Thrust In The Sickle by Walter Lanyon

Thrust In The Sickle

WALTER C. LANYON

“There is a Silence in which you stay every moment, whether working or playing, or resting—consciously or unconsciously upon this Absolute Power.

“You are always held in that Silence—in which place you are the Expression of God, complete and eternal.” JOHN STONE BANK

CONTENTS

1. Thrust in the Sickle
2. The Father Within
3. The Thawing
4. The Temple Not Made with Hands
5. Give Up—Forget—Call Down a Blessing
6. Secrecy
7. The Temple of God
8. Casting the Shadow
9. The Plus Value of Thanks
10. My Grace
11. Before Abraham Was
12. The Spirit of the Consciousness
13. But Who Do You·Say That I Am?
14. The Appearances of Good
15. Great Expectations
16. Born Again
17. Your Divine Heritage
18. My Name Is Wonderful
19. The Spirit of All Substance
20. Personal and Confidential
21. The Rest Is Silence
22. Words
23. Unborn Glory
24. I Am Everywhere

1. THRUST IN THE SICKLE

“THRUST in the sickle”—the command carries with it the idea there is something into which the sickle must be “thrust.” In one fleeting moment you are swept past all human thought taking and meandering of human thought, and are faced by a command emanating from the Source.

The word thrust incorporates no hesitancy, no speculation, no wondering, thinking or trying to devise a way. It is a decisive, definite gesture and carries with it intense action. It is suddenly the harvest, as indicated by the word sickle.

It is true the harvest is ripe and plentiful but the laborers (lovers) are few. There is little difference between “Come to me” across the water—and “Thrust in the sickle”—both of them set aside every human thought and automatically cause one to act from the inspiration of the Almighty. When this gesture is made, when the thrust is made, the results appear. No command of Jesus, when obeyed, can do anything other than reveal the infinite fulfillment. The ground whereon you stand is Holy—why worry? That ground is a place sanctified. Can you imagine any human force or power able to pass over the “Holy Ground” without being utterly destroyed—cut to pieces, confounded, scattered in ten directions? When you follow the commands of Jesus Christ you are on sanctified ground, holy ground. When these commands are obeyed and the beautiful gesture of accomplishment is made, the “Look Again” takes place. Manifestation appears automatically. Few believe. Do you? If so be still, very still.

“Come to ME” is another command. No one can help you; there are no instructions—there is no waiting. It is culminated by your ability to “without thought” make the gesture. “Stretch forth your hand” is a beautiful gesture of consciousness. Who, by taking thought, can do it? Who by reason can accomplish it? Who can help but do it, if he hears the COMMAND and knows that in the command is the infinite power of fulfillment. It is wonderful—filled with golden wonder. We are only emerging from the Red Sea of ancestor teaching.

Suddenly we begin to HEAR, and are as the Arab who folds his tent and steals away from the man whose breath is in his nostril. Alone we make the gesture, we run onto the point of the sword. We see Excalibur float upon the surface of the waters, we begin to experience that which cannot take place. It has already taken place in the Mind of God.

“Thrust in the sickle.” What a command to contemplate for a moment, an hour, or until you have the brief encounter with the Father. Then you RISE and Go—where? Into the consciousness of the COMMAND, and find yourself entirely equipped with everything necessary to do that which you formerly could not do.

So much is hidden from the wise and prudent in the words of Jesus Christ. Remember the command is freighted with everything necessary to accomplish. “Thrust in the sickle,” when heard, instantly places you symbolically in a field of golden grain, ready and waiting to be garnered. Will you Arise NOW, or will you go through a thousand other manifestations, before you come to NOW, and “Thrust in the sickle.” You are told “ye shall gather where you have not sown.” “Thrust in the sickle.” Do you hear? Time after time you have been right “THERE,” almost at the very point, and the old ancestor teaching came in and absorbed the oil, and the bride-groom entered without you. But when you actually hear the command you will make the gesture and find out that the Commands of Jesus Christ, when heard, “Pass through the land like a river.” You shall reap. You shall be silent, secret; awed by the magnanimity of it all. Like the rushing of mighty waters shall the Power of the command pass through the temple. It is wonderful. Not many believe. Put the coal of fire on your lips and let it happen to you. “Thrust in the sickle.” Do you hear Now?

That sudden movement in “Stretch forth your hand” comes automatically from pure acceptance of the fact that God is greater than the highest accepted beliefs of man. “Thrust in the sickle”—Do you hear? Go ahead!!!

2. THE FATHER WITHIN

“THEN LIFTED he his eyes unto heaven and said, ‘Thank you, Father.’ ”

This all-embracing statement as to the location of the Father, and just what “it” stands for, is so filled with revelation it bursts the shell of a thousand limitations.

The Father is the divinity of man—the I AM or the Christ-Mind which Jesus discovered to be His own consciousness, and likewise the consciousness of every man.

The temple of which He spoke is the embodiment of this divinity, the place where the Universal is stepped down into visibility. As soon as man is able to “recognize” anything, he begins to bring it forth; just as the radio was brought forth by a recognition, however crude, of the principle back of it. The principle had always been there. It had to be recognized. Then through the temple, body it was stepped down, because the Father within was able to conceive of it as possibility.

With Jesus the man, as with John Smith, nothing is possible, but when he arrives at the place of Jesus-Christ, then all things are possible because that is the point of contact—recognition—between God and man. Without this recognition of the divinity, nothing can take place; with it, anything can happen. The function of this divinity is above the limitations of human law. It is not at any time necessary to consider the laws of the human thought. Jesus, who could no more walk on the water than you can, found this divinely possible when He became consciously one with the Father within.

This transforming influence lifted Him entirely out of the “curse” of the law which knows gravity, cohesion, adhesion, etc. The becoming ONE with the Father, or the divinity, is the “born again” process of which Jesus Christ so of ten speaks: “Ye must be born again”—there is no doubt as to what He means. It is impossible for you to do the things that you cannot do as long as you remain in the John Smith consciousness; it is possible to accomplish all these things, and more, when you become one with the divinity, the Father within you.

The attempt to make yourself a God, instead of recognizing the Father within as the point of contact where God becomes manifest, has resulted in all sorts of egotistical monstrosities—from high priest and priestess, parading a secret power and knowledge before the world, to a Rasputin.

The man-made divinity is one with trailing robes, jewels and gold. In these pictures of Heaven which are painted for us, we see reflected the savage longings of starved souls for possessions. Never having had the most ordinary things in life they finally make themselves believe that Heaven represents man—cut and polished jewels, and heaps of gold, which have been taken by man, not by God, as a standard of value: “Awake! Thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” It says shall.

Discovering your divinity, recognizing that Jesus came to reveal to you this hidden point of power which is located in the temple of your being, is like finding a lost continent. The old systems of man pass away; the revelation from within takes place.

Soul and the body are the two which “God hath joined together and no man shall put asunder.’’ This perfect combination is the Jesus-Christ idea. Without the Christ, Jesus admitted he could do nothing. This holy union of body and soul must take place before you can follow the command: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.”

You are told that if you make your bed in hell, or if you go to the uttermost parts of the earth, you will find Him, but you cannot find Him in the loftiest temple nor the most consecrated spot, until this divinity is awakened within you and the “Marriage” of body and soul has taken place.

Once you have found Him within, you can find Him in the worst hell-hole, or in the most terrible enemy you have ever imagined or known. A strange feel of the Presence everywhere causes you to understand why Jesus said to the ignorant fishermen and the learned lawyer, “Go “—knowing that each had this point of contact with the Universal God and that the moment he was en rapport with it, he could call for and see manifested “whatsoever” he asked in that nature.

A Byrd flying to the Poles, a Lindbergh encircling the globe, a Picard ascending into the heavens, a submarine descending into the depths, or an engineer into the bowels of the earth can instantly get in touch with the outside world. That has ceased to be wonderful since it has been accepted as natural. At one time it only could have happened in legend or fairy tale. Wheresoever man goes, if he has a receiving set, we are told he can instantly make the connections and get into touch with the world.

While this illustration is inadequate to explain ·the “Father-within” idea which Jesus discovered, it will faintly indicate why it was He could safely send men into expression apparently so poorly equipped, and tell them to do things which, to the reasoning mind, were impossible. Until this divinity is definitely discovered or recognized within, you will continue to look to people, masters, spirits, books or organizations for your help, and one by one you will explode each of the theories for which they stand. Yet when you discover your divinity and are wed to it and begin to function naturally from this standpoint, you will then be able to find the Truth in everything, even as a bee finds honey within, and extracts it, from a poisonous flower.

It is amazing to note when Jesus discovered the Kingdom of Heaven within, it immediately became manifested without. We are learning this contact of Father and son, or soul and body, is the one thing necessary.

“I will go unto my Father”—we see the union taking place with the results always following. I will ask my Father. “What the Father seeth in secret, that shall He do openly” is a reference to the actual working of the Power given to us by Jesus. At no time did He consider, or handle appearances by the standard of physical sense. Disregarding it all, He went within, and whatsoever He could ask of the Father, that could He manifest. It is wonderful!

When you are speeding through the air at a hundred miles or so an hour, the radio is able to catch and broadcast a concert without difficulty; yet this feat is past comprehension as far as the average person is concerned. Can you begin to understand the infinite Presence in and through all things? The radical reliance necessary to establish this state of Christ-consciousness comes only when man leaves all books, teachers, organizations, etc., and goes within, praises, and recognizes God. Once he has found God within, he can find Him without, and in everything.

Beloved! You can find no place which is not filled with the Presence—the Inspired Radiating Presence. Without your point of contact, you receive nothing: just as without proper adjustment of the instrument, the most important message in the world may be broadcast and fall unheeded.

When you stop taking the name of the Lord in vain and attributing all sorts of limitations and evils to yourself, then you will begin to sense the unafraid condition of mind which accepts the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Truth. “Whatsoever” you ask in my nature. Remember that if you find it in the nature of your radio machine to pick up a foreign station, all you have to do is to adjust to that, and what follows is natural, and not a miracle.

So is it with the Power within—once you touch the nature, at that moment you receive “whatsoever” you can “ask for” and it is no miracle or demonstration, but a natural movement of the unseen into the place of manifestation. If what you are endeavoring to bring out is not natural and is still shrouded with the sleight—of—hand consciousness which is trying to work wonders, nothing will happen. “Awake! Thou that sleepest.”

3. THE THAWING

IN THE DAYTIME, when the sun was high in the heavens, it thawed, but at night it froze again. Day after day the long weeks stretched in a never-ending process of thawing and freezing. One day as the sun dropped low in the sky it did not freeze so heavily; the next day the thaw was greater. On the following day great masses of ice broke free from the river banks and were carried away down stream. It is true there was a certain jamming and crowding and blocking, but this was only temporary, for at last the thaw had come to stay.

Sometimes it seems the way of man is very much after this fashion. If the new birth is not instantly accomplished and made manifest he goes back and forth between the unreality and reality of Life, and at certain moments the unreality seems more real and solid than the reality.

The great blocks of ice frozen again and again to each other, seem more real than the soft lush breeze of spring that is loosening them and freeing the year into new birth, but no matter what the appearance, from the moment of the first thaw—from the moment of the first recognition of the Presence and the establishing of the Divinity, the movement is in a definite and direct line of freedom.

“Stand fast and see the salvation of the Lord (Law)” is one of the things which man is called upon to do, and it is not difficult to understand why Jesus insisted that we “Judge not from the appearance but judge righteous judgment.” The mere fact that the “freezing” takes place every night is enough to nullify all the power recognized in the “thaw.” Unless you follow the WAY of Jesus Christ you will return to the bondage of former belief and find yourself “fast” in the winter of discontent.

There is a glorious song of freedom within the Consciousness of the Presence; no matter what the outside conscious belief is doing, while it is spending whatever energy you have given to it. Remember that the moment you have broken with the appearance as real, and discovered your divinity within, you have cut the life-stream from this manifestation. From that time it has only the energy you have formerly given it upon which to subsist.

What does it mean to you to become conscious for a single moment of the Inspired Presence, and to know that your Father within is the place upon which the urge of spirit throws the DESIRE of God? Your desires are but the voice which is calling to you “Let me into expression”—’’Let me come in to you and sup with you.”

It is a glorious sense of freedom and relaxation which takes place when you realize your purpose in life. You are here as an organization through which God is to express. His wishes come to you in the form of desires—yes, all your desires. They would all be beautiful and glorious if you could free them by the way of God instead of trying to force them into existence through conscious thinking. The interpretation of your desires through the conscious thinking, or the limitations of the human mind, are of necessity malformations because you do not realize that desire has within it the power of self-expression.

Think for a moment what it means to realize you are the “temple of the Living God”—the point through which this God Power is to be expressed, and that the way of communication to you is through the urge of God upon the Father-consciousness within you, in the form of desire.

How readily do you see that it is necessary to take the whole proposition out of the processes of human thought which cannot understand the how, why, when or where of that Power which “has a way ye know not of.”

When you come to the place of no responsibility you have arrived at a definite place of integrity. If you LET the government be upon HIS shoulders, the perfect alignment with this Power takes place and the willingness to carry on, without personal interference or complaint, becomes simple. The moment you introduce any resistance to the way of this over—shadowing Spirit you must again assume your RESPONSIBILITY. To imagine that you can enter into the “no responsibility” of being led by the Spirit and at the same time have “your own way” is to mistake the whole Creation.

It is true you are to have your own way, but this WAY is not the way of the personality but of the Godself, the point through which God speaks to you. “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” The Power within performs the whole proposition and the body, or personality, which is in perfect alignment with this Father within carries out the mechanics.

It is a natural thing to tell an experienced artist to be “careful about nothing” as far as paints and materials are concerned, because you know that he has the integrity to use lavishly, and yet to a purpose, these very materials. The same injunction to a child would work disaster. Why?· Because the child has no integrity nor understanding of these things.

In the consciousness of Jesus Christ, Jesus could move at the level of “be careful about nothing” be-cause of this very integrity of purpose. The personal consciousness is not able to handle the infinite substance without losing its balance. It would go off at a tangent and work more evil than good.

You cannot introduce a fourth—dimensional law into a machine which has only a three—dimensional capacity. It is not built to receive it. Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing”—knowing it would be impossible for Jesus, the carpenter, to do the works of God unless he were born again into that consciousness which has the integrity and the capacity to handle the substance of Spirit.

All of this sounds mystical and difficult, and yet it is aiming at the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It must be kept in mind that it is, in reality, simple and natural to commune with God, consciously. “When you are ready I will do the works through you,” is a definite law. Heed it, and you will see the new day dawning through the mists of conscious limitations.

The new birth is a recognition of a state of consciousness which is capable of functioning its own capacity naturally and easily.

To many people Truth is merely a drug—a something that is taken to bring about an emotional uplift which lasts for a short time and leaves in its wake a sense of futility. Truth is pure revelation—it is God urging upon you (the temple) His glorious promises and designs. “O! Ye of little faith” is almost a cry of desperation.

The disciple goes again to the outside of the so—called stubborn problem and returns to the frozen river condition of appearances. According to accounts a certain amount of “thaw” had happened but the NIGHT was too strong with its solid manifestation which bore such definite evidence of the reality of evil.

Magnifying of the POWER is more than words, affirmations, etc. It is a recognition of the Inspired Presence here, there and everywhere, and more especially in hell and the devil. Anyone can recognize Heaven or God in beauty and harmony. He must also be found in the devil and hell in order to be ONE. It is wonderful!

“There is now, therefore, NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” There is no condemnation because they are born again, into a state of consciousness where the former things and beliefs, for which they were being condemned, have passed away and the place thereof naturally goes because these beliefs are released from mind.

“Neither do I condemn thee” is the lovely freeing word of the Jesus-Christ consciousness. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow—though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.”

This contrast between “scarlet and snow” is for the purpose of showing how completely and utterly things are changed in the new—born consciousness. “There is nothing that shall be destroyed in all the holy mountain of the Lord.” Begin then the fulfillment of Life here and NOW.

When you come by the WAY of GOD you find any effort, struggle or labor put upon a thing is indicative of the fact that you are off center. You must return each time, even though it be seventy times seventy, until you find the Way of God. This seems so much more difficult than it is. More of the contemplation of the Presence in everything and everybody eventually gives you the “feel” of launching out on deeper waters of expression. A wholesome disregard for appearances and beliefs of former times frees you from the appearances which have engulfed you in the bog of despair.

Sigmund Spaeth has defined music as “The organization of sound towards beauty.” Then he shows how music has been evolved through rhythm, the underlying beat or time, into melody, in which is embodied this rhythm, and how this melody resolves into harmony. It then becomes a rich combination of beautiful tones, changing, melting and resolving back and forth from one pattern to another.

So do we conceive of the pattern of God. At first we are merely able to beat the time, as it were, and feel a vague sense of rhythm—an underlying Law which functions in spite of all the beliefs of other laws, and upon this we begin to string the melodies of health, happiness, substance and joy, which finally flower out into glorious patterns of harmony.

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” The frozen river will one day melt and the manifestation will be completely dislodged. “Turn ye even unto ME with all your hearts and ye shall find rest for your soul.” The rest and the ease which come to the weary conscious thinking, dis-eased by the taking-in of a thousand and one beliefs, will be sufficient to show that the Ways of God are ways of harmony and peace. Heaven (harmony) is the final out-picturing of Life and its purpose, just as harmony is the final result of music. And yet no conscious effort can bring about the real harmony in music, because without the quality of soul the interpretation falls hopelessly into mechanics and becomes just another tune. We realize that the interpretation of music is the thing that counts and without this it is virtually nothing.

So is it with life. Going through the physical motions and efforts to live a decent life may result in a degree of respectability, but it does not necessarily mean beautiful living—which is a matter of inspiration. This element, known as inspiration or interpretation, is not at the beck and call of science—in fact it is entirely outside the confines of science. Though it incorporates all the technique of it, it is never contained therein.

“It is an age—old controversy: Scientist versus Artist. The scientist ever frowns at the apparent ease with which an artist creates, and clings to the hope that some day art will be brought about through serious mathematical calculation instead of frivolous dreaming; but while art and science may serve each other, the one will never bring about the other.”—WILFRED.

The technique of Truth will never bring about life, revelatIon or harmony, because it is dead of itself. “The letter without the spirit is dead,” so the technique without the life which expresses inspirationally is dead and of no use.

Whistler says:
“Art happens—no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend on it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about and puny efforts to make it universal end in quaint comedy and coarse farce.”

Metaphysics has thought to segregate Truth, branding it, trade-marking it and thereby stifling every bit of inspiration or life in it. Alas! It refuses to remain in the temple and goes into the hovel.

If you cannot find the Christ in the hovel, hell, devil and enemy, there is little for YOU to look for in the temples. You would not recognize HIM. I do not say that He is absent from the temple, I say that unless you can find HIM beyond the garments of appearances, you will never discover HIM in the designated place of HIS residence—for strangely enough, HE will not be there. “Ye seek Me for the loaves and fishes and cannot find Me.” It is all strange and wonderful. “The ways of God are past finding out.”

“Art happens—no hovel is safe from it” is such a wonderful statement of the Presence of God. It happens the moment you recognize the Presence, but if It cannot come through the manger—the stable—it cannot come through the temple, until it be found in you.

4. THE TEMPLE NOT MADE WITH HANDS

A GREAT DEAL has been said about the fact that “God has made man perfect but man has worked out many inventions,’’ indicating the perfection of the ideal remains intact in spite of the ‘’inventions” worked out in the conscious thinking of man. All such “inventions” are discoveries made in the belief in a power opposed to or at least separate from God.

“The house not made with hands, ETERNAL in the heavens” therefore is not touched nor destroyed by the inventions of the conscious thinking, and “The house not made with hands” is not subject to the workmanship which is evolved by “hands.” The eternal quality of this house, or temple, or body is our one hope of glory, or Life Everlasting.

Jesus constantly referred to the “temple,” the indestructible body, and the everlasting quality of the manifestation whose mind was stayed on the power of God.

Jesus knew that man would try to destroy the body, thinking if he destroyed the symbol he had got rid of it; but later he was to discover that the Christ could and did raise it up again, as the Christ had raised up bodies, or temples, in all degrees of apparent disintegration and decay.

Death did not forestall this magnificent power of “raising up” the body, or temple, because the Indestructible Temple—eternal in the heavens—needed only to be recognized to bring itself into manifestation. So we see, when attention is called to the Indestructible Body, it—”Lazarus”—is raised up and brought forth from the tomb of belief.

Because of its eternal and indestructible quality Jesus could speak with such freedom. Remembering that it is eternal in the heavens—and that heaven is a state of consciousness, He had but to stay on this point to see it reappear in all its glory.

Just as an architect has the plans of a house which he has built eternally in his consciousness, no matter how many times the out—picturing of this pattern is destroyed nor in what material or location it be built, so man is eternal, indestructible. As long as the plan is “eternal” in the mind of the architect he can raise it up or resurrect it.

Once this idea is glimpsed ever so faintly, you see why Jesus did not spend any time with the appearance, and did not form any judgments from that level—knowing that if the house was to be perfected or reconstructed the plan, or idea “eternal in the heavens,” would have to be consulted.

On student days in the great Art Galleries of the world you find hundreds copying famous pictures. At once you notice differences although oft-times the copies seem marvelously good. Separate them from the originals and you would scarcely know the difference. You would begin to see something very interesting if that copy were reproduced, and a copy taken from that copy. About the third or fourth copy that was made would show all sorts of new elements and colors.

So it is with the temple. When we begin to work with the outside we begin to add things which our Father (consciousness) has not planted.

It is amazing what takes place when we come face to face with the revelation as made by Jesus Christ. The reason He could cure disease so easily and with such abandon was that on examining “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” He saw within the perfection—which the sufferer was looking for on the outside. It is wonderful how Jesus Christ always disregarded the appearance and looking within found the perfect and eternal plan.

All these illustrations are inadequate to express what takes place, but they indicate something of what happens when we disregard the appearance and go within to the God Consciousness which enables us to contact the Universal Whole. Whatsoever you find therein is possible of expression by staying on “the eternal in the heavens” pattern, instead of inspecting the outside.

Much advice is given about putting the “new patch on old garments,” “new wine into old bottles,” “the outside of the platter,” and the “whited sepulchers.” All this has been passed over lightly while man has pursued the outside as a point of activity. The sooner he drops this idea and begins to “remember,” he will see the “eternal in the heavens” pattern coming into visibility through the fog of conscious thinking. The Light and Power of this coming absorb the fog of belief and nothing is left to be destroyed or got rid of. The Power comes always fulfilling the LAW, and it is the fulfilling of the Law which causes us to see the instant possibilities of the words of Jesus Christ.

The thing that you are seeking is “eternal in the heavens”—it is eternally in your consciousness, or you would not go on working to make it manifest. You cannot bring it into visibility because you are working from the outside. Trying to make a dollar bill increase is stupid and impossible and entirely outside the law of conscious thinking.

Many people are trying to precipitate money. They are trying to work a miracle and the testimony against it is so great it cannot take place. Everything done on the outside is done because you are working with appearance which you have accepted as real and eternal. Praying from this outside standpoint is always done with the hope that magic of some sort will happen and do the impossible.

The IMPOSSIBLE to you is the possible to God—that is why Jesus did not try to work out impossibilities. He discovered by moving into the consciousness of the Presence within Himself He would function naturally. He did not try to off-set conscious belief as a reality; the coming into visibility of “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” was sufficient to dislodge all the evidence of five thousand minds who “knew better” and “could see for themselves” that it was not so: No good to argue with conscious thinking, it operates on an entirely different basis from the consciousness of “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Gradually we are beginning to see the need for the secrecy of which Jesus speaks so often. Who of the five thousand is going to believe that precious time-proven laws are going to be set aside and a new order come into visibility?

The five thousand ready to bear witness to the evil in your life and to solidify all of the short—comings and the ancient history of your case, turn about and agree with the manifestation of the Presence, and are ready to testify to that. The way of Jesus Christ, is the Alone Way which is moving in an infinite company of souls, yet functioning at the Christ level of consciousness.

The architect will have to consult the plans—the “eternal in the heavens”—and must not listen to the opinions and beliefs of people who know all about it and have seen it for years. To “Be still and know that ‘I AM’ is God” carries a deep and lasting WORD for those who have ears to hear.

“The temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” is the consciousness which is YOU and which is urging upon you continually to be expressed. “Behold I (what I?) stand at the door and knock”—and so the eternal pressing of the perfect idea upon the consciousness of man goes on, waiting for the one who “hears” to let the resurrected body into visibility, instead of trying to patch up the old structure or to consult with the five thousand witnesses who are standing about ready to verify and prove evil.

The stone-casters in life are but the reflex action of the conscious-thinking, and the moment “they” cease to exist in your consciousness they cannot have a body or a form. So is it with all the manifestations in your life—when they are dropped out of consciousness they are dropped out of the only place in which they exist.

The old adage “out of sight out of mind” should be reversed—out of mind out of sight—out of consciousness, out of the only place it ever existed. The dissipation of “hell” in which you have made your bed is not a fantastic miracle to the consciousness “eternal in the heavens”—it is merely the appearing through the testimony of the senses, of the Presence of God. It is wonderful to contemplate this new Day of the Heaven on earth—here and NOW!

As the inventor stays with the principle back of his model, so does he perfect the model. Once having seen the defects of the model he must go back to, the principle to have a fresh and new interpretation of the idea. As he finds it possible to the principle—back of his idea—the idea will embody every hit of recognition made in the realm of the principle. Whatever he finds possible to the principle is possible to manifestation.

So with the temple, embodiment, man; whatever he finds possible to the principle is possible to the manifestation, but it must take place from the within. “My ways are past finding out.” “I have a way that ye know not of.” These statements close the door once and for always to the curious three—dimensional mind trying to make the Laws of God fit into the “wisdom” which has been called “foolishness” of man.

As you gaze into the “face of God”—keeping your attention on “the house—consciousness—not made with hands and eternal in the heavens,” you will perfect and change the embodiment. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto ME.” If I am lifted (or recognize a certain state of consciousness as true and real), I will draw all the evidence and testimony that is necessary to bear this out. Your consciousness is already out-pictured and has the five thousand witnesses ready to acclaim you or to stone you—by reason of what you have found true.

What you hold “in secret” is called from the housetops of manifestation. “The FATHER seeing in secret rewards thee openly.” What is the “Father”? It is your point of contact with the Universal God—the place of meeting where the unseen becomes the seen and where the inaudible becomes the audible. It is the place where the “stepping down” or manifestation takes place, and until you discover your own divinity you will be continually seeking the “he that should come” instead of recognizing the HE—the Father:—who has already come and is even at this moment knocking at the door of your life asking admission.

The Father—consciousness—to which Jesus eternally turned, as the government upon His shoulders has a reign to which there shall be no end. It is wonderful what this contemplation of the divinity—the “Mind which was also in Christ Jesus” does for you the moment you come away from the shadows of conscious-thinking and conceive the importance of that which is back of the symbol.

Many times has it been said to you: “The Power is greater than the instrument through which it expresses.” Now we are beginning to understand why it is futile to examine the instrument to see what it can or cannot do. The Power is adequate and able to accomplish anything that is necessary from the substance or manifestation it has at hand, whether this be the proverbial “three drops” or a gusher.

The fearlessness with which Jesus approached the testimony of the senses, and with which He waved them aside, was but the governing influence of the Father within coming into expression.

Once we glimpse this “Temple not made with hands” along any line we will begin to see it make its appearance through the chaos of the conscious thinking. The consciousness of any given thing will perpetuate that manifestation indefinitely and without effort on the part of the one who recognizes this power.

Jesus could do nothing of Himself, neither can you. Are you going to insist that you can, and continue to struggle and fight with the manifestation, hoping thereby to change something?

“Leave ALL: follow ME” is at first sight as vague and fantastic as can be imagined.

What could the “leaving” of a few things, which are already disintegrating and falling into the dust, have to do with the Universal Power of God? It is too ridiculous to imagine that God, who has the underlying consciousness of ALL, is going to be bothered about the leaving of a few dollars or things. Yet the command stands, “Leave ALL—follow ME”—it has to be done. The leaving or departing from the belief vested in a thing or a power opposed to or outside of God, must be accomplished in order that the One and ONLY Power can come through into manifestation.

