London Notes and Lectures

­London Notes and Lectures
by
WALTER C. LANYON

Author of:
“Impressions of a Nomad”
“The Laughter of God”
“The Eyes of the Blind”
“Behold the Man”
“Out of the Clouds,” etc. etc.

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

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

 

CONTENTS

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
1. METAPHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
2. RESIST NOT
3. THE STORY OF EVERYMAN
4. NO WORD OF GOD IS VOID OF POWER
5. PRAYER
6. THE POWER OF SILENCE
7. WHAT ALL THE WORLD IS SEEKING
8. PEACE
9. TAKE NO THOUGHT
10. WHETHER THERE BE PROPHECIES THEY SHALL FAIL
11. IDENTIFYING YOURSELF WITH GOD
12. THE UNCONDITIONED POWER
13. PERSONALITY VERSUS INDIVIDUALITY
14. LET THERE BE LIGHT : AND THERE WAS LIGHT
15. YOUR UNIVERSE
16. THAT WHICH DEFILETH OR MAKETH A MAN
17. SEEKING
18. O, THAT I MIGHT FIND HIM
19. SEE THAT YE TELL NO MAN
20. DOMINION
21. NEGATIVE VERSUS POSITIVE
22. ISNESS
23. EFFORTLESS
24. SELF
25. THE THINKER AND HIS THOUGHT
26. SUBSTANCE
27. BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD
28. PROVE ME AND SEE
29. THE VOICE
30. BEFORE YOU KNOW
31. THE SERPENT’S TAIL
32. HATE VERSUS LOVE
33. A LITTLE LEAVEN
34. PRACTICE THE CHRIST
35. THESE THINGS DO
36. DEFINITIONS AND NOTES
37. THE CITIES OF REFUGE
38. MEDITATION
39. REALIZATION
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PREFACE

“If any lack wisdom let him ask of God.” Sooner or later we find the “wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God’’ and drop this “wisdom,’’ accepting the pure teaching of inspiration as set forth by the type-man, Jesus Christ.

It is the impersonal message which you seek, not a man-made creation. The letter, without the Spirit, being dead, makes poor food by which to live. Seek not, then, the letter, but the Spirit of inspiration.

If Jesus the Christ could not find it within Himself to be called good or great, who that has followed shall proclaim himself great and wonderful? “Call not Me (Jesus) good’’; “He that hath sent Me is the only good.”

He that hath sent us into expression is the only good, because he is God. Away, then, with the sickly worship of personalities and doctrines. Be not a slave to “my” doctrine or “thy” doctrine. There is only one doc­trine, and that has been proclaimed since the beginning of time.

“My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” The doctrine that sent you into expression is free from creed, form, or ritual.

When you begin to read with the Spirit of Truth, you will find it in everything. You will be surprised to find your most original thought has been expressed in countless ways thousands of years before you thought it. When the eye is “single’’ to the all good of God’s universe, you will read the “hand­ writing on the wall” in everything and every­ body. You will learn the Truth of what Omar says: “To gather something from everyone thou passeth on life’s highway.”

The message of a letter is always between the lines. So is it with Truth.

“But what went you out for to see?—A man clothed in soft raiment … a prophet? “Put away from you the worship of personality. “I am the truth, the light, and the way,” was not said of man, but of the Christ­ consciousness, which is your heritage.

“Peace be unto you,” Pilgrim; follow the Christ on the open road and the very God of peace shall sanctify you wholly.
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INTRODUCTION

This collection of notes and lectures was compiled after a year’s work in Eng­land, at the conclusion of a two years’ cruise around the world.

The gist of the book is to establish Self reliance; to bring to the attention of man the nature of his True Self which has been called the I am or Christ-consciousness; and to cause him to see that by becoming one with this Power he is the power in action. No more will he attempt to use this Power, once he understands that he is the Power.

Thousands of people in the field of meta­ physics are still seeking in the outside world or fron1 another person that help which lies within themselves. They have but to be awakened to this Truth to feel the stir of self-resurrection.

Every man will finally learn that he must travel the path alone. The sooner he learns this, the quicker will be his progress into the broad Expanse of Power.

When we take our faith away from per­sonality and place it on the Principle of Good, we begin to experience “the peace that passeth all understanding.”
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1. METAPHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS

In many respects metaphysics is pure mathematics, and vice versa. X is the unknown quantity (unknown god whom ye ignorantly worship) which is sought and looked for by every earnest student. It remains unknown until the principle is properly applied and we perceive it as the very power which is doing the seeking.

A beginner in mathematics spends a large portion of his time looking for the answer, but when he goes further into the subject he is interested in understanding and applying the principle. He gradually learns that the answer is the natural and logical sequence of the proper application of the principle.

A beginner in metaphysics seeks the King­dom of Heaven by trying to get things or the answers to his problems; yet the statement of the principle is, “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and the things shall be added.’’ That is, seek to understand and know the principle, and the answer will follow quite naturally.

In metaphysics as in mathematics the signs (or answers) follow (not precede) them that believe (are firm).

Talking about the principle of mathematics will never work out a problem, any more than talking about Truth will bring out harmony. A page of problems may lie next to a perfectly stated principle for thousands of years and nothing happen. Talking about the Truth in the most beautiful and correct form does not obtain results.

“What is the Truth?” (what is the unknown quantity represented by X?) has been asked all down the centuries, and yet the answer is stated simply by the Master, “I am the Truth.”

When a man bas principal in the bank, the interest accrues automatically. He puts forth no effort to make the interest. When a man has a consciousness of Principle as everywhere evenly present, he accrues the interest in the form of that thing which will constantly solve the so-called problems of life.

In mathematics before you begin to work out a problen1, you recognize one thing, and that is that the answer or solution already is. It exists before you even start to apply the principle to the problen1 at hand. The same thing is true of metaphysics: “Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will give it unto them.” The answer to your problem or prayer already is before you even attempt to work it out.

It gives one courage to understand that there is no such thing as an unanswered problem in the universe, and it causes one to turn to the Master who eternally started with the premise, “It is done.” Jesus recognized that every problem was solved before the request was spoken. He wasted no time in begging and beseeching the Prin­ciple to work out anything. He started with the premise, “It is done.” The more con­versant we are with the principle of mathematics the quicker we are in approxi­mating the answer. The more we recognize the oneness of God, the quicker we see him manifest.

Everything that ever was or will be is at this moment. When Michael Angelo saw the angel in the block of marble, he con­ceived it as perfect, complete, and finished; and having this concept, the labour or expres­sion of bringing the un-manifest into the manifest was simple, direct, and joyous.

If a room is in a state of chaos, before it can be set in order it must first be conceived as being in perfect order in mind. At that instant it is done, and the matter of setting it in order on the outer plane is merely the action of mind expressing itself through you. 

A child labours with a simple problem. You are aware of the perfect solution, while the child is still labouring with the delusion that he has to get the answer. The same thing is true in metaphysics. Jesus stood in the same position to humanity that you stand to the child. He saw the solution instantly, while humanity struggled with its problems.

You may continue for ever to deny state­ments made regarding a mathematical problem. You could consume a lifetime telling what two times two are not, and arrive at no conclusion. There is only one thing which can be said regarding the equation, and that is what has eternally been true about it. The same thing can be said of man, and that is the all-inclusive statement that he is perfect now. Why is he perfect? Because he is the Son of God—now. And could the Son of a perfect Power manifest imperfection now? And if he cannot mani­fest it now, can he ever manifest it, since it is always the everlasting now?

“Thou shalt have no other Gods (principle) before me,” is a mathematical law as well as a spiritual command. You can get results no other way, except by the exact applica­tion of the principle. The more you are aware of Principle as eternally existing the easier will the circumstance which calls itself a problem be answered.

In the process of subtraction we are told at the beginning to take the lesser from the greater number, but later on we find that we take the greater from the lesser in order to bring out the harmony, or answer, to the so­ called problem. In metaphysics at first we start with seeking things, but presently we reverse this process and seek first principle and therein find everything solved.

The rules of Mathematics are hard and fast. The same is true of metaphysics. Not one jot or tittle shall be removed until the law is fulfilled. So it is with mathematics. Almost using the principle correctly does not get results, though it may approach them.

Beseeching mathematics or God to work out problems which are already solved will not help. Praising the principle of mathe­matics will not help. Intelligent co-operation with it is necessary, just as Jesus expressed it when he said, “I can of mine own self do nothing, but with God all things are possible.” To become one with Principle is to go to the foundation of it.

As well imagine that the principle of mathematics is going to set aside an un­breakable law and give you the answer to your problem as to imagine you can break the law of God. “God is not mocked,” neither is the principle of mathe­matics. You get exactly what you put into it.

One of the most interesting problems of the Bible is that of Job. He had nothing, but the answer to the problem was “His captivity was turned and he had twice as much as he had before.” What is it that could bring out this solution? You have the problem and the answer stated, but what was the actual principle that was used to bring it into manifestation?

A child will cry over its problems, but a more advanced mathematician deletes the self-pity idea, realizing the utter futility of it. A good meta-physician will have done with this useless baggage: he will waste no time pitying himself.

When you have arrived at the answer to your problem in mathematics you throw away all the labour and work, and think no more of it. The answer neutralized the vacuum you thought existed, and this being done, you are through. The same thing ap­plies to metaphysics. When you bring into manifestation the solution to the nothing­ness called problem, if you are wise you will not rehearse or go over the details of the difficulties overcome.

The principle of mathematics is impartial and impersonal-so is God. Telling the principle of mathematics that you have worked, laboured, and suffered in its cause, does not cause it to do more than it has already done, which is to supply the perfect answer to every problem. God cannot do more than all, and be has said through the Way-shower, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’’; or in other words, “there is no problem.” How could there be a problem in heaven?

“Come unto me all ye that labour and I will give you rest.” Come to the under­ standing and you have rest from the struggle in both mathematics and metaphysics. Also you come into the rich heritage. “To him that hath (understanding of the principle) shall be given” (the power to quickly recog­nize the answer as eternally existing), both in mathematics and metaphysics.

Seek first the kingdom (principle) and the things shall be added.

“Use not vain repetition.” Merely going over formula will do nothing. “Ye seek me for the loaves and fishes” when you are always seeking for the answer to problems, caring nothing for the principle.

To work out a problem for a child has its advantages at certain stages, but only gives temporary relief. If he is shown the principle, he can bring out results of harmony which will be permanent. He can cease his depend­ence on persons and go to the Source of all.

The advanced mathematician looking over the shoulder of the child sees the solution, almost as the child is setting the problem on paper; so it is with the Christ-consciousness—it knows the solution to every problem, because all problems are beliefs, and in reality exist only in the mind of the person. When we become one with the Father and let the Christ Mind be in us, we are raised to the level of having “eyes that see.”

Thomas must have his sign, but Peter understands without the sign and receives the rich blessing of understanding.
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2. RESIST NOT

“RESIST not evil.” That which you resist is to you real. A thing that becomes real cannot be destroyed. That which you fight as evil, fights back with equal force, since it is but the reflex action of your own belief. A rubber ball thrown against a wall will return without effort on your part. The contour of a rubber ball is destroyed by grasping it firmly in the hand, and nothing can restore its natural shape until the resist­ance is released. Then quite automatically the ball assumes its normal condition. The same is true of any organ of your body. That organ which is constantly in thought, con­stantly worked with or held in mind is usually diseased. The body which is fatigue­ less and perfect, is the body which is most out of thought.

That which you resist, you fear. That which you fear, you hate. The thing that you greatly fear comes into manifestation in proportion to the intensity of your fear. Not because it has any power to come into manifestation, but that it is called into visibility by your acceptance of it as a fact. That which you accept as a fact must sooner or later come into visibility. That which you accept as yours must surely come to you; it cannot go to another. Inversely, that which you reject or refuse to accept as yours certainly can find no lodgment in your kingdom.

“He that feareth is not made perfect.” “Perfect love casteth out fear.” Perfect love cannot graft itself on to a house (men­tality) divided against itself, for that house shall fall. Every mentality is divided against itself as long as it believes in two powers, or believes there is something called evil which it must fight. “You do not need to fight; set yourself and see.”

If you believe that God, good, created the universe out of himself, you certainly know that it cannot contain any quality that is not inherent in him. Holding to the isness of good firmly and unwaveringly, in spite of the illusion of evil, will cause it to manifest in your universe, for it will eventually become a reality to you.

“Ye have eyes and see not.” Sometimes the word “believe’’ means standing firm, and sometimes only a weak desire or hope that something better will take place. When we “believe” in the latter sense of the word, we can never have peace, for a belief can be destroyed or changed at any time. A man can believe anything regarding himself, but he can only know the Truth. You may believe that two times two is anything or everything. This will not change the eternal fact that it remains the same always, irrespec­tive of the argument and so-called proof to the contrary. The same thing is true of your body and universe. Because you and the whole world have believed that it is sick, sinning and inharmonious does not change the eternal fact of existence.  As soon as you understand this even in a small degree, you will realize that the only safe thing to do is to stand firm on the eternal facts of Being, unchanging, untrammeled and perfect. 

“Ten thousand may fall  at thy right hand”—ten thousand who argue and believe may fall—but he who knows himself as pure Spirit, birthless, ageless, and eternal, shall stand,  even  though the  whole world  of circumstance say he must and will fall. He who keeps his contemplation on the isness of life  shall  go untrammeled, free, and abandoned. Why should you not be aban­doned when you know the facts of exist­ence? What matter though the noisy crowd clamour to make you tune into their level of thinking. You are keyed into the reality of life and you shall see works in place of noisy words. You shall be abandoned and happy and shall keep your mental gaze fixed on the realities of a God-made universe. You shall thrill with joy at the knowledge that you do not want to change anything, or any­ body-you have only to accept and set the good everywhere.

To understand the reality of life man does not waste time studying unrealities, any more than a musician would spend years in the study of discord trying to find harmony. If he desires to know harmony, he studies the isness of its fundamental laws. There is no science of discord. It has no basic principle. It is a constant attempt to break the law, and is a product of belief only. A banker becomes so conversant with real money that he recognizes counterfeit coins by the feel, the touch and the hearing. The more he knows of the real and genuine, the more easily he recognizes it, and the quicker he is able to reject the unreal as worthless.

No amount of study of evil is going to make you better. A man may spend a life­ time denying what he is not, and yet get nowhere. He may deny that he is sick, and die while doing so. Calling an evil condition a “belief” and making that belief some­ thing real, does not help the situation. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” A sickness or inharmony called a “belief” will give off the same aroma and effect.

Understanding the nature of God, man understands the nature of himself. The greater his understanding of God, the greater his understanding of himself. Man’s busi­ness, then, is the recognization of the eternal facts of a changeless, harmonious universe. As he rises, so to speak, in the scale of this understanding, he sees personal sense as a mystification of the appearance world, which is constantly changing. All “things,, are in a constant state of disintegration and change. Conditions are constantly going and coming. Personality imposes difficulties on it­ self and then resists and fights them. “Awake thou that sleepeth, and God shall give light.”

Evil conditions are but parasites that feed upon your thought formation. Break the continuity of the thought-stream which is feeding the so-called evil circumstance and the manifestation must change. That which you accept as real comes to abide in the realm of manifestation for you.

A circumstance is only as old as the last thought about it. Any time the thought about it is changed the manifestation instantly disappears.

Darkness does not intensify with age. Any moment a light is brought, darkness disappears. It is absorbed, as it were, in the light. The same thing is true of sick­ness and inharmony. It is as easy to destroy a chronic as an acute disease. Both are dispelled by bringing the light of the isness of Being to bear on the situation.

When you wish to dispel darkness your whole attention is given to the light. No provision is made for what is to become of the darkness. Neither do you consider how and when it will go. At the same time you know that it goes nowhere, because it is not a reality, but the absence of light. “I am the truth and the light and the way.” The moment you come to recognize yourself as the light, that moment the darkness of your universe goes. You do not force it to go; your consciousness rests in your universe and floods it with light. It is so!

In healing disease, waste no time as to how the law will operate or even when. Keep your whole thought on the isness of yourself as light, and the action that seems to take place, called healing, will be instantaneous. As out of the darkness of nothingness appear many new and wonderful objects, so in the chaos of night and fear appear the glorious actualities of the kingdom, here and now.

In the case of inharmony and disease, just as in the case of darkness, you realize that it does not go anywhere, but has simply been absorbed or picked up. The Power that was being misinterpreted is gathered up into the manifestation of good. Ignorance does not go anywhere when you gain knowledge. Ignorance is simply ignoring God as being everywhere evenly present.

A light shines by its own inherent power. You do not make it shine, you let it. So it is with you; you do not work, but let your­ self into expression, by recognizing that it is an inherent right and state of the Son of God to be happy and perfect, here and now.

Jesus knew well the isness of perfection. He said, “I thank thee, Father, that thou hast heard me,” not because he acknowledged an outside Father to whom thanks were due, but that those who heard him might under­ stand that the perfection existed before any request had gone forth, and that “before ye call, I will answer.” So many need to have something done—some sign or wonder­ something mysterious—before they can be­lieve; but blessed is that man who is not looking for a sign. What Jesus did when he said, “I thank thee, Father,” was to turn from the race—consciousness of a belief regard­ing evil to the absolute state of the God-man. How often Jesus gave the word, “it is done,” but there were many who could not understand.  Likewise today thousands are praying for things, believing that by praying they can change the eternal facts of existence. Yet to those who have ears and eyes there is something worthy of consideration in such expressions as, “Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will give it unto them.’’

The answer to your prayer has always existed, since in the realm of the Real there has never been a problem. True prayer is the recognition of the Finished Kingdom here and now. No amount of beseeching and begging will change the eternal facts of Being, but the moment man catches the glorious vision of the Finished Mystery, he will see it become manifest before his very eyes. God cannot do more than all, and He has done all and called it good.

The keys to the kingdom were given to Peter (absolute faith). This understanding faith does not beg or wish; it does not hope, but takes that which belongs to the Son of God. Its password is “let.” We let every­ thing into manifestation. Finally we come to understand that only that which we “let “come into visibility can actually come into manifestation, so we begin to “let “our health, happiness, and success come into expression instead of trying to wrench these things away from life. But to do this we must first recognize that these conditions actually exist and always have existed in the Kingdom of Heaven, which we are told is within us.

When we come to this understanding we are through with the possession of things for the things’ sake; we use all and pass them on. We truly hear the glorious words, “Heretofore you have asked for nothing; ask that your joy might be full.” This seems a foolish statement in view of the fact that while dwelling on the three dimensional plane of judging from circumstances we were con­stantly praying and trying to demonstrate things, only to finally hear the rebuke, “Ye seek me for the loaves and fishes.” All is confusion as long as the attachment to things remains with man. Why attach yourself to things when abundance is everywhere? The fourth dimensional man gives up the worn­ out password, “make,” which has caused a constant struggle, for the glorious word of accomplishment, “let,” which causes new worlds to leap up into expression where old chaos and night existed before. “ He that hath eyes, let him see.”
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3. THE STORY OF EVERYMAN

You are Everyman. The Bible is the story of your life. You have only to supply your name and change the dates and places to bring the present incidents of your life into line with the story of the Bible. It is so with every book.

Who has not written a thousand Psalms of praise and desolation? Who has not stood in the place of Job with all the world slipping about him, only to find the solution of his problem lay in praying for another? When Job prayed for his friends God turned his captivity into freedom, and he had twice as much as he had before. Seeing that he had nothing when he came to the understanding of the situation, it is interesting to note that by praying for another he had his former goods restored to him increased a hundred percent.  Praying for others seems to be more profitable than praying for one’s self. 

Man often becomes so obsessed with what he calls his own problem, that he cannot possibly see good. His thought is constantly dwelling on appearances and he crystallizes to circum­stances. But there is always a way out, and if you will read the Bible in the first person in the present tense you will see the solution to every difficulty into which you have drawn yourself. 

It is not the mere fact that Job prayed for his friends that brought about the transform­ation. The secret lay in the fact that what he was able to see for another, came true in his own life.  Becoming intent on good in another, breaks the continuity of the thought of evil and causes the good to manifest. That which you see for another you see for your­ self, and often you are able to bring out your own good by turning your attention directly to another and insisting on seeing the good and perfect in him. While you are seeing good for someone else the thoughts of evil con­cerning the appearances of your own universe are dropped from thought. When this takes place the manifestation drops from sight. It can only remain as long as it is held in thought. 

What you accept for another you accept for yourself. There is only one Self, and that one is God. Can there be more than all? There are those who believe there is God and something else, but where this “something else” could possibly exist they cannot explain.  Can you be conscious of some­thing that God does not know? Can you get rid of something that God does not know exists? 

“Awake thou that sleepcth.” “Having eyes ye see not.’’

Again, who has not heard the command to arise and go into a new country (state of consciousness)? Who has not been com­manded to leave a present state of conscious­ness and look not back? And who has not indulged in the painful process of looking back only to find for the time, like Mrs. Lot, that he or she was crystallized to past con­ditions, and could not move from the spot? A pillar of salt is the price one pays for rehashing and rehearsing past  conditions. “What is that to thee?” If it were nothing in the first place, why go over it?  “Awake thou that sleepeth.”  Why make the evil you have overcome so great by constant repetition until it assumes such proportions as to look  almost insurmountable? You need not be surprised if you are confronted with the condition again, for what you pre­figure so terrible and strong will have to be eliminated from your kingdom. “Let  the dead bury their dead.’’ You have no time to talk about past victories. Press on to the great calling. “There are many things that I could not tell you,” for you would not have appreciated them because you were still looking  and talking about signs and wonders. There is something greater than getting things and making demonstrations, and that is the constant realization that you are God in essence; a point in consciousness. 

“Turn not back”; on, and on you go. You are free. You are scaling the Mountains of Abandon. What matter what others think, do, or say? You are free. You have heard the Voice of Truth. You are free, free, free! 

“In my Father’s house are many man­sions.” (Many states and stages of con­sciousness await you, when you are ready to “let go” of the desire for things.) Re­member “things’’ will be added when they are needed. That is enough, and enough is plenty. Why worry? Do the ravens or the lilies worry? “Awake thou that sleepeth.’’ God can, and does run his universe without your aid or suggestion, and he will not change the unchangeable law to suit your wishes. Awake! Awake! Awake!

Once in your life at least you have been the Shulamite woman. Once you have known the glory of absolute faith. Once you have known the isness of God, and doubted not, and even when the dearest manifestation (the son in the Orient is the dearest) seemed to be taken away from you, you did not quake; you went to the prophet; and when he saw you coming, he asked: “How are things with you?” And you answered in­stantly, “It is well with me,’’ and threw yourself down at his feet (understanding) and did not depart until he came with you, and it was well with you.

Oh, the glory of it all, the glory of beholding the isness of life, when the whole circumstance World is saying just the contrary!

And again, who at some time has not been gathering a few sticks—hunting around the circumstance world for a little help—to cook a handful of meal before lying down to die? Then the prophet came and said unto you : “Give me first.” On the very face of the request it seemed almost cruel to take the meal from you, and yet, what a glorious lesson— “Give and it shall be given unto you”; give from thy nothingness, as it were. When the command comes to give, the com­mand is for that one who has written on his forehead “He who hears obeys.” The coward, the fearful one, the glutton, and the miser will all argue, and so they eat their cake and die. It is so written in the law. You are not asked to do anything that you cannot do. Fear not; if you give of your handful of meal there will be plenty for you, and you will not die, but live as a giver of good. He who gives in his want breaks the so-called law which binds him.

And again, with your few drops of oil and your heavy debts, you are sent to borrow the empty vessels of your neighbors and fill them With joy. You cannot have good for yourself until you recognize it for all the world. Heaven is not a place where you monopolize good and see your brother in need. He must be filled from the same cruse of oil, and verily, your cruse shall not run dry. Joy (oil) increases every time it is used. A smile an inch long will encircle the globe when it is let loose—when it is given.

