with the prying eyes of the curious, disbelieving, human thought is to dig into the roots of the tree to discover where the twenty bushels of apples were “kept” during the winter. If you cannot sidestep all the preconceived notions, ideas, and laws of the human thinking, you will find little “Truth” of a practical nature in the WORDS of Jesus Christ.

Then it is true that “Faith [recognition] is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” It is possible, though your eye sees nothing, for your “eye” to SEE all and to “look again.” None of this can be done through the human senses, for they are double and begin immediately to work with the appearances, and it is foolish to try to use the laws of God while actually regarding and measuring the three drops of oil you have into manifestation. The command to “pour” the oil is either obeyed or a tedium of human opinion sets in and immediately a perfect, defensive agreement is made. It is impossible to “pour” when you have nothing to pour. Nothing more can be done from the outside than has been done to change the conditions of your life. You have only resorted to the Christ after you have tried everything else. It is not very flattering to the Christ consciousness, is it? Yet this great Impartial Power is not bothered about such apparent “ slights. The amazing thing is that many who have “tried” everything but Christ, finally in their extremity “ throw ” themselves and their mistakes on the Christ in desperation, and expect the machinery of the world to cease while their answer is given. Many times it is not forthcoming because there is no recognition—only a mad desire to get rid of the conscious-thinking product. It is wonderful when you approach the Christ consciousness without the “shoes” of human wisdom which already have trampled everything underfoot, and left their ugly marks all over the earth. It is glorious when you forget your importance long enough to “LET” the miracle happen.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for”—so the farmer has “faith” in his tree. He does not go beyond this, even though he may put it into scientific terms to please the erudite. He knows that in the final analysis he must “LET” it come into manifestation. When you push his erudition too far, he dismisses it all with the plain and incomprehensible statement, “It grows.” How, why, etc., he cannot explain; any more than you can explain how “your problem” can be worked out “ by the way you know not of.”

Contemplation of the Presence will do much to loosen the hard and fast ideas of conscious thinking. The law of secrecy will aid mightily in the manifestation of the “Before they call I will answer.” Remember that no man looking upon three drops of oil as such can ever experience the increase. If you are awakened, you will not try to explain to him the possibilities. You will “agree with your adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him.” “What is that to thee? Follow ME.” What does it matter what he thinks, or has found, true? You have found something in the secret place and have ceased to desire to “show” or “tell” about things which are so precious they are compared with “pearls” which swine trample underfoot. “He that hath ears, let him hear what the Scriptures say unto the Churches”

 

2. LO AND BEHOLD

BEHOLD! Behold! Behold! “ I AM he that should come” “Or look ye for another? “This is the question to be answered by each individual. Either you are beginning to see that it is necessary to find the Master within your own consciousness, or else continue wandering in the wilderness of human opinions and beliefs.

“I AM HE that should come” settles once and for always the arguments about “masters, guides, etc.” Know ye not that “the government shall be upon his shoulders”— on the shoulders of the “Mind which was also in Christ Jesus” and which is in every man, no matter who he is or what his station in life? When you begin faintly to recognize this you will see how the recognition of the Master within you, and the alignment of yourself with it, causes you to cease your wandering amid the shadows of human teaching.

Once you discover this inner Lord and see that it is the permanent Identity, and that” That which is created a little lower than the angels and which was given dominion over all the earth” is the manifestation of this Permanent Identity, you will begin to understand how the bush by the wayside became a burning bush.

The moment you identify yourself with this true self,, and begin to rely upon it, even though it have small beginnings, from that moment on your whole life will turn into a new avenue of expression. It takes you entirely out of the dimension of demonstration and into the place of expression. It cannot be understood by the human thinking, for that is the measure of the man whose breath is in his nostrils and who judges from appearances. This man is eternally trying to find masters in the strange psychic field of imagination. He can only come to grief. No matter how sincere he may be, the belief in anything apart from God will get him into trouble. To believe that there is anything to come before the Jesus Christ consciousness is to imagine and concoct all sorts of strange things called masters and the like.

Masters who are supposed to have such sublime capacities are apparently nothing but puppets with which little human beings play. Imagine the Ascended Jesus being at the beck and call even of his disciples. “What went ye out for to see?” Answer me. What are you looking for, “a Person or a Principle?” It is only the sluggishness of the conscious-thinking which still holds to the appearance of things that finally creates anything so fantastic as a band of advanced souls who spend their entire time going over trite and hackneyed sayings.

When you discover the Master within, and begin to see that this is a natural thing instead of a psychic disturbance, you will do away with all the ghastly pictures of saints and Masters, with substance spurting out like clouds of fog and vapour from a human form. Do you find anything in the revelation of Jesus that does anything but take you out of the “fog” of human thinking? What is all this hypnotic idea that a Master is going to “work” through you? Where do you come into the scheme of things ? How can you ever arrive at the place of hearing, “Go thou and do likewise”? I said “likewise”—not nearly likewise. How can you do it if you are merely a shell through which something else is acting?

All this belief in controls, etc, etc., is merely an excuse of the human mind. Having become so surfeited with its own limitations, and having seen its best efforts fail, it suddenly excuses everything by charging the work off to another entity, who is supposed to have the power and capacities which the person lacks.

The belief that someone—master, guru, entity, or spirit—is doing the work frees the sluggish mind from accepting its own responsibility, as well as its apparent limitations. It is a spurious way of attaining the Kingdom, and will result in being cast out in the darkness of fear.

When you begin to find “It” within, you will find it without. This strange statement of the new dimension is entirely contrary to the relative teaching. “Judge not from appearances” is the law, and it must be found within, before it can be seen without as a reality, else it will be nothing but a creation of the imagination without body and form— in short, a “ spirit “ in the sense of a fog or vaporous being. See what the Master Jesus said upon resurrection. “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side”—and “see that a spirit (the creation of human imagination) hath not flesh and blood.”

What do the masters you hear about, and have never seen, look like translated from the murky findings of the vision through the “glass darkly” of some imaginative soul? Do they have flesh and blood, or are they misty and foggy? Can they eat and drink, and do they act as stilted stage creations, or are they the real substance of Life?

Whenever you recognize the Risen Lord in the midst of you, you will have plenty of signs and wonders, but these will be too sacred to be cast unto dogs. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” They cannot be written in any book—but if you know, you know. They will not be fantastic, psychic manifestations of distorted, troubled minds. Do you hear? Do you believe in the WORDS of the MASTER Jesus Christ when he asked you to exceed him in works? “Even greater works than these shall ye do.”

Do you begin to see how absolutely necessary it is to find this Power within yourself and glorify the One and Only God ? It is the secret of all transformation—you are to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The mind is renewed when it becomes conscious, of the new dimension of the Christ Jesus within. It is all so precious and filled with sacred assurance that never again will the babbling, loose tongue of mortal speculation occupy your attention.

“Arise and shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the LORD IS risen upon thee.” Do you believe this? Can you arise? Certainly not by taking thought of the how and why; if you “arise”, it will be because you are ready to “arise” within yourself, having found something which transcends all human thought and belief. It is wonderful when the eyes are opened and the Kingdom of God descends out of the human beliefs into the reality of the here and now.

God is walking the earth again in the bodies of men, and this does not create a lot of demi-gods and egotistical fools who prate about their own power, but it does bring to light that the body is the Temple of the Living God, and that the recognition of this Inner Lord suddenly illumines the Temple and sheds its healing and curative effects quite unconsciously upon all who can come within recognition of this power.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples “they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit.” It is easy to see the difference between the* really resurrected soul and what the human mind is expecting. The human mind is expecting a vaporous form, with certain qualities of the old-time ghost, to appear, and give forth some ghastly information which, when it is sifted down, amounts to less than nothing.

But Jesus asked them the terrifying question which probed the extent of their belief: “Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” Why the speculation as to the possibility of resurrection? And why the “thoughts”? “Behold my hands and feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

Isn’t it glorious that Jesus appeared as a normal being, not hung with all sorts of tawdry jewels and accoutrements? His only aim was to impress his hearers with the facts of Life which were so overpowering in their grandeur and wonder that jewels by the “dozen” or “bushel” would have been as dust on the face of the skies. Imagine being bothered by a handful of jewels or the cut and fit of a robe or the decorations of a stomacher in the presence of the facts of LIFE. “Take off your shoes—the ground you stand upon is hallowed.” Can you imagine the greedy human thought, thinking in terms of dollars and cents, coming into the presence of the facts of LIFE—the resurrected Master? Just ponder it a moment, and then try to hang Jesus over with jewels and gold. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Do you understand “give”? You have to be able to take a GIFT.

Not being satisfied with this complete revelation of self-resurrection, Jesus yet offered a further proof of the naturalness of LIFE away from the limitations of conscious thinking. “And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.”

When you see that all of the teaching of Jesus is done through symbol, you will under-stand what wonders are awaiting you as you “go in and possess the land,” the new consciousness of the Jesus Christ within you— the Mind that was also in Christ Jesus the man. It is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and filled with light and revelation.

When you have accepted the Resurrected Lord you discover you are on the other side of the cross, for you are not looking for a new Messiah and you are definitely through with all teachers, leaders, books, and organizations. Through with all the outside manifestation and limitation, you can have them all, but none of them can have you to maul about in personal, teachings. It is wonderful. When you realize the resurrected Christ within, you

are finished with the crucifying power of man and are ready to receive the .true baptism of Spirit. It will take place without striving or trying or imagining funny things and happenings. “Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.” Do you want this “opening of the understanding” as something sane, natural, and real, or do you want some horrible experience which will leave you in- a dazed, half-crazed condition for the rest of your life? When you come by the way of Jesus Christ you escape all this foolishness of initiations and personal clap-trap offered you by the Adulterers of the word.

“Is this he that should come, or look we for another?” is completely answered by this resurrected Jesus Christ within ‘you. You come to such a reverence for this true self that you no more doubt its authenticity. “And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.” Do you begin to see how complete the final recognition of LIFE becomes to you?

Once having discovered this “Mind which was also in Christ Jesus” within yourself, it is possible to see the word of God made flesh; it is possible to hear the voice of God made audible through any temple or manifestation, even the bush by the wayside, or even to the smiting of the actual rock and causing it to give forth living waters. But all this is far beyond the place of display or talk.

“If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? ” Can you even contemplate the majesty and sublime heights of this revelation without a heavenly sense of peace and stillness overtaking you which will silence once and for always the clattering human thought wanting to concoct masters and gurus and all sorts of helps on the outside? “Who are you?” Might you be the one—or might you be in the consciousness for which this one stands who may “tarry till I come”? Do you begin to see what the Master is saying to you? Are you satisfied, or are you looking for another? Peace be unto you.

 

3. CLOUDS WITHOUT RAIN

“The signs shall follow,” they do not precede, is one of the most dynamic statements of the Scriptures. There is a

certainty about it that is reassuring. It does not say maybe or perhaps. It says the “signs shall follow.” And yet hundreds—yea, thousands—are “working” in metaphysics to make the signs precede.

The phenomenon of Spirit, or the word made flesh, of which Jesus so often spoke, is the desire taking on form and shape. When Jesus brought forth the various manifestations or phenomena of Spirit, it was always in the shape or form which instantly neutralized the belief called problem. Thus, “If he ask for bread,” you are instructed not to give him a “stone,” but to give him bread—bread being the symbolic word for that which will instantly release from his present difficulties the one asking.

The mysticism of all this is so deep and profound that it is truly hidden from the eyes of the wise and prudent. The moment the human reason begins to approach anything so evanescent as “precipitation,” or “ word made flesh,” it becomes rank imagination, wholly impracticable and useless, and is the “stuff of dreams.”

The “new dimension” into which we are entering has no language of its own. There are no words sufficient to convey even a modicum of light on what is being said, hence the necessity of reading between the lines and sensing the idea. Certainly it cannot be touched or approached through ordinary reasoning, which must have a sign before it will believe.

We go stumbling along through a maze of words wholly inadequate to express the new idea, but somehow releasing to “those who have eyes” the vision of “Look again” instead of look through the long dark telescope of human thought: the time-space idea of relativity. The more we attempt to approach this Christ idea through the wisdom of man, the more foolish it becomes.

We use the endless repetition to bring about the subtle change or “feel” of this new idea. We begin at the premise over and over in order that the right “height” will be conveyed, however vaguely.

The premise of Jesus Christ is, “The WISDOM of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.” Can you take off from this basis? It includes all your most cherished ideas of “wisdom,” and sets aside every hard and fixed idea that has ever been conceived regarding you and the race. I am quite aware of the fact that it is asking too much for the man who must, with “ Thomas” thrust in his hand and experience the feel of the phenomenon. This is actual proof as far as he is concerned, and it is quite in keeping with the three-dimensional consciousness. It must see, hear, touch, and taste before it can accept anything as real. At the same time it will tell you that every one of these senses can be so deceived as to become wholly unreliable.

Gradually, however, through the tangle of ” wisdom,” we are emerging into the place prepared for us through the recognition of Jesus Christ, a place which takes us into a new consciousness—“I have ways ye know not of ”—a place of power wholly apart from established laws of human thinking. Hence- in this “place” does man conceive how it is possible for health to manifest itself ejecting and eliminating the thing called sickness, and yet in no way curing it. It does not recognize anything to be cured, any more than darkness is an entity or a reality to the presence of light. It is neither compared nor examined nor entered into as a power, nor yet believed in as a power. With the coming of light the darkness is automatically dispersed—absorbed, as it were. Harking back again to the man at the temple gate, we do not find a cured man who suddenly leaped out of forty years of paralysis and human belief, but a manifestation from an entirely new state of consciousness taking place. Entering into this Jesus Christ consciousness, which is indigenous in every man, we find” the former things have passed away ; they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more.” Why? Because, in the Jesus Christ consciousness into which man enters by recognizing the Presence, the former thing does not exist, it has never existed, and therefore could not subsequently have been healed. It does not exist, as darkness has never existed to light.

The expression from this Jesus Christ consciousness is automatic. It operates from the height of “I have a way ye know not of.” It has the way “past finding out.” It is entirely beyond the reasoning of man. It is the doer of the impossible to the conscious thinking mind, and yet it is only expressing a perfect naturalness from its own consciousness. Jesus was not setting aside anything but a belief when he did that which could not be done. The fact that he made bread and fish appear where there was none proves that he was not disturbing anything other than a belief that it could not happen. But it did happen. So will you begin to see, and sense something beyond the “foolishness” of man.

All this is enough to infuriate the human mind. It does not like to be so completely discounted, and for that reason, if for no other, comes the first great law of “precipitation” or manifestation.

The first and greatest law of manifestation, then, is “SILENCE.” You have heard it a thousand times, and considered it over and over, but you have not heard it until you have become so one with it that it becomes a part of you. Until the craving to “tell ” another is deleted, nothing can happen to you other than the tedium that has been going on for years, The moment you “touch” this “ SILENCE/’ then you begin to tinder stand-feel the Presence into embodiment or “precipitation.”

As long as your noisy human mind talks it is still seeking personal worship. It tells everything, and thereby places itself in the position of not being able to prove anything. The “talker” may proclaim that he is trying to bring in the Kingdom of Heaven by “telling” the deep and hidden secrets of his soul. This is not in accord with the revelation of Jesus Christ. Any “talker” in the sense of exploiting the phenomena of Spirit is still seeking personal worship, and he is sure to get it, such as it is ; but he will not want it, for with it comes personal condemnation, and eventually cursing.

In this “talking serpent” idea are also the false laws of what is known as “black magic.” There be those who believe that if you do not do as they say you will be cursed and damned, and all sorts of things will take place. All this is the “talk” of the Serpent. It got you out of the Garden (Heaven within) once. When are you going to crush its head and let its tail wag with imaginary power until its little day has finished?

Anything that comes to “destroy” is not of Jesus Christ, for there is “nothing to be destroyed in all my Holy Mountain.” The self-appointed ones who teach the personal power which gives power to heal in one instance and to destroy in the other are not of God. They are a cheap by-product of the human mind. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ “—not some man—“shall give thee light.”

When you awake, you come out of the dream-sleep and arise to this place of Silence. “Tell no man—show John”—write it in your heart. If it is so, it will be proclaimed from the “house-tops” because of the light of its glorious manifestation. Fear not. Can you begin to see, beloved, what the SILENCE really is? It is so wonderful and so filled with possibility. It is impossible to please him until you come to the place of Silence. When all the noisy “telling” has ceased, the marvelous revelation that is to play through your temple comes into manifestation, and so you cease looking for “healing,” and find instead a revelation of the new dimension.

Even as I write this to you, I am filled with the fire of revelation and the desire to impart to you the Power of Silence.

“See that you tell no man.” Do not tell a soul of your desires, your aims and ambitions. Keep them so bottled up, as it were, within you, that they gather the momentum sufficient to burst the shell of human flunking and express themselves with ease and in a way you knew not of.

The Messiah, that is to be born to you, will come into being to rule and reign in his kingdom when HE is magnified in the deep secret place. All this symbology is so glorious when it gives up its light to you.

Unless the practice of intense secrecy is pursued regarding your desires and aims, all the power which should go into producing them, which should give them life, is dissipated, and you arrive at the place of “symbolical phenomenon”—that is, the imaginary, unpractical heaven of many metaphysicians. They have a store-house filled with the most wonderful things which have no life nor power nor animation nor locomotion—like so many wonderful engines without electricity or steam with which to operate.

The metaphysical world is to-day largely made up of individuals who have brought out much of this “symbolical phenomenon.” Conversations something after the following are common : “I cannot see why it is that ‘this’ thing does not work out. I have done everything necessary,” etc., etc. Another experiences something like this : “Time” and time again everything comes right out into manifestation and then at the last moment it falls through.” And yet another tells you of the futility of “making” it happen. All of these are bringing forth “still-born” manifestations. They have deprived their ideas of life by telling them.

Every time you tell what you are going to do, or what you desire, you dissipate the possibility of accomplishing it. Gradually you have “talked” it all away and there is no power left. It is all so simple and so foolish to the “wisdom of man” but so are all the teachings of Jesus Christ. “What difference does it make whether I tell of it or not?” says the one who is still convinced he has a power of his own that transcends that of Jesus Christ. But to the wise one who has suddenly awakened to the fact that his universe is filled with the “symbolical phenomenon” a coal of fire is placed on his lips, and from that instant on he says no more, but magnifies the Presence and the Power within and stores all the energy for actual expression.

The more you talk about what you are going to do the less possibility there is of doing it. The closer the secret is guarded within the place of the Most High, the more and more it seeks to express itself. It is like holding the breath. Even though you will to do so, finally the desire to “ breathe ” is so much stronger than the “ will ” that you are forced to breathe. So is it with the power of secrecy. It finally seeks a point of expression, and it will find this place of expression right within its own universe. Wherever you are, you have all that is necessary to start the flow of substance into manifestation; that is, if you have heard the SECRECY of Jesus Christ. 

“See that you tell no man.” Learn this law of secrecy, and practice it so constantly that it becomes natural. Tell nothing of your aims, ambitions, and ideas; let them show forth. Once they are out into manifestation you can talk as much as you like about them; but until then you are in danger of bringing forth the symbolical phenomenon,” which is lifeless and which will not satisfy you or anybody else. “Clouds without rain” is just another picture of the results of the “talker.” He knows better; he will talk, if he wants to, because his “breath is still in his nostrils.” He has not yet recognized the “Breath of Life” which breathes him automatically.

Do you begin to see and understand the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ in the sub-merging of “your” will in the will of God? It is not losing anything but a limitation. “When your will is my will, and my will is ; your will, then the will of God is being done.” This very will of God becomes the glorious self-expression which you have sought so long and could not bring out.

A new day comes to you when you begin to sec the path of ABSOLUTE secrecy as far as anything concerning your ideas, desires, or; aims is concerned. So intense is the power within you to express, that it pushes out every talent, idea, or desire into the place of expression. The “symbolic phenomenon,” or the lifeless forms with which your garden of dreams is filled, will suddenly take life and come forth through this intense application

of secrecy. “See that you tell NO man”— not any: not your teacher, or lecturer, or leader; not your spiritual adviser or healer. See that you tell NO one. Are you ready to take your instructions from Jesus? Or do you want to listen to some little person tell you to expose every hidden, glorious revelation that is made to you, so that it can be interpreted by a trade-marked doctrine ? Answer me, and you will have answered the question you have asked so often, “Why is it that nothing happens to me?” The only reason you are not getting on (I am speaking to you now, recognizing that you have come to the place of “believing” in Jesus Christ as a truth sayer) is simply because you do not keep the silence. “See that YOU tell NO man!” Do you hear—you who read this line? The locking of the secret within, and the practicing of the intense secrecy, will cause you to do a right-about-face.

Remember that the advice of the man whose breath is in his nostrils is, “ Tell the world” The advice of Jesus Christ is, “Show the world.” See that you tell NO man. I wish I could impress this upon you so definitely that it would become a part of you from this instant.

The intense secrecy will find a way. It is like the steam in a sealed tea-kettle, or like a little animal shut within a pen. It seeks every possible avenue of expression until it finds an outlet. So with your desire that is held in the true secrecy—it will find a place of expression. Perhaps wholly unknown to you, and from the most unexpected source, it will come. It is true that the “unexpected usually happens” and so we practice this secrecy. This intense secrecy is free from anxiety and from the futile habit of “looking” for results.

The precipitation so often discussed in these days is not for the “talker.” Anyone who is “peeping” to see if anything strange is going to happen is going to be deluded, tricked, or disappointed, for God is not stooping down from His heights to appease the curiosity of that which He considers foolishness. You will never get a sign until you have become incurious, because until you arrive at this point you do not actually “believe” that it is possible; you only want to “try and see” if it can happen. If it were to happen, the main thrill or glory in it would be the fact that you did it. There is no royal road to “precipitation.” There is no place to learn it. There is no one who can give it to you. But there is much you can do which will make it possible. Do you believe? I am asking you—not you and another, but you—do you believe “the works that I do ye shall do also, and even greater”? Answer me. Do you “run” with every beautiful and wonderful “urge” that comes to you to another, and talk it over until every vestige of life is gone from it and it is a dead thing? Then you can be prepared to join the infinite ranks of metaphysicians who are filled with “symbolical phenomena” They are millionaires, giants of power, geniuses, etc., in mind only. Their experiences are all imaginary.

The integrity of silence will bring power to you. Your secrecy will create mystery about you. People will begin to know that you have something, and they will see the signs soon enough. Do not make the mistake of trying to make them believe in your greatness. There is “ ONE ”—and you, the little human John Smith, are not that ONE* although you can be that ONE when you leave all and follow ME.” It is ‘wonderful that the “ dust ” is thrown into the eyes of the “knowing one” who has a system of ideas that must be used before you can enter into Heaven. I have never found one of these yet who was not living in a veritable hell. An amazing creature, who stands and talks about Divine Power and her peculiar handling of it, admitted to me that she did not believe a word she said—she broke down and confessed the hell she was in. Two hours later she was trying every possible way to retract this statement, and had set herself in motion again with a course in Divine Power. I know that everything shall be uncovered that is hidden, and when you begin to know the Power of Secrecy you will know that you have the Open Sesame to everybody and every situation. There is no reason why you should be foiled longer by swollen personalities who are set up as guides, leaders, etc., etc. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”

“Let the earth keep silent before ME and let her renew her strength.” Do you hear? When are you going to KEEP silent, and when are you going to learn the practice of intense secrecy? Let the other man talk about his aims, ambitions, and ideas; you will show yours, and will bring out from the graveyard of “symbolical phenomena” the live, healthy manifestations of God. Then shall the dumb speak, and the deaf hear, and the blind see, and you will begin to enter into the place prepared for you.

“Keep silent before ME.”

 

4. THE SPACE BETWEEN

The “space” between making the prayer and receiving the answer is usually so filled with human speculation that it becomes an absolute opacity through which nothing can pass.

The “how” of prayer cannot be answered. There is no “how” to it, for, according to the human mind, it is impossible for something to happen that cannot happen. Yet this is exactly the dimension of the WORD of which Jesus spoke. Everything you pray over is impossible to you in your present human state of progress.

Having exhausted every possible means, and found them of no avail, you are now ready to “ask” of the Power. When you have come to an end of the human power and have decided to “pray” over the situation, all human reason and blundering, man-made intelligence must go by the board. Any attempt to find out “how” or “why” only shows you are still imagining the prayer will be answered according to the human thought process.

Is it true that God Almighty can transcend your intellect and the intellect of all the others (no matter how man-honoured they may be), or do you still believe that some man, or group of men, has power which exceeds that of God? Do you believe, “I have a way ye know not of?” or do you know the WAYS of God, which are “past finding out”? Perhaps some teacher, lecturer, or prophet knows these ways, and you arc still running to a person to have the solution given you? Come out from all this human reasoning and “turn ye even unto ME and ye shall find rest for your soul.”

The strange human approach to prayer brings defeat and the vapid sense of futility. How often do you hear someone saying, “I have tried everything and done everything and I cannot see why it does not work for me”? It does not work for you because you are trying to run this glorious power over the insufficient wires of human thought. They are not equipped to function from that level. They cannot receive or take the message of revelation which comes with recognition of the Presence. It is wonderful!

If you do not see that “when ye pray” you are to “unloose the latchets of your sandals, for you are standing on HOLY ground,” you will certainly be ejected from the Holy of Holies. You do not understand that when you pray you are entering into a new state of consciousness, and that no human reason, belief, or opinion is permitted therein.

“Be still, and know that I AM God”— again the trite quotation, but until you absorb this truth you cannot enter the next state of consciousness. We are at no time trying to cure or help a situation; we are attaining a new consciousness. The aim when sick is not merely to get rid of the sickness, but the attainment of a sense of Life from which will emanate health and vitality and power- The object of Life is not to assist you to get relief from poverty, but to cause you to become conscious of substance which automatically frees you from a thousand and one limitations of the flesh and the human thought. When you conceive of the quality of “LIFE” in the midst of thee, you will understand the allusion to the Tree of Life and all its various interpretations, and how it bears all manner of fruits—symbolically. The River of Life in the midst of the Garden also is an illustration of this Power, but so many are looking for the “loaves and fishes” they fail to see the miracle back of it all.

“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,” for the simple reason that man has at last expended his every possible human effort and thought, and he has come to the place, “I can of myself do nothing.” If he then conceives of the power, he will continue with the outburst of recognition, “But I can through Christ do all things,” and will immediately arise from his human consciousness and enter the new day of LIFE. It is wonderful.

The place between prayer and the answer to prayer is, then, the no man’s land,” since to venture into this is sure destruction as far as the answer to prayer is concerned. It is the place wherein the unseen Power is moving “in a way ye know not of” and which is bringing about the alignment of that which is necessary to answer your prayer. It is wonderful when we once grasp this idea, and move with the Power instead of trying to use or handle, or personalize it.