The ME that you are to follow is the Christ within—so few want to follow, they want to direct from the human consciousness. In spite of the fact it has already led them into a ditch of despair and failure, they are still trying to “work it out” on the plane of manifestation.

In the twinkling of an eye—before you ask or think—in a moment ye think not—I—come into manifestation.

The ways and means of this Power are entirely past finding out. The way of expression is never twice the same. The infinite variety of God’s ways cannot be measured by the finite reasoning of the how, and why of the three—dimensional mind.

“Take” or “ask” whatsoever ye will in MY Name or Nature and it shall be so. Do you believe that? A man takes a picture with his camera. He knows he has done so though he cannot see it. The unbelieving and ignorant will try to prove to him that he has nothing on the plate by taking it into the light of human reasoning. The moment he considers the opinions and beliefs of the conscious thinking man who lives by judging from appearances, at that moment he has destroyed the possibility of bringing that which was taken into visibility.

“He went within and shut the door”—so does the man who takes a picture—he goes within and “shuts the door” and shuts out everything and everybody until he has developed the picture which he took then he can open wide the doors and expose it to all sorts of examination for it has evolved unto the point of manifestation. “Tell no man—show John” then does he have a peculiar reason for the secrecy.

“Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and gave thanks”—if we use the man with the camera taking his picture as a simile, the giving thanks is the full and abandoned recognition that he has been true to the integrity necessary to produce the picture and his gratitude is complete in this acceptance. Nothing is yet visible and the five thousand hungry ones are still milling about judging from appearances, ready at an instant to bear witness with or against you. If you let them in with their three—dimensional opinions and their swollen intellection you will expose the plate and nothing will follow but the chorus of “I told you so.”

After the man has taken the picture he has yet to make the gesture. If he is not willing to go within his dark room and stay upon the positive knowledge he has, of having “taken” it, he will accomplish nothing. Jesus had to break the bread. You have your gesture to make.

As has been said before, these parables and illustrations are entirely inadequate to convey the idea of the Christ Power but they will faintly, at least, indicate a certain movement of something transcendent or above the human findings.

“The house not made with hands eternal in the heavens” is the picture which is “taken” and it can be reproduced a thousand times with impunity. It is not, symbolically, at the point of the manifested picture—it is that which is behind the picture. If you have the consciousness of anything, it is eternal in the heavens and can be reproduced ad lib., ad infinitum. But the thing that is produced is already at the point of disintegration. The reverse reasoning of this has resulted in man worshiping the thing instead of looking to the consciousness which sustains it.

“Know you not that a seed must first fall into the ground and die before it can be made alive?” Do you not know that a photographic plate must be taken into the dark room before the picture can be developed and the new manifestation brought into being?

Do you begin to understand the idea of Consciousness and the power of taking on the nature of God and then developing it along the lines which Jesus taught and demonstrated?

“My sheep hear My voice”—if you have not yet arrived at the point of knowing whether or not “Is this He that should come” you are yet a long way off—looking to men, fantastic ideas, beliefs, books, and organizations. Until you find the divinity within, you keep looking for it in another, and the moment you think you have found it there you start a series of moves to tear it down. At last, when the clay feet are discovered, you crash the idol of the new doctrine, person, organization, on your own head and cry out that you have been hurt. This stupid process will continue until you discover that Jesus Christ is the WAY-SHOWER and the DOOR and that there is no other WAY into the consciousness of Heaven here and now but by the “I AM” of Jesus Christ.

“He made himself as God”—made all the “wise heads” sit up and take notice. They began to scream out that he was sacrilegious, blasphemous, because they were unable to think of anything higher than their own swollen personalities. Until you can see that you are created by God, and out of the Consciousness of God you came for the purpose of being the temple of God, you will be running about on the outside looking for ME. At last you will discover that “I AM HE that should come” and you will not be looking for another but will find ME then in everything.

5. GIVE UP—FORGET—CALL DOWN A BLESSING

“GIVE UP” is bitter advice to the average seeker for things; he cannot see any connection between “giving up” and “getting”—in spite of the law which says “Give and it shall be given unto you.”

Without the understanding of Jesus Christ back of this “give up,” it all becomes a hollow mockery and man is merely making a terribly poor investment from which there are no returns. He becomes, in the vernacular of the street, an “easy mark.” Jesus came explaining the law behind the idea of “give up.” Yes, the very thing you want so much must be relinquished. As long as you have a burning desire, it is constantly in the thought, hence is hindered from appearing.

“Take no thought” is not as aimless and hopeless as it sounds; it is taking away the anxiety, fear (judging from the appearance), thereby allowing the free working of the LAW. Not many, wanting things, can conceive that the way of attaining is by letting go, not by holding on.

If this letting go is done on the relative plane with the thought: “Now, in spite of the fact that I want this thing terribly, I am going to give it up—and then I shall have it with increase,’’ it is merely a fiasco of human thought which will result in nothing but letting go of the little you have. When, however, this letting go of the desire is done from the standpoint of consciousness, the doors are opened wide for the “way ye know not of” to function into manifestation. It is wonderful what this letting go of the problem or desire will do for you.

Jacob let go of the “angel” (problem) and that was the end of his suffering. He had been trying all “night,” worrying over and fighting this condition trying to release it, but in the “morning” he loosed it and let it go.

Your desire must be freed in the same way. Holding the tiny mustard seed tightly in your hand will not bring the increase. It must be released. You must see that this letting go of the seed is backed by the confidence that it has within itself the power of increase. The anxious thought which holds the desire tightly (at the same time anticipating its fulfillment) is trying to precipitate substance before it is ready. “When you (no matter who you are) are ready, ‘I’ will do the works through you.” Do you begin to understand the law of this lovely Christ Jesus revelation?

It is often said: “The things I do not care for, I can have easily.” Why? Because every bit of value and every bit of effort and anxious thought are taken away from them, and the word, or seed, goes forth and brings back its increase. “Even if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to yon mountain “be ye removed” and it shall be so.” But this grain must be dropped into the ground, the secret place, and be allowed to rot. The conscious thinking—the anxiety and fear which hold it clasped tightly in the hand—stifles the glorious soul of the idea.

If your desire is fraught with great value, it is more than likely impossible to you, but the moment all value is taken from the object you are seeking, an infinite possibility of attainment immediately comes to the foreground. The laws governing this are few and simple.

“Give up,” forget and call down a blessing. The giving up which brings about results is followed by the forgetfulness which allows the mustard seed to take root and push up through the layers of conscious thinking.

Taking no thought, as has been said, does not mean a thoughtless state of existence, but it does mean that mis-thinking which poses as a creator or an assistant to the God Power is set aside in order that the Revelation of God can be felt and seen.

If you can ever gaze upon your desire and see it in its perfection as Jesus did when he “lifted his eyes to heaven and gave thanks,” and if you can “give up” the desire—let it go and forget it—you will see the reward flooding into you by a “way ye know not of.” The way of attainment is not through thought; it is through the consciousness, as shown to us by Jesus Christ. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” is an invitation which has to be accepted with the same “feel” which the man born blind experienced when he was able to accept his sight.

The ways of God are past finding out, the fulfilling of the Law is in the keeping of the Father and it is useless for you to try to think it into being. You can do only as Jesus did when he “let” the operation of the Mind take place.

The human sense is afraid; it knows that if it lets go it will lose, and so it will. Until you can see what you are doing by holding on to the desire for health, riches, happiness or things, you invariably will experience loss if you let them go.

But the moment you grasp the why of “give up,” you will see it is merely putting into practice the teaching which you have been studying all these years. The result is sure to follow when you “give up” and forget in the true sense of the word, because you unbind it from all the strings and bonds of human thought. “I come as a thief in the night—at a moment ye think not.” “I” come, indicates the nature of the Power, and the hampering influence of “taking thought.”

“Holding the thought” is a common expression of Truth students, yet unless the consciousness back of the thought is released nothing can happen. “Loose him and let him go” speaks volumes for the way of Jesus Christ.

We see Jesus going through the simple steps of manifestation. The desire being once upon Him “He lifted up his eyes to heaven and gave thanks.” He had already disregarded the appearance and had let go the thoughts of how, why, when, and where, these being entirely out of His province. We also learn to “let go” or give up the thing we wish to possess, or the idea that we are striving to bring into manifestation. When we consider the conditions of life, we find it sometimes impossible to bring into manifestation the desires of the heart, but when we come to surrender the thought—taking processes we discover the Power of God is greater than any and all instruments through which it functions.

This is the reason Jesus could, with such abandon, disregard all appearance, outside laws and limitations. He knew that the Power rs greater than the instrument through which it functions, and is not “stepped down” to the limitations of the instrument. Thus we see Jesus Christ, or the Father Consciousness, able to do things through Jesus which He could not of Himself perform.

Jesus was a carpenter, able to do the work of a carpenter. This He knew—just as you, a banker, baker, or candlestick—maker can do the work of your consciousness. When you have reached the limits of your possibilities, you can go no farther. A man has ascertain strength and can lift a certain weight. A man has a certain earning capacity, and so on. If all things are equal on the outside, he can perform to the extent of his ability, but beyond this he cannot go; all the testimony of the conscious thinking will tell him so.

Jesus knew this and realized that “I can of mine own self do nothing”; but when He conceived the idea of the Power being greater than the instrument through which it was expressing, He knew that the “I have a way that ye know not of” was more than a theory or an idea of man.

Many instances are recorded of people doing things they apparently could not do. A woman, unable to move for years, lying in a hospital, incurable, helpless, hopeless, has been known to rise and rush from the building during the excitement” of a false fire alarm. She did what her body apparently could not do, whilst held fast by her conscious thinking backed up by the “wisdom of man.” She was helpless as long as she kept her attention on herself and could do nothing but lie in that almost petrified condition, yet, when she followed the counsel of Jesus Christ—in this case unconsciously—and took her attention from the appearance, she found a power moving within her doing things which she positively could not do, a power entirely outside the “thought—taking” capacity of any man.

A thousand and one instances illustrate the fact as given to us by Jesus, that the moment you give up and forget the body, at that moment the Power will use the body to· express Its holy purpose. It, the Power, never asks permission to perform; It is not measured by the findings of the conscious thinking, however time-honored.

A most interesting case is cited: a man, seeing a huge slab of stone fall upon a child, rushed forth and raised it with one hand. He lifted what half a dozen men could not have moved. No matter what we say about this, it happened! Whether it could or could not, it did happen, so what do you say to this?

Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believeth.” Is this true or is it only so up to the limitation of the conscious mind? If a man lifts twenty times more than apparently he can lift according to the wisest human reasoning, even though it be under a stress of emotion, he has after a fashion proven what Jesus said, “The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.” It is then also possible for you to contact this power and burst the bonds of your limitation.

It is wonderful to contemplate the Revelation of Jesus Christ, for no matter whether you can approximate it at once or not, you can certainly feel the freeing thrill of it all.

Trees have grown through twenty-five inches of solid marble. A rose has pushed its way through the wall of china. According to relative science these things cannot possibly take place, and that is why we are interested in relating them. The more you follow the revelation of Jesus Christ the more you will understand why He spoke so freely of the Kingdom of Heaven—and how, if you were under the Spirit, you would be no more under the curse of the law.

Taking your attention away from the appearance, and breaking the conscious thinking regarding a problem, will cause it to disintegrate and vanish. Thought feeds and sustains the evil conditions in your life and it is hard for you to think your way out of the difficulties of such hypnotism. There is too much established testimony in the case of the paralyzed woman who was unable to move for years, and too much verification and solid evidence, to make it humanly possible to believe in her recovery; yet under the stress of emotion all changed—proving it was possible, though not accepted as such.

The act of Peter when he asked Jesus “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water” was symbolical. The Master was the concrete place of his desire. Had Peter been able to keep his attention on the Power he would have reached the Master—the concreting of his desire—but he looked down, became afraid of appearances and thought it could not be done, and apparently it could not. The moment you take your attention from the power and place it on the limitations of mankind, you go down.

“Being absent from the body and present with the Lord’’ becomes a dynamic law which is workable in a very positive and wonderful way. It relieves the struggling heart at once to know that: The Power is greater than the instrument through which it expresses. The temple (body) is never taken into consideration, no matter what its appearance. The moment you take your attention away from its limitation, you will discover that the Power accomplishes that which the temple (of itself) could not possibly do.

“I go before you to prepare a place for you that where I AM there ye may be also.” “The place prepared for you” is your next stage of progress, but you cannot attain it by conscious thinking. Hence the command: “Take no thought.”

It takes too great a stretch of imagination for a poverty—stricken man to come into wealth. He is beset with so much evidence to the contrary that discouragement and hopelessness set in. He may be sincere, good, and true, but is so hypnotized by what he has experienced that he cannot possibly get to the “Master’’—attainment. Not until he realizes that the POWER is greater than the instrument can he transcend the limitations of his present consciousness.

The moment he reaches the “Master,” symbolically speaking, he arrives at the new consciousness, and from that moment he functions from an entirely new level.

Peter did not arrive at his destination, nor did he quite reach the next state of consciousness. He considered what he was doing and feared it could not be done, in spite of the fact that he was doing it. So, too, with the paralyzed woman, running from the hospital supposed to be on fire. It would have been impossible if she had thought what she was doing. So is it with you. If you take your attention away from the Power and place it upon the appearance, or the wisdom of man, you will find yourself sinking into the mire of conscious belief.

“He raised his eyes to heaven and gave thanks” comes often into these pages. We see Jesus looking straight into the face of the POWER, letting It do what He was unable to perform. How could Jesus feed five thousand? He could not, but He did when he contacted the Power, and the same Power will come to you. “How can I do this, or that, or attain my ‘Master’?” The answer eternally will be you cannot if you look to the appearance. But if you once recognize that the Power is greater than the instrument, there is every possibility of your getting to the “Master,” and once there, it is done. You can readily see why we are counseled to keep secret the WORD. You can imagine what people would say if you wanted to walk on the water today, and they will say the same when you tell them of your ambitions.

“Salute no man you pass on the highway.” When you are with the Master you can tell them, or show them.

“Be still”—it is good and it is wonderful to feel this Divine Emotion of Stillness which causes you to sink deep into the very heart of the Power.

“Be absent from the body and present with the LORD.” Do you hear?

6. SECRECY

The ground was bare when first
They walked that way …
A barren spot, they said,
And passed along not knowing that
Deep down within the earth
So seeming void,
A flower—heart lay
Enfolded in a spell of secret ecstasy…
Silent… enthralled
With vision of perfection yet to be…
“Within me there is God,”
It, dreaming, mused;
And with this consciousness of life,
Laughing with joy, it knew no bonds
But issued forth to do and be.

Again the world walked by,
And marveled to behold
A field of wondrous lilies, each without flaw,
Outflinging sweet perfume….

The ground was bare when first
They’d walked that way,
O, man, do ye not see?
G. MARIAN BURTON

This poem was inspired by a line from one of Mr. Lanyon’s lectures—
“In the heart of the lily lies the perfect pattern of the flower.”
G.M.B.

“SEE THAT ye tell no man.” Passed over lightly by most students, yet containing the way of manifestation for much that has failed to come forth. This Law was very operative in the life and teachings of the Master, Jesus. Certain steps were followed with mathematical accuracy in His manifestations. He had the ability to, first and foremost, disregard absolutely any and all appearances. This is a bigger and more comprehensive sweep of action than is first noted.

“Judge not from appearances”—because the wisdom that you get from such judgment is foolishness in the eyes of God, is somewhat the summing up of the situation. No matter what has happened nor what appears to have happened, any judgment made from the appearance of the thing is going to be false, as far as the God-consciousness is concerned. Do not mistake me, it will be true on the plane of consciousness on which you find it, but nothing can be done about it here.

“I go to my Father,” “He lifted up his eyes,” “He went within,” are all symbolic movements in consciousness which lifted Jesus into the “mansion” where things were not what they appeared to be, hence the laws governing them were likewise false. If He could not have made this first gesture, what good would it be for you to work against the evil which appears so real and true?

If you cannot make this same movement or gesture—taking your attention away from the appearance and placing it on God—you cannot hope to do more than work with the outside of the platter, and the inside will be filled with the uncleanness of conscious belief. The “whited sepulchers” spoken of by Jesus are merely the mute testimony of working with the outside of the problem. Nothing of any great importance can be done from without, so far as the Christ teaching is concerned.

Jesus said, I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life and Light.” If this is your premise you will have to follow closely in this Way if you expect to accomplish “the works that I do ye shall do also and even greater works than these shall ye do.” The wholesale discounting of all appearance is necessary—no matter whether it is established by centuries and backed up by such a mountain of evidence that it cannot be refuted, or whether it has just come into view.

Absent from the body and present with the Law—absent from the appearance and present with the Power, or the next dimension of consciousness, is what causes stories like “Though a thousand fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand it shall not come nigh thee” to be told. Why? Because there are two states of consciousness pictured here, as far apart as the poles, yet moving manifestedly in the same place.

Why does one go through “it shall not come nigh thee” while the ten thousand moving in the same place are destroyed? It is because “the disregarding of appearance and being present with the Lord” lifts the manifestation out of the “curse of the law” and operates effectively over the “appearance.” Do not mistake the law.

There is a statement of the Power which says, “You may handle poisonous serpents and drink deadly things and it shall not hurt thee.” In the three—dimensional plane you believe in the power of poison and are under the law of it, and it is foolish to attempt miracles. Yet, to be present with the Law by the judging not from appearances but the righteous judgment of the next dimension, is to experience freedom from the former things and beliefs: the “curse of the law” is not able to function on that plane because it has no entree through recognition.

“Judge not from appearances” is more than shutting one’s eyes to things—it is a recognition of the Presence which enables one to discount all the findings of the conscious thinking mind.

Judging not from appearances, enables man to find I AM in the midst of hell. It also gives him the ability to see the perfect manifestation in the midst of apparent evil. It is the only way to bring forth that which is true in the teaching of Jesus Christ. If He could not have seen beyond the appearances and have ceased at once the tendency to judge, He never would have been able to raise Lazarus. If you cannot see and understand the necessity of this “judging not from appearances,” you cannot possibly enter into the promises of God.

If you cannot see God in the lowest you cannot see Him in the highest, and you can see Him in these places only when you have perceived Him within yourself.

Your universe is only an objectification of what you think to be true about God. No matter how much you fight against this premise—it is so. If you could not find it in your consciousness it could not out—picture in your life. What you know to be true in consciousness, be it good, bad, or indifferent, will take on a body and form and will have sufficient witnesses to bear out its claims. Hence, when you see through the eyes of another’s consciousness you see everything colored by what that consciousness has accepted as real. There is little possibility of changing it on the outside. “To the pure all things are pure”. is an old but true adage. What you have in consciousness will manifest itself automatically. When the consciousness has ascended to a new level, or has come to a place of further awareness of the Presence, or Power, instant new shapes, forms and manifestations take place. “Whereas before I was blind NOW I can see”—speaks volumes of what takes place in the awareness of the new consciousness.

Jesus never bothered with appearance, for the good reason the moment He made an agreement with a thing—under the Law, it was established on the earth.

If Jesus had considered the appearance for a moment and consulted with those who bore witness of that appearance, He would never have been able to bring forth the change He was seeking to establish. He disregarded all appearance and all testimony and “lifted his eyes to heaven.” Heaven is a state of consciousness where “whatsoever you ask” is true and possible,. but it must come by a way and after a fashion no man knoweth. His work—(if but for the smallest part of a second) was in the secret place and the gesture of breaking the bread followed. If Jesus had considered appearance in healing leprosy, He would have been caught in the idea of the reality of the disease. It had been clearly demonstrated by one of the prophets that leprosy could be produced on his hand by placing it in his bosom, and healed by the same action. If it had no more reality than this, what good was it to make any judgment from the appearance? Jesus judged righteous judgment and this judgment instantly freed the individual.

It is a good thing to give thanks—recognition. Those who manifested the power of the Spirit but failed to acknowledge it missed the opportunity of confirming the healing they had received.

Next then in the line of technique in the works of Jesus is the power to “see that ye tell no man”—with the authority following that you may “show John.” When once you have arrived at the place of manifestation it is safe to “show John,” but prior to that it is like cracking the shell to watch the hatching process.

The energy spent in telling the secret is that which should go into bringing it forth into manifestation. As a glass of champagne is worthless if it is exposed too long, so the secret, which should be given a body and form, never appears because the life and power that should have brought it forth has been dissipated in talking about it. Dreams are unfulfilled because all the energy that should bring them to pass is spent in telling about them, consequently there is nothing left with which to raise up the temple or “embodiment.” “He that can hold his tongue can take a city”—a new state of consciousness. This new state of consciousness will embody itself in the perfect manifestation without strain or effort on your part.

“See that ye tell no man.” It is so long before we understand that this means you. See that YOU tell NO ONE—and this “no one” includes all the people you know. The telling is the sacrilegious thing which devitalizes the idea and causes it to be still—born. Many complain of not being able to market their wares, even after they have been able to bring them forth. These works are still—born because too much “talking” has taken place before their appearance.

“Consider the lily” takes on a deeper meaning every time we approach it, and in it lies the great law of secrecy. The seed that has fallen into the ground and rotted, shall live. The old consciousness has dropped away and the new consciousness begins to appear.

In the heart of the lily lies the perfect pattern of the flower. Within the heart of you lies the perfect picture shown to you on the Mount. We are gradually understanding the WAY of Jesus and how it is possible to bring it into manifestation.

It is true that “God has made man perfect, but man has worked out many inventions”—these inventions are beliefs in appearances and the formulating of false premises to overcoming. Overcoming is the work of the Sonship degree; the Fatherhood is the place of revelation and the pouring forth. It should not excite you because you try to attain the Fatherhood degree and fail. When you stop trying it is possible that you will get some of the overtones of it and begin to sense it as something natural, instead of some strange experience in life.

When we are in the Spirit, we are no more under the “curse of the law” but are under grace. It is curious, this revelation, for with its coming the desire to perform and make, fades away, and the letting of the Power through into expression by the recognition of God everywhere takes place. Through your temple the light casts its shadow, and this shadow is solidified in what the world calls matter.

“You are the temple of the Living God,” because you are the focal point where God is stepped down into visibility. It is only through the temple that you can bring out the new desire or idea. Until you discover that the Power which accomplishes is greater than the instrument through which it functions you will continue to look about for a reason.

“Leave all—follow Me.” Leave all the opinions and beliefs of the conscious thinking—accept none of them, go into the secret place and judge righteous judgment and there will be no question about the results which will follow.

“My words are Spirit and they are truth and they shall not return unto me void but shall accomplish where-unto they are sent.” Do you believe that? Answer ME.

Step by step as we go over the technique that Jesus employed, we advance into the very heart of Reality. The ability to disregard absolutely, the appearance, no matter how time honored or of what intensity it may be, is the first great move towards the coming of the new consciousness into manifestation. No matter whether it has always been an established fact in the “wisdom” of man or not, we are working from the new basis that it is foolishness in the eyes of God. The new city which we are to “take” is not something that can be measured by the yardstick of man’s conscious thinking for it will not conform to it.

Once we conceive that the manifest universe is the out-picturing of our consciousness we shall see the hopelessness of trying to change things by working with them on the outside. Anything that is done will have to be accomplished within and as the idea is dropped from consciousness, it automatically drops from manifestation.

When Jacob suddenly discovered this, he “loosed it and ‘let it go’” out of appearance. The moment he let it go in his consciousness, that which represented it, disintegrated and went away, for it had nothing to sustain it.

These deep and wonderful things must come through in the secrecy of the soul. The looking straight into the eyes of God will enable you to make your objective, but judging from appearances will cause you to go down—to sink in the beliefs of the “wisdom” of man.

When the desire rises in you—see that you tell no man. Keep it buried deep in the heart of you. Take your attention away from the appearance and discount all the judgment of the outside. Let the righteous judgment that “I have a way ye know not of” and that “nothing is impossible to God” fill your house with the glory of recognition and presently, “in a moment ye think not,” you will find yourself making the gesture.

It is wonderful what this law of secrecy can accomplish for you. Suddenly you will begin to experience things as natural which formerly were unreal and impossible. You will rejoice in the deep secret consciousness of considering the lily and its manner of growth, even while you hold the ugly bulb in your hands and no lily is apparent.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you NOW—and always. Do you hear? And do you hear that: “The Kingdom of heaven is within you and he that knoweth it shall find it.” If you can hear this you are through trying to demonstrate and will begin to discover it.

7. THE TEMPLE OF GOD

“WHAT IS MAN that thou art mindful of him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, and gave him dominion over the earth.”

What a farce all these lovely words are in face of the slavery of man as we see him today!

What am I?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

The air is surcharged with the unreality of life. In the distance a terrible note of futility sounds like a doomsday dirge. Yet Jesus discovered, and gave to the universe two thousand years ago, the simple truth of the relationship of God to man. Misunderstanding the revelation man has “sought out many inventions” even though he was created perfect. Man has conceived the idea that he is here as a special pawn or toy of the Almighty, subject to a devastating thing called human life, from which he can escape only through death.

A ray of hope came with the teaching—though oft misunderstood—of Jesus Christ. Being able to demonstrate the Power of God at rare intervals—making something happen that otherwise would not happen—working miracles, brought some joy; but the uncertainty of it all, the apparent failure, turned man again to the questions:

What am I?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

Jesus answered all these questions. You are the temple of the Living God. Your body is the temple which is incorruptible and indestructible—the temple of the Living God. All this means nothing very definite to the listener, until it is finally revealed that not only is man here as the temple of the Living God, but he is here in order that God can find expression. The temple “embodiment” known as man, is here for the purpose of God making Himself manifest. The temple is the place where the invisible is stepped down into the visible—as in a distilling plant where steam becomes water and is later turned into ice. Without man, or this embodiment known as temple, none of the present—day inventions would have found expression.

Though man has sensed this, he has mistakenly thought to work independently of this Power. When he becomes conscious that it is the NATURE of the temple “embodiment” to express God, and that is its only reason for being, the dis-ease, struggle, anxiety, fear and questioning will cease. He will be no more surprised that the works of God are being done through him than he would be to find water turning to ice in zero weather. There is nothing curious, mysterious or miraculous about the appearance of God through his temple, and when this is seen, the excitement of ‘’demonstrating” the Power will cease.

It is said “I will walk in you and talk in you.” Just what does this mean and do you believe it? Not until you understand the temple “embodiment” as being here for the express purpose of manifesting God, or bringing the unseen into the seen, will this “walking and talking” take place. Suddenly, when your right relationship is established, you will not be surprised or even moved, by the appearance of that which it is your nature to cause to appear.

If I be lifted up to the point of the naturalness of my desire, “I will draw all manifestation unto me.” If you are lifted up to the place of the naturalness of God functioning in the temple “embodiment” then you will find all the elements drawn unto you.

In bringing forth the automobile it had to come through the temple “embodiment” into visibility. It had to come through a thick wall of opinion and belief. It had to be conceived in the temple “embodiment” and magnified—the appearances and the existing laws and beliefs had to be completely disregarded. It had to take on a “naturalness” if it was to come forth in the name or nature of God. Just as a letter is born when it is accepted as possible to— the consciousness, and the materials necessary for its “embodiment” come from the far ends of the earth, so is it with the “embodiment” of anything.

Your desire is the urge of spirit giving the temple “embodiment” instructions as to what should come into manifestation through that medium. If you assume the work yourself it immediately becomes impossible or marked with the ugly shadow of personality or is still—born, but when you make the assumption that your temple “embodiment” is for the express purpose—and only for the purpose of making the invisible visible, then that glorious relaxation and naturalness of the expression of God through you will take place.

Jesus made himself as God. You are told to do likewise. Why? Because if you are to do the works of God you will have to have the nature of God, or else you will find yourself only an imitator. Nothing strange about an author producing books or a singer singing is there? Why should it be thought unnatural for one who knows himself to be as God to do the works of God?