Decision is the keynote. “Choose ye this day.” “He who hesitates is lost.” If he wavers in the decision of good he will get the poison of indecision and roam in a desert of his own making—a desert of long, tire­ some waiting. He waits for something to happen, not realizing that everything has already happened. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.” All this signifies that you have the light to shine with and can do it, for you are the light. Do not seek it in another.

Have you not crucified yourself a thou­sand times on the cross of your own making? Have you not been placed in the tomb of your own making and finally resurrected yourself? Have you not  died daily and been born daily? Is there anything in the Book of Books that is not the story of your personal experience in one way or another? Have you not worried about who was going to roll the stone away, when in reality the stone was  never there?  Have you not exclaimed,  “They  have taken away my Lord,” only later to hear the Voice calling your name and your attention to the living principle of life?

Again, have you not entered your temple and driven out the money-changers (grasping, cunning thoughts that would sell Truth) and the dove-sellers (thoughts that would deceive the very elect)?

Has it not been proved that God is the only Power? Have you not gone out in your little craft only to find yourself over­ taken by a raging tempest, and then, filled with fear, you remembered the Master and called, “help or we perish,’’ only to hear the “Peace, be still’’? You are the boat, the disciple, and the Christ idea, all in one.

Yes, Beloved, you are everyman. You are every book, every song, every play, every picture and poem.

The glory of it all comes flooding over you. You again build your Ark and take therein the male and female (knowing and feeling) of every idea that is worth keeping, and then the descent of the Holy Ghost takes place and floods out undesirable thoughts. The former things are washed away and shall not be remembered nor come to mind any more.

“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have life eternal.” Is God depen­dent upon air, exercise, diet, or drug to keep his manifestation alive? What is it that is the image and likeness of God? Where is the image and likeness, and where is God?

As you have written all the parables of the Book, and lived them over many times in your life, so you will one day be able to go through the fiery trials (or circumstances) and come out “without the smell of fire on your garments.’’

“Who is so great a God as our God?” The Scriptures are history and parable until they are read in the present tense, with your­ self taking on the role of the doer in every story and circumstance. You will gradually learn that there is not a single problem into which you can possibly bring yourself that is not already solved by the story of the type­ man Jesus Christ and his group of co-workers.

You have been both the “sinner” and “the holier than thou”—the one beating upon his breast, and the other praising him­ self. See that you fall not again into this duplex state of self-pity or self-praise. Both states belong to the man of the circumstance world. They are not a part of the Son of God.

Everyman reads the handwriting on the wall. Only that man who has eyes can read, eyes for good alone. This handwriting is so plain that he who runs may read, and yet so secret that he who stands before it all day and argues from the intellectual standpoint sees nothing but the letter. “The letter without the spirit is dead.”

“Know ye not that ye are gods? “Was asked of those of the hearing ear. It is the vainest confusion to the man of the circum­stance world. He, hearing it, attempts to be a god, but his clay feet give way and he is reduced to the dust from which he came. “What went ye out for to see? “Asks John. Ask yourself this.

Away with the sense of futurity. You are spiritual at this instant, as spiritual as you are ever going to be, if all be Spirit. Because you do not perceive this, at this instant, does not make it untrue. There are many things that you denied formerly that you admit as true today. When you begin to accept the isness of life, you begin to bring it into manifestation, by becoming aware of it. 

“It is done,” is more than a phrase; it is a statement of a fact, changeless and eternal.

You have been the “stoned” and the stonecaster. You have drawn your holy garments aside in your ignorance, not realizing that by so doing your own mentality was casting the evil vision you saw as another, in front of your dimmed eyes. It is hard to wash clean the garments you have stained at the expense of another’s peace. “In as-­ much as ye have done it unto one of these, ye have done it unto Me.” Be careful that you be not guilty of offending the Christ with your misguided sense of holiness.

“Awake thou that sleepeth.” Awake! Awake! Awake! The new day has come. Arise and go forth in the glory of your revelation.

When the world says it is hopeless, and you are cast into a sea of doubt and fear, there is a way of escape. If you get in Jonah’s place, remember that, to make the scene perfect, the whale comes at the right time. “Fear not, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” A gift must be accepted before it is yours. Do you believe this? “It is your Father’s good pleasure”—a pleasure for God to bring his kingdom into manifestation. This is not

Figurative to the seeing eye. It is literal and practical. Awake! Awake! Awake!

You have been baptized by reason, but now you have come to inspiration. You go from glory to glory, “for now ye be in the Spirit and are no more under the law.” What law? The law of the belief in evil.

“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” You, awakened one, do not stay in the former order of things. The glory of the Lord hath been revealed to you. You have seen the Christ. You have served him in a million forms and shapes. You can never lose the image of his glory. You have washed his feet and received his blessing. It is well with thee.

No more do you talk about Truth. You talk the Truth. Works and words are as far apart as the poles. Awake! Awake! Awake!

Do not argue. Do not try to please or displease. Live and let live. Live the life. Be the life. Be Truth, and you shall know that no “word of God is void of power.”

Until the inspiration is awakened and opened in you, all outside teaching is vain— “clouds without rain.”

The inspiration of the Almighty will lead you into all things and teach you all things. What more can you desire? Inspiration is a gift which must be accepted as a present possibility before it can come into being.
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4. NO WORD OF GOD IS VOID OF POWER

“No word of God is void of power.’’ The Power is always there. When man comes to realize this he will see how he has brought so many unhappy experiences into manifestation through misinterpreting the Power, thus seemingly causing it to act in a negative instead of a positive way; but he has misinterpreted the Power, and the Power always works.

We see, then, that anything in the manifest world is held there by the Power, God—the One Power—although the results, through misinterpretation, may seem to be evil. God is impersonal. Power falls on the just and the unjust alike. It is the one power of the universe, irrespective of how it is being interpreted. It takes as much energy to sustain the image and likeness of sickness, poverty, and inharmony in your universe as it does to bring out the opposite.

As long as we see two powers in the universe, one which must be destroyed by the other, we will have a constant battle, and we will work in a maze, searching to find the cause of evil, and its cure. A thousand inconsis­tencies will confront us and argue against the chances of life. But when we recognize the fact that there is but one Power operating in and through the universe, we will easily see how and where we have misapplied this power and brought out the so-called evil conditions.

It is quite plain, then, that we are not allied to the army of “over-comers,” for they are all fighting against that which they are holding into being by accepting it as something to be destroyed. Is there any­ thing in a God—created universe that needs to be destroyed? And could you destroy anything that was created by God?

Time after time we are shown the Truth, but our eyes are veiled by the belief in two powers, and we cannot perceive the principle which is given to us. The Power that seemed to make Moses’ staff a serpent, a fearful thing, caused him to pick it up and turn it into a rod of support and guidance. No one would be so stupid as to think the rod he cast down suddenly became possessed of the devil, or a separate power, and then became charged with the God-power when picked up. Every evil condition can be caught up, as it were, and when the Power is recognized as good the appearances of evil depart instantly, just as they disappeared in the case of the serpent.

Recall to your mind the story of Jacob, struggling in the darkness with two powers, holding on to his projected thought as a personal problem, and fighting it with his so-called God-power, thus allowing no chance of ever getting rid of it. But the morning finally came to him; he perceived what was taking place and so he loosed it and let it go. It was not holding him, he was holding on to the belief in it, and he had to “let” it go. Everything must finally be accomplished by the “let” process, even the getting rid of the so-called evil appearances in our uni­ verse. Who has courage to dare to “let” a thing go before he has fought against it all night as Jacob did? See the contrast of fighting all night, and “letting go” in the morning. “Awake thou that sleepeth.’’

After we have spent years of fighting, how very sweet and peaceful comes the command to us, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Where is this Me?

“God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes.” All the struggles you have had which have brought endless disappointments shall be forgotten when you come to the under­ standing that you are Spirit, belonging to a universe of one Power.

The Kingdom of Heaven is made up of little children, not in years, but in conscious­ness, who are able to “let” a thing take place instead of “making or fighting’’ to bring it about.

“All foolishness and talk,” say the wise and learned, and so it is to them; but what is that to thee? Never mind. If you have seen the light, walk in the light, and “fret not yourself because of evil,’’ nor yet, because of the lack of understanding of another. Works are more priceless than words—by the works shall they be convinced, so con­tinue in the works. You shall reap when you can forget yourself enough to care naught about the reaping.

“Of much learning there is a weariness,” and nothing is more wearisome than the thought that we must constantly seek God, or constantly affirm good, or constantly be doing some sort of meditation to get in touch with him. Are we never going to drop the belief of being separated from God, and begin to be the thing? If we are Spirit, and Spirit is God, the knowledge of this is enough. The very power that is reaching after God is God, if God is all.

We need to be more consistent. Thou­ sands will say, “God is all,” and then pro­ceed to give ways and means of finding him. Some diet to find him; some do exercises; some reel off yards and yards of affirmations and denials; and some recognize him as the one Power and are at peace.

Being— blown to and fro, like a feather in the breeze, man can find no peace until he comes to a full acknowledgment of the all good. When he comes to this clear realiza­tion of the one Power, he can see how the transformation takes place and understand better how the “wrath of man shall bless thee,’’ and how he may “entertain angels unawares.’’

“Awake thou that sleepeth.”

Gradually man sees that his universe is controlled by his attitude toward it. If he judges from appearances he finds everything wrong; but the moment he comes to the righteous judgment, he sees God in every­ thing—hence heaven—here and now. And this very seeing through the mystification of his false conclusions causes the good to appear where formerly appeared evil.

Then you glimpse the plastic nature of the relative universe in which you live, which is constantly in a state of change, and which is held there by thought. What you release in consciousness is released in the manifest realm. Why is one man able to go into a lion’s den without fear and another frightened at the mere thought of it? Change your attitude toward a thing and the thing changes toward you. Your attitude will determine what it will be, and how it will re-act to you. 

The person whom you consider your best friend, someone else may consider his worst enemy. The man is the same man, but it is your attitude which determines what the reaction shall be, so that the person that you like exceedingly someone else cannot even tolerate. Why is this?

A child may play fearlessly on the hole of an asp, but you probably would not. Why? History and legend are full of stories of children being cared for by wild and ferocious beasts. What you have in thought is pictured forth in your universe, without a question of a doubt. False education in the belief of two powers has brought you into a con­sciousness of fear. Yes, “a little child shall lead them,’’ because he recognizes only good.

Our outer world is only the out-picturing of what we conceive God and his universe to be. We do not like to accept this state­ment at first, because we are sure that we have a very high idea of God and his king­dom. Those that hear the Voice will “leave their nets.” Why stay longer by them when you have fished all night and caught nothing in waters which are proved to you (in the morning) to be filled with fishes. Having eyes we see not. Until the morning light of the isness of all comes to us, we do not know that we stand in the midst of plenty, where (in the night) there appeared to be nothing.

We are glad to leave our struggles when the light comes, and follow after the Master into the Kingdom of Good. No matter what the sense testimony says, we have seen the light, and the former things have passed away. As within, so without; as above, so below, look to the realities of the all good (God) and tum not back again to the beliefs and appearances of the mist which watered the whole face of the earth.

“If God is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity,” how can you perceive it? Why waste any time trying to get rid of that which God does not know to exist? Why will you grovel in the dust at the feet of a tyrannical God, calling yourself a poor worm, begging for mercy, when you as a Son of God should come boldly to the Throne of Grace? “Throne of Grace’’ is a glorious expression and one which needs much contemplation.

Do not approach your God with fear, but with reverence and with joy. The Father comes part way to meet the soul which ap­proaches him in joy. The man of Spirit has never fallen, but has always been upright and perfect. The Persians say : “Until you have forgotten that you, or your brother, has ever sinned, you cannot be a Master.’’ It does not say, “until you have forgiven the sin,” but it means you must come to the clear understanding that the man of God (the real, or spiritual man) is incapable of ever having sinned.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every man’s mouth is the mouth of God, in one sense of the word, and when man comes to know this he will see the truth of the statement, “ ye shall eat your own words.’’

Many people spend much time dieting, thus hoping to become spiritual; but the withholding from material food accomplishes nothing, because they eat a million negative words at the same time. “Fasting” is not watching what comes in, but what goes out of the mouth. “Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out defileth or maketh a man.” Many times have we heard excuses made for an irritable, quarrelsome, childish fit of temper, with the explanation that the person displaying these qualities was on a fast. If you talk to such people they will tell you they are building up a new body by fasting from the grosser foods. Do you suppose for one moment that a mind full of irritation and anger is any more able to build a spiritual temple than a stomach full of the grossest foods?

The Mind within knows perfectly the food it has most need of, and man has only to listen and he will fast or feast in accordance with this inner guidance; this does not in any sense condemn or condone the benefits of fasting. What might be effective for one might be harmful for another. We are all wonderful temples, but how can I tell you what the temple of your body needs, or insist that you follow my way of attaining spiritu­ality? “ When the blind leads the blind they both fall into the ditch.” When you come to heed the Voice within, you will have wonderful seasons of fasting, but these will be seasons of newness and freshness of soul; they will be seasons of singing and joy-giving, for you will then be feeding on the heavenly manna.
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5. PRAYER

In an amusing article which appeared in the London Express, George Bernard Shaw says: “Lots of people pray for me; and I have never been any the worse for it. The only valid argument against the practice is the Glassite one that God knows his own business without any prompting.’’

Is prayer, then, a futile thing? Certainly anyone who acknowledges the fact that there is a God will likewise grant him the intelligence to run his universe without any prompting, and also will allow that it is reasonable to believe that no amount of begging or beseech­ing is going to make him alter his plans.

Yet we are admonished to “pray without ceasing,” but we are also told how to pray and how not to pray. “Be not like the heathens with vain repetitions.” Words will not accomplish anything. Prayer must be something deeper and finer than telling God what he is and what he should do. Prayer is a conscious recognition of the eternality of good, here and now.

Any prayer that beseeches and begs God to do a thing is an open acknowledgment that the creation is incomplete, and that the Creator has forgotten or overlooked some­ thing that is very necessary of accomplish­ment. The more we beg God to be good, the more we show forth our ignorance of his eternal nature.

Jesus prayed the unceasing prayer of the isness of the kingdom when he said, “It is done,’’ before the sense-man could see that any change had taken place. Again he said, “Thank you, Father,” indicating that he knew the finished works already existed.

We are told to “Enter the closet and close the door.” Turn from the appearances of things and close the door of the senses. When we close the door of the senses, we shut off the testimony of the senses. We do not do this by effort, but by the contemplation of the isness of God and his universe, and so completely fix our attention on him that the door to the senses is closed without effort or struggle.

“Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe (be firm) that ye receive (present tense) them and ye shall have them.’’ “Desire is not something to be worked for, but is the thing in its incipiency pressing towards us for expression.’’ Again we see the acknowledgment of the finished thing which is given to us before we ask, and while we are yet speaking. This would all be impossible if the thing or desire did not already exist in the kingdom of the Real. How could you believe that you receive a thing if it did not already exist?

No man who prays the prayer of acknow­ledgment will look for a sign. Remember that the “signs follow,” not precede. Look­ing for results only indicates a state of doubt and fear, and has nothing to do with the real consciousness, which is yours for the acceptance.

“Arise and shine” indicates that you can do both of these things and that you can glorify God for ever and ever, when you realize that glorifying him is simply acknow­ledging his perfect universe here and now. “Stand fast,” then, girt about with the armour of right-mindedness with the two­ edged sword turning in all directions, upon which is inscribed “It is done.” “It is done.” What matter though the whole cir­cumstance-world offer testimony to the con­trary? The storm may sweep over your house and rage without the portals of your universe, but you are founded on the rock and shall not be moved, and the storm will soon spend its fury. Its fury will only last so long as it finds anything in you which accepts fury without.

Praying without ceasing is a present pos­sibility. It is an open acknowledgment that “all is well” because God can and does run his universe without help or aid, or even suggestion. The great use of prayer is that it brings us into line with the facts of Being. We get into the universal rhythm and are carried on into our expression of peace and joy. The song of freedom is on our lips, the song of the giver. The giver gives without thought of return. He pours out his joy on all mankind. He does not seek to change anything, but his con1ing brings out hidden beauties, as the sunlight shows forth the glories of a new day—and lo! All is changed.

When man comes to recognize in prayer an opportunity of allying himself with God, he understands how “all things are possible with God,’’ and if possible with God, possible also to the expression of God.

Not the words uttered but the motive back of them will determine the result. He who prays constantly for self will have few, if any, of his prayers answered. Self seeking is unnecessary when man takes his place in the universe of all good. He becomes a steward a distributor of the gifts to all mankind.

“Why seekest thou the living among the dead?” The Master asked. Why waste more time trying to piece together past conditions and failures? “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” Why fondle the cocoon which has given up its butterfly or the shell which has been left behind the flown bird. “Come out from among them.” Go forth into your new universe, resplendent and joyous, for you are the Son of a King.

“Let us pray,” used to be a very sombre and doleful thing, despite the fact that we read, “The people of God are a people of joy.” Even Jesus came “that your joy might be full.’’ This all seems to indicate that prayer should be a joyful acknowledg­ment of good and not a mournful beseeching and begging.

“Arise and shine.” Approach the Throne of Grace with the smile of freedom; the acknowledgment that God runs his universe perfectly and that you, the son, are merely taking up your place in the “body of Christ Jesus.”

If you are praying for things, remember the admonition, “Consider the lilies and the ravens.’’ All the effort to make God see how poor you are and how needy your case is will not alter the fact that you have a lesson to learn from the lilies and the raven who “let” things come into expression and do not constantly worry and storm about the lack of them. How effortlessly the lilies grow and reach perfection and come season after season in all their glory, in all their freshness and beauty.

“He giveth his beloved rest”—rest from the hard struggle you have made to get things. A glorious light suddenly surrounds you and shuts out everything. You are wrapped in adoration in the presence of the all good, and you are ready to hear and to understand: “My grace is sufficient for thee.’’ Sufficient is enough. Why worry about signs? Why worry about things? Why worry about circumstances? “My grace is sufficient for thee.’’ That is enough. Claim your “sufficiency in all things” and rest, and you shall see that though heaven and earth shall pass away the Word shall remain. You are that word, which was “let” into expression.

In a recent play the question was asked, “Who made the devil?” The answer was “God,” bringing out the natural deduction that if God made the devil he must dwell in God’s creation, and if he was there, there could not be evil. The thing we term “devil” is only a misinterpretation of the one power. “Awake thou that sleepeth.’’ Reclaim your lost Garden of Eden and dwell there in peace. “Ye shall be in league with the stones of the field,” even as Job has said—one in all and all in one—God in every­ thing and everything in God and the blessed rest that comes from knowing consciously : “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

“He giveth his beloved rest.’’ You are the Beloved of God.
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6. THE POWER OF SILENCE

“Keep silent before me.” From the Silence springs the new life. The seed must be first buried in the silence of the earth, away from the noisy clamouring of appearances and circumstances, before it can break its shell and live. All self resurrec­tion takes place in the silence of the tomb. Nothing that is born of noise and clatter can survive long.

There is a vast difference between talking about Truth and talking the Truth. Talk­ing about Truth does not aid the so-called growth, any more than talking about the principles of music makes a musician. In reality there is no such thing as growth. What we call growth is merely becoming more aware of the isness of life. The more we contemplate the eternal facts of existence the more we seem to grow or progress; yet in reality nothing happens, except that we become more conscious of that which eternally is. “There is nothing new under the sun,” the principle of the automobile and the radio existed eternally in the Mind which is God. Man can only become aware of that which is; he can never create anything. When man is awakened to the glorious facts of existence, he drops the foolish idea that he can change God or the universe, or can induce God to do something for him in the nature of a miracle, by begging or beseeching him to do so. God is impersonal. The operation of his law is natural, not miraculous. Get away from the sickly idea of making a demonstration. What are you doing between the “so-called “demonstrations? Living with­ out God? If “demonstrating’’ is becoming conscious for a few moments that God is, it follows naturally that when you are not demonstrating you are entirely out of the radius of God’s power. Where are you, then, between whiles? And where is God?

“Awake thou that sleepest.” Know ye not that you are always in the presence of the one and only power? Cease from idle chatter about your little good and your little demonstrations. Come into the full reality of the isness of everything. Get rid of the asinine words, “miraculous “and “wonder­ful.’’ Is anything wonderful to God? And is there anywhere he is not? By hanging on to the idea that something “wonderful” has happened, you introduce into your life mystery, which is the very antithesis of the teachings of Jesus.

Divest Truth of every bit of mystery. Lay firm hold on the facts of existence. Start always from the premise, “it is done.” Do not hinder your progress with the thought of the future— “Now is the accepted time.” This is the time to accept the finished and perfect manifestation. In the Silence recognize the vast possibilities of bringing into visibility the dream of reality that has swept over your inner vision. “It is done. It is done.” Silently and quietly you contemplate this great fact.

Jesus knew the power of Silence and said : “See that ye tell no man,” knowing well that until the consciousness of man is fully aware of the isness of Life, he would dissipate it by talking about it. All the energy that should be used for the manifestation is wasted talk­ing so much about it. “That which is told in secret shall be called from the housetop’’ does not refer to a public scandal : it is a statement of law. Do not worry that your good or your healing shall not be known; if it is a reality, all the world shall know of it and glorify God, not you. Fear not.

In face of this command, “Keep silent and tell no man,” comes the command, “Go tell how the blind receive their sight, and the deaf their hearing,’’ and again there is this admonition : “Cast not your pearls before swine.’’

What a confusion to one who is still arguing and toiling with the letter, and what a struggle to the person who is making demonstrations and trying to get the “loaves and fishes’’ out of the Truth! But what a blessed revela­tion to that person who has come, even in a degree, to know that neither he nor any one else, no matter how learned or wonderful, is going to change the eternal facts of existence.

The truth finally dawns on man that “becoming one with the Father’’ is not a means of making God do his bidding, but rather a chance for man to do the will of God, whose will is good. Man then moves with the universal tide of peace, and stops his clamouring for things; things will take care of themselves.

“Be still and know,’’ has been used by many a one as an occasion to know that God would give him a fur coat or an automobile. Can God give more than all? Into what kind of black magic have we strayed when we imagine that by saying a few words, we can draw out of the invisible all manner of things, just as a magician draws rabbits and eggs from his pocket?

“Thou fool, except a seed first fall into the ground and die, it shall not live.” Until we part with all the silly notions we have had about God and his universe, we shall never know the real life which is Spirit—birthless, ageless, and deathless.

To the person who is awake, “consider the lilies’’ is about the biggest lesson in the world. It is a lesson in peace and silence. A glorious consciousness dawns upon the awakened one, that “ it is well “ with not only the lily, but with man, when he stops trying to use his Power in a mysterious way to obtain that which is given to him in the open sunlight of God’s love, if he has the courage to take it. Can anything be changed
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7. WHAT ALL THE WORLD IS SEEKING

The one thing everybody is seeking is heaven (harmony, happiness). All are headed for the same goal. All are trying for the same objective. There is only one way to attain this heaven. The law states : “Except ye become as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The law must be fulfilled, for we find that “he who tries to enter any other way is a thief and a robber, and shall be cast out.’’

Since it is necessary to become as a little child to attain our heaven, we examine into the nature of a child and find the n1ost obvious thing about it is the absolute faith. It would seem, then, that unless we have absolute faith, free from speculation, we can­ not enter into our divine heritage.

The location of the kingdom, we are plainly told, is within—’’ Look not lo here nor lo there, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; it is within you.” There is only one place for it then, and that is within.

“Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” We see that a little child can attain the kingdom by faith, while man with his wisdom utterly fails. Why? Because “the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.’’ Inspiration born of absolute faith transcends intellect and reason.

“Thy Faith hath made thee whole,” is in direct opposition to the testimony of personal sense, which pronounces a thing incurable. That which is in1possible to the intellect is divinely  possible to the inspiration of the Almighty, for “all things are possible to God.” We begin to see that life is a matter of joyous co-operation. If you do not co­operate with the school teacher, you will be kept after school until your lessons are learned. Yet it is an act of love which keeps you there; it is for your own ultimate good, though it may seem to trouble you while you are kept there. The lesson must be learned, and if you will not accept the simple way of co­ operating with life, you will come under the rod of the schoolmaster.