The old human thought asks over and over again, “But HOW does it take place?” And there is NO HOW to it. We do not hear the Voice of God when it offers us Life Eternal, we are so confused with the ways and means of HOW. When the woman at the well of Samaria was given her opportunity into Life Eternal, she began the same old story of human reasoning.

“There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus saith unto her, “Give me to drink.” Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”

“Jesus answered and said unto her, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, “Give me to drink,” thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living waters. “The woman saith unto him, “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence hast thou that living water?” “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank there from himself, and his children and his cattle?”

“Jesus saith unto her, ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing into everlasting life.”

The Power never asks the “how” or interposes the need of your doing something; it offers you a gift, just as in the case of Jesus and the woman. He offered something, but she at first, and quite naturally, began the old tedium of, “Sir, the well is deep, and you have no bucket, or rope” and then, not being satisfied with that, she went back to the history of the case and proved all that she wished to prove.

So man constantly fails to see that the Presence is offering what he is seeking; but he cannot take it because the “well is deep,” and there is no possible way of doing the thing or accomplishing the purpose without a rope or bucket, and to prove his point he cites the history of the case. It is wonderful when you begin to see that when the Spirit offers you the GIFT it does not require you or anybody else to furnish a way and means for it to come into manifestation. It offers—you take; or you begin the harangue of “HOW”: and you have nothing but the water of the well which your father Jacob gave you, of which he drank, and his children and his cattle drank, and died. Do you see the revelation, and how impossible it is for you to “take” through the old thought mind?

“Well, it is all very well to talk that way, but if you need something, how are you going to get it?” The old question; and the answer is, “By the sweat of your brow.” There is no one who knows the ways of the LORD, and he who tries to measure this magnificent power through the human thinking finds it all foolishness, and so it is. When the urge of the Power within offers you the gift, if you try to take it through the conscious thinking, it immediately fades out of the picture and you are snatching at a mirage.

You are the woman of Samaria—the meanderings of the human mind are typical of every unenlightened man. He wants to get everything straight before he can begin. Think of the stupidity of it all. Being offered the living waters, she stops to find out about the difference in nationalities and what possible reason a Jew and a Samaritan could have for an exchange of ideas. And from this she goes on looking and judging from the outside. It is all quite natural and reasonable to the conscious thinking mind. “How could I tell that it was Jesus?” “It might have been a gangster or a crook.” Yes, that is possible. “How” could you possibly know? You couldn’t, and you are right in taking all the precaution you can. The relative man has no business with the Divine Law of Indifference. It will work havoc which he cannot undo if he tries to use it.

Do you begin to sense the new consciousness which is necessary before you can see that the Spirit does not offer you something it cannot deliver in its own way? Your part is to be able to TAKE, instead of asserting that the “well is deep and you have nothing with which to draw.” It is the same acceptance that moved the beggar at the temple gate. He was instantly functioning in a new consciousness-above the thought, reason, and argument of the human mind.

“Be not discouraged—I have overcome the world”—the WORLD is merely this huge thing called your conscious belief. The more you recognize the “I” of which Jesus spoke, the more you will understand that the way the world is overcome is through magnifying the Power and moving off from the new standpoint.

“Come apart from among them and be ye separate.” Presently you see that this sort of thing is not for the man whose breath is in his nostrils. He will begin an argument, and will be sure to end with establishing his well of salvation as given to him by his father Jacob, no matter what his name. You have a person in the background, and that person is between ME and you, and everything that takes place will be coloured by this opaque personality. And so the dance of life goes on, and you keep drinking of the waters of Jacob’s well and find that you thirst again. You run from one lecturer or teacher or book to another, because you are not drinking of the living waters, but are still looking for another to come. So will it continue, until you arrive at the recognition to which Jesus referred when he invited you to “leave all; follow ME.”

If you can “stretch forth your hand” you will find it well, healed, and gloriously perfect. This stretching forth is through a thousand years of established belief that a paralyzed arm cannot move. If you can “open your eyes” you can SEE ; but you will never open them by trying to do it. If you can “take” the living waters, you can live and experience LIFE instead of some silly concocted thing which is always waiting for something to happen.

Do you begin to see what the Recognition of the Power Within brings to you?

“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing into everlasting life.”

Once you discover the Father within and are identified with him, you begin to realize that you will never thirst again, for you have this living water within you. You are not “looking for another”; you have finished all the wrangling and arguing about who is who, and what they do or do not believe. “Come apart from among them and be ye separate.”

Once I came upon a group of people supposed to have met for the glory of God, but the speaker was raging and haranguing about another person. The whole beautiful hour was turned into a tirade against some speaker who did not agree with him. The audience was moved emotionally by the hatred and evil he gave out, and the whole scene was not unlike a water-front brawl. Presently the meeting ended with prayer—of all things! The audience went its way filled with the sewage of human thought and imagining it had been praising God. Remember that “I came to fulfill,” and anything that is tearing down and seeking vengeance on the outside is not of the “I” which we worship. “I come not to destroy” will answer everything. Are you busy trying to destroy someone who does not agree with you? Do you not see that the only reason you wish to destroy that person is because of your jealousy of him? It is in no way a desire on your part to help. Everyone who indulges in this foolish pastime will find his life filled with a virulent poverty because there is no substance there. The first indication of this trying to set the other fellow right is want; which continues in more wretched degrees until the one trying to steady the ark of another’s life ceases, or goes out.

What do you care? Haven’t you passed the Saul state of consciousness? Are you still “fighting for the LORD”? Look within, and you will find you are merely giving full force to a subtle jealousy—it is a dangerous pastime for you. “Be still, and know that I AM God.”

The loving place of peace which fills the space between the asking and receiving, or the taking in the flesh, will keep you serene and give the Power ample time to come into manifestation through a way, and after a fashion, you dreamed not of. It makes it all so wonderful—the “ way ye know not of.”

When you pray :
Ask
Seek
Take
Knock
Appropriate
Call
Assume

Enter into the gates of prayer naturally; with a lovely simplicity and naturalness, come boldly to the throne of grace. Now is the accepted time; and NOW is the moment when it is accepted as complete and finished within —the manifestation will take care of itself.

“What is told in secret is called from the house-tops.” Whatsoever you can accept or lull yourself in the secret place of your being, that can, and will, be called from the housetops of manifestation. But you must not begin the old harangue of “the well is deep and you have nothing with which to draw.” 

Recognition of this well of living waters within will cause it to gush forth into manifestation, and water the whole parched desert and cause it to blossom as a rose. The WORD that proceedeth from this source will heal and bring the release from the thirst of human thought. You begin to understand why you are told to “give him a cup of cold water in the Name of Jesus Christ and forbid him not”; why it is that you have this well of living waters within you from which you can supply the needs of every man. Not the things, but the needs, the substance, which in turn will start such a flow of ideas that the man will perceive it in the flesh. Believest thou this? Dare you dip into the well of salvation within you and give the cup of cold water in the nature of Jesus Christ—the Word made flesh—and see that paralyzed one leap as a hart? Answer me—who are you?

5. TO THE POOR

“To the poor the gospel is preached.” This has been taken to be rather small consolation to one actually in need. It seems a little hard, and yet the love back of it is so great that it would lift the “poor one” from the place of a beggar into the opulence of the host, and thereby give all through withholding the little.

The gospel that is preached is not the orthodoxy of purification through suffering, or suffering to gain the riches of Heaven, but the glorious revelation of the birthright of man, which, when it is known, causes him to come into possession of his heritage.

“Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. Rise and walk.” Consider the difference in the gift of a handful of gold and having the “gospel” preached in this instance. The gospel professed was the “speaking of the Word” which to “know aright is LIFE Eternal.” It is wonderful what the revelation of God can do for you through our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Your purse is filled always with the substance of Life. It is filled with the “Such as I have give I unto thee.”

Yet does it also say, “When he asks for bread will you give him a stone? “The automatic adjustment of life governed by the Presence will indicate when it is necessary to give the bread and when to withhold it.

 

6. THE PERMANENT IDENTITY

“But who do YOU say that I AM?” A thousand answers are made to this question. If you know a thousand people, they all answer differently. They know you to be what you have manifested to them: enemy to some, benefactor to others; coward, liar, cheat, wastrel, holy, unholy, just, unjust. You are all these things and yet not one of these answers suffices.

The symbology buried in this question, which every man will one day ask himself, is so profound that it is lost by the judgement from appearances. You are found to be of a certain race, creed, breeding, colour, etc. Your past incarnations may be brought up, but still the answer is incorrect. Nothing will suffice but the answer made from the full recognition of the Truth, “I say you are the Christ.”

You may have been Julius Caesar, or Mary Queen of Scots, or a lackey in the king’s service, or a priest or priestess in an ancient temple ; you may have been all these things, but none of these will answer the question. Until the eyes are opened, and you understand you have been fooled by all these masks for centuries, you will fail to see that the I AM has been permanent. Yes, you may be able to recall a half-dozen incarnations, but you find yourself saying “I” was so and so—and yet the “I” eternally has remained the same, down through the ages of futile seeking for release from its miasma of belief.

It is the sudden discovery of this PERMANENT and Changeless Identity which transmutes, and in some instances translates, you out of the difficulties of an assumed character.

Note m the case of Jesus he instantly went to this “ Father ” (changeless identity) within, and, finding in that perfection a capacity to express, he was able to bring out that which the character Jesus could not do. It all seems involved at first, but when you look into it you begin to understand just what Jesus did every time he “went unto my Father.”

He spoke of this identity which was the perfect creation, and which was changeless, possessing all of the capacities of a God-manifestation as the, “Before Abraham was I AM.” Before any of the so-called characters through which you have played, and which have added all sorts of human beliefs of prenatal influences, karmic laws, destiny, etc., etc., this Perfect, Changeless Identity, the I AM, existed, and has continued to exist.

Jesus discovered this Identity. He know that the moment he made the assumption of it he was no more under the laws of Jesus but was in the Spirit, or under Grace. It is a wonderful revelation to see this technique in action. Jesus did not overcome evil, although there are repeated references which apparently tell one to do this. It is only because of the poverty of the language that the word is used. When he moved into the consciousness of the Permanent Identity called Father, he was no more under the LAW of the former belief. The power that was then in operation was only a natural power of the new consciousness, and was not performing miracles, but merely expressing itself.

If the “wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God,” the reverse is also true, and the action of Spirit is decidedly false and untrue to the relative mind. Unless you are prepared to work from this basis there is little use going on with the revelation of Jesus Christ, for it is definitely founded on this understanding. If you are not to judge from appearances, and if every “man is a liar, and the father of it,” you will see the futility of trying to approach this God through the measures of the conscious thinking.

No man can explain the fourth dimension or the action of Christ satisfactorily to the three-dimensional consciousness, because it is not true to that plane of thinking. The miracles of Jesus are all untrue, and subject to argument and debate to the three-dimensional mind.

“I can of myself do nothing” and “I can do all things through Christ” states the unspannable gulf between the conscious thinking and the revelation as given by Jesus Christ.

Taking Jesus as the type man, we find him unable to do other than fulfill his destiny as a carpenter. When he asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I AM?” they said many things; recounting all the possible incarnations, etc., but this did not satisfy him, and he insisted, “But who do YOU say that I AM?”—and is not satisfied until the full recognition is made of the Permanent Identity. This Identity is referred to often as the FATHER consciousness.

When, through recognition, man begins to see that Jesus as a type man is only going through the various patterns of life to show every man the way back to this Permanent Identity, he begins to see the answer to the question, “But why, if he had so much power, didn’t he set things right?”

Again and again Jesus tried to steer his followers away from the human habit of making a God of him. “Call me not good.” This was not disparagement, but an attempt to point them back to the Christ, the Changeless Identity which was within each and every one of them, and “which to know aright is Life Eternal.” Amazing as it may seem at first, gradually we begin to emerge from the dank morass of human argument and thinking.

Trying to use the God power and “making himself as God” are two entirely different things, and here is the dividing-line between the so-called meta-physicians and the followers of Jesus Christ. There is nothing the matter with the idea of trying to use God to get rid of evils, but it is definitely on a lower rung than arriving at the consciousness of the Changeless Identity of Christ which is within every man. “Let that mind which was also in Christ Jesus be in you.” LET is one of the most difficult things for the human mind to understand. It has never let anything happen. It has been so busy creating the thing on the outside and then trying to give it a soul or make it “work.”

“He made himself as God.” He did not make himself God, for he immediately said, “My Father is greater than I,” in this instance using the word “Father” to refer to the universal Power called God. The “Father” or the Permanent Identity, so often spoken of by Jesus, is the point where the Power is stepped down into visibility.

When, therefore, man discovers that his Body (Jesus) and Identity (Christ) are joined together as a “Temple of the Living God,” he begins to understand why it was so natural for Jesus Christ to step down into visibility that which was utterly impossible to the separated Jesus, or the man trying to work or use the Power. When he made himself as God, he became God in action, just the same as when you become one with the law of mathematics you are mathematics in action; or with music; and the expression of this assumption is natural, in no way a fantasy, or a breaking of the laws of that state of consciousness, although it sets aside every law of ignorance and disbelief.

“The picture shown to you on the mount” is the glimpse you have from time to time of this Changeless Identity. At such moments you have experienced healings, etc., which you have named demonstrations. The reason they have been so intermittent is that this “perfect picture shown to you on the mount” you did not have placed correctly, and did not make the assumption Jesus found necessary before he could bring it into visibility.

When Jesus said, “Go thou and do likewise,” he meant just that. That is either an historical saying to you, or it is a command that is just as imperative as far as you are concerned as any of the other sayings of Jesus. But the moment you hear it you begin the age-old talk about it being impossible, hopeless, because you are trying to do it in the three-dimensional consciousness where it is utterly impossible.

So long have you been engaged in over-coming the limitations of the Jesus, or “John Smith,” that you have forgotten the injunction, “Put not new wine into old bottles,” or “New patches into old garments”: all will be lost. You cannot inject this Christ teaching into the old, conscious beliefs of the human mind. God is not a narcotic which is used to stultify or set aside human limitations, as many believe. “He made himself as God” lifted him entirely out of the consciousness of the limited Jesus. He broke with it all the moment he discovered this “Changeless Identity” called the Christ Mind. For a long time people have been trying to use the power instead of “being” the power, not by right of demonstration, but by right’ of Divine Inheritance.

“If you make your bed in hell, I AM there.” Unless you recognize this fact, it is of little value. So is it true of ail the evil in your life. Instead of fighting the flames of your hell, the recognition of the Presence is a dispelling power which will instantly translate and transmute ’the whole thing into terms of Heaven and harmony. But who can explain it?

“Who by seeking can find out God?” Do you know any wise head who knows how the Power of God operates? If so, they are more learned than Jesus. He knew that “I have a way ye know not of,” and that the “ways of God are past finding out.” He did not waste any time trying to see how the difficulty confronting the conscious thinking was to be eliminated. He knew this one thing, however: that in the Permanent Identity that which was true to Jesus was no more a reality.

The disciple walking on the water is no demonstration of overcoming gravity. It is merely the showing forth of the capacities of the new level of consciousness. When you are lifted up to a new consciousness you find yourself functioning naturally from that plane. The former things that were limitations are nothing but beliefs clearly powerless on that plane. It is wonderful, the revelation of your True Identity.

When Jesus was met with the problem of supplying food for the five thousand, we see him instantly ascending into this consciousness of the Father, or the Permanent Identity. From that place there never has been an unfulfilled desire. You begin then to see the necessity of “Be still and know that I AM God.”

There is no brand, trade mark, or hallmark on the teaching of Jesus Christ. Any and all of these show a fear and an attempt to foist some pygmy personality upon the universe, which falls into the dust of oblivion so fast as to become almost a myth while it is bothering over “copyright” protection. Can you imagine what all the little people with personal messages and systems of truth would do if confronted by Jesus Christ in the flesh? There would be a horrible wailing and gnashing of teeth, a scuttling down some dark alley to oblivion. “Why make ye my Father’s house a den of thieves?”

As man begins to understand the “going to the Father” idea he will understand why a student, copying a picture, returns often to the original. If he makes a copy from a copy, he soon finds he is streets away from the original idea ; and so is it with life, “ if the blind follow the blind.” “Follow me” means just that. What about it? Are you following a fantastic story of the truth, or an old idea of the truth, or are you following ME? Do you still look for something to come? Do you know the Messiah has come, or look you for another with a series of lessons and ideas?

No wonder Jesus referred to children as making up the Kingdom. He knew that the adult would commit adultery with everything in life because he would square it by his human reasoning.

When the beggar is told to “rise and walk,” he must do this from something higher than the consciousness of the beggar. As the beggar, or as YOU, you have done everything possible. It is the impossible which is interesting you now, and you cannot do that. The thing you are seeking is impossible, or else you would have done it long ago. You know you cannot do it, and yet you keep trying. Presently you come to your extremity, and then you say, “ It is God’s opportunity,” and something happens. Why? Because through force you have come to a place where you stop trying to use the power, and, the first chance it has, it comes through into manifestation.

The Power of God is eternally seeking a point of expression. You are here for the purpose of expressing God, but until you understand this you will keep on trying to do that which should be done through you. You will keep on trying to use the Power instead of BEING the Power through your “going to the Father.” Your Father, or Divine Consciousness, is the point where you come into open communion and contact with God. That is why Jesus instantly ascended to the Father. The government being upon HIS shoulders takes the responsibility off the shoulders of Jesus, but it does not relieve him of the integrity and fulfillment of his contracts.

“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” is a perfect picture of the “Jesus Christ” manifestation in operation. The Father moves first and the body carries out the mechanics. When the body moves first it moves to failure. The man at the temple gate had tried the outside movement for years. He had come to the place of human knowledge where this was impossible. When he was told to rise, he did so because his “Permanent Identity” suddenly HEARD the word, and made the gesture, and the body (no matter in what condition) carried out the mechanics. This went so far as to even pick up the mass of corruption formerly known as Lazarus and bring it forth. There is nothing God cannot do; if you know of a single thing, then you can no longer subscribe to the Omnipotent God. No matter what the high and mighty intellects of the universe say. God is either All-Powerful or there are two powers, and, if so, then the Jesus Christ revelation is a lie.

“Choose ye this day whom you will serve.” Do you hear? What do you believe? Have you the history of your case, and is it so terrible, and so fraught with proof that it is impossible to escape? When you stop trying to escape this monster, and magnify and recognize and assume the Permanent Identity, you will suddenly find yourself functioning from a new consciousness. “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.” Before what? Do you begin to see that Jesus was not healing in the ordinary sense of the word, but was revealing the Permanent Identity? “Many could not believe”—and in some places “he did not many mighty works because of their unbelief.” The human mind cannot believe. It is impossible for one born blind to believe that he will have his sight from the relative standpoint, because he has never known what sight is, hence he cannot believe anything but imagination.

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven, and on this rock will I build my Church.”

Suddenly it dawns on man that he is reaching for a new dimension, and that he must assume it if he is to overtake it—just the same as he assumes that he will one day be a musician if he studies music, though at first he knows not one note from another. These illustrations are inadequate to express the God revelation, but they will point, after a fashion, to what is being inserted between the lines.

“Whatsoever you ask in my name [nature], that give I unto you.” “Whatsoever” is a pretty big measure, but whatever you find in the nature of God as a reality, that can be brought into manifestation if there is a temple ready to “step it down” into manifestation.

“Blessed art thou, because flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee.” We see that the blessing goes to this inward recognition of the thing before it has been made manifest. Jesus made this inward recognition and acceptance to the point of “giving thanks” before he saw the manifestation take place in the outer. Trying to make this teaching operate through the limitations of the human consciousness is folly.

Remembering that the dimension of the Permanent Identity knows nothing of the limitations of the human consciousness, we see an entirely different set of laws in operation. “Decree, take, ask, seek, knock, come to me, have, etc.” All of them in a line diametrically opposed to the “trying to get” measure of the human mind. No wonder Jesus discovered early in his career, “I can of myself do nothing.”

In this new consciousness you find that whatsoever you can “take” you can take. You can take or have what soever you can believe (not credulity). “Believest thou this?” Yea or nay. There is no more argument about it—yes or no.

 7. BEGGARS OF LIFE

“Lean on ME.” Direct, simple, uninvolved, isn’t it? An invitation which, if accepted, would instantly cause you to

cease the useless “leaning” upon persons, organizations, books, etc. But first it is necessary to understand this ME, to recognize this ME, to become one with this ME, before you can accept such a glorious invitation.

In the Apocrypha, in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, we see a very definite word being stated about the begging attitude of life. It is so common sense that it is well worth consideration, no matter what its source.

“My son, lead’ not a beggar’s life; for better it is to die than to beg. 

“The life of him that dependeth on another man’s table is not to be counted for a life; for he polluteth himself with other men’s meat; but the wise man, well nurtured, will beware thereof.”

“Begging is sweet in the mouth of the shameless; but in his belly there shall burn a fire.”

The beautiful symbology of these verses can hardly go unnoticed, so poignant and powerful is the message. “My son [my body], lead not a beggar’s life.” The old consciousness which begs of life the permission to live does not understand the innate power within which does not have to ask favours to perform the works of the Lord. It is amazing that so many are begging—begging in the body, as it were, for the comforts and necessities of life which belong automatically to man.

“The fear [reverence or recognition] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is only when man recognizes this Inner Lord of which Jesus so often spoke that he can see the use-lessness and futility of the “beggar” consciousness. Most people beg instead of PRAY. They implore a God to do something for them, and cannot understand why He does not do it. They compare notes and find that God apparently is very partial, and is not in any sense of the word moved by the beggar’s plight. The beggar at the temple gate would have continued a beggar if his requests on the outside had been fulfilled.

We have all been beggars—it has often been shameless begging in the name of the Lord, and it has been lire to the digestion. A woman once took an entire book of mine, adapted it —which meant she cut out all the spirit of the message and with her hobnailed mentality went crashing in, wiping her dirty feet all over its pages. As well might she have rushed into the Louvre with a can of black paint and painted a moustache and eyeglasses on the Mona Lisa as to “adapt’’ an entire book. It was filled with the vibration of her fear of what she was doing, but it was done under the guise of “love-offering.” Imagine the interest that “love-offering” will collect as time goes on. “God is not mocked”—the beggar may not be sitting at the temple gate ; he may be on the very altar, but whatever he gets in his bowl will be like “ fire to his belly.”

“I have never seen the righteous begging bread.” Do you hear? Neither do you have to “take” from another. You take from “ME.”

“The FEAR [recognition] of the Lord is a fruitful garden, and covereth Him above all glory.”

Awake, thou that sleepest—arise from the consciousness which is eternally depending on something or somebody—and “ lean upon ME.” You will find that the moment you begin this “ leaning” on ME your life will be replete with blessings and gifts of which you never dreamed.

“Life that is dependent upon another is not to be accounted Life,” runs the quotation —the looking to a person for life is a slow poison. It is true that it may come through a person or many persons, but it must be accepted and recognized in God. Else you become a beggar—begging of those who may in many ways be inferior to you. Yet by reason of the fact that the temple of God is with man, every man or temple serves the God-awakened soul, and to the relative sense of things it would seem nothing more than a contradiction to say that dependence upon another gives anything but the true sense of Life. The teaching of Jesus is so contrary to the relative mind that it turns from it with the explanation of its action as imaginary, supernatural.

When you once recognize the INNER Lord—the Father within, or the Christ Mind—and glimpse its power, then you let go of every outside help—every book, teacher, organization, person, place, or thing—as unnecessary to the God power, and in the letting go of the symbol you gain the principle, and then you can possess any and all of these, in so far as they may be of use to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.

When I take the spirit from the letter I am no more dependent upon the letter. Yet the very letter may serve me in a hundred ways. I am no more bound by the personality of the letter, as it were. I do not have to find it in a certain book, or from a certain teacher, but I can take it from any source, knowing it is the spirit and not the letter that quickens. It is wonderful when this simple understanding dawns upon you. It is as the light of morning; it fills everything; there is no pointing of the light into specialized ways and manners. It comes with its fullness; and so is it when you make the recognition of the PRESENCE here and NOW. A sudden illumination takes place within you, and, while nothing may for the moment be changed on the outside, yet the soul of you proclaims, “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.”

Dependence on anything weakens. “Lean on me.” This does not mean any rash or uncertain acts on the part of the person who hears this word, “Lean on ME.” There is nothing crude, vulgar, or rash in the Power of God. That only happens in the petty personal teaching which of a sudden tries to pattern after the Divine, and hopes by doing some radical thing which it calls penance, in one form or another, to gain favour of the Divinity. There is no favour to be bestowed by God. “My Grace is sufficient-for thee” takes care of the Divine Influence which makes favours entirely unnecessary. It is wonderful!

We do nothing on the outside. All movement takes place from within. This is a difficult lesson, for the human mind has waited so long for something to take place. But, when it is once seen, man automatically exclaims once again, “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see;” What does he see? He sees things and ideas which cannot be mentioned to the profane who are merely seeking a sign. And so he goes his way. He silently folds his tent and steals away into the secret place of the Father.

The oft-repeated illustration of “the grain of mustard seed” comes up again. If you regard the outside, nothing happens, and it is futile to consider increase, but, once you see through the symbology and recognize the power in the seed, then you can understand how it is, by the magnifying of the Power, the manifestation will take place. So with the handful of snow which, formed into a ball and started down the side of a snow-covered mountain, arrives at the base of the mountain an avalanche. If you consider the outside and the amount of snow in your hand, you cannot possibly see how this handful of snow can control an avalanche, and it cannot, except the attention be taken away from the symbol and placed upon the power which is going to turn it over and over. The speed and power are the important things—the accumulation will take care of itself; and so is it with man. If he can keep his attention on the power and let the outside alone, he will arrive with increase. Who can stand in the ways of the LORD? Who can accept this glorious revelation? Many want to, but they still imagine it must come through the human thinking or the human limitations. “Leave all; follow ME,” includes the human thinking of and about, and the “working” of, the thought.

It is true that, merging from the physical to the mental, man learns that he is an over-comer, and that he is in the business of getting rid of evil. He believes in, and actually appears to possess, a certain knowledge with which he can overcome sickness. He is always trying to get rid of evil, and this battle of evil goes on eternally in the mental realm. He is for ever trying to get rid of poverty, and so he fights a so-called poverty and its manifestations—fights it on the outside and on the inside, with deeds and words and thoughts. Sometimes he gets rid of poverty in its most virulent form, but he is yet a long way from the rest that comes from the consciousness of abundance. Sometimes he is aide to save himself from the ravages of sickness, but is a long way from being well, because the monster with which he has struggled is still there in the offing, and is only waiting for the opportunity to enter in again and possess. This mentality is the soul of all metaphysics—that is metaphysics as it is generally understood, upon whose banners are glaring promises of release from sin, sickness, and death. But, when you are merely released from these enemies, you may yet find yourself in a middle ground where not much of anything is happening—you are a long way from home, as it were.