If an author does not produce books he is called an ex-author, or a would-be author, and he is like the fig tree, without figs. Why cumbereth it the ground? When you see the purpose of your existence—the expression of God, the releasing of the unseen into the seen, all the greediness for things, place, power, name or fame fades away. Why should you be greedy for things when you know that you are automatically the distributor of all—that you can give to all men whatsoever they ask because the giver within the temple “embodiment” is God?

It is marvelous to contemplate the freedom of the temple of God. The temple of God is with man—man is the temple of God when he recognizes the naturalness of it all.

Without an expression God would be unexpressed, nothingness, but with the temple “embodiment” He is able to project Himself into manifestation. The “Behold I stand at the door and knock” is the eternal pattern which is to be expressed through your temple trying to let Me into manifestation. If you will see that your body, temple “embodiment,” is for the express purpose of stepping down the invisible into visibility, you will open unto Me and I will come in and sup with you, and you with Me, I will show you many wonderful things which shall not be said with the noisy voice of man nor written in books.

Do you begin to understand why the wandering in the desert of human thinking is about finished? The veils of belief are getting thinner—you are beginning to see and understand the purpose of life—and nothing matters.

The more naturally you approach the pattern or desire given to you, the simpler will be its appearing. The hovering spirit of the Presence is waiting to pour out the infinite gifts through your temple “embodiment,’’ but like Jerusalem you will not because you want only the loaves and fishes, not seeing that the moment you place yourself in the position of Temple, and Spirit in the Temple, you will have enough and to spare. The temple “embodiment” is for the purpose of supplying, not acquiring things. It is amazing what takes place when you come consciously into the understanding that you are here simply for the purpose of letting this God Power into expression.

All the greedy demonstrations pass—they mean nothing. “I will walk in you and talk in you.” The Power has an actual right, not a demonstrated right to walk in you. The walking in the temple will be so filled with revelation it will amaze you. Wheresoever the Power “walking” in the temple wishes to go, there it goes and takes its temple, body, with it. So Jesus’ constant command, “Judge not from appearances”; “Absent from the body and present with the Lord”—Law—have a definite meaning. The recognition that your body “temple” is for the purpose of the Word becoming flesh so sets aside any effort or struggle you can make on the outside to accomplish this, you are filled with amazement. No more do you consult or consider the appearances, no matter how terrifying they may be, no matter how impossible they may be: “When you are ready I will” (not perhaps nor maybe) “do the works through you.”

You will search the Scriptures for they have a message for the TEMPLE—and you are one of the Temples, one of those points where God becomes visible. That is the only reason for your existence. The stupid idea of trying to make God appear for a moment and do something for you fades out of the picture. “I will walk in you and talk in you”: the VOICE heard in the temple is one of authority, it speaks the Word that cannot return unto you void. The little human voice cannot be heard against this “still small voice” which will talk in you, and will tell you of things that are to come.

The cooperation of the temple is so essential and must become so obedient that it goes to the Jordan without question, no matter if there be a thousand rivers between, which are better. The temple, the “embodiment” which you are, is sufficient and able to do anything the Power directs. Great athletes do not necessarily accomplish great things in the universe. The frailest of bodies may bring forth the greatest finance. This does not have to be true, but is noted to call your attention to the fact that no matter what your present temple looks like, through it can be brought into manifestation the works of God.

The old human desire to do and accomplish things in order that the praise of man may be called into being, drops by the way, and with it will go the ancient and greedy thought of “demonstrating.” You are arriving at the point of giving.

Do you begin to understand why Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing, but with GOD all things are possible” through the temple, ·known to the world as Jesus? So with you—there is little you can do of yourself, but through that same helpless, impotent temple comes the power of God doing what the world calls impossible and what the meta-physicians call demonstrations. “In my NATURE” must become such a part of you that you will make the assumption of this Divine Nature as your own.

It is the most natural thing in the world for Jesus (symbolically speaking) to do the works of God, and he definitely said, “The works that I do ye shall do also”—the same mind being in you, the same God in the midst of your temple. When these two, body and soul, are joined together you will find yourself as the giver of every good gift. You will supply your brother’s need not as a personal favor, not as a special bequest, but because it is the nature of God. Whenever you are in the nature of a thing you express that nature. If you arrive at the nature of a writer you will write as a natural expression, otherwise you will “try,” struggle, and force some scribbling on to the universe which will be rejected, because it would be an unnatural expression. If it is not natural then it cannot last, neither can it find a place of expression. We are not attempting to do the unnatural nor the impossible when we follow the path of Jesus Christ. He made himself as God—He made Himself of the same nature and found it not strange that He should do the works of that nature. We do not find it strange that figs grow on fig trees, and why should we find it strange that the works of Spirit come from the consciousness of the Spirit?

The glorious Voice, the “still small Voice” of God speaking in the temple “embodiment’’ gives to every man the WORD, not words, and that WORD will bring to man that which he is seeking, if he will accept it. Perhaps he does not want the Word—he may want the loaves and fishes, then he will not find ME.

Think what a glorious revelation is taking place within you! The discovery that your consciousness is the place where God comes into visibility; where the unseen becomes the seen. The complete surrender to “My will” is not difficult when you see the magnitude and the glory into which you are moving. You understand what is meant by “from glory to glory,” from revelation to revelation, from one degree of manifestation to another. All the glory, might, and power alone belong to God. It is wonderful!

“What is man that thou art mindful of him?” What are you? You are the temple “embodiment” of the Living God. You are the transformer, the point at which the invisible takes on a body and form. The child is born—the idea is given a body and a form, and is put on earth through the temple. You are the temple of the Living God. Can you begin to sense the freedom you are getting from things? This does not mean that you will not have “things,” but it does mean that you will not be held by them.

It makes you the giver and causes you to know that the Spirit within the temple will dictate the symbol of your giving.

God is mindful of His temples, for within these temples the blessed event takes place. The Holy of Holies is the point in consciousness where this sacred desire is given a body and form. “If I be lifted up” (to the nature) “I will draw all ‘manifestation’ unto Me.” If you are one with the nature of your desire then its fulfillment is sure and certain, and is entirely apart from the workings of the conscious thinking.

The temple is a little lower than the spirit that is hovering over it. “He made him a little lower than the angels” and “Gave him dominion over all the earth”—manifestation. Do you begin to see what is the height and breadth and majesty of this Power called God? It is wonderful to contemplate. “You (yes, you) are the temple of the Living God.” No matter what the temple looks like, no matter how you have scarred and scratched it with beliefs, fears, diseases and evil. “You are the temple of the Living God.”

As the consciousness is aligned with the true nature of God the transformation of the temple will set in and continue until it arrives at the full resurrected state.

Your body is the Word of God made flesh—it is “The temple not made with hands and is eternal in the heavens.” It is for the manifestation of God. The thing that is made with hands, the inanimate thing is not the body or temple of God: if it were it could not manifest evil. Your body is the temple of the Living God, it is the temple not made with hands and is eternal in the consciousness of heaven. No matter how far you have strayed from the place of recognition, no matter how terrible the temple may appear: the real temple is eternal in the heavenly consciousness of God, and is for the express purpose of LETTING the Power through into manifestation.

“I will walk in you and talk in you” suddenly takes on a glorious meaning—it answers the question “Where am I going?” You are going from glory to glory, from one revelation to another, from one glorious experience to another. You are going to hear and say the things which ears have not heard, and the things that have not yet entered into the heart of the unawakened man whose breath is in his nostrils. It is wonderful!

Your (yes, your) body is the temple of this LIVING GOD. Do you understand the word living? Not a God who has to be generated into life by what you think or do not think but a LIVING God—a living something that will draw all manifestation unto It.

It is true “When you lose your life you shall find it.” It is true because you are losing the sense of a separate life which is struggling to keep the body or temple in place. It is working to earn its bread by the sweat of its brow for the purpose of keeping body and soul together, but how does this check against the statement “The temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens”? What does it need to sustain it but the manna that droppeth down from heaven, which when if feeds thereon the manifest bread comes forth: just as Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes? He ate of the bread that “cometh down from heaven.” His body, the Jesus body—when recognized as the temple of God—experienced the works of God as natural, and what He did in secret that also the body of Jesus, or the manifest temple, did openly.

“My words are not mine but are those of Him who sent me into expression.”—”I will walk in you and talk in you.” If I am lifted up to the consciousness of the singer I will sing and find it natural. Do you understand what it is to begin the recognition that your body is for the purpose of expressing God—for the purpose of bringing the invisible into the visible?

Is there anything you can learn through the processes of evil which could not come to you through the revelation of God? So many are clinging to the fact that problems are good for them and that they grow by these ugly experiences. It may be true—but do you mean to say that the All-powerful God has to stoop to the plane of evil in order that you should find out about Him? Answer me. “Awake! Thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light!”

It is glorious the readjustment that takes place when you find yourself as the temple of the Living God and for the purpose of expressing God. It is wonderful when you discover it is quite natural for figs to grow on fig trees and the works of God to emanate from God. “Whatsoever you ask in my nature—that give I unto you.” Do you hear?

Who are you?
What are you?
Why are you here?
Where are you going?

These are all answered through the revelation of the TEMPLE of God with men.

As soon as it is discovered that you are the temple of God and your will is given over you will discover that by losing your life you have found it; just as the apparently square—shaped air in a room loses nothing when the walls are torn away, but a sense of limitation.

“Why cumbereth it the ground?” Should be said of all fig trees of thought which bear no figs. “Make a way for our Lord”—the Bridegroom cometh, your joy is full, you have found the Lord. Gradually you experience the awakening that you have always been. The matrix of you in all its glory and beauty remains eternal in the Mind of God. Give this some contemplation, and experience a subtle change as the Light passes through the temple. It is wonderful! You are the temple of the Living God. “The Lord is in His Holy Temple.”

8. CASTING THE SHADOW

“YE MUST BE BORN again”; born out of the wisdom of man into the understanding of your Divine Heritage. In the new birth (the recognition of the fact that you are created by God and are Spiritual), Spirit becomes the reality and matter—the shadow.

Man “whose breath is in his nostrils is still seeing” matter as the reality, and yet constantly before his eyes the moment consciousness is taken from a thing that thing disintegrates and disappears. Even the symbol of money becomes worthless when the consciousness back of it is changed, and that which has acted as a means of exchange in the world becomes of no account. Not because its actual material value has altered but because the consciousness back of it has changed.

It is wonderful when you begin to understand that consciousness is more real and eternal than the symbol, which is the shadow cast by it, and which man terms man-i-festation.

It is difficult to hold even a place that a man has created when his consciousness is taken from it. This, Jesus understood so perfectly that he withdrew his consciousness (attention) from the appearance and it disintegrated.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before ME”—absorbs all the attention and recognition and then, when the agreement is made within (the point or place of recognition) the shadow is cast into manifestation. The casting of a shadow m ordinary parlance, is caused by introducing something in front of a light,and this something in the case of Truth is the desire. The moment the desire is brought before the ONE Power, it casts a shadow of manifestation which is held in place just so long as the consciousness is stayed thereon.

Take the consciousness away and it disintegrates. “Loose it and let it go” then has a deeper meaning than was formerly thought.

Gradually man is beginning to see that the better the chances appear to be on the outside the less he can count on anything definitely happening. It is generally the case where a thing cannot fail, it invariably does. And this is so true that it makes one understand why “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” When man has nothing to look to on the outside then he is bound to turn to the one place from which all help comes. If he is depending on a person, place or thing, this may possibly result in something coming into manifestation for a while, but in the evolved state of the Jesus Christ consciousness it is impossible to count on anything from any other source than God.

As soon as Spirit is established as the only reality, then the manifestation can and will take care of itself. Whatever the desire or “Whatsoever you ask in my nature” that give I unto you. Spirit will cast the shadow, matter, manifestation, and will continue to do so as long as the attention is on the Power and not on the thing. If you are looking to manifestation for your help you seek ME and cannot find Me.

Seeking Jesus, the carpenter, is no more efficacious to heal, help or save than seeking any other man, but recognizing the REALITY of God and calling upon Him, independent of the appearance, is to see the “whatsoever” come into being by a way ye know not of. It is wonderful what the Lord can do for you when you find the Reality of Spirit.

Agreements, decisions, acceptances, all these states of consciousness cast corresponding shadows in the world of manifestation. “The Father worketh hitherto and I work”—the recognition of the Power, the word of authority within always precedes the coming of the manifestation or the casting of the shadow. Do you begin to see how, when your trust is in “horses and chariots”—money or men, it must of necessity fail, and yet this same recognition of the Reality of Spirit causes all these same chariots, horses, men and things to serve you.

“Man born of woman is full of trouble.” “When I would do good I do evil”—”Work out your own salvation”—”Earn your living by the sweat of your brow.” “Born in sin and conceived in iniquity.’’ What chance have you? Wandering in the shadows of the three—dimensional world of thought you can hope for little happiness, and you are warned of the futility of patching up old garments or pouring new wine into old bottles. You must be born again—“That which is born of the Spirit will do the works of the Spirit.” That which is born of the flesh will likewise do the works of the flesh. It is wonderful to contemplate the teaching of Jesus Christ showing you the way into a new state of consciousness.

God lighteth every man that cometh into the world. God is the only Creator. Mankind is immaculately conceived. It is not at the mercy of human minds. Thousands of people have wanted children and remained barren, thousands have not been so beautiful in their desires and have been possessed of many children. Is it then to be said that birth is at the volition of the human mind? Being immaculately conceived, takes away the belief in the illegitimacy of human life.

You are born of God when you are born anew. This being born anew as a pure and simple recognition of your primal birthright. Jesus said, “Call no man your father” for good and sufficient reason, knowing that the laws of the shadow world were filled with the “curse.” “If ye be in the Spirit ye are no more under (the curse of) the law.”

“The temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens” (consciousness) comes forth when the new birth is recognized. It is not marred by the beliefs of the human mind. A thousand waves break over the rock without leaving a trace in their wake, and so the remembrance of the shadow of evil cast upon you, is seen to evaporate at the coming into being of the “Temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens”—eternal in your consciousness. Where then can you find this perfection you have sought so long but within your own consciousness? “Is this he that should come or look we for another?” What are you doing playing with the old worn—out ideas of life and the old ways of making things come into manifestation? “Awake! Thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light.”

In a foreign land a huge estate is awaiting settlement. It is so colossal its estimated value is almost unthinkable, and yet the moment the claimant establishes his claim, the doors of the treasuries open wide and a flood of substance comes into manifestation. Nothing can stop it the moment it is “established.” This same thing is true of man—the moment he establishes his right to the “Mind which was also in Christ Jesus” that moment the inheritance is his and nothing can stop its flow into manifestation. Born and conceived in pure Spirit your birthright is awaiting recognition. The “Temple not made with hands” rests in the consciousness, where it has first to be recognized before it can take shape or form on the outside, or before the shadow will be cast into manifestation.

The necessity of disregarding appearances becomes understandable when you see them as shadows cast by the conscious thinking. They are only intensified when they are handled or when an attempt is made to destroy them. But at the point from which the shadow is being cast a complete disintegration can take place. When the attention is taken away from the shadow it is absorbed into light, because the idea or desire casting the shadow has been removed. Think for a moment on this in terms of prosperity.

I AM the immaculate conception—”You did not choose ME—I chose you”—What for? To be put through the hell of beliefs so terrible that life is not worth living? Answer ME. “Come out from among them” (the shadows) “and be ye whole.”

Establishing the consciousness of the reality of God ends thousands of beliefs. Devitalized by taking away the thought which was feeding them, they disappear and the place thereof is no more and they cannot come into remembrance. It is wonderful—wonderful—wonderful!

Whatsoever you do within, is done without for “As within so without.” We are beginning to see the necessity of doing, taking possession, decreeing, from the within of Spirit,from the NATURE instead of from the Name. The Name without the Nature accomplishes nothing. Jesus came with the authority of “I AM that I AM has sent Me” into manifestation, and a carpenter from Nazareth is able to do that which is utterly impossible for him as such to do.

In the army a situation once arose where a gardener became a major over his former employer, and while as the gardener he had been used to receiving instructions, Now as major he gave orders which had to be obeyed. “For I too am a man in authority and I say ‘Go’ and he goeth”—what a thrill of joy comes when you recognize that “the mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus” is the authority and seeks no outside favors nor help, but speaks from this point of authority the “Word which shall not return unto me void.” We see why the gardener—major must be obeyed. Hence we see why the shadows must obey the Spirit, hut not until we are one with this authority and understand the true Nature of God in us can we perform these offices in ourselves.

“Whatsoever you tell the Father in secret shall be called from the house top.” Whatsoever you can do in the nature, disregarding the appearance, will take on a body and form. Just how and where is no concern of yours. The manifestation shall take care of itself and suffice it to say shall be in terms of success, as long as it is in the consciousness.

I AM immaculately conceived—I AM that I AM-—is the password. I partake of the Divine Nature. Manifestation falls into its rightful place. It is held in place, whether it be one thing or another, as long as it is needed and then released. The volition you have given to the manifestation will spend itself and cease its existence when you release it in mind. This process sets in the moment you take your attention away from it.

“Man is born equal” in spirit, certainly not from the physical standpoint. He may try to make himself “equal” but it is a hopeless task and fraught with failure and disappointment. He is neither the physical nor mental equal of thousands of others about him and there is no hope of his ever becoming such or even being able to compete with them in the game of life from the standpoint of conscious thinking. It is pitiful to see him trying, through will power and force of character, to establish himself in a place which he does not fit. The barricade of complexes showing their papier-mache subterfuges in all sorts of artificial postures of grandeur or aggressiveness are objects of pity. It becomes so obvious, that he is vulnerable in many spots—there are too many chinks in his armor through which the thin, sharp rapier of fact can enter to make it desirable or safe to travel far with this false belief in equality.

The one place of equality is in the Spiritual birthright, and the moment this is recognized it levels everything. Then it is true there is no color, race, creed or anything standing in the way of perfect equality. It is wonderful that man, having come to the place of looking to God as the Father, finds the God-Family all over the universe—the real Family—and among them may be a thousand races, creeds, beliefs, but all of a level or equality from this standpoint.

You do not seek to establish this equality—it establishes itself as water finds its level. It is not trying to change anything on the outside, the influence of the Light within wipes out all the objectionable qualities of the shadow and releases the heavenly quality of the Immaculate Conception. The old scars of being born of woman—born in sin, etc., all disappear and are forgotten—when man realizes “all are born equal.”

With the coming of this understanding the attempt to change, alter or set right the outside falls away. It makes no difference whether a man is black, white, yellow, or red when he has established his spiritual equality in the Immaculate, but it is preposterous and ridiculous to try to assume this relationship of equality before it has taken place. There are many who may be decidedly inferior or superior to you from that standpoint. To imagine, because you claim “equality,” that anything has changed is to find certain failure.

“God made man perfect, but man has wrought out many inventions”—all inventions are those of the conscious thinking. They are the beliefs in the shadows as reality. Hearing for the first time of his divine heritage man tries to make clean the outside of the platter so that he shall be worthy of the inheritance, but this fools no one—it is the inside that needs the attention, the outside will take care of itself.

Casting a shadow—becomes so alive when you think of it, in the light of revelation, that a sudden thrill of the Presence of the HOLY GHOST takes place in you. The Immaculate Conception is able to bring out “the house not made with hands,” and to make manifest the desires of your soul. The pure substance which resurrected itself from the tomb of human beliefs is not subject to the laws of the human beliefs any longer. And this symbology of the resurrection is taking place constantly when man recognizes his NEW Birth.

Yes, beloved! You are immaculately conceived—the former things have passed away—they shall not be remembered any more nor come into mind.

Jesus said words to the effect that He must go in order that the Comforter should come. The place or state of consciousness made vacant by this symbolic act is open to all. His going was for the express purpose of showing to the world the place of the consciousness of the Christ open and available to all.

When the person occupying the throne dies another comes to take over the authority of the office. Many men have been kings of England but the kingdom has remained. The Kingdom of Heaven is your heritage—the mind which was also in Christ Jesus is the inheritance of every man. “As He is, so are we in this present world.” The mind which was also in Christ Jesus is the heritage of every man, when he becomes one with it he has the authority over manifestation. He then comes with the authority of the “I AM that I AM” which has sent him into expression.

In the name of Jesus Christ as a name nothing happens, but in the name raised to the nature, man is seen partaking of the quality of authority which marked the works of Jesus Christ.

The establishment of the Kingdom on earth is through the symbolical moving into the heritage of “the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” Until man sees that the world of relative things comes under the rule of the Christ, and that he must of necessity move into the state of consciousness designated as the heritage of every man, the government will be from without in and will be filled with chaos. The moment he becomes conscious of his heritage and moves into it, and experiences the nature of “The mind which was also in Christ Jesus,” the government is then upon his shoulders and proceeds from within out. Whatsoever is therefore done within the temple is proclaimed from without as a miracle. It is wonderful, the glorious revelation that comes through the contemplation of “the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” Please note the word “also” and compare it with the word of the centurion for “I ALSO am a man in authority.” This “also” includes you when you perceive the nature of this heritage.

As the firmament holds the stars, as the sea holds the fish, so the love of God holds you in his arms and whispers to the soul of you; it is well with you. Can you hear?

9. THE PLUS VALUE OF THANKS

“JESUS LIFTED His eyes to heaven and said, ‘Thank you, Father,’ ” showing that He knew the manifestation was already in existence and that He was merely satisfying the conscious thinking of the multitude that something was being done. So often must it be called to mind that heaven is not a locality but a state of consciousness, Jesus did not necessarily have to look up when He raised His eyes to heaven. It was not with the physical sight that He saw—for of this sight it had been said “Ye have eyes and see not.” Until these points are thoroughly established, man will continually go on trying to “demonstrate” the life of Jesus by “acting” as he imagines Jesus acted.

Such a wide gulf lies between the belief in “dem-onstration” and the revelation of Jesus Christ in arriving at the new consciousness where, “Whatsoever you ask” is possible and natural, that the illustration· of Dives and Lazarus is hardly adequate to convey the difference.

“Ye must be born again” savours of something new taking place. There is nothing carried over, and no working with old materials. “New wine into old bottles» may be the idea of the “demonstrator” but it is adverse to the teachings of the Revelator. The demonstration of a thing posits the swinging away from that thing into the opposite state of affairs, but the New Mansion (consciousness) into which you enter through the Revelation, finds the things you formerly tried to demonstrate, the natural, orderly out-picturing of desires.

All “things” come and go but YOU—the I AM—remain for ever. So things must be relegated to their proper place in the scheme of life or else they will dominate, just as the collie pup raised with the lion dominated the King of the Jungle. In the minds of many “demonstrators” things seem the most important part of the Truth.

There is great excitement over the demonstration of ten thousand dollars or a crowd of people, or a new car, in metaphysics, but nothing is said of the manifestation of PEACE. If substance is not natural and normal then you will never possess it, and will be working for the “thing” or the symbol which will slip through your fingers. Without the consciousness of substance you cannot retain the symbol, while with the consciousness of substance you do not try to retain it, knowing the outflowing and onflowing of the spirit behind it.

All value has to be taken away from the “thing” or else you cannot possess it or use it, yet in taking away the value from it you, for the first time, see it in its true light. A mountain is but an infinite multiplying of a grain of sand, a million dollars is but a multiplication of the almost worthless cent, and so is it with faith as a grain of mustard seed. But all these are too infinitely beneath your attention. You want to make a demonstration of the million dollars, and you have nothing but the three drops of oil—the cent the grain of mustard seed or sand—the one loaf of bread, or the dregs of wine.

The recognition of these three drops of oil is easily made, but the increase has to be brought forth by the expansive quality of the “Thank you, Father.” “Thanksgiving” in its truest sense and in the manner in which Jesus used it was anything but a trying to work “tricks” with the Principle of Life. Many persons have uttered gratitude and thanksgiving in word and song and seen nothing happen, although they were told a well-spring would gush forth.

Do not fool yourself, “God is not mocked,” and neither is He tricked by lip-service into doing things, more than He has already done. The motive back of the thanks and the giving is the measure which counts. The thanksgiving which brings the seeming expansive quality into manifestation is done from the sheer joy of the Presence, whether you have a single thing or not, or whether you have gone prodigal and have had and lost.

Nothing matters but the sudden recognition of LIFE. Not a glorified Father Christmas—passing out the little toys you so much desire but a great overwhelming, outpouring sense of Life which thrills you even to contemplate. What matter the little things? They will come into place as automatically as moths are drawn to the night—light. They cannot help themselves. “I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto Me” is an actual mathematical law.

It is wonderful, this rejoicing, not because of victory, not because of things, but because of the Presence. Compare the bread which was shown forth and was eaten, and which satisfied the momentary hunger, to the Bread which cometh down from heaven, which if a man eateth thereof he shall never die. What of LIFE, instead of the little toys that have been so much to you—are you able to make the “stretch” in consciousness into the place where appearances are not important and recognize and give thanks for the thing called LIFE and let it cover the earth with its manifestation?

“I came that your joy might be full.” If He has come unto you, your joy is FULL or else He has not come. If you are still on the outside looking for the symbols, you are still empty_ and no joy or thanksgiving is with you. The manifestation of the Presence must be natural and normal or else you will be seeking ME for the “loaves and fishes” and naturally you will never find ME. “Whatsoever things you ask in my nature”—you have to be in the nature to even ask, otherwise they are the words of the man whose “breath is in his nostrils,” who has been told or thinks that by saying, “Thank you, Father” he is going to loosen the purse-strings of the riches of God.

It is a hard way and a desert way and leads to a place where the dogs lie under the tables of life. And yet this very power which seems to withhold the little gift for which you are asking, is pouring out lavishly and abundantly its manifestation.

What a law! “To him that hath shall be given”—the unenlightened rail against it, and yet with the consciousness which is fixed on the appearance, as reality, there is no place large enough to receive the gift or to hold it. The silver and gold which the crippled man asked for would have disappeared almost as snow on a river and he would have been at the same point—”begging” for substance before the open fount of life. Even so are many would-be demonstrators of the Truth. They are literally begging, and nothing is given, for the hard old law says, “To him that hath shall be given.”

If man is wise, eventually he will turn into his own house and find the three drops of oil, and the handful of meal or the tiny grain of mustard seed and see in this the all that is necessary to bring forth the Kingdom of Heaven. But perhaps he will return unto his house desolate, bitter and feeling a great resentment towards life for having deprived him of the gift—so small—for which he asked. But there is no sympathy in the Law—no discount—the “Way is straight and narrow”—and we have to follow the Way, for there is a broad highway which leads to all unhappiness and belief in evil. This straight-and-narrow Way is not one of limitation in spite of the terminology. There is the one fundamental underlying law in mathematics which must be adhered to if it is to flower into all the gigantic manifestations that emanate from the field of engineering. It is straight and narrow as compared with the haphazard, short cuts of the human mind, which offers all sorts of cheap and spurious “ways” to accomplish its illegitimate schemes and make things appear.

One of these short cuts in metaphysics is the belief that by repeating affirmations something will happen or that you can fool the Principle of Life by assuming a verbal attitude of thanksgiving. The “yon mountain” of belief which has blocked your way for so long is not moved at the command “Be ye removed,” unless that command emanates from a consciousness of its fulfillment.

“Draw nigh unto ME and I will draw nigh unto you.” Take your attention away from the appearance and place it upon ME if you desire to see the “desert blossom as a rose” and the “fields white.” The excitement of manifestation will drop away as it becomes natural for God to be revealed instead of demonstrated.

So we find that Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven—with the same extension of sight which “Looks again” and discovers the fields white with harvest. Where is heaven and what is heaven? It is a state of consciousness within YOU—yes, YOU.

Jesus had to give praise, and recognize the Presence within His consciousness so that He could “feel” it perfectly natural to give thanks for the apparently unseen thing. The thanksgiving of the Presence was not done in order to “make” anything happen, but in pure joy and recognition that it was already done in the state of heaven where everything is immediately given.

“Before you ask,” is the “word” which formed the perfect abandoned basis for Jesus’ manifestations. He was not surprised but happy that the expansion of the power took place and filled every measure full to overflowing.