Personal sense does not quickly accept the working of an invisible law in the visible world. Every man comes under the effect of state and community laws, which he obeys, and although he cannot see, hear, touch, nor taste them, he is immediately made conscious of their existence if he attempts to break them.

Going back to the requirements necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we :find the words “in no wise.” There is absolutely no chance of attaining it in any other way. Faith is the “Open sesame”; it is the key that unlocks all doors.

Before you can have faith in anything, you must believe there is something in which to have faith. You must first acknowledge the fact that the kingdom does exist now, or you can never have faith in its ultimate appearance.

After the faith step, we are given some light by a second law which says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things shall be added unto you.’’ Man has tried to reverse this law. He has sought out “things,” hoping to assemble them and create his own heaven; but he has failed, for the law says that when we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, the things necessary to that state of consciousness will be added. Heaven could not be wanting in a single thing. 

When you begin to realize, in a small degree, that the Kingdom of Heaven is here and now, and that you are dwellers in it, you experi­ence peace.  Peace is heaven itself. You have arrived at the desired destination when you have come to a state of peace, and all things will fall into natural and normal har­mony—into law and order. You are not concerned about conditions, for your whole attention is on the realization of peace.

A state of peace is an open acknowledg­ment that “all is well.” It brings with it a joyous abandon, a divine indifference. You become indifferent to the changing conditions in the relative world, for you are one with the changeless Power-God. When you come to the understanding that you are a changeless spiritual being, in a changeless

Kingdom of Heaven, the conditions in your relative world assume harmonious proportions. 

What seemed chaos before, is now revela­tion. You realize  that the re-birth may bring the cracking of a shell of custom or race belief; but this breaking away only releases you into larger  and finer fields of accomplishment.  The  butterfly cutting through its cocoon, the tadpole developing legs, the dragon fly rising from the mud and mire of the river bed to the glorious sunshine of freedon1, n1an putting off the “old man and his deeds” (dropping off the conditions which caused him to worry, to fret and get excited, along with the race belief of  age, decrepitude and death)—these are the signs of the Kingdom of Heaven within.

This being true, you learn, working from the high basis of the Finished Kingdom—here and now—that you can be indifferent to changing conditions by holding steadfast to the facts of Being.  What is true of the Father is likewise true of the Son, for the Son can do nothing unless he seeth the Father do it. 

A child is completely indifferent as to how the law works. He has faith that it will work, and it does. He does not argue about it. He does not know theology or occultism, yet he attains the thing most desired, that which man spends thousands of dollars and endless years trying to attain. Simplicity is the keynote of life.

Since God is good (in many languages the terms being synonymous) and God is infinite, all is good. In a universe of all good there can be no evil, and man learns the lesson of pronouncing everything good, regardless of the condition manifested in the relative world. The chestnut burr may seem to offer contrary evidence, but it holds its good which appears in the divine order of things. Man learns, then, to pronounce everything good, for on the absolute side of life it is good.

Keeping his attention on the facts of Being, man is not concerned with conditions, knowing that “all things work together for good to them that love God.’’

The universal good (God) is also all power­ful. It follows, then, that good is the one power. Here we see the necessity of having the faith of a child, for the evidence of the senses would say this is false reasoning.

Since the law states, “A man receives nothing except it be given him from heaven,” there is only one place in which to look for help or succour, and that is within, where the kingdom is.

Heaven is a state of unchanging good.

Records show that everything was created in six days, and pronounced finished and very good. What can be added or taken away from that which is complete, perfect, and infinite? A thing that is already full cannot be added to, and since the kingdom fills all space, what could be taken away from it? And where could it be taken?

Man learns that he is not a creator. Every­ thing has already been created. Man is simply becon1ing aware of that which is. Because anything is not visible to you at your present stage of advancement, is no indication that it is invisible to everyone. In your line of unfoldment you may seem to create a thing, but you merely come upon it in the divine order of its appearance. You do not create the rose in the garden; you merely become aware of it; in other words, it becomes visible to you.

“There is nothing new under the sun;”

Man cannot change the eternal verities. “Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” You can only become aware of that which already is-your divine destiny. Von are fatalistic to one thing only, and that is the divine decree of good. Every­ thing that belongs in your Kingdom of Heaven to make it a place of complete harmony and satisfaction, is already there, waiting your coming, your acknowledgment of its existence. 

We hark back constantly to the Master and his works. He stated clearly how every­ thing was accomplished. He left us the promise that we could duplicate his works, and even exceed them—” The works that I do ye shall do also, and even greater works shall ye do.’’ But we fail to make the con­nection with the most important point of his teaching when we overlook the state­ments: “The Father within me he doeth the works” and “I and My Father are one.” 

Repeatedly we are brought face to face with the isness of life in all its perfection, the isness of the Kingdom of Heaven—here and now.

“Now are we the Sons of God”—not we shall be at a future date, but now. We reverence God; we pray to him; we acknow­ledge him as the Supreme Power; and yet we, as the sons, are anything but repre­sentatives of so glorious a heritage.

It is all too simple, too good to be true, that I should suddenly find myself in the Kingdom, that I should find myself out of my difficulties, that I should experience the freedom and abandon of God’s other creations. 

Beloved, the light is breaking and we are beginning to realize the fullness of our heritage, our oneness with God. Little by little we are beginning to realize that the Truth we are to know, which will make us free, is that we already are free.

Away—from the appearances of things and conditions—away—from the world of related things—back to the primal cause that is good! If it is good and unchange­able, then we are certain of one thing, and that is that the moment we contact this realm we are en rapport with all goodness, because it is infinite, a universe of Spirit.

It is by faith—the absolute faith in the Creator of the universe—that we contact this perfection. Of whatever we become conscious when within this realm of perfection, we envisage forth in the realm of related things. Since we can only become conscious of perfection in the realm of the real, the pro­jection of this must be perfection. Giving this a little thought, man realizes that he lives in a perfect world or if he seems not to, it is because he is looking at conditions instead of realities.

You are the center of your own universe. You determine whether it shall be a universe of harmony or of discord. You determine whether or not it shall be peopled with sick, sinning, and poverty-stricken folk. You realize that as you drop from thought the negative conditions, and let your medita­tion rest constantly on the Finished King­dom, that you no longer see conditions of discord manifested, either in your own or another’s world.

I sent my Soul through the invisible
Some letter of the After-life to spell;
And by and by my Soul returned to me,
And answered,” I myself am Heaven and Hell.”

-OMAR.

Man finally realizes that he cannot become one with anything, and remain separate from it. As he becomes aware of his oneness with God, the Father within, he co-operates with the Father, and all power is given to him in heaven and in earth.

Michael Angelo said, when gazing at a block of marble: “There is an Angel in that marble.’’ One need not add that there was a devil also in the same block, had he seen fit to draw it out. Whatever he saw in the marble, he first beheld in himself.

When man through absolute faith accepts the inspired word, and knows that God’s work is :finished and complete, he becomes desireless. You cannot conceive of heaven as a place where the least thing is wanting. It is a place where every desire is instantly fulfilled. And this is the state that actually exists within us—here and now—when we understand life as changeless.

Keep constantly before you the fact that it is the nowness of life that counts. The time element does not enter into your realiza­tion, because all that is, or ever will be, is now. 

Faith is the opening wedge, the “Open sesame,” to the kingdom. If you have doubts as to what it will accomplish, read Hebrews II. Little is left over to be added to the accom­plishment of absolute faith.

“For without faith it is impossible to please Him,” that is, it is impossible to get into harmony with the law. To be in harmony with the law, you must come to an acknowledgment that the law actually is.

“When you pray believe that you receive a thing and it shall be so.’’ How could you believe that you receive a thing if it did not already exist? It would be impossible. Yet this is the law, and in no other manner shall we gain the rich reward that is ours. We cannot take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence; we cannot coax it down to us by affirmations; but by the acknowledgment that it exists—here and now—finished and complete, we automatically take our place in the divine scheme of things and function harmoniously along all lines.

The ability to attain the kingdom is given to the child. Think about this. Do you know any child who has studied material sciences, -theology, occultism, and religion? Yet it is given unto the child. This would indicate then, that our struggle to attain har­mony through the intellect is wholly wrong.

A child is not able to enter into an argu­ment in defense of his faith, for in reality it needs none. Truth needs no champion. The child is not able to couch his faith in words, but can show you ample proof by works, No one knows how the law works; but it works. We are not concerned with the process of transmutation that goes on in our stomach when we have eaten; it is sufficient to know that it takes place. We have absolute faith that it is going to take place or we would never dare to eat again.

Ninety per cent of our living is done by faith. We post a letter with faith. We do not worry or wonder about its delivery. We drop the whole matter as completed and finished. And so it is with thousands of things. The seed undisturbed in the ground will grow, but if you dig it up every few days it will make little progress. The prayer of

realization works the same way. We do not keep wondering about the outcome.

During the war pigeons were carried to the Front, and when necessary, messages were bound to them and they were sent back, and then reinforcements would come in answer to the message. Suppose a string had been tied to one of the bird’s legs and it was only allowed to fly twenty feet, then jerked back to see if everything was all right, and this was repeated before it started on its journey—the result would be that the bird would be exhausted and would probably die; the enemy would advance; and the day be lost, because of the failure to let go in faith.

Why is it when we pray we become so anxious about results? Why do we keep on repeating our prayers? Is it not because we doubt the possibility of fulfillment? When we know we take up our place in a Finished Kingdom, and in that kingdom we become aware of everything that is necessary to make it harmonious and happy. Not a thing can be wanting. Not a thing can be lacking. Because it is.

Small wonder, then, that “a little child shall lead them.” “All power is given unto you in heaven and in earth’’ through your absolute faith, for “faith is the substance of things hoped for”—the very essence of the desired thing—and it is also the “evidence of things not seen”; that is, it is the acknowledg­ment of the isness of the kingdom here and now.
–

 

8. PEACE

“My peace I give unto you.” A gift is not a gift until it is accepted. It is strange that the world at large is attempting to buy with a price that which is given away. 

Peace, the great gift, is the one thing which will enable you to enter the kingdom, here and now. No noisy, clamouring mind shall find admittance there. Peace, the great gift awaiting your acknowledgment, will cause the portals of your Garden of Eden to open wide and bring to your remembrance “what­soever things I have said unto you.”

As long as man looks to conditions, he can never know peace. As long as he seeks things he can never have rest; and yet when he arrives at the point of acceptance of his priceless gift he finds all things there—finds everything is there which is necessary to sustain the perfect continuity of peace.

“Seek peace and pursue it, thereby all good shall come unto thee.” “All good” is enough. Why stray longer in the confusion of the circumstance world, clamouring with the midnight and darkness, when peace may be had for the acceptance—a gift. Peace enables you to move in the circumstance world without fear, for it accepts no evil.

“Ten thousand (who believe in evil) shall fall at thy right hand . . . but it shall not come nigh thee.” “My peace I give unto thee … let not your heart be troubled.’’ Does anything matter? “He giveth his beloved rest.” He is giving always of him­ self. Only the things that are given to you can you really possess, and only the gift which is accepted can come into your pos­session.

“Peace, be still” to all argument, criticism, condemnation, and fear. If they come at thee in one way they shall flee in ten, for though their name be legion, yet one at peace with God is a majority. “Fear not, I am with thee, and will never leave thee.”

Rest, Beloved. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom of Heaven’’—here and now—another gift for the accept­ance. Why worry and fret? “Fret not yourself because of evil.”

No more fighting— “ye do not need to fight. Set yourself and see.” No more struggle to have recourse to your God. Accept the gift of peace and hear the “still small voice” within calling you by your new name : “You are the Prince of Peace.”

When man accepts the gift of peace, by recognizing that it is his birthright, he comes to understand the divine activity of God. He goes quickly to his goal and accomplishes his end instead of fighting the air, and, best of all, he stops the useless struggle of trying to make God do his bidding.

“It is well with thee,” is a statement of fact—not an affirmation-to the conscious­ness that has accepted the gift of peace. It comes as a burst of sunshine through the gloom. Everything in your universe catches the light of peace and is transformed; and yet nothing is changed except your attitude. Whereas before you saw chaos, you now see order. How could it be otherwise if you are living in a God universe? Was there ever a moment’s chaos in the God-created world?

The acceptance of peace causes you to come instantly to the knowledge that chaos is only brought about by your distracted vision or your pygmy intellect, imagining that by beseeching God you can cause him to change his changeless laws to suit your whims. When you come to the acceptance of the gift of peace, you seek to change nothing, because you find nothing that needs changing, except your attitude; and so you rest in peace and quietude—” it is well with thee.’’

The Prince of Peace is walking in the garden. Your universe is the Garden of Eden which you lost sight of when you judged from appearances and tasted the fruit of a dual power. But now the velvety Silence has reclaimed you and sent the light. He sends the light impersonally to the world, free to all, and many do not accept it—he who accepts it, suddenly, as if by magic, sees the ugly world melt away before him. The world which he considers a hard school of bitter experience changes into a garden, by the magic of peace.

You walk in the garden and bathe in the clear crystalline pool of forgetfulness. “The former things have passed away and shall not come into mind nor be remembered any more.” How could anything that caused you pain be remembered after you have accepted the gift?

“The peace that passeth all understand­ing “is enfolding you. No one who does not see the singleness of good can under­ stand. He will continue to see chaos and war where you see order and peace; and yet to all appearances you are in the same world, but through the recognition you have come to live, move, and breathe in a world within a world—a world that is invisible to the man who is yet working with evil.

The glorious activity of your soul stirs you. The Voice of your Risen Lord says: “This is the way; walk thou in it. Follow thou me. It is well with thee. Peace be unto thee. Peace be unto thy house. Peace be unto thy universe. Let not your heart be troubled.’’

“Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.’’ To have the mind stayed on “Thee” is not only to recognize the single idea of good, but to dwell in the throbbing, glowing presence of life itself.

You may go in and come out and find pastures. You may travel the open road. “Peace, like a river around thee shall flow.” Thou shalt travel the way of peace, through green pastures of contentment and beside calm waters of quietude, and thou shalt enter the courts of the Lord and it shall be well with thee.

“ He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches (your consciousness):

“ The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.’’
–

 

9. TAKE NO THOUGHT

You have heard the story of the centipede who was getting on very nicely in life until the cricket asked him how he knew which foot to put forward first. This set him to thinking so hard that he lost the use of his legs and was unable to move at all.

There is a wonderful point in this bit of homely philosophy. The more we think about the way a thing is done, the more involved becomes the doing. The greatest compliment that can be paid to an artist is to say that his performance was unlaboured, and hence, abandoned. Imagine, if you can, an intricate run on the piano with its infinitely difficult fingering, which must go with light­ning rapidity and abandon, and see how bewildering it would be to give a specific thought to every note. Its perfection appears, after the thought of each is lost in the whole and perfect thing.

Such is the law of Spirit—when a man knows, he then operates with ease and facility, and without thought. That of which you are thoroughly conscious, in the final analysis, becomes an unconscious process. That body is best governed which is most out of thought. The more attention given to the functions of the body, the more laboured will be the expression. It can truly be said that a body which is manifesting perfect health is the body which you are hardly conscious of possessing; and yet, reversing this state­ment, you are wholly conscious of it.

All action and power belong to God, and when a man comes to know this he “lets” this power think and act through him. Then the manifestation is natural and normal.

A man does not consciously think which foot he is going to put forward first; very often he does not even think of the process of walking, yet the action is carried on perfectly. When he becomes conscious of this action it is usually because his movement is impeded.

We understand, then, what the Master meant when he sent his disciples forth with the injunction : “Take no thought of purse or scrip on the journey,” knowing that the things one takes thought of are constantly giving trouble. He made it plain to them that taking thought about a given thing would not alter the thing: “Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? “As long as man insists on taking thought about things, he is working at the wrong end of the equation. A plastic surgeon may attempt to change the expression of a frown to a perpetual smile, but until the smile is on the inside no amount of change on the outside will hold it there. Inversely, as soon as the smile is on the inside it is recorded on the outside. Gradually man learns that the whole work of life is to “Know Thyself,” for to know himself is to know God. “All is God and beside him there is none else.”

The man who clings to the idea of treat­ment does not realize that the changeless principle of God remains permanent and eternal, and that as soon as he glimpses this he will see what appears to be a change take place in the outer realm, but which in reality will be the reflection of the Finished Kingdom. “He is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity.” If God could be not conscious of a difficulty, how could man, his offspring and his expres­sion, know it? This shows clearly that all our difficulties are in the realm of imagina­tion and are illusions which fade before the sunlight of Truth. Man can only believe evil, for evil is a belief.

Science has long since discovered that colour and form are not in the object, but in the eye of the beholder, and we can readily un­derstand then what is meant by: “If thine eye be single thy whole body is full of light.” Single to what? Single to the oneness of God—the isness of good—thoroughly recognizing there can only be good in a world created and sustained by God, from whose infinite nature all things were taken and expressed in per­fection.

At first man insists on a duplex world, a world of evil and good, and as long as he insists on this he will have the double eye; he will continue to judge from appearances, and hence reap the reward of “having other gods besides me.’’ When, however, he begins to realize the utter absurdity of acknow­ledging anything evil in a universe created by good, he begins to let go of the habit of judging from appearances—“Judge not from appearances, but judge righteous judgment.” 

Many a man has failed to see that the chaos around him was but the urge of freedom breaking the shackles that he had imposed on himself. As the egg cracks and the chick is released into a larger world, so man, if he clings to the all good, will see what he formerly called evil in terms of growth, and he will not spend time weeping over the shells of the past, but rather he will rejoice in his free­dom. If you turn back and regard the out­ grown conditions you will crystallize to the old conditions and come under the law of those old conditions.

“Awake, thou that sleepeth, and Christ shall give thee light.” Awake from this lethargy which has bound you to the past. Away with the contemplation of that which has been. Know you not that as surely as you die daily are you born daily, and that with every new birth you are ready to start again, clean and fresh and new? The swad­dling clothes you used yesterday are relegated to the dump heap today. Your course is ever onward and upward.

Nothing happens by chance or coincidence in this universe. All comes under the law and order of the Most High, from the lowliest insect to the greatest whirring planet. Man has only to behold the sunrise from the mountain top to know that he has no power which is self-derived, and that he could not in any way interfere with the action of the magnificent laws of God. He is happy when he knows that his day of struggling to have recourse to God is ended and that he does not have to run the universe any more. He has ceased to be an Atlas holding the world on his shoulders.

“In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path.” How will he direct it?—in ways of  evil and sickness? How will an all good Power direct your path?­—among thorns and thistles, where serpents hide? Beloved, if you learn to leave it to him, you will find that your ways will be ways of pleasantness and peace, and you shall finally say: “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.’’ You shall come to know what the Power is that could cause the ferocious lion to lie down with the lamb.

Oh, the gentleness of his instruction, “Consider the  lilies”—and what a lesson is to be gained from the lilies, growing silently into their full perfection and beauty, taking no thought, and yet expressing the fullness of perfection. What greater sermon could be preached on prosperity than this?­ “Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, they spin not; and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’’

Seek deep for the hidden meaning. Heed the gentle rebuke for those who constantly toil and work under the belief that it is necessary to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow to sustain God’s idea or expression.

Again comes the lesson: “Consider the ravens; which neither have storehouses nor barns; and God feedeth them; how much more are ye better than the fowls? “ What can you say to this? What can he say who insists that you must make God prosper you by declaring a thousand times : “I am rich; I am rich; all that the Father hath is mine.”

Out of the within comes the velvet voice of Silence which says, “Peace, be still and consider for a while.” While you are con­sidering the facts of Being you let go the thought which has been binding you to the hard condition, and having let go, you have released all that ever held you to the condition. 

Can anyone deny the statement that “if God cannot do it, it cannot be done? “No, Beloved, you can change nothing by taking thought, for the more anxious you become the more aggravated the situation becomes; the harder you try to change a condition the more enlarged and troublesome it appears. “If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?”

Of all the people haranguing about ways and means of demonstrating success and prosperity, how many have done it? There are those who will try to argue and convince you that the conditions, which are untoward, are real, and must be overcome; but of such it may be said they have not seen him. To that one who has seen him—recognized the allness of good—there will be nothing left to argue about, for he knows that it is. He knows that because God is, he (man) is, and only because of this.

If the use of affirmations would heal the world, then already enough have been said to have settled once and for always the so­ called evil conditions of the universe. Words will avail you nothing.

A word is a sign, or that which stands for the state of consciousness, but it is not the consciousness. The very best practitioner I ever knew was one who could not speak the English language, but could heal English people.

We become divinely indifferent to the relative conditions when we realize that they are only in the field of imagination, and are sustained because we hold them in thought, and not because they have any power of their own.

Easily man recognizes that “All meaning is outside of, and obviously independent of, words”; but not until he recognizes the difference between the word and the con­sciousness, of which it is only a symbol, will he be able to cease from his chatter. “The word was made flesh,’’ gives us some idea of what the Word is. Here we see clearly that it is the conscious state that was made to appear. Whatever man has in conscious­ness he will be able to reproduce infinitely.

As a man standing in front of a million mirrors 1nay cast a million reflections without an effort and without giving of himself, so the consciousness of health and substance out-pictures itself in the universe of man infinitely and effortlessly. You do not have to treat to bring out the reflection in the mirror. No amount of work done with the reflection in the glass is going to change it. Breaking the glass will not destroy anything real.

Working with the affairs and body to change them will not do so, as long as the conscious­ness remains unchanged. Not once do the reflected and the reflector mingle, and yet they are one, inasmuch as one is wholly dependent on the other. The body (mani­festation) is simply the reflection of the consciousness within, just as the image in the glass is the reflection of that which stands before it. We understand then a little more clearly the distinction between oneself and his universe—which is simply an out-picturing of his present state of consciousness—and that the only possible place to change any­ thing is within.

That the body is non-intelligent goes with­ out saying, since the body deprived of its so-called life, cognizes neither pain nor pleasure; it recognizes no one, nor is it recognized as anyone; for while the body yet remains they say, “he has departed.’’ Do you think for a moment if the body were considered the real man it would be buried? 

The more we associate ourselves with the body concept, the more will we register all the ills to which the flesh is heir on the rela­tive plane of thinking. We all have known that on the plane of the relative the very thing that sustains man may kill him if he partakes too freely of it. Likewise, the knife with which he cuts his food may kill him if used for that purpose.  Everything in his universe may seem to be used against him; his attitude and interpretation of it determine what it shall be to him.

Finally, man must know that he came first in his universe and that any seeming evil in his universe has been brought out through his ignorance of good as everywhere present.

“Thou shalt have no other God before me” is considered the greatest command­ment, and yet perhaps is the one which is given least attention. Man has not realized that every time he looks to the created instead of the creator, and endows the created with power of its own to help or harm him, he has failed to fulfill this commandment.

If man will blend himself with God, he will come under the sway of divine Power which will cause him to know the “peace which passeth all understanding.’’
–

 

10. WHETHER THERE BE PROPHECIES THEY SHALL FAIL

You have heard the story of the children who wandered into a dense forest, thinking to find their way out by scattering breadcrumbs along the path. Interested and intrigued by the wonderful new growths and sights, they were forgetful of the distance they had strayed until the breadcrumbs came to an end, and they were confronted by oncoming night in a dark forest. Remembering the trail of crumbs, they turned at the first thought of danger, believing it would be easy to retrace their steps, but behold, an ugly bird had been following them and had eaten the crumbs, and so the path was obliterated.

One hideous experience after another happened to them. They were indeed in the wilderness of desperation. Every hateful thing that happened seemed to be backed up by an inescapable law, and the great occult books which in their ignorance they had delved into filled them with fear and hopeless fatalism. “A little learning is a dangerous thing “and great learning is spoken of as “foolishness in the eyes of God.” And yet, the Psalmist asks, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?’’