Later comes the voice again: “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and I will give thee rest.” The sudden recognition of the ways of Spirit, which are past finding out, dawns on the consciousness, and at once man rises from the temple gates and moves off, not as a cured, healed, or helped individual, but in an entirely new state of consciousness. He ceases to seek release from any of the negative conditions of life, and becomes aware that he is now putting on the positive concepts of life. Hence lie no more fights or attempts to overcome poverty: he is seeking the place of substance, and when he arrives at this consciousness all his limited beliefs are automatically absorbed. He is functioning in a new consciousness which never experienced the thing called limitation. He is not an overcomer. “Put up your sword” can only take place when you have left the mental plane of life and entered into the place of Spirit, which has a way that no man knows, which causes all the wisdom of man, however time-honoured, to be foolishness. It is a big step for the conscious mind, but it is a glorious new day when once you see you are moving towards the new state of things instead of the place of overcoming.

In the mental realm, after you have overcome poverty or the fixation of poverty which is just a belief in an absence of God, you have yet to prove prosperity. In the spiritual realm, of which Jesus spoke, you are actually moving towards the fulfilled consciousness of prosperity, and all the beliefs of poverty are made nil. It is likewise with sickness. Both sickness and health being limitations of life, why seek either of these states? In reality, what you are seeking is “Me,” and that “Me” is “Life Eternal,” and so when you merge into the all-life you will find it stepped down into visibility in the thing called health, because it is only in the form of health that you can see it—yet you never see LIFE. SO likewise life becomes visible in abundance and in a thousand and one other ways, and so the illustration of the motive power in the handful of snow speaks volumes to the listening ear. It is wonderful!

Be not a beggar of Life. “Go in and possess the land”—the consciousness of the Christ within. Stop looking to people, and stop looking for a new Messiah. Finally the last Messiah has come, done his wonderful sleight-of-hand, and disappeared, and you are cast down to the valley of despondency. You are in a funk because another has come and “let you down” and you have tried all the queer, strange tricks that his “method” taught, and failed. When are you going to make a nice clean end of this foolishness and return to ME? No Messiah is coming, because he has already come into your life, and is standing at the door and knocking to be admitted.

Away with all the foolishness of new doctrines. “Come unto ME” and let ME reveal myself unto you. If you dare to cast away from you the “sin” of looking for ME in some glorified teacher of whom you have heard wonderful tales, you will experience the new Life within yourself and all will be well. The old human consciousness is eternally waiting for the Bridegroom to pass by, but hasn’t any oil in his lamp to see him when he comes. He is waiting for another miracle-worker to pass along and do some tricks. He is sure to be disappointed and badly disillusioned.

We laugh when we read in the papers from time to time of certain strange sects who expect the end of the world, and who have in many instances got themselves up in long white robes, of the approved mode, ready to meet God; yet there are hundreds of people to-day who are running about trying to make the ascension.

Do you not know that the only place of ascension is within your own consciousness? Do you think the heavy body weighed down with conscious thinking is going .to ascend over anything? Awake, and arise from the dead.

“And what will you do when you are ascended ?” “Help others.” “You can do that NOW.”

Can you begin to see that as you ascend into the consciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ you are no more under the law, but you are still on earth? “This is the Kingdom of Heaven ” gives you plenty of locality. “Be in the world, but not of it,” is only possible when you have ascended to the point of at-one-ment with Jesus Christ. You are then operating under grace, and it is wonderful what can take place in you. Not for show or place or to be known of men. The miracles were given. The moment the curious eye looked for more, he found himself in the desert without loaves and fishes. So when you learn the law of miracles it will be at a time when you are through with the display. The blatant talking of and about, the false promises, the poison bait of demonstration, will fade away. If you can do the WORKS, you will do them when it is necessary, but never to please a crowd of curious people. There might be some swine among them—and they might trample your pearls into the mire of unbelief again. Do you recall that once Jesus said so much and revealed such deep and hidden things, that they (the crowd) laughed him to scorn? Do you understand how essential it is for you to “leave all; follow ME”?

The ascension so much talked of these days is taking place in you constantly as you turn away from the false gods and follow ME.

 

8. CONCERNING MASTERS

No one with the least glimmer of Light doubts the existence of the unseen Power, whether this be impersonal, or embodied in what is popularly called a “Master.” What the intelligence does resent is the flood of false teaching concerning this magnificent manifestation. For the past years I have discovered literally hundreds of people, of all colours, creeds, races and beliefs, claiming to be the direct and only mouth-pieces of specified Masters, and nearly always these Masters were at war with all other Masters, or else they had a special brand of teaching which

was exclusive and could only be brought through by them.

That Jesus recognized the Presence of the Unseen goes without saying, and that he intimated it was possible for the lowliest human to avail himself of this wonderful Power is also true, but nowhere in the LAW does he remotely indicate that it can become the “plaything” of the human mind. It is no more possible for little humans to bandy these great souls about and cause them to act as marionettes, than it is for these same little humans to handle certain physical beings in high power on the relative plane. 

Much of the so-called contact with Masters is in the field of imagination, on what is commonly called the “Psychic plans.” The sound practical teaching of Jesus makes plain the fact that he took his body with him; that at no time did he depart into a psychic experience leaving his body behind. The consciousness which touches the Christ Mind within will understand that the “Ascended” body is of that same quality as the resurrected body of Jesus—which, though being above the laws of human thinking, yet moved with this very human rate of vibration and was not an apparition in any sense of the word.

Gravity is a quality of human thought. When the consciousness of the Presence is approximated even in a degree, we experience freedom from the gravity of human belief, in which is the whole category of human ills.

It is not too much to expect or even experience the presence of a Master Soul. But this could never happen until one recognized that in reality there is no such a thing as “Masters” in the plural sense of the word, dividing the one Power. There is THE MASTER in everybody. It cannot be subdivided or separated. There is ONLY one POWER, which is indivisible.

“Call upon ME and I will answer you” in the way and after the manner you can best understand. It is not asking too much that your Master or teacher or Guru should appear if this is the simplest manner in which you can receive the Light. But remember when you call for this form of instruction it is quite like calling upon the services of a great teacher of music or any other subject. You may employ him in a sense, but at no time will he be at your beck and call. Have you ever had a Master in Music who was at your disposal any hour of the night or day? Did you ever have a teacher who was envious when you approximated his learning and even exceeded it? Jesus invited this very thing. “The works that I do ye shall do also and even greater.” Whether you like it or not, it is so written. It is the goal which is before you when you come to an awakening from the mesmerism of conscious thinking.

“Lean on ME” does not mean leaning on a group of supposed entities called “spirits” by some and “masters” by others. Not denying any help or instruction whatsoever which may come to you from the unseen, do you suppose that this great power is lying fallow, awaiting your pleasure as to when it shall come into manifestation?

Jesus “the Master” and Teacher counseled against any of the strange practices through which the conscious thinking tried to pattern the Divine. “Clouds without rain”—mental pictures without life or reality —vapoury figures created out of the whole cloth of imagination have nothing to do with the practical revelation of Jesus Christ.

Do not be afraid, nothing can or will be taken away from you by following the Christ. As long as you are looking to any point of illumination other than the “Mind which was also in Christ Jesus” you are looking “through a glass darkly” and will have the distorted pictures of imagination to deal with, and, however near the Truth, you will still be one degree away from the Fatherhood.

Jesus constantly brought to the attention of the individual the need of entering into the actual experiencing of the Power. “Go thou and do likewise” is a stern command for a stout heart.

The more we lean on anything but “Me” the more we are led in by-paths of imagination which finally take on a personal form of doctrine. No sooner does a personal teaching get a hearing than it begins to introduce fear and possibilities of “doing work” against the Powers of Darkness. Eventually so great does this fear become that “cursing,” even though called by another name, is inculcated, and the end of this thing is self-destruction. A new devil is foisted on the world. Following close on the heels of this comes prophecy, which favours with a saccharine anesthetic the one who subscribes to the personal teaching, and at the same time curses all those who differ with the new personal worship. Then suddenly the feet of clay are dug out by the most ardent followers, and the new “Messiah” comes crashing to earth. It is so written in the law. If you erect a god you will pull him down upon your own head.

“Go thou and do likewise” posits to the possibility of Mastership for that one who is willing to “go.” In no way does a recognition of this inner possibility take from you anything as sweet as the possible communion with Saints or Masters. You have been told “When you are ready the Master will appear”—and your concern is with getting ready, for the moment you arrive at this state of consciousness then, if it be necessary for a Master to appear to complete your sense of Heaven, he will appear. In the meantime do not get a fixation as to how the Master should look. It is by holding to the false patterns of another’s thinking that we close the door of inspiration to ourselves. Your revelation is going to be personal and different from that of every other person. It must of necessity be because it is to be YOUR revelation. Watch therefore, watch, watch, watch—ye know not at what moment I may come into your life.

Your Master or Guru or Teacher, if you must have one on the outside, may look like the dustman or the charlady or the Lord of the manor. If you do not know “ME” you will not recognize Me no matter however bejeweled or in whatever splendour I appeared. Why jewels and fine robes are especially identified with Masters is a puzzle. Is it possible that such advanced souls would be concerned with a display of things that the earthly mind would call wealth? Could it be that this gaudy presentation would be used to intrigue the, ignorant? Ask yourself all about these things and see what the Spirit within you has to say. There is no reason why they (the Masters) should not be beautifully garbed, but there might be a moment when a Word should come to you through something more inconspicuous than the rich robes of an Oriental Potentate. I might want to communicate with you in the midst of a traffic jam or in the fury of war or in the hell of a plague of human commotion.

Do you begin to SEE? There is much to be revealed to you when you are ready. Yes, when you are ready the “Master” will appear; and he will appear for you and you alone; and for the purpose of giving to you that inspiration which is necessary to carry you into the city of Refuge out of the turmoil of the “ten thousand” that are falling by the right hand and left. “Here am I” may sound over your ear and a rag-picker may be standing by with a WORD for you. “Wait patiently on the Lord and he shall deliver thee.” If it takes a burning bush—it can happen.

Do you begin to see and sense the grand dimensions of Jesus Christ, here, there and everywhere? Instantly available when you recognize HIM. NO matter if you have made your bed in “hell” or gone to the uttermost parts of the earth—still “I AM” there. Do you begin to “feel” the lovely influence of the over-brooding Spirit, this Inspired Presence? Just as soon as you do, you will take away your dependence in the silly chimera of the conscious thinking and begin to see ME everywhere—then AM I everywhere. Do you see?

The woman at the well, who had such a magnificent chance to receive the Spirit, saw only a fortune-teller. She rushed back to the village and said, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.” What an excitement 1 She did not see Jesus Christ. What are you seeing? Do you begin to understand the Scriptures as they “talk” to the Churches—temples? Do you begin to understand why it is written on the walls of the universe, “When the student is ready the Master will appear?” He can appear in any form necessary to convey the message or revelation to you. What he has to reveal will cause such an inward growth that silence and deep worship will seal the lips. You will not reveal the holy thing to the rabble of conscious thinking. People that experience real things never talk about them—they are too precious. “See that ye tell no man” still holds good.

I once sat on the deck of a steamer hugging the Malay coast. We were nosing through tropic waters in the direction of the High Himalayas, looking for a Master or Guru. I was speculating on just how I should find him and what he would look like, when he spoke to me within and said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead—I AM He that should come.” Suddenly a flood of light came through with its glorious revelation that finding the Christ within as a definite center was necessary before anything could be found on the outside. The reality back of’ everything in your life is only as great as the consciousness of the Christ within you. This power, once recognized, can come forth in any form or shape; and hence we touch, ever so lightly, on the subject of precipitation. “When you are ready the Master will appear.” Do you hear? It is wonderful and glorious to find the Christ within and dare to acknowledge it and call upon it and expect and accent it into manifestation in your life.

When you grasp this simple teaching of Jesus Christ you will throw into the dump heap the rubbish you have collected through “going up and down and to and fro” in the land of personal opinions and beliefs. You will be found in your right mind seated at the feet of the Master.

Jesus was born in a stable. The human mind is intrigued always with gold and jewels —imagining this to be wealth. Without the consciousness back of it these manifestations would run through your hands like water, even if your Master presented them to you. You can only hold what you have in your consciousness, and if you have the idea that gold and jewels are of great value you cannot possess them, or if you do, you cannot hold them. I hold no brief for poverty or limitation of any sort, but I likewise hold no brief for the gaudy symbols of true substance.

When the curious went into the desert seeking Jesus, the man who had made gold, fish, wine and bread, they couldn’t find him. What do you want with a Master? The lesson lie will give you to put into practice, or the loaves and fishes? You must answer this yourself. No Master is going to do the work for you. “Go thou and do likewise” still holds. If you imagine that the “Master” you are calling into manifestation is going to do miracles in your presence all the while you are mistaken, and when you seek him again he will be so surprised that you did not see the “miracle” and not the loaves and fishes that he will come to the natural conclusion that you were not ready. “What went ye out for to see?”

When you came out of Egypt did you bring the symbolic jewels and trinkets of the Wisdom of Masters or did you bring the hypnotism of slavery and imagination. Symbolic phenomena will not supply your daily needs. Thousands are dwelling on the plane of the symbolic. They have infinite riches, health, joy and youth on the mental plane, but it fails to materialize because of their failure to recognize the Christ within (Father within) which is the step between the seen and the unseen and is the only possible way to materialization. Again the word “precipitation” is mentioned to you—the reader. Are you beginning to sense the deep and hidden meanings which are riding so obviously on the surface of the word, and yet which appear not to the uninitiate?

As you push out the borders of your tent, as you launch out into the deeper waters, you will see that it is up to you, and you will also understand the command, “Come apart from among them and be ye separate.”

When the Ascended Jesus appeared to his disciples they failed to recognize him. It seems impossible to us. They had been daily with him for three years, but so thick was the veil of their conscious thinking, which knew he was dead and buried, that their eyes were holden and they could not SEE what was actually present. Watch! I may be standing beside you at this instant and you may know so much human belief that I cannot get through to you. “Believest thou this?” was asked before anything could happen. So go within and shut your door and see just what you believe; for verily I say unto you, “Whatsoever you can ask in my name that give I unto you” is true and probable to you at this very instant. Do you hear?

“Launch out on to deeper waters” is not an exhibition of your skill to handle a water craft, or make a show of your prowess over the sea, but a deep secret word for you. You cannot hear it unless the power has sensed the time is at hand for you to do this very thing. You will never “hear” any word of Spirit until you are ready to carry it out easily and naturally. The only caution necessary is to “See that ye tell no man.” Do not tell the man “whose breath is in his nostrils” lest he discourage you and prove to you the utter impossibility of accomplishment. But you can “show” him when it is all accomplished. That is if by showing it brings anything to him that would assist his ongoing.

“Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped,” and the glory of the Lord will fill the house (consciousness).

Miracle will follow miracle and revelation will follow revelation and you will know that “If any lack wisdom let him ask of God” is the soundest and sanest kind of instruction, the surest of results.

So often one hears of people trying to make what they call the “ascension.” This appears to be an undefined state of things as far as most of the individuals are concerned. There is such an ignorance of the revelation of Jesus Christ in any one who deliberately attempts to put this Ascended state on, very much as if he would change garments. From the moment you begin to recognize the inner Lord you have definitely commenced the “Ascension”—and only you can retard this action by turning to the appearances and attempting to hurry the process.

“Thou fool, do you not know that a seed must first fall into the ground and rot before it shall be made alive?” The old shell of conscious thinking must fall away, in order that the gravity of matter may release its hold on you. Gravity is human thinking. That is why when you suddenly call upon the NAME you can neutralize the action of gravity and prevent the ordinary results of evil taking place in your life.

You will find your Master, and you will commune with your Master when you fully acknowledge The Master. When it is possible and natural to you to experience these things they will happen without the excitement of the “women at the well” consciousness. When you are ready the “Master” will appear. It is so and so it is. Selah.

 

9. IT IS SO

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father which is in Heaven, and on this rock will I build my Church.”

In the NEW DAY we begin to see, sense, and understand that everything is completed, accepted, and acknowledged within, before the least visible sign has appeared on the outer plane. It is just the recognition of the finished and completed “ substance of the thing hoped for” which causes it to come forth. “Let the child be born,” “Let the dry land appear,” illustrate the whole process of manifestation. This naturally calls for a complete disregard for appearances. The outside of the cocoon into which the grub has entered indicates nothing, and shows nothing of what is taking place within. It is far removed from that which is to appear, and pictures forth an absolutely hopeless proposition as far as the appearances are concerned. So is it with you. When you can have it revealed to you—without “flesh and blood” then you have it, for you have grasped the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of the thing not [yet] seen,” and you have that which is eternal and everlasting and which holds the continuous manifestation in place. It is wonderful when you begin to realize this subtle, simple principle. It is a definite elevation above the “trying” to make things happen. It has already happened or else you would never nave had the desire. But the old Adam thought, roaming about in the density of conscious thinking, generated by the mists of human beliefs, cannot conceive this. It is impossible for him to grasp it, because he has no capacity of mind to go beyond appearances. “Can you by searching find out God?” The whole Jesus Christ platform in its true inspiration is impossible to the human thought. Who can solve the mystery of “Before you ask I have answered, and while you are yet seeking I shall give it unto thee”? It is not possible in the conscious-thinking plane. It is simply a group of meaningless words, and is certainly “foolishness” in the eyes of man. Hence if he is to receive the blessing referred to in the above mentioned verse it is going to be from the elevation of a new consciousness.

Note that the moment this recognition of the finished and completed thing within takes place, the word is given, “Upon this Rock [understanding] will I build my Church.” Upon this consciousness shall the temple of manifestation appear. It is so glorious that the wandering Adam is again being given the opportunity to re-enter the Garden which he has left only in conscious thinking.

When this new consciousness is “sensed” within you, you will cease the observation. There will be no looking for results and wondering when the appearance will take place. It is so thoroughly accepted and recognized that it is immediately dropped from the thought and then the “temple” is made manifest at the right moment.

Transcending all the ways of man, the manifestation takes place outside his time- space idea. Who will accept it? The moment the limited power of conscious thinking is turned on this glorious revelation it evaporates into thin air. It becomes instantly invisible to the eyes looking “through a glass darkly”; it cannot be reasoned out by the highest and finest human erudition, because it is not so to that mind.

The moment you make the recognition, which Peter made, of the finished thing, you draw to yourself a symposium of ideas which flower into an abundance of manifestation. It is all past finding out—past thinking out— past reasoning out—it is.

Advancing to the degree of revelation, the student ceases to be interested in the “demonstration” of the Power. He recognizes something greater than the ability to do an occasional trick. He is sensing a change coming over him. It is the development of a new consciousness—a consciousness wherein lie new and finer capacities than he has heretofore imagined. He begins to go by a way of his own. This does not in any sense of the word signify Withdrawal, asceticism, or retirement from the world. It means the merging into oblivion so that he can come out into that form or pattern necessary to accomplish that which is to be accomplished.

Jesus appeared and spoke the word, and the results that followed were directly in proportion to the ability of the listeners to accept the word. He had no struggle to keep an organization nor a reputation in place. He merely had the freedom of Spirit which is your freedom when you come out from among the musty beliefs that you must be “doing good” in the world. How can you help doing good when it is your very nature. Then why set aside a time and place and an hour to do good? What will you be doing the rest of the day? Answer me.

Are you beginning to see the need of a deeper secrecy than you ever before experienced? A need for something which is akin t o absolute silence? The sealed lips concealing all the Power which is to be used in the creation of the new idea? Even as a man holds his breath until the force of the desire for breath is so great that his will and desire to hold it are broken down. So is the secrecy which you keep within. It will finally find a way of expression if it has not been dissipated by chatter. There is a sort of conspiracy between you and the Father within which will finally bring out supremacy. The constant and untiring recognition of the Christ within was the determining factor in the life of Jesus the carpenter. Pie magnified this Lord within, attributed to Him the Power and the government of his life. Called upon Him and placed radical reliance in the Power. Seeing what this did for him, it would be well if you instantly stopped the foolish idea of trying to “do” something with the Power, and began the process of constant recognition of this Power, which had ways and means that “ye know not of”—which transcended the laws and beliefs, opinions and ideas, of mankind, and caused that to appear which was entirely outside of the works or the understanding of man.

The secrecy which was so essential, and which is referred to as “tell no man—show John” is the very keynote to manifestation. Every time you tell of the inner secret, your aims, desires, or ambitions, you weaken the possibility of their coming into manifestation. The personal conspiracy which goes on be-tween Jesus and the Christ is so secret that it accumulates all the momentum necessary to break the shell of human belief—it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

 

10. NOT THAT WHICH GOETH IN

“Not that which goeth into a man, but that which cometh out, defileth (or maketh) him.”

Man is the eternal “receiver” of the substance of God. What he does with this substance determines what the results will be. Hence a dozen different people will find the perfume of a rose delightful, sweet, heavy, irritating, unbearable, or nondescript. It may bring sweetest memories to some and hateful ones to others. It may refresh one and make another ill. Man is the eternal “receiver,” and is also the transmuter of the life substance. In the same atmosphere one man prospers and another fails and dies—why”? You begin with the tiresome story of how one is better adapted to the situation than the other, and yet, even while you are telling of the wonderful education and cultural background of the successful one, beside him stands a giant of the same industry who came through with none of these opportunities.

It is a wonderful step in self-revelation when you come to the place of honesty. If you have not yet arrived at the place of disregarding the appearances without trying to explain them away, you cannot enter into the magnificent results that follow. Surely the “signs follow” without a question of a doubt, but not until you see that all are receiving eternally the unlimited substance of Spirit. What comes out “defiles or makes you,” and, if it is defiling you, you are more than likely blaming something or somebody for your failure. “Yes, but I don’t see how it can work in my case.” Neither did Jesus Christ. He could not tell. “Not even the Son, but the Father,” knows the ways of the next dimension. Trying to find out the how; setting up an argument about appearairces; citing other similar cases, is exactly as one who comes for an interview with a learned musician and begins with, “Well, I don’t understand about music” and then proceeds to talk and take up the valuable time of the maestro. If you do not understand, and cannot solve it with your human reason, it is about time you stopped the ceaseless chatter about your non-understanding. It is time you “LET” the Power reveal to you the ways of recognizing this Presence. Put through the “glass” of your conscious thinking, it is bound to be coloured with the hue of the glass. No matter how strong the light is, if it passes through a dark glass it is going to give forth a dull ray. God is not a power to be strained through the Adam consciousness.

God is ALL-Present, hence everything is present, but it can only be stepped down into visibility by man, through his temple-body. Do you begin to see how it is that a man (temple-body) is the eternal receiver of this unseen substance which is transformed and comes out into a thousand and one manifestations? “Whatsoever you ask the Father,” that can He do. It is the substance that has entered in and is now coming forth according to your interpretation. None of this changes the nature or quality of God. It is only apparent to, and affecting, the human consciousness. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”—so is it to him. That does not make it true for anyone. It is only true to the thinker. One man may suffer untold agonies from groundless fears that another is able to use to his benefit. A savage may tremble before electricity, but not so an engineer. “Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out.” Do you begin to see how it is that the most wretched beggar in the streets of life is the receiver of the ALL? “Yes, but——” is usually the answer to such a flare of light, and the “dog returns to its vomit.”

Again the command, “See that you tell no man.” The seal upon your lips makes all this “talking” about the “pearl of great price” impossible.

The hydra-headed personality which has been so important or so insignificant will be subdued by the Power which is able to “subdue all things.” It shall be absorbed by decreasing in importance. With this decreasing of itself will be a lessening of its old die hard opinions which have been verified by the testimony and proof of “ten thousand.” Isn’t it interesting that in the picture of the “ten thousand at thy right hand” and as many more at thy left that “One” passes through? He—the “One”—passing through in this wonderful illustration, cannot then have anything in common with the “ten thousand at thy right hand”: he does not concur with their beliefs, hence the testimony piled ten thousand high does not touch him. In other words, “That which came out of him” did not bear fruit which tallied with that of the ten thousand.

It does not make any difference whether it has happened to everybody else in the world, “it shall not come nigh thee” if that which comes out of you is right. What argument is there upon this point? “Be still”—“Keep silent”—place the coal of fire upon your lips— “Salute no man you pass on the highway of life” or else you will be one of the “ten thousand” which will heap up the testimony of the reality of evil.

It makes no difference whether “it” has ever happened before or not, or whether “it” will ever happen again; suffice it to say “it” has happened NOW. Do you hear?

This Presence of the Divine Ego finds expression in the personal ego of man. If man imagines that he is separated from the Presence, his little ego becomes so swollen that it finally reaches the proportions of a personal God. He becomes a God, a personal God, and acts accordingly until he has exhausted the Power given to the thought. Finally it runs down, just as a wheel running downhill may proceed with a certain amount of speed up the neighboring slope, but its energy is comparatively slight. There is ONE GOD. When St. Paul, in his fervent desire to make man see the magnificence of this power, exclaimed, “Know ye not that ye are gods,” he did not intend to convey the idea that you were “God Almighty,” but God in essence and nature. It is wonderful that the temple is inbreathed with the Spirit. “He breathed in man the breath of life, and man became a living soul”; and then “Man worked out many inventions”—and through these “inventions” he has brought out all sorts of distorted and fiendish manifestations. “Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out, maketh and defileth a man.”

“But the Lord said to him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,” etc., etc. You are the “chosen vessel” of the Lord to bear the “name” (nature) of this Power, even as Jesus bore the nature of this God and was able to set aside all the laws under which he ordinarily functioned. It is eternally the same Power that is entering in, and yet its coming out is in a myriad of ways. It is by recognizing that you are the bearer of this “nature” that you are given the power to ask whatsoever you will in my name (nature). It is only when name becomes nature that this mighty thing takes place. The “Lord, Lord,” and the “Peace, peace,” as names accomplish nothing, but as “nature” they produce after their kind.

“How manifold art thy blessings, Lord; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea.” The infinitude of the Power is expressed in “grace for grace,” or constant refilling for constant giving. “The unsearchable riches of Christ” are unsearchable because they are infinite and exhaustless. “Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” is an invitation to release that capacity within your own temple-body by recognizing the Presence within and without everything. “The unsearchable riches of Christ” contains all that you have ever dreamed of, and more—“the sufficiency of all things.” Peace be unto you. It is well.