Would you be surprised if your prayers were fulfilled? Until it becomes natural and normal no very great thing can take place, and yet you are constantly professing the eternal and all inclusive Presence.

As a geyser gushing forth from the very center of the earth increases its height and power until it floods everything, so the true thanksgiving multiplies one loaf into five thousand. It is wonderful!

Things gradually are falling into their right place. They are transient manifestations which are passing before your sight. And yet with all this non-value and non-importance of the thing, there is an underlying law of integrity which says, “Pick up the pieces”; see that nothing is wasted. It is wonderful, the revelation that floods through your being when you “Come unto ME”: when you leave all and follow the Power into the manifestation of Heaven here and NOW.

“He lifted his eyes to heaven.” Your heaven may be only as big as three drops of oil, or a grain of mustard seed, and the wretched house which encloses it may be so hopeless that it is about to tumble in, but from this tiny sense of heaven is to come forth the mighty gusher of oil—joy.

“I will overturn, overturn, overturn,” and so everything will be overturned until you find within yourself that which Jesus found within himself—the source of ALL. It is hard for the conscious thinking mind, crystallized into an adamant form, to imagine this possible, and so we take our attention entirely away from the appearance, and go within to the “mustard seed.” As you magnify the Presence, the “seed” expands until the tiny shell holds all the universe and presently the shell or design of the seed is broken and the new manifestation appears.

Yes, beloved! Eventually you will have to “Take up your cross and follow Me.” When you are ready to do this you find the first joy and glory you have ever known. The “taking up the cross” is only as heavy as the conscious thinking in your life makes it. Your cross is your own consciousness of evil, nothing more, and it has been on this cross that you have nailed yourself all these years. You have not been crucified, you are crucifying yourself and at the same time calling to be taken down from the cross.

When you “take up your cross”—when you see that the proposition is entirely up to you, you have come out from among them (those that are still trying to demonstrate an unnatural power) and are brought into a heaven of self—expression. It is up to you, otherwise you must remain in the bondage of slavery in “Egypt.”

If you are still trying to get things by saying words or begging and beseeching the Power, you had better remain in “Egypt.” The way of Jesus Christ is the vigorous and joyous reliance on the Inner Lord and finding the expression of this “Lord” natural in the abundance of things which replenish the barren earth. The cool and abandoned way in which Jesus stood before the five thousand witnesses to lack, gives us an idea of the confidence which is born of the recognition of the natural functioning of God.

“He lifted his eyes unto heaven and gave thanks.” It is finished when the “thanks” are given and is then automatically let into expression. Suddenly in the depths of being—in the hidden, secret place—the great Fountain of Life gushes up and up and up, and everything is filled full, pressed down and running over with the manifest Presence.

Why should Jesus bother whether there were five or five thousand? It was as if He had partaken of the food alone. It was a continuous idea of this consciousness which knew that IT was eternally sustained and held in position by the partaking of the hidden manna. If ONE can perform it within HEAVEN it fills every available want on the earth. For ONE with God is a majority. If you can do the thing within this consciousness, the manifestation will take care of itself. But if you try to perform it on the outside and imagine that this will produce the Consciousness, you find it too difficult to demonstrate; five thousand is one thing but five thousand and ONE is an entirely different proposition. Do you begin to understand what is the height and breadth and allness of God?

The power of praise is the power of increase, but the words of praise may be “clouds without rain.” “Watch”—what is your motive? It is better to enter into your tumble-down house and discover the three drops of oil and find in them their multiplication, than to remain in the congregation of those who will presently interest you in building a Tower of Babel with which to get to heaven.

Heaven is a state of consciousness and until you find this within yourself you will never see it with—out. One tower after another will be built and fall as you pass through one “system” of truth after another trying to arrive.

“Praise the Lord,O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Have you ever prayed and forgotten about it? Have you ever entered into a season of pure recognition and thanksgiving when the selfish conscious thinking was entirely absent and you were rejoicing in the Presence here, there and everywhere? You will be surprised some time when you come out from such a glorious place to see the “Fields white” and the sickle already in your hand.

“Eyes have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those who love Lord—Law.” It is not the prepared things of this earth that you are trying to reap but the unseen and the unheard—of things. The seen things are for your use in the degree and abundance that you can conceive of them from within.

“Consider the lilies, HOW they grow” is beautiful poetical prose containing one of the deep fundamental laws of life. The lily cannot be made or created by man, it must be let into expression. It already lies in the hard dry bulb just as the whole beautiful expression of heaven lies deep within you. You are not to create heaven but to reveal it just as the lily is revealed.

“They toil not neither do they spin.” The “toiling and spinning” that is done to make God do your bidding and to create the lily which is already there, has no place in the revelation of Jesus. He was at no time concerned with the appearance, neither was He busy with the creation of unnatural things.

To the Jesus—Christ Consciousness (which is indigenous in every man) that which is called miracle is natural and that which is called demonstration will presently be consumed, or else it will fall into the dust. In this state of consciousness the “Go thou and do likewise” carries with it the infinite capacity to accomplish the command, and there is no setting up of the doer. “Call not me good.” Jesus constantly refused to take the personal angle. If He had, He would have been deluged with the floods of personality which would have ended the magnificent flow of power and made Him appear responsible for the works of God.

It is wonderful to contemplate the Presence and to know that at last you are coming to the real place of expression and beginning to understand the plus-value of the joy of thanksgiving.

It is joyous recognition—that of the eternal rightness of LIFE—and this recognition changes, manipulates and rearranges the animated things of life with such an alarming rapidity that man is left breathless.

“I have a way ye know not of,” the hardest, most adamant wall of conscious thinking is blown away as a cloud of dust before the Breath of God. Do you begin to see the “New heaven and new earth” “as-cending” out of the clouds of belief?

“Do not go out to fight with the midnight and the storm.” Do not argue or set right or explain the differences between your way and the way of man. Let it alone. “What is that to thee?” Is one of the most important laws of the NEW DAY that is dawning over the world.

“Verily ye shall be fed.” Are you afraid that you will not have “food”?—1 said, “Verily ye shall be fed”—Do you hear? Do you think that the conscious thinking can out—distance the Power of the Presence? Are you afraid, thinking that man knows more of the correctness and beauty of life than God?

“Come let us reason together.” What is your premise? What do you believe about the Presence? What do you live for—the opinions and beliefs of others? Answer ME!

The seal of silence being put upon your lips will save you from the devastating effects of the argument of the “man whose breath is in his nostrils.” He can prove to you definitely that no lily exists in the bulb, if you let him. He will cut it open and show you, and he is right so far as he goes, and he has proven it to you beyond the question of a doubt—for there is no lily in that bulb.

You may “show John” but you are counseled to “tell no man.” Perhaps you are one of those special beings who can afford to discount the pure, simple teaching of Jesus Christ and follow after man.

This silence does not prohibit you from speaking the WORD and saying the glorious things given to you through inspiration. A heavenly inspiration regulates it all; the anxious thought, the argument, and the running to and fro all cease.

If your friend, so learned and advanced, knows that prayer is not answered, what is that to thee? Does it disturb you that he thinks and knows that the Immaculate Conception is a myth? Why? The sum total of what he thinks will not affect you one iota, unless it is accepted and woven into the fabric of your life. It is wonderful—the way of silence.

“Be still and know that I AM God.” Un-dreamed-of things lie within the seed awaiting thanksgiving and praise. “I came that you might have Life”—Life more abundant. So spake Jesus. What does this amount to? Life more abundant must find its expression outside of the limited forms of life upon which you are now gazing. It enters into every “mustard” seed and expands until it bursts the narrow con-fines and is released into abundant manifestation. “I came that your joy might be full.” Full! Do you hear? What of your JOY? Is it so dependent upon things that you have none, and yet by the very use of things can joy flow all over the universe.

“Eat my body, drink my blood” is just as important a function as any other. We use the manifestation and consume its substance and discard the shell or else it is worthless. Until you have your right relation to things and have the right concept of their value you will find yourself a slave to them.

Things acquired through the hard method of demonstration very of ten turn to dust in your hands. The thing you want so much and which you finally force into manifestation often comes too late or has no joy in it, and yet this same thing should have been out into manifestation long ago, consumed, and a thousand other glorious manifestations come and gone. It is wonderful when you come by the way of Jesus and not by the way of man.

“Heaven and earth are full of thee”—”The heavens declare the glory and the earth showeth forth his handiwork’’—the state of consciousness into which Jesus entered called “Heaven” and which He told you was within you “declares” the glory which is the power to bring into manifestation that which “showeth forth.” No wonder He “gave thanks”—how could He help it since it was the WORD which released the unseen into the seen!

In this holy place of recognition and thanksgiving, the very life you experience will suddenly become so filled with a sense of light that it will flood the whole universe. You will have to take off your shoes (human understanding) for you will be standing on holy ground, and the poor little shoes are too limited for the “beautiful feet upon the mountain.” For the sheer joy and glory of it all you will say, “Thank you, Father,” no matter how the hard, dry wrappings of conscious thinking have bound you. No matter if your world is filled with five thousand witnesses of the evil from which you have suffered so long, or that ten thousand testify to the impossibility and the impracticability of the Christ Truth, you shall p through, untouched by the former beliefs. It is wonderful!

He lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “Thank you, Father.” No matter what the appearances were, Jesus looked straight into the face of God, and saw the Edenic state of Life pictured forth. Those who grabbed and ate the bread, and returned for more next day, only saw through their “glass darkly” a miracle taking place which they neither understood nor cared to understand.

“Fear not, little flock—it is your Father’s good pleasure to GIVE you the Kingdom of Heaven.” Can you take your gift—even though you have made your bed in hell? Can you find Me there? Can you see Me in your enemy, in the drunkard, thief, liar, and all the other self—divisions of your consciousness?

Do not shut your eyes to life in an attempt to get to Me. Open your eyes and “look again.” Looking through the heaven to which Jesus raised his eyes you will see the hard, fast limitations of conscious thinking with its motley throng, disappear—changed, reborn, made new. If you cannot find heaven within your own consciousness you cannot establish it without. You are wasting your time trying, and are only building another Tower of Babel.

You are living in the midst of your own consciousness. The moment you cease to find a thing there, it will have no counterpart or reflector in your universe so all the enemies and devils and hell will disappear as these are driven from your temple by the coming of the LIGHT.

In the contemplation of the Presence with the JOY of the Christ, you will find that the Glory of the Lord is filling your house. Thanksgiving will well up in your heart and cover the whole earth.

“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods
“In _his hands are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
“The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
“For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.”
Psalm 95: 1-7.

This great Power Jesus recognized as present in every man. The Father within was the point of contact with the Universal Whole and the place of thanksgiving. The recognition of this Father within as the great King above all kings puts to flight all the lesser powers and beliefs in your life and permits you to “Come in and go out and find pasture.” No wonder the thanksgiving has a plus value. It is the purest surrender to this One and only Power before which every knee shall bend and in whose hand are the deep and hidden things. It is wonderful!

“O sing unto the Lord a new song.” A song of thanksgiving and praise, a song which in itself bursts the hard dry shell of the mustard seed and releases the unlimited flow of the three drops of oil and causes you to exclaim, “Heaven and earth ARE full of thee.” It is wonderful! Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. All is enough.

10. MY GRACE

“My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

WHO BELIEVES IT? Who believes that “grace”—that subtle indefinable quality which transcends the wisdom of man and automatically fulfills the desires of your heart is “sufficient”? Then again—if not, why not?

If you do not believe it, why do you pray for it, since no results can possibly come into manifestation except ye “believe.” This believing is far from the credulity of the human mind which thinks within its heart, “If I believe, it might come to pass,” just as you might believe some magic power would change your entire life, or that a lucky stone or amulet would protect you from evil.

The “believing” necessary is brought to a state of BEING—a pure unadulterated recognition of the Presence, without question or regard as to how, why, when or where it can or will be fulfilled.

“My grace.” What do you mean—whose is the “MY” and where located and how do we approach this abstract power? “The Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” The Father-within—the divinity of you—knows all things without any lip-service and is ready and willing to give them to you, the moment you arrive at a point of accepting them without question or analysis.

A strange procedure this, the coming into the Christ-consciousness. Words are futile and meaningless to convey the acceptance of such an all—inclusive statement “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sufficient is enough, and is infinitely more than you ever dreamed of possessing or enjoying. It is the complete and perfect EASE into life which lifts you out of the dis-EASE of the conscious thinking which is a seething cauldron of problems and trouble.

We are beginning to see that if the WORDS of Jesus are not taken as actual statements of possibilities they are just so much poetry. Of course the thing to be remembered always in approaching this rich heritage is “The ways of man are foolishness in the eyes of God.” Unless this is accepted, the benefit resulting from the words of Jesus will be nil. Measuring the power of Jesus and the gifts of God through the consciousness of man we see a complete and utter failure of performance.

By what possible stretch of imagination can he conceive that the grace of God is sufficient for him—literally—actually? And it is not until man disconnects himself from the “wisdom of man” and begins to realize that this transaction has to take place on the plane of consciousness known as the Father, that he can experience these marvellous things which the world holds as miraculous but which are natural and normal to the Power.

Judging from the appearance; judging from the equipment the average man has to work with, he finds it utterly impossible for his desire to express through himself. It is impossible to understand how a man born and reared in poverty can suddenly come into the “grace which is sufficient.” And as a matter of fact, he cannot. The consciousness of Jesus was not able to do the works of Jesus Christ. He knew that He could of Himself do nothing, but He also knew that He could accomplish everything when He became one with His own divinity—which He designated as the Father-within.

This recognition of the Divine Power was that act or gesture which caused the man born blind to say, “Whereas before I was blind now I can see.” Had he taken any thought about the situation he would have found it as impossible as you find it when you take thought about fulfilling the desires of your heart or accepting the words of the Christ, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” There is no possibility of bringing out this “sufficiency” through man’s opaque conscious thinking which already knows that nothing is sufficient, that he has traveled for a life-time in limitation, and everything in the whole world is set against him.

“Leave all” (do you hear? all)—”follow ME” is a fundamental law stated in such simple and concise terms that an adult mind filled with the adultery of human inventions cannot possibly receive it. “Judge not from appearance but judge righteous judgment” is not the Pollyanna doctrine of seeing good where evil exists. It is the actual “leaving all”—all the appearances which are subject to change instantly, and entering into the consciousness which can give thanks for the unseen thing.

It is not nearly so difficult as it appears. It is only difficult to the frightened human mind with its foolish wisdom. Once the divinity is recognized, even though it be no larger than a grain of mustard seed, you are on the road to seeing the statements of Jesus Christ come into manifestation.

Your equipment may be, according to the best findings of your conscious thinking, entirely inadequate, but God is able to do things which entirely transcend the conscious thinking and unless you are willing to take off at this level you are still hoping for some strange or unnatural manifestation to take place, and are going to be disappointed.

Coming by the way of God has to be done entirely outside the way of the old thought—taking process. If once you recognize your divinity—”The mind which was also in Christ Jesus”—you will understand that it must work by its own power and not have imposed upon it the limitations you have found in your conscious mind, from which you have struggled so long to free yourself.

It is true, inspiration cannot be taught, but the technique of inspiration is plainly shown by Jesus when he “raised his eyes to heaven and gave thanks.” When once you understand this, no matter what wrong embodiment is apparent in your life, nor how hopelessly inadequate seem your chances of getting on, you will experience the transformation automatically taking place which will align the body with the power which is to express through it.

The world will call it inspiration because it will be so different and so free from the limitations of man. Looking steadily into the face of God, the inspiration will pour through with a never—ending abundance, only being colored by that degree of conscious thinking which is allowed to enter. Inspiration will flow freely from the source of God as soon as you disregard completely the ways and means of its appearing, and gaze into the face of God. What, therefore, you see God to be that will your body or temple express. It is past all understanding; it is past all finding out.

You can see the change that took place in Jesus the carpenter when He looked into the face of God—He “raised his eyes to heaven and gave thanks”—and instantly He functioned in the role of a host at a banquet to five thousand. So is it also with you. It may be no more possible for you to give the banquet, symbolically speaking, to five thousand than it was for Jesus, but by following closely the revelation of Jesus Christ you will find a new door of inspiration opening unto you which no man can close.

To judge not from the appearance is to cease the argument, wonder and guessing as to how, why, when, and where the power can or will manifest in your life. When the heaven of which Jesus so often spoke is discovered to be within your consciousness—no matter what kind of hell your body has experienced nor what scars or bums are there—the inspiration will move into manifestation and fulfill itself by the way of God, not by the way of man.

If “Eyes have not seen, nor ears heard and it has not entered into the heart of man” the things that are prepared for those who love the Lord—Law—what is the good examining further the poverty-stricken manifestation of conscious thinking?

Jesus knew that all evil was directly caused by thinking and was entirely sustained by this same thing. He knew the moment He “took thought” about a situation He began to see much more evil than good and the final result usually was a super-abundance of evil. Certainly the first thing that introduces itself into the conscious thinking is limitation and it immediately cites more than ten thousand cases to back it up. Your case seems hopeless almost at the start. You have not the ghost of a chance to heal yourself or prosper yourself through the “taking thought” method. Jesus advised “Take no thought.” This is not quite as it appears on the surface. Thought emanates from a state of consciousness and does not create it, as light emanates from but does not create a candle. It is the power with which you invest the thought which causes it to harm or help you. You are functioning from a state of consciousness which you have accepted.

So the great Master, Jesus, knowing the nature of thought and how it was the very basis and fabric of evil, said “Take no thought.” The moment you begin to think about “My grace is sufficient for thee,” you are met with a thousand and one tortuous questions and ideas. “Well, why does it not come through?—Or how could it come to pass?—Or what possible chance have I to experience this sufficiency in this present location?” And so on.

Disregarding your poor little manifestation with its plethora of lack and limitation, with its aura of evil, and gazing steadily into the face of your divinity, you will find a surprising manifestation taking place, and it will have about it the quality of inspiration which will assure its success.

When this revelation of Jesus Christ becomes a living, breathing reality with you instead of a quasi-religion invented in the last hundred years, you will begin working after the pattern laid down for you by Christ-Jesus. He definitely recognized that “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” He knew so surely that Heaven was a state of consciousness and that the “Father” was His point of divinity where He became conscious of God or the Presence. He knew that the government being upon HIS shoulders, the machine, body or temple, would function according to the inner direction and this sudden recognition would wipe· out or completely set aside all the limitations of the temple or body. Hence we see the Jesus-carpenter becoming the Jesus-Christ, teacher in the Temple.

Remember, it is the same body with its same limita-tions, but all this is completely submerged in the Fatherconsciousness, and as He realizes that “The Father worketh hitherto and I work,” He merely goes through the mechanics of carrying out the urge of spirit. This is all over—shadowed by a marvelous sense of integrity, a secrecy and a willingness to follow closely in the line of consciousness which knows that “The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.” It is true that coming by the way of God you may go through fire and water, but this is not an achievement, it is merely the natural functioning of the law which “has a way ye know not of.” It is done at the expense of the conscious thinking which gives you proof of ten thousand who have “tried” to go through and failed.

“Awake! Thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee Light!” You are in a new day. You are entering into your heritage. Be not discouraged because you cannot bring it into visibility, one hundred per cent, the first time you sense this new dimension. “Patience must have her perfect work.”

“I go before you and prepare the way”—is inconceivable and untrue to the conscious thinking. It cannot be either accepted or understood by the “wisdom” of man, and the more he tries to figure it out the less possibility there is of arriving at any conclusion other than that it is not true. From the conscious thinking point of view it is silly and false to say “I (an invisible power) go before you and prepare a place for you,” but from the consciousness of your divinity you begin to see that the “Father worketh hitherto and I work,” is something which cannot be explained even under the highest X—ray of faith and desire. It is something that has to be accepted and recognized and given thanks for.

“Whatsoever things you ask in my name” is a pretty big measure for the average person, yet there it stands. The conscious mind knows a thousand and one things it would be glad to have and has asked for them time and again without result, but it is not done through the conscious thinking. “When ye pray, enter into thy closet and shut the door” and whatsoever the FATHER “seeth” in secret He shall reward openly. You cannot see much in the conscious thinking mind, most of it is colored by limitation, and so the “raising the eyes to heaven and giving thanks” lifts you entirely out of the realm of appearances and causes you to disregard limitation, inability or lack of any nature whatever.

“My Grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

We see the power of “weakness” is something to be considered in this equation—in the releasing the grace into life. The non-resistance to the appearances and beliefs instead of the fighting against them, is set, is covered, by this word “weakness.’’

If you expect the Grace which is the sufficiency of all things to take place in your life it will have to be done at the weakness of your conscious thinking. Just so long as you are trying to figure it out you will wait without, wondering why all your good seems so far away, and how such seeming futility enters your life.

The willingness to give up the “wisdom” of man and become “weak” in the true sense of the word will function the government of God in your life. “Not my will but thine be done” is the antithesis of coming under the ugly experiences of life. The Will of the God (who is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity and comes to fulfill and not to destroy) will bring out a constant and never—ending stream of harmony, which will result in a consciousness of, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Sufficient—do you hear? “Sufficient”—not nearly or somewhat—SUFFICIENT. Believest thou this?

11. BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS

“BEFORE Abraham WAS—1 AM”—the identical I AM which the carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, found within Himself, and gave to the world as a universal principle, indigenous in every man. So often the idea of Christianity is supposed to have been centered in Jesus, the carpenter. It is true that this temple, body, did bring forth the idea in such well-defined and clear terms that no one who has followed has improved upon the simple rudiments laid down by Him. In spite of the words, “The works that I do shall ye do also and even greater . . .” Jesus at no time associates the revelation with the personal Jesus.

Most Christians are in reality followers after a teacher called “Jesus” instead of the revelation which came through Him. “Call not me good”—and “My Father worketh hitherto and I work,” both indicate that Jesus did not want His followers to be mistaken about the source of the power. “I can of mine own self (Jesus, the carpenter) do nothing”—sweeps away once and for all time the idea that this power was something peculiar to Jesus.

In a hundred ways Jesus tried to impress on man that the Power which He discovered within Himself was within every man and was something which antedated his personal birth. Yet most people speaking of Christ the power, have it so confused with Jesus the temple, they speak of a time “BEFORE CHRIST”—or in common parlance B.C. In reality this Christ Power which changed Jesus, the carpenter, into Jesus the Christ had no beginning and was not circumscribed by the narrow confines of the human thinking.

“Before Abraham” represented the ancient of days to those listening to the words of Jesus, but the same is true today. The Principle, the I AM which is within every man, is birthless, deathless, and eternal, without beginning or ending, hence such an apparently extravagant statement as “This is LIFE ETERNAL to KNOW ME” appears to be a little more possible when it is understood that the “ME” that we are required to KNOW is not the life of a personal Jesus, but Christ Principle which transmuted Jesus into Jesus-Christ and gave him power over the manifestation of Jesus.

There is a time before Jesus, as has already been revealed and beautifully explained in our day, but there is no time before Christ. As man begins to understand this he will drop all personal teaching and will appropriate the pure Christ Principle that existed before Abraham.

It is wonderful to contemplate this glorious power in the midst of you that is revealed only as it is recognized by the individual. It has such strange and non-understandable powers as “If you make your bed in hell I AM there”—and the instant this “I AM” is recognized in any place the one who recognizes the Presence apparently performs a miracle. In reality he is functioning in this ME causing the laws of the former beliefs to become powerless.

It is the Self-revelation which eventually comes to every man who finds the Christ within the temple of his being. “Leave all (do you hear, ALL) follow ME.” Where are you going? Any place physically? You are told to leave ALL—leave everything on the plane of working out problems and follow ME into the new state of consciousness where the ceaseless working out of problems is no more.

Within this Christ revelation lies all things. The conscious thinking mind has not been able to conceive of life without problems, because on that plane it is not possible to live without good and evil. Overcoming, man has been taught, strengthens him and makes him more spiritual. Once, however, he glimpses the fact that the Christ consciousness is not for the purpose of “working out problems” but for the revelation of the new Mansion he sees that it is possible to go from “glory to glory.”

In the Christ consciousness to which we refer as the I AM, there is no working out of problems. That which was a problem to the former state of consciousness becomes nothing as the new revelation takes place. As a small candle-light might struggle, as it were, to dispel the darkness of a large room, the risen sun absorbs the darkness and the light of the candle as well. So the struggles of the Jesus are swallowed up in the glorious revelation of the Christ Light. It is the new dimension that is revealed and in the twinkling of an eye all is changed. It is referred to in a thousand ways—”Ye must be born again”“Awake! Thou that sleepest”—”Arise and shine”“Come unto Me.” Every one of these commands is outside of the human possibility.

Do you begin to understand that when Peter was told to “Come to Me” he moved, by his acceptance of the Power, into a new state of consciousness where the laws of matter were not operating? He was not overcoming gravity. In the Consciousness of ME the law of gravity does not exist, just as in the Consciousness of ME there is NO death.

So is it true with prosperity. In the consciousness of the Christ, which Jesus revealed as indigenous in every man, there was no limitation and poverty which subsequently had to be set aside by the overcoming power of Christ. The moment He moved into the consciousness of Jesus—Christ, at that moment all the laws, beliefs, etc., that had previously been in operation in the life of Jesus ceased and a new order came into manifestation. “This (right here and Now) is Life Eternal (not temporal) to know ME. And the moment we contact this consciousness of LIFE we are through for ever with the overcoming of age, sickness and death. “Life Eternal” could not be perpetually occupied with a limited thing called health. There are greater revelations to be made through the consciousness which has “arisen and gone unto the Father.”

We see the family of Jesus in rather limited circumstances financially. It does not appear that they directly profited by His ability to feed five thousand, and Jesus does not seem particularly concerned because He knew that they had the same possibility of the Christ revelation within them. When He found a person seeking “Jesus,” He knew immediately what he was after. He, who could supply five thousand with bread and fishes, turned from one who came and asked Him for this very thing, knowing that the gross misunderstanding of the Principle—the trying to get things—would result in nothing but failure.

It is wonderful! How the freedom of the Life in Christ Jesus is thrown into patterns of harmony on the screen of life, in contradistinction to the tragedy of the bondage to the followers of Jesus (symbolically speaking). Thousands today are going through the passions of Jesus, suffering, and believing that this is what He taught.

So conscious of this Presence was Jesus He was amazed at the apparent inability of the people to grasp the freedom which the Spirit of the Presence of God gave them. He could not understand how people who had once recognized this Presence would ever come “begging” of life for a sign. And He sighed deeply in His spirit and faith: “Why doth this generation seek a sign?” Following it up with the very drastic words: “There shall be no sign.” Those seeking for a sign eternally are reversing the revelation as given by the Master, Jesus—”The signs follow” they do not precede—in MY name (nature), etc. And again the blessing which fell upon that one who did not ask for a sign. The human mind seeking loaves and fishes does not understand the revelation of the Christ, but sees only a man, a teacher, book or organization, and in his attempt to please this one he entirely misses the Christ.

“Before Abraham was I Am.” What will you do with that statement when you come up with personal, or special copyrighted brands of the Christ? Answer ME! How long will you follow a man instead of the Christ before which and after which there is none other?

“Come out from among them and be ye separate,” the old beliefs that clung about you like so many barnacles drop away when you cease to overcome them. Giving attention to an evil, trying to overcome it, must be preceded by a belief in the evil as something to be overcome. “Let the filthy be filthy still.”

So busy are people with demonstrations of the Power they fail to see the revelation of Jesus Christ. The moment Jesus recognized the Presence and became one with it He was functioning in a consciousness which caused the “former things to pass away” and if He stayed in this consciousness they were not only wiped out of the physical world, but presently “They shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more.” What are you after—a healing which you can spend a lifetime talking about, or a complete forgetfulness of the beliefs which you claimed were nothing?

“Ye MUST be born again”—do you believe it or are you still going about putting new material into old garments or new wine into old containers? If you do not believe that the NEW Birth must take place you are still working with the evil and the power to overcome it, you have a house divided against itself. This symbology of the re—birth mystified Nicodemus and he found it impossible. “What!—Be born again? How impossible! It has never happened and it cannot happen.” So the wisdom of man (which is foolishness in the eyes of God) goes on and accomplishes nothing.