Have you meddled with the thing called doubt? Have you gotten far into the forest of despair by delving into occult things with­ out either proper interpretation or a Master worthy to take the guidance in his hands? Have you allowed one charlatan after another to mar your beautiful life with the fears of his ignorance and superstition? Do you say, “Yes, but it seems to work out that way-evil always seems to come in accord­ance with the prediction? “Have you ever heard “According to your faith be it unto you’’ and realized that if you had faith in evil you would get according to your faith? Have you more faith in life bringing evil than good? If so, do not be alarmed or surprised that things evil come your way. “Accord­ing to your faith be it unto you.’’

“The devil can cite scripture to suit his purpose.” We are told, regarding the Bible, that it is an allegory; we must therefore interpret those special references to “lines in the hand and signs in the sky’’ aright. No one would accept literally the expression: “The right hand of God.” Hand is a symbol of power, and the lines of this hand are the lines of power. “If ye be in the Spirit ye are above the law, and not subject to it.” Man has within him the innate power to offset the belief of evil predictions, no matter how much they may be verified by sense testimony. “I shall take you by a way ye knew not of’’ is the comforting message of Spirit to the one bowed down by the crushing fear of evil predictions.

You are not the first one who has been amazed at the subtlety of the  so-called evil. In the time of the Pharaohs when Aaron was called upon to give a sign, he cast his rod down and it becan1e a serpent. What happened? All the wise men and magicians and sorcerers smiled, and proceeded to do the same thing. Here the seeming reality and power of the false was made to appear of equal strength with the good. But presently we find the serpent which Aaron had brought forth swallowed up all the serpents of the magicians. What will you say to this? Truth destroys the lies of personal sense and the fears and superstitions which produce in a way similar evidence of their strength.

Is it any wonder that the Psalmist sang gloriously, “The Lord is my strength and my salvation—whom shall I fear?”—“If God be for us who can be against us?”­—“Who is so great a god as our God? “Sud­denly we turn from our contemplation of the unreal to the recognition of the Real, the true and the perfect Power, and the vain imagin­ings of personal sense are swallowed up in victory.

A man who consulted a charlatan about his future, much to his horror was told that his stay on this planet was limited to three weeks. Shocked and fearful beyond words, he almost destroyed himself. For days he experienced the most intense agony. At last in desperation he turned to the Truth. He came to a woman-a stranger-and spoke to her of his dire need. Imagine his horror when she assured him that he was going to die; but, she added, “you are going to die to the belief in two powers. You are going to die to the belief that God has placed his beloved son under the hopeless influence of stars and signs.” And so the man died right then and there, and his new birth or resurrec­tion took place. He went his way, thanking God and the messenger. Now the messenger was not a professional teacher, lecturer, or healer, but she was, as everyone is, the Voice of God.

Finally man learns this glorious truth­ “If ye be in the Spirit ye are no more under the law.”
“Where there be prophecies they shall fail”—but love never faileth—God is love.
–

 

11. IDENTIFYING YOURSELF WITH GOD

Not until man comes to identify himself intimately with God, can he feel the Unconditioned Power moving within and without him.

We constantly hear the statement, “ I am a son of God,’’ and yet see this son going through all sorts of evil experiences, and sometimes in the throes of almost insurmount­able misery. Unconsciously many of us are still looking to a God who is afar off, and even if we come to a place of a nearer relation with him, yet we feel we are separated from him, and still find ourselves petitioning him to do something for us.

The secret of Jesus’ success was his ability to identify himself with God. “I and my Father are one” was constantly spoken forth by him, and yet so few people understand that in identifying himself with God, he instantly recognized one Power only. When he became conscious of his oneness with God he had nothing to ask for, nothing to seek, nothing to do; for he discovered all things in perfect order in the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Of myself I can do nothing—but—with God all things are possible.’’ All is enough. The human mind praying and beseeching God to do something is like a perfect electrical equipment with no power. We are points of expression for this God power, and until we identify ourselves with it we are in darkness.

One with God is a majority. When you become one with anything, you become that thing, so to speak; so to become one with law is to actually become that law in action. A drop of water is one with the ocean and a sunbeam one with the sun, not separate, and yet individual in expression. So man is one with God, and as soon as he comes to recognize this he thrills with a joy that almost bursts his capacity to receive it, from the sheer bliss of freedom and expression.

It is then that “all that the Father hath is mine,” and then only. From a point out­ side of God man is always trying to make a contact with him, or trying to get a special favour or dispensation from him; but by identifying himself with God man loses his pygmy self and personality and discovers his God-given heritage—” Divine Individuality,’’ a chosen vessel, a special channel through which God can and does express, untrammeled and free.

When man becomes identified with God he learns for the first time what I am really is, and he knows there is truth in the state­ment, “To think is to create”; in fact, he learns from this identification that “Think­ing is creating,” and his “joy is full.”

As long as we remain separate from the body of Christ Jesus, just so long will we struggle to get things, and chatter about thinking and creating, and eventually go down into the ditch of disappointment. But when we awake to the glorious at-one-ment of God, when we identify ourselves with him, then we lose the fear and struggle of life. We actually understand how it is we can “set ourselves and see the salvation”; how it is we can win the battle which seems to be waged against us; how ten thousand may fall at our right and left hand and we remain untouched. Not by declaring God as our present help, but by identifying ourselves with the one and only Power can this be done. Then it is that the eye is opened and, like Elisha’s servant, whereas we saw our city besieged by many fearful warriors and chariots—which to the one believing in evil presents a frightful problem—we suddenly see the mountain (exalted thought) full of the fire of defense, and we know that “Those that are for us are more than those that are against us.” We are one with those that are with us; we have identified ourselves with the Power—with God Almighty, and there is no fear.

Then shall you go forward and crash the gates of fear and of circumstances. Then it is that you shall know that the “Army of the Lord is encamped round about you.” Then it is that the song of joy and praise will ring from your lips, right in the face of the oncoming adversary of the circumstance world.

Jesus, knowing this wonderful secret, brought it to the attention of his followers : “Judge not from appearances.” Elisha’s servant judged from appearances and saw evil, while Elisha at the same time saw nothing to fear or about which to worry. Which state are you eager to accept, that which has to overcome and fight with the powers of darkness, or that which through absolute faith feels the soft pinions of the Almighty and goes safely to his goal, conscious that the faith that is the substance of things hoped for is the faith that actually lays hold of the things? Having eyes ye see not— “Why do ye doubt, oh ye of little faith?” “Be still and know that I am God.’’

Identify yourself with God; become con­sciously one with him—” I and my Father are one “and nothing else matters, for then for the first time you are going to be still and know that I am is God, and every time that is consciously spoken after that the manifesta­tion must appear, for you have seen it in secret.

He who doubts is double-souled, and nothing but constant disappointment awaits him, for he is swinging between something and nothing; but he who is persistent in faith shall rise and possess himself of his king­dom, even though he seem to be in a desert of weariness and circumstances. Even though he be feeding among the swine, he shall feed among the lilies and the ring and the robe shall be his. They were his all the time, even when he was grovelling in the mire of cir­cumstances, which by his folly he had brought upon himself.

“Turn ye unto me with all your heart and ye shall find rest for your soul.” “All” means with no reservations for the burial of dead fathers or for setting the circumstance world in order. It means making no reserva­tions for outgrown beliefs or opinions, or yet looking back to the state of consciousness which you are about to leave. It means the instant obeying of the Voice that is calling to you, “Arise and shine, for thy light is come and the glory of God is risen upon you.’’ Yes; you, in the mire and mud of the cir­cumstance world, right where you stand, right at this instant, the command comes, “Arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord is upon thee,” and the ground whereon you stand is holy ground. Hell suddenly becomes heaven, for you have recognized God as present and have identified yourself with him. “This is my beloved Son’’ was said of every man.

Arise in the newness and strength of this God-power, for legions of angels go with you to the sure and certain accomplishment of your expression. Wall after wall crumbles before you, valley after valley is exalted and mountain after mountain is leveled and the Power goes before you with the terrible com­mand, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” “Behold I come quickly.” “ I bring not peace but a sword “to every belief that is masquerading as having life, intelligence, or power.

“Arise, get thee up into a high mountain.” Identify yourself with God and see his salva­tion pouring out on all mankind. “Go thy way without thought of the journey, the scrip, or the purse.”

You have heard what the I am is, and you know that the very Christ-consciousness with­ in you is “The way, the truth, the light.” And so you move into your heaven, from glory to glory. You are in the Spirit, and therefore above the law of limitation and belief. You have been released from the curse of the law. You are through with trying to get things and making demonstra­tions, for they are so plentiful that they are as the sands of the sea.

Dominion and activity are yours. The sluggish waiting is over. Arise, go forth, son of God. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’’ It is well—and so it is.
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12. THE UNCONDITIONED POWER

“All power is given unto you.” Ask yourself what is the nature of this Power? Ask yourself what kind of reliance you have in it; where the location of it is; the kind of contemplation necessary; and the most essential point in becoming aware of the Power.

This power is infinitely greater than the instrument through which it expresses. Hundreds of illustrations verify this fact. People of supposed physical limitations have in times of stress used what was called phenomenal power, doing things at such times which would be absolutely contrary to the laws and limitations of their physical being. A convalescent, hardly able to lift his own breakfast tray, while riding with friends met with an automobile accident. It so happened that while his friends were pinned under the car, he was thrown clear of the wreck, and, under the stress of necessity, lifted the heavy car and released his friends from underneath. Judging this feat by the law of the physical world it would appear an utter impossibility; yet it happened. Even though the capacity of this man’s strength was that of a child, he did what would have been impossible to several men of ordinary strength.

Mushrooms have been known to lift a paving several inches from the ground, while oak trees have grown through solid marble; all of which proves that the power operating through man is unconditioned; that is, it knows no limitations. No man could make a battering ram of the largest oak tree and thus pierce marble. This Power which so completely transcends all physical limita­tions and conditions is God. The magnitude of the Power is beyond all comprehension; its infinite variety is beyond words.

Of the thousands of snowflakes which have been photographed, no two have ever been the same, yet each one reflected an exquisite creation, distinct, and different. Every ex­pression of God is individual in its design.

Man’s limited vision permits him to see only a segment of the whole creation. Under a powerful microscope the tiny grooves made by the wood ants are found to be lined with millions of invisible mushrooms, each one perfect.

Truly all things are possible with God, the Unconditioned Power “which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. Lo, He goeth by me, and I see him not; he passeth on also, but I per­ceive him not.”

As long as man looks for power in the thing, he fails to see the Power; he merely glimpses the results of that Power. That no thing or condition has power is one thing that man is most reluctant to admit; it is only when he comes to the full understanding that this is the Truth that he can appreciate and under­ stand the co-operation between man and God which results in so-called miracles. Nothing that this God Power does is miraculous to itself. It is only miraculous to the so-called limitations of man, or man’s failure to recognize the unconditioned nature of God.

Man deducting his information from the relative plane draws his conclusions from the appearance of things. He goes over the old, old problem of the chicken to the egg, the egg to the chicken, and here he stops, realizing that there is something beyond both the chicken and the egg. He comes up to a sheer wall of defeat. “Who shall know the mind of God? His ways are past finding out.” He comes to the conclusion that he has reached the end of things, but in reality he has only come to the beginning.

It is stated in the law: “When the inspira­tion of the Almighty has come, he will teach you all things.” We see then the folly of acting from the standpoint of laws deduced from things and that the only way we can find out and intelligently co-operate with this unconditioned Power is by inspiration. It is an actual fact that spiritual man already knows everything by virtue of his ability to blend with God. As a drop of water becomes one with the ocean, so the son, when he returns to the Father, becomes God in essence, or, at least, becomes conscious of himself as a channel through which this Power may pass untrammeled and free, irrespective of any and all conditions.

When this Power is thus manifested, man calls it a miracle, because it sets aside the so-called laws of the relative world. We are all aware of the fact that “the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God”; also that it is futile to search after him, for “Who by searching shall find Him?”

Yet this glorious inspiration will teach the son all things. The way to this understand­ing is simple and direct : “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” That is, when you become conscious of the fact that there is but one Power for ever and eternally operative in the universe, anything you conceive of as possible to God can be instantly done, for at this stage in reality you are only perceiving those things which are waiting to be spoken into visibility.

Truth is divorced from mystery. It must of necessity be if it can be given to the child and kept from the wise and prudent. Inspira­tion so far transcends knowledge that there is no possible way of comparing the two. Where is the child who could chart the heavens or could write a dissertation on the resurrection?—and yet to the child it shall be given to know the mysteries.

There is but one way to gain this under­ standing : “If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally.” Here no mention is made of consulting books or teachers, or of acquiring a certain method or system of ideas. Inspiration comes when man lets go of any and all preconceived ideas deduced from the relative plane. From the relative plane, in order to speak, a man must be educated, yet the law says: “Now therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

Pursuing this thought further, we are told to consider the lilies and the ravens, and it is distinctly stated that we are to ask “the beasts and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air and they shall tell thee.’’ “Or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare it unto thee.” What they will teach you is that God automatically expresses himself without assistance from, or hindrance by, any man-i-festation. As soon as man realizes this he begins to see the infinite possibilities with which he is endowed; then he under­ stands clearly how it is “that one with God is a majority.” One who is conscious of the unconditioned Power understands how it is that he may move into the midst of all kinds of seemingly untoward conditions, and “though ten thousand may fall at his right hand “it (the supposed condition of evil) shall not come nigh him, because, being one with the unconditioned Power, he is not only unaffected, but is totally oblivious of it.

Constantly our attention must be directed to the fact that the only point of operation of this unconditioned Power is within. It is by virtue of this ability to become one with God that this Power is seen to operate to his advantage, and only by reason of this fact. Once man becomes conscious that all power lies within himself, he is established at the center of his being. Keep distinctly in mind that you do not bring this Power down from any place, but it already is. The greater your faith in this Power, the greater its activity in your life. Constantly keep in mind that God is actually the Power; he is the Power itself instead of power being a quality belonging to him. With what absolute authority then can you speak the Word, knowing “Power belongeth unto God.’’ Where is God?

To realize that any power you manifest is God in action is to become conscious of the fact that there is no separation. You do not increase power by manifesting it or meditating upon it; you simply become more conscious of that which is.

“Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” And this Holy Spirit comes upon you when you become conscious of its existence within you. You are then quickened, and your word shall not return unto you void, for “No word of God shall be void of power.’’ When your prayers cease to be personal requests and become meditations of peace, all things will be auto­matically added.

“Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.’’ The crux of the whole matter is not the mere act of judging, but the fact that we accept evil as a reality, thus acknowledging two powers. This automatically brings the wrath of God upon us, which easily translates itself into the reaction of our own belief in evil as a reality, and as a result causes us to be’’ beaten by many stripes.” God never punishes us; we inflict our own punishment.
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13 PERSONALITY VERSUS INDIVIDUALITY

The word personality  comes from the Latin persona, meaning a mask.  In ancient Greece people of noble birth often took part in plays and pageants, and to hide their identity they wore what we commonly call false-faces or masks.  This is precisely what personality means-it is a false face, or false attitude toward life. Personality is always playing a part, assuming that which it is not; it is a commodity which is bartered for in the public mart, for one has only to read the numerous advertisements to find that a charming personality may be acquired for a small sum of money.

The very nature of personality is change­ ableness, because it is a thing of the imagina­tion. Negatively it carries with it all the complexes and inhibitions belonging to the character it assumes. It comes under the law of heredity, environment, opportunity and chance; it functions from the plane of the relative, thereby operating under the vicious influences of all relative or quasi­ sciences. It believes that because the fathers have sinned the evil shall be visited on count­ less generations. Its inherent power is to know both good and evil.

In contradistinction to this the individuality of man transcends all these false laws. The individuality acknowledges no law of heredity—“Call no man your father, for one is your Father which is in heaven, God.” It acknow­ledges no dominion outside itself, because it was created’’ a little lower than the angels,” with all things placed under its feet (under­standing). It was invested with power “to tread upon the lion and the adder”; that is, the strongest and most subtle beliefs in the relative realm.

This individuality is the Christ-conscious­ness, which is the real self of every man. To this Christ-consciousness is given the signs following—” They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them.” They shall heal the sick, raise the dead, open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf;  in fact, nothing shall be denied this Consciousness because it functions from a standpoint that there is nothing to be denied. Its whole life is an unconscious, effortless expression of the Finished Kingdom—here and now—and any­ thing upon which this consciousness rests is thereby benefited.  Even those “who touch the hem of the garment’’ are healed.  It does not try to do good because it is good­ness itself. Shining by its own light, it knows no fear. It therefore dispenses with the implements of fear.  “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” That is, they shall come to the full recognition that there is no power in anything outside of them to help or harm.

From the personality springs all the annoyances of life—it hates and fears; it is angry and jealous; it sins and is sick, and finally dies.

I hated idolatry, but when I saw an idolater pros­trate 

before his God I knew that he was better than I, who 

undo all by hating his worship.-MURKEJI.

The individuality knows no hate, but bestows its warm love as freely and as im­personally as the sun gives forth light.

If you are still worshiping at the shrine of personality, you are bound sooner or later to be disappointed, for “it is a reed shaken by the wind’’; yet many people are so mesmerized by a charming personality that they imagine they are listening to Truth.

Personality only talks about the Truth. There is a vast difference between talking about the Truth and talking the Truth. Talking about the Truth will not in any way heal; talking the Truth invariably brings peace. The personality is constantly wanting things. To want anything is to set up a possibility of not getting it. When you con­stantly seek to demonstrate a thing, you openly acknowledge that you lack that thing. “When ye pray believe that ye already have and it shall be so.” How could you possibly believe you had anything unless you knew that it already existed? We readily see, then, that the only thing we are doing is recognizing that which already is.

Your problem is as difficult as you think it to be. If you believe it necessary that a long time element must be interposed before your healing will come, it will be so. A room that has been darkened hundreds of years is no more difficult to lighten than one that has just been darkened. A so-called chronic problem is no more difficult to solve than a so-called acute condition. Evil does not intensify with age, for there is only the eternal instant, and what you have in con­sciousness at this time is what you are out­ picturing in your universe. As soon as you can come to the place where you realize that all you have to do is to let go of the condition, to be released from it, you will see that there is nothing to be gotten rid of. The moment your thought is taken from a condition, you break the continuity of the thought sustain­ing that condition, and the evil condition, having nothing to sustain it, disappears. It has only been kept alive by your thought.

In some parts of China they treat a cold with great success by simply pinching the patient. It is easy to understand how the patient who is apparently suffering from a severe cold is very rapidly healed. His attention is so completely taken from one con­dition to another that during the pinching he releases the former belief and it ceases to register.

We grip the organs of our body in the vice of evil thinking and thereby destroy their normal functioning. As soon as we release this grip they return to a normal state, just as a rubber ball which has been squeezed in the hand automatically assumes its perfect contour when released. After fighting all night (in ignorance) with a condition, Jacob found when morning came (the light) that he had but to let go of the thing which he called a problem, to see it disappear entirely out of his life.

The Personality always recognizes its problems as part of itself; hence the hope­lessness of getting away from them. Through environment it has learned fear, but when man recognizes his divine inheritance he suddenly awakens to the fact that his limita­tions have been self-imposed. His recogni­tion of his oneness with God offers him full salvation and escape from the baneful effects of personality. He is transformed in the twinkling of an eye by the renewing of his mind. “The former things have passed away and shall not be remembered any more.” He hears, perhaps for the first time, the glorious invitation of peace-’’ Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give ye rest.” But until he becomes thoroughly conscious where this me is, he fails to make his contact.

Jesus, the man, points the way by saying: “I go unto my Father, and your Father”; that is, I become one with God, or become God in essence, the universal Father idea; and “Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh from the Father of Light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’’

There is a great feeling of assurance and peace when we come to the recognition that the very Power within us is unchanging, that it does not vary from time to time, but remains fixed and perfect, being no respecter of persons, showing no partiality, choosing no favourites, only pouring out his love in a never-ending stream to all.

Rest assured that if you are fulfilling the law the law will fulfill itself in you. This should answer any question that arises as to why you are not getting results. There is only one reason—you are not fulfilling the law, and, since every bit of the law must be fulfilled to the last “jot and tittle,” there is no possibility of results until this is complied with. Again we see that the only thing to be corrected is our attitude towards God.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace.” Beseeching and begging God to do something will receive no more response than beseeching rules of algebra to work out a problem. Lazarus would never have come forth from the tomb if Jesus had wished it, or hoped it, or beseeched him to do  so. His direct statement, “Come forth 1 “was addressed to his divine individuality, or Christ-consciousness, which was endowed with the power to take the body up or lay it down. He might have said, “Pick up that body (manifestation) and bring it out.”

We often smile when we hear people dis­cussing surgical operations. It is no more ludicrous than the post-mortems continually held on metaphysical healings. After clearly stating that it was nothing that was over­ come, many people will launch out into a detailed account of the terrific power of the thing which they called’’ nothing.’’ Rehears­ing that which is “nothing” only intensifies the imagination along that line.

“Is anything hard for Me?”

Where is this Me?—

“The Lord in the midst of thee is strong and mighty.”

“The Lord is in his holy temple (body), let all the earth rejoice.’’

Nothing is difficult for you when you become one with God, for “all things are possible to God.’’

When man recognizes God within and returns unto him (turns again to a place he has formerly known), he leaves his husks of relative thinking for his Father’s house, where he may feed “among the lilies’’ and receive the’’ robe and the ring.’’

Personality will permit to-day a thing it condemns tomorrow. Self-condemnation and self-pity are two of its chief factors. This bears out perfectly the idea that person­ality is but a mask or character assumed, for ever playing its part, demanding that it be the centre of the stage. If it cannot get attention one way, it will assume another role. It seeks sympathy wherever it may be found. It assumes the role of the critic, of whom it has been said, “He knows every­ thing, but cannot do anything.”

The shortcomings of great men are the consolations of dunces.—DISRAELI.

“Happy is he that condemneth not him­ self in that thing which he alloweth.” The condemnation of yourself or another only brings you into bondage to that state of things.
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14. LET THERE BE LIGHT: AND THERE WAS LIGHT

God said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” This was said by a changeless God, an invisible God—invisible to the sense-man because he is looking for God in a far-off locality called “heaven.” After the light was created it was yet four days before the sun, the symbol of light, appeared. This shows that the consciousness of a thing must exist before the symbol which stands for it can be brought into visibility. Whatever exists in consciousness will bring forth the symbol which stands for it. Reasoning from the appearance, we reverse the order of things, and say that the light comes from the sun, yet the record of creation clearly states that light was created first.

We reason the same way about our body and affairs. We think that health is given to us by the  body, and that substance is given to us by reason of the motion of the body, or the  outside world. The symbol will not partake of the substance of reality; it is the shadow of a state of consciousness, as it were; but the consciousness never enters into it, any more than real value is to be found in the symbol of money. Change the attitude about money, and the symbol which has sold at par in the open mart of the world will become worthless; yes, sometimes worth less than the paper it is printed on. It so happened with the German mark. The very symbols that had been exchanged over and over for millions of dollars became worth­ less; yet they had not changed; it was the consciousness behind them which had changed. 

When you are reflected a thousand times in a thousand mirrors you do not give any­ thing of your substance to the reflections. Note the ease with which the reflection is created. You merely come in front of a glass and it is. Even unconsciously  the reflection will take place.

It is so with any state of consciousness. A man who has a consciousness of God as sub­ stance will bring out the manifestation in everything.

Everything in your universe is a mirror that catches the reflection of your conscious­ness. You cannot make it, and all your struggling will not aid or help it in any way; until you become aware of the consciousness of the thing, you will have great difficulty in seeing it in your manifest world. You will spend your time trying to gather reflec­tions; lifeless, worthless things, which will slip through your fingers as fast as you acquire them.