 

11 LIFE

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone.”

The “river” flowing from Eden is the consciousness which “compasseth the whole land.” It is that “urge” or acceptance of Power which is ready to “go in and possess the land” (new consciousness) instead of hunting and prospecting for gold on the outside. Thus do we begin to see why the revelation of Jesus Christ is so important, for he draws the attention back to the source of Power and causes man eventually to see that all manifestation is the result of the movement of consciousness, and in no way is the manifestation responsible for the movement or urge of consciousness.

When we are told to “consider the lilies, HOW they grow,” we generally pass this invitation by lightly, considering the beauty and perfume of the flower, but the invitation is expressly on the “HOW” of the lily. It is amazing when we awaken to the knowledge that we have strayed into a far country where things have become so real as to hypnotize us. The way of attaining them as a natural expression of life, instead of through the hard “earn your living by the sweat of your brow” way of the conscious thinking, becomes a fable.

The sap in a tree rises and begins a constant stream of manifestation on the outside, changing from one form to another, never stopping until it has fulfilled its mission. The movement of life is ever for the purpose of bringing forth manifestation, yet many people are still trying to get this manifestation independent of Life. They are seeking the loaves and fishes and not the miracle, and hence they are turned awry. “You seek me for the loaves and fishes and not because of the miracle” means nothing to the man who is looking for things and is trying to demonstrate them by some new method. He does not know that health, prosperity, happiness, are the natural expressions of Life in action, and so he continues to seek these things apart from the Power.

It is difficult for the little metaphysician who believes that he can manipulate God by prayer to start with the premise that God is not healthy, wealthy, or happy; that all of these things are merely limitations of the glory of God, and that every man has a different measure for all of them. Hence what one man calls strength would be almost anemia to another, and what one man calls wealth would be poverty to another, and so on. He keeps repeating the verses of three dimensional thought that God is “happy” and wants him to be happy, etc. God is the impersonal Principle; manifestation takes place the moment the Principle is recognized. “If you make your bed in hell, I AM there,” but until this startling fact is recognized nothing takes place.

The moment you begin to understand the difference between the way of Jesus Christ and the conscious-thought-taking process, you will begin to “feel” that it is impossible to manifest the limitations you formerly strove against. Health, happiness, prosperity, and self-expression are all limitations of the human mind, almost like a parentheses put about a thing, but they are life stopped down to a point of visibility, to the Jesus consciousness.

The nature of God expresses in a million and one ways. We do not consider it unnatural for the apple-tree to bring forth apples, neither should it be unnatural for you—created in the image and likeness of God, a little lower than the angels, and having dominion over the earth, etc.—to bring forth the manifestations of Life. Yet all the manifestations of God apparently are impossible of attainment to the average man because he finds them so unnatural and so impossible of attainment.

Jesus knew this, and that is why he insisted on the fact that “I can of myself do nothing.” The unenlightened man who has tasted of the fruit of the tree of knowledge cannot find it natural to be well, happy, and prosperous. He eternally tries by one stratagem or another to receive special dispensations from the tribal Jehovah who is so personal in his imagination as to stop the orderly movement of life to fulfill some petty whim of the conscious thinking. It is only when he realizes that prayer can in no way change the mind of God, and that its only reason is for the purpose of aligning man with God and thereby permitting the God Power to have a free and easy expression, that he makes what the relative mind calls demonstrations.

The Life of God is eternally moving in the universe, and the moment man is aligned with this force he sees things taking place naturally which he formerly tried to demonstrate. “Not my will but thine be done” used to be the wail of a defeated sinner at the feet of a fierce tribal God who was constantly watching for an opportunity to punish him. It was the mark of complete defeat, and was at best a “defense mechanism.” When it is understood that man is for the express purpose of letting this unseen Power come into expression, he then understands that “Not my will but thine be done” is as sure and certain an alignment with the principle of harmony as is the giving over of the childish ignorance of numbers to the law of mathematics. Would anyone complain, when he becomes one with the law of mathematics, that he is not having his way? Does he want his way when he once understands mathematics? So is it with the God Power. The resigning of the conscious-thinking process which has been getting man into a plethora of difficulties is gladly and joyously made when its benefits are understood. This resignation does not make man an automaton. The infinite variety of expression, its ceaseless originality, its glorious capacity to see a new dimension, keeps each manifestation in a never ending field of differentiated expression.

Working from the revelation as given to us by Jesus Christ, we begin to see why he insisted on “Take no thought.” Man’s three dimensional capacity is based upon results and ideas gained from judging from appearances, most of which are faulty and untrue, or at best shifting and changing. Until the LIGHT of this Jesus Christ nature comes to man, he imagines that he makes his consciousness by taking thought of and about things. Later he finds that ill conscious thinking is only an emanation of a state of consciousness real or imaginary. Hence as many thoughts can How from an imaginary state of consciousness as from a genuine one. That the whole mass of mankind thought at one time that the world was flat did not in any way change the facts. So is it with all the “thought-taking process.” Just thinking or imagining you are well or prosperous or that God is busy waiting for you to tell Him all about your petty personal woes is to misunderstand the Presence which is eternally ready to express through any avenue that is ready or open to receive. Grass will quickly grow across the most heavily paved city street, if it has half a chance. If, however, you keep treading the whole surface with the heavy feet of conscious thinking, little can take place.

It is wonderful, the refreshing, lovely sense of Life that comes to one when he begins to understand the way of Jesus Christ, unbound from all the religious appendages and barnacles of metaphysics, and from the foolish, foolish idea that you can make “demonstrations.” Who are you, or your teacher, or your leader, to presume so much upon this magnificent Power as to think that you could change the Divine Destiny of the universe?

Do you begin to see that Jesus “went unto his Father,” ascended into the place of pure recognition which is possible to every man. He then “let” the Power operate through him “in the way ye know not of.” The manifestation was what the unenlightened refer to as demonstrations. The only trouble with the demonstration system is the great lapse of time between demonstrations, whereas moving with the consciousness of God there is a constant stream of manifestation. “According to your faith be it unto you.” This is merely the degree of your acceptance, merely your measure or your ability to receive, hence “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”—one man’s wealth is another man’s poverty. You hold the measure to the universe—that is your degree of what you can accept as possible to the Presence.

The drama of the ejection from the Garden of Eden is merely what has happened to every man. Somewhere along the line of Life he allowed himself to transfer the Power of God to the manifestation. From that moment on he has been “seeking the loaves and fishes” instead of the miracle, and consequently all sorts of complications have set in. He has tasted of Power wrapped up in a symbol; he says, “Money talks,” “Money is power,” etc. This wholesale denying ME has brought dire effects. “I will deny you,” and then the struggle for attainment of those things which are the natural, possession of man begins.

“O that I might find HIM.”

“If I be lifted up, I shall draw all manifestation unto me.” If I be lifted up to the consciousness of anything, I shall bring that naturally into manifestation. If I am seeking the “loaves and fishes,” no matter how badly: I need them, I am mistaking the Power. I am still trying to feed upon the fruits of the tree of good and evil.

So subtle is this matter of consciousness that, even after one begins to see what took place when the beggar was told to “rise and walk” (after forty years of trying to do this very thing by conscious thinking), the doubting, curious mind wants to observe the working of the Power. The tendency to “peep” is merely the old doubt coming forth in a new guise. You cannot get into the Kingdom of Heaven by observation. This is one of the laws which has to be obeyed. The magnifying of the Power, and the keeping the attention away from the “how, why, when, and where;” is the only way of attainment. It is wonderful what the God Power moving in you as the temple of the Living God can and will do for you. Do you begin to see that your body is the temple of the LIVING God, and was chosen for the expression of God? Do you begin to understand that the will of God being done in the temple of your body—consciousness- results in the fulfillment of all your desires in their highest interpretation? It is too good to be true, but it is the way the Master showed us and it is the way of Heaven.

“Thank you, Father; I knew that this was done.” What will you do with a statement of this kind? Do you believe that it was already done? He was talking about the bread and fishes which were to feed the hungry mob. Do you believe that it was already completed and done before anything appeared? Do you believe that the plants of the field were already there, and there was yet no man to till the soil, nor rain to cause them to grow? Do you see how utterly the Jesus Christ dimension takes you out of the dimension of the conscious thinking? You cannot think these things, because they are not true to the relative mind. Neither are any of the things you are trying to do true or possible to your present state of consciousness. If they were possible, you would have already done them long ago. It is because you realize they arc impossible that you are turning to the next state of consciousness. When you realize just what you are doing, you will “go in and possess the land” (the new consciousness) and let the new dimension function from its new level.

“If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law”—of what? Of your own belief, of course. The conscious thinking pulls you down to accept the relative values of the appearance world. Conscious thinking is the only gravity there is. It pulled Peter under when he was functioning from a consciousness of no gravity. This cannot be understood by the reasoning mind. It is utter foolishness in the eyes of man. Remember that the teaching of Jesus is founded on the premise, “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.” If you cannot start from this premise you cannot start, but will flounder about with a theory or a system or a philosophy which is merely a pastime of the conscious thinking mind.

We are not inviting unconsciousness when we refer to the teaching of Jesus Christ. For the first time you become conscious of the reality of life, and then thoughts emanate from this new state of life as rays falling naturally from a light.

“See that you tell no man” is as important as any of the other laws governing this new venture. Who will believe you? Not any man. And so you are warned to “flee from that man whose breath is in his nostrils.” He has an argument, and he is going to talk from the basis of human reasoning about something that is founded on the basis that all human reasoning and wisdom are foolishness. Hence the stupidity of trying to meet on such a ground. There is a gulf separating these two states as unbridgeable as that which separated Dives from Lazarus.

Returning again to the illustration of the beggar at the gate, we see that he must do something entirely outside of the conscious thinking. This is exactly what Jesus was trying to put across to the disciples and those who followed him. He knew that they had tried for ages to think their ways out of difficulties; but the way of revelation was so past finding out by thinking that it was hopeless to even try to explain it. Always the conscious-thinking mind would rush after the demonstrations, only to find themselves in the desert of waiting.

“Be still and know that I AM God” gives you a chance to see just what your idea of life is. Do you still belong to that mass of individuals who look upon health, wealth, happiness, as unnatural? All the expressions of God are “too food to be true,” and are impossible to the thinking man. Therefore Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing,” but “ALL things [not some] are possible to God.” You become conscious of God through the Father consciousness (the mind which was also in Christ Jesus) which is in every man when he “arises” or recognizes it.

The moment the prodigal REMEMBERS, and arises and goes towards his Father (symbolically speaking), the Father moves towards him with the fatted calf, robe, ring, etc. It is wonderful what the recognition of the Presence will do for you.

The “demonstration” of wealth has been proven to be a total failure. Thousands of people are declaring all sorts of grand and mighty statements about God and His wealth who are, and who will remain, in direst need. It is self-hypnosis to imagine that because you shout affirmations to a Principle it will start into operation and accomplish the impossible. It does not happen in music, mathematics, nor any of the other sciences, that because you make affirmations of and about them something happens. Mathematics is not moved into action because of your praise, but because you become one with the law and are mathematics in operation. So is it with God. “I and my Father are one” is not in any sense of the word “using” God. It is a moving with the Power into a certain and sure manifestation—“by the way ye know not of” You can only become conscious of God in your own consciousness. Jesus called this place of meeting the “Father within” “He made himself AS God ”—not God, for what manifestation can possibly encompass the universal ?

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted. . . . The name of the first is [note present tense] Pison: that is it which compasseth [surrounds, enfolds, possesses] the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of the land is [present tense] good.”

This revelation of the manifestation of wealth and how it proceeds out of consciousness is so startling as to make the puny efforts to make financial demonstrations seem empty indeed. Do you begin to see why Jesus went into this consciousness, instead of trying to make a certain manifestation on the outside. Do you perceive the symbology of the river flowing through and about and encompassing the whole land of good—gold— and how naturally it possesses it?

“Return unto ME, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved” from the fearful desolation of the conscious thinking which is filled with strife and limitation and every abominable imagination.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion.”

This dominion is only possible when you are moving with the Power, and when you begin to realize that the “government shall be upon his shoulders.” Then the stream of desires becomes the chart or a map of the Divine Destiny.

 

12 THE VERY PRESENT HELP

One moment, please! What are you worrying over at this instant? That thing which seems so important will in a short time be ancient history. It is only important because you have your eyes glued upon it and are giving it the power which belongs to God. Before long it will be nothing—no more real than the dream you had last night. In the grand scheme of things it is entirely unimportant and meaningless.

This stance once taken in consciousness, tilings will be relegated to their proper place. It is only when the attention is fixed on appearances that the importance of what you are doing, or what has to be done, assumes such gigantic proportions as to be impossible.

This making of all things unimportant does not lessen the integrity with which you “go through the mechanics ” of that which you have to do. It relieves you of the personal responsibility. As soon as Jesus saw how unimportant the manifestation was, and how all important the POWER of the PRESENCE is, he immediately performed that which was utterly impossible to him otherwise.

The more you contemplate the importance of what you are about to undertake, the more you detract from the beautiful flow of inspiration which is to bring the desired results. The moment you get out of the way and treat the whole matter as Jesus did, that moment can you attain, and do the impossible.

Contemplating the “giant” was what put the fear and trembling into the hearts of the Philistines. Had David spent any time considering the importance of the task before him, he would have been unable to select the exact stone which felled the Goliath of human belief.

When the integrity of the Principle of the Presence is with you, you will not pass over lightly the part you (as the temple of the Living God) are to play. There is none of the “indifference” of the human mind which glibly says, “It is of no importance.” There is a Divine indifference which frees you from the limitations of the conscious thinking. If you are going to “go thou and do likewise” you cannot afford to make that which you are doing of such tremendous importance that it overpowers you. The more you realize, “It is not I, but the Father, that doeth the works,” and make your alignment with this Father within, the more you will go about doing the works naturally and normally, without the emotional importance attached to these works.

Too much stress cannot be laid upon the integrity of the individual. When he has even heard the command, “Be careful over no-thing,” he is at the place of freedom which requires him to Divinely pass the substance of life out freely, but which in the same gesture demands that the “pieces be picked up and that nothing be lost.” It is wonderful when we begin to understand and see the WISDOM of God in contradistinction to that of man. When man is “careful over nothing,” he becomes reckless and goes from bad to worse, and they say of him, “Too much freedom.” There is no such a thing as “too much freedom” in God.

When you have arrived at the understanding of the unimportance of things, and are governed by the integrity which has gone unto “your Father,” then things that “eyes have not seen and ears have not heard” are revealed to you.

The revelation of Jesus Christ reverses everything the human mind has conceived, even its most cherished science which so many imagine is going to eventually discover God. God cannot be found on the dissecting-table or through the high-powered microscope.

Stage fright is a product of conscious thinking making something out of nothing. What the performer is to do becomes of such paramount importance, and so vastly eminent, he Imagines that the whole world revolves about his little sally into the limelight. If it becomes too important, it destroys him. He has magnified it until it has dominated everything else. No audience is more than casually interested in the personality, unless it is in some degree freed from the importance of what it is doing. And yet this very freedom needs such a sense of integrity. Nothing is too small, nothing too large, to have infinite attention, but everything is too small and too large to be made important. The more you magnify the Power within, the more perfect will the performance be. It carries on and on into the dimension of infinity, if such a] paradoxical phrase could be used. Presently you see that you do not need to think what you are to say—“Open your mouth and I will supply the words,” and this lovely abandon is only possible to him who has the integrity to carry out the instructions, and forget the importance of what he is doing.

Jesus spoke of this in an infinite variety of ways—“Absent from the body and present with the Lord”—away from the manifestation and present with the “Father within,” who “worketh hitherto,” is the sure way to success. No matter what’ the picture on the outside, good, bad, or indifferent, it is all the same. A good picture can become so important that it destroys you. You can exaggerate its importance until it dominates you, just the same as the evil condition that presents such a horrible and powerful aspect to you. The first thing, in any case, is to begin the devitalizing of the appearance by making it unimportant.

The human mind cannot do this, “Look, we are about to be destroyed.” The servant, the body or conscious thinking, looks out and sees the awfulness of life in the flesh, but his attention is called to another Presence. “Look, the hills round about us are filled with legions of angels.” You do not have to be fanciful, and believe in winged beings, to receive an immeasurable sense of help immediately from this recognition.

No matter what the situation may be, the moment you recognize the “Father who worketh hitherto” you will experience an immediate relief from the effects of your conscious thinking. It is wonderful, and in the twinkling of an eye all is changed and you are exclaiming, “Where are my accusers?“ It is all so magical to the human mind. Man has been so hypnotized to the long standing of his case ; the seeming attempts to change or set aside the belief; or the panic that followed the suddenness of the terrible manifestation. He has no time to think. “Quicker than thinking” it operates. “Before you ask”—at a “moment ye think not.”

“Be not afraid ; it is I”—this VOICE is eternally speaking to you—yes, at the precise moment that human thought-voices are shrieking an awful story of lack, limitation, disease, and fear. When your “ear” is single to the VOICE, then your whole temple will be filled with light. Judging from appearances is the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” which works such havoc.

Such simplicity is used to express the new dimension that it confounds the “wise and prudent” and throws dust into the eyes of human intellect. There is no “reason” why the whole manifestation should change “in the twinkling of an eye,” and from the human standpoint it cannot possibly take place, but, in spite of all this, it does. It is true that Jesus could not walk on the waters as a human body. But he did. It is true that he could not feed five thousand out of apparently nothing. But he did. Who can explain the modus operandi of it all? He knew that it was the power of the Christ consciousness, indigenous in every man, which had “power to pick it up and lay it down,” and did not at any time ask permission of man to perform a natural law in its own province.

“His ways are past finding out.” Do you believe this? Then no one is going to “find them out,” and so that settles all the opinions and beliefs of the “Knowing Ones.” If you are among those who have come to the place of “Choose ye this day whom you shall serve,” and have chosen the Power which considers the wisdom of man foolishness, then you will so consider it, and will not go again to man seeking answers.

You can see the need of secrecy in all this wonderful Christ life. Who will believe you? The very one who gets you to expose the “pearl of great price” is the thief who will say to you, “Well, it didn’t work after all.”

There be those who will insist that it is for “all” and that you have no right to bury the pearl of great price, etc., etc. You may be caught by this sympathetic talk and expose the precious thing. You will find how far the philanthropy of a sympathetic person goes: it reaches barely to the narrow limits of his personality.

“Behold, I make all things new.” What is going to take place? The same thing that took place when the blind man suddenly opened his eyes. He perceived an entirely new universe. How did it happen? What did he do? He had been trying for years. He was frozen into a place of “blindness” by race consciousness. He was incurable. He was blind because of accident, etc., etc. So the old story goes—the human mind can raise up one belief after another and defy God with its strength. Its lying voice says, “Yes, I know, but” and then it sets out again to establish some reality apart from God. Either God is the ONLY Power or there are two powers, and, if this is so, it is time the proper recognition was given to both. Man sees nothing but foolishness in all the teachings of Jesus. “In some places he did not many mighty works because of their unbelief.” It is so subtle, so simple, and so evanescent that it appears to the human mind as imagination.

“What went ye out for to see?” Answer me. What are you going out to see, to do, to have, or to express? If it is to be important, then the chances are you will fail, but if you go out “shod with the preparation of the gospel and clothed with the garments of light”—if you go forth with the integrity to perform that which is set before you without glorifying or minimizing the temple-body—then will you “see” and “hear” and “look” and perceive some of the dimensions of the new Life. It is glorious! It is wonderful! “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” The blessings are pouring down about you in a never-ending stream—a flood of substance, of light and power are over you —you are baptized by the Presence even now as you read. It is wonderful. “How wonderful are thy mercies, Lord—Thy blessings—if I attempt to count them they are as numerous as the sands of the sea.”

“Arise and go forth into your new day.” Nothing you are going to do is important of itself—it is only another opportunity to glorify God.

 

13. THE APPROPRIATE HOUR

“Once, in the far days of his own past, man took an oath of lofty allegiance, and walked, turbaned in Divine grandeur, with the gods. If today the busy world calls to him with imperious demands and he gives himself up to it, there are those who have not forgotten his oath, and he shall be reminded of it at the appropriate hour.”

Before you came into being and took on a name, family, inheritance, you—the Pre-natal Self—had a mission to perform, had a joyous expression to fulfill. Written in the soul of tins Pre-natal Self were the words, “I came that your joy might be full,” and hidden away within its consciousness was the power to bring out the Kingdom of Heaven here and NOW. Somewhere along the way, through judging from appearances and accepting the history of your newly inherited family, you lost the vision, and the Pre-natal Self retired until its appropriate hour. This hour is approaching NOW, because you have come to the place where you can read about it and can feel the “click” of the truth of it all. Beloved, the hour, the appropriate hour, has arrived for you. A memory, so deep, so full, so glorious, is sweeping over you, uncovering that Pre-natal Self which has been lost in the confusion of personalities, “lo, these many years.” The Pre-natal Self which descended into the belief world is feeling its Divine dimensions once again. The “appropriate hour” of remembrance has come. Man is beginning to sense the difference between this Pre-natal Self and the Adam personality. He is beginning to understand that whatsoever he finds in his Pre-natal Self he can bring into being without effort. “Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I shall give it, unto them,” tells its own wonderful story to those who are awakening into the new dimension. “Behold, I make all things new.” It is a new day, a new dimension.

You will experience this revelation through all the senses of your being. You will smell the scent of the heavenly presence of “your appropriate hour.” It is only possible to approach this new day through the balance and integrity of Spirit. Without balance the crazy, gyrating emotions carry one off into the putrid sensuality that is posing as Spirit. When the Spirit reveals itself, it does not produce fanaticism and pandemonium. All the crazy, half-mad movements organized in the name of Spirit are the works of a pseudo-power, and are largely actuated by some repression of long standing. Having God for a lover is only one of the simplest forms of this mistaken idea. Romancing with the spirit is only deluding one’s self.

The ringing laughter of God shatters all these willful beliefs and frees you into your “ appropriate hour .”

“Is this HE that should come, or look we for another?” When the “appropriate hour” of remembrance has come to you, you will know that it is HE that should come, and He is enthroned in the temple of your being. You have called Him after all the various teachers, ancient and modern, you have named Him after organizations; but each time you have dug away the clay feet and had the idol of God crash upon your head. Eventually in your dismay you have come to the ME of your very soul and the “appropriate hour” has sounded. The doors of the temple are thrown wide open and the Pre-natal you is issuing forth in all the power and loveliness he possessed ere he left the garden to wander in a maze of human beliefs, and to masquerade as you.

Your Pre-natal Self has within it the holy trust of self-expression. It came forth to glorify the Lord, but the maze of human belief into which it wandered and accepted hindered it from its true expression. From time to time the urge of this Pre-natal Self has been felt, and man has tried to bring out something he “felt within.”

“When the prodigal remembered,” he immediately said, “I shall arise and go to my Father.” It was not so much a physical uprising as it was ascending to the Fatherhood degree of consciousness. He suddenly was inbreathed with the “breath of Life,” and he became a living soul, and the “appropriate hour” had sounded and he remembered his agreement, and thence he journeyed forth in the land of revelation, into the consciousness which operated from the height of “Before they call I will answer,” etc., etc. It is impossible to the thought, and so the argument goes on of “how.” The stupid human mind thinks if it could “see ” it would believe, but it is not able to see. Do you suppose for a moment that the mind founded on the wisdom of man can see beyond this wisdom? Do you know anybody thinking from the human standpoint of consciousness who will believe the “look again, the fields are white” degree? No, it is not possible, neither are any of the works which Jesus commanded you to do (“Go thou and do likewise”), and yet they are all possible when the remembrance comes to you. What you find within this Pre-natal Self you call the “picture shown to you on the mount,” and whatever you find shown to you “on the mount” you can and will bring out in spite of the greatest and strongest laws of human thought.

The poverty of the human language makes it almost impossible to tell this revelation, and at the same instance the Mind which was also in Christ Jesus makes it easy and natural, so that you can “look again and SEE the fields white with grain.” In other words, when you enter into your Pre-natal Self you then will see “what the Scriptures have to say unto the Churches.” It is wonderful!

Little fishes swim in shallow water and make a great commotion—and so with the human mind. The smaller its power the more noise and excitement, the shorter its day the more advertising and publicity it needs to establish itself. The larger fish swim in the quiet of the depths. It is wonderful. Great noise, great crowds, great talk and telling of wonderful things, are not signs that I am there. Generally they bespeak MY absence. The Antichrist is having his small day before his clay feet give way.

Until man comes to understand this Pre-natal Self he will attach more importance to the opinions of another than to the revelations of his true self. He is afraid to “arise and go unto his Father” because he does not know where to find HIM.

“Take no thought.” Why? Run the thought down to its cause and you will find it is a belief in the absence of God, and this absence of God is a reality to you, because there is nothing in you with which to recognize this Presence. When the “appropriate hour” of recognition has come to you, the Pre-natal you is conscious of the Presence, here, there, and everywhere, and moves within it, and it moves within you, and then the answer is before the question. I know it is a tremendous thing to the human consciousness, but “I have a way ye know not of” keeps you in peace, and away from the fretting to understand how it might take place in you. 

Yes, Life is a “ shining adventure,” a voyage through the levels of experience back to this Pre-natal Self, and then a wondrous thing begins to set in. “Ye must decrease, I must increase,” automatically occurs as the recognition of the Pre-natal Self takes place.

Do you begin to understand the “ Whatsoever you ask in my name [nature], that give I unto you”? Do you begin to SEE that, if you can ask it in the nature of this pure Pre-natal Self, with the asking which is acceptance, you will move in a field of manifestation of which Jesus Christ spoke?

Do you suppose the Power which projected you into manifestation had anything other than your ultimate good in mind?

“I shall arise and go unto my Father.”

 

14. THE SPIRIT DESCENDED

And straightway the Spirit descended into the pool and troubled the waters”—and healing took place.