This recognition of the Presence may appear to he a tremendous job because the human mind wants to “try”—but the revelation as given by Jesus Christ is simple—it must be understood by the child or else it is of no use to you. It is recognition and then appropriation.

It is amazing what the simple illustration of Santa Claus will do. Millions of children every year actually materialize a figure called Father Christmas and yet we know he does not exist, hut takes form and reacts to the belief or the acceptance.

The illustration my be ridiculous and yet it was just this quality of the child to bring out the impossible and unseen by accepting it, that Jesus turned to, knowing that the adult would immediately reason away God as he does Father Christmas. It is amazing to see how true the statement is: “The wisdom of man is foolishness with God,” and vice versa. There is no possibility of any of the so-called miracles happening according to the “wisdom of man,” he will find a good and sufficient reason for everything that transpires.

Last year at Christmas time I saw several hundred impersonations of Santa Claus. On Park Avenue one stepped from a limousine dressed in a well—tailored red flannel suit trimmed with real ermine. Down on the Bowery another appeared in red cheese-cloth and cotton wool. Why?

So is it with God—the degree of recognition determines the quality of the expression. And while it may seem almost sacrilegious to make such comparisons, we have the permission of the Master, Jesus, to use such parables as can best give the Light. Do you begin to understand how it is up to the individual and how he must come to understand the Principle instead of the personal doctrine?

Instead of wasting time demonstrating youth, and rejuvenation eternal we shall gradually see that to “Know aright” this Christ Principle (which was before Abraham) IS Life Eternal and the former things such as sin, sickness, disease and death shall pass away—they shall not be remembered nor called into mind any more.

Analyzing evil is a waste of time. There is nothing in the revelation of the Master, Jesus, which indicates that anything can come out of delving into that which you are presently to dismiss as unreal. “Leave all—follow ME”—but—and then it begins “why do I have this—my dead father—my wife, my husband, my mortgage, my job?”—”Leave all—follow ME.” Where are you going? Do you understand that leaving a material thing or problem will accomplish nothing? If it is in your mind you will reproduce it even though you go to the uttermost part of the world, because you are taking it with you. And likewise if you take ME with you—even though you take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost part of the earth, still thou art with ME. It is wonderful the simplicity of the Christ revelation as brought forth by Jesus.

“Having eyes see ye not, and having ears hear ye not, and do ye not remember?
“When I brake the five loaves among five thousand how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they answered, twelve”
“And when the seven among four thousand how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven.
“And He said unto them: ‘How is it that ye do not understand?’ ”

It was quite as impossible for Jesus, a man, to increase substance as it would be for you, and He knew definitely that if they had not “SEEN” the principle operating naturally on its own plane of expression they would still be looking for wonders, signs and a demonstrable truth which worked sometimes, and failed at others.

“My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” The limitations of Jesus were instantly absorbed into the Power of Jesus Christ and the body—temple—called Jesus, was the point through which the manifestation was stepped down into visibility.

A glorified personality cannot do anything but fulfill its own destiny. Jesus knowing this permitted His body to function through to the world the pattern of destiny for the purpose of showing what the Christ Power, the “Before Abraham was I AM” really was capable of doing. The seven baskets and the twelve baskets full of fragments speak for themselves. The overflowing of the Power fills everything full until there is a lavish abundance of the manifestation.

“Be still and KNOW that I AM God” has been used to glorify many a little personality and many an earnest seeker has imagined that this being still was a roundabout way of making himself God. The indivisible Principle of the I AM which WAS before Abraham and which ran through the Master, Jesus, is within you and is capable of the same and greater works than those done by the Master, Jesus, according to His own statement. Who believes it? Not the man who is reasoning and arguing, for he is trying the very ridiculous pastime of squaring the revelation of the next dimension by the limitations of this, and they will not check, so he knows that it simply cannot be done, and it cannot as far as he is concerned.

The moment curiosity enters in, the Father Christmas disappears into nothingness, and so does the Power of God. The moment the disbelief of curiosity tries to find out the how, why, when, or where of the Christ power, there is apparently no power any-where.

In the new consciousness which is within every man awaiting recognition there is an instantaneous release, not only from the hateful physical pattern of the relative mind, but also a complete release of the idea from the mind—so that in reality it shall not come into mind any more. “The former things have passed away they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more”—and the “former things” include all the struggles and beliefs in the limited personality which you have been holding all these years. “Leave all, follow ME”—means more than is apparent at first.

“He that hath ears let HIM hear what the spirit says unto the Churches.” Are you listening? Do you hear something of the Spirit of the glorious revelation, “Before Abraham was I AM”?

12. THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS

DURING a time of inflation, the symbol of money remains the same and yet it changes in value according to the power back of it. Hence the real value of money is not in the symbol, but in that for which it stands. The real value of health is not in the well body, but that which is back of it that sustains it, and keeps a constant stream of recognition of this perfected state flowing into manifestation.

The report of a modern miracle worker in Europe came to my attention recently. On being asked how he accomplished the healings by merely laying on the hands, he replied, “Some of my ancestors were present when Jesus was on earth—and since then we have always had this power in our family.”

I have come upon this before—almost the same statement being made by an old man—a hermit living in Pennsylvania. Strange and wonderful is the light that is dawning now about Consciousness. Coming into the consciousness of Jesus Christ so impressed itself upon the one who entered into it, that for generations the influence was felt.

Yet neither of these men appeared to have anything more than the barest needs when it came to creature comforts. Presumably, the only recognition made by their ancestors was that of the healing quality or the revealing of health. Suppose they had been actually present (not only physically but mentally as well) when the loaves and fishes were multiplied? Think it over. If you enter into the consciousness of Jesus Christ whatsoever you call it, that it is to you, and it will out—picture itself infinitely, or just as long as there is a measure to be filled.

The willingness to let go of the personally conceived plans of how it should work, is the Jordan experience. If you cannot find the willingness to submerge your personal will in the Will of the Power, you cannot be made whole. This is not nearly so drastic as it sounds. It is merely letting the Power bring Itself through into manifestation “by a way we know not of.” If you concede that God has a way ye know not of, then why will you insist upon outlining the ways and means of expression?

Recently, an actress, who for years had played the part of a grande dame, was trying to catch again the pace of expression. Nothing came for days, then one day her agent called and asked her to read the part of a barmaid. She was shocked at this sudden change of affairs and resented being asked to do such a thing, when suddenly she remembered the “Jordan,” and realized the necessity of catching the pace of the thing termed expression. Arriving at the agent’s office, she was handed the part of a royal princess—in an historical play then about to be produced: “But I thought,” she gasped, “I thought I was to play—” “Yes, you thought, but you found out differently.”

The ways of God are past finding out. It is true that the mustard seed is the start, and can be expanded into bushels of seed which would cover the earth; and so taking the “seed” and magnifying it, brings forth the infinite nature of God.

Catching the pace of expression has to be in the way of God’s appointing. If you will not go to the “Jordan,” you cannot get rid of your leprosy. And remember that “God is not mocked”; do not think to run to the “Jordan” with your mind full of the stupidity which says, “I will go to the Jordan, but of course, just my willingness to go will save me from dipping in its muddy waters.”

You are mistaken, for that is the time when you will take your mud bath, and nothing of any im-portance will come from the experience. “God is not mocked.”

So much reference is made to the “going within”—and the “shutting of the door”: it is within the temple that all the decrees find recognition, and hence fulfillment in the outer world. The man looking for the loaves and fishes is still in the realm of the manifest thing, trying to construct a body and breathe into it the breath of life. He is busy trying to demonstrate symbols, money, etc., and finally falls by the way because of the lifeless manifestation of his imagination.

He reasons backward, and his conclusions are “foolishness with God.” He thinks that if he keeps his attention fixed on the manifestation he can increase or possess it, but he only intensifies the lack of it in his life, and presently is filled with resentment and hatred of those who are able to bring forth the symbol. If he were working from within he would rejoice in every sign of the Presence, whether in himself or others.

The man who is sure he cannot concentrate, and knows positively that when he sits down to contemplate God, his thoughts refuse to stay put, as it were, does not realize he concentrates perfectly on his inability to concentrate, and thereby proves the law perfectly. The same thing is true of memory. “Do not forget to remember,” tells its own story. If we analyze these things we see how the Law is eternally working and bringing out success—as far as it is concerned. It is fulfilling whatever you accept as the Truth. This may be anything, but what you know to be the truth within yourself, good, bad, or indifferent takes on a body and form.

“Awake! Thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light!” Awake! And arise from the dead!

It is only in consciousness that you can know God—certainly it is impossible to know Him outside your consciousness or in the consciousness of another. You can only see that of which you are conscious. If Jesus could not have found God in His own consciousness He would never have been conscious of Him in the manifest universe, neither could He have “made himself as God.”

“Our Father, which art in heaven,” begins to take on a new and wonderful meaning when you see that Heaven—consciousness—is the only place where the Father can be known to you. Only in consciousness, could you perceive what takes place in the “look again” which bridges the time—space idea of the conscious thinking.

“My Father worketh hitherto and I work” also gives up its fourth-dimensional quality of transcending human beliefs. The fact that your body goes through the motions of the consciousness within is nothing strange. .My hands are writing this book one moment after the Father-Consciousness has expressed it within my consciousness. Likewise, “I will walk in you and talk in you,’’ and do a thousand and one things in you and relieve you of the government of your body and affairs. “The Government shall be upon His shoulders,” and this relieves you of all stage fright, fear, disease, lack, and limitation.

“Hallowed be thy name.” The nature being once discovered, it is hallowed above everything else. Through the recognition of this Name-nature will:

“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

As in the consciousness, so in the manifest world. We are learning that the power and the glory proceed out of this consciousness of God—and how man thus becomes one with the Universal Whole.

“As He is” (as your consciousness of God within you is) “so are you in this present world,” good, bad, or indifferent. You are the out-picturing of your consciousness of the ONE and ONLY Power. You may have it subdivided into a thousand lesser powers all working against you, but without your consciousness of a thing, it cannot exist. You are exactly the sum total of what your consciousness of yourself is, nothing more nor less. If you are discouraged by the outside manifestation, it is no good patching up the old garment, nor pouring the new wine into old bottles-—the change must take place from within.

Jesus spent no time in disposing of the outside manifestations. He went within and found what was true in the NATURE of God—and the manifestations took on the form and outlines of these new findings. It is true, that from one grain of mustard seed, the largest granary in the world can· be filled. But the one grain must be magnified. Whatever you find the “Me” of your consciousness to be, so will you be in manifestation. No wonder, then, that, “Be still and know that I AM God,” takes on such an importance. When we contemplate God and the nature of the Presence, we begin to alter the outside of the temple—but never vice versa.

“The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.” The imagination that thinks to please God by a great show of things, finds that the Principle of Harmony is not concerned with such trifles. The longing for place and power in order that God may be glorified through the little personal body, is a mistaken belief. A man was once so thrilled by the fact that he drew a crowd of people unto him that he kept pushing on by every means to make this crowd the greatest in the world; not figuring on the limitations of the finite sense, his voice was used beyond its human endurance, and ceased.

What good are crowds with no voice to speak to them? It is as the man who grew rich, and filled his barns, and then lost his soul. What are you trying to do with the God-Power—make a showing before man? Are you seeking the praise of the man whose breath is in his nostrils? If so, you also will feel the fire of his curse when he finds out where you allegiance is. It is wonderful—the revelation of Spirit.

Magnifying the power, and letting the manifestation take care of itself, is to find a constant, eternal stream of manifestation flowing into every vacuity of the human thought. There is no vacuity in God—it exists only in the conscious thinking, which builds a wall about a situation and imagines it has captured a place where God is not. The moment the recognition of the Presence is made, the “fulfillment” takes place.

Beloved, as the fulfillment is taking place within you NOW the “Glory of the Lord” is filling the house (consciousness). Your temple is at this instant filled with this radiance and power which is Life Eternal and which is showing you the “things which eyes have not seen.” Deep within you, the picture shown to you on the Mount is becoming more and more real, and is about to cast a shadow of expression into the universe of matter.

The Lord in the midst of you is searching the joints and marrow of the temple, body, and the conscious-thinking set ups are forced out of the temple. The laughter of God is ringing through the timbers of your being, and the whole earth is rejoicing that the Lord Omnipotent reigneth.

While writing, a letter was handed me from my publisher in London enclosing a letter from the United States, asking when I would return and if it would be possible to attend a group of lectures. The letter had gone six thousand unnecessary miles.

At the time the letter was written, I was lecturing in an hotel not three squares away from the writer. She might have reached me by ‘phone in one minute, and have walked to the hotel in five, and yet the letter made a six thousand miles’ journey.

Coming by the way of man, is always the long way round. Realizing that all things are in the consciousness of God, it is easy to see and understand the shortcut into manifestation. Small wonder, then, that Jesus went within his consciousness, and, if he lacked wisdom, asked of God and not of man.

After you have performed this inner “asking” the mechanics will take care of themselves—if you have the integrity to stand still and await the answer, it will never fail.

In the case of the before-mentioned letter, it is as if it described a triangle, the sides of which were three thousand miles long and the base three thousand feet. It is ridiculous to imagine when working on the outer, that “I have a way ye know not of,” is practical in everyday life; the only wise thing to do is to go by the way of man and try to find out what you want to know. But, when the revelation of Jesus Christ comes to you, you begin to understand what the temple practice is, and from the basis that the “wisdom” of man is foolishness in this next state of consciousness, you will cease trying to square either the findings or the possibilities of this new dimension by the old “foolishness.” If you can realize it within, the “I have a way ye know not of,” becomes possible and active.

Once conceiving the fact that you are “made in the image and likeness” panoplied in Love and Spirit—you have but to “remember” this, to find the outside manifestation, or the shadow cast into the picture, taking on form and shape. One moment’s realization that you are “fed by the Spirit” and are eating the “bread they knew not of” the table literally and figuratively will appear in the wilderness, in the presence of your enemies—i.e., the beliefs in appearance.

It is wonderful to what extent this Power is able to manifest in your outer life. “Whatsoever” is the measure—but it is stepped down by whatsoever “you,” which causes the size and shape of the measure to conform to your consciousness. No wonder, then, Jesus counseled the enlarging of the borders of your tent and the launching out into the deep.

The “remembering”—which is only another way of recognizing the Presence—becomes a joy when you see that it is put into manifestation by the automatic power and that man is the “stepper-down” of the manifestation, and not the creator. The Inspired Presence which is within you always, is not represented by some traveling “guide,” “master” or “disembodied spirit” but your own Father—consciousness which when recognized immediately takes the government of your shadow world upon its shoulders.

What good of argument once you have accepted the premise from which Jesus worked: “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God”? What good of argument as to the how, why, when, where and the cause of the appearances which have resulted from using this “foolish wisdom”? The command, “Leave ALL and follow ME,” means exactly what it says—either you leave ALL or you try to take some of the “foolishness” with you, or you try to square the revelation and the manifestation of the Power with the foreshortened yardstick of the conscious thinking.

13 BUT WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

“BUT WHO do you say that I AM?” Upon the answer to this question depends the manifestation which you call your present universe. In looking at God you see the out-picturing of everything, from a terrible Tribal Jehovah to the God proclaimed by Jesus as pure Principle. Whatsoever he “called” God that God became to him.

You are one with your idea of God, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent, and results follow accordingly. The one who believes in God as a glorified man spying about for sin is in the constant torment of the unseen eyes watching him, and his life becomes void of joy.

“That which I feared has come upon me.” If I fear God as a terrible judge meting out punishment and chastisement eternally, that will be my lot. Whatever I find God to be, that I bring into manifestation without help or assistance from the outside. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.”

Jesus made Himself as God—and we are followers of Jesus and take Him as the all—inspired example. What are you going to make yourself as? A man created in sin and born in iniquity? If Jesus made Himself AS God and found God to be the Father, the giver of all good, then He would automatically become as the Father. If He found God in terms of the Sonship degree He would bring out the works of the Son.

We hear so much about the various degrees, states, stages, and initiations, until the simple teaching of Jesus, which is for the child, becomes so involved that we are lost in a labyrinth of words—meaningless and age—worn—of human beliefs. It is all simplified when you understand the true WORSHIP of God.

“WHATSOEVER you ask in My Nature”—do you hear? Whatsoever you can ask in the Nature. There are certain things that can be asked for in the child degree, the helpless one clinging on to a personal sense of God. There is also the Son who claims his right and inheritance, and there is the Fatherhood degree which is the Giver of all good and does not ask favors, help nor assistance from any power outside itself. In this very assumption it finds everything endowed with power. If you cannot find what you are asking for in the nature of God, you still will have to demonstrate it, or call the power down from some height; then you cannot dispose of the questions: “Am I a God afar off? Am I not a God close at hand?”

In one of the temples of Japan there are three shrines—in the outer court is the lovely, golden-bronze Buddha seated on a lotus. Near him is the thousand-handed Kwannan, the giver of all gifts. It is a lovely thing, beautifully sculptured and fashioned. In the next room is a crystal Buddha seated on a golden lotus—a thing of infinite beauty and purity—and then you are permitted, if you so desire, to enter the Holy of Holies—the inner Sanctuary to see the Great Buddha. As you step over the circular doorway and approach the Shrine you suddenly perceive that you are looking at yourself, caught in a mirror which is set on the altar and so at last you must pray to yourself.

What a shock to see yourself in this place, and how utterly impossible it is to change the reflection. You may loathe it, you may feel abashed at such a contraption, so clearly does it show up the defects of the wrappings of the Buddha: and yet that is exactly what Jesus did when He found God within His own consciousness, and as He contemplated this picture or this face of God, “The fashion of His countenance was changed.”

You see in God, only what you are bringing into manifestation. It is terrible to attribute to God some of the evils you have brought out, but only what you recognize, can come into being.

You are standing before a mirror—the face of God—and from out the deep silence the thundering “still, small voice” says: “Who do you say that I AM?” Only what YOU say or can perceive as possible to God, is possible to you. No matter how you try to wriggle out of this hard and fast law given to us by Jesus, you are exactly what you conceive the nature of God to be. Your temple is the point of contact between the seen and the unseen, and each temple releases only what it finds possible within itself. It is wonderful to contemplate the LAW as established by Jesus.

“He made himself as God.”—The fearful one looks into the face of a more fearful thing, and brings out a thousand and one other beliefs that are offered in the name of Christ. If you find it possible to God, it is possible to you.

“Who do YOU say that I AM?” Not you and mother; not you, after you have consulted a book, a lesson, a teacher or prophet. “Who do YOU say that I AM?” And the answer is solidified in your present manifestation. “I say you are the Christ”—(that point where the power is stepped down into visibility) and whatsoever you find therein is out-pictured to the world. Hence it is not strange that the banker sees the increase, and the painter sees pictures, etc.

Whatsoever you see God to be, that He is. Jesus saw Him as the FATHER, hence he became as the Father and arrived at the consciousness of the Giver, the Creator, the Source from which all things flowed. It makes no difference whether the mould—desire—is cubical, spherical, conical, it is instantly filled and takes the form and shape of that matrix, just as the air in a vase takes the shape of the vase and yet has no shape.

The Fatherhood degree or the making of yourself as God frees an overflowing substance which feeds five thousand and one just as easily as it feeds one. It flows over without regard to the instrument through which it is pouring. In the Sonship degree he is giving of his inheritance and there is only so much to an inheritance, but in the Fatherhood degree he is the inheritance and it is merely a movement of the Spirit of the Presence filling every belief.

When you stand in front of the mirror you can do nothing with the reflection—all change will have to be made by you, outside the mirror. No wonder Jesus counseled, “Be still and know that I AM God”—be still and examine into the nature of God, into the substance called God, and presently what you discover therein, can and will come into manifestation.

“Who do you say that I AM?” Answer ME. What does your God look like? How many of the fierce, terrible qualities of the old prophets’ God has he? Jesus discovered that God is Love—but that does not make Him so to you; you have to find that within yourself if you wish to make your life lovely. If you see God in any terms whatsoever, that is He to you. Jesus found this understanding of God as Love “casteth out all fear.” It was this perfect Love which made fear impossible, because in looking into the face of God as love, it was impossible to conceive of, or experience, the thing called fear.

Do you begin to see the difference between demonstrating over fear, and looking into the face of God as LOVE? The Son can demonstrate protection from fear, but in the Fatherhood degree there is nothing to fear, and nothing from which to be protected.

Viewing this whole premise from the standpoint of substance, can you see that “to him that hath, shall be given”—and why it shall be taken away from him that “hath not”? Can you begin to see the difference in demonstrating a few “shekels” and perceiving God in terms of abundance? One is working an almost impossible trick, the other is direct releasing of the substance through recognition of “Who do you say that I AM”—that AM I to you. “Whatsoever things you ask in my NATURE, that give I unto you.” No quibbling—the “whatsoever” stands untouched and unimpeachable. “Whatsoever” you can find in the nature of God, when you become one with that nature, instantly starts its automatic flow into expression.

If it is not possible to God, how do you conceive that it is possible to man? Only by believing in the man more than God. The cleansing of the temple is ridding yourself of beliefs in powers other than God. And the examination of this God Power in the midst of you, enables you to discover its nature. Suppose for a moment that you discovered God as Love—and made yourself ONE with God—you then could see only Love manifesting in your life and universe, and this would automatically dispel all the hatred and resentment that had formerly found lodgment therein.

The coming of the Nature into being is as a “Thief in the night”; not in the flurry of human thinking nor in the midst of a fierce effort to have a warrior God defend you against an army of invaders. The coming of the Light is so powerful that it absorbs all the darkness of the shadows of belief. It is wonderful. “Who do you say that I AM?”

“Whatsoever you tell the FATHER in secret shall be called from the house tops.” Whatsoever you then can TELL the FATHER comes into manifestation, and you have come to the point of, “Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass.” Do you hear?

What can you tell the Father?

In the Fatherhood degree all the involved talk of and about ways and means disappears and man merges into the ONENESS which makes all things possible. The frequent talk of masters and mastership degrees cannot result in anything but defeat until you perceive that MASTERSHIP in GOD; when you can see that in God you are then a Master. But not for the satisfying of the human curiosity will this marvelous thing be recorded in your experiences. “When you are ready I SHALL do the works.” Do you hear? When you are ready. You will be ready for the Mastership or the Fatherhood degree when you can look straight into the face of God and find Him to be FATHER or MASTER.

“That which thou seest, that thou beest.” It is, then, as if God cast a shadow on the universe, and that shadow called matter is merely your physical being, changed and transformed and brought up to the picture shown to you on the Mount of Transfiguration.

When you look into the face of God you die to the former beliefs of God, and unfold to the new concept of Him. The old prophets saw Him as a terrible evil-avenging God, and they became prototypes of the same consciousness; Jesus saw HIM as Love—and He became LOVE. As what do you see Him?

No matter what limitations you are experiencing in life they are the out-picturing of what you conceive God to be, for there is only one power and putting it through your “glass darkly” you break it up into a thousand and one evil forces working against you.

When you begin to conceive that all matter is but the shadow of Spirit and you become one with the spirit, you can understand how it is that the Father worketl1 hitherto and I work. You can perceive how it is that matter is then movable by spirit.

Jesus made himself as God—not God—but as God and knew that all matter was the projection of Spirit or shadow and, therefore, was moved by Spirit. The moment this concept of matter is achieved, it is lifted up above the law and is under spirit—the laws of gravity, cohesion, adhesion and attraction are made nil.

A shadow must of necessity follow that which casts it, and at no time can or does change the form and outline of itself. “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Yet shall you perceive this “flesh” (all flesh shall see it together) as the substance acted upon by Spirit. It is not difficult to understand when matter is handled as the shadow of Spirit, how it can be motivated by Spirit, instead of the reverse movement in which the unenlightened man feels and believes. Matter is more real than spirit to the unawakened consciousness, but when the new birth takes place, matter becomes “flesh” and is the natural point of contact of the unseen with the seen.

Do you begin to “see” how it was that Jesus showed forth such a diversity of gifts? Were the “wise” men not surprised to find Him talking in the Temple seeing He had no learning? If you conceive God to be all wisdom and you make yourself one with Him you become the temple of wisdom as long as you look into the face of this Power. “My father worketh hitherto and I work,” explains many wonderful and strange things.

Amazing as it may seem to the person who is still trying to see the Master appear in strange robes and under strange lights or conditions, Jesus kept His feet solidly on the ground and at the same time knew that Heaven was here and now. It is wonderful to see that when man knows God to be a certain thing and makes himself as God he becomes that quality in action, and the results of that quality are stepped down into manifestation.

Seeking to become a Master may be a high aim, but for most people it is too utterly impossible to attain in this lifetime, because they have such a strange dramatic background and such weird ideas about Masters. Yet, if they once conceived the works of the Mastership Degree as possible with God, and became one with God, they would have appropriated the Mastership for which they had worked so long and with so little result.

Looking into the face of God the initiate dies and is instantly born again to the new state of consciousness. In the Fatherhood degree there is no patching up, painting over, putting new wine into old bottles or striving to save the “daring from the flames”—the former things have passed away, and all things have been made new.

Call upon ME in the name and nature of that which you are seeking to bring out and make yourself ONE with ME and you will find your temple portraying the glorious expressions naturally which you formerly called demonstrations or considered impossibilities.

“What went ye out for to see?” Are you looking for a Master—and must he come to you in a fantastic oriental robe and with flowing hair? Must he bear heavy bands of gold, studded with man-made jewels upon his arms and head? “When did we see Thee naked?” What are you looking for?

As soon as man understands the Principle of Life he knows that the ONE Master is God, and this Power is not subdivided but is wholly in everybody and everything when recognized. If you see God in terms of Mastership Degree and make yourself as God, then you must bring out those qualities which are identified with that degree, but they must be naturally let into expression or else they will be of no avail.

The dramatic value of flowing robes, bands of gold, jewel encrusted stomachers and gorgeous fur—lined mantles may seem to represent riches to the relative mind that is seeking things—but there is also the rich blessings of the Kingdom not made with hands: compared with the country lane in springtime with its glorious orchards in bloom, jewels and silks and gold ornaments seem cheap and almost worthless.

Jesus, standing at the gates of the city, wore a flowing robe because that was the robe of the day—he certainly would not dress in that antiquated fashion were he here today.

“Awake! Thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” If it pleases you to set your stage with the gorgeous oriental trappings—the smoking censer, the antique symbols and imagined grandeurs of other days—so be it. There is no reason why you should not be surrounded by beauty and loveliness. If it belongs to you, nothing can keep it out of the picture.

A Persian rug and a cotton carpet are of equal value to the mind of God—why not have the Persian rug then? Only for one reason and that is because of its value. Can you not see that “VALUE” keeps you from all the lovely things of life? You will get caught on the “value” if you are not careful.

There is no legitimate reason for your not having the best and the most beautiful, except the value you place on it. If it is very valuable you cannot have it. “Awake! Thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.” Over and over the admonition comes to you to “Awake—arise”—get up! You are at the day of self—expression—the day of fulfillment from a natural basis instead of from the old sonship degree of demonstration.

“I was glad when they said unto me—let us go into the house of the Lord”—You either go into a temple made with hands or a temple not made with hands according to the understanding of this WORD. Do you see? So is it with prosperity and the luxury which your soul so craves.

If you go into the temple made with hands you have all the by—laws, rules, regulations and limitations to handle. The saint is covered with gold and jewels while the beggar starves to death in the courtyard. Your “saint” may be covered with all the gold of the universe while you are starving for the ordinary necessities of life.

The coming of Christ into the life of any man brings with it beautiful living. You cannot live harmoniously against a background of beautiful things if they are not your natural habitat.

“What went ye out for to see?” Answer ME!

“Why seek ye Me among the dead? “—The dead, worn—out beliefs and patterns of yesterday?

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” The inheritance incorruptible is made from a higher substance than matter. Back of the manifestation man finds the true nature and becomes one with it. Then he is through with the worship of riches. He is freed from the long years of poverty. “He made himself as God”—as what do you make yourself? He discovered God to be Father and then found it not strange that he was the SAME in action. The moment he had made himself as God, he could not help partaking of the Nature.