The architect who has a plan in mind can reproduce the house a million times and more in any place, in any material, and it is possible as long as the consciousness of that plan is  held.  No matter how many times the symbol is destroyed, as long as the plan is in conscious­ness it  can easily be reproduced. So it is with all states of consciousness.  Your health, happiness, prosperity become indestructible when you have the consciousness of them. It is true that this consciousness of perfec­tion has always existed within your Christ Mind, but until you recognize it as existing, it fails to manifest. You cannot create any­ thing:  everything that is, always has been, and always will be, awaiting the coming of the Master, awaiting the conscious recognition. 

Pseudo or belief  states arising from the sense testimony appear and disappear ac­cording  to the human will power that is employed. They are only temporary, tran­sient illusions. An image in a camera is always upside down; so in the camera of human sense, everything seems upside down, and evil seems much more real than good. So we  find, looking through this camera, that man is lacking everything that he was supposed to be created with. We find him putting up a losing fight against sub-conscious impressions, trying to make new ones and break old ones. Life to him is a long and terrible battle, and his days are full of trouble. 

Let him once see, ever so faintly, that that which is is, and always has been, and he rests in the contemplation of the God qualities of his own soul.

When you have taken a picture with a camera, to all appearances the plate, before it is developed, presents nothing which re­sembles a picture. It is covered with an opaque substance, and, judging from the appearance, there is nothing there. But you know better, because you took the picture, and so you stand on that ground, regardless of all the disheartening suggestions that may be offered, and develop your picture. You would not waste the time if you did not know that there was a picture there. You recognize this, even before you can see it.

It is so with the coming of Truth that Jesus Christ brought to earth. In the face of all sorts of reverse testimony, he said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; it is within you.” And some of them believed and set about bringing this state into being. But rest assured they did not do it by listening to the onlooker who saw the plate as opaque and void of anything. Working to get things, and to make demonstrations, instead of coming into line with the realities of God, is like grabbing at a loaf of bread instead of taking a measure of wheat. With the loaf of bread your hunger is momentarily satisfied; but what then? “Patience must have her perfect work,” and he who chooses the mea­sure of wheat knows what it is to have bread and seed and to know no further want.

To the eye, white presents the absence of all colour, yet when this is viewed through a prism and the light rays are broken up you perceive that it contains all colours. It is so with God-all things are in him; but we fail to recognize this truth, for we have been so used to considering Spirit as something void of shape, form, or colour, that we can­ not conceive how it can be made manifest in tangible substance; and yet before our very eyes appear from time to time the invisible becoming visible.

From what does a tree grow? How does a flower many inches in diameter appear from a tiny speck of seed? The very clothes you are wearing at this moment were not so long ago invisible. As we come to realize that time and space are measured by relative things, we will come to understand how Jesus was able to foreshorten both of these dimen­sions and bring into visibility that which he needed at that instant.

Searching in the appearances man sees nothing and hears nothing. God is a far­ off quality. But as surely as he stops the useless search for things and goes to the true Source of Being he will find everything there, just as he finds the room he sits in is full of music when he turns on the radio. What he will get over his radio is determined by the wave-length he is using. He may choose for himself, and so is it with prayer: he may have that which he claims as his own when he knows who and what he is.
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15. YOUR UNIVERSE

“This is my Universe,” said the ancient Greek, and then inscribed over the portal of his temple “Know thyself.” He who knows himself rightly, knows God. Can there be more than God in a universe of God? Can there be God and anything else if God fills all space eternally and is changeless? He who knows himself, knows God, for God is the only Self of the universe. As man comes to understand this, it becomes clear; to him that this is indeed his universe.

The old puzzle of where to hide the divinity of man was finally solved by placing it within himself. Man has looked for it everywhere but within himself; hence it has proved a safe hiding-place. However, he is awakening to the Truth of Being, and is coming to under­ stand that his attitude towards life deter­ mines what life will be to him.

A sculptor and a stone-mason see some­ thing entirely different in the same piece of stone; again, two sculptors or two stone­ masons looking at the same stone may see entirely different possibilities in it. Every­ thing in the universe, in one sense of the word, is plastic to the consciousness which fashions it, according to the attitude taken towards it; and yet everything is changeless and eternal in a universe ruled by a changeless Power.

“What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison” indicates that it is purely a matter of attitude. The same thing that sustains one may kill another, according to the atti­tude taken towards it. The thing does not change that kills or sustains; it is merely the attitude that is different. Morphine does not quiet everyone, but has the reverse effect on some people. What cures one man does not cure another, or all disease would have long ago been wiped out by the use of medicine.

The man whom you call a benefactor another may call a devil; the man remains the same—the difference is in the attitude towards him which causes him to seem to react in accordance with your belief.

A lover sees beauty where you may see homeliness. The story of “Beauty and the Beast” fully illustrates what a change of attitude does towards life. It is a story of your own life. You are always tied up to a beast (problem) before you know that it only awaits the recognition of its better self to change into a Prince Charming. When you can hold to the eternal facts of Being, in spite of appearances, you will see the trans­ formation take place before your very eyes—in the place where you saw lack you will see plenty; in the place of inharmony, har­mony; in the place of sickness, health. Whatever you love you glorify. You have for ages been seeking the universal panacea.

“Awake thou that sleepeth.” “Love never faileth.” Love is God, and a quality of God at the same time. It is love which transforms everything. Love is knowledge of life. Belief changes constantly, sentiment changes, and emotions come and go; but “love never faileth,’’ and never changeth.

Love is the understanding of the isness of things. It is a conscious capacity to “see God in temples not made with hands, and eternal in the heavens.’’ You and your neighbors are these temples “not made with hands.’’ “The Lord in the midst of thee is strong and mighty’’ is a statement of a fact. When you come to understand this as a fact you will see God in every man. Yes, you will see him in everything, even in the thing called space, since he is every­ where, eternally present. Then it naturally follows that the higher your concept of him,the higher and finer your universe and ideas will be. 

Your body and universe are only the out­ picturing of what you conceive yourself to be. It is the shadow of your soul; a screen upon which are thrown all the attitudes you hold toward yourself and your universe.

The moment you become conscious of a thing as real and eternal, that thing comes into visibility in the realm of the manifest. The moment you release a thing in consciousness, it is released from the visible world.

“Loose him and let him go’’ is a com­mand to every man who is holding a worry attitude toward his temple and his universe. Again the “letting’’ comes into play. You will finally know that only what you “let” can actually happen.

You can see the invisible become visible before your very eyes by the “letting’’ process. You have only to “let” a smile loose in your universe to see it caught up and reflected by everyone who comes in contact with it. Everybody understands the language of a smile; it is universal. Drummond says, “We do not know what ripples of healing are set in motion when we smile on one another.’’

A smile is a recognition of something higher and finer than most of us imagine. A second before you smile every face may be frowning and serious, but in the twinkling of an eye you see your thought crystallized into realiza­tion—the inward state of consciousness be­ comes the manifest. “That which is told in secret shall be called from the housetop.’’ This proves to you that this is your universe and that it is affected—yes, controlled—by your attitude towards it. Note the difference between a smile and a grin. It is the difference between the real and the unreal; a grin rarely gets much response, for it is forced and hard to sustain. A grinning face may be hideous and ugly, but a smiling face always has charm.

When you come to understand the “let­ting,” in contradistinction to the “making,” you begin to appreciate God’s manner of working. There is always a joy in “letting.” If those working in the Truth would realize this, they would delete from their conscious­ness the very serious attitude towards life and cease struggling. No matter how you try, you are not going to force God either to do your bidding or your begging. He cannot do more than he has already done, which is all.

You can, however, recognize this fact, and “let” it into expression. Why will the self­ styled healer insist that God does the work, and at the same time become so concerned about the outcome of it?

The moment he recognizes the fact that life is spiritual he has brought forth the fruits of Spirit, and has dropped off the idea of personal responsibility. He who calls him­ self a healer and then uses what is known as the “tongs and hammer method’’ (the beating and fighting to make God answer his prayer), will find that he has plenty of work to do with his “tongs and hammer,” and that for every bit of effort he has put forth he has only succeeded in making the condition worse. Putting forth great effort is not knowing the Truth, but foreshadows a great doubt that God is able to fulfill his promises. “If we will be still and know,” finally we shall hear some of the statements of Truth and abide in peace.

Who that has heard the Truth can again designate anyone as “my patient.” What is this silly ownership of another? Who are you that you should stamp the branding-iron of possession on another? All this leads to the amusing situation of the circumstance man using methods and means to hold his patients. Imagine what a rich harvest this kind of thought is going to bring when it is time for that person to reap.

In the same way, mysticism is introduced into the teachings by “the holier than thou’’ attitude of many healers. Trying to make others do your bidding is only saying to yourself that you will make God do your bidding. Woe unto that one who tries to offend the law in this manner. The wrath of God, of his own making, shall grind him to powder. He who through ignorance or willfulness tries to “steady the ark of another” will :find his power “withered away.’’ Look well to this meddlesome state of mind, and let thy brother alone. Speak the word of Truth, but do not try domination. The thing you dominate in one instance will one day dominate you with accelerated force though you may flourish as a “green bay” for a while—all of which brings you to under­stand that the “wrath of God “is the wrath of your own making. When you instill the doctrine of fear in another you are only instilling it into your own self and it shall return to you “pressed down and running over.’’

You are not responsible for the healing of another. You are asked to make a state­ment of fact to him, to call to his remem­brance the Eternal Facts of Being, not to work some magic trick over him.

“I will” is the answer of Spirit to every prayer that is made in true understanding, and it fallows “according to your faith be it unto you,” and “the servant is healed in the selfsame hour’’ if he has had the faith to accept the’’ it-is-done’’ state of mind.

You are joyously abandoned into life. This is God’s universe and he can, and does run it perfectly. You are a point in conscious­ness. Why not let this power into expression, instead of trying to distort it to personal ends? Verily it shall be well with thee if God rules in your universe, consciously. “Be still and know.’’ Contemplate the glory of it all; rest in peace; it is well with thee.

Prayer is not a means of changing the universe, but a way of getting into line with the Power, “which to know aright is Life Eternal.” You have the infinite capacity to become one with this power, and then you shall know what it is to be in a majority. Becoming one with the Power is to feel the divine urge of life, expressing itself through everything and every circumstance. Why should you worry? Nothing matters.

Give up the foolish idea of trying to change God or his universe to suit your personal demands, and you will find that the universe, for you, is suddenly changed from hell to heaven. “Not my will (personal sense) but thine be done “is not submission to blind fate, but conscious activity into life, because you are guided eternally by the voice of Truth, which says “this is the way, walk thou in it.”

Give up striving for freedom and you shall know the joyous abandon of life. Does a lily struggle into expression? Have you considered the lily? If God cannot do it, it cannot be done, so why not rest the case with him, since he has invited you to lean on him and to take the burden of his glorious under­ standing upon yourself—the understanding that, being spiritual, you are free from the hamperings of material beliefs. God has already done everything that needs to be done. “Be still, be still, be still.’’

Before you ask the answer is, and while you are yet lisping the words it is given unto you. This is what comes of “letting’’ God express through you, in his glorious way, instead of trying to force him to do your bidding. Oh, the wonder of it, the rest and peace of it all, when you take up your place in the body of Christ, “for we are all members of the one body “; and one member is as important as another. Through all parts of this grand body flows a stream of God ideas, sustaining everything in perfect peace and joy.

And so you are joyously abandoned into life, for now you know. You are free. Nothing matters. You have recognized the real, and “the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places.” Only beliefs and condi­tions will change, because they are but the objectified thought pictures that change and disintegrate before your very eyes.

Take away your judgment from appear­ances because in them you are always deceived. When you look at the outside of an egg nothing seems to be happening for weeks, but a new life is forming on the inside. Something is happening from the moment the warmth of the mother love touches the egg; this is not visible to the appearance world, but the mother love feels it is so. So it is with your problem—every time you meditate upon the isness of your Perfect Self something tremendously interesting is taking place on the inside, though the appearance may not indicate it on the outside. One day the shell cracks, and out comes the new idea, perfect and glorious. “For unto us a child is born and his name shall be called Wonderful, the Mighty, the Everlasting,” and this child is born in the stable of your heart. Instantly this news is broadcast the Herod idea of the circumstance mind wishes to kill the newborn child.

“Keep silent before me—see that you tell no man.’’

What matter though the world, judging from appearance, says nothing is happening.

You know that it is, and so you rest in peace; then one day “it is called from the house­ tops’’ and you follow the command,’’ Launch out into the deep waters” of a new activity. The larger fish are in the deep waters, but until you are of “the seeing eye’’ and “hearing ear “you are not able “to launch out.’’

Away with all the foolish wondering whether this or that person will like or dislike what you are doing! Away with all the self­ appointed keepers of the Truth who screech out that you are off the track or are follow­ing a blind path ! You are never in danger of going far afield if you follow Christ. Remember that he is for all men, in all climes and under all conditions. The Truth is the thing which is good for everybody at all times.

“Hold fast to that which is good.’’ “Go not back again to your former bondage’’ once you have tasted the freedom of a dweller in the Finished Kingdom. This isness is the kingdom that Jesus came offering to the world, and so few heard the word with the hearing ear; yet what countless thousands are following after the dead letter. “My way is the only way,’’ they say, and they condemn you if you do not follow their way. What of Christ’s way? “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.’’ Throw opinions to the wind, and do not listen to the arguments of personal sense or appearance.

Contemplate this Finished Mystery. “Be still and know.” Rest in the “peace that passeth all understanding.’’ Rest in Peace. It is well with thee.

Oh, glorious message! We start now with “It is done,’’ because we recognize that everything must already be done in a Finished Kingdom, and certainly God said, “It is finished” and “good” and he rested. Why not rest awhile in this peace.

“Tarry awhile in Jerusalem (peace).’’
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16. THAT WHICH DEFILETH OR MAKETH A MAN

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

“Ye shall eat your own words.’’ It is the eating of your own evil words that defileth you. The edict is that the “word shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please.” Its return will be with the usual increase, “pressed down and running over.” See to it that you do not invert the word by sending forth that which cometh out of you on an evil mission.

If you want to feed’’ among the lilies,’’ you will permit no word to pass your lips that will defile you, your brother, or your universe.

He who “feeds among the lilies’’ will taste of the heavenly manna, even though he stands in a desert; but he who defileth his brother and his universe by seeing evil in them shall feed on the husks of his own making, even though he stand in a store­ house of plenty.

“Ye have eyes and see not” is a rebuke to the man who lives in the three-dimensional plane of existence; that is, the man who deduces his knowledge of life from appear­ances. When we judge from appearances we see nothing but evil, inharmony, and lack. The disciples fished all night (in the darkness of judging from appearances) and caught nothing; yet when the four-dimensional man (Christ-consciousness) came, they could not draw in their nets because of the multi­tude of fishes—right in the same waters, in the same boat, the same nets. “Ye have eyes and see not “because ye judge from appearances.

What the sense man says is impossible the Christ man considers easy of accomplish­ment. One starts with the idea that some­ thing must be changed and done, something demonstrated; the other starts with the knowledge that God being everywhere, ever present, there is no place or locality where he is not, and that he manifests himself in whatever manner 1nay be necessary to sustain the perfect peace man. The ocean of life is filled with fishes—ideas—to the Christ man. When the sense man says there is no hope, the Christ man recognizes this extremity as an opportunity to see God made manifest.

The fourth-dimensional man reverses every law of the three-dimensional man—sees good in so-called evil, abundance in lack, and freedom in bondage.

The three-dimensional man has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. He has given away his glorious dominion as the son of God and gone into the bondage of symbols—the belief in an intelligence apart from God. He goes in search of that which he thinks he has lost. Like the mad king, he searches the world over for the King, without success, because he looks for him everywhere except within himself, the one place in which he exists.

The three-dimensional man seeks the Truth that will set him free through the acquiring of things. He misinterprets the law to acquire “loaves and fishes.” To many Truth is simply a way and means to get “things.” Sooner or later this fails, and man finds he is fallowing in the wake of a careful harvester, trying to glean a scant living, whereas he might be the harvester would he but hear the command, “Thrust in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” Because he accepts appear­ances as real, he sees lack, and cannot take his eyes from this illusion long enough to obey the command, “Thrust in the sickle.” 

The three-dimensional man tries hard to believe that the sufferings of Jesus were to set him free. The fourth-dimensional man knows that Jesus did not set man free, but that man was born free; he knows that his freedom has never been taken from him, even though he has seemingly traveled the road of bondage of his own making.  Jesus does not free him, but the Christ in him enables him to understand clearly that he was never in bondage.

Arise, slave to appearances! Leave the Egypt of your own making. Before you lies the “land flowing with milk and honey.” “Arise, get thee up into a high mountain.” When you are on a “high mountain” and look down, you see the world of circumstances as a mere speck of dust floating in space. When you ascend to the place of the Most High you come to the high mountain of understanding, and have the place of vantage from which you may watch the play of circum­stances—the illusion—with the clear under­ standing that it is illusion, a mist-i-fication, a veil which is to be rent by you.

In the very place that man, who judges from appearance, saw death, Jesus saw life. “The man is not dead, but sleepeth; I go to awaken him.” The sense man, still judging and arguing about the utter im­possibility of it all, laughed him to scorn; but this did not alter the fact that the spiritual idea of life could not experience a thing called “death” or extinction. “I am the resurrection and the life. Though a man were dead, yet shall he live,’’ if under­ stood as Jesus understood it, will raise the so-called dead. Nothing is impossible to Spirit. Note, however, that “I go to awaken him” is a statement made by a conscious­ness that never admitted death. The “I” which goes is the “resurrection and the life.” The “I’’ which has seemingly forgotten the eternality of life is reminded of the fact that it cannot die. A belief is set aside for a reality. St. Paul said, “I die daily.” Here we have the “I “dying to or letting go of beliefs acquired through judging from appearances.

If you die daily, you must be born daily to a higher recognition of the isness of life. You will never die twice to the same belief. The moment a belief is seen as nothing but a belief, you resurrect yourself and die to that no more. Even the gates of death and hell shall not prevail against the awakened soul. “Awake thou that sleepeth.’’

When the sense man sees a resurrection from sickness to health, from death to life, from inharmony to harmony, he says that a miracle has happened; but in reality all that has happened is that a natural law of life has been recognized.

The three-dimensional man follows after a blind leader because of the number in that throng. He does not stop for one instant to listen to the voice, lest he find himself alone on the high-road. Once he pauses to listen, he drops out of the mob and follows the guidance of his inner Lord; he then takes the high-road of peace, and, much to his surprise, finds thousands traveling that way in joyous abandon.

The idea of my doctrine and thy doctrine falls by the way. The quest for name, fame, or place vanishes. When some came to Jesus and told him that there were others using this same power and not giving him credit, he rebuked them, saying, “What is that to thee? “Why should you say, “my way’’ is the only way? Be still, there is but one Power, and it works in myriad ways and through thousands of channels. Judge not!

The freed soul is oft-times called foolish and even insane, because he does not agree with the race consciousness. Many an inventor has been called crazy because he discovered the principle of something which set aside man-made laws, only to be lauded to the skies, when he became famous, by the same 1nob which would previously have willingly crucified him.

When Jesus came and said,’’ The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” the same jeering took place. Where was this kingdom so close? Could one not see there was nothing but discord and decay in the world? But some heard the Voice, and some will hear it in every age, and go quietly and silently into their kingdom, and there abide in peace.

If someone had told you, not so long ago, that the very room in which you sit is filled with music and lectures of all sorts, you would have certainly pronounced him queer at least; but today you agree perfectly, because it has been proved to you by a sign. Blessed are those who need no sign.
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17. SEEKING

Formerly, mills were turned  by means of a donkey being placed on a large platform which revolved. In order to get the donkey to move forward a bundle of hay was suspended in front of him.  No matter how hard he tried to get the hay, he was just as far away at nightfall as he was when he began his tiresome  pursuit that morning. You smile when you think of the  stupidity of the animal.  If he had only stopped to think, he would have come to the conclusion that whether he ever reached the hay or not, he was always well fed, bedded down at night, and cared for. But the donkey is only a picture  of  man so obsessed with the appearance of things, that he fails to see the real status of Being.  How many times have you reached what seemed to you the end of all things, only to find months afterward that you were still going on just the same?

We all go through life seeking and reaching for things, forgetting that we already have all things if we will but stop a moment and consider the facts of Being. We are like the dog in the fable who drops the real one for the enlarged reflection of it in the river.

We are told to “seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.” Were we but to obey this in­ junction the rest of the law would be fulfilled in us, and all things would be added.

We go through the world like a man pursued by a policeman 

and see the barest glimpses of the beauty of it. All fear that 

pursues us comes from believing in matter. Matter gets its 

whole existence from the presence of mind behind it. 

What we see is God percolating through nature.-VIVEKANANDA.

“The wicked fleeth and no man pursueth.’’ We are both the man who flees and the policeman who pursues. It is all a little drama which we have chosen to enact. For ages we have not realized that we are playing an optional part on this great stage of the universe, but have come to accept the belief that we are creatures of environment, cir­cumstances, and heredity.

All is Spirit, and as it has been said, “What we call matter is simply Spirit slowed down to a point of visibility.” Steam, water, ice—all are the same, yet all different forms of the same substance.

When man becomes aware of the Kingdom of Heaven—here and now—he sees he has only been playing a part, and that he has successfully played the role chosen, even if that role be that of a failure. He constantly occupies the center of the stage of his uni­verse, no matter how small he may think it. An invalid, as well as an athlete, may have a leading role of a drama. A violent temper, or a poverty-stricken idea may cause its players to revolve around it. A king may play the part of a beggar and enjoy it, says Vivekananda, but the beggar is hypno­tized to it all, and until he awakens will not know that he is a king in his own kingdom.

But the beggar says, “How can I be free? I am poor; I am wretched; I am unhappy”—and it is true that he is all these things from the appearance side, and any attempt to change these conditions from the outside is worse than useless. We have all seen the folly of charity in the generally accepted sense of the word. It is usually met with deep ingratitude, and sometimes we have wondered at this; but it is not difficult to understand why this is true. The manner and motive of our giving has been that of a lie. We have recognized the beggar role as real, and have only tried to fasten it on to a soul by our charity. Though the beggar calls for sympathy, yet when he gets it he hates the one who has descended to the level of his consciousness and made it a reality. It is so with anyone in distress. In reality he is not looking for sympathy, which descends to the level of self-hypnotism, and accepts the distress as real, but for compassion and firmness. When one asks for help and we mistakenly give sympathy, we take away his chance, as it were, of getting free from the illusion that is binding him.

“If they ask for bread will you give them a stone? “Certainly not. There are times when withholding is the greatest charity in the world, and there are times when giving literally is the only thing to do; but such withholding, or giving, will invariably be accompanied by a recognition of the real self. If you descend to the level of the appealer and sympathize with him, telling him that you know his condition is real and terrible, but you will pray for him, what hope can you expect to stimulate in his mind? He will hark back constantly to the state­ments of agreement you made as to his misery being real and terrible. Compassion is gentle and firm. It will not be dragged down to the acceptance of that which it knows to be a lie.

You are the giver of good to every man. You can always give the priceless gift of free­dom to anyone asking for it. The motive back of the gift is what counts. If you give, and your gift is not received, you have your reward just the same. In some cities it is recorded that even Jesus did not do many mighty works “because of their unbelief “; but this did not stop him from pouring out his love on all who would accept it.

“Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee.’’ This is always pos­sible for you. You have things more precious than silver and gold to give to every one who asks. You have the power to give to that soul (call to its remembrance) the glorious freedom of the sons of God.

A thousand wise men have said over and over again that all our difficulties come from our association with the body concept of life. We have associated with the body concept so long that we have come to look on it as our’’ self,” instead of the out-picturing of our thought.

Surely we recognize the fact that the body of itself has no intelligence. A dead body does not repel or accept anything; neither does it fear nor love anything. It is mind that holds the body in its grasp, just as you hold an object in your hand. You embrace your body and your universe in your thought. You are not compressed within the limits of a physical body any more than God is. A man who paints a picture is not in that picture.