When the pool was troubled, much that was hidden in its depth was stirred to the surface and passed off. So is it with man. When he calls for the house-cleaning (the temple purging) the Spirit enters into the pool of the subconscious mind and stirs up its muddy depths in order that the old causes of the automatic action of evil can be eliminated. The old patterns are broken up and smashed to pieces, and the “house of the Lord” is made a fit dwelling-place of the Lord. “Why makest thou my Father’s house a den of thieves?” Answer that and then you will have the answer to most of your problems. Your life is filled with the results of time-honoured beliefs of which you are trying to rid yourself while the patterns of these evil manifestations remain deep in the “pool.” You deal only with the reflections. You fight with shadows when you battle against appearances; you are only intensifying them. You are in no way helping the situation when you hide your eyes from them. Taking your attention away from appearances is not going to remove them, unless you take away the power you are giving them. The belief is only devitalized when you take the conscious thinking away from the object of your loathing, thereby cutting off the only life and vitality it has. No matter what this be, whether manifest or unmanifest; whether a fear embodied in a person, situation, place, or thing; or whether it be a dormant evil that rises from time to time and casts you into the hell of futility; you cannot run from it, neither can you fight against it. But all this does not indicate that you fold your hands and say, “There is nothing to it,” and imagine it will pass. It must be looked at squarely and unflinchingly, and then the very life’s blood be suddenly cut off from its existence by taking away your belief in it. You cannot do this through the thought of man ; you must step up into the place of the “mind which was also in Christ Jesus” and remember that this very capacity was given to the child. It is not difficult, and you will not be hoodwinked into believing it is through the arguments of the human mind. Of course, it is hard and impossible to the human mind. So were all of the things that Jesus Christ did. He could not have done them any more than you could, through his Jesus conscious- thinking. Yet the moment the “Spirit descended into the pool” it brought to the surface the cause of the so-called power of evil, and then he devitalized it by taking his thought from it. All this may seem very abstruse and difficult, but there again you are denying your God power to grasp that which it has written to you. “Watch, ye know not when,” becomes more than a warning. It brings with it the instant stepping up into the God consciousness which disregards all and any of the human beliefs and does not have to operate through the most approved lines of conscious thinking. It has a way ye know not of—no man knows, not even the son—and that way is never the same twice, and cannot be catalogued or set down. It is on the dimension of inspiration which will lead you into all things.

There is no argument about it. The moment you argue you show you are missing the revelation and are returning to the Egypt from which you are trying to escape.

In your subconscious storehouse you have all the race beliefs, and opinions, and hearsays; all the evil and hell possible. No wonder that you hear from time to time, “I don’t see how this happened to me—I never thought of it,” but it had been tucked away in the cesspool of the conscious thinking, and one day a slight movement brought it into manifestation. Jesus could do nothing with it; he said, “I can of myself do nothing.” That ought to encourage you and make you follow closer in his Light. But “I can do all things.” —do you hear? Does it thrill you to know that the Spirit descending into the pool is clearing it of all the trash and rubbish you have held so long?

Do you understand what it says when it commands, “Ye MUST be born again”—not “perhaps,” not “maybe”; it states you MUST. What will you do with this? Try to patch up the old thing and hope to get by? No. You MUST be born again, born into this glorious recognition that Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) is something which does not operate according to the best systems of metaphysics for the purpose of demonstrations, but is a revealing Power which shows that which was and is already done. You cannot reason this out, for there is no “reason” to it. On the reasoning level of thought it is impossible. That is why it is possible to God, and that is why it is interesting to you. It is in the province of this God-given “Jesus Christ mind” within you, and it is only when this is recognized and accepted that you see the new dimension moving into manifestation. “Let the DRY land appear.” Why DRY? Answer it yourself, and begin to see the magnitude of this revelation and how it transcends the heights of human thought.

Right about! Your basis of approach is wrong if you are still trying to demonstrate the all-present Life of God. You cannot handle it nor direct it. You can LET it come through, and you cannot do this unless you recognize that it is already done. It makes no difference what the man in the street nor the man in the pulpit says. “ I AM that I AM” has sent YOU into expression. Do you hear? And, if you do, why will you pay any further attention to the opinions and beliefs of conscious thinking?

“Jesus went within the temple of his being and purged it of the thieves and robbers.”

The Spirit descended into the “pool” and brought to the surface all the shadowy beliefs that seemed to have such power. The moment they appear in the Light of the Presence they are gone. “Where are thy accusers?” And Mary could not find them. They had been deep in her subconscious mind, and when the Spirit descended it brought them out, in such numbers that she was literally being stoned to death. Had she been saved from this group of stoners, another crowd would soon have arisen, because in the conscious thinking reservoir the patterns of them remained. But the Spirit descended into the “pool” and the causes of the evil manifestations came to the surface and were absorbed in the Light of the Presence. Hence the reflections were no more. “Where are thy accusers?” Answer me. Where are the accusers that taunt you eternally, and will not let you have the bare necessities of life?

You may be able to destroy the manifestations of evil for a moment, but the pattern lying in the conscious-thinking mind will soon send up more manifestations to testify they have power, and the old fight is on again. The blood-poisoning continues its manifestation as long as the blood stream is impure. Why rub on lotions? Why try to fight against the powers of darkness when the cause of these powers lies within you? Your acceptance of them is their life and strength. When the man in front of the mirror is taken away, the reflection in the mirror has gone—automatically, no matter how real he may have been. It is so with poverty, sickness, age, and a thousand and one other beliefs. Do you hear? It is wonderful. Are you beginning to SEE the Light which shineth in darkness, and which the darkness comprehends not?

“You do not need to fight—set yourself and SEE the salvation of the Lord.” Do you think you are going to see a battle? There is no competition in God, and the appearances offer about as much resistance to God (no matter how time-honoured) as a heavy dew does to the scorching desert sun. What resistance can it offer? What resistance can the old beliefs that you have built up to such terrible Goliaths offer when you are moving with this “mind which was also in Christ Jesus”? Do you begin to understand why a thousand and one times I say to you, “Awake, thou that steepest, and Christ shall give thee light”? Do you believe? Do you understand and know what it means? You are being led into an open place of mind where there is nothing to hide behind. There are no more teachers, masters, organizations, books, or lectures to shield you. It is up to you. The more cherished the belief, the easier it is to dissolve in this Light of the Presence. When Jesus “raised his eyes to Heaven,” he merely aligned himself with that which transcended all the human thought processes. “The works that I do ye shall do also, and even greater.” Do you believe it? Do you know anyone who is doing it? No, because those who are doing it are not making a show and a display of it; they are not doing it as miracles or displays of the Power. They are functioning it as a natural normal movement of the Presence. And so will you do the same thing when you come to accept the WORD of Jesus Christ as the law.

 

14. THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH 

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, “What doest Thou?”—Dan. 4:35.

“All the inhabitants of the earth” comprises the entire range of manifested substance. The earth is the plane of “concrete manifestation, which apparently has a power, volition, and will of its own. For instance, you can believe that a man, or a group of men, can keep you from expressing your God-given heritage; can withhold from you the bread of life; can turn your life into a hell; can destroy any sense of peace you may have; and you can do nothing about it. The same thing is true within your own body: a group of muscles, or cells, or nerves, can so dominate you that you are no longer able to use your own body, and you can do nothing about it.

Yes! Adam was cast out of the Garden, the pure, Edenic state of consciousness, because he divided the ONE power and perceived a thing called evil, and from that time he has been seeking, through appearances, that ONE

undivided power. But he finds so many degrees of it that he is lost in confusion. He runs from one person to another seeking this ONE power, until he begins to see that it is within.

Statements of the Fatherhood degree are all so hackneyed they befuddle the student. But with the new recognition he begins to see they all have fresh and glorious LIGHT for him. “Judge not from appearances” has been hurled at him since the beginning of time. But how can he help judging from appearances when the appearances are so real, and when he is “praying” so hard for release from it all? It is a fool’s game to try to judge not from appearances if you are constantly returning to the “vomit” of former beliefs and watching to “see” if anything is happening. What do you expect to happen? Anything? If so, you are still in the “land of make-believe.” Nothing is going to happen. It has already taken place to the fatherhood degree of consciousness. “Look again, the fields are WHITE,” is either accepted or toyed with by reason. You will never see anyone do anything that is above the “sonship degree” as long as you are in that degree. You simply haven’t the capacity to “see.”

So much rubbish has to be released from the consciousness. Such a close and deep attention has to be given to the simple LAWS of Jesus Christ. And yet it is all so glorious and beautiful, this coming out of the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on to the high plateau of freedom, into the plane of revelation. You are henceforth a revealer of the WORD, and likewise a doer of the WORD. You are doing nothing of yourself, and so no credit in the old sense of the word is necessary.

“The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. If I am an hungered I would slay and eat,” has enough substance in it to end once and for all time the so-called financial problem of anyone who “hears and obeys.” Do you believe? Answer ME. Do not try to make it so, because it is futile to try to make “the cattle on,a thousand hills” yours. If they were yours you would not try to make them yours. Do you hear? Can you “slay”? Or will you still try to “demonstrate” the beautiful thing called LIFE? Answer ME.

The Fatherhood degree is made up of “little children.” What a strange thing, what a strange and weird thing, to go through all the intellect of man up to the place of acceptance of that which is not in any sense of the word true to the conscious-thinking mind. If you are not starting with the basis of “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God,” you cannot enter in. There is no argument. Either the “wisdom of man is foolishness,” or else you are still “working” and trying to “make” something happen. “Awake, thou that, sleepest, and CHRIST shall give thee light.” Do you believe it, or do you want some man to give you the LIGHT? How long will you continue to discount your own divinity and at the same time prate about your spirituality? When you can “take” your substance from the Fatherhood degree—the manifestation may come through any one of the temples of man—it makes no difference how it materializes. And this rather drastic action on the part of the individual does not bespeak lack of appreciation of the temple through which the revelation comes into manifestation. Do you believe it? Are you beginning to see why you must “arise and go unto my Father” and there abide in the substance, instead of trying to “draw” a gift down through a specified channel of expression? It is wonderful. Believest thou this? Believest thou that I AM able to do this for thee? Answer ME.

God is the unconditioned POWER, and all manifestation is nothing but the shadow of reality, held in place by the consciousness within it. Money is nothing of itself, but the power back of it determines the whole value. All symbols could disintegrate and no value be lost. It is consciousness that remains. What have you in your house? Jacob, struggling all night with his evil manifestation, found that he had to release it and let it go in order that its nothingness might appear.

“And all the inhabitants [manifestation] of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will,” whether the “inhabitants of the earth” like it or not. Whether the beliefs to which you have given power like it or not. It is nothing to the Fatherhood degree to put to naught the best established wisdom of mortal mind. It makes no difference whether it is established by every law and right of the material universe; if it is an obstacle to the new consciousness it must and will go, by being banished from consciousness. The upsetting of old and time- honoured mortal beliefs is nothing to the Power. The condition that has confronted you so long, and has become so solidified and established by the human law, is as “nothing” to this Power. You cannot go out to fight such a thing, for if you do you only augment its power. The more you work against it the more you increase its strength and manifestation. Believest thou this?

In the Fatherhood degree you learn how imperative it is to have established absolute secrecy. “See that you tell NO man” ceases to be an affirmation. It becomes a part of the unconscious action of your new estate. Why tell anything when in this Fatherhood degree you are to “SHOW”? Also, who will believe ? And what results will follow from unbelief? “In some places Jesus did not many mighty works because of their unbelief.” You will have your opportunity to “show” all that is necessary and also to “speak the WORD” instead of prattling words.

The opinions of others are as naught, and you are alert and instant in the “See that ye tell NO man” if you are to manifest the works of the Fatherhood degree.

All the works of the Fatherhood degree so far transcend anything that the human thought can grasp that you are advised to “take no thought.” Yet a thousand and one will come to you with a “new thought,” and will speak in such ridiculous terms as, “I will hold the thought for you.” That is all it will amount to—they will be holding the thought of the evil that is already manifested in your life. Don’t argue. There is no argument on the principle of mathematics. It is or it is not so. That is all, and if it is, and you know it, you will waste no time arguing with those who “know” it is not.

Coming by the way of God, you eschew the ways of man. The whole process is reversed. The “old order changeth; behold, I make all things new.” Do you hear? These new dimensions which are given to the eyes, ears, and to all the senses work in a way wholly misunderstood by the conscious thinking. “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”

Everything that the Power accomplishes or reveals is in the terms of “before you ask.” It already is, and is “decreed” into visibility—to be held there until its usefulness is finished; then it is dropped from consciousness, and disintegrates and returns to its native nothingness. “Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass.” Do you believe it? Of course you don’t. It has to be revealed before it can even remotely become possible to you.

Jesus Christ showed much of the next dimension, the Fatherhood degree, and revealed to what lengths this Fatherhood degree would prove that the “inhabitants of the earth are as nothing.” We see him moving through disease into the various degrees of its intensity, on into the final result of disease; i.e. death, first in another, then eventually in himself, before proving LIFE as something not dependent upon the “inhabitants” of the earth. So conscious was he of his Fatherhood that he could reconstruct any “inhabitant” if he so desired. The deep yet simple revelation of this power is given to the child consciousness, the consciousness which can accept it as so, rather than try work it out.

The Fatherhood degree is not concerned with the opinions of man. What the “inhabitants of the earth” say must take place, or is a law is blown away by the breath of the WORD, as so much mist before a hurricane. It does not make any difference whether the “inhabitant” have all authority and reason back of him or not. He can “say” what he will, but that does not make it so, even if he can show ten thousand times ten thousand cases where it has come to pass. But all this is only so, either way, if you accept it. If you accept the findings of the “inhabitant,” then you come under the law of that “inhabitant,” and vice versa. God does not fight against the “inhabitant”; He simply reveals His power, which is so great that it shatters all the best laid plans of man and wipes out all obstruction, no matter how well established it may be—like running a million volts over a thousand-volt electric wire. There is just nothing that the “inhabitant” can do about it. He can take it or leave it; he can explain it all away or say what he will; but that makes no difference. The “inhabitant” who has been so sure of himself usually backs away and is glad to be out of it all.

The laws which the “inhabitant” has pronounced over you are real and actual to you because you have accepted him as a source of power and authority, and there is plenty of proof. “Come out from among them and be ye separate’’—do you hear? You are not working to convince the “inhabitant” that there is a GOD who is all-powerful, while He laughs in your face and shows you that you cannot even act in the capacity of a slave. In the new day you reveal that which is necessary, and certainly you are through asking permission to perform the works of the Father. “Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?” is finally answered: “I hindered myself by accepting the wisdom of man as real and then trying to fight against that which I accepted as true.”

This new position of power does not bring with it the arrogance which would appear to be in the lettering of it. You do not want to impress anyone with your importance; if you are Power, they will find it out as soon as you are about the Father’s business.

You have heard it said, ”All things are possible with God.” Do you believe it? Or would you like to make it so? It is already so, and you can only align yourself with it by recognizing it and accepting it and moving with the urge of that which “will walk in you and talk in you.” ”Be not afraid; it is I,” takes away all the excitement of this new revelation.

That which did turn back the most accepted and cherished belief of the ”inhabitant”— death, decomposition, and oblivion—can turn back the annals of time and repossess the manifestation which was destroyed by the ”inhabitants.” Are you going to take the word of man whose “breath is in his nostrils” for the truth, and then afterwards “ pray to GOD to set it aside ”—or are you going to “ step out on to the waters and come to ME ” ? You see why this is the path of aloneness, and why, instead of waiting and planning ” to get ready—to commence—to start—to do ” the will of God, you suddenly discover that you are the WILL of God in action.

Remember all the while, that you are not doing a “stunt,” and are not in any sense of the word trying to “impress” or “show” or “demonstrate” to another that you have power. All this seems unnecessary to record, and yet it is written in inspiration to you. From out the pages of the book you now hold in your hand I am speaking to you. Do you hear? At this time of writing the voice is inaudible and the printed page is invisible, yet am I speaking to you, and so you will recognize as you read, and you will see that it was already done, and that the manifestation came into alignment with your range of vision at the moment you could accept it as done. You are proving the new dimension all the while; you will be braver, and surer that “none can stay his hand; or any say unto him, What doest thou?” “Be still”—be very still. The things that I could not say to you in Jerusalem two thousand years ago I may be able to get across to you NOW that you are seeing as a fact that the “wisdom of man is foolishness.”

The “inhabitant” knows in his all-wise heart that the “wisdom of God,” the new dimension, is foolishness and imagination, and so is it to him. He keeps on making the asinine statement, which he feels is fair enough, “Well, if I could ever see a miracle I would believe,” but he will never see a miracle. He will never see anything that is outside of the bounds of his pygmy intellect to explain. “What is that to thee?” Who cares whether he sees or not? Seems hard, but no harder than the one who just knows there is nothing to mathematics. The law of mathematics does not spend any time weeping over this state of affairs. “The open fount is free to all;” “Come, eat and drink without price,” is the invitation. What more do you want? Either you drink and eat or you argue. “Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.”

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?“

Do you hear that “none can stay His hand“? Are you afraid that some power can keep from manifestation the revelation of God? Do you still believe that some “inhabitant“ has power which he will match against God? Do you think that some time honoured law can hold you in bondage, or that it is too late and your chance has gone by or that the situation has grown too desperate for any change to take place? “None can stay His hand.” Do you hear? Do you believe? Do you find anything that is “staying the hand of God”? If so, it is your acceptance of that condition which is giving it power.

Do you know any “inhabitant” who wants to ask God—the Fatherhood degree—”What doest Thou?” 

“When the inspiration of the Almighty has come unto you, it will lead YOU into all things.” This inspiration has come unto you and has started in even now to change and reshape all the false conditions and beliefs of the “inhabitant,” in so far as you are concerned; even “the fashion of His countenance is change,” whether the “inhabitant” likes it or not.

It is so, and so it is.

 

16. THE SECOND COMING

This the day of the “Second Coming.” The land is filled with new Messiahs, each one claiming to be the only one, the original Jesus Christ, come again in the flesh. For a brief moment, and by wonders and signs, do they continue, and then disappear into the limbo of yesterday.

All this Second Coming started from the misunderstood words of Jesus Christ. Plainly he stated he would come again—and so he did. His resurrection and his coming again into the lives of the disciples was the Second Coming as far as the flesh body of Jesus the carpenter. His Second Coming in spirit takes place within the individual when he discovers “that mind which was also in Christ Jesus” in himself, and from that moment he begins to function on a new plane of existence. A new consciousness possesses him, and he begins to experience powers and capacities which were formerly unexplainable and incomprehensible, but which have now become natural. This new state of consciousness—or the Second Coming, as it were—carries with it the expression from the height of Grace; ofttimes this is misunderstood because of the habit formed in conscious thinking which looks through the glass (of its former limitations) darkly. It is wonderful when the Second Coming, recognized as having taken place in you, comes into expression. The “old order passeth away; behold, all things become new.”’ Little by little, as the Spirit is tried and found safe, will man begin to fulfill the promises of Jesus Christ, “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.” He begins to see the Word made flesh through more new and different means of expression than ever before imagined.

All the trying and working and concentration and will-power fall by the way when it comes to this glorious recognition. It is nothing you try to do; it is pure recognition of the Second Coming.

“Is this HE that should come? ” No one believed Jesus when he said he would come again—when he said he would resurrect. The Second Coming was set for a time when something akin to a big theatrical pageant would take place, curtains of clouds would part, and a spectacular figure should descend to the earth. Do you recognize ME? I have risen and made my Second Coming. Symbology gives up its meaning: we are entering into the experience of the Presence. The lips are sealed and that which is “holy is not cast unto dogs.” Why should you feel called upon to explain the technique to the unbeliever? He will only laugh you to scorn—as he did Jesus when he tried it. But “preach the gospel” when the urge is right, then will the speaker and the hearer be brought into perfect alignment, and from the lips of you shall flow such a stream of light and substance as will change the whole earth as far as the “listener” is concerned. The “Glory of the Lord” shall fill the house, and he shall “know,” and it shall be well. So shall you KNOW and it shall be well, and all those trying to do or see or experience spectacular things shall continue in the broad highway of appearances and find in the end they have been chasing an illusive will-o’-the- wisp.

You who are looking for ME to come in another, or to issue from the tomb, may be consecrated and deeply sincere, yet must you drop the “looking” for ME and discover this Second Coming within your own consciousness.

When you “feel” the mind which was also in Christ Jesus as a natural and real power within you, then, and then only, will you experience the Second Coming, and from that moment things will be different. You may flounder around a good deal even then because of the long bondage in Egypt, but eventually, if you “faint not,” you shall see and experience the new dimension. It is wonderful! The Second Coming is here, and the “government shall be upon his shoulders,” and the things which you could not be told in Jerusalem will be revealed to you. “There are many things I could not tell you, because of your unbelief.” There was nothing to receive those things of the new dimension. You continued to treat the function of this new law as miraculous, and hence the “telling” of the things had to be withheld. “The things which have not yet entered into your heart ” are also interesting to contemplate. They will never be written in books, nor will they ever be told to you, except the Christ within, with its new dimension, its new consciousness, be established by recognition.

Presently the day of seeking on the outside, together with its disappointments and waiting, will be wiped out, and the revelation of Heaven here and now take place.

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Believest thou this? Answer me. If you do, the most wonderful revelations will begin to take place in you and show you things to come. Yet with this Second Coming there will be none of the strange manifestations that most people attribute to spirituality, but which are the dense by-products of the human mind trying to imitate the Divine, “clouds without rain.”

“I have a way ye know not of.” The operation of the new consciousness is beyond the wildest flight of imagination. It can turn anything into account and cause the “wrath of man to bless you.” How? Why? When? Where? Are questions that are entirely deleted from your life.

You begin to understand the living “in the world but not of it.” It carries such a secret, hidden truth—a power, a way, and a means of expression that is entirely above the most cherished reasoning of man. There is no explaining it. It just is, and so the message is given to you between the lines and you are beginning to experience the “under grace” which brings the sufficiency which the world is eternally seeking through symbols.

“If I go, I will come again.” Has he gone from you? Did the first glorious “feel” or urge of spirit which carried you to the mountain-tops of revelation suddenly go out in an inglorious crucifixion, and leave you at the foot of the cross, defeated? But do you hear what I have said unto you, “I will come again”? Believest thou this? If not, what good to go farther? I said so, and if you do not believe the “I AM” which spoke to you so definitely at the point of revelation, what good to wait for a Second Coming through the air ? It is too utterly inconsistent to say that you believe in Jesus Christ and then deny him at every turn. You begin to see that Jesus Christ is the symbol of Heaven on earth —soul and body, God and man, the Word made flesh and the flesh made Spirit, all merged into a glorious substance which is sensitive to the new dimension of power and life.

The Second Coming of the Christ has taken place for many, but, just as when it took place in the Scriptures, they have been afraid of it and have denied it, and have gone back to the cross and the weeping for the loss of faith or

the symbol of their faith. “Do you believe?” Answer me. Or are you just fooling about with a system of metaphysics?

Until the Second Coming has taken place within you, you will be caught up from time to time in the prophecies of the end of the world, the reign of evil, the reign of good, etc., etc., and will constantly be disappointed. Once you conceive the Second Coming as having taken place, once you see and recognize ME in the midst of the tomb of conscious thinking, you will begin to function on the new plane, and the things which “I” say unto you will be true and productive of results.

“Cali unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not” (Jer. 33:3).

Do you believe it? Answer ME.

On what will you call if the Second Coming has not taken place in you? And, if this has taken place and the “coal of fire has been placed upon your lips,” then will you be able to move with the things which are to be “shown you”—“mighty things which thou knowest not.” Can you faintly glimpse the revelation of understanding that would be made manifest to you, which would explain all the inexplicable things of your present life? Can you conceive of being shown a “mighty” thing which would be unconscious of conditions, circumstances, causes, and effects? The human one would like to put on the robes of power, not because of the works of power, but to encourage human worship, and until the Second Coming takes place he will at best only glimpse this power in sporadic demonstrations. Always he will be swinging on the end of the pendulum of the pairs of opposites, health and sickness, poverty and wealth, happiness and unhappiness, etc., etc.

Relinquish the old human craving for the Second Coming of Jesus in the flesh, and then you will be able to experience this very thing. No talking person who revels in strange stories of talks with Jesus Christ will ever bring you anything but imagination. This glorious thing is not given to the “talkers.” This has nothing to do with the revelation which is to pour through you and will result in the ongoing of thousands, but it refers to those who dangle in front of the ignorant the possibility of coming into the presence of Jesus Christ and retaining at the same time all the narrow, personal, human opinions and beliefs. It is wonderful when you see that at the Second Coming within you the “mighty things” shall be shown you, and things which you knew not of, and can never know, until you recognize ME in the midst of you.

The former things pass away, and so the crucifixion melts into oblivion at the Second Coming. Who is going to talk of the agony of death when they once realize that “ death “ was not effective? Suppose you met Jesus

Christ in the flesh—suppose it were possible for you to speak to him. Do you suppose he would permit you to whine over his crucifixion? Your very attempt to do this would show that you did not believe in the Presence; that you were still insistent on keeping him dead. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” “Awake and arise from the dead.” It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! “ Heaven and earth are full of thee.” Heaven and earth are filled with the Presence; nothing else matters ; there is nothing else but the ecstasy of the Presence. It so fills you that even the “joints and marrow” of the temple are alive and radiant with this substance. So sane, so normal, so balanced. “Alive in Christ Jesus.” Alive! Do you hear?

“Call upon ME, and I will answer you.” Do you believe it ? Not you and somebody else—just you. Don’t ask anyone about it— just you. Do you believe it? Not unless the Second Coming has taken place in you, and you are through with the “former things,” good, bad, or indifferent, can you experience such a glorious thing.

The Second Coming is only the sudden recognition that “the mind which was also in Christ Jesus” is within you, and that you are one with it and are ready and willing to experience the natural manifestations of the new dimension. There is nothing mystical (in the old “strange” sense of the word) about it. It does not produce weird expressions. It does not attract peculiar things unto itself. It is something which is perfectly usual as far as you are concerned, and certainly does not make a “strange being” out of you. The Power of God is natural, normal, and well balanced when it is expressed through the instrumentation that is ready to receive it.

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8).

God is able to make ALL—do you hear? So is electricity able to make all sorts of manifestations abound toward you, when you have something ready to receive it and when you can call upon it. The “ calling ” is not beseeching, but a higher form of recognition of the Presence. We actually “call” upon electricity to give us light when we press the switch; it is the deepest form of acknowledgment because it is action backed up by recognition. When you stop thinking of God as a man, who is moved by the “calling” of your voice, you will “call” with the still small voice of recognition, and you will be answered.

“When you are ready I will do the works through you.” Do you hear? Do you believe? Answer ME—not you and another, but you. Are you after things? Do you want to make demonstrations? Or do you want Life more abundantly? That is what you get when you “know ME”—you get the Life more abundantly which is the substance within every manifestation that you have ever desired or sought. It is wonderful! 