Suppose you found God to be Substance, and then became one with God—you would automatically find yourself with the capacity for supplying that which appeared to be lacking in the universe of relativity.

It is wonderful to contemplate the teaching of Jesus Christ!

Peace be unto you—you are a Master NOW! Do you hear? Do you BELIEVE?— Answer ME!

14. THE APPEARANCES OF GOOD

RECENTLY I met a man from London. The fact that he had been born and reared there seemed to have hypnotized him to the idea that no one visiting London even from other parts of England, could possibly know it. “I was born there—I was educated there—I have lived my life there”—was his disarming statement when London was mentioned. The enthusiasm of any visitor was immediately chilled by his somewhat aggressive statement. It had an air of finality about it.

One day in questioning him closely I found that he knew all about the National Gallery, had passed by it daily, but had never been inside. He knew that certain pictures were there, but had only seen reproductions of them. He had heard, read, and seen photographs of the Trooping of the Colors, but had never actually seen it take place. He knew of the wonders of the British Museum, but had never actually seen them. In fact the only thing he had done was to live in close proximity to London—or that which made London different from a thousand and one other cities. But actually he had lived only in a city, the soul of which was entirely unknown to him.

It is a fact that a person with a good illustrated guide—book at the other end of the earth might be more conscious of London than this man who had stood in the midst of it. It is like the bon viveur who, when asked about his trip abroad, invariably describes the wonders of its various cities by enumerating the glories of their cuisines. The moment you ask about anything else he does not register, and yet he says, “Oh yes, I have been to Paris,” etc., “many times.”

This kind of individual exists all over the earth. A New Yorker of this type knows all the gossip up and down the Great White Way—he reads the criticisms of all the plays, the reviews of all the books, but when you come to actually pin him down you find his experience is virtually nil.

In the classroom we learn to assume different roles and put through many transactions in mathematics. Mr. B deals with Mr. X and they carry on tremendous affairs in which the student participates, but once he strikes the reality of the world, he finds the actual meeting of Mr. B and Mr. X is quite a different thing; they do not always act the way they do in arithmetic, and this coming from the imaginary world out into the world of reality has sent more than one college graduate back into the arms of Alma Mater for further protection in the name of more education. He would rather deal with his imaginary people than experience the unexpected turn of events which follow in the wake of meeting them in the flesh.

Jesus was a man of action. “Go”—”do”—”be”“have”—”let”—direct, short, concise, but always placing the person into action.

Life and action are one—inseparable. And yet all the action can take place in the imagination.

Like a man from London, New York, or Shanghai, we can live with the letter of the Truth, with libraries of books, with hundreds of courses of lessons, with all of the language of Jesus Christ, but never enter into the soul of it. We can experience imaginary heavens, listen to the letter and hear of demonstrations until we are drugged with the meaningless words—letters without spirit, dead letters.

A drug addict thinks he experiences the wonders of heaven—he brings to pass in his imagination all the joys he has sought. He becomes a millionaire while under the influence of the drug. He spends lavishly and knows a sense of well being. He is generous, extravagant, glorious and omnipotent for the moment. He has taken the Kingdom of Heaven by violence, has freed himself for a brief moment from the conscious thinking in which lay all his limitations, but when the drug wears off he is cast into a hell.

So many meta physicians use the Truth as a narcotic. They talk of and about it, listen to extravagant demonstrations, seek out a distorted, impossible, fantastic presentation of the Word of God, which induces a reckless, and imaginary well—being. At such orgies of “talking of and about” the Truth, they experience all of the joys of the drug addict, but they, too, eventually awake.

Man cannot take the Kingdom of Heaven by storm. It is true that beyond our conscious thinking lies Heaven, but to attempt to take this by violence, or by any other way than that prescribed by Jesus Christ is to experience a return to the former state. Being thrown out of the Kingdom is the result of attempting to take it by storm.

Jesus knew that all problems and difficulties lie in the realm of the conscious thinking—your conscious thinking—and that is why your problems are different from those of every other individual. But Jesus advised taking your attention away from the appearance and placing it on the Power, disregarding the manifestation.

You may awaken from the dream in which you are merely talking of and about the Truth and know all results from this dream are merely imaginary and never really have a body or form. Just as Mr. A and Mr. B and their financial problems in arithmetic never have a body or form, but are imaginary beings which are acted upon and wholly at the mercy of imagination. You may see that you are using Truth as a mild narcotic—that it is a Lotus land—where you escape the hard and fast details of life. And this seeing is the beginning of wisdom. From then on you will begin the embodiment of the idea.

We note the conversation of Jesus is eternally in the first person and present tense. All actual power is in the present tense. All life is in the present tense. Life which has been is dead, that which is not is unborn. Do you begin to see that LIFE is action?

It is wonderful that Jesus understood so clearly this glorious thing called Life and gave us the keys to the Kingdom. “Awake!—Arise—shine!”—such lovely words of action and when understood they reveal the hidden power to accomplish whatever the command is, “Stretch forth your hand”—”Open your eyes”—are commands filled with the power of accomplishment.

The subtle teaching of Spirit, so hidden from the “wise and prudent,” contains plenty of signs for guidance. You can begin to see why the conversation is “Yea, yea; and nay, nay,” when you examine into the lack of results accruing from the talking of and about the Truth.

Without recognition of the Presence and a complete disregard of appearances it is impossible to move into the new pattern. The fighting of conscious thinking patterns, and the trying to overcome evil, may seem to the average mind a very laudable state, but we see Jesus approaching it all in a different way, and with surer results. He knew that unless you took the attention away from the seemingly evil pattern of life, you would continue to keep it in manifestation by feeding it with the very substance that had brought it into being—i.e., conscious thinking.

It is a far reach from the careless indifference of conscious thinking to the Divine lndifference which Jesus advocates in “Take no thought” and “Take your attention away from.” If you are true and sincere about the Jesus—Christ consciousness, you will not wonder about the outcome of this Divine lndifference; there will be no question as to whether it means liberty or license—all the quibbling with technicalities will have been cast aside.

Suffice it to say you know and you know that you know just what is going on. Your motive is always clear to you. Dallying about with metaphysical terms, personal opinions and ideas is not for the one who has at last discovered LIFE in the present tense and first person—the HERE and NOW of Expression.

“Ye must be born again.’’ The old pattern of conscious thinking resulting in the hard and fast designs of problems and seeming evil may be so well nourished and have so much stored—up energy in them, that they refuse to move. The momentum given to an object set in motion eventually spends itself, as with the terrific speed of the arrow shot from the bow. The patterns of conscious thinking with which you have struggled so of ten in your effort to be free may function for the duration of the energy you have given them, but the moment of the energy or thought is cut away, they are then facing a steady and rapid debacle. The wheel rolling down the hill, falls. So also the conscious thinking design so hard and fast, functioning at such a terrific rate, will continue in manifestation as long as the energy lasts, but the moment the attention is taken away from it, it begins to weaken and decline.

Jesus knew this was the only way to eliminate the parasites of life—the evils built up through judging from appearances—and counseled the taking away the attention—the “being absent from the body” and having the eternal recognition of the Power—”Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”—and when we begin to see this we understand more clearly than ever the fact that “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.”

“Loose him and let him go,” takes on a new meaning when we see why the “problem” (angel) was fighting all night with that which was giving it power to fight. The moment Jacob let go of the angel it blessed him and let go of him. The ways of God are wonderful—glorious. “Leave all, follow ME.” All is nothing but the patterns traced by the conscious thinking.

When the caterpillar is to fulfill the new birth which it—feels pressing upon it, it has run its course as a caterpillar. Presently, in the secret place, the new consciousness and embodiment is conceived and brought forth into manifestation. The caterpillar is not destroyed, it is absorbed into the new manifestation. “Ye must decrease, I must increase.” As the attention is taken away from the patterns or parasites of belief the power is drawn away from them and absorbed into the NEW expression.

We are not trying to put the new idea into the old bottles, or patterns. The idea of trying to make a failure into a success by pouring the new birth—inspiration or idea—into the old bottles of failure is a total loss. When you “Leave all, follow Me”—you will find the new idea or inspiration brings with it the new body or expression. Mary pondered these things in her heart, and she magnified the Lord within and did not stand arguing, as did Nicodemus, the old ruler, when told that he must be ‘ born again.” He thought of pouring the new idea of life into the old conscious—thinking manifestation he had known for years, and found it to be impossible.

All you are attempting to do is in the realm of the impossible, or you would have done it long ago. If the present manifestation—embodiment—cannot express it now, why do you think it will be able to do so later on?

You must be born again—you must have the new consciousness and in this consciousness what you formerly thought a wonderful demonstration becomes natural Law. The reaching after gifts from an imaginary heaven is an unsatisfactory, uncertain way of life. The lapses between appearances are so great or so much a matter of chance that no reliance can be placed upon such a whimsical idea of God.

Jesus stood before five thousand—he went within—the new birth took place and the substance was raised to the power of five thousand by this magnifying. The pattern of hunger and fear manifested in five thousand bodies and minds was not fought, handled nor toyed with. The new consciousness did not try to defeat anything. God is not a great warrior battling with evil, but a REVELATOR.

The Old Testament is filled with the records of a terrible warrior God, battling with the dual universe and apparently of ten putting up a losing fight. The God that Jesus came to declare is one of Love, naturalness, and revelation. He counseled rebirth instead of patching up the old disease-ridden bodies and manifestations. He counseled the individual to perform all these things within the temple of his own consciousness, and to recognize that the universe was the out-picturing of his own consciousness. We all fight against this when we first hear it, because there are so many untoward and ugly things present which we are sure were never in our consciousness, but you cannot see what you cannot see.

In old patterns of disease and lack, tracing their hateful outlines in your life, all begin to weaken when you understand the Law as given by Jesus Christ. “He went within and shut the door”—What are you going to do? Stand and talk it over with every person you meet on the highway of life? “The Father seeing in secret shall reward you openly,” is the result of this going within and shutting the door. The old patterns finally drop by the wayside and eventually are not remembered, nor do they come into mind any more, so completely have they disappeared from the scene of action.

The awakening from the hypnosis caused by talking “of and about the Truth,” or regaling yourself with elaborate and fantastic tales of manifestations and the wild and sensuous meandering about with imaginary beings who apparently have nothing more important to do than to keep rushing to your side with messages and revelations, is not so painful nor so difficult as it appears. It is glorious, fresh, spring—like; it has the clean thrill of fresh life, as a water lily, having com up through the slime and dirt of the stagnant pond, suddenly throws back its petals and spreads itself into the glorious contemplation of the sun. So you leave all and follow ME.

The things that eyes have not seen nor ears heard and that have not yet entered into the heart of man, are the things that are prepared for you: those that have been seen, heard, and experienced already do not need any revelation.

A financier once said to me, “I don’t see that making money is any great demonstration, the world is full of men who are daily engaged only in making money,’’ yet I hear students of metaphysics all excited about having gained an extra five dollars. If they wanted to put forth the effort, they could gain the same end and perhaps more intelligently through work. There is something to consider in this cold, unemotional view of it all. Jesus wasted no time with the things that were already happening, He worked wholly in the spirit of bringing forth that which was apparently impossible.

Mary magnified the Power within her—disregarding the old patterns of life. This Mary state of consciousness is caught up into Paradise and hears the unspeakable word, the “still small voice” which utters: “I will. Be thou whole.”

It is wonderful! When the new birth, the new pattern is contemplated, the old parasites of conscious thinking drop out of mind and fall into the dust of oblivion.

15. GREAT EXPECTATIONS

SO OFTEN FILLED with great expectations of things to come, the student has a sharp awakening and disagreeable realization that it is not the expected thing that happens, but the unexpected. Yet there is certainly a law and a great value back of expectation. Something must be wrong with the interpretation since a thousand will bear testimony to the failure to bring forth the thing which they expected with all their heart.

If it is “the unexpected that always happens” it would seem futile to “expect” anything which you wanted to be brought into manifestation. The revelation which runs, “I come as a thief in the night,” checks perfectly with “the unexpected always happens.”

When we “expect,” in the generally accepted sense of the word, it is merely a covering for a great doubt or fear that the thing will not come to pass—it is almost a “whistling in the dark” state of consciousness which keeps on “expecting” and refuses to look away from this great expectation but at the same time the consciousness is filled with the positive knowledge that it will not take place.

It is only when we tear away this sheepskin of belief and rid the consciousness of the fears and doubt of the capacity of God that the “great expectations” of which Jesus spoke can take place. When the expectation of the Lord takes place in the consciousness of man it is at ease and not dis—eased with the fear and excitement of the appearance.

Watching a person who has bet on a race, rushing about the paddock, wildly shouting and calling for his horse, and at the last moment ducking his head under his coat so that he will not see his “expectation” fail, is an apt picture of people using what they call “the law of expectation.” The mind becomes a terrific race track of events and the conscious thought is tearing madly about always yelling for its “winner” and at the same time knowing that it cannot win.

“When I would do good I do evil,” comes under the same consciousness which perpetually fails to accomplish its expectation, and yet in reality no expectation of the God Consciousness can fail to produce and bear fruit after its own kind. The thin veneer of Pollyanna philosophy, even though it be ever so pretty on the outside, will not be able to hold in the forces of the “unexpected.”

Expectation that comes from God is calm, serene and filled with confidence; not “jumping” about from one affirmation to another. The one shouting at the race track, calling, “He’ll win; he’ll win; he’s won,” does not alter the fact that the horse more than likely loses. The very excitement which he manifests shows a defeating doubt. ·

Among the synonyms for the word “expectation” one finds; suspense, waiting, abeyance, curiosity, anxious, breathless, “torment of Tantalus.” These and especially the “torment of Tantalus” describe much of the expectation that one finds in the average Truth student. Dangling before his mind is the much desired fruit—so near and yet so far—and before the parched lips the saucer of water, almost reachable.

Until expectation is divested of all anxiety and curiosity it will never be a working factor in the going on of man—it can only be divested of these qualities when it is backed up by recognition of the PRESENCE, here, there, and everywhere.

The expectation of Jesus when He raised His eyes to heaven was normal, natural, reasonable and came to pass. It was an undisturbed expectation of what He had accepted as true. There is no authority in the human consciousness. It dare not say anything for certain. If it does almost instantly the false law of expec-tation enters in and upsets, throws out, destroys the possibility of good coming into expression.

“In my father’s house are many mansions”—as soon as we conceive the difference between going into a new state of consciousness and patching up an old condition we will also discover that the new mansion is filled with that substance which is life and manifestation. But the moment it has been used up, so to speak, it must be discarded. The moment a chick has grown to the size of its shell it must break it and go into a larger sphere of expression or else the very thing which was a protection becomes a prison.

With the coming of understanding of the Presence and the willingness to “let” the government be upon ins shoulders, the old human will and its efforts cease, and the fear that God cannot or will not be able to answer His “temples” when they call upon Him vanishes. “Ye must be born again,” wastes no time with the false law of expectation, and through this new birth you enter into a new realm, even though you cannot see with your human sight the dimensions of this new state of consciousness.

The law of expectation which accomplishes such startling results is that which has accepted the definite possibility of its expectation being fulfilled, and acted accordingly, as the seed dropped into the ground or the removal of warts by the child. It is amazing what a huge part secrecy has to do with all the laws of Spirit. The “calling from the housetops” is done after the expectation has been fulfilled in the flesh. Until that time it is wise to pursue a course of absolute secrecy.

Now comes Science and bows to the removal of warts by faith:

WART REMOVAL BY “FAITH” WINS MEDICAL SUPPORT SUCCESS OF SUGGESTIVE HEALING CITED BY AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
Chicago, Jan. 17 (AP).

The old “powwow doctor” who made warts disappear with a wave of the hand and a few gibberish words was labeled authentic today by the American Medical Association.

Though often frowned on by his more scientific brothers of the healing fraternity, the unlicensed master of magic passes and “faith” was on the right track, the association said in answer to a doctor’s query in the A.M.A. journal.

Warts can be removed by mental suggestion, the journal statement said, reciting several cases where suggestive healing was employed successfully by scientific men after medical and surgical methods had failed.
One case was that of a Swiss geologist named Heim, whose father cured warts on the hands of a son and daughter by pointing to each wart and saying: “This one goes away.” Later the elder Heim removed warts from other people, one of whom he hypnotized on the theory that a patient in a distinctly emotional condition was more susceptible to the cure.

All these illustrations may be inadequate and most of them are stated in such a fashion, that the old outmoded uses of will—power and suggestion are rather given credit, yet, to the seeing eye, the light of Spirit is perceived penetrating the crannies of human reasoning, the leaven at work leavening the whole mass of conscious belief —”until he comes whose place it is to reign.”

“He hath granted unto us His Precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1: 4.

We are beginning to “eat the body and drink the blood of Christ.” We are beginning to eat the promises of God, to accept them; to expect them and by so doing we are establishing the new consciousness which is capable of fulfilling the dreams and desires so long thwarted.

Without the proper embodiment a caterpillar cannot fly no matter how much suggestion be used, nor how real the process seems to it. Not even if it knew it was its rightful heritage could it fly until it had reembodied itself and thus become capable of so doing. Neither can a man, sledding along under the most intense poverty, ever attain substance or prosperity in that consciousness. He has not the capacity, even though he has the right to possess it. “He must be born again”—he must arrive at a new state of consciousness, a new mansion, where prosperity is natural and normal, and not a demonstrated thing.

It is by accepting the PROMISES of God as real and true and disregarding the harangue of the senses that man begins the new birth process or the entering into the ·new consciousness. He finds himself gradually launching out on to deep waters by assimilating the WORDS of the Master and believing them to be real and true.

More and more the path becomes clearly defined to the Seeker, once he has touched his lips with the coal of fire and sealed them from argument, opinions and beliefs, and has stopped his ears to the same harangue.

The Path is alone as far as the communion with the “Father” is concerned, and he who will not learn this first and most necessary step of the way shall not enter in.

“Straight is the gate—Narrow is the way”—not limited, not fixed as these words would indicate, but narrow in the same sense that the law of mathematics might be considered narrow because it does not permit of beliefs and opinions, but remains eternally the same. “Broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction”—it is the way of opinions and beliefs, judging from appearances, forming opinions from the testimony of the senses.

The sooner man discovers that he has a Divinity (Father) within, through which and by which all the unseen and unmanifest must pass into expression, the sooner he will tum away from persons, books, organizations or things to this Power. Once he has turned away, he can then take from anything all the light that comes through, but he no longer takes the thing. In other words, the teacher is not confused with the teaching, else the whole light would be dimmed by personality.

As man begins to accept the promises of God and to live upon them (first in the secret place, and without any visible evidence that anything is happening), he begins to know that he is enlarging the borders of his tent unconsciously and automatically. He discovers that he has launched out on to deeper waters through his constant acceptance of the Presence. As he gives over the faculty of the conscious thinking which is “telling” he will acquire the ability of “showing.”

More and more faith and reliance will be placed on the divinity within;—”the mind which was also in Christ Jesus”—and more and more manifestation will take place with less effort. The unconditioned power does not battle with conditions, knowing that conditions are only objectified states of wrong thinking and will not be gotten rid of until they are released from the conscious thought.

“The ways of God are past finding out,’’ and are described as wonderful, terrible, as high above the earth as the heavens, etc. No imagination of the conscious thinking could then encompass these ways, hence the foolish belief that the limitations of conscious thinking could offer any resistance to this God.

Until we come into expression by the authority of Almighty God we are constantly asking permission to perform, to live, to be, or to have. Jesus dispensed with all this, asking for that which He knew to be His own nature. When you understand that it is quite natural for a fig-tree to bear figs, you will see why Jesus (making himself as God) could not help but do the works of God. He was not demonstrating, He was revealing His true nature just as the fig—tree reveals its true nature when it brings forth figs. No miracle is taking place, and yet it is a miracle that from the elements of the universe one tree brings forth figs and another apples.

So with man, the temple of the living God, he brings forth out of the universal substance called God his special gift. This gift is sufficient to sustain and keep him in eternal harmony, if he would for once believe in his divinity which Jesus indicated was capable of releasing all the wonders of heaven in man. It is so much easier to believe that some book, organization, teacher or leader has it. The old human mind likes nothing better than to place a high priestess upon the throne and then endow her with strange powers and magic, and there is plenty of material out of which to make high priests and priestesses. Presently the very ones who have set the high priestess on her throne find (that in spite of all her secret powers and wisdom) she has feet of clay and these are instantly dug out and she falls. In her rather pitiful confusion at being cast down, she for the first time is contrite and begins to “blame” those who set her up, and they in turn “blame” her for leading them astray.

So does the old foolish game of “follow your leader” go on until you follow your Leader into the new consciousness. Your Leader is Jesus Christ. Awake out of the terrifying hypnotism of personalities—leave all, followed ME—you will miss nothing.

The TEMPLE of God is with MEN and when you realize this you can see that any manifestation can be used for the expression of God, but not until this is recognized will the sick man be able to heal you and the poor man be able to prosper you, for you will still be judging from the appearance and will not see ME nor recognize ME when I AM “naked and hungry.”

Awake! Thou that sleepest—when the law says, “Judge not from appearance” that is precisely what is meant—all things work together for the GOOD— believest thou this? Answer ME.

Gradually man begins to see that the “Power is greater than the instrument through which it is expressed,” that God is mindful of His own and what He has done, is done for eternity and not changed by the conscious thinking, opinions or beliefs of man, although all of these things may have obscured the light for a time.

The naturalness of the God-Nature is beginning to be accepted. It is only when man sees that it is just as natural for God to express, as it is for the conscious thinking to come into manifestation, that he will begin to experience an ease which will re-place the disease of conscious thinking. Through the mystification of the human thought God is appearing, and at ms appearing everything that seemed so hard and fixed melts, dissolves and runs away into its native nothingness. Literally and figuratively, “The crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways shall be made smooth.”

We become more and more conscious that it is natural for the God Power to express without assistance of the conscious thinking apparatus and its limitation, and we understand how Jesus, when He moved into the consciousness of Jesus-Christ, was able to do things that Jesus could not in any way do of Himself.

The Promises of God become the living, breathing substance of things to be manifested when man finds it is natural for God to express His own Nature.

“He that planted the ear shall he not hear, and He that formed the eye, shall he not see?”

What do you think? Is it natural for the Power which created the body for the purpose of revealing Itself to the universe to use this body and express through it without a single hindrance or limitation? These are questions which, when answered from the standpoint of consciousness, will react in your temple-body in exactly the same manner as the acceptance of the gift acted in the beggar’s consciousness at the temple gate.

The words of God then do become “quick and powerful” and they are “sharper than a two-edged sword” when it comes to “dividing asunder” the false manifestation from the creation of God. It is wonderful when God becomes natural—real, livable, approachable.

Just as “every plant that My Father hath not planted shall be rooted up and cast into the fire,” so everything that my Father has planted shall grow and prosper and bring fort11 after its kind naturally and easily. The Blessings of the Lord are upon you.

16. BORN AGAIN

YOUR BODY is the out-picturing of your consciousness. When you are happy it smiles, when sad, it frowns and the various use of the muscles changes the outline to a certain extent by conscious volition. This body has been found to be made up of millions of atoms which in turn are made up of electrons. The atom is defined as an indivisible speck of substance. Yet this very indivisible, and to all intents invisible, speck of substance or force is composed of electrons which are said never to touch each other but to be spaced, relatively speaking, as far apart as the stellar bodies are in the heavens. All of this scientific knowledge lends a very interesting angle to the teaching of Jesus and may explain the possibility of instant changes taking place in the body and affairs.

Accepting the idea that your body is a mass of atoms, no two of which touch, held in the shape and form of your present consciousness it is not a far Stretch to understand that a change of consciousness would result in a change of outline of the body. So that if the consciousness had been filled with the idea of disease and was holding the picture of disease on the body, a change of consciousness would automatically wipe out this picture. The moment the consciousness changed the outline would change. The “Ye must be born again” has a deeper meaning when we regard it through this avenue. Jesus was constantly inviting a new consciousness, the results following would be apparent even from this atomic idea of the body.

“Whereas before I was blind NOW I can see”—a body born blind as the result of the outline or shape of a blind consciousness could never be cured—but an entering into a new state of consciousness would out-picture perfect vision if, by any chance, that consciousness was one which included the idea of perfect vision. It is wonderful but understandable that Jesus should have discovered this plastic nature of the substance called body.

When you eliminate the consciousness of a man, his estate and worldly goods begin to disintegrate and presently they are scattered to the four winds because the consciousness has let go of them. The consciousness which holds “You” into manifestation, then, has within it certain capacities or limitations according to your acceptance of these and is constantly out-picturing them in your body and affairs, and you can work as hard as you will, but you cannot definitely remove them. Hence a drunkard may be temporarily changed or cured, but he is in constant danger of entering again into the same manifestation at any time. When the consciousness is changed, however, the embodiment will change and that new embodiment will not have the desire nor the capacity to commit the sins of the former self.

Jesus constantly called attention to the fact that nothing could be done on the outside. “I can of myself do nothing”—but “I can do all things through Christ Jesus.” He invited the one desiring a change of manifestation to take his attention away from the appearance and to judge righteous judgment. Knowing that as long as the consciousness of a thing remained the atoms which expressed that person would shape in accordance with that consciousness, and anything done on the outside to change this condition was virtually lost motion.

“Ye must be born again.” The going within and the appropriation of a new state of consciousness is the only way to bring out the new manifestation. It is more readily understood that incurable conditions could be dislodged by the coming into place of the new consciousness.

Taking this idea into the realm of finance, can you not see that if you have the consciousness of failure, inability, poverty, it is impossible to change the manifestations of these things on the outside, since your consciousness will out-picture itself no matter what you do? You cannot change the consciousness by thinking one way or the other. You may be able to change your belief and hold up the manifestation for the time being, but it is a constant holding the line, as it were. Life could not be endured if it were a constant trying to hold good into manifestation. It would not be worth the struggle. “Awake! Thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light—Awake! And arise from the dead.”

The constant reference to the “re-borning” process is backed up with the discouragement of trying to patch up the outside. The making clean of the outside of the platter; the command not to put new wine into old bottles, or new patches on old garments, all indicate that nothing can be done on the outside and that your efforts are worse than useless.

The wonder of instantaneous manifestation is explained by this change in consciousness. It is impossible for the body to do anything else than follow the command of consciousness. When the command, “Stretch forth your hand,” is given the new consciousness, hearing it, obeys, and the physical arm, whether it has ever been able to raise itself or not, instantly stretches forth—and as it does so, the withered appearance fades and the arm becomes normal, taking on at that moment the outline of the new consciousness and dropping off the pattern of the old.

There is nothing in the consciousness of the man with the withered arm which is able to stretch forth that arm, and there is nothing in the consciousness of the one born blind which can possibly open his eyes because he has never experienced this capacity. There is nothing in the consciousness of the poverty-stricken one, schooled in want and limitation, that can rise to the place of substance and it is futile to talk prosperity to him and suggest such stupid things as “money can be brought into manifestation by the repetition of words.”

But once he conceives the idea of being born again, of finding the divinity within and contemplating this point of power, he is starting the flow of substance from the three drops of oil which is all he has. His observation is taken from the appearances: it is centered within with the Father which is the point in his temple, body, where everything is to be stepped down into visibility. Presently he sees the law that “whatsoever he tells the Father in secret” is the measure of his open reward. Whatsoever he can find in the new consciousness will the body or temple perform without any limitations.

We see how far afield we have gone in working with the body and trying to make it do things which it could not do and which were not natural to it. We were out with the swine seeking a grain of substance among the shucks of human findings, and living was hard and terrible. But when the new birth or the recognition of the divinity takes place, an immediate change begins to make itself apparent on the outside.

“Whatsoever” is the word—whatsoever you can ask the Father—whatsoever you can find within the consciousness that can and will the Father give to you. The old idea of asking permission for the body to perform or express or earn its living falls by the way—the consciousness of this divinity is already into expression and “nothing shall say ye nay” when you rise to this elevation. It is wonderful!