“The Lord is in His holy temple.’’ Jesus called the body the temple; but the real body or embodiment of man is his conscious­ness.

Body, or man-i-festation is the point at which consciousness is made visible. You are a point in the Universal Consciousness of God, and are one with the Father Con­sciousness, just as the wave is one with the ocean; the ray of light, one with the sun; the branch, one with the tree. So you are joined to God, or are a point in the Universal Consciousness.

As an island is one with the earth yet appears to be individual, so are you one with God. Rest, beloved, in this thought that you are inseparably connected with God and cannot know or experience evil as real as long as you are one with him. Cease the useless seeking after things for self, and come into the understanding that where God is all is.
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18. O, THAT I MIGHT FIND HIM

Maeterlinck symbolizes happiness by a blue bird and causes the seeker to go the world over searching for it, only to return home worn and tired to find the blue bird in his own garden.

Thousands of people make yearly pil­grimages to various shrines thinking to get a glimpse of something mysterious and to feel His Presence. All of these people in story and in fact are but pictures of your­ self. One day you, too, come to realize the isness of God and the realization that he is everywhere present, even in hell—“if I make my bed in hell thou art there.” It is safe to say that the man in hell who becomes conscious of God’s presence changes hell to heaven. Certainly God is in heaven.

If you think you are in hell to-day, re­membering this one redeeming feature about it—God is there—transforms it into heaven, here and now.

The knowledge of the allness of God is an “Open sesame” to the King’s treasures. What glorious gifts are poured into your lap by the God of the all-good universe. Awake! Awake! Awake! God is not gained through books. God is. You are a dweller in a God universe. Everything is God in manifesta­tion. Could there be more than all?

If you want to see God and serve him, serve your fellow man. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, ye have done it unto me.”

“I am Alpha and Omega.” Can there be more than all? What about the belief of two powers—one good and the other evil? Begin to see God in everything that lives, and you will carry with you a fairy wand that will transform one hell and devil after another into a heaven and an angel.

“I will never leave you.” Fear not, once you recognize this God of the all-good uni­ verse you will never again lose the Truth of life.

Small wonder the Kingdom of Heaven is given unto the child. A child can believe in all good happening without questioning as to the how and why; but the wise and prudent try to square God by man-made laws, and fail. Even though they write long dissertations on the atonement and quote the Scriptures from end to end, yet they miss him. “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.’’ How could it be other­ wise when you realize that “My ways are not your ways”? The ways of the Spirit for bringing good into manifestation are far beyond the fondest hopes of man’s reasoning. In Spirit there is always a way for things to happen that is absolutely impossible to the man of the circumstance world.

You are told that you cannot add one cubit to your stature by taking thought. Why try, then? Why not listen to the law which says, “When the inspiration of the Almighty has come unto you, it shall lead you into all things and will teach you all things.” The inspiration of the Almighty is the God dwelling in the midst of you, and has nothing to do with reason. Reason flees before the inspiration of the Almighty, for inspiration upsets all its laws. The natural operation of the law of God is to the sense man mysterious and supernatural.

Why take thought, then? When you come into oneness with the Truth—God­—you find a new law operating within you­—the law of intuition, the law of inspiration. And somehow things keep on happening at the right time, despite the sense testimony which says “impossible.”

When you see God in a patient, you bring forth what is called a healing, but in Reality you do nothing but recognize a fact of Being.

Every man is your teacher, since God is in every man. See to it that you are not deceived into believing that teachers come with a blare of the trumpet and a great noise. The porter who opens the temple doors may have a greater message for you than he who stands at the altar. Open your eyes and ears, for God is speaking to you constantly through thousands of avenues.

Away with the feeble idea of this or that great one, who is sitting on a self-created throne puffed up with spiritual pride I There is none great except God. You are free; walk, then, as a free man, not as a slave. Walk with boundless freedom, for you have come to understand the Ever-Presence of God—here and now. When you take the’’ no thought’’ road that Spirit offers you, it means infinitely more than just drifting about day-dreaming. That you are taking no further thought of things and appearances does not mean that you suddenly cease all activity and drift through life. Just the reverse is true-you become active with a newness of purpose that accomplishes. This activity will not be restrained by the circumstance world which calls attention to the purse, the scrip, and the robe. You are free, and if you dare to follow the Voice of Truth you can go your way un­hampered, untrammeled, and free. You are traveling the high-road of peace, and may walk and talk with God in everybody and see him in everything.

You are untrammeled, free, only so far as you give the world its freedom. Whatever bondage you see for another, you first see for yourself. God is one and not indivisible. You are but a point in consciousness where this expression comes into visibility. You are a distributer of good, a speaker of the Word. You seek no more the light outside yourself, for you are the light and you are the way, and no more will you seek the way by favour or force. You are your own way, and it is well with you now.

Day after day slips over the brink of eternity, filled with glory, filled with freedom—for you are new-born, and a thousand years are as a day. You are free, free, free. You have seen the Christ. You have found him in everything, and in yourself as well. You are through with criticism, condemnation, and judgment. You are now born into the kingdom that is here and now—not an illu­sion, not a theory—but a living, pulsating con­sciousness of Heaven within.

“Where there is no vision the people perish.” There is no vision in the reason world, for that world calls vision unnatural, unreal, and impossible; but you have caught the vision; you have seen the Christ dwelling in the temple of your body; and you have recognized your true self and have great peace. And now, instead of begging God to give you personal things, meditate in breathless adoration on the isness of everything. Peace is yours and nothing can take it from you; and if you stay in continual peace all things that are necessary to sustain this peace will be forthcoming, without struggle and without telling God how much you need them.  You are the prince of peace.

All of this beautiful peace and calm does not produce lethargy. It is not merely sitting supinely waiting for something to happen; it is expression. It is a newer and finer activity which comes to you, and saves you all the lost motion and fatiguing effort to get your own. Your own shall come unto you when you recognize what your own is. The great difference between understanding and belief is that one rests in peace and follows the Voice of Truth, while the other goes struggling through life trying to psychologize things and money out of the universe.

Because you have ceased the mad hunt after Christ and found him in yourself, you do not hie yourself away to the mountains. He is no more in the mountains than he is in the crowded city streets. Going into the silence is not a trick that has to be practiced in a certain place. It is possible anywhere, at any time. It is only the recognition of God as present.

A new and holy mission comes to you. You are the bringer of light, the bringer of joy, the collector of smiles, the speaker of the word, and the giver of good. You go out to give; you go out to “speak no evil nor to listen to it.” Why should you listen to that which you know is untrue? No, not even for the false sense of sympathy! You are free. You are at peace.
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19. SEE THAT YE TELL NO MAN

Jesus often said, “See that ye tell no man,” because you do not need to tell—it is self-evident. “That which is told in secret shall be called from the house-tops.’’

The teaching of the Bible is secret doctrine as well as sacred. We learn that it is wisest to “Let your conversation be, Yea, yea and nay, nay.’’ This means conversation of power. 

Talking about and discussing the workings of the law seemingly dissipates it. All the energy you use in idle words should be brought to bear on the thing to be accomplished.

You can kindle a fire by concentrating the sun’s rays on a given point with a magnify­ing glass.

If you want to start an engine you close all outlets of  the boiler and conserve the steam. A fire-hose punctured full of holes would carry no force, though you had a tremendous amount of pressure back of it. Spending all your time talking about the Truth dissipates your power of meditation and brings little or no results.

“See that ye tell no man.” When it is ready to be told it will be self-evident. Go thy way; hold perpetually to the facts of Being. Taking your attention entirely away from the conditions, the conditions will take care of themselves.

Looking for results constantly is but one form of doubt, and if you doubt, none of your requests will be fulfilled, even though “the Father knoweth that ye have need of these things,” and says, “before they call I “ill answer.” Your attention, if centered in the relative world, will be so occupied with the flickering picture on the screen that you will have little time to hear the Voice of Truth. You will be so busy with idle words that the Word will not be heard.

Vain repetition will get you nowhere. Many people have repeated words for years with no visible results. It is like saying, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace­ clouds without rain, empty forms.

Working on a plane of demonstration you are swinging between something and nothing—health and sickness, wealth and poverty, happiness and sadness. There is only one place where there is no movement of a pendulum, and that is at the top; that is, when we become aware of the Finished Kingdom. Then you begin to know life as it is. Relax into the cosmic rhythm of the universe where everything is governed by law from the most minute form to the greatest—perfect unity, perfect order, harmony, heaven—here and now.

When you come to understand the com­mand: “See that ye tell no man,” you are approaching the “secret place of the Most High.’’ Then you begin to recognize that the thing that is eternally true does not need any champion. You spend little time ex­ pounding the fact that two times two are four. Why? Because you know it is so, and you use it when necessary, but you do not argue about it.

Coming into the “secret place of the Most High “is simply becoming aware of your actual position in life; coming into oneness with the divine scheme of things; taking up your place as “a member of the body of Christ Jesus,” of which all are members. But you cannot become consciously one with God unless you recognize your unity with the whole of creation. Job said: “Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.’’

The new birth takes place and man comes into his new family—’’ those that do the will of God”—and he acquires (becomes aware of) his Father-Mother God.

Man learns that all things are for his use but that they are not to use him. When things use man, money makes a miser or a pauper of him, . food makes a glutton or a skeleton of him, play makes a sluggard or a sensualist of him. All things are for your use, for your happiness.

“To the pure all things are pure.’’ If you allow things to use you, you immediately get off pitch, and this destroys the harmony of life as far as you are concerned.

Solomon said: “God ordained man through wisdom to have dominion over all creation.’’ All things have been placed under your feet (understanding); therefore you see the wisdom of getting understanding.

Why seek the loaves and fishes when you have easily and instantly available the cause back of these manifestations? “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead—I have bread that ye know not of.” Those who are still looking to “things “are under the law of things and must pay the price.

Giving a man a crust of bread may temporarily satisfy him, but he is soon again at the place of need, and will continue to come to this place until he gets wisdom. Hence you see that the most priceless thing you can  give  another is understanding. Instruction is the truest form of healing, for it makes the body every whit whole. Healing a man of  one sickness only offers him a temporary relief.  He must be instructed out of  belief into the understanding of the universality of health. He must be brought face to face with the fact that he has only to become aware of the Truth of life, to be in instant possession of perfect health. This is realization.

“Hold constantly in mind the fact that it is the Christ power that enables you to heal “and that it is not a personal concept of this; that is, it is not a person who heals, but Principle. When you look to personality for help you are depending on a reed shaken by the wind, which will sooner or later bring trouble.

The same Power which operated through the man Jesus is to-day working through you, and the work that it accomplished in Judea at that time can be done again, and even greater works can be done, according to the promise.

“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil;” that is, the Christ-consciousness will preserve its man-i-festation from all danger, when you become one with it and manifest it. It was this Christ-consciousness, which is above all conditions, which enabled its mani­festation to be put to the :fire test, the water test, and even the death test, without fear and without evil results. Knowing that you are one with this Christ-consciousness, you see that you are above all conditions. You are not going to be a Master; you are a Master now, as soon as you recognize your oneness with God.

What you claim as your own you endow with power. When you speak of a condi­tion as “my own,” that condition can and does operate toward you either evilly or beneficently in accordance with the nature of the thing. When you say “my problem,” “my condition,’’ you are claiming personal ownership. Loose it and let it go. Take your thought off the undesirable condition and it is deprived of the only power it ever had to hurt or harm you. When you put a wall around anything, you shut out more than you shut in. When you hedge in a little health, a little wealth, a little happiness, you are shutting yourself out of the inexhaust­ible supply of these things.

You must realize that everything which is not based on Principle must go. When you claim anything as your own, you believe in a separation between yourself and God, and trouble is bound to come. You are never for one instant separated from the love of God. You are individual, but not separate. As the islands of the sea appear to be separated from the earth yet are joined to it, so are you inseparably joined to the one Whole.
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20. DOMINION

“In the beginning God … ” In the very beginning, as we are able to grasp it, God—this Great Unconditional Power from which all things are evolved­ brought forth creation by the command : “Let there be.” Out of visibility, step by step, he brought his perfect expression.

Finished and complete, the Master Work­ man saw everything that he had made, and “behold it was very good.”

An Unconditioned Power looked upon his expression (expression from its original root meaning pressed out) and called it not only good, but very good; pronounced it finished, complete, perfect.

Unto the highest of his creations, man, he gave dominion, having made him a little lower than the angels. “For thou hast made him but little lower than the angels. And crownest him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.’’

We see, then, that man is not a creator in any sense of the word. He can add nothing to, nor take anything from, that which is already complete and perfect. By virtue of his office of dominion, he is able to bring into visibility that which already exists, and everything that is, or ever will be, already exists. “There is nothing new under the sun.” That which has been and will be, always has been and always will be permanent and unchangeable.

The man of dominion then :finds himself to be the Power, which never changes. Since man is the offspring of this Power, man is a perfect spiritual being, a permanent being in a permanent universe, which we designate “heaven.”

Since God is Spirit and he called everything into expression out of his infinite selfhood, then everything must be and is Spirit, and man is naturally spiritual-” God is Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth.”

If man is to worship (contact consciously) this Unconditioned Power called God, he must recognize his oneness with God in substance and quality.

All things are possible to God (the Uncon­ditioned Power), and it is only when man drops in thinking to the place where he imagines himself a creator that he tries to condition an Unconditioned Power. Here is the very beginning of all difficulties. An Unconditioned Power will not be confined in the narrow limits of personal opinion, and as soon as man tries this he finds himself prodigal in every sense of the word. He draws to himself his substance and spends it in riotous living, and presently he finds himself feeding upon the husks, having consumed the last grain of his so-called substance. Then he turns back.

Gradually he finds, instead of demon­strating the God Power for a single case, he must come to a realization of his oneness with the Unconditioned Power. In this co­ operation he finds all things are added in perfect order. He knows as long as he stays in the realm of related things that he is like one hanging on the end of a huge pendulum which swings back and forth-from wealth to poverty, from sickness to health, and from inharmony to harmony. No sooner does he demonstrate health in one part of the body than another part is calling for help. Life becomes a treadmill of problems, a school where there is little or no respite.

At the top of the pendulum all motion ceases. Until man arrives at a point in con­sciousness where he recognizes the  uncon­ditioned and unchangeable nature of the Power that operates the universe, he is con­stantly swinging back and forth between something and nothing, and his progress is slow and wearisome.

Man has tried to outline and striven to set up his Kingdom of Heaven by drawing things to him, only to find his soul required of him. Man cannot break a law, but the law through misinterpretation can break him and grind him to powder, for the Power is no respecter of persons. It is impersonal. On this point all men are born equal. Every man has instant access to this Power; no one can deprive him of it, for he can manifest it all, and yet all will remain.

In the appearance world man seems to invent, or create, certain things, but what he really do s is to become aware of a principle that has always existed. The principle of the radio always existed; no man invented or created it. It only seemed to go through a process of creation.

Your health is already perfect; if you do not know it it is because you do not recognize the fundamental truth that it already exists and always has and always will exist. You are merely becoming aware of it when you make a demonstration. Every harmonious condition that manifests itself is in propor­tion to the extent you have become conscious of what already exists.

Ridding yourself of undesirable conditions does not come by trying to rid yourself of anything, but by recognizing the reality of Being. Instead of starting from a point outside yourself to induce health, you reverse the order and recognize it as a reality-here and now. Your meditation on the perfec­tion of your spiritual self, changeless and eternal, is all that is necessary for you to become aware of that which is.

When you make what is called a demon­stration and you see results of more har­monious conditions manifested, you are tempted to think you have changed something by praying; but on looking deeper into the facts of Being you find that the only thing that has been changed is your belief regarding the situation. That which is, can­ not be changed, but as we become more and more aware of it, the conditions, self-imposed by belief, change.

The moment you take your thought from an undesirable condition, that condition ceases to exist for you. Every condition is sustained in your life by reason of the fact that you hold it there by thought. The more you think of sickness, the more aggravated it becomes. A state of perfect health is a state of unconsciousness as far as the body is con­cerned. The moment the misdirected thought lays hold of a portion of the body, that part of it becomes sick, and is constantly in thought. Man has only to turn to the realities of existence; that is, that he is already perfect (not that he is going to be), that he is already prosperous (not that he is going to be, for the time element has nothing to do with God’s plan), to see it manifest itself.

The man-i-festation which expresses har­mony, health, and power is no more intelli­gent than the shoe you wear. You place your foot in it and walk away. You never consult it as to how, when, or where you shall go; yet many go on looking to the vehicle of expression for evidence of real life, forget­ ting the expresser, which is the real you, or the man of God.

Gradually we begin to see that instead of fighting upstream against the terrific on­slaught of water we have but to throw our oars into the boat and float with the tide. The fight is over when you realize that God lives in you—just as he lives in a tree or a rose—that this great Unconditioned Power of which you are an expression can run his own universe perfectly and without assistance from any so-called lesser powers.

It does not make God any stronger because you repeat a thousand times that “he is strength.” He is perfectly aware of that. Words without the consciousness back of them are so many empty shells—they accom­plish nothing. You can say “peace, peace,’’ and yet experience the most complete con­ fusion; but you cannot say “Peace, be still “with the consciousness of the finished mystery without experiencing a great calm.

As fishermen in a boat, we have drifted far out to sea and been overtaken with storms of our own making. We have suddenly become aware of the fact that we are about to perish, and no amount of struggling with things is going to save or help us. Then it is that we become aware of the fact that the Perfect Power, which is the true self, is with us always, and when we awaken it speaks with authority the “Peace, be still “which produces the great calm, for in reality the great storm was a chimera, an illusion, a mirage—a mist which we have constructed out of the false notion that we could create something independent of God.

Once you become conscious that all power is resident within you by virtue of your ability to become one with the Father within, you come to the center of your being. You do not have to bring this Power down or from without; you are a sub-station for it. It automatically flows through you as the air through the screen or light through the window-pane. The greater your faith in the Power, the greater the manifestation of the Power-not that you increase the Power by manifesting it, but you become more aware of what actually is.

All power is given unto you—remember this, for it means instant ability to set aside any condition or theory that is functioning in your life. You must remember that you came before any man-made theory; there­ fore you are superior to it.

The saying of Lao Tse, 6th century B.C., expresses clearly what the Power is of one who knows the Finished Kingdom and his oneness with God—’’ He who knows how to shut, uses no bolts, yet none can open. He who knows how to bind uses no cords, yet none can undo.” All doors are open to this Power, for it is spiritual and uncon­ditioned, and no condition can withstand it. The way is straight and plainly mapped out, for this Power knows, and it knows it knows.

Keep constantly in mind the fact that it is the Unconditioned Power with which we have to deal. Remember that God is actually the Power. He is the thing itself, instead of Power being an attribute of him.

Since God the Father is within you, your power is unconditioned, and by allying your­ self with this Power all conditions in the relative world are under your dominion.

Becoming aware of this brings the con­sciousness of Power, and, I repeat again, that we only become aware of it when we actually acknowledge that it exists and put our radical faith and reliance in it. Nothing short of “radical faith and reliance “will enable you to decree a thing and have it come to pass. You can only manifest that Power which you acknowledge exists. Get this point firmly fixed in thought, that while we speak of this Power, in contradistinction to another power, we realize there is only one Power, and that is unconditioned. There is no relative power that has power; it only seems to have such, by reason of misinter­pretation on our part—just as Truth is Truth and there is no such thing as relative Truth, except in the field of imagination.

Again I say to you that the Power is im­personal. Just as Shakespeare speaks of the qualities of mercy, which fall on the just and the unjust alike, so we know that this Power is no respecter of persons. 

The invitation is to all—“Let him that thirsts come and drink of the waters of life freely.” It is an open fount in the public highway; the prince and the pauper have equal access to it. It lies within every man.

It is impersonal. Turning it seemingly into a wrong channel does not change the nature of it, only its expression. An electric wire on the ground which kills a child does not bespeak any fault in the current. The same power which will light your home and furnish you joys and comforts untold, if mis­ interpreted will seemingly cause havoc; but the power is always the same.

“Power belongeth unto God.” If you find a power in your life which seems to be working evil, pick it up, transmute it. Like the serpent which became a staff when properly handled, so the very power which appears to be working in a wrong direction is apparently doing so because you have failed to interpret it rightly-you have failed to come unreservedly under its sway, the rhyth­mic sway of the universe. You have tried to condition an Unconditioned Power and failed. 

“Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you,” and the Holy Spirit comes upon you when you realize and acknow­ledge your place in the Kingdom of Heaven—here and now.

“In thy hand (understanding) is power and might”—and so we are admonished, “with all thy getting, get understanding.’’

Becoming conscious of this Unconditioned Power frees us from the so-called power of conditions. Understanding that we are one with the Power, and that we existed before any condition in our life, we acknowledge that we brought out, or created, all conditions, and hence have power over them. This may seem a paradox. In the realm of imagina­tion we seem to create, but in reality we only become aware of that which is.

Become so intent on the contemplation of your Spiritual self and your place in the Kingdom of Heaven that you forget the condition which seems to be troubling you. Every time you relax into the abandonment of the thought, “If God cannot do it, it cannot be done “; you drop off, as it were, much baggage; the consciousness of peace possesses you—and when you have peace you have all.

Just as a picture is actually on the plate of the camera, though your senses say there is naught but a blank, so this perfection, this Kingdom of Heaven, is actually a reality though obscured by a mystification of relative findings. The things that personal sense says cannot he <lone are the very things that the God Power is able to do, for it knows no limitation or conditions.

Life and action are one. This glorious Power is ever unfolding itself to the visible world. The old adage, “Man proposes but God disposes,” carries its lesson. We see the constant transformation going on. Life is eternally expressing itself. No sooner did man rend and tear the earth with shells and in­fernal machines of war, than nature carpeted the place again with grass and flowers. This Power, this life, is constantly expressing in you as perfect health, happiness, and peace. The operation of life is the only operation there is—and it is perfect. Your oneness with the Father is the very center of divine operation. 

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It renews your mind to realize that resident within you is the Father, the Un­conditioned Power, operating for your glori­fication, for the Father is glorified through the Son.

How shall it come? “In the twinkling of an eye”— “as a thief in the night”—when we cease to look at conditions; when we con­stantly keep our thought on the facts of the Finished Kingdom. Then, and then only, shall it “steal” upon us, and one day the relative world will see it, and that which you have known in secret shall be called from the house-tops. It shall become so evident that all men shall see it.

Then shall you realize that the “former things have passed away.” The old conditions have dropped into oblivion—they are no more—and when you ask again for the place there­ of, it, too, shall have passed away.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” Right now! All power is given unto you. Ask yourself what the nature of this power is. Ask yourself what kind of reliance you must have in it. Ask yourself where the location of it is. Ask yourself what kind of contem­plation is necessary. Ask yourself what is the most essential point in becoming aware of the Power.
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21. NEGATIVE versus POSITIVE

How can a positive God create a negative condition or idea? We find many people claiming that they are “negative,” and at the same time trying to apply a positive teaching to their lives; carrying on the negative state of consciousness, but desiring positive results.

Like attracts like. An old philosopher used to reply to all statements, “You said it.”

When we begin to realize, even in a small degree, the Finished Kingdom—that every­ thing is done and is perfect; that we are merely becoming aware of our place in the Kingdom—we shall see that what we say is a statement of our concept of what the kingdom is for us. A rainy day might be a wonderful day to a farmer needing rain, and a bad day for a hiker. We determine what it is to us by reason of our attitude toward it, but this attitude does not change the day. We see, then, that nothing changes but our attitude. One man may find all manner of evil in the very person you call friend; yet the person is just the same all the while. The person whom you call friend someone may call an enemy.

We must either be positive or negative to everything. There is no half-way or neutral ground. Either we know a thing or we do not.

There are not two creations, one negative and one positive. Man is spiritual and will always remain so. As soon as we under­ stand ourselves as spiritually perfect, here and now, we will see the utter impossibility of remaining negative.

