Come – Eat And Drink
“COME, eat and drink without money and without gold.” The invitation is to all. It is written in such a way that “He that runs may read,” and yet we pass it by, and hurry along into the crowded city to beg for crust.
“The Cattle on a thousand hills are mine, and if I were an hungered I would not tell thee, I would slay and eat.”
“Suppose we compare money with the cows on a thousand hills. The cows belong to God, and so do the mines, and precious jewels. God is just the same in reference to all these things that are of the mineral kingdom as He is concerning those things which are of the animal kingdom. It is Wonderful! He said, ‘If I were an hungered, I would slay and eat.’ Well then, as with the things of the animal kingdom, so with the things of the mineral kingdom. God does not have to ask for anything, or for permission to use anything. He says, “The Cattle on a thousand hills are mine’; and I say to you, ‘The gold and silver and all other metals in a thousand hills are mine.'”
Buried deep in this beautiful illustration of the cattle on a thousand hills is the story of the infinite substance awaiting every man who recognizes that the God within him is the Christ Power, which possesses all things, even the cattle on a thousand hills. And hidden away in this simile is the far-reaching truth, that, if a man is hungry, he must partake of his own. “If I am an hungered, I would slay and eat” – shows the step necessary to be taken before man comes into his own. That which is yours, is yours, but not until you recognize it, and, if you do recognize it, then you can use it. You can, in the symbology of the scriptures, “Slay and eat.” That is where most of us have fallen down. We have said, “All that the Father hath is mine,” but we have immediately begun the process of “begging” for that which is ours. The Kingdom of Heaven is not taken by violence. “Except ye become as a little child, ye can in NO WISE enter the kingdom.” He that tries to climb up any other way is a thief and a robber. So it is with the beautiful giving to you of the cattle on the thousand hills. If you try to possess them by any other way than that of pure acceptance, as a child might accept its food, then your slaying and eating will be against the law, and you shall pay the penalty of misunderstanding your rights – no matter how hungry you may be.
The man who has said “The Cattle on a thousand hills are mine,” could also say with impunity, “If I am an hungered, I will slay and eat,” and no one would say him nay – they would only recognize that he was entirely within his own rights. “Claim your right, and press your claim.”
The invitation, “Come, eat and drink without money,” must be accompanied by the actual acceptance of the individual, if he expects to avail himself of the gift. It is of little use to “want to accept it”; there is something that “clicks” when he actually accepts and abandons himself to it, and does not build a wall in front of him, about making a demonstration or of using the power – all this has been relegated to the dump-heap of outgrown beliefs. Does the man who has the cattle on a thousand hills make a demonstration, every time he slays and eats, when he is hungry? No, he simply uses that which is his, and he asks of no man the right to do so.
Another man, seeing him with the cattle on a thousand hills, may also be hungry, and decide to slay and eat, but he cannot, or, if he does, he incurs the penalty for so doing, because he is breaking the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” He is still under the law, because he recognizes that God is divisible, and that He gives to some much, and to others nothing. He gives to every man (you included) exactly what he will accept from Him; no more or no less. A fountain gives to you just the amount of water you can take away in your vessel; no more or no less; but if you return again and again, with larger and larger vessels, it makes no difference. So it is with God. The invitation to “Come, eat and drink without price,” is also the wonderful revelation that the Kingdom of Heaven is free to all who will partake of it.
As long as a man is under the law of human belief, he feels the harshness of the Ten Commandments; they are heavy laws laid upon him, which curtail his every desire. When he is in the Spirit of the Presence HERE and NOW, he is no more under the law, and the commandments become merely statements of what is true. For instance, if a man knows that he has the cattle on a thousand hills, he also knows that at the same time, “Thou shalt not steal” – and so it will merely be a statement of fact that he will not steal, because he will have no need to steal that which is already his. The only reason the thief steals is because he does not recognize the infinite abundance that is his. He always thinks its the other man’s; and so it is until he recognizes that it is his. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“The gold and silver and all other metals in a thousand hills are mine.” Man must appropriate them if he would use them. It is Wonderful! Yet most people, while claiming this to be true, have only accepted it in theory, and so the actual truth of this law does not come forth. The “Word” must become flesh, to be of any use to you. “Yet in my flesh shall I see God”; and your “flesh” is your manifested world and universe about you, and it is into this very “flesh” that the “Word” must come as a living reality, and not any more as unseen spirit. “Claim your right, and press your claim.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth” – the invitation is sweeping, it is open to all. It is Wonderful!
Do you see how it is that we begin the new process of Life by this glorious Recognition of the Presence of God and His fullness? We can then say, “The cattle on a thousand hills are mine” – not to possess in the human selfish sense, but to use when we are “an hungered.” It is glorious! Are you afraid to go forth and trust this glorious power, which says: “I go before you and make straight the way”? Do you hear? I said “I” – the I AM goes before you (the body manifestation) and makes the way straight.
“Come, eat and drink.” Come, fill to overflowing the vessel of life, and let this filling expand the vessel into a glorious receptacle. “Enlarge the place of your tent.” “Launch out into the deep.”
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein.”