“God is able”—electricity is able—but are you ready and capable of receiving? The old, dishonest, human mind begins its hypocritical protest of its unworthiness, all the while wondering why it is that some “sinner” is getting so much good. And so it sneaks out with the martyr complex and says, “Help thou my unbelief.” But in reality it does not want to take up the “cross” and follow ME. It is afraid of the cross because it misunderstands that “taking up the cross” is not unto crucifixion, but it does carry with it a sense of integrity which makes the human mind squirm with fear. “When you are ready, I will do the works through you.” Do you hear? Now you know why the works are not being done through you, and, of course, the helplessness of it all is great. The only thing human to do is to shed a few tears, or to arise from the “pigsty” of your conscious belief and go gloriously forward with the Second Coming consciousness, living in the “grace” which God makes abound toward you. This “grace” which God is able to make abound, toward you is not the demonstration of things, or the “show off” of power, but it certainly is the “sufficiency of all things” Do you want more? Answer me. And how would you like to “abound in every good work”? Do you see the difference of this Second Coming understanding as compared with the old metaphysical talk of making demonstrations?

How many times have you heard, “ If ye have faith as a grain of mustard”? You have become weary of the words. Why? Because you have “tried” a thousand and one ways to make it work. You cannot make God WORK for the good and simple reason that the “work” was accomplished in the six days of creation, and, now that you have about come through these days of “working out your own salvation” how would you like to take a rest? How would you like to let your little ideas go by the board for a while, and “let the mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” have the government on its shoulders?

“And HE said unto ME, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Through the very weakness you have experienced does this glorious strength of the resurrected Lord come into being. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In ALL thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” Do you hear? In ALL—not some—in ALL thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. What more do you want? No wonder the disciples were sent out into expression. The Second Coming had taken place, and they had the point of contact between the unseen and the seen so established that they could go “into all the world and preach the gospel, heal the sick, and raise the dead.” All this symbology is necessary that we may see what Jesus Christ was endeavouring to give to the world. No matter what the mistakes of the disciples, or you, or anyone, the Light will break through as soon as you sense the Second Coming—or recognize the PRESENCE and begin to operate from that standpoint.

“And He shall direct thy paths”—have you enough integrity to follow such a promise? This integrity is a power which ceases its speculation, its wondering and guessing, and goes forward as directed by the “mind which was also in Christ Jesus.”

“And HE said unto ME, My grace, is sufficient for thou.” And so it is.

 

17. THE PROMISES

“ God is not a man, that He should lie . . .

Hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”

Ask yourself that question: “Hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” before you proceed further with the idea that God has power to overcome evil. There is in reality no “overcoming” in God. It is only the fast changing set of values in the mind of man that appears to overcome. God is changeless, and, if changeless, then nothing, as far as the God power is concerned, changes. “Eternal in the Heavens.” Eternally the same—in the Heaven (consciousness) of man. When man recognizes this, he sees what the world calls miracles take place. The reflections called matter disintegrate and reshape according to the “changeless pattern, eternal in the Heavens.” The adjustment to the Changeless Power can only happen to the “childlike consciousness,” otherwise it will be dissected and cut to pieces by the adulterous adult, who wants to find out “how ” it is done.

As pitiful as it may seem to the intellect, “except ye become as a little child ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Unless you can make this first hurdle, what is the good of going farther? As long as you imagine you can reason it out and find out the mind of God, you are going to continue to circle about in the rut of human intellect, which is “foolishness in the eyes of God.” Do not misunderstand the law! It says, “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God”—not man. It is not foolishness in the eyes of man. It is the truth as far as he is concerned. Hence the difficulty of bringing about the manifestation to that “man whose breath is in his nostrils.”

The human mind goes over and over the patterns of “trying to find HIM.” One course of lessons after another guarantees to give you health, prosperity, and success. Yet none of these very attributes is manifested in the body of the one giving the lessons. The old human intellect keeps on seeking for the truth amid the husks of human psychology, and it dies in its “pigsty”—or it suddenly “leaves ALL” and “goes unto the Father.” Man awakens to what he is doing, i.e. trying to find out the mind of God, with his puny intellect. No wonder the question is asked, “How does this man speak, seeing he has never been taught?” “Nothing is impossible to God.” This is the bait that is held out to many; when they go to accept it they are very sure to discover the hook underneath—personal teaching and personal keys and secrets to the Word of God which are peddled at so much “per course of lessons.”

Is it any wonder that the Scriptures are full of the command: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ [not John Smith] shall give thee Light?” And again, “Awake, and arise from the dead.” What are you seeking, a power to demonstrate, or the fullness of the Presence?

Do you begin to understand that “God is NOT a man, that He should LIE”? Do you believe in the WORD of God? Then you must find that the promises are fulfilled to the one who can accept them as real, natural, and possible. Do you see the innate capacity of “man” as shown forth in this quotation: “God is not a man, that He should lie”?— the idea that man has the infinite capacity to lie—that his word means nothing, but that the WORD of God is kept. It is wonderful when the light of this changelessness of God begins actually to dawn upon the individual. If you can “ask, believing it shall be so,” it will come to pass. How? “By a way ye know not of.” Not necessarily by the way you have thought. It might happen that way, but by a “way you know not of” is more likely, since “I have ways ye know not of” The Changeless Power has ways and means that the limited thought-man cannot conceive. All the worth-while things of the Changeless Kingdom of Heaven are invisible to man, until he moves up into the place of self-recognition.

Most anyone will admit that everything belongs to God—no matter who possesses it in the human sense of the word. You can understand, then, what it must mean to become one with the God Presence and “LET that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” It means that “whatsoever you ask for in my name, that give I unto you,” and “I have ways ye know not of ” to bring it to pass. It sweeps aside all the planning, wondering, guessing, and trying, and brings you into the healthful, peaceful state of mind which “accepts” the promises of God as true.

Ponder then a moment:

God is not a man, that He should lie . . .

Hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

The moment man realizes this in a degree, the struggling with life will cease. “Ye do not need to fight; set yourself and SEE the salvation” brings the one who has acknowledged God to the “peace which passeth ALL [do you hear?] understanding.” This includes your former understanding, and that of your teacher, leader, and organization. This peace of recognition that there is ONE God will surpass everything you have heard, seen, felt, tasted, or smelled in the realm of conscious-thinking man. Do you begin to sense “what is the height, breadth, depth of God”?

“My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out from My lips.”

Do you hear? I said, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out from my lips.” The Changeless Power which has said to you -no matter where this finds you, relatively speaking—“Ask what-soever ye will in my name [nature] and it shall be done unto thee.”

Yes, I feel as though most of us will suddenly experience the “stir” of life, as the sap of recognition rushes upward into full fruition in us.  “Let the DRY land appear,” and out it comes into the full noonday glory of the manifest world.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promises.” We are slack in our alignment. We still have something to overcome, or lack integrity to “arise and go.” When the command comes, “Go into all the world,” it must be obeyed. All the world may not be a geographical dimension, but it is a willingness to move with the Power, whatever the urge: “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”

“Hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”

 

18. ENTERING THE KINGDOM

“Go in and possess the land” is a command  as necessary to fulfill as any of the others, and yet it gets side-tracked for the simple reason that no one apparently knows HOW to go in. The more questioning that takes place as to the how of the way of God, the more impossible it all becomes, for. “No man knoweth—not even the son, but the Father.” “My ways are past finding out”; “My ways are not your ways”; and the inference that “As high above the earth as the Heavens, so are my ways above your ways.”

Trying to enter into HEAVEN (here and NOW), discovered by Jesus, and located within each one of us, by human thought processes is impossible. We are definitely told that nothing of any importance can be gained by taking thought. This is because thought has only to do with the limitations of the three-dimensional plane, and is not of sufficient breadth to grasp the new dimension of the Christ Consciousness. Just what it was that caused the beggar to rise suddenly and manifest perfect health and power cannot be put into words, but it is the “something” or the “gesture” which is the modus operandi of all manifestation.

When Jesus counselled, “Take no thought,” he did not mean that we were to become a race of morons. He hinted at something vastly superior to the old human reasoning of man which lie described as “foolishness in the eyes of God.” Whether one can grasp this “something” which causes a person to suddenly “rise and walk” when he humanly cannot do it, thereby breaking every one of the established laws of the conscious thinking, is a test, or an acceptance, which must be handled by the individual. If perchance he suddenly “sees” just what it was that Jesus referred to when he insisted that the “impossible” could be done by this Father within, he will move by the new revelation or the “feel” of the Presence. This, of course, has nothing to do with the idea that we just “fold our hands and wait,” and yet that is precisely what we do. We learn that “waiting on the Lord” may cause a tremendous activity to take place. It is past all human comprehension how the power can catapult a man into alignment with his Divine Destiny. All this seems to picture a sudden and terrible disturbance in the outer, but it may hardly be noticeable, so automatic its coming “as a thief in the night.” One day you will “open your eyes” and discover that you have gone in and possessed the land. It is wonderful, the “urge” of this new dimension of life. It is as automatic as the return of the rubber ball thrown vigorously against the stone wall. The whole reaction takes place in the gesture which does the throwing.

None of the commands of Jesus Christ can be carried out by the conscious thinking. For instance, what a fiasco it is to say to a man crippled for forty years, or born blind or deaf, “Arise and walk,” “Open your eyes,” “Open your ears”; and yet we are bidden to say just these things. You know it cannot be accomplished by conscious thinking, for that has been going on for years. Who has not tried faithfully to rid himself of the fearsome manifestations of the human belief? What man born blind would not “open his eyes” if he could? But the promises of God are merely words, without any semblance of life or possible manifestation, unless they be entered into from the new dimension. Recognition gives us some faint idea of what takes place, and yet no word in the combined languages of man can speak the “unutterable name” which releases the new capacity into being. What this “recognition” does is amazing, for it sets a new level of consciousness into action, and a new set of laws immediately goes into operation. “If ye be in the Spirit ye are no more under the law.” The laws of what? The law of your, own (not another’s or a race consciousness, but your own) conscious belief. You are imprisoned in the jail made by your own conscious thinking, and you are the jailor and the liberator. You are the jailor on the three-dimensional plane of reasoning “eye for an eye,” which is the epitome of conscious thinking, and you are the liberator in the God consciousness which is your heritage and which you lost when you left the Garden of Eden. It is wonderful when you begin to awaken, ever so slightly, to the NOWNESS of the Presence, and see that it cannot be moved by conscious thinking and cannot be influenced by the opinions or the historical data of mankind.

There is no history or tradition, however time-honoured, which can in any way stand in the face of this new consciousness. Immediately Jesus left the “Jesus of Nazareth” consciousness, wherein thinking of all sorts took place, good, bad, and indifferent, and entered the Father consciousness, a radical change took place. He suddenly disregarded all appearances and set in motion the new consciousness which dissolved the hard, fast pictures of a lifetime as easily as a snowball melts in a blast furnace. “In the twinkling of an eye”—“In a moment ye think not”— it is so quick that no measure of the conscious thinking can grasp what can take place.

It is foolish to believe that you can telescope the time-space idea of relativity on the three dimensional plane of conscious thinking. No one is asking that. No one who understands the law revealed by Jesus Christ will spend any more time trying to make something happen that could not happen, and yet that is exactly what apparently takes place.

When man understands what Jesus was teaching he begins to see that what takes place from this new consciousness is perfectly natural and normal, is in no way setting aside anything. The pure Spirit of the Christ flowing into expression may cause a perfect stream of manifestations to take place which the unenlightened man calls demonstrations, but it will simply be the natural functioning of the law. A fig-tree brings forth figs because it is its nature—it is not setting aside anything. So is it with the law of God: it brings forth the fruits of Spirit and hence is not “overcoming” some pygmy law of the conscious thinking.

When Peter walked on the water, he was not setting aside a law with his apparent levitation. He was functioning from a place where no gravity existed. The moment he returned to his “ thinking ” he found it was impossible—never had been done and never could be done—and he began to take on weight, and to sink into the level of the three-dimensional consciousness. He learned, that “taking thought” was adding the only weight and gravity there was, and was the one thing which kept the glorious desires out of fulfillment.

The more you think about your problem the less chance there is of its solution. You sustain it, and keep it in place by conscious thought. All evil is a parasite, and is sustained by the conscious mind. There is no panacea for the human ills in the plane of the “thinking” man, for each manifestation is slightly different and sustained by an entirely individualistic line of thought. Break the thought-stream and the manifestation disappears, as has been so often recorded in the various reports of great emotional stresses. Of course, these events are always charged off as the result of a great emotional urge; the point to be considered is that, that which could not happen by any possible means did take place, which once and for always proves the “wisdom of man” to be foolishness in the eyes of God. It is difficult to understand the “way of this new dimension.’’ We have endless indications of its existence, and knowledge of the fact that, the moment you recognize it, and turn your attention from the manifestation, harmony ensues, and this can be in such an unexpected way that no power of description will tell of it.

The more we “work” on problems the less is the possibility of deleting them, and yet it seems the only natural thing to do. It requires a great deal of integrity to turn your attention from the outside and adore and worship the invisible power; to come to the point of full recognition that “it is, done” before anything appears on the outside; but that is the path to this new consciousness to which Jesus points the way.

We have all tried for years to “pour in” this new consciousness and have failed, just as we have had the silly idea of “emptying out” the consciousness. Both of these tricks are just the conscious thinking roaming about in the plane of imagination. Emptying out is a foolish pastime. Jesus says, “Leave” ALL, follow ME,” and this means to leave it all. The Magdalene was some forty years sunk in sin and evil; the Lot family were in pretty deeply too ; and so were a dozen other illustrations of old cases. It was so utterly wiped out with the breaking of the thought that the Magdalene was not even recognized immediately afterwards. When the thought was broken in her consciousness, all the evidence of her evil and the history of her case fell into the dust of oblivion. It was hard for her best friends or enemies to know her: “Is this the Magdalene?” “Is this Jesus the carpenter?” We are not working with a corrective power. This is the new revelation, the new day, the new birth; it has nothing to do with the “curing,” “forgiving,” in the old, orthodox sense of the word. The former idea was to present yourself as a “cured being.” This holding on to the old patterns which were lately true to you, and going over the design year after year, setting up God as an opposition power, has resulted in many people returning to the former patterns. I have found persons who years later have returned to the thing which they had considered their big “demonstration,” and which they had repeated so often during the years that it again became more real than the Power of God, and hence came back into manifestation again.

We are telling you of the new day, the entering into the new birth which the various people did who followed “ME,” who left all the former ideas set forth by the “man whose breath is in his nostrils.”

It is wonderful when you begin to glimpse that which takes place when you follow the simple teaching of JesusChrist, and come out from among the shadows of human teaching. You begin to move by a new dimension from within, and let the manifestation take care of itself. “I have a way ye know not of” is sufficient to bridge the gap between the “asking” (acceptance), and the “receiving” of the manifestation. When the old idea of overcoming evil is abrogated, the true sense of “coming over” it all by the new law of the Presence is established. That very reasoning which you find true and good today will be thrown into the dump-heap of the untrue tomorrow. It is so shifting and changing that it has not a leg to stand upon, but grows like a spongy mass of substance to the consciousness of anyone who will sustain it by thinking about it, and giving it power.

The “Come to ME” has such a deep and sacred significance that it almost causes one to “kneel” mentally when one thinks of the sudden power of the new dimension. Just think what took place in the consciousness of a man who under the law of gravity suddenly  found it perfectly natural to “walk on the water.” It is so deep and so mystical that it thrills one, even to contemplate the wonders that are prepared for us when we are willing to lay aside the filthy rags of human thinking and believing, and are ready to “arise.”

All this lovely, deep mysticism which can be understood and put into practice by the child-consciousness must be cloaked in the deepest secrecy if it is to come forth. Ever mindful of the fact that we are to “tell no man—but show John,” we place the coal of fire upon our lips and go deep into the Presence. Gradually we find that we are secretly telling the Presence something. That is, we are beginning to recognize the possibility of it all by a serene acceptance of the state of consciousness expressed by Jesus, when he said, “Thank you, Father. I knew that this was already done.”

There being no words to convey the idea of the new dimension, it will have to be gathered by that which is not said, rather than by that which is. It will have to be “taken” from the “feel,” and, when it can be done this way, the end of all worry, disease, and fear is in sight for you. “Magnify the Lord”— “Praise His holy name [nature]”—“Heaven and earth are full of THEE.” What is this THEE? It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!

Pause, and ‘give thanks that the revelation has come through to you. The scales are even at this instant dropping from your eyes and the Heavens here and now are coming into visibility. Deeply singing in your soul is the nature of the new birth.

“Come to ME.” Do you begin to sense what is necessary? What a sudden unconscious leaving of all the appearances, beliefs, and opinions, and a “rising” to the height of this Permanent Identity!

As the sap flows up through the apple-tree and results in bushels of apples, so might we liken the recognition of the Inner Power. The apples are thrown off as a natural result of the upward flow of the sap. There is nothing strange about it. The moment the sap starts upward, manifestations begin to appear and progress steadily until they have fulfilled the end and aim of the urge. This whole illustration might be used to convey what takes place when we become one with LIFE instead of trying to use life. The results of Life are seen in the various limitations of the relative place of thinking. We cannot see Life, but we can see the manifestation of it in perfect health. Health is natural and at no time a separate thing from life. The health we see is but a limitation of life or the symbol of an abstract idea. Trying to demonstrate health in the old sense of the word shows a complete disregard for the command of the Master, “Consider the lilies of the field, HOW they grow.” The HOW of the manifestation has been entirely overlooked by the man whose breath has been in his nostrils, and who sees only the outside of the manifestation and mistakes it for reality. He grabs at this, and, without the sustaining power within, it instantly consumes the manifestation and cannot “find ME” in the desert of his seeking. “Ye seek ME after the loaves and fishes—and not because of the MIRACLE.” How often Jesus tried to train the attention of man away from the manifestation and back on to the Power, but the hypnotized conscious thinking cannot believe in anything unless it can handle it with its hands and examine it under the microscope of reason. Life, in whatever manner viewed, must have a manifestation. Jesus knew this, and he wasted no time looking to the “how and why” of the manifestation, but went directly to the point of considering the power within it all.

The old metaphysical idea of trying to make financial demonstrations by training a God Power down upon a human problem has been all shot to pieces. It has failed utterly, and has brought many people to the place of desperation. Once you understand what Jesus was doing when he went unto his Father, you will understand that the symbol of prosperity will make itself seen whenever you are one with the Father, and will continue to flow through into manifestation as long as the attention is kept fixed on that Power.

All symbols have a human measure, hence each person brings out a different amount of money when he thinks of riches. The Power is the same but the degree and quality of it all is individual.

If it were possible to speed the sight up to such a point that we could see the action of life in a plant, we might be able to see the sap start in the ground and suddenly gush forth through the tree, throwing apples in all directions. The moment the recognition of the Power takes place, the action is all ready to cover the ground in the “twinkling” of an eye, if it can be so accepted.

“You say it is four months till the harvest?” You say that because on the plane of relativity that is the truth; it has been so long proven that there is no question of the authenticity of your statement. And it is actually the truth; there is no argument about it. It is silly to say that it is not so, on that plane. Just the same as it is ridiculous to say to a sick man, “There is nothing the matter with you,” if you are talking from the plane of the relative. “I say. Look again,” and it is necessary to fully realize just what the “I” referred to is. What is the Power which is able to look through such a hard and fast institution as “time-space” and bring the harvest before the seed? It is the same thing which sets aside or replaces forty years of paralysis, or prostitution, or evil, or limitation, with perfection. It is past finding out, and past all understanding, and cannot be put under the microscope of the human reasoning.

The moment you try to dissect the body to determine what life is, even though that body he manifesting perfect health, you immediately lose the whole thing—manifestation and life and all; so is it with the Power of God in all the departments of life. The moment you begin to look for the cause or the action of God, you find yourself in the desert of human belief, which becomes intensely real, and you are confronted by the horrible knowledge that you cannot find “me.” Alone in the desert of the human thought and manifestation, you are back in the entanglement which says, “Curse God and die.” What is there to the whole thing? It is nothing but talk. So it is on the relative plane. Remember that the ways of God are also foolishness in the eyes of man—just as the reverse is true.

“Do not try to put new wine in old bottles” —do you hear? You must have a new embodiment in order to function from the new height. The new embodiment is not necessarily a complete and actual change of the outside, but it is a reach in consciousness which acts naturally from the new level, instead of trying to reach up into the unknown.

Too long have you been worshipping at the throne of the Unknown God—and ignorantly worshipping. ‘The attempt to USE this power shows a hopeless state of misunderstanding. Who are you or anybody else to try to USE God? What do you imagine the universe would be like if, because you babbled, or shrieked a few words to God, He would change His whole plan and bend down to comply with your puny wishes, which later on you would tire of, and cast aside? Answer me. Do you begin to see that prayer is for the alignment of man with God to see what is to take place, not by force or power, but by the Spirit? “Not by might, nor by power, but by MY Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.’’ Everything that is accomplished in the new day shall be by MY Spirit, which so far transcends anything that the force or power of the human consciousness can imagine, that it is absurd to make a comparison. “One with this power, then, is a majority,” and you begin to see the reason why. It does not make any difference what anybody thinks or what time-honoured ideas he has accepted as unalterable. It is all changed the moment you conceive this new dimension.

Pretty soon the idea of working out your own destiny, or changing your destiny, is replaced by the fulfillment of the Divine Destiny. “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.” The Life of this Christ power within you came to fulfill its destiny and to reveal to you things which the ” eyes have not seen nor the ears heard, and which have not yet entered into the heart of man.” It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!

“Give not that which is holy unto dogs” —Do not “cast your pearls before swine”— is the warning given to you about talking of the new dimension. Talking to one who believes in all the laws of the conscious thinking is like running into a buzz saw. You cannot prove anything you say, for there is no “proving” of the power just to satisfy the curiosity of the human consciousness swollen with its intellection and strung heavy with degrees, and self-opinionated to a point of symbolizing the proverbial “hog on ice.”

You cannot at any time “prove” the law to “see” if it will work. It will not work— for the glass darkly will interpret anything that does happen in terms of relative law, and if it cannot handle it from this point it will say it is in the plane of imagination or hypnotism.

As you begin to “see” the new day dawning over YOUR universe, you will keep very still and watch for the full risen Lord to appear. You will not disturb the sleeping “Roman soldier” who guards the tomb. He will flee of his own accord, as will the human intellection and disbelief when the Christ has come into manifestation.

Then will you hear the command, “Heretofore you have asked for nothing; NOW ask, that your joy might be full.” Seems almost a contradiction to the former idea of “no proof.” It is, as far as words are concerned. It is dust in the eyes of the wise, and the prudent gasp for breath at the apparent inconsistencies in the Revelation. Yet there is not a single contradiction, misstatement, or untruth in the whole teaching of Jesus Christ.

“Prove me and see” is only a statement of the capacity of the new consciousness. It might be prefaced with, “If it ever becomes necessary”—then “Prove me and see.” Yes, it is a different proof, for this time it is to open windows in Heaven—in your own consciousness—and “pour out a blessing you cannot receive.” Why cannot you receive it? Because it is so much more munificent and so much more lavish than the tiny measure of the conscious thinking can grasp. The measure you have been holding up is overflowing when you begin to move from this new dimension of Life. It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!

“Rejoice and be exceeding glad.” Have you ever felt that way?—not because you have made a so-called demonstration, but because you are alive in the Spirit of the Presence, and cannot help feeling this magnificent revelation sweeping through your being. “Arise and shine, for thy light is come,” has such a glorious ring to it that it lifts you to heights undreamed of. Nothing matters but the recognition of this Presence— “He careth for you” and a thousand and one other reassurances come alive with such a fire and vigour that youth returns to you like the eagle, and the new day suddenly dawns out of the sodden mists of conscious thinking.

You cannot use God. You cannot control Him. You cannot make Him do your personal bidding. And yet you can see the Power passing into an endless stream of manifestation the moment you are moving with the Power. That which has been unnatural heretofore will become the most natural thing in the world—the abundance of all things and the glorious fulfillment of the revelation of Jesus. “I came that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” Do you hear, you, you who read this line? That is the reason why Jesus Christ came into the world—that you— yes, you—might have life more abundantly; and what does it mean to have life more abundantly but to be possessed of all the things you have sought so long as unnatural demonstrations?

What does “more abundantly” mean to you? It has a different meaning to every individual. There is no interpretation which will fit every man, for it is the measure that you can conceive of as possible. No wonder Jesus counseled, “Enlarge the borders of your tent”—“Launch out into deeper waters.” Do you begin to see that the measure of receiving must be increased as the recognition of this abundance comes to light? “I came” for the express purpose “that ye might have LIFE, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” But most people want the things of life instead of Life, which holds them all, and which throws them into manifestation as the proverbial apple-tree casts bushels of apples about, or as the wheat field suddenly comes into full ripeness. So hidden and yet so on the surface is this new revelation that one is startled as if from a sudden dream at the glorious possibilities perceived by Jesus Christ.

The “How they grow” of the lilies is the contemplation of the power, and our attention is called to the fact that they “toil not, they spin not, nor gather into barns”—and yet great Solomon, called all-wisest, was not arrayed like one of these. Do you begin to see why the consideration is brought to the “how”? It is so natural and normal, and the production of the sheaf of lilies is natural and normal and is in no way a demonstration of some unnatural power. Most demonstrations are considered supernatural, and consequently cannot take place often, and, as I said before, most of them are so gone over that the old pattern comes back with renewed vengeance gathered by constantly retracing it.

“The former things shall pass away—they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more,” is the law. They shall not be remembered because the consciousness of the Presence into which you have entered becomes so real that the illusion of your belief has been completely disintegrated and destroyed.

Anything that will take your attention away from your problem will restore harmony in your being for the time at least. Job turned his hateful captivity by merely taking his attention away from himself for an instant and recognizing God in another. It didn’t make any difference where the recognition took place. It was necessary that it occur, that his attention be broken from the thing he called problem.

Amazing as this seems, it is entirely in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, and the more you are  “absent from the embodiment, and present with the Lord,” the more you will see the steady and natural flow of the unexpected gifts of God pour into your lap. It is wonderful. It is past all finding out and past all reasoning, the “love of God you-ward“; yet you would not. You would not dare to take this glorious promise—this glorious revelation—and make it your own.

Prayer has been so wrapped about with superstition that it is virtually useless. It has been completely emasculated by the fashioning of words and the desire for impressing God with rhetorical and dramatic effects. It all seems ridiculous when you think of God being talked to by a little man, composing pretty poems and words, as if to please an old vain fellow who liked to have his occasional good deeds mentioned in public. This system makes it rather difficult for the deaf mute if it be necessary. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give THEE Light.” Do you believe in your Inner Lord sufficiently to allow this Light to come into manifestation? “If you deny ME, I shall also deny you.” How much longer will you deny the Presence of the mind which was also in Christ Jesus? Answer me. Do you believe in Jesus Christ ? Answer me. Or do you want the opinions and beliefs of some teacher, book, or school which says, This is the way, and then proceeds to go the way of human organization, and offers you all sorts of limitations and restrictions and calls it “for your protection”? Who said you have to be protected? And who are your protectors? Bring them out, every one of them, to the merciless white light of truth and you will find a sickly crew of over-fat human minds gorging themselves on your credulity.