As the outline of the temple changes the world may call it healing, but you have experienced something deeper than healing. It is newness—the revelation of the naturalness of the body to take on the form and outline of the consciousness that is holding it together.

The body then must of necessity be the true servant of the consciousness or the Lord in the holy temple. Heretofore it has been the master. It has been able to put you to bed or get you into trouble, to make you unhappy and to dictate terms as to what you should do. Now we are beginning to see that by understanding the relationship of body and soul (God and man—consciousness and its manifestation), even the laws of matter established by hard and fast rules must and will eventually fall by the way as of no effect

If you can form it in consciousness the body will accomplish it in the relative world. Hence we see Jesus walking on water, passing through closed doors, coming and going and all these things not by a way of overcoming human or material laws, but by consciousness. At no time is he doing anything unnatural to his own consciousness. The body, servant, has nothing to say about it. Jesus did not set aside the laws of gravity, cohesion, adhesion, attraction when he performed what the world called miracles. The manifestation of his consciousness was not under these laws, hence the old idea that you are going to take the old heavy body into all of these exquisite experiences is a mistaken one. It is true your body or embodiment of consciousness will take on the capacities and possibilities it finds therein and will not be in the business of going against, or defeating, laws that are true enough on another plane of consciousness. It is perhaps a big stretch for the human mind to grasp this new revelation, but eventually you will see that Jesus Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfill.

The command “Leave all” means just that—no more no less—and if you are not ready to leave all—the all of your conscious thinking and “Follow ME” you will keep trying to do the works of Jesus Christ while yet you have the unawakened heavy body of the consciousness, which knows good and evil and which has a set of laws which will eventually def eat you. If it is possible in consciousness it is possible to the body, but just as the caterpillar has to change its embodiment before it can fulfill the consciousness of flying so you will have to change your embodiment or manifestation before you can accomplish the desires of your heart. This change is not as drastic in you as it is in the butterfly, it is a change within your consciousness which gives to the body or embodiment the capacity to do that which it was unable to do before. “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see,” is a sample of the change of the outline or embodiment of a new consciousness.

The eyes were not healed and the mind still fixed upon an old blind consciousness—but the consciousness arose to the point of vision and then the eyes had sight quite naturally. “Believest thou that I AM able to do this? “—ANSWER ME. Can you begin to understand what it is that is asking you this question? It is the Divinity within you and when you recognize Its possibilities, no matter what the embodiment has been, it will change to the outline and form necessary to accommodate the new consciousness into which you have entered. “In my father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.” There is nothing said about preserving the old mansion—consciousness, which has outlived its usefulness. “Loose it and let it go,” and enter into the new place and you will find the body changing to meet the requirements of the new Lord and Master, upon whose shoulder the government rests.

If you can grasp the idea that you are not trying to change the outside, nor trying to prosper yourself from the relative—not trying to find yourself a job, nor a home, nor any of these things—you will see that the moment you have these things in your consciousness the moment you accept in your mind the possibility of these manifestations—at that moment does the change begin which will result in the natural out-picturing of “the word made flesh.”

The constant command to “Judge not from the appearance” is one generally disregarded, for the average human mind can only tell by the appearance what is happening. As long as the consciousness of a thing remains, the body will eternally out-picture it, whether it be dishonesty, hatred, cruelty, poverty, or disease.

Once it is conceived that the divinity within is the governing power it will be understood that to recognize this is to release into manifestation those desires which have seemed so impossible before.

From the standpoint of re-birth as given to us by Jesus His commands do not seem so difficult nor impossible. It is nothing that is done on the outside. The· change automatically takes place through the acceptance of the new consciousness. The re-shaping—the embodiment—instantly follows the alignment of Jesus with Christ.

No matter what the embodin1ent may be—nor how hopeless and impossible the situation—it is all changed “in the twinkling of an eye” by the entering into the new Mansion—consciousness.

Jesus took His attention away from the appearances and found the Divinity (the Father) within, and whatsoever He could ask the Father in secret that was declared from the housetops—in other words WHATSOEVER He found possible with God was possible to Him.

The so-called instantaneous healing of disease is not then so remote as it once appeared, for the moment the thing is found possible with God, at that moment are the atoms drawn into the new outline or position. “Whatsoever” is the most gloriously generous word, and is said to every man.

When the nature of God is found to be health and vitality, a realization of our oneness with Him will result in the body being incapable of expressing anything else. No matter what the appearance it will have to come to the new shape, form, and outline of health and power.

The idea of a resurrected body is very difficult for many to accept because it is supposed to come under the heading of the impossible, yet it says, “This (right here and now) is Life Eternal to KNOW ME”—and if this statement is not true then none of the statements are true, and we need go no further with the idea.

If the consciousness then is stayed on LIFE it is Life Eternal and it is resurrection and all things to all men.

The patterns, or forms or outlines seen, change in accordance with the new consciousness and that is why Paul died daily. He took on new capacities and qualities daily by entering deeper into the conscious-ness of the Presence.

Let go of the idea that you are trying to make demonstrations and “Launch out into the deep.” It is safer in the deeper waters. Swimming is better. The craft is not in danger of grounding. “Cast your burdens on Me and I will sustain you.”

Discovering this Divinity within and calling upon It eternally brings the most startling changes in the outside manifestation. “Ye must decrease and I must increase” is simply the old power of conscious thinking gradually being absorbed into the consciousness of the Divinity and with the absorption of this power the ugly outlines of disease and poverty fall away and the new manifestation appears.

“All things are possible to God,” but “I can of myself do nothing.” “The Father worketh hitherto and I work.” The consciousness forms the idea and the body automatically carries out the desire, because with the recognition that it is possible in consciousness, the outline, form or capacity of the once inert body is changed and that which seemed impossible or at least miraculous before becomes the natural expression NOW.

“Acquaint NOW thyself with HIM and be at PEACE.” Do you begin to grasp what is the majesty of God? It is so wonderful! The Gift that has been given to us by the Master Jesus. Yes, every knee shall bend, no matter how powerful, how mighty or how swollen with human power, it shall bend before this Presence.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork”—Do you begin to see?

17. YOUR DIVINE HERITAGE

CLAIM your rightful inheritance. What is your inheritance? Who are you? Until you fully recognize these two points, you are merely playing about with an affirmation—merely toying with some words. Thousands have spent years of their lives claiming, “All that the Father hath is mine,” and had difficulty finding enough to pay for a week’s lodging and food.

Beloved, how long will you wait without, seeking for that which is in plain sight? How long will you try to make God do that which is already done? When will you identify yourself with the Christ within, the Son of the Most High, and begin to see the right—the Divine Heritage—the joy that will come to you when you realize that life is not just one long, tiresome job of demonstrating God? Thousands today are rising each morning and getting busy, knowing the truth about God and His universe, hoping thereby to overcome some of the fiendish conditions of the flesh—and finding themselves defeated.

Who are you? Were you created by God, or by some erring human concept which has thrown you into a hell of change, and then given you a glimmer of light which says that if by your prayers you can establish the fact that there is a God, perhaps He will give you a crust of bread? You have been taught as much—conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity, worm of the dust, miserable sinner. Where does the Divine Heritage come in? Where does the Child of God find its own? Nowhere, and everywhere. Nowhere so long as you are looking for Him in some far—off place, and everywhere when you recognize the Presence here and now.

Now are we the Sons of God—right now. When a man hears the word “now” in its true sense he finds he has been spelling it backward, and that in reality the “now” understood means “won.” You have won the sonship and all that goes with it when you understand the “now” of Spirit.

You are not a mixture of matter and spirit. Ice and steam are the same in essence, but as steam the water is lighter than ice. You are not a material thing separated from God, but a being of pure Spirit. If God had been clay in the first instance, everything that He evolved would have been made of clay; but we find Him as pure Spirit, all inclusive, and hence the creation must of necessity be Spirit. You, as the highest manifestation of this Power, are made of the all inclusive substance of mind called Spirit. You are the Son or the center of manifestation, where all the innate qualities of God pour out into expression. It is asking no special dispensation or favor of God for you, as the Son, to “claim your right and press your claim.” It is merely recognizing that which innately belongs to you.

The name of the Queen of England is Elizabeth; hut the power is vested in her rights as the Queen of England, and pressing her claim into expression. You are a king—by the name of I AM—only you fail to recognize this, and hence beg at the open fount, wondering if, by beseeching the tyrant you worship through fear, He will give you enough to live on. The less you ask for, the harder it is to get—not because of any stinginess of the Power, but by reason of its tremendous affluence. If you hold a pint cup in Niagara Falls you will come away with it empty—not because of the lack of water, but because of too much water. The force of the water dashes every-thing out as fast as it gets in; because the measure is too small. Your poor little vision of what belongs to you keeps you from having the abundance of Spirit. You can have all, and all be left.

“All that the Father hath is mine.” Where is the Father? What is the Father? If you look at this in terms of Jesus’ words, you find that the Father is within you—and you have everything or all that your Father has. Putting this through the limited beliefs of personality causes you to partake of the good, bad, or indifferent states of your consciousness. All that you have in your consciousness—all that you conceive the Father within you to be—is all that you actually have into manifestation.

If your room is ten feet square, you can have the entire radio concert, just the same as a man with a room a thousand feet square, and this can go on indefinitely and still all of it remain. The measure that you hold to the universe is all that can possibly come into manifestation. If you are dissatisfied with the results of your daily life, it cannot be rectified from without, but a better concept of the Father within—taking attention entirely away from the appearance- will enable you to bring out what you formerly called demonstrations. You will begin to see that enlarging the borders of your tent means becoming more conscious of the Power within and discovering its unlimited capacities—which are up and beyond anything that you can imagine.

All things are possible to ME, but nothing is possible to me. I doubt if a great portion of the people in the world would be affected one way or the other by the name Elizabeth Windsor, but most anyone is interested in the name the Queen of England—and yet they are one and the same person. If she did not recognize this fact, another would certainly usurp her rights. Even though she he born to the place, yet, if she did not recognize this, she would never have the power of it. Even though you are born the Son of God, with unlimited power and happiness within your rights, until you recognize this you function along as John Smith or some other person, ignorant of the glorious freedom of the Sons of God, and you will beg for a crust when you might be sitting at the overflowing table of the Infinite Spirit.

Joy comes when you make a clear line of demarcation between the John Smith and the Christ. You begin at once to appropriate the rights of the Son of God. In pressing your claim you do not drive a hard bargain—you do not fight; in this sense “pressing” means merely standing furn on the points that you know to be true, and turning not to the right nor left. It means saluting no man as you pass along the way; saluting no belief of doubt or appearance as you go forward into the expression of the Son of God.

“Claim your rightful inheritance, and show by your magnificent example that the Son of God hath power on earth to forgive sins (to correct the ignorance of human belief). And then follow the magnificent works without number, until millions of blessings are pouring down about everybody. When I attempt to count my blessings, they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. Your blessings, Son of the Living God, are so numerous that you have no time to contemplate the lack of anything, and, when you attempt to count the blessings, you find the lack has been swallowed up in abundance, and you are free, here and now, as the Son of the Living God.

It is wonderful! It is wonderful! It is wonderful! “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” “Prove me and see if I will not open windows in heaven and pour out a blessing you will not be able to receive.” Where is heaven? It is a state of consciousness. What is the ME? It is the I AM within you, and hence the windows that are to be opened are in your own consciousness, and the blessings that are to be poured out are the ideas which will pour out through your own mind into the manifest world of expression. It is wonderful. Millions and millions of blessings are yours. Do You hear, Son of God?

Stop this useless trying to seek Me after the loaves and fishes, and find ME as the pure substance of Spirit, and you will hear the joyous command, “Heretofore ye have asked for nothing; now ask, that your joy might be full.” Not nearly full, but full to overflowing!

Do you begin to see what is meant by pressing your claim after having claimed your inheritance? You are one with the mighty sea of substance.

As the wave is one with the ocean—never for one instant separated—and rises and loses itself in the ocean, so man finds that by

“Losing his life he finds it,
And by saving his life he loses it.”

When you lose your little personal sense of life, you will find the One Life—that which is Wonderful—the life that is won now—the heaven, here and now.

What have you to worry about, beloved? A new day, a new start, a new idea. No matter where this finds you—no matter into what depths you have fallen nor to what dizzy heights you have climbed—you have the wonderful chance of finding the glorious true Self within, and claiming your rights and pressing your claim as the Son of the Living God. Just imagine what this means. It means that there is no more personal effort to do and to be. It means that the Father within is responsible, and it means that the I AM goes before your John Smith and makes the way clear and perfect. Do you see why you suddenly awaken to the realities of being, and begin to take your good out of the universe?

I AM here, there, and everywhere. The power in the wave is not separated from the ocean, but moves through the wave, an impersonal power; so the power in you is not a personal possession of health, happiness, or prosperity, but is an impersonal power which is merely pouring itself out into expression through the visible means supplied. Do you see, then, how all men (Sons of God) are equal? We have been hypnotized to the belief that we were a body, with a little health or power shut up within; with a little capacity to earn money; with a little wit to psychologize people out of money or things. And now we are awake to the fact that the power is pouring through us, never the same and always the same. As we go toward the fountain at the distance, we have not seen the same picture two minutes in succession; the water has been changing constantly, yet has held the same form; and so it is with the Spirit. It is a constant change of changeless power coming into manifestation. You are the Son of God, and the Great Power is here and there and everywhere. If you go into the desert, you have but to recognize this to find it blossoming as a rose. I AM here, there, and everywhere. It is wonderful—it is truly wonderful. Blessings, blessings, blessings.

Do you see, beloved, the gift—complete whole-ness? For this Is (right here and now) Life Eternal, that they might know Me. To know the ME—the I AM and to identify yourself with this, is to experience the Life Eternal which needs nothing. Can you conceive of Spirit being burned, drowned, killed, aided or assisted in any way by matter? To know yourself as the Son is to experience the freedom of the Son of God—to experience the power of decreeing a thing and seeing it come to pass. The recognition—re-cognition—cognizing again that which has always been true—the divine remembrance of your rightful heritage, is what will restore to you the lost substance of life, is what will bring to you the robe, the ring, and the fatted calf.

To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away. You have in manifestation exactly what you have in consciousness—good, bad, or indifferent. Why waste any further time trying to change the outside condition, when it is held in manifestation by the inner state of consciousness? To him that hath shall be given—because he will take, be it a good, bad, or indifferent manifestation. A man with a consciousness full of troubles always gets more troubles, and he finds them everywhere. It is what he finds to be true, and so he must find it in manifestation.

No wonder the prophet asked, “What have you in your house?” What have you in your house, your consciousness? You have just what you conceive the Father-within to be, and you cannot increase this until you begin to recognize the nature of the pure substance of Spirit from which all things come into manifestation. Until you recognize the true Self, and stop trying to doctor up an old body or condition, you cannot know the glory of the Son of God. You are not an old creature patched up. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. You are a new, perfect manifestation; to recognize this is to claim your rights and press your claim by the serene power of the Almighty.

Every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Light, with Whom there is no change, neither shadow of turning. Where is the Father? How long will you look for Him in some far-off locality? How long will you seek among the husks for the substance of life? Every gift that is to come to you as John Smith will proceed out of the center of the I AM consciousness within yourself. Behold, I AM he that should come. I AM that I AM has sent me into expression. It is wonderful, it is wonderful. Blessings, blessings, blessings. I am the Son of the Living God. Claim your rights, and press your claim. Son of the Living God, I salute you! Arise! Leave your human reasoning and go unto your Father—within. Let the filthy be filthy still. Let all those who wish to sell the Word of God continue to do so. Let those who want to argue continue their arguments. Let those judges and spiritual busybodies cast their stones.

Go thy way; it is well with thee. The new secret has been revealed to you; do you hear? Peace be unto you. It is well. Now and always. Claim your inheritance. It is well with you. Now and always. Son of the Living God, arise and go thy way into expression. Now is the time. Now is the Day of Salvation. Now are we the Sons of God. Now are millions of blessings yours. Be still. Be still. Be still. It is wonderful. It is wonderful! It is wonderful! Blessings, blessings, blessings.

18. MY NAME IS WONDERFUL

MY NAME is Wonderful, the Mighty, the Counselor, the Prince of Peace. “Of my reign there shall be no end”—the government shall be upon my shoulders.

Call upon my name and I will answer thee—that is why, when you call the word “Wonderful,” the very soul of the idea rises and shakes off its grave-clothes. To call it “Wonderful,” though it be coated over with appearances of death and disease, of sin or poverty, is to see the sleeping Lazarus arise—not from death, but from beliefs, and shed his limiting bandages and bonds.

Call upon my name and I will answer. My name is Wonderful—the Mighty—the name of the I AM—the eternally present tense of life—the Eternal First Person, from which emanates the unspoken—spoken word and the invisible—visible. Call upon Me and I will answer you; yea, even before you call I will answer. I AM before all the beliefs of the limiting human beliefs. Though a man were dead, yet shall he live again; though you were dead in the hypnotism of a thousand years of belief, yet shall you live again in this Truth, and wonder after wonder pass over you.

Self-revelation—revelation of hidden talents of which you, the John Smith, have never dreamed—revelation of capacities and opportunities which were beyond your fondest dreams, come to the surface and are yours for the mere acceptance. It is wonderful.

“Salute no man that thou passeth upon the high-way,” lest he try to foist upon you a personal teaching—lest he try to turn you aside by his own holier-than-thou brand of teaching. Look within, and look away from the fleeting man whose breath is in his nostrils. “Look unto Me [the Christ within] all the ends of the earth, and be saved”—from the dire effects of your beliefs. Though you be red like crimson with beliefs in sin, sickness, and limitation, yet shall you be white as snow—because you were always that way, and always shall be that way. Pretty soon you shall see Me, and shall glory in the revelation, and see the glorious possibilities of the Sons of God. Then will you drink deep of the Water of Life, and go forth and smite the rock of human intelligence and make the water gush forth in such floods and abundance that it will cause the parched desert of your life to blossom as a rose. Do you hear? Do you heed? You are the Child of the Living God. Your name is Wonderful. Call upon Me and I will answer—yes, before you call I will answer.

All the human reasoning goes down like a house of cards before the self—revelation. What of this wisdom which today is true, and tomorrow is found to be nothing, and cast into the furnace of oblivion? All sin is but ignorance of Me—it is the conscious or unconscions ignoring of My Presence. As soon as you understand, the results of your ignorance or ignoring Me disappear, and you find harmony. As soon as you have the answer to a problem you have no problem; you cannot have answer and problem at the same time; a problem is only a problem so long as it remains unanswered. And the problems of life remain unanswered until you realize that I AM the answer to everything, for all problems are merely the ignorance—the ignoring of Me, your Inner Lord, your True Self, and the Real You.

My wisdom is foolishness in the eyes of man, whose breath is in his nostrils; he has only that breath for a few years, and then it gives out and he falls by the way. Verily, verily, I say unto you, “You must be born again”—awakened to the Truth of Being, which will cause you to see through the limited beliefs, and make you shout to the most foreboding evil that the belief world is capable of presenting to you: “It is Wonderful.” It is the name of the I AM, the Father—Mother or Divine Neuter, or All—Complete. It is wonderful, and, when recognized, comes out into manifestation, and one with this consciousness is a Majority. Do you hear? “Put up your sword”—”Ye do not need to fight—set yourself and see.”

Be still, beloved. I Am at this instant revealing My (Your) Self to you—wordless impressions, nameless

glories—revelation after revelation. I Am bringing to your sight the luster of the Pearl of Great Price. Once you have seen this, you will know that nothing matters and that everything matters. You will know the serenity of your soul, and see the fleeting shadows of the human belief disappear, because you have but to call upon Me to have the immediate answer.

And this will only be after the desire for show and fame and name has faded out and you are on the highway of life, speaking the word, not for praise, but because you cannot help speak of Me, the Inner Lord. You will not go about healing, but will go about recognizing the Living Word and calling it into expression. The moment it is recognized by you it will make itself manifest. But if you enter into a state or city (consciousness) where the word is not received, and argument is offered, shake the dust of this dead belief off of you and go your way. It is the dusty, dead argument of those who have to stay behind and bury their dead fathers. All human reasoning belongs to that category.

Inspiration cannot be narrowed into the limitations of the human intellect. “Eye have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God—the Law—hath prepared for them that love Him.” If eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, then why should you listen to the limiting beliefs of the human thought about the coming of your good into manifestation? Do you not see that only when a seal is put on your lips, and you go within to the Me of you and identify yourself with this, can you taste of the glories of the Kingdom?

What matter what a thousand books say? What matter what a thousand sermons preach? You have entered into a reality where, having eyes, ye see, and ears, ye hear, that which the limited human sight and hearing is incapable of experiencing. You will flee then from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, who is still trying to sell you his John Smith brand of truth—who is for ever talking about the healings he has made or experienced; for you will be in a place where there is nothing to heal; there is only revelation to be brought out. You shall be silent and serene and joyous; a song will be singing deep in your heart that the world cannot help but see. Yea, they shall see the song and say, “You are a celestial being having a happy mask.”

Then you will know that the King can play the beggar, but that the poor beggar can never possibly play the King—then will you see the unlimited possibilities of the Son of the Living God, and will not think it strange that you begin the appropriation of your good; nothing shall be impossible to you. Do you hear? Do you hear? Do you hear? “Nothing is impossible to Me, the Christ.” Everything is impossible to me, John Smith. If you still have to drag the corpse of the John Smith and his history of sin and limitations with you, you cannot enter, for you are now a new creature in a new universe, not an old creature patched up. Do you hear? Do you hear?

Be still. It is well. Well. I AM here—my name is Wonderful. Call upon Me and I will answer you. I Am everywhere evenly present, in the lowest dive of your human belief as well as the most lofty temple. I have but to be recognized to be made manifest. If you are in hell there am I; call upon Me and I will answer; and judge not from the appearances, for these shall pass in a swirl of hypothetical ether. You shall look for the place thereof and it too shall be gone, for it will be as the ice upon the river when the summer has come—it has been swallowed up in the activity of the flowing, life—giving river.

Nothing shall be lost, but all shall be saved. Right where you stand is holy ground The desert you inhabit is full with promise. You do not need to go into a far country; your Father is right where you are; but you have to arise—to recognize His presence—and go to Him in consciousness to receive the All Good, even though you have already wasted your all. You are never hopeless, forlorn, nor deserted. You are the Son of the Living God—now and here, and you are being Self—revealed. It is wonderful, it is wonderful, it is wonderful.

A new door opens before you—the old things pass away; the binding history of your past has melted into oblivion, and you stand self-revealed—Son of the Living God, with the troth written in your heart. “With God nothing is impossible”—with God-consciousness—and you have this as Jesus showed he had it, by recognizing its presence and using it; not with fear and wonder, but with boldness and joy; not by thinking He was a specially favored manifestation of the creation, but by accepting the good, the joy, and the power as natural, easy, and free. When will you arise and also go unto your Father, and stop this wandering back and forth in the desert of human beliefs and teaching? Within lies the All—the Father.

I will speak to you out of the books of the world and through the men of the world. Fear not—it is well. No sooner are you willing and ready than I will supply the avenue through which shall pour forth such new wisdom and revelation that you will wonder—you will be filled with wonder—you will know that it is wonderful—that a new state has been won which is full of the magic of new revelation. Life shall become One, all One; not two, but One—the Whole—and you, as a point of consciousness, drawing upon the infinite storehouse of the ALL. Things that cannot be written shall be told thee; things that cannot be said shall be given thee through the feeling—the wordless feeling; things that cannot be seen shall be shown thee, and thou shalt know that the old order changeth, and that thou art actually standing in the Eternal ways; and thou shalt draw from this great eternity everything which thy heart desires—not for selfish consumption, for personal gain and self—aggrandizement, but for the Selfish consumption (the consumption of the real Self) and for the Personal (the Divine Self) gain, and for Self (the Son of God Self) aggrandizement.

As the great Mozart1 conceived his whole composition before he even heard a note—heard it all at once—not note by note, but the total effect of the all—so will you express Me; so will you find that whatsoever the desire be, the expression is as sudden as is the reflection in the mirror when you pass in front of it,

1 “Thoughts come streaming in and at their best. Whence or how I know not, I cannot make out. Then it [the composition] keeps on growing, and I keep on expanding it more distinctly, and the theme, however long it be, becomes indeed almost finished in my head, so that I can survey it in spirit like a beautiful picture or a fine person, and also hear it in imagination, not indeed successively, as by and by it must come out, but altogether. That is a delight. All the invention and construction go on in me as in a fine strong dream, but the overhearing of it all at once is still the best.”

and as easy and as perfect, and as free from personal effort. You shall find the deep things within yourself, and know that the things which “eye hath not seen” are the things which dazzle the human thought beyond all measure.

The gift is not, then, so trivial that it amounts to a prattling about the words of Jesus, or of making a few healings on the earth plane; it is the eternal going from mansion to mansion, from one glorious expression to another, in the Universal Consciousness. Thus will you understand how it was that I, through the man Jesus, caused many things to happen of which the world has never ceased to talk. Likewise to you I shall reveal things which will cause the doors of the palaces of the kings of the earth to fly open to you, and which will finally cause the kings of the earth to seek you out and lay their gifts at your feet.

What is this puny sense interpretation of Me, which offers a way to treat and heal disease, and to prosper a man? Can it be the anti—Christ which offers my robe for sale to a lot of gamblers? What do you want with the Truth? To be known of men? To set up a new system? To get the applause of the world, and to have them say of you, “He is a holy man”? “What went ye out to see?” That which you no doubt found—yourself, human or divine, out-pictured everywhere. What do you see but an infinite self division—good, bad, or indifferent? “What went ye out to see?” A world full of evil and hatred, of sin and disease that you, poor puny creature, went forth to dope up and set right? Perhaps you go forth to be a martyr to the cause of Me? Have I ever made this demand? And after your self—imposed martyrdom did you not find out that it was for self—glorification?

When shall you go forth as the Son of the Living God—the Bright Messenger with light which automatically dispels darkness?—Not because it recognizes darkness as something to be got rid of, but because it exists no longer as a reality at the coming of light. What do you bring with you when you go forth into the universe?

My name is Wonderful. I sit in the beggar’s hut with the riches of the universe hidden away under the rags of the beggar; but I AM unrecognized; everyone that looks at Me either turns away, or says: “Poor creature! Here, take this penny and buy yourself a crust of bread.” But one comes and says, “Wonderful,” and I answer, “Yea, yea,” and rise, transformed from rags to silken garments; with purple and fine linen; with the silken tassels of my purse bursting because of their inability to hold the substance which is there.

My name is Wonderful. I lie within the sick, the dumb, the blind, the maimed, awaiting recognition. I lie there, a perfect flood of vitality, a stream of consciousness, which sees without eyes, hears without ears, speaks without words, and senses a vitality which knows not physical limitations. I AM greater than any instrument through which I express. I await recognition, so that the silly garments which have been hung upon Me shall be cast aside and a new, beautiful body shall be made to appear. I await the one who will come and say, “It is Wonderful,” instead of the one who comes in pity and sympathy. I await that one who will recognize Me in the hell of this physical limitation and this blinding pain of the belief world, and call Me by name to rise up and cause the lame to go on his way leaping for joy, the blind to see, the dumb to sing, the crooked to be made straight, and the dead to arise. I await recognition of Me—I await the command, “Rise up and walk,” which follows the recognition. I await the command “Open your eyes,” to cause the sightless eyes to be full of light.

That one who hath the single eye shall perceive Me in the most wretched costume that human belief has put upon Me, and shall call Me out by this glorious recognition. I await the command “Be whole,”—not be made whole, but be that which you eternally are. Who shall recognize Me? Who shall be the unafraid? That one shall tread upon the serpents of belief and the dragons of human sense, and nothing shall by any means hurt him.

Who are you—you who read this page, you who hold this book? I speak to you alone, alone, alone—listen—listen—within, within, deep within. WHO are you?

If you have heard Me speaking to you, then a great cloud of glory surrounds you, and the peace which passeth all is yours, and you know that, irrespective of appearances, everything is all right—peace, peace, peace, peace. It is wonderful. A seal is placed upon your lips—see that you tell no man.