That to which we are negative affects us in an unpleasant way, for it is the thing we fear, and what we fear is always with us. It is the thing with which we are consciously working, trying to deny, but only making more real; trying to put it out of mind, only to find it more persistent in staying.

We are told to agree with the adversary quickly, to harmonize ourselves with life. Even the life that seems to be expressing negatively is by agreement raised to its proper place.

When we are negative the condition takes on the serpent form, and causes us to fear. Yet we are bidden to “pick it up “if we wish to change it into a staff on which to lean. So it is with all negative things; they are only the outcome of misinterpreted or misunder­stood Power, and as soon as we take them in hand, knowing as we do that we have absolute power “to tread on dragons and serpents, and are given dominion over all things,” they become staffs upon which to lean.

A thing which is negative has no light of its own, but works wholly by borrowed light. It might be compared to the moon. The sun, the positive thing, gives off light and heat, burning by its own innate power; but the moon, the negative condition, is dead and is only animated by reason of a borrowed light. So our problems are only dead things, animated by the borrowed thought force.

A negative person, then, can never do anything but copy or imitate another; hence he can never be anything but a failure, for nothing that operates in this manner expresses originality. Instead of adding glory to his own name, he boosts the one whose per­sonality he imitates. “He is like So-and-So,” is the comment. No one knows who “he” is, but the one imitated is given a little more publicity.

Every expression of God is a genius, and this comes to the surface when man takes up his oneness with the permanent universe.

Fear is the handmaiden of the negative person—fear that he cannot accomplish his good. Someone has said, “When man refuses to feel a condition, that condition cannot make itself felt,” for in reality the condition has no intelligence and power.

Gradually man is beginning to realize that he is the maker of his environment, instead of being the slave of it. This is a freeing thought, for when we come face to face with the conclusion that we are respon­sible for what we have accepted as true, we see that we alone are responsible for the environment created thereby.

When a man is negative he constantly feels the conflict of life. Life becomes a pack of merciless hounds ever dogging his footsteps; ever bringing up new problems and conditions to be handled. These people belong to the class who claim they are mis­ understood, for they are not living and acting from their own center, but from the borrowed light of another.

When man becomes impersonal (letting go of the old idea of personality), he “launches out into the deep “ and his nets will be full of fishes (new ideas) right in the environ­ment he thought so barren. He becomes an individual. The essential nature of man is success, and as soon as he becomes imper­sonal (relaxing into the Truth of Being), allowing the God Power to live in him freely and easily, he finds that “the lines have fallen to him in pleasant places.’’

To be self-conscious, in the true sense of the word, is to be conscious of dominion. The general consensus of opinion is that when we become self-conscious we become very negative. So we do when we are looking to a personality for that self, but to become conscious of the real self, the permanent self which is perfect and eternal, is to burst into a freedom that knows no limitations. All doors are open, and we go in and out and find pastures.

The more man contemplates his divine self, the more he becomes conscious of his superiority to things in the related world, and the more he sees the condition as a passing mist without intelligence or power. He begins to understand how it was that the Hebrew children walked through fire and came out without the smell of fire on their clothing. Man is spiritual, and Spirit has never been touched by fire or water or any­ thing in the relative world.

Jesus knew that the secret of success lay in ridding oneself of personality. When they called him good and attempted to put him on a pedestal he said, “Call not me good,” realizing that all personality builded up to a high place by praise and flattery of the mob will one day be crashed to earth by the same mob. The handwriting is always on the wall, for no sooner does man start on the develop­ment of a huge personality than pride over­ takes him. Secretly he holds in his heart an attitude of “holier than thou,” and pride steals in upon him. He withdraws from the masses in a superior fashion; he adds mystery to his teaching and conduct and walks in a strange unearthly way, deal­ing largely in mysticism. Then one day comes the fall. His darling (personality) is crashed to earth and is trampled under the feet of the mob which raised him up.

All the tricks of personality are but borrowed powers of the individuality, twisted and distorted by persons who desire to put the stamp of self-possession on them.

The gift of clear vision is not confined to a few. It is God-given. It is not induced by long and strange meditations; it is not black magic; neither is it the communication with so-called spirits. Paul was conscious of this phase of the Power; but remember what he did to the child who was inverting it for gain for her master. He knew that it was a gift that could not be used for per­sonal aggrandizement; knew that when people began getting “weird things” pro­miscuously, which they gave in the form of prophecy for personal gain or glory, that they were prostituting a spiritual gift, and that the reaction would be in proportion to the act. We have the gift of knowing the people we contact; we have the gift of see­ing through the thin mask of personality back to the motive which is the only thing worthy of taking into consideration.

Ask yourself, “Am I looking to personality for help? Am I wallowing in a sweet smile or a gracious manner, instead of getting the message of Truth?” If you are looking to person instead of principle, you are sure to be disappointed sooner or later, for help can come alone from principle. One of the most negative conditions possible is the worship of personality.

The negative personality will constantly blame conditions, people, and things for the difficulties it encounters.

“Know thyself.’’ Learn that everything that is to be done must be done within you, and as soon as you realize this you have turned in the right direction. Take the burden of the thing unto yourself. This is your universe and you are getting out of it exactly what you are putting into it.

Negative people always claim they are not appreciated. Small wonder, when there is nothing there to be appreciated! The only thing they do is to ape the power of another. 

Waiting for gushing flattery is another sign of the  negative person. Remember that if you are susceptible to flattery you are working wholly on a negative plane.

Beloved, if you were not already perfect you could never hope to attain to perfection, for creation was finished and called good when God rested.

Turn within and “the Spirit of Truth shall guide you into all things.” You are already in heaven. Look about you and begin to call everything good, for good it surely is. The imaginary condition is changing con­stantly; it is but the shadow of a wrong thought having neither substance, intelli­gence, nor power.
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22. ISNESS

A Persian philosopher once said: “That which ought to be is; therefore let us rest.” That which is, and ought to be, is good.

We must accept the fact that all is good. If it were not so the very foundations of the universe would be destroyed. There are not two powers constantly warring one against the other.

That which seems to be evil is only out of tune with the rest of the plan. A single tone of the piano which has dropped in pitch seemingly destroys the music of the whole instrument; so it is with man. When he allows himself to drop into negative think­ing, even in a small way, he strikes a dis­cordant note, and the melody of his soul lapses.

“That which ought to be is; therefore let us rest’’ with the knowledge that it is good; hence you know that all prognostica­tions of an evil nature arc the works of nega­tive thought, or the so-called devil. When someone whispers to you of evil to come or evil to be overcome you may rest assured that it comes from the negative thought, from the thought of one who dwells in dark­ness and believes in two powers.

You have your divine destiny, as fixed and perfect as the universe, and it is eternally good, bringing you into line with newer and greater states of consciousness. “In my Father’s house are many mansions”; that is, there are many levels of the same thing, so that your ascending thought shall con­stantly revel in the newness of life. It will never pall; it will never become inane, for you will walk along a sunlit path, and the good and only the good that is due to manifest in your heaven will come into manifestation. 

This absolute good should make you desire­less. Why desire a thing when all things are unfolding to you as rapidly as they are needed for your perfect expression of harmony?

Remember this, that the great value of taking up the path of the Absolute is that instead of getting demonstrations you come to a point of realization—you get into the Cosmic Stream of Life and everything that is necessary to bring out the Kingdom of Heaven to you is supplied at the right time.

“All that the Father hath is mine”—not for personal possession, but to use and use freely and let flow back into the infinite again. Why should I take the idea of per­sonal possession of “things’’ any more than I do the air or sunshine? This is the secret of having things—’’ Loose them and let them go.’’

Dante speaks of The Inferno as “The Divine Comedy,” because it has a happy ending-in reality it all takes place in the relative and is but an illusion, or a series of pictures that change with lightning rapidity. There is no calamity which happens in the relative world which does not form the basis of some amusing story. Why? Because the man of understanding knows that these changing pictures of the relative world do not affect him—the perfect spiritual being.

Finally, a state of consciousness is attained wherein you pronounce everything good, no matter what the appearance, for you are told to “judge not from appearances,” as appearances are deceptive. You have hundreds of examples of this all about you.

You, the permanent spiritual being, live in the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, the kingdom of good. But you can only know this by first acknowledging that it already exists. This recognition of the isness must come if you understand that God is good, infinite, and changeless.
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23. EFFORTLESS

The Unconditioned Power, God, is per­fectly effortless in expression.  It is unlaboured. If it were obliged to put forth an effort to accomplish its expression it would not be all powerful.  Effort only comes be­ cause of resistance, and when resistance comes it introduces friction. Then friction bums up and consumes. If God had to make an effort to express himself he would finally destroy himself by reason of the friction produced.

Becoming aware of yourself as the thinker of your thoughts, you realize that you come before every thought or the results thereof which seem to be presented to you in the relative world. Since you are one with the Unconditioned Power and the power is effort­ less, then any amount of struggling on your part would indicate that you did not ap­preciate the Power you were attempting to use.

The effort to heal by affirmations and denials indicates that man does not under­ stand his God-given heritage. You cannot change the Finished Kingdom by words. Unless consciousness is back of the thought, words are but vain repetition. Already enough affirmations have been said to have healed twenty worlds of all cares; there is no such thing as saying, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. If you have not the consciousness of the Finished Kingdom it avails you little to say, “Peace, peace.”

Begging and beseeching will get nothing. It calls forth effort. Struggling to have recourse to God is like asking for more water when you are neck deep in it.

Lazarus would not have come forth if Jesus had besought him to do so. Begging him to do so would not have accomplished it. “Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass,” can only happen when you realize that it has already come to pass, and that you are merely becoming aware of it.

And what of desire? Since you realize that heaven must be a desireless state, you naturally ask this. Heretofore we have thought when we had a desire we had to “work” to bring it into visibility; but, realizing the Finished Kingdom, we come to the knowledge that desire is simply the shadow of the thing itself which is about to become visible. Instead of working to bring out our desires, we come to the place where we use the “Let there be.” We immediately acknowledge that it is about to appear in the line of our unfoldment, and do as Jesus did, that is, we give thanks for it.

Remember this, that every idea has wrapped up in it the means of expressing itself. You do not have a lot of detached ideas with no means of bringing them into visibility, for wrapped up in each of them is the means of getting them into visibility.

Do not fail to realize the fact that it may be but a thread or the merest indication of a way, but if you will use that instantly and with confidence you will find yourself becom­ing aware of the idea in the manifest realm.

There is a constant stream of ideas passing to man from God—’’ For we are all members of the body of Christ Jesus,” and this body is sustained by a stream of fresh, new ideas, which are to be brought into visibility. They are only the forerunners of the finished thing, which already is and which is due to express in the visible realm.

Your so-called material habitat is merely the sub-station for this glorious power through which the Kingdom of Heaven is to be made manifest.

The impersonal Power is comparable to the light of a picture machine. The light does not determine the picture which shall be shown. You have the power to do this choosing, and if you choose a picture of dis­ cord it will be produced as accurately as though it were a picture of beauty, for the Power is both unconditioned and impersonal. 

Working with effects, trying to get rid of things in the relative world, is like trying to scrub a picture from the screen. You instantly realize how futile this would be. It could never be done, and you would eventually wear away the screen.

Working with your body to remove disease or evil conditions is exactly the same pro­ position. It is like trying to purify a stream which is impure at its source.

Everything that has to be done must be done within. Then the condition pictured forth will be in perfect accord with Absolute Truth, with the isness of Being.

Go within and establish yourself in the Kingdom of Heaven, here and now, and be not again entangled in your former bondage. Let go of the effort, the struggle, the fight. “Ye do not need to fight. Set yourselves and see.” God can, and surely does “live” his universe, and you are a part of it.

This letting go of the struggle and effort to live brings peace. The peace that passeth all understanding co1nes when we relax into the kingdom of good and say, “Thy will be done.”

Do not think that this will produce in­ activity, for it will do just the contrary. You will have more activity, but it will be with­ out struggle and without waste motion. It will not be spent in misdirected ways, in guessing, in wondering, in wishing.

“Be still and know that I am God’’ means more than day-dreaming. It means realizing that the habitat of God is heaven, that you are one with him, and that by virtue of this you are already in heaven, a desireless state where there is no night.
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>24. SELF

There is only one Self, and everything is a self division of it; therefore it hardly behoves us to criticize or condemn others, for in reality we are but out-picturing our own state of consciousness on another.

We 8:re merely seeing in terms of our own consciousness.

“To the pure all things are pure, because of the consciousness of purity. What we are aware of as reality we visualize. We cannot see things evil or good in another that do not first exist in ourselves. We must be conscious of the existence of evil in order to be able to recognize it in others.

“It takes a thief to catch a thief.” Why? Because a thief knows all the consciousness of a thief; he is at one with him and recognizes him. This might be said of all the other evils.

One of the simplest ways of reading character is to listen to criticisms, because what people say about another person is first true of themselves. Whether this has yet come into physical expression or not is another question. It is in their conscious­ness, otherwise they could not recognize it in others.

In like manner, when the consciousness is stayed on the Finished Kingdom, the com­pleted and perfect universe of good, man begins to see only goodness, and it is a delight to find how much of it he has over­ looked.

We realize, that there is nowhere where God is not. “If I make my bed in hell, thou art there.’’ If God is there, then it must be heaven, for God is in heaven.

Heaven is not a place of unfulfilled desires. There are no patients nor yet any practitioners there. It would not be heaven if healing still had to go on.

Claim nothing for others that you do not wish manifested in your own life. Surely you do not believe that you can see all manner of evil in your brother and imagine you can be conscious of heaven at the same time, do you? The story of the mote and the beam needs to be made practical in everyday living, if you are to know heaven here and now.

Man’s permanent self is without begin­ning and without end. It is birthless, death­ less, ageless, and perfect. It has always existed. It is not measured by years and has no concept of age. If your soul were to age in proportion to the manner in which you allow your body to age; it would be reduced to a heap of ashes, so full of years would it be. But since time is a man-made concept, true only in the relative sense of things, the soul takes no cognizance of it or its effects. There are many instances on record of people who have lost all account of time and therefore have failed to register age.

Ouspensky says, “time is the distance be­tween two events”—and that distance may be lengthened or shortened according to the mental attitude. You have waited fifteen minutes—which seemed like an hour-for a train; and you have spent hours which seemed like minutes—’’ A thousand years shall be as a day.’’

Jesus, the Master, had no regard for time. He set it aside with complete ease. In one case he was instantly at the other side of the lake. In reality the thinker travels as fast as his thought, though he seems to remain stationary.

The qualities of this permanent self can only be brought out by first recognizing the difference between the self and the shadow of it called “body.’’ We must make this distinction once and for always. Then we arrive at the position of the controller of body, and become the knower.

Look away from this shadow called body. Turn constantly to the permanent self. Remember its perfection, its permanent nature : above all conditions, over all con­ditions, and having the power to disintegrate or build them up.

You are as much a Master now as you will ever be. This permanent self always has been and always will remain changeless. There is no unfolding for it to do in order to attain its perfection, and this is the self of you.

“Beloved, let us love one another.” The greatest commandment of all is, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We see that the most essential thing, then, is that we get a proper sense of love.

That which we love we beautify, because when we truly love we see only realities. We are able to look beyond shortcomings, and find the real beauty.

Love is a binding force and at the same time a freeing power. If you truly love, you free the object of your affection, and yet in this perfect trust you bind him fast. Just as the steel filing is attracted to the magnet, so the object of your love is drawn to you.

Love is unselfish. You cannot know love in the highest sense of the word and still hate your fellow man. You cannot select a few 1ndividuals and bestow lavish affection upon them and hate the rest, for this is not love; it is emotion, and largely imagination, which soon tires and dies. This does not deprive you of friends.

When we understand that in loving our neighbor we are loving the Christ-conscious­ness in another, it lifts us to a higher and finer sense of life. When we begin to acknow­ledge the Finished Kingdom as here and now present, we begin to look for and see only the lovely things, and as thought takes on the lovely quality of the Christ-conscious­ness we find our business is “falling in love”—falling in love with the whole universe.

We begin to realize that everything which expresses life expresses love, and our mental radio will be keyed to the love life.

Love is impersonal, and yet this does not mean that because we love the whole world our affections shall not be turned in certain channels of certain expression. Jesus loved all his disciples; yet John was called the “Beloved Disciple.” We further know his close friendship with the family of Lazarus­ Mary and Martha bespoke his affection being selective to that extent-and yet he loved the whole world.

Hatred is the belief of a power opposed to love, and that is fear. What you hate you fear, and what you fear is the thing that will constantly trouble you.

I have repeated this to you for the reason that I want you to become conscious of the universal love which ushers in the kingdom.

Love goes all the way; duty tires when half through.-JEROME.

Jesus taught that love was the special power which would overcome all things; hence his admonition to “love your enemy.” Who and what is your enemy except yourself?

Jesus left us the rule and proof of how he handled every relative condition. There is no point left untouched by his magnificent doctrine.
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25. THE THINKER AND HIS THOUGHT

We hear a great deal about the power of thought, but the essential point to be considered is not the thought so much as the thinker of the thought. It would be impossible to change the thought without first changing the originator of it.

In fact, thought of itself is merely the ex­pression of the thinker, and is wholly under his control. Thought of itself has no power but that which is put into it by the thinker. 

You are the thinker of your thought. Your Christ-consciousness, which knows all, sees all, hears all, and does all, is over and above the thing which it does. So you are over and above your thought, or the conditions you have brought about by reason of your thought. Merely taking thought will not add one iota to the Finished Kingdom.  It will not be changed in any sense of the word, for it is. You cannot add one cubit to your stature by taking thought. You cannot change any­ thing by thought alone, so the simplest way of bringing about desired results is to “take no thought.” “Take no thought for the body, the journey, the purse.’’

The things about which you are most con­cerned and to which you give much thought are usually negative conditions. That which is harmonious in your life is given very little thought. When the body is normal and healthy it is entirely out of thought—you are hardly aware that you have a body. You give little attention to the law of mathematics after you have learned it. It would seem that the less thought you give to “things,” the nearer you approach the realization of Heaven. It is true that taking the thought from a con­dition is taking away the only substance upon which it feeds. To be “absent from the body and present with the Lord” is to be conscious of oneness with everything which is complete and perfect.

As the thinker comes before his thought, so is he greater than his thought, since there would be no thought without the thinker; hence you see the great work to be accom­plished is not so much with the thought as with the thinker of the thought. Once this thinker becomes aware of the Finished Kingdom as here and now, he will automatically think thoughts of perfection—thoughts of reality. 

There is a passage in the Scriptures which states we shall find him if we’ “feel after him,’’ indicating that we actually sense the presence and power of the all-good, without the so­ called thought process. That is, we become aware of the thing that is.

No thought can control the thinker that he does not first accept as true. No one has power to control you with suggestion, or telepathy, or any of the other so-called relative truths unless you take the suggestion in, and even then it is not the other man controlling you, but your own thought direct­ing the course of your actions, which may in the manifest world appear as though you were being controlled by another. You have an impervious wall about you through which nothing can come, unless you invite it or ask for it.

What you sense, or become aware of, becomes a state of consciousness which automatically produces in accordance with its concept.

Once you become conscious of the Finished Kingdom, and take up your place in it, you become conscious of the never-failing fund of supply. But seeking the kingdom for the loaves and fishes is to find yourself outside the city gates at midnight without oil in your lamp. “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things shall be added unto you.’’
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26. SUBSTANCE

Why seek ye afar off for that which is close at hand? Man running to and fro seeking to wrench from the universe a few dollars, when the open fund is pouring out more than he can possibly accept, is an example of this.

In terms of the Master, we find that we are the light, the truth, and the way. We do not seek the light-we are the Light. We do not seek the truth—we are the Truth. We do not seek the way—we are the Way. In like manner, we are substance, success, and opportunity.

Certain laws govern the question of sub­stance. One of them is the law of giving. Many do not see that “In the measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you …” means that you are literally making a measure of your capacity to receive. So busy are many people trying to get “things” that they overlook the law—“As ye give, so shall ye receive.” They have nothing to give—they want all—but, having made no measure, they have nothing to receive with. 

In the story of Elisha and the widow, we see that she was obliged to conform to the law, even though it appeared contrary to common sense. By obedience to the com­mand, she showed forth absolute faith in the power of God, and quite naturally the oil started running, and did not cease until all the vessels were filled.

If you are seeking the kingdom for the loaves and fishes, you will be sadly turned away. Your official position in the universe is a distributer of all good. You can own nothing; you may have the use of it for a time, but it automatically passes through your hands. It is only when man tries to hoard his good that he finds it mildews and is worthless, as did the manna which was kept over.

Claim your birthright as son of a King. “All that the Father hath is mine”; but you must conform to the law. If you have lost your connection with the Infinite, you must, in order to regain it, realize the utter impos­sibility of separation between God and his son. And since you cannot be separated from the Source of all things, you begin to see that all anxiety, worry, and fear over substance is wiped out. “When thy father and mother forsake thee then the Lord shall take thee up.” The invitation to become as a little child also carries with it the necessity of parents, and we know that the Father­ Mother Power of the universe of God broods constantly over its creation. And since the material father and mother are but reflec­tions of the universal Father-Mother qualities, we can expect not only the protection of this principle, but can demand it. We can throw ourselves unreservedly on this principle, taking the attitude of complete faith and trust, as does a child, for “your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye ask.”

It is only the human sense of life that needs the protecting influence of God. The soul of man is one with the Father and is in reality the Father in quality, though not in quantity. We find, then, that man actually prospers himself. He actually heals himself. The power to ask and the power to grant are vested in the man who knows who he is.

It has been said that he who asks a favor will ultimately be the one who grants it. “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.’’ How could you abide in this me without realizing yourself one with it? Thereby asking and granting your own requests.

“Know ye not that ye are gods?” Know ye not that dominion has been given unto you? Seek, then, the consciousness of sub­stance, and let the symbols alone. They must come into manifestation as needed, automatically and without struggle or effort. The asking then is in reality just appropriat­ing the thing asked for.
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27. BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD

You have heard the story of the man who said, “I sees what I sees, and hears what I hears, and draws my own delusions.” In fact, it might be the story of every man, for at some stage in his progress he is sure he sees what he sees, and certainly he forms his own “delusions.” It is useless to tell a man he is not sick when he “sees “ that he is. Until the attitude of mind changes, the delusion persists. Delusions are what he con­ceives as facts, and his belief in these as being true produces to his sense of things testimony that will bear out perfectly what he sees.

Introducing modem inventions to so-called savage tribes illustrates this point perfectly. The radio has been known to set them into a perfect pandemonium of fear, and caused them to make sacrifices to the Devil God. You smile when you read of their fear. Why? Because you know what it is, and your attitude toward it is entirely different. Acknowledging belief for what it really is, puts it in its right­ful place. A man can believe anything, but he can only know the Truth. Knowing the truth about a thing or condition is what sets you free. What one person believes is evil, another does not. Hester Prim, of The Scarlet Letter, suffered all her life from what many heroines of modern fiction would have considered an incident.

Listening to clashing and changing beliefs voiced by thousands of people does not alter the true state of affairs, and finally man hears the great command, “Be still and know that I am God.”

We are so busy getting instructions on how to become spiritual that we fail to heed this greatest command. Consciousness is not to be gained through many words. Conscious­ness is a state of awareness. In consciousness everything already is waiting to be recognized. 

When you enter a great cathedral you recog­nize that there is no need for a lecture on peace. You experience it. How? By being still and accepting it as an established fact. What dissertation on peace is as powerful or as clear as the experience of the atmosphere of peace? Talking of and about peace, health, and happiness is not peace, health, or happiness; a person can be in a most wretched state of mind and still continue an intellectual dis­ course on these subjects. The consciousness of health is not to be talked about. It is so evident it needs no argument for or against.