“Little children, let no man deceive you.” If you have decided to follow no man, then you will not be deceived. If you are following the Lord within, and coming in contact with God through the Jesus Christ consciousness, then you will not be deceived; you will find the Light.

The moment you look within for the Light, and begin to trust this Inner Lord, and recognize the Father, of which Jesus spoke so often, then the answer can come through the temple of man, and anyone may answer or anyone may act as the temple of manifestation for you. Your point is to come to the place of recognizing that within you is the “mind which was also in Christ Jesus” and to trust it, and let the works take place in the way or after the appointing of God. It is wonderful that the moment you see that you are dependent on no man, and can get nothing from him, either harm or help, then everything turns to help you. Then every man is a potential temple to help carry out the pattern of God. Just as you are likewise a temple of manifestation for many others, some of whom you will never know and will never hear from. The “temple of God is with men” for a purpose.

There is a lovely awakening taking place, an awakening from a terrible nightmare of human planning, striving, and fighting for life. The hard task of “praying ” intermittently, trying to persuade God to do something that He apparently does not want to do, gives place to the glorious, light-filled spaces of the renewed consciousness. The “praying without ceasing” is the steady recognition of God, here, there, and everywhere.

“Thus far and no farther,” and the waves of personality beat on the shores in vain, trying to engulf you into listening to some pygmy mind trapping worshippers through the method of fear or secret doctrine. Nothing that belongs to you can be kept from you. No revelation that is for your progress can be withheld from you. All you have to do to learn the secret is to “take it”—accept it within your Christ consciousness, and then let the outside manifestation entirely alone. Yet a swollen personality dangles a bit of brightly coloured tinsel before your eyes and you imagine that “he or she” has some special power, and do not realize that anything you see in these manifestations is alive and activated purely by your belief in it. Snap the thread and see them crash to earth, a heap of corruption from which they must extricate themselves as best they can. We are in the last days as far as the individual is concerned. The Power is not mocked, and one who knows this will put to flight a thousand personalities with secret, copyrighted, and special dispensational teachings. Do you hear? Are you through with the heathenish worship of personalities, no matter how grand, affected, recommended, or filled with proofs? You have the proof always with you ; and, though they may seem to duplicate the works of God through their cunning minds, and for a time produce results which will baffle the ignorant, yet, as in the case of the prophet, the Serpent of the Lord shall devour the other serpents. Everything shall be submerged before this Power. “Every knee shall bend”—and that “every” means every little personality set upon a throne of self-power. Do you believe?

Have you been told by a teacher or a group, “If you leave me you will meet with difficulties”? How horrible! I know it is done, perhaps only with subtle inferences, for hundreds have come heavy with this fear. Do you know what it means to suddenly call the Power of God into such a situation? The moment you align yourself with the Presence and LET the government be upon His shoulders, at that minute all “other” governments go to smash, and how they smash 1 Do you know of any little woman or man or organization that has more power than God? Answer me. Do you know of any of them who claim this, at the same time attributing all the power to God? “Stand fast” and see the revelation of Power. That is all that is necessary, and then all the concocted devils and hells of the modern world crumple up and disappear without your “working against” them. Is God the ONLY Power, or do you believe in a power made to hide the shortcomings of a human personality? Answer me. Is God all, or is there another? Answer ME—you who read this line. Let us have done with this traffic in the temple of God. Open wide the doors of your consciousness and let the “winds of God” blow through the temple of your being and sweep out all these little adulterers of His word.

Remembering that “one with God is a majority” is enough to finish the false power which sets itself up against this Truth, no matter what its name. One with God destroys the appearances of the most loathsome disease. Why should it not utterly wipe out the consciousness which is trying to instill fear in the minds of men?

Who are you? “Who did hinder ye that ye should not obey the truth?” Answer me.

Gradually you begin to see that the dimension of God is not concerned with the “overcoming,” but with revelation. Yet it does say, “Overcome evil with good.” It says many things which need deep understanding. When you realize that there are no words adequate to express this new revelation you will see why the use of a word in two diametrically opposite senses takes place. The place of consciousness to which Jesus retired is where he made his full acceptance. Acknowledgment is within the grasp of every man, and the moment he retires to this point in consciousness he will begin to experience natural results instead of demonstrated impossibilities. Man, or manifestation, is for the purpose of God’s expression, which follows quite naturally when He is in control.

You say that God is always in control, and you are right. You only have to recognize this, and stop trying to control the government, to find complete and perfect harmony restored.

“Go in and possess the land” carries all the possibilities of fulfillment, if you “go” in the way of God’s appointing. In the simple command, “Go,” is all that is necessary to make this possible, if you can make the gesture without questioning, without trying to change things on the outside.

“Go in and possess the land.” Now you know that it is possible, and you are entering into your heritage.

“Heaven and earth are filled with thee.” It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!

 

19. THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD

“Destroy this temple and in three days I shall raise it up.” Jesus, speaking of the temple-body, which was indestructible and eternal in the Heavens, knew that this statement would mystify the conscious-thinking man. He was not wrong, for immediately they began to argue about how many years it took to build the temple of Solomon. In other words, they had ears but heard not, and eyes but saw not what the “Scriptures say unto the Churches” [temples-bodies].

Gradually we are awakening to the revelations of the Master Jesus: “For why will ye die? “and” The last enemy that shall be overcome is death,” and “This is LIFE Eternal [without break], to know ME.” These cogent words must be accepted or else the whole law is void. Jesus had power to “Pick it [the body] up or lay it down,” and we are told, “Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” At last we are beginning to sense (even vaguely), “For why will ye die?” The deeper things of the law are even now coming to the surface, and man is faced with these glorious questions.

Your body is the temple of the LIVING God, and this God, this Inner Lord, this Father Within, is the point of contact with the universal unchanging Power called Almighty God. Man keeps consulting the body to find 

out the facts of life. The body is merely the objectification of his consciousness. Once he glimpses, in a remote manner, that his body is the temple of the Living God he will understand how the Light of God can shine through the temple and light every man to salvation. It is wonderful when this glorious relaxation comes. He begins to experience the “peace which passeth all understanding”—he begins to sense that he is here for the purpose of “letting” the God Power through into expression instead of “making” it happen. He is no more the worker of demonstrations and miracles; he is the releaser of the Light of God which solidifies into whatever measure is held before it. Everything is filled full— the pouring out of the substance of God through the temple will meet every human need.

As the light streams through your temple-body it “searches the joints and marrow” and causes the “former things” (beliefs and opinions) to pass away. A new day dawns, and man experiences freedom from his old beliefs of disease and unhappiness. Suddenly his “joy is full,” because he is realizing that joy is the reason of his being. You came here as the temple of the Living God, and for this reason God can and will be expressed through your being. There will be an eternal pattern of harmony brought into manifestation by reason of this recognition. You can and will give to every man that which he asketh. You can and will supply your brother’s need, and in doing this you will find your own measure filled, pressed down, shaken together, and running over with the happiness of Life. It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow. God is in everything, even in the midst of you. The recognition of this will clear out the stagnant beliefs of personality which have bound us so long, and sweep away the cobwebs of human belief.

“Why make ye my Father’s house a den of thieves?” Why have we made this beautiful temple-body the repository for a lot of thieving human beliefs? Thoughts of disease, unhappiness, selfishness, and pain.” Why make ye my Father’s house a den of thieves?” And then, when we have answered the question, we suddenly get busy and have a cleansing of the temple. It is wonderful when the old human beliefs and lies are released and we “let God” come in with the Light that “lighteth every man unto salvation.”

You are a light set upon a hill, and this light cannot be hidden. It most share its understanding with all. You are the giver of the gift and a breaker of the bread. It is wonderful! So Jesus fed the five thousand as easily as another feeds one. His temple- body was the place where this glorious light came into expression.

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

The idols of personality must go; what agreement hath the temple of God with these idols? It is in a perpetual state of disagreement. The idols of belief in disease are in continual disagreement with the Light in your temple, which is of “too pure eyes to behold iniquity.” The idols of fear and limitation are in constant disagreement with the Presence which is Love, in which there is no fear or limitation. No wonder the constant word: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.” The awakening is taking place, and we are tearing down these idols. We are beginning to see and sense that we are here for the purpose of God’s expression, not for some gross human personality to continue its occupation of the Temple of the Living God.

“I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” This is the law of the temple when it is once cleansed of the personality. The Power will walk in us and talk in us and the limitations of the human body will be swallowed up in the glorious power of the Presence. It is wonderful!

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” Answer this question once and for always and you will be through with a host of false gods or beliefs in your life. 

“Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate.” The command is sure and final. It is the sudden awakening to what we have been worshipping and the arising into the place of the Father consciousness.

This Power which is “walking in us and talking in us” is given to us so that we may profit withal.

“But the manifestation of Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” This profit is the manifestation of God in the flesh in whatever form necessary.

“ And God. hath set some in the Churches [temples-bodies], first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”

Do you begin to see, beloved, that the moment you realize you are here for the expression of God, your gift comes into manifestation, and the old selfish human thought subsides?

 

20. THE WORD

“In the beginning was the WORD, and the word was with God, and the Word was God.”

From this definite statement of the WORD does all creation proceed in orderly fashion until the day of rest is attained. The symbolical description of the creation of the world is the key to the bringing forth of everything that is to come into your life. It—the manifest world—was brought forth by the “God spake” power, once the recognition of “in the beginning was [already established] the WORD.”

Until we grasp the difference between the WORD and “words” we will never be able to understand why the heathenish habit of repeating words accomplishes nothing. “Be not like the heathen, who thinks because of vain repetition to gain the ear of God.” “But speak the Word” and the deaf shall hear, the blind shall see, etc., etc.

The WORD spoken of in the beginning is the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”—the permeating essence of Spirit, which, when recognized in any degree, starts a flow of “words.” Thousands of affirmations have shaped themselves round about the WORD of life, but unless the WORD has been consciously recognized as the Power and substance of God, nothing has happened, and the “appearance” has not taken place. “Peace, peace, and there is no peace” and “Peace be still” bring out the idea of the substance of the WORD.

The reason words will not call the Deity into expression is that the Deity is not at the beck and call of man; but He is eternally urging upon man new and lovelier dimensions of expression. At no time is God waiting to do your bidding, nor to materialize your little human desires which you would only “consume upon your lust” for personal power and place.

Once the WORD is recognized, the creation of a universe follows. Once you recognize the Presence, then whatsoever you “ask” in that nature is accomplished: for you have come to the place of “Let there be.” This does not in any sense put you in the place of a creator, but makes you a revealer of the WORD. The moment man imagines that he can in any way control God, or create, he has stepped down into the mental plane. There for a short time he is able to procure phenomena intermittently; but presently these become clouds without rain, and he is finished.

The “Let there be” is merely the word of release. The ways and means of manifestation are completely outside the understanding of man. There is no way to tell how it shall appear. That one who has arrived at the “Let there be” state isn’t trying to imagine how it can come to pass. It is glorious even to glimpse the fact that all of this takes place “not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit.” It happens by the movement of Spirit which immediately makes itself felt when it is acknowledged. This is a new dimension, and cannot be squared by the yardstick of human intellect.

When the WORD is recognized and spoken, “In the beginning” of your new world, it acts as a magnet. Like the proverbial snowball, it gathers momentum and substance every instant as it moves into action. No sooner is the WORD recognized than the confirmation begins to appear, and eventually the impossible thing takes place—the “dry land” out of “wet” water. The “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see” happens, and the outer voice exclaims with deep feeling, “All things are possible to God” if you can “believe.” This belief is not credulity ; it is the “feel” which comes from recognition of the Presence. Of necessity it must rest in the secret place of the Most High, or else the power will be wasted in idle words. These idle words, the talking of and about the thing, will demand an accounting—they will be present when the bridegroom passes by; because of their “chattering about the impossible” they will have consumed all the “oil” from their lamps and they will be unable to see HIM, even though he pass by closely to them.

The revelation that is breaking over you will cause you to pause a moment and rest in the serene sense of the Presence, and you will say in the deep recesses of your being, “MY LORD and MY GOD.” Can anything stand in the way of the Lord? Ask yourself this question and see whether the time- honoured beliefs which have seemed so real and true have power against this “WORD.”

It doesn’t make any difference whether it has ever happened before or not, or whether it is possible to the human sense. Jesus came, who dealt wholly with equations which were impossible, knowing that if a thing were possible, man would have done it. So will you begin to see the need of secrecy. The “man you pass on the highway” will not believe the story. You will be talking from one level, he from another. By reason of his material surroundings he will prove to you that it cannot happen. If you can for a moment understand that you do not have to prove to the other man that God is able to transcend the limitations of three-dimensional thinking, but that you are permitted to “show” him the works, then will the secrecy preserve thee. It is only possible to do the “WORKS that I do” when you are governed by this secrecy. Remember that Jesus was “laughed to scorn” because they could not think on the level at which he was speaking. His eagerness to “show” them the power brought about this rebuke.

“In the beginning was the WORD.” In the beginning is the WORD, the idea swimming about in your consciousness. It is a desire pressing upon you for expression. The next thing is whether it goes within or comes without. If it comes without, it is talked about with thousands of words, until every bit of its energy and life is dissipated and it is nothing but sheer imagination. But if it goes within it is “with God.” It becomes one with God. It becomes a unit of omnipotence. It actually becomes God in essence, and nothing can keep it from expression. It is ready for the “Let there be” command of releasement.

All this symbology is inadequate to express the Power of this magnificent revelation given to us by Jesus Christ. It only faintly reveals the “something” which is resident in every human being, the Light which “lighteth every man.” Until this is recognized as true, man will continue to seek for ways and means of “demonstration.”

Once the WORD is recognized, and once it is with GOD, the confirmation begins to take place. Your desire begins to take shape, first inwardly with strange agreements and strange, interesting confirmations coming into the line of vision. Then one day the “ child is born ” or the full WORD becomes manifest, and that which was only an invisible Word in the beginning is now handled—is embodied, is reality.

Everything that is to come into your life must pass through this process of creation, because that is the only way it can come. And this law, stated at the very beginning of the Bible, is followed with a thousand and one stories and allegories explaining it. Rules, laws, lessons, are all set forth to elucidate this one LAW which is so simple it entirely evades the erudite.

A million words form themselves around the WORD whenever it appears, hence we have endless talking about a demonstration that is made. It grows in the telling ; it is distorted and twisted until in a short time there is not a vestige of truth left. The anxious mind trying to cull some favours from God by praising Him with lip-service forgets the demarcation between truth and imagination, and we hear weird and fantastic accounts of the precipitation of food, money, clothing. They go on until they rise to such proportions that they become ridiculous even to the person telling them, and he suddenly feels a weariness of words and falls by the way.

“God is not mocked.” Praising God because you fear Him, or because you think to gain favours from Him, is the surest way to find nothing but defeat. It is marvelous when you begin to perceive that those using most words possess the least. Talking of and about the truth will get you nowhere. That which is back of the affirmation is the determining factor. If there is naught but ” wishing, hoping, or beseeching,” nothing will be accomplished. The affirmation which accomplishes is merely the utterance of a state of consciousness already recognized. This strange wording coming to you through the inspiration will unlock itself and release the secret to you—when you are ready. “When you are ready, I will do the works through you.” Do you hear? Do you believe?

“Having eyes, ye see not.” Then of a sudden you begin to SEE just what the power is. You begin to understand precipitation, levitation, and all the other weird things which cannot possibly be explained, but which can be experienced and known. In the state of consciousness which Jesus of Nazareth entered called Jesus Christ—the going to the Father—an entirely different set of laws exist, and these laws cannot in any way conform to the limitations of the consciousness of Jesus the carpenter. All these words seem to spin a web about an unknown God, and must therefore be nothing but foolishness and confusion to the conscious-thinking man. If they do not appear as foolishness to the learned, then they do not measure up to the required standard of WISDOM, for the Wisdom of God is foolishness in the eyes of man, just as the wisdom of man, so often set aside, is foolishness in the eyes of God.

“The works that I do ye shall do also” is the Waterloo of all metaphysicians. They have tried every possible trick of the human thought to accomplish the works of Jesus Christ. They can arrive at the same place, or even exceed, the Jesus the carpenter, but the “works that I do ” are utterly beyond them. Why? Because these “works” exist in a new state of consciousness. They come under the head of the impossible,, and they cannot be analysed by human language.

Imagine taking literally the statement, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to yon sycamine-tree, ‘Be ye plucked up by the roots and be ye cast into the sea’ and it shall be so.” What does the human intellect do with such a statement? It hems and haws about it and tries to slip through some loophole. It cannot believe such a thing, for it is untrue on the plane of conscious thinking. In fact, there is no possibility of its taking place, and, while not many people would care to spend time plucking up sycamine-trees by the roots, yet every one of us is placed in a position where this power would come into good use. It is only in the calm serenity of acceptance of the Presence as here, there, and everywhere that we can conceive it all as true and possible. A miracle will never be done just to prove that Jesus was not a liar. There is no reason for proof just to satisfy the little human reason, which would immediately try to explain it away as an illusion. When you are ready to believe in something higher than your human belief, with all its limitations, then will you be able to “sense” this Power of which Jesus spoke so freely, and which was apparently so simple to evoke.

“ My ways are past finding out.” Do you hear? Or will you still believe in some “method,” person, place, or book, course of lessons, or short cut which will reveal to you the “how” of this Power? What do you care about the ways and means so long as it comes into being at the appointed time? Does it make any difference whether the answer to your letter arrives by a black, brown, or green coach? Would it enhance the value of the letter to know that a Hindu held it in his hand or a white man passed it along the line? You wouldn’t be bothered with such nonsense; what you want is the letter.

“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.” Do you hear? It does not say “maybe” or “perhaps”; it says, “And Christ shall GIVE thee Light”; and it is this Light which will light you into the place of rest—the “rest” belonging to the people of God.

“Then went he in and shut the door.” What for? Why didn’t he do it all outdoors, where the curious mind which is looking only for personal power, or loaves and fishes, could see? “Then went he in and shut the door.” There is something so final about the “shut the door”: It definitely separates him from the curious three-dimensional mind which is eternally trying to see the “prints of the nails” before it will believe. “Then went he in and shut the door.” Do you hear? Do you begin to see WHY? Do you suppose anybody will believe your report that “in the beginning was the WORD,” and that your word or desire is going to be clothed in the flesh? No, they will laugh you to scorn, and well they may, for you cannot prove it. Go within and shut your door; sense this “in the beginning” of that which is to be for you—you have started the power into operation which will eventually cause the “dry land to appear.” Merge your desire with God and it will become God in action. It will clothe itself, and cause you finally to “show John” that you have “gotten a man from the Lord”—in other words, you have brought forth that which in the beginning was merely a WORD.

I have seen thousands of WORDS in the beginning become dry land in the final analysis, and so I tell you this simple secret of the way of manifestation.

I know that if you have failed repeatedly, and have been turned awry by following one personality after another, you will eventually “Turn ye even unto ME with all your hearts and ye shall find rest for your souls.” You will eventually turn from every belief of man made truth into the place “prepared for those who love the Lord,” and in that place you will find the “treasure.” 

“Come away from the man whose breath is in his nostrils,” else you will end up by worshipping his little body; presently something may happen to that body, and you may find it is just another mortal concept after all. Come away from the personal teaching which is eternally trying to foist something upon you that is strange and weird. The teaching of Jesus Christ is simple enough for a child to grasp and use. What about the “teaching” with which you were bothering yourself ?

“Take words and return unto Jehovah”— take the beautiful words you have, and let all their variations melt into the WORD which is “the beginning” of your new world.

Away, then, with every book, teacher, lecturer, and leader—“follow ME,” and you will possess all of them and yet not be possessed by any of them. The moment personality begins to assert itself an automatic shut-off will occur; you will be deaf to such teaching. All personal teaching is recognizable: it starts valiantly forth with “ God is Love”; but, seeing its power slipping, it begins to introduce the power of evil, and, before you know it, it is trying to bind you to itself with chains of fear: evil prophecy and prognostications follow, and you find the smallest tenet of all is, “God is Love.”

Little by little you are emerging from the slough of personal teaching and returning unto ME and finding therein the way of Life.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the WORD was with God, and the Word was God.” You are beginning a new creation today with the WORD, if it is with GOD— do you see?

 

21. THE HEALING VOICE

“This is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way [consciousness] of our LORD.” “My words are spirit and my words are truth and they shall not return unto ME void, but SHALL accomplish whereunto they are sent.” Do you hear? Do you believe?

Thus the foundations to the healing voice are laid. Either you are speaking with the God voice or you are putting up a series of arguments, pleading for the allness of God. For those who still believe there is power in affirmations to change the will of God, there is the power of the energy that the human mind gives them. When this has spent itself, they return again to the former state of things, and very likely will be heard to say, “Well, I have tried all the systems and they have all failed.” So is it with the WORD of God that you have “tried to use.” Trying to use the principle of mathematics and actually using it are two different things. You only try to use it as long as you find it something which is foreign to your nature. You use it when you find it a part of your mentality. You may argue pro and con about the illustrations given to convey the idea of the Presence; no illustration is adequate to give more than the faintest suggestion of the Power of the Presence here and NOW. “ My sheep hear my voice”—either you HEAR the allness of the Presence or you are still hampered by the “yes but” response of the conscious thinking. Either the WORD of God does “accomplish whereunto it is sent,” or else the whole teaching of Jesus Christ is vain. Why not come to a definite decision on this point NOW?

Without denying the helpfulness of all the steps which have led you to your present door of decision, any further attempt to use these outgrown things will result in confusion and defeat. There is no heckling about various systems. If you are not through with all systems, teachers, books, and organizations, it is because you have not arrived at the understanding of the simple teaching of Jesus Christ. No matter how necessary all this bungling progress may seem to you, now it must be cast aside and the pure acceptance of the PRESENCE fill everything.

The erudition and intellect of man will spread itself like a green bay-tree. It will explain everything away from the Christ teaching except the empty dead letter. What is that to thee? Results are the acid-test of the WORD, and if you have not results you have not the understanding as given by Jesus Christ to the child. It may be hard to swallow, but once it is conceived it wipes away all the filthy personalities who are still selling “doves in the temple” under one name or another. The raising of memorials to “so-called” great souls is like setting up statues of Jesus Christ.

The puny arguments of a conscious mind are filled with fear. The practitioner is wondering if it will work, and the false and ingratiating sense of humility that is displayed is sickening. Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you going? When you pass through the reel of film that is at this instant being cast upon the screen of life, where will you be? Your god or demi-god fails you at the moment he should stand by you, and you find an “itching palm” held out under the sacred scrolls. “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” It just isn’t important any more what people think about you and your progress. It is wonderful, the freedom that comes to you when you once realize that all the babbling metaphysicians do not count. Be still—it is well.

So when you have come to the place of  “I can of myself do nothing—but all things are possible to God,” you will be through with the “trying” to do anything, but the swift and certain sense of integrity will command and it shall be done. “Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass.” What? You—the worm of the dust? Yes, YOU shall decree a thing and it shall be so. Either ye shall or else the whole idea of God and the universe is false. Either it is one hundred per cent true or it is entirely erroneous. Do you hear? Answer ME. 

It makes no difference where you stand—in the mire of misdeeds, or the filth of disease or poverty, or with a history of crime and false education, or with a family tree loaded with the rotten fruits of hereditary influences. It makes no difference Whether you are the harlot, the libertine, the thief, yea, even the murderer. The moment you recognize this PRESENCE as the one, instead of a divided, power you will SEE—and you will exclaim, “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.” What do you see? You see reality, not imagination; reality, and this very “looking again “or” looking through “causes you to transcend belief in “You say it is four months until the harvest?” Fit this illustration to your problem. The old treadmill of thought is plough, plant, cultivate, harvest, with the terrible odds of plagues, wind, rain, and drought against you. Your disease is hereditary, incurable, hopeless, too far gone, etc. Your present situation is helpless, forlorn, beset with fearful odds; you faint when you contemplate it—in other words, you say what you know to be true: “It is four months until the harvest.” But “I” say. Now we are concerned with the God voice—“I” is about to say what it “sees” as it looks through. “I say, LOOK again.” Would just looking a second time do anything but verify the evil belief or the accepted intellectual idea of man? “‘But I say, LOOK again.” What will you do with this? Where are you going to look? In the consciousness of man is nothing but the “few days of trouble” which are allotted to him. “The fields are white.” Do you hear-see? Can you make it so by repeating the dead letter of an affirmation? Does the GOD voice which “spake and it was done” need some specially arranged words to make that come to pass which is already here on the dimension of the “look again; the fields are white” Plane? It is so wonderful when you are through with the old mantra of mankind.

“I will walk in you and talk in you.” Do you believe it? Then WHY will you begin to think up mantra and affirmations on prosperity and say with a trembling voice, “Everything is all right and in its right place at this VERY instant —knowing in your heart that nothing is right?” I speak not of myself, but HE that sent me into expression.” Do you hear? If you will stop speaking and move into the inspiration of “it is HE that speaks in you and through you,” then will you speak with the “healing voice.” You shall give to every man that which he asketh. It is wonderful, the gift which has been bestowed upon you.

“Then stir up the gift of God within thee” by pure and simple recognition of the vibrating, living, pulsating Presence of the “mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” The word does not need to be audible. It may be; it may be as simple as “I WILL” or it may have been transmuted to the “ look again ” which sees the perfect manifestation.

“For the strong man, meat,” and it is because it is so simple and natural that the light goes on. Fearing that something would be lost, the ancient priests withheld the power from the masses, because they thought they would lose their following and personal worship. The same thing goes on to-day: all sorts of “keys” and “secret powers” are supposed to be in the “keeping” of sanctified souls.

No WORD of God, no secret of the Almighty, has ever been entrusted to any “sanctified soul” to withhold from the seeker of truth, and to dole out only at the price of personal worship. You, whoever you are, have the power to unlock any secret door of understanding, if you once recognize your own divinity, instead of imagining that the priceless word is given to the few. “I will pour out my blessings on ALL mankind.” It makes no difference whether you have studied a year or a day or ten years. The blessings are poured out to anyone who can receive. You cannot receive as long as you are “denying ME,” the Divinity within yourself. How much longer are you going to seek in the husks of human learning for the knowledge and understanding of how to “look again” set forth in the teachings of Jesus Christ?