Do you begin to understand what it means to become one with this glorious Whole? With this understanding you will cease to talk about “Mine and Thine,” and will realize clearly that “all things are Mine, and Mine are Thine.” It is glorious and thrilling, this opening of the portals of the Kingdom of Heaven – the Heaven which Jesus told you was within you. “Look not, lo here, nor lo there,” is such a wonderful statement. It brings the glorious Truth home to you. “Look not, lo here, nor lo there,” for, “behold [do you hear?] the kingdom of heaven is within you. Do you hear? Can you accept it, or will you continue to try to make it so, by words and arguments? “Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”
No matter how many times you have tried and failed – that is all nothing. One of these days you will PERCEIVE that the “cattle on a thousand hills are MINE,” and why this is so; and then, if you are an hungered, you shall slay and eat; you will not be making a demonstration or doing anything to show somebody the power, you will slay and eat because you are “an hungered” or because you have need of the “cattle on a thousand hills” at that moment in a different form. It is Wonderful!
“I Am here, I Am there, I Am everywhere”; I AM the fullness of all things, in all places; and that is the spirit which must be made manifest in the flesh, in whatever form it is necessary to manifest itself at that time. It is Wonderful! No wonder then we are told, “Go ye into all the world – take no thought of the script, the purse, the robe,” etc. Why is it necessary to take thought when you recognize that “I Am here, I Am there, I Am everywhere,” waiting to be called forth into expression whenever there is a need of Me? I AM everywhere, in whatever forms necessary at that moment, to neutralize the seeming difficulty or limitation, self-imposed by human belief. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“Just what you can ask God for, God can give to you.” Do you hear? Do you see? Just what you can ask God for. You know the law of “Asking”: “Ask, believing that ye receive.” When you ask that way, that is just exactly what God can give you – or, rather, that is all you can accept, because that is all you have asked for. It is Wonderful!
“The things that are material, they are spiritualized, and the things that are spiritual, they are materialized. The heaven and earth are one, for the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ.
I have the victory, and so have you, if you only know it. Faith is the victory. You do not need to fear, fret, nor worry, when you know that you are on the side of Victory. When you know that you are on the side of Victory, you can go forth conquering and to conquer. You realize that God in one man is a majority. All you need to know is that God is within you, and you have nothing to fret nor worry about.”
Victory over the belief in limitation is but the revelation of the Allness of God which you have declared for so long. It is merely the spiritual acceptance (which you have already made) becoming materialized, or, in other words, seeing this God in the “flesh” – seeing this invisible consciousness made manifest, in whatever form needed, at that instant. It is glorious and wonderful, and filled with Light and Life.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights.” The gifts that comes down from the Father of Lights must not be put upon the open market, and dealt with as so much merchandise. The gift of healing is a free gift, and must be freely given, or it will be reduced to a mental process which is little better than hypnotism. The most difficult thing for the human mind to grasp is the fact that it can only get by giving. There is no reason to this sort of thing. In fact, it is diametrically opposed to all the human laws of gain, and yet there the law stands – only what you give away will you keep, and only by giving away will you get the increase. It is Wonderful! The human mind, hearing the law stated, sometimes thinks to “try” it, and so he gives, and awaits the returns – but nothing comes, and he has lost his so-called gift, because, in reality, he was not giving, he was only investing, and hoping for enormous returns, which come not. You cannot “give,” in the sense we are told to give in the Bible, without getting returns. No matter however much may be said to the contrary. No matter however much it may “hurt” to discover that you have not really given anything with all your giving. It is better to understand this, and learn the true giving or releasing of the infinite substance which flows through you. It is Wonderful!
There is no discouragement – you have made mistakes; you have committed sins of omission and commission, and you have done all those things that you should have done, but the Light which comes, when you recognize the Presence of the Spirit of the Consciousness of God, reveals a new order of things in your manifest world. It is Wonderful!
“When you cast your word or gift into the Universal Sea, and look to the Unseen for the return, nothing doubting, and not in a moral way, but in the way of Spirit, you will never lose.
There is no depression in the Realm of God, Depression exists only in the mind of man. All that ever was, is here and now in the fullness of the Presence of God.”
We begin to understand that the so-called world depression is merely in the mind of man. A country may be thrown into a state of depression because of the over-production of wheat, apples, potatoes, or any other commodity which is called the very necessity of life. Where is the depression then? The elaborate system of gathering in the shekels has completely disregarded the Truth of Life, but it has not changed the eternal fact that the Presence, in all Its fullness, is everywhere, and instantly available for the one who recognizes it. At the same time, it can be merely so many hollow, empty-sounding words. What then is the statement, “The cattle on a thousand hills are mine,” to the person who in his heart knows definitely that they are not his, at that they belong to somebody else, and he cannot get them – no, not even if he wanted and needed them very much.
Be still – do not argue. Surely God IS, and this Presence is enough for you – but remember: “He that is able to hold his tongue is able to take a city.”
That city which you are to take is the Consciousness of “the cattle on a thousand hills are mine, and if I AM an hungered, I will slay and eat.”
“Go thou and do likewise.”
Walter C. Lanyon
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