A man once paid five guineas to listen to a lecture by what was reputed to be a Master Mind. When the lecturer appeared he only gave several statements of Being and waited in silence; finally some of those who had paid their money to hear the lecture became restless and one asked a question, the reply to which was “Don’t be silly.” Why do we persist in running hither and yon for words—they are dead. They only stand for the thing we are seeking, and the thing we are seeking is there all the while awaiting recognition.

Those that have eyes will see. When the eye becomes single the whole body will be full of light.

Jesus summed up all the intellectual argu­ments of men as “foolishness in the eyes of God.’’ Why argue then? Why compare my way and your way? Why not cease all this noisy clamoring after husks, and return to your Father’s house for the fatted calf and the ring and the robe.

Surely we have strayed into a far country, and at last we have found “My ways are not your ways.” “The peace that passeth all understanding’’ is yours for the acceptance. What good, then, is the getting of understand­ing of and about a thing when the peace that you are told to seek will bring you all things and will surpass all the understanding of men as to how and when to get it.

At the shrines in various places where healings are made and regeneration is found there is perfect Silence. At these shrines no pilgrim wants to hear anyone explain “of and about” the thing. He wants silence, and in getting his Silence he finds that God is. And this recognition that God is, here and now, causes him to become Godlike in the degree to which he recognizes God’s presence. 

“Be still and know that I am God”—the command goes out to all the world. Like a great radio message it is sent out; but in the din of confusion and excitement to find him we pass him by. We want someone else to tell us how it is done, or to do it for us. Presently we are filled with the husks-and we tum and hear: “Peace, be still.’’ After this a great calm ensues, and the seeking is over.

God is a spiritual Being. He is Be-ing all the time. We realize that God did not commence, nor will he end; for he is. And man made in his image and likeness recognizes that he lives, breathes and has his being in the present tense of God, and is here and now in Heaven. He is still and knows. He is still and contemplates the allness of God. If God be present at this instant, can there be any­ thing lacking? All our problems are in reality but beliefs that there are certain places and conditions that are void of God—a sort of vacuity, as it were, a place where there is no God. To recognize God as present in the place is to short-circuit the supposed problem.

The sense man has seen and heard and formed his delusions and conclusions about certain things, and as long as he keeps his eyes on this manifestation he cannot hope to see a change. When he is still, and knows, even in a small degree, that right here and now God is, he becomes aware of a glorious change coming over himself and his affairs. Then there is peace that passeth all under­ standing, a rejoicing that he is dwelling in the courts of his God and may go in and come out and find pastures. In his heart is the song,” The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.” He is living the life of the present tense.

Away from the fear of the future or worry over the past! People who believe in fear and worry are still outside the Kingdom. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, here and now,’’ was one of the chief planks of Jesus’s teaching. If this be true and we recognize it, the present will be the only with us, for it will keep on being heaven here and now.

“Be still and know that I am God.’’ Feel this presence here and now. Stop arguing and haggling over terms, names, and creeds. Enough to know that God is. And if God is, nothing else matters. Recognizing God as Being here and now is immediately placing yourself in the kingdom. “He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” “Fear not, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” But this kingdom is not gained through the noisy, clamoring chatter of ways and means, but by being still. “Be still and know that I am God.”
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28. PROVE ME AND SEE

The command goes forth, “Prove me and see if I will not pour out a bless­ing that ye shall not be able to receive.” God is impersonal. You always receive the results of your provings. If you are interpret­ing the Power negatively, your proof is just as abundantly brought forth as if you are inter­preting it constructively. It is an absolute law that it takes just as much power to sustain an evil manifestation as it does to sustain a good one.

The race-consciousness has become so habituated to the evil of existence that good is only the occasional happening. It has left its Father’s house and wandered into a strange land of judging from appearances; hence it is feeding on the husks, occasionally finding a grain of com that the swine have missed.

“The signs shall follow (not precede) them that believe (are firm). In my name shall they cast out devils (the belief deduced from appearances), and if they ask for anything in my name (the name which recognizes everything as already done and perfect­— here and now), I will give it unto them.”

No matter what the world of opinions and beliefs says, you know, and “so having done all (recognized the changeless nature of God as good), stand and see.” Yea, you shall see with the so-called material eye the glories of the Lord revealed unto you. See the invisible become visible. See the unmanifest become manifest. “Ye shall reap if ye faint not.” You “faint” when you look at the appearance world.

You shall not fall, even though ten thou­ sand fall at your right hand, for you know that the man of God has never fallen. Where would Spirit fall and how?—in a universe of Spirit. In this realm of Spirit, you, the individual manifestation, live, move, breathe, and have your being. All is Spirit, for all is God. Opinions and beliefs shall fall by the thousand. They have been falling since the beginning of time, because they belong to the thing called “time.’’ They are tem­poral and transient; they come and go con­stantly. What we believed yesterday we reject today, but what we know, we know for ever. In reality we can only know one thing, and that is, that God is.

“It is done.” The solution to your problem already is, for in reality there never was a problem-in the realm of the Real. As if by magic you have found the way back to your Father’s house, only to realize that you had never left it. Now you may rest in peace. Your fear is gone—how can you fear? You are lost in the glory of it all. Nothing matters. It is well with thee. “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” was said of every man. Why should you worry about past conditions or future ex­periences? Away with it all!—you are free now and for ever.

Oh, blessed revelation! You stand amid the eternal ways, while flood after flood of glory and light pass over you. You are a king in your kingdom. “Know ye not that ye are gods?”—not little personal gods, but glorious centers of expression of the one universal Power. All power is given to you in heaven (mind) and in the earth (body and universe). Yes; you have come into your own, the great universal, all inclusive, King­dom of God. All is yours, yet nothing is yours to own or possess. The impersonal Power is flowing through you, through your individual expression; and all things are possible to this Power.

“All that the Father hath is thine “when you come to the knowledge of your true self. Why should you hoard possessions? You do not even try to hold good now; why should you? It is everywhere evenly present. Eat the manna daily lest it mildew in your hands. The unused talent disintegrates and goes away. Give; give; give; let the light pour out into your universe and be lifted up into the state of isness where you draw all man-i-festation unto you. You will miss nothing; you will lose nothing by letting go; for it has been said, “God is the only giver, all the world is a shopkeeper”; you have the password into every shop in the universe when you know who you are.

God is not shut up in your body; God is everywhere. He is pouring out his love on all mankind. “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, let him come to the waters of life and drink freely.” This invitation is to every man, not to a limited few, but to every man who will “turn unto Me with all your hearts “-to every man who will cease recognizing two powers in the universe.

Awake, thou that be in thy self-made tomb! Stop running hither and yon for help. Within you lies all the help that is necessary. Within you lies the power to become one with God and to resurrect yourself, your body, and your universe. There is no failure this side of the so-called grave. No matter how often you have failed; no matter how often you have been crucified and buried; again and again you may resurrect yourself.

And when you have brought yourself through a dead belief and the old thoughts rush at you, say to them, “Touch me not.” Go not back again to the farmer beliefs; you are free, free.
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29. THE VOICE

“I Am the Voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight.” While ye are seeking afar off for God, wailing in mournful voice,” Oh, that I might find him,” I am speaking to you. Out of the depths of your being I call to you. Out of the depths of every living thing I speak to you, for every man’s voice is the Voice of God.

In the mad turmoil of the city or the stifling heat of the desert I am with you always, even unto the end of your search.

You have joined many caravans in the desert of life, always hoping to come to an oasis of peace and contentment; but you have found that they led further into the fury and heat of materialism, and you have dropped by the way, weary, heartsick; and the scorching winds of the hot sands have blown over you; and the scorching heat of futility has beaten down upon you; and you are’’ without hope in the world.’’

In the fury of your seeking you had little time to listen. Always you were expecting the Voice to be so loud and strong that it could be heard in all the land, above the awful din of the mad world. But the Voice is “still” and the Voice is “small,’’ and yet it is the greatest and the loudest thing in the universe if “ye have ears that hear.” Yea, it is the “Voice like the voice of many waters”; but It speaks only to those who have stopped their useless seeking and are listening without intruding personal ideas or opinions. “Everyone that is of the Truth heareth my voice.”

Is it not a strange thing that, although we profess to follow the Word of God, instead of listening to what that Voice says, we listen to the mad prattle of the world?

The Voice of God proclaimed the law­—the law which would set you free from all the bondage you have imposed upon yourself.

Not the voice of a personality, but the Voice of God hath proclaimed the law.

Look well, then, to this day that you listen, not to the opinions or beliefs of another, but with your whole attention attuned to the Voice of the law which speaks within you.
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30. BEFORE YOU KNOW

Before you know how to swim you think you will sink if you go into deep water; and you will, for what you believe as a fact is a fact—to you. There is only one Power operating whether you sink or swim. Nothing is ever wrong with the Power; it is entirely your interpretation of it whether it manifests as good or so-called evil.

But, you argue, it is perfectly reasonable that a heavier body will sink—this you can prove by casting a stone into the water. A piece of iron will sink, and yet a piece of iron will float—as a ship. So it is with all argument; it belongs to the man who makes his deductions from the relative world. There is nothing to argue about when it comes to Truth-either you see this or you still argue and say, “yes, but …”

Before you know anything about music, to you a Bach fugue is only a tune, but once you understand it you find there are two or more voices singing together, and you can separate them if you wish. There are many things you do not see or hear, and yet you are sure that you see all and hear all; hence the command: “Judge not from appearances.” 

Your eyes tell you that railway tracks converge and actually touch as they recede from you; yet you know this is not so. You are not concerned with the appearance that a train would surely meet disaster if allowed to run on the tracks that seem to meet. Standing and praying for the rails to open will never open them, because they were never closed.

How can they open if they were never closed? A word to the wise is sufficient, “Judge not from appearances.” Saying disease or inharmony is nothing, and at the same time treating it away or praying for its removal, is like praying for the rails to open. If it is nothing, why waste time on the con­templation of nothingness, and thereby keep it in manifestation? You are told to judge “righteous judgment,’’ and that is not in the getting rid of evil, but the contemplation of the Finished Kingdom—here and now.

“Prove me and see,’’ is the command. If you want to see the rails open you have only to go forward. The same thing is true with any condition. He who moves forward fearlessly will find that the sea of doubt becomes dry land. How? Enough to know that it (the belief) recedes as man fearlessly advances. Fearlessly and joyously advance into your kingdom of good. No obstacle can stand in the way of the freed soul. He is not trying to demonstrate the kingdom; he accepts it as already existing, and goes forth into it.

“Prove me and see’’; “who did hinder you?” Answer your own questions. You know better than anyone else “who did hinder you.” Nothing in the outer world has deterred you, for the outer is only an out-picturing of the inner. No obstacle can remain in the outer realm that is not held in place by the thought; hence Moses’ freedom when he conceived the Way, irrespec­tive of appearances. No; there is no obstruc­tion to the Christ man. He is abroad in the land today. Have you seen him? If not, why not? Because you have been looking for him everywhere except the place where he is. Look again. “Awake thou that sleepeth.” The gods have not come down to you from Mount Olympus when you see so-called miracles happening all about you. Remember that everybody has the same power. It is not allotted to a few; no one can monopolize the Word of God. Do not fail to accept the glorious gift. “We are like other men,’’ the great healers and teachers said when the crowds tried to set them apart, bringing home to them the lesson that they had but to recognize the Truth of life, to become aware of their great gift—here and now.

“Little children, let no man deceive you.” Stop following after man (man-i-festation), whose breath is in his nostrils, and awaken to the glorious fact that you are the Christ Mind. Stop running after people. “ Be still and know.’’
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31. THE SERPENT’S TAIL

When you kill a serpent the tail wags until sundown, but once you have crushed its head you do not stand and worry because the tail moves and twists in a very life-like manner; you go on your way, satisfied that it is destroyed—finished.

When you come to fully acknowledge the fact that you dwell at this instant in the Finished Kingdom, where everything is com­plete and perfect, including yourself, you have set your foot (understanding) on the head of the serpent of related conditions. The old tail may wag in the relative world for some tin1e, but the venom and poison of it are destroyed and its hurt has gone.

In reality you have loosed it and let it go, as did Jacob when he found himself struggling all night with the angel. He finally realized that he was holding to it, and when the morning came (the light) he let go, and it departed from him.

Whatever you claim as your problem is only hurting you because you make it your own. It will fight you just as long as you supply it with the force to do so, and you give it that power by reason of calling it yours.

All untoward conditions are parasites. They die the moment the thought is taken from them. Small wonder that the law reads: “Take no thought,’’ for when you take thought you become conscious of things you do not possess and go seeking them; yet in reality you possess everything that can possibly be necessary for your Kingdom of Heaven. The thing that you have con­sciously before you all the time is the thing that is giving you the greatest amount of difficulty. “ Loose it and let it go.” The Bible is full of invitations to “Lean on me”; “Let there be” , “Do not fight,”  “Fear not.” Take your attention away from the serpent’s tail.
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32. HATE versus LOVE

The thing you hate is the thing you fear, and what you fear is sure to come upon you. That is the reason when a per on hates a thing that particular thing is always troubling him. You are afraid of the thing you hate. You may not admit it, but you are. You hate a person because the man or woman seems to have power over you in one way or another. It may not be physical power. It may be achievement; it may be looks; it may be any one of a number of things that you fear. You fear that he or she will throw you into the discard in one way or another.

Life is God and God is love; therefore if you do not love, you do not and cannot know God, life. The business of falling in love with life is the business of living correctly. We gradually realize that we are in love with everything that expresses life.

People seek to follow the Christ and yet the service they render is to a select few. Jesus said “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” God is in everything and everybody, for we are all members of the one body.

God has relieved us of the unpleasant duty of judging. The law clearly states: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Why? Because we must first be conscious of an evil condition before we can possibly accept it in another. If it is in our consciousness it is bound to express, and we are only calling it into expres­sion when we accept it as a reality in another and try to pin it on to him. Remember the story of the beam and the mote. It is the lesson of self-cleansing. All the work to be done is within. Instead of condemning another, our part is to cast out evil from ourselves, and by doing this we have cast it out of our brother; we do this by eternally seeing only good, irrespective of appearances.

When we learn the law, “seeking our own in another’s good,’’ we are sure of rich returns, for this is the method of out-picturing our consciousness, and it shall not return unto us void.
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33. A LITTLE LEAVEN

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.’’

We hear a great deal of the three states of life—spiritual, mental, and physical; these are represented by the three measures of meal. The inspiration of Truth, the little leaven, is hidden in all of them and they become one. Gradually man learns that he is Spirit; and that the mental and physical are not separate states of consciousness, but are one; all being Spiritual—differing in n1anifestation. There can be no more than all in the Kingdom of Heaven, because God, Spirit, created everything out of his Infinite selfhood. It stands to reason that all is at this time Spirit. Away with the doctrine which proclaims a hundred different states and conditions of this God substance! Go forth with the little leaven of inspiration and fuse all your universe with it, until you come to recognize it as spiritual—here and now.

It has been said the three states of man are:

I am thine.

Thou art mine.

I am thou.

Finally we come to realize that “I am thou “because “I” am spiritual, as God is spiritual. We become one with the Father, and certainly that which we are one with, we are-not an individualized God, but an individual point of expression in a universal substance called Spirit. You are Spirit!
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34. PRACTICE THE CHRIST

Practice love and you will gain the technique of life. Practice peace and you will gain the technique of poise. “How would the Master have acted in this situa­tion? “Is a safe question to ask yourself occasionally.

Since “ye must be born again,” you must drop off the material trappings and wrap­ pings of the former self, for to be a “new creature in Christ Jesus “you let go of all that has gone before, and come out into new­ness and perfection “in the twinkling of an eye.’’ “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind’’; the transformation takes place by reason of the fact that you realize the changeless, eternal nature of your real self. You call forth the Lazarus of the tomb of your own making, and drop off the grave clothes. You say to your man-i-festation : “Be thou perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” and to the past : “Neither do I condemn thee; go.’’ You loose it and let it go and say: “Come forth” to the new-old expression of your divine nature.

“Sing praise unto the Lord, for he is Mighty.” We should have seasons of re­joicing. We should praise every bit of good that we see and manifest, for praise is actually the acknowledgment that the Power does exist.

Recognizing the good in others and praising it in the truest sense of the word causes it to come more and more into visibility. This must not be confused with the idea of flattery, which belongs to the “old man and his deeds.”
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35. THESE THINGS DO

“THESE things do and thou shalt live.” Make your agreement with the Truth and come under the benign influence of the law of agreement which says: “If two shall agree touching any point, it (that which is agreed upon) shall be established on the earth.’’ Note that if you make the perfect agreement on any point of good it shall come into manifestation. Look well to the agree­ment.

Decision must be made also. “He who hesitates (to choose good) is lost.” We become poisoned by indecision, which is caused by the belief that there are two powers, one good, which is continually fighting its supposed opposite, evil. How can there be more than one power in a God-created universe?

Remember, only that which you “let “can actually take place. Even the world came forth at the command “Let.”

A gift must be accepted before it becomes yours. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom of Heaven. “My peace I give unto you.” In the same way you have the gift of perfect health, happiness and success, which must be let, not made, to appear.
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36. DEFINITIONS AND NOTES

God: The infinite; the only; the uncon­ditioned one; the changeless; mind; impartial and impersonal one.

Man: Man-i-festation or body; the shadow of soul; the likeness, being unintelligent, without power to cognize, to act, to do any­ thing of its own volition. Body is the vehicle of the soul, and in its true sense is spiritual and eternal, being the expression of soul. Jesus said : “Destroy this temple (man-i­-festation) and I will raise it up”—showing that he considered it a thing completely and wholly dependent upon the animating in­fluence of soul—” I can pick it up or lay it down.’’

Man: Oft-times used as a synonym for soul.

Soul : The individualized concept of God; the Son; the point of contact between God and man. “I and my Father are one”,—one in quality—yet “My Father is greater (in quantity) than I.”

Personal Sense: The sum total of the findings from association with the related world; that which knows two powers, evil and good; that which cannot understand the invisible law—God.

Wisdom: The Inspiration of God, which must eventually transcend all reason and intellect. Wisdom or intellect of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.

All sense testimony is faulty and unreli­able—as the rising sun, flat world, converging rails, and so on.

Self: The individualized expression; ego; divine individuality, changeless, birthless, deathless, eternal.

Self (human): A belief in a combination of body and soul.

Consciousness: That which knows; that which is aware of the Truth of Being.

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“When the inspiration of the Almighty has come unto you it will lead you into all truth.’’ Cognizing the eternal facts of Being causes man to interpret things in a new light. He sees reality instead of belief.

It has been said, “Matter is spirit slowed down to a point of visibility.” We know that Jesus took his body with him and that many others walked with God—became so conscious of their spiritual oneness, that the conditional world saw them no more.

“The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” We see, then, how utterly inane it is to seek things while desiring the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Thy will be done’’ can only be uttered when we come to the place of realization that “Thy will” is good.
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37. THE CITIES OF REFUGE

There are on the banks of the River Jordan (Spirit) six Cities of Refuge which are available to that soul realizing that because God is Spirit bis universe must be and is spiritual—here and now. The names of these are :

Kedesh—Sanctuary—The Place of Peace. All appearances of evil evaporate at the door of this sanctuary. It is the center of Being, and though the circumstance  world may be creating a typhoon of harassing experiences around you, at the center is peace. The wise navigator will not sail away from a typhoon, but will sail through it into the center where there is calm and peace, and he will abide there until the so-called fury of it is spent. (Reference, Edward Carpenter.) 

Shechem—Shoulder or Strength—The state of consciousness where you recognize the one Power. “All power is given unto you in heaven and in earth.” Power is the gift of this city.

Hebron—Friendship—Perfect Agreement. “If two shall agree touching on any point, it shall be established on the earth.” Here you agree with your adversary quickly. You agree that the power the adversary is mani­festing is the one Power and is good. Stay­ing on this agreement, you recognize the Christ, and so transmute what you called evil.

Vezer—Precious Oil (Holy Spirit)—A State of Glorious Contemplation. Where you in calm meditation and praise feel the descent of the Holy Spirit upon you. You are washed clean.

Ramath—High Place—The Upper Room. This is the secret place, the place of vision.

Golan—Joy. The place of thanksgiving and rejoicing where the oil of joy flows about you. “ Your cup runneth over,’’ even in the presence of so—called enemies. And if you pause to count your blessings they are as many as the “sands of the sea.” You feel the “wideness in God’s mercy,” and your song is “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” When you are praising the Lord and not forgetting his benefits, they are as boundless as the seas. 

And all these Cities of Refuge are one, for all is one, and that one is God, in whom you live and move and have your being.

“In my Father’s house (universal con­sciousness) are many mansions “(states and stages of advancement—and infinite variety of new and inviting revelations).

And all these cities are the gift of the Spirit, to be had for the acceptance. Yet many there be who, like Naham the leper, when told how simple and beautifully easy it is to come into possession of their good, refuse it and begin offering many reasons why they should not accept the Truth in its simplicity. Have they not many things which seem just as good or better? And again and again “the little maid” (inspiration) calls our at­tention to the fact that there is a great prophet in the land waiting to bring us freedom.
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38. MEDITATION

Relax—get quiet­—let go of all desire. We are seeking the Throne of Grace, and we leave our material sandals at the door of the sanctuary.

I am a spiritual being in a spiritual uni­ verse. I am one with the Unconditioned Power, and I am at peace. All is peace, perfect peace.

Relax into a state of peace. Nothing matters. God can and does run his universe perfectly. There is no need for anxious thought or worry—Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace—all is well here and now.

When you are peaceful you are in heaven and all is well.

Do not formulate any set way for the power to work.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you. “Set yourself and see the salvation of the Lord.” 

As the sense of peace comes to you in the depths of your soul, speak the word—the Word which cannot return unto you void­—Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace. Feel it literally going out in all directions from you, blessing everything upon which it rests. It goes to the uttermost bournes of your kingdom (your con­sciousness), and the watchman on the tower on the most remote wall calls back to you, “All is well—Peace be unto you.”

As the deep sense of joy fills you, you realize in its true sense what “All is well “means. You realize the glory of peace—’’ The peace that passeth all understanding.’’ You free yourself from desire and walk untrammeled into your kingdom. You are the man in authority, and you are positive. Hence you are divinely indifferent to conditions, knowing that they change as you realize that which is.

Peace—All is well—Peace-All is well. It is done-and so it is.

After you have :finished your meditation, keep your attention entirely off the condition. “Let nothing disturb you.” God is—that is enough.
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39. REALIZATION

In the absolute we realize that there is neither patient nor practitioner, for we cannot conceive of anything that needs heal­ing in the Finished Kingdom.

1. There is nothing to be got rid of.
2. We become aware of heaven, here and now—a state of absolute peace—and all is well.
3. We realize that the moment we take thought from a condition we take away the only power that condition has over us.
4. We realize that we are in authority, for we are permanent, Spiritual beings, in a permanent universe of good.
5. We do not hold thought on things or conditions as we see them in the relative world. We contemplate our spiritual nature as being complete, perfect and eternal, here and now.
6. We know that man-i-festation, whether it be called disease of body, home, or business, has no intelligence or volition.
7. We are divinely indifferent to relative conditions, since they have no stability, and are just flickering shadows and non-intelligent.
8. We realize that the only place where the work is to be done is within.
9. There being but one Self, we in reality correct our own false views, whether presented in our own or another’s body, by our con­templation of the spiritual universe.
10. In contemplating the Finished King­dom we recognize neither shape, colour, nor form. We are but a point in consciousness. We lose ourselves in the sense of peace, of bliss, of oneness with the All-Power.
11. We know that the one and on1y power is unconditioned, and that all the difficulty we seem to experience is the result of our attempt to condition the Unconditioned Power.
12. We remember that we are not trying to heal, for we call to mind that there is nothing to heal in God’s kingdom.

 

U.S.A.
A. JAY,
G.P.O. Box 524,
New York, N.Y.

 

England
E. K. READER,
44 Leyland Rd.,
London, S.E.I 2