Dare you to SPEAK the word? Dare you to do the works of Jesus Christ? Dare you to speak with authority and see the “fields white”? You have the healing voice, the power that speaks within you; a tonal quality will come forth which will make the difference apparent from “Peace, peace, and there is no peace,” and the “Peace, be still.”

 

22. LEAVE ALL —FOLLOW ME

“. . . Let not him who seeks cease until he finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished he shall reach the Kingdom, and, having reached the Kingdom, he shall rest.”

“The Kingdom of Heaven is, within you, and whosoever shall know himself shall find it; [strive therefore] to know yourselves and ye shall be aware that ye are the sons of the Almighty Father; ye shall know that ye are in the City of God, and ye are the city.”

“A man shall not hesitate to ask concerning his place [in the Kingdom]. Take no thought from morning until evening,” etc.

“Follow ME”—what a command! How far afield we have gone trying to do this very thing. First through the heavy physical, under the rod and the rule; then into a land of more light, where we came to know the thing called mind and by aid of which we emerged from the blackness of the physical hopelessness; but then set out in a strange following after many gods. A thousand and one ways of entering into the Kingdom of Heaven have been presented, and we have followed many mountebanks hoping to find out “how” it was all done. We have heard of a thousand “short cuts” and special messages and blindly worshipped personalities and fallen down to men-gods, and even been willing to practice the hocus-pocus they taught. Time after time we have come from these unholy practices disillusioned, hurt, disheartened.

Just about the time we thought we were through with all the “drivel,” another came along and offered such a fantastic tale, backed up by the testimony of a thousand human minds, only too eager to make “it work,” that we were turned awry once more.

“I AM the door”—what are we going to do about it? Be led away from this glorious heritage of Jesus Christ, here and now, and into some labyrinth of fearful and fearsome sights? Are we those looking for a personal Master? Do we suppose that departed souls have nothing else to do than be at the beck and call of small’ intellects who claim to have control of these “masters” and who offer all sorts of strange manifestations? Presently all these sweet doctrines turn to something bitter. Threats, curses, and all sorts of stories of the unloosed demons of the underworld are again hatched up to hold you in place. The garden of roses which you entered, and which was so beautiful, has suddenly become filled with poisonous serpents.

All sorts of things are then heaped upon us and a great belief in two powers is clearly developed. We have returned to the “Egypt” of our former belief.

Perhaps we become so degenerate as to join the chorus of those lost souls who spend most of their time seeing if anything is “happening” to those who refuse to worship the two-power doctrine. They do not realize that, while they are looking for evil to take place in another, they are building up a most perfect foundation for it to manifest in themselves. Recalling that all evil is sustained by thought, we can imagine what a wealth of evil we are laying up for ourselves by watching to see if another is punished. “What is that to thee? “would instantly erase any desire on your part to see a law of evil fulfilled, even if it were possible. But so perverted and so hypnotized is the student that he would tear his hair with sincere grief if the evil his teacher or leader predicted did not come to pass. He is so set upon the idea of personal power, and so filled with fear, that he would actually rather see the evil prophesied come to pass than to have it neutralized with the God-Love.

Isn’t it time to awaken from the hypnotism of many gods? Do you follow after “other gods”? Are you ready to leave all and follow ME? If so, you are beginning to taste of the fruits of Heaven. It is so glorious when you come again to the simple teaching of Jesus Christ, free from all the rubbish concocted by a thousand and one money-making personalities. All the strange commerce with the departed will cease for that one who has suddenly recognized the Presence, in which all things are eternally perfect.

“I came not to destroy, but fulfill.” On which side of the fence do you stand? Are you destroying “in the name of God”? Then you are still in the unregenerate state of Saul. You may be sincere and true when you want to trample into dust anybody who does not give your teacher one hundred per cent credit and worship, but you are still in darkness; and you are conscious of the terrible unrest and wondering in your midst.

“Why will ye kick against the pricks?” Why do you spend your time looking for that which is evil and wrong in another, and at the same time be so deluded as to imagine that only GOOD can happen to you?

Do you begin to see that, that which you insist is true for another is first true for you, otherwise you would not be able to conceive it? As you insist on the evil that you know for another coming into manifestation, so do you endanger your own prospects of happiness and peace.” Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.”

Why do you want a special Master when you have ME? Why will you go after other gods when the ONE and only God, free from all the fears of the conscious thinking, is here and NOW in the midst of you? Do you not yet recognize that hell, with all its devilish spirits and powers, is a creation of the conscious thinking which is all that separates you from the Presence?

When will you “leave all and follow ME”? It is so glorious, so light-filled, when you suddenly know that you have at last decided to “leave all” and follow the Christ within. You may still have some distance to go before you come out of all the coils of your former allegiance to other gods, but almost immediately you will experience such a surcease from the old hell of uncertainty and wondering that you will know it is well with you.

No sooner do you find a so-called master (guru) who is to trail about after you and wait for your call, and who is your special genie, than you also find he has a counterpart, an evil entity—name it what you will—who is after you and from whom you must be protected. It is disgusting to hear pygmy intellects talk about controlling even the coming and going of Jesus Christ. Only imagine what would happen if the blatant, raucous-voiced individual who claims to control Jesus Christ in his visitations actually came into the Presence of the Master.

“Turn ye even unto ME with all your heart and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Do you hear? Return unto the simple Jesus Christ revelation, freed from all the entanglement of man, and you shall find rest for your souls. Rest from the struggle to make things work, and to find your way in a mass of human teaching.

Suddenly you are through with all books, teachers, lecturers, systems, and organizations. You have eventually come outside them all, and now you can have any of them, but none of them can have you. So are you now prepared to hear the voice of Jesus Christ, as much in the man in the gutter as from him who stands in the pulpit. You are free from the hypnotism of a new Messiah or new system of ideas.

Your measure for all newcomers is direct and simple. If a child could not understand and use it, it is not of Jesus Christ; and that which is not of Jesus Christ is of man and sure to lead to disillusionment. What does a child know of ail the strange, weird, psychic claptrap that is passed out in the name of Jesus Christ? Finally, if you follow after such teaching, you will begin to believe there is one who is greater than Jesus Christ, so deluded will you become.

Because Jesus said, “The works I do ye shall do also, and even greater,” he did not say that the Principle of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and flesh made spirit, should ever be transcended. It could not be, for it is the all.

When you have returned unto “ME” (the Jesus Christ consciousness) you are filled with the Laughter of God. You cease the old condemnation of others, and this ceasing to condemn does not mean you condone all the foolish, often vicious, teachings offered. The Laughter of God will shatter all this filthy, evil growth which is being foisted on the student eager to “see” results or make things happen. Even the “glance” of spirit through you will shatter this false thing in another, and he may be healed. You have something to do when you recognize the Christ, and that is not making yourself something to be worshipped. You have a tremendous thing to accomplish, and it is accomplished automatically when you once make your alignment. You heal without ever being conscious that anything has been wrong. You bless and prosper automatically, and you are able to transmute the cup of cold water into the elixir of life. No, there is no explanation of all this. It is a point of recognition which has come so far into manifestation that it automatically does good instead of evil. It is wonderful when you are through with the last Messiah and all his or her followers. It is a sign that you have found the Messiah within, and nothing can disturb the even flow of this God light dispelling the shadows.

It is only when you begin to understand the revelation of the simple Christ teaching that you can appropriate all those things which you formerly tried to demonstrate. You shall have arrived at a place of “do—take—ask— decree—look again—seek—knock” and a thousand and one other things which set the automatic power into action; just as pressing the electric switch floods the house with light, music, warmth, coolth. Isn’t it wonderful when you begin to see faintly what Jesus was giving to you and to me? I AM so glad that you are through with all the Messiahs and have answered the question, “Is this he that should come?” in the affirmative, thereby establishing and recognizing the Christ within. The hypnotism of personal teaching and belief will pass away, and then anything can happen to you.

“Let not him who seeks cease until he finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished, he shall reach the Kingdom, and, having reached the Kingdom, he shall rest.” Do you see when you cease “seeking” in personal teachings you will find, and this “finding” is like a forest fire in a gale of wind; it sweeps on, consuming all that stands in its way. Surely when “he finds, he shall be astonished”; so will you be astonished at what lies within your own consciousness—astonished that everything lies there and is waiting for recognition to come into form or shape. As the floods of light pour over you, presently in this astonished state of mind you will reach the Kingdom, and in that place shall you rest, because in that state of consciousness what you formerly sought to demonstrate is an actual reality, and functions from the impetus of Spirit. You are now no more under the law, but you are under grace ; under the Divine influence which accomplishes things outside the Jaw of the human mind.

The “rest” that is referred to is not the supine waiting for things to happen, but it is a rest from anxiety and worry, and frees you from all the complexities of human thought.

“A man shall not hesitate to ask concerning his place in the Kingdom.” The asking is not begging: it is the enlarging the borders of your tent, the launching out into deeper waters—the being able to ask, nothing doubting, and the ability to take more and more of the Christ consciousness and bring it into manifestation.

“Take no thought from morning until evening.” The taking of thought is the cause of all the evil, and as soon as you stop trying to “work out your problems” according to some new-fangled teaching which will tomorrow be thrown into the purifying furnace, you will then see these evil manifestations dropping out of your line of vision.

“Who do you say that I AM?” Answer me. Are you ready to leave all the mental debris you have gathered from walking up and down, and to and fro, looking for a new Messiah?

“The Lord in the midst of thee is strong and mighty”; “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth rejoice.” It is so glorious and wonderful and sacred when you come to understand this, even in a small way.

It should so thrill you to know that you are through with all the fantasy of the human mind, and are at last set on the path of Jesus Christ, that you would make a new song in your heart, and place the coal of fire upon your lips. The world can hear with the hearing ear the song of your soul, pouring out from the heart of you into the works of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! “Heaven and earth are filled with thee.” Do you want any more than that? Are you looking for something else as well? Do you still seek the hashish of some personal teacher?

“Not that which goeth in but that which cometh forth from a man defileth him.” Do you hear the cursings and fears pouring out of the mouth of one who wants you to follow his particular brand of teaching? It is coming out of him, isn’t it? Do you then read the law. See that it enter not into thee, for that which enters in will likewise come out in one form or another. Are you listening again and again to the doctrine which despoils the pure, simple teaching of Jesus Christ? Away with all this darkness. “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill,” and anyone preaching a doctrine of destruction is only telling the picture of his own human destiny. Jesus came that we might escape that destiny, and it can only be done through the worship of the one and only GOD—here, there, and everywhere—and the glorious defense of Jesus Christ. Defense of the greatest kind—not by sword, but by manifestation. Who can go against the LOVE of God in the midst of thee?

 

23. THE FATHERHOOD DEGREE

“He ascended unto the Father” is the biblical language for assuming the “Fatherhood” degree which is necessary before you can do the works of the Father. It is not some outside thing that takes place. It is not body levitation, as many believe. It is not the psychic traveling in the realm of imagination, leaving behind the inert body. It is merely arriving at the level of the Divine heritage.

There is no outside preparation. It does not occur in a special locality. It is never under the guidance of a person or a group of persons. It is within the deep silence of your own soul. You suddenly come to a full realization that it is possible and that it is a natural, normal thing which should take place —a rising to the place in consciousness where the “former things have passed away.” It is the place of revelation and not overcoming.

There is but ONE way-shower—Jesus Christ —no matter how many others are introduced. There is NO way into Heaven but through this revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not a man revelation. It is not following after the historical character of Jesus the carpenter. He made it plain that “Jesus Christ” was SOMETHING that every man possessed, and which had to be accepted, assumed, before it became manifest. It is the Word made flesh, and the flesh made Spirit. It is the Motivating Power of the universe. When you see this you evolve yourself to a place of recognition of the Presence. It is, then, not a use of the Power or an application of the Power; it is an experiencing of the Presence. No matter where you may be, even in the hell of conscious thinking, you have but to recognize the Presence and all is changed in the “twinkling of an eye.”

Unless you make the ascension to the Fatherhood degree you cannot do the works of the Father. Remembering that the son was crucified and buried, it is little use to work with the sonship degree. First of all you must answer the question, “Believest thou this?” for yourself. Not for another. This is the question you must and will eventually answer for yourself. Do you believe the revelation of Jesus Christ? Do you believe it is possible for you to become one with the Father within? What is the nature of anything that becomes one with another? What is the nature of you when you become one with the Father? Answer me. It is wonderful when you begin to sense the simple, direct teaching of Jesus the Christ.

Away with every teacher, lecturer, book, organization, or group that tries in the least way to direct by fear the ongoing of the soul. The moment they fail to make you follow after them by love they start the old threadbare theories of fear. They believe all sorts of hateful things, and are worse than voodoo doctors in their desire to see evil take place. Professing God in one breath, in the next they are telling of the evil that will befall you if you dare deviate from their particular teaching. They call it all sorts of things, but you recognize the same old devil-worship behind it all. If you believe that because a person says to you if you do not do as he directs you will be cursed, you have yet to hear the words of Jesus Christ, the bringer of Love. Do you believe Jesus Christ, or some pygmy personality who is puffed up with temporal power?

“Awake, thou that sleepest.” You will find these resurrected ones running about looking for only one thing, and that is the downfall of others who do not believe in their limitations. Afraid themselves, because of the hell they have preached to others, it disturbs them to see another free from all their hallucinations. Prophets of evil know innately that they are only seeing their own human destiny and are trying to avoid it by forcing it on another.

“Awake, thou that sleepest.” At the first word of evil, be it curses, animal magnetism, malpractice, or other hellish inventions of the disbeliever in Jesus Christ, just fold your tent and steal away. You are in the presence of a person whose breath is yet “in his nostrils,” and you are told to flee from this devil-worshipper. Seeking to mete out evil in the name of God to another is the surest way to bring it upon yourself. Not that it is a power of itself. It only exists because of the thought substance which you are giving to it. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” relieves you of the unpleasant duty of “seeing” that the one whom you consider “off the track” gets “what is coming unto him.”

“The signs follow—they do not precede.” This is true of evil as well as good. If you believe in evil for another, you will see the manifestation and it will be within your own domain. The sign must take place because you are using one of the most terrific laws known, the Law of Recognition. You cannot possibly escape the manifestation in your own affairs of what you know to be true for another. Do you begin to see how the true revelation leads you away from everything but the Jesus Christ within?

Failing to reach the place of revelation, because of the constant attempts to “demonstrate” the God power, the “busy ” one turns to the salvation of his brother. He now thinks that perhaps if he gets busy telling the other what is wrong with him he will get into the Kingdom this way, so he wastes hours talking of and about his vicious little concept of a God of Wrath. Wondering all the while why it is, he continues to experience more and more virulent poverty and want. He is breaking the first commandment and doesn’t recognize it. He is not spending his time praying without ceasing—recognizing the one God; he is worshipping that which fills his mind, i.e. the evil power with which he hopes to destroy another.

I was amazed, at this late day, to become aware of a group of benighted souls, who imagined they were following the Christ, who spent most of their time finding out what was wrong with me and my expression. Some of them had killed me, others had sat in judgement waiting for evil to befall me because I did not bow down to the vicious idea they held of God. No wonder they were sweating in the rottenness of poverty and limitation. They could not make it out. I was glad to be able to bring to their attention the fact that if you worship any other god you will have to pay the price of that worship. You worship everything you hate, just as much as that which you love. In fact, many times you give more constant attention to that which you hate. It is wonderful when you see that hatred is the human way of worship. Your mind is constantly filled with that which you loathe, and hence you are in its power. Do you begin to see how, inversely, if your consciousness is filled with God, you have little opportunity to see evil?

If your mind is stayed on ME, you will not have it stayed on a person, book, organization, or fantastic teaching. Anything which offers short cuts and strange ways of arriving at the Kingdom of Heaven is of the Devil—the belief in two powers—and will eventually raise its hydra head of hate and proclaim itself specially appointed and consecrated, etc.

You can ascend any time you recognize the simple teaching of Christ. He said to his disciples, “Follow ME ; the works that I do ye shall do also, and even greater”—the works done through the temple of Jesus are to be exceeded. Do you hear? No one who is to do the works of Jesus Christ will make a show of them. The miracle is one thing, the parading and talking of power another, and the surest sign of its non-existence.

Anything done on the outside is man-action. All sorts of psychological tricks are done hoping to train or instruct or help the Christ Mind. “Thou fool, do you not know that a seed must first fall into, the ground and rot before it can be made alive?” Do you not see that all the polishing of the outside of the seed will accomplish nothing? It is the recognition of the Life within and the “letting” of this into expression through the secret ways of Spirit.

Holding money and blessing it, hoping to get returns therefrom, is as productive of results as any other “magic” trick. It has been used in one form or another by voodoo priests for ages. It has nothing to do with the increase of substance. That must take place from within. Nothing can happen from without that is lasting or worth while. The moment a manifestation reaches perfection it must give place to a greater manifestation. This is the spiritual evolution, or showing forth, that is necessary for the changeless life of the Presence.

“You say it is four months till the harvest ? “Is that what you say? Is that what you find true? Will it take four months, or four years, or four something else, before you can be healed, helped, or prospered? Is that what you say? Of course it is, and it is good common sense. It has been proved a thousand times that it takes four months for the thing to be accomplished. But “I say, LOOK again.” And if you can look—that is, if you can ascend into the Father consciousness— you will be able to see the flower before the seed or the answer before the prayer. You will be able to see the inner vision, and with the inner eye to recognize it as so; and when you look again you will see that the “fields are white.” It is marvelous, beloved I You do not need a system. You do not have to do anything, nor go any place, to see this. It is not the quaint old human psychological trick of Visualization; it is pure recognition of the One Power, and the aligning of yourself with it, that brings about the results.

But think you that you can do this as long as you are rushing about “telling” others what a power you have? What do you care whether they know or not? If you have it, it will stand you in good stead, and you will not be bothered whether you impress others that you are great and powerful and have an understanding.

The benighted human mind tries often to exhibit a power of love; failing to hold with this, it introduces powers of evil, hoping to rule by fear. It is wonderful. Remember that “I have seen the wicked spreading himself like a green bay-tree.” Very often it spreads itself all over the place, and many leave the simple Jesus Christ revelation for all sorts of saints, masters, and vicious personalities. But then one day—and what a day!—the cry goes up, “I have been hurt.” Of course you have been hurt, but you hurt yourself, and you will continue to beat yourself with many stripes until every filthy rag of personal teaching is dropped off and you stand naked to the Truth of Jesus Christ. If you could but know the “gift of God” that is within you, if you could but once recognize that you need nothing else but the revelation of Jesus Christ, then would you cast the dirty garments of personal teaching from you and be free. Free into the glorious revelation of the Inner Lord, the Father Within.

“He ascended unto his Father.” It is wonderful when you hear the loved voice of Jesus saying to you, “The works that I do ye shall do also.” Do you hear? Do you begin to perceive that this ascending to the Father consciousness is not some strange psychic thing? It is not something that is gained through a course of lessons, but something that takes place within yourself. Do you believe that “The works that I do ye shall also”—do you? Answer me. If so, why not leave all this personal teaching and come unto ME? As soon as you have come unto ME and understood ME within the Place of the Father, then can I speak to you through the man lying in the gutter, if necessary, and you will take the Word but leave behind the husks.

“The wrath of man shall bless Thee.” The wrath of the teacher, or leader, or organization which has been placed upon you will bless you, when you have ascended unto the Fatherhood degree. It will only hurt you as long as you remain in the terrible belief in a power apart from God. If you believe in two powers, then do you receive the full force of this evil belief, and it makes no difference what vicious little person tells you of evil, you respond; even though you know the one voicing it has not the power to take care of his simplest needs. It could not be otherwise. If you endow a stick with power, it will rise up and curse you, and so will a man, or a book, or an organization. It is, then, you who must curse yourself because of your belief in such a thing. “Awake, thou that sleepest.” Come out from under the yoke of your bondage and let the little demi-gods alone—they will presently recede into oblivion, into the hell of their own creation. “ The wrath of man shall bless you.” Demand this blessing, just as Jacob said to the Angel,” I will NOT let you go until you bless me.” So the cursing of you contains the “blessing.” Demand it. It is wonderful when you demand of those who have cursed you, or tried in every way to destroy you and your works, the blessing. They have plenty to do to deliver this, but deliver it they must, for not one jot or tittle shall be removed until the law be fulfilled. It is wonderful! “I will not let you go until you bless me,” and so do you hold them to the line. It is hard for a “murderer” to resurrect his victim, but resurrect it he must in order that he may live. The symbology of this is apparent.

“I will not let you go until you bless me.” So the wrath of man is suddenly turned into a thousand blessings upon you. It prospers you and heals you and opens new doors into higher revelations. The organization that holds you through fear must bless you in no uncertain way because you will not let “it” go until it bless you. It is wonderful. Do you begin to see how the evil is caught in the net it sets for another?

“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”

Do you believe this? Or have you some little personal god, a belief in some evil in your life which is more powerful than this God whom Jesus Christ proclaimed to us? Or do you believe that the god concocted by some man’s mind has more power than the one God? Rest assured that the god brought to you by a personality will have one definite capacity, and that will be the prophesying of evil. He will know how to bring to your remembrance evil beliefs long since buried in the past. What will you do with this personal god who flourishes as a green bay-tree? Answer me! Can he help you “look again”? Has he ever been able to do anything for you but re-acquaint you with fear and dread, even when he says God is love? Answer me!

“ He ascended unto his Father,” the place above all human belief in doctrine, creeds, dogma. He ascended to the place of “Grace,” of which it is said, “If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the curse of the law.” Note the word CURSE. You are under the curse of a thousand human fears engendered by loose minds in an attempt to set themselves on the height as God. “Awake, thou that sleepest” and recognize the PRESENCE here and now. Ail is God—everything you see goes to make up the body or manifestation of this All-spirit. Why will you imagine, then, that this universal Power can be crammed into the body of a person, book, or organization? How long will you give a stone when the people cry for bread? How long will you give a thistle instead of a fig?

When you ascend to the Father—recognize the Presence here and everywhere—you make null and void all the petty personal beliefs both in yourself and others. You are freed into Heaven, here and NOW.

“He ascended unto his Father.” He did not ascend unto a group of fantastic masters, parading about in theatrical robes, and possessing unlimited riches. It is so strange and amusing that most of the newly concocted masters have wealth of a human kind. What for? Why? A thousand questions could be asked: if you would only answer them you would see that you are following the invention of some little personality, who, through a starved, poverty-stricken life, has always been denied the barest needs, and who now wallows in a deluge of imagination. “My grace is sufficient for thee” Then you will not need measures of gold and jewels, etc.; and, even if you did, “my grace” could supply a sufficiency. Do you believe?

“Follow ME.”

What a command! What a thing to do! Suddenly you will fold your tent and steal away with ME. In the ascended place of the Father consciousness you will find that “all is well with thee.”

Remember, when you fold your tent and steal quietly away into the Recognition of the Presence, that you have also the command, “Let the filthy be filthy still.” Let those who wish to worship persons, masters, books, or organizations be filthy still—they will one day get their fill.

Do you hear? You have folded your tent and stolen silently away into the Presence. You are under the Divine influence, and you are beginning to experience all the things you formerly thought you could demonstrate by some person’s system.

“Follow ME.” I have much to say to you—much to show you—and these things have not been contaminated by the interpretation of human intellect.

“Follow ME.” Do you hear?

 

24. ASCENSION

Recently I met a person who said, “I am going to make my ascension” She had joined some new cult that was busy making ascensions and meeting those who had ascended. She had a special dress made for the occasion, and was going to a given locality to perform it all. She was sure that she was right and everybody who didn’t follow the new-old fantastic idea was wrong. Two months later I again saw her. No visible change, on the outside at least, except a bitter determination not to talk about the experience she had had. A psychic “run-around” with a lot of very materially minded folk was about the sum total of her efforts. Trailing off to imaginary cities and meeting imaginary masters or spirits may be a pleasant pastime if—and this is almost sure to happen—the door of the subconscious mind (that repository of material history) is not left open and a conglomerate mass of meaningless ideas take the floor. It very often happens that the one who was sure he was in daily communion with a master finds himself pursued by all sorts of evil spirits—self-created, true, but none the less terrible to him.

Is it any wonder that Jesus said, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee LIGHT”? Do you believe this, or will you still accept the clap-trap of one who promises such ridiculous things as communing with masters? If a master has anything to say to you, he will say it. Certainly he will not be at the beck and call of a person receiving the instruction. Could you commune with a famous music teacher whenever you chose?

Jesus recommended the ascension. He ascended to his Father, the “ Fatherhood “ consciousness, every time he did anything which the world called miracle. He consulted this Fatherhood consciousness constantly before making a move, having discovered that “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.”

When you ascend to the Father consciousness, you find the flower before the seed, the “fields white” before the planting, and all the other fourth-dimensional ideas quite naturally manifested. How these will take shape and form on the outside is entirely beyond human reasoning. You have but to stand on the resurrected or ascended state of consciousness to see the “Word made flesh” or the vision shown to him on the mount come into being. It is wonderful what the revelation of Jesus Christ will do for you. “Beside this there is no other,” for it is not a man teaching, neither the utterings of a so-called master. It is the revelation of a Principle which is as much in you as in anything else. Jesus knew this when he said to the unenlightened man, “Go thou and do likewise.” This was full recognition of the Mastership or Fatherhood degree in every man. Who will accept it? Will you? Or will you too begin the age-old harangue of, “Well, you see, I have not my instructions” —“I do not understand”—“I am not sufficiently advanced”—“My teacher says—” Not until you ascend to this consciousness and make the assumption of the Presence can you bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.

“I have a way ye know not of ” will take care of the manner and form in which the idea will be clothed. Can you accept this? Can you make your ascension right here and NOW?” This is holy ground—take off your shoes.” Or will you get ready to follow after the psychic ravings of a man and go wandering to the far ends of the earth looking for a MASTER?

Many there be who have dreamed of the high Holy Cities of Tibet, and many have actually gone to a specified locality after a master. They return with a rather glorified travelogue but no master—that is, in the flesh; perhaps a psychic experience. There is but ONE Master, not many; there is but one principle of mathematics—one LIFE; “Why will you constantly divide my garment?” The question might be asked whether you would recognize the Master if he were to come into being for you. We asked such a stupid question back in Jerusalem and failed to see “ME” there. “When saw we ye? “Are you sure you would recognize ME if you saw ME NOW?

“No man shall ascend unto heaven save he who has descended from the Father of Light, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of changing.” If you do not recognize this Divine heritage you will never make your ascension, but will spend weary, harassed years trying to follow some so-called master or purveyor of masters.

“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.”