19. THE SPIRIT OF ALL SUBSTANCE

“THE SPIRIT moving upon the face of the water”—the Spirit of the Consciousness is that activating motive which brings into manifestation the unseen things of the Spiritual world. The Word becomes flesh by reason of the eternal action of Spirit. The quickening Spirit is that which has brought it into manifestation here and now.

All people have in some degree the Consciousness of the Presence of God. Many can speak volumes of words of and about this Consciousness, without manifestation enough to sustain them. Ten thousand holy men, under ten thousand banyan—trees, are not able to do what one simple soul without name or station, can do through the recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness. Thousands may sit in meditation—in a perfect state of inward bliss—while the worms unfashion the very temple. They may proclaim “Lord, Lord” until the end of time, and may experience all sorts of Nirvana while their bodies are rotting with disease, yet until the Spirit becomes flesh it remains invisible; hence, as far as the human manifestation is concerned, useless and unreal.

What though I tell you of the riches of my Father, the King, if I drop with hunger while relating the fabulous stories? What though I tell you of the all-health of Spirit, if I die with disease as I am speaking? What though I tell you of the guiding influence of Spirit, if I cling tenaciously to a position—am looking to an organization or a salary to support my feeble voice—while I loudly proclaim, “The Lord is the source of my supply”?

Until recognition of the Spirit—the living pulsating Spirit of the Presence of Consciousness of God—is made, man is but another fully equipped power station, with infinite possibilities to illumine the whole universe, but with no manifestation. As a beautifully installed system of electricity remains in darkness until the wires are connected, so man, though he be fully equipped to flood his universe with light, remains in darkness, until he recognizes the presence of the Spirit.

We recognize that the universe is filled with infinite music, which may be produced anywhere at any time, yet is inaudible until recognized. So likewise we shall come to realize the All Presence of God, and this recognition in the ALL-NOW will produce the quickening spirit of instantaneous accomplishment. Hitherto we have thought of music as stored up in a gramophone record, or in the soul of a person. We had no thought of its all—presence in the ALL-Now, but had to go to people and localities to produce it. However wonderful the manifestation, it was always hedged about with limitations. ·Then suddenly came the recognition of the ALL-PRESENCE in the ALL-Now, and at that instant it became known that it was possible anywhere, at any time, instead of in a single isolated spot. So when man comes to recognize the Spirit of the Consciousness he realizes that, instead of this magnificent power being stored up in certain spiritual teachers, books, or places, it is infinite, and is instantly available in an intensely practical way.

“If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch.” The Truth speaker will be known by the impersonality of his words. He will not speak of himself, but of the power that has sent him into expression. He will not spread himself as a peacock, nor call attention to his high spiritual accomplishments. “What went ye out for to see?” When are you going to see ME, the glorious Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God, in the midst of YOU?

To the coward death comes many times. “Prove Me and see” is the command. “By their works”—not by their words—”shall ye know them.” “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”—there is the multitude listening. Look about you and see. The living, pulsating, vibrating SPIRIT of the Consciousness—the glorious thing made alive.

A thousand wonderful buildings dedicated to God and His work stand empty while words of, and about, the Truth e poured out in many tomes. Once the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God enters in, the walls of the churches will burst with the multitude. Such a power is the Light that leads by an invisible way the souls that seek the Light. And this glorious manifestation is possible to you. You—do you hear?

You will lay aside the garments of personal worship; you will flee from man “whose breath is in his nostrils.” You will cease the worship of personality, however consecrated and holy it may appear. You will thrill with the Spirit which is at last recognized within you. You will know that “It is well with Me.”

As the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God is recognized within you, the belief of poverty or limitation of any sort evaporates. As this mist of belief clears away, you find the Kingdom of Heaven here and now. This recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God acts not as a destroyer of evil, but as a revelator of the ALL-GOOD in the ALL-Now, and instantly brings out the reality: “Whereas before I was blind, now I can see.” When it is once now to the soul it has always been now.

As you are reading these lines I, the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence, am awaiting recognition. You—yes, you, the poor little discounted one, the one who stood farthest from the pulpit, and received scarce a sign of recognition from the consecrated souls—I have come to you, and I AM the same One who has been standing at the door of your consciousness knocking for ages. “BEHOLD I [the Spirit] stand at the door [of your consciousness] and knock. If any [no distinction is made] man will open unto ME, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me.” No matter who you are, neither the grade nor the length of your teaching, nor the fears of condemnation. You who read this page, do you hear? Do you see? I AM that which will tear the veil of belief from your eyes, and you shall see, not a little demonstration of supply that will last you for a week, but the fields white with substance, and you shall know that deep in the secret place of your being is the Key to the Universe. The catering to persons will drop away. You will ask of no man permission to perform the works I sent you to perform. “Those that are for thee are more than those that are against thee,” for there is but One, the Only, the All.

It is the recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God that suddenly transforms you and your universe, just as the spirit of the dance transforms an inert figure to a flying, moving thing of grace. Just as a smile transforms the entire face of a person, so the recognition of the Spirit will transform with all the ease, and none of the difficulties, of human effort, the entire life of a person. “And the fashion of · his countenance was changed.” Do you hear, you who read this page, how radical the change is? The “fashion,” even the hard lines that have been with you so long, whether in body, in expression, or accomplishment, all are subject to change to such an extent that you will know “the former things have passed away.”

Beloved, do you see the extent of this glorious awakening? Do you see the sublime heights to which the Spirit of the Consciousness shall lead you? Not a little healing for the moment, but the revelation of the Son of the Living God here and now; and this revelation will naturally change the “fashion” of your entire expression.

What the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God “decrees,” that shall come to pass, for it is merely decreeing the manifestations it sees in the Kingdom. All the human laws fade into nothingness as shadows disappear before the light. Every law is turned aside in order that the real lasting Grace of the Living Word shall be made manifest. Why will you bring such limited measures to the Fount of the All Present? When will you stop trying to get things and appropriate the All-Presence? Only when you have recognized the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God. Only when you stop running to and fro questioning people and listening to man whose breath is in his nostrils will “I break the bread with you.” “Give not that which is holy unto dogs.” Why will you argue and compare, and listen to some wise head hash and rehash the wondrous words that I speak direct to you through my Son? Be still—be still.

Thou fool, do you not know that a seed must first fall into the ground and die before it can be made alive? When are you going to let the stillness hold you in its heavenly bonds of secrecy and revelation—self-revelation—MY interpretation to you, to you alone?

“The Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God is the Source of all Supply.” Not of some supply, but of all supply. When you know this, you will not try to hoard—there will be no need, for supply will be as much present in one locality as another. It will be wherever you are and wherever you desire it. Do you hear? You who read this page? Look between the lines; I speak to you. I cast not my pearls before swine, but I AM pouring them out to you. I AM giving you the key to the Gates of Heaven, which you have sought through many avenues, and not yet found. The sordid robes of personality, name, and fame will fall finally from you, and you shall put on the glorious shimmering robes of immortality. I speak to you. Do you hear? You who read this page?

When you are ready to lay down your life, then shall you find it. Then you shall find that you are alive for the first time, and, instead of the ghastly futility of trying to get enough health, happiness, and supply to live by, you will find yourself in the Presence of the All, where nothing is lacking.

That power which you tried to produce, so that you might be known of men, shall be so innately interwoven into your soul that it will be a natural manifestation. Heretofore you have said your words and have done your deeds to be known of the populace. You wanted always to be sure that your name was attached to any healing or help that was given—“then through a glass darkly, but now face to face.” Face to face with the power you have sought so long. When you are once enveloped in the secrecy of the Spirit of the Presence, you will know why it is that “their shoes wax not old” and that the “manna falls daily.”

“The whole creation groaneth”—to wit, for the redemption of the body. We see this redemption within ourselves. Verily this has been true to our blinded eyes. A world of people writhing and twisting, begging for mercy, seeking money, health, success, happiness; eternally seeking “things,” and finding only ashes. The veil shall be torn from your eyes by the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God, and you shall see that the whole creation—your creation—your heaven—rejoiceth and “maketh a glad sound,” for the Redeemer has come into manifestation.

You may call ME by a thousand names, yet I Am One. “You are not another, but the same One,” will finally be said of you. You will realize that you are not a separate little manifestation, with certain powers stored up wit in you, but you are the same One. There is only the One. It is One. It is Won. It is Wonderful. The limitations of human language make it almost impossible to express anything but the vaguest idea of this glorious revelation.

“Behold, I make all things new”—”1”—the Spirit of the Consciousness. I make them new to the eyes that have been seeing through the belief of birth, growth, maturity, decay. I make them new by revelation of the eternal freshness and newness of the changeless Universe of God. I make you new by revealing your true Self to you. The quickening Spirit of the Presence brings into manifestation power hitherto unknown.

Dare you go your way with Me alone? Dare you rely on Me, the Spirit? Dare you launch out into deep waters, or push out the borders of your tent? You, I speak to—you who read this page!

Be still, then—I Am here now—I AM the Spirit of Consciousness. You have always had the consciousness of the Presence of God, no matter how little you knew it, no matter how many spiritual busybodies have told you that it has to be evolved. If you were created by God and out of God, you have had the Consciousness of God always.

20. PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL

You CLAIM to believe in Jesus Christ? Here then is the WORD given you—not you and your guru or teacher and adviser or greatest friend or loved one—but you.

“Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death.”

Nothing to discuss or reason about, merely something to contemplate, contemplate until the letters give way and the spirit comes forth. No one believes it. The moment a secret is told, it is no more a secret, and all power and energy is dissipated. Put the coal of fire where it belongs; “dumb as an ox led to the slaughter.” An ignorant man might grasp the end of a live wire, and then he is not ALIVE any more. That is what happens to the one who knows so definitely that evil is all there is and the power of God nothing but imagination.

Gradually it becomes apparent that the unseen is more visible than that which is manifest, the inaudible more audible than all the noise of man. He will hear the WORD which instantly casts its manifestation into being. “Fold your tent like the Arab and steal away,” you care not about the opinions and beliefs of the man whose breath is in his nostrils.

“This 1s Life eternal to KNOW Me”—IS, not shall be. It is not attained by stupid repetition. Be not like the heathen who tries to make it so. Prayer is the blending with the One—Light meeting Light.

When you discover the matrix through recognition you will produce the disintegrating manifestation infinitely or as long as it is necessary—not by looking at the manifestation but by “gazing” on the matrix; the eternal reality of it. So does a man discover why Jesus went to the mysterious thing called “Father”—and yet went nowhere, but discovered a more conscious sense of the Presence which filled all material vacuity and would have continued to fill it as long as it was apparent. The next morning when asked for the same inexhaustible thing, He had none to give them and asked them to give Him. “Children have ye anything to eat?” The old human intellect is twisted into a Gordian knot which cannot be untied. It is wonderful. When are you going to be still?

And here is the WORD again:

“Verily I say unto you, that there shall be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death”—it is for your contemplation—not for your argument and reason. No man believes it—and like the “Other Nine” went back to take again leprosy.

If you believe in Jesus Christ what He says is so, NOW.

21. THE REST IS SILENCE

THE SEED is dropped into the ground—the prayer is breathed—the rest is silence. An inner rhythm takes over and blends with the One, even as the germ in the seed begins to expand until the shell which has bound it breaks and the seed is freed into the universal. The Inner Rhythm takes over—the rest is silence: the magic of expansion from apparent nothing to something is still unexplained. How the tree grows is still a mystery to even the greatest scientist. How the prayer is answered is still a mystery to the most learned priest. Stillness is the purest form of recognition—movement and noise are products of something that is finishing its expression. In quietness—in stillness shall be thy strength. The still small voice has to be heard in the silence else its meaning be confused with the noise of the hurricane. The stillness in which you are to KNOW that I AM GOD is the silence of pure recognition of the Presence—here—there and everywhere.

If then the seed can perform without the help of human thought or ideas—how much more can the prayer of recognition find the inner rhythm, and in the silence discover that which is not told—that which has not been told—that which cannot be told—but must be experienced.

It is recorded that “there was silence in heaven” for the infinite space of half an hour before the manifestation that covered the earth was burned up. There is always silence when change is to take place and the old hindrances to the light are cleared away. “Put to silence the ignorance … “ the talk and clatter of praying “at” God, trying to change His plan or mind. Words will not do it—long prayer will not do it—singing will not do it—but silence will accomplish it. Out of the Void—out of the nothingness and stillness shall come that which man can and does handle with his hands and experience with his senses. “Let the earth keep silent before me”—let the manifest keep silent before that which operates the manifest, and it will know Life instead of a distorted sense of it called health and sickness.

The prayer is said (repetition is only a sign of lack of faith) ,—”the rest is silence.”

22. WORDS

TAKE WORDS:

“Take words and return to Jehovah.”

When you return to Jehovah—the One—the Void—the Chaos you find, that which is back of and in the WORD, and what makes it “tick.’’

Jesus gave us a word Remembrance.

It is usually passed over lightly until the discovery is made that you cannot remember anything unless it has actually transpired.

When the Disciples were looking for a “sign” and were told there would be no sign—they were also indirectly told that consciousness did not need a sign. When a sign is needed you are on shaky ground; you do not actually believe. If you have to have proof before you can accept a thing, you have no faith, no success and no blessings.

Every word of Jesus Christ has within it the power of self-expression. Go to the Center of it instead of trying to demonstrate a “trick” power; no sign will be given. Recognition is a must; Remembrance carries action with it. Jesus Christ “Went to the Father.” He went to that which was back of and in the WORD. He took the WORD back to Jehovah, where the IDEA originally came from, then he began to see things which he could not see with the foreshortened human vision. It is wonderful to discover the ALONENESS of the TRUTH, how you go within and shut the door and ask no questions. You begin to remember and action begins to take place. “Why reason ye within yourselves?” You answer that, and then you will stop trying to find out the answer which exists before the question—“Before you ask I will answer”—but which must be REMEMBERED before it can be of assistance. It is wonderful—filled with wonder. We begin to understand—why we are not to go for the “fermentation” (leaven of the Pharisees) but are to return to Jehovah with the WORD and see what caused the WORD in the first place.

It is the WORD, and not the spelling of it in a thousand languages, all different, which we are after. The sound of the word means nothing if one does not understand the language in which it is spoken. THE WORD that heals or reveals may be said in any language with sure results. Transformation or manifestation of the WORD takes place without effort: untrammeled and perfect. It is wonderful—filled with wonder.

Calling attention to that which IS back of and in the Word, He asked His disciples if they did not remember when He fed five thousand and asked how many baskets were left over. What a question. Where did the baskets come from? What did they do with the scraps left by some twenty thousand people if we count the women, children and dogs. They answered, “twelve”—that is completeness—one for every month if we want to go into symbology, but most of all He called attention to what was left over, not what was just enough—showing that out of the WORD pours more than enough to assuage the limitations of the human mind and its belief.

It is wonderful—filled with Wonder—when you come apart from among them and are separate, a little. Take your own WORD and discover what is back and in the IDEA; the unfolding power which will pro’.”’ duce anytime, anywhere that which it stands for. So does the Prodigal “REMEMBER.” He doesn’t create the fact that “his father has enough and to spare” but he remembers, and in that remembrance he discovers that it is so—even though he has squandered his patrimony. The Father SEEING him long way off. . . .Recognition alerts everything. He finds nothing has been depleted, but is just the same, for manifestation is merely the shadow of reality, and is nothing and is not substance but the shadow of the matrix. So does he go back into the ONE; into the Void from which all things came into manifestation, and in which is the power to sustain the manifestation indefinitely or to release it instantly and let it disintegrate. _.

We are told to remember the Sabbath. Why? It is the place of the elevation of reality, when we keep it HOLY and wholly and do not let it get intermingled with human thought. Reason, perhaps the most active faculty of the human mind, works from appearances and what it can prove thereby—but it runs into the simple proposition of egg and chicken and has to “Throw up the sponge,” yet it goes on reasoning out the things of God.

“Take words and return to Jehovah”—find out that which is back of and in the word and you will discover the power which causes it to express or manifest with the ease and dispatch of a reflection in a mirror when one stands in front of it. It is perfect in the least detail—yet nothing is given to it—and likewise nothing is given to the manifestation which you release from consciousness of the word.

The battle is not to the swift nor yet to the strong—You are told not to count your soldiers and in the case of sudden fear to REMEMBER. But what good is remembrance unless it is understood that in the Word is the power of self-expression.

“Thou shalt not be afraid of them; but shall WELL remember, what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt.”

Remembrance is not a creative thought, or a desire to make something take place. It is an acknowledgment of something that has already taken place.

Remembrance comes before manifestation. You cannot REMEMBER a thing unless it has already taken place and is not subject to laws of reason and hope.
“But—Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant, which he swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”

Away with all the false ideas that you can demonstrate money, can make God act as a stock broker catering to the whims of man. REMEMBER something and return unto Jehovah with the WORD and find that which is back of and in it, then will the glorious LET take place.

Jesus asked the question: “Do ye not yet understand neither REMEMBER, the five loaves of the five thousand?” Note the word UNDERSTAND. He was attempting to bring the disciples into line with the consciousness of hat took place instead of looking at the “bread” which disappeared, even the twelve baskets, that which was back of it and in it and did not disappear.

“How is it that ye do not understand, that I spake it to you not concerning BREAD . . .” It would seem time for a little going within and discovering just what He did mean if He called their attention to the five loaves and then told them He was not speaking of BREAD. Of what was He speaking? Certainly it was not manifestation but that which was back of it, knowing that the SUBSTANCE hack of and IN bread was the identical substance which was back of and in everything, and how necessary it was to return to the unformed substance if a new manifestation was desired. REMEMBER—suddenly we do not have to create nor co—create, but REMEMBER and when we do this we are freed from the dependence on manifestation and things. We are at the very basic principle of BREAD. The Bread that cometh down from heaven is substance, in no form, and yet in every form, ready to manifest itself the moment we make the recognition, and can remember how it has already definitely and without question been proven. This should cause us to relax and LET something take place, just as we see it take place in the order of creation. It is wonderful and filled with wonder. “How is it that ye do not understand?”

He who needs proof of the presence of God, and insists on a sign, gets nothing, and has not blessings. “How is it that ye do not understand?’’

Some seek the fruit of the tree and are fed and want again—but some are smart enough to seek the roots from which the eternal manifestation takes place. “How is it that ye do not understand?”

23. UNBORN GLORY

THE POETRY of Pindar of Thebes was so true and revealing that it caused Alexander to leave only his house standing when he destroyed the city of Thebes. Looking through some of the translations, which are all too few and sketchy, we come upon:

“Through unborn glory a man is mighty indeed—but he who learns through teaching is a twilight man, wavering in Spirit.”

Interesting how this checks perfectly with the revelation of Jesus Christ. He was always referring to the “created” thing—that which preceded the life of man born of woman. We see then that “unborn glory” is of importance and should be contemplated. That which is “unborn” within you, that which does not come from man or woman or flesh is an unborn something in every man. It is the seed consciousness which if recognized will flourish into total expression and reveal dimensions of the one who has learned the simple lesson of calling NO man his father, because he has already recognized that he is created and propelled by SPIRIT—God, and that the unborn glory is not something he can acquire or demonstrate—but is something that must be discovered and LET into expression.

The LAW OF GOD gradually comes into being, and man discovers that which he already has—that for which he came to give expression. The “twilight man” then comes out into the full noontide of what he is, and what he has to express. “Through unborn glory” is something to contemplate just before you begin to express, if you wish to see the plus value of life take shape and form. It is that subtle something which is not added but which is discovered, and which immediately, when recognized, begins to expand through the temple body and cause that which already is to appear. It is the revealing LIGHT from within which shows the Kingdom as here and now, and not as something for which the “twilight man” must die to inherit.

Can you conceive of handling or doing anything whatsoever, even in thought, with “Glory”? It is a commodity which is of God and there is nothing in the human mind which can approximate it in the least degree. It is at the same time so nebulous and intangible as to be nothing, but at the same time, it is the only substance: “The flower before the seed,” the answer before the prayer, and the revelation before the confusion of ignorance. So does man discover everything, even as the air automatically fills all space. Substance takes the shape and form of any desire because the fulfillment of the desire is already there.

It is written in 1st Kings—“I have surely built thee a house to dwell in. A settled place for thee to abide in forever.” Where is this house, what is this house, but the temple of the Living God? It is everywhere and nowhere; it is forever. The houses we have lived in are but shadows cast upon the screen of belief. The “House not built with hands eternal in the heavens,” is that BODY or temple which you take with you in consciousness “eternal in the heavens.’’ It is ETERNAL in the consciousness which stems from God, and is made visible by the “unborn glory” within every man. A consciousness of this terminates in the “house” called home.

The mummy of a pharaoh may remain for thousands of years but there is neither power nor life in it. Many people are still holding on to the body of Jesus Christ—instead of recognizing the resurrected body wherein the “unborn Glory” of God is eternal, and without the capacity of the human mind to be sick and sinning. The way then that man becomes a “new man in Christ Jesus” is to awaken to that which he has within his house. The moment he discovers this unborn glory it fuses with anything he is doing and causes him to move from sickness to health, and from poverty to substance and so on. Any expression that is caught up with this glory will be filled with the overflowing light which will awaken the “twilight men” and cause them to come forth into expression.

24. I AM EVERYWHERE

I AM HERE, there, and everywhere. I AM within all, within every fiber, nerve, and cell of your being. I AM in the inanimate as well as the animate— I AM everywhere. I AM everything and everywhere; call upon ME and see if I will not open the windows of Divine Substance. I AM that I AM—that particular I AM Consciousness which will come to this condition or situation and make its nothingness appear. I will release the power that lies hidden there. I AM ALL in ALL—I AM everywhere. No matter wither you go, into what locality, I AM there— I have gone before you, because I AM there already and always have been. I have already caused Myself to be so impressed upon you that you find everything prepared before you arrive. You find everything answered before you ask. You find everything supplied before the need arises. It is well with you—do you hear?—irrespective of person, place, or thing. It is well with you, irrespective of teachings of any nature whatsoever. I AM—I AM—I AM.

I AM the lost Word which is hidden within your consciousness, which is your consciousness veiled by a mystification of the human senses. In judging from appearances you have lost true values, and have accepted shadows as realities. I AM the lost Word, the Word before which the doors of the universe fly open—doors in the impassable walls of human obstacles; doors that lead out on highways never charted by the human sense because of its limitations. Doors that belong to the palaces of the kings fly open at My coming and the riches of Caesar are laid before Me—to take and do with as I like.

I AM here, there, and everywhere. It is well. The new voyage upon which you are about to embark is already prepared—minutest details have been taken care of. Arise! Take no thought; all these things shall be added to the unafraid one. Do you hear? You who read this page? You?

The endless planning and trying to arrange things suddenly cease. “The Government shall be upon His shoulders,” the government of your life, and all is well. Only the personal attitude can keep you out of this beautiful, restful experience. Be not afraid: “It is I.” Why should you be afraid to accept your good here and now, instead of waiting for the harvest? Have I not told you over and over again, “Look again,” the fields are white, the laborers are few. Thrust in the sickle. Reap, you who read this page. You!

Reap the fullness of life everywhere present. Not one thing shall be hidden from you. When you come to recognize the Allness of Life, there will be no place for sin, disease, or death, and you shall find a new thing working in your members which will be above both health and sickness, a new consciousness which is not the result of evil overcome, but which is the out-picturing of the Spirit, which is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity.

The healed man is perhaps better than the sick man, but he is still swinging between something and nothing. If he wishes to stop the swinging between the pairs of opposites he will have to move up to the place of recognition of the All-Presence, and there abide in a state of changeless bliss. His ability, then, will not be to demonstrate the Word, but to bring the living presence of the Word into visibility. This is your power; it is the power which was given to the child—in consciousness—the ability to accept the Good that has been prepared for him. Do you hear? I speak the word of healing for you at this moment.

There is but the NOW—it is NOW that I write. It is NOW that you read, and at this divine instant of the ALLNOW I speak from out these pages and say, “Rise up and walk; open your eyes and see the glorious Finished Mystery; open your ears and hear the things which human lips cannot utter; stretch forth your arm of strength and accomplish that which you will. Go your way into expression. It is well with you. Be whole; be free; be newly born.”

You who are reading this page, do you hear? Do you hear? Do you hear? In the glorious All—Now, it is well with you—rise and declare from the housetops of your being. “It is wonderful! It is wonderful! It is wonderful!” Even the wrath of man shall praise thee—even the thing which has seemed so untoward shall rise and sing thy glory. The limited personal Jesus shall praise the Christ within your consciousness. You shall call it from the housetops of your being by telling it in secret to your soul—by pure recognition of the All-Presence in the All-Now.

Human language fails to express anything like the Joy of the All-Now, but between the lines you will find the Spirit that will accomplish this for you. Be still; the unuttered word is the Word of God which shall not, cannot, and has not the ability to return unto you void. For the Word of God is fulfillment pressing toward your consciousness for expression. The word which speaks it into existence is the actual recognition of the Presence everywhere.

I AM here, there, and everywhere. To recognize this is to understand without further difficulty how it is that you can now reach out across the universe and touch ME in another being, and cause that being to take on the splendid sense of health, of happiness, and prosperity that you formerly tried to make happen by beseeching special favors of ME. The Sons of God shout for joy—you cannot help it—Blessings, infinite blessings—like the deluge of golden mist that fills the valley after a storm—you are filled with this invisible-visible substance, and the light from this consciousness causes all the evil shadows of human belief to recede. It is well with you. Blessings, infinite blessings. Do you hear? Do you hear? Not the cold human words, but the spirit of that which sets aside every human law, however conceived or made. Blessings that come from the Grace of God pouring into expression in your life in the All-Now, in the All-Presence.

Be still outwardly, and shout for joy within until it has shattered the walls of your prison. Do you see? If you once glimpse the All-Presence in the All-Now you will begin to see that I AM not only here and there and everywhere, but I AM everything, and partake of the nature of everything through this great Oneness. I AM everything and everybody; I AM ALL.

I speak to you, and for this reason comes this message into your hand. From this instant I AM into manifestation in your life as a real, living factor—not as a far-off God, but as the very life of your life, the great connecting—link between you and everything manifest on the earth. It is well; be not afraid. It is I.

I have many hidden things to show you when you can be still. One by one the clamoring voices of argument, revenge, and resentment will have screamed themselves lifeless. That which can rend you must come out of you, even though you fall as one dead, and dead you will be to the human babbling. This which can rend you sore must come out of you so that you can soar to the new heights which were impossible with the former baggage. Let go, give up, and call down into manifestation the blessing of the All-Now and the All-Presence. The coming and going of things is only in the human thought. Nothing passes away in the reality of the Real. There is noth-ing to be destroyed, hurt, or made right.

When you have ascended into Heaven and glimpsed the eternal, perfect harmony of that consciousness without beginning or ending, you will descend into the hell of your human thinking and bring with you the All-Presence, and see this hell self-consumed. You will see the fire of evil wiped out by the blaze of Life. You will merely bring the recognition of that which is in Heaven unto earth, or out into the manifest world, and see it change. You will see a whole city appear with the evaporation of a fog of human thinking and belief, and your Heaven unfold before you out of the mystification of your human thought.

Right where you are is holy ground, for I AM here, there, and everywhere.

Unlatch the latchets of your sandals; let go of the human reasoning or the how, why, when, and where; let go of all the systems of Truth, and drink deep of the living water of Inspiration which is wordless and unutterable. I shall impress you with that which is “Stand and deliver”—”He who hears obeys.”

“When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” You have to answer that for yourself. Perhaps you have already answered it in the negative for the rest of the world. But it has nothing to do with the rest of the world; it has only to do with your world. When the revelation comes to you, when I come to you and speak, even as I AM speaking at this instant, shall I find faith—recognition on the earth—in the manifest realm of your earth?

While you are looking for evil in the world to overcome, you are making so much noise you cannot hear ME as I stand at your door and knock. It is well; be not afraid; one day the Awakening comes, and then you take your pearl of great price and run away and bury it in a field—in a new state of consciousness—and you tell no man about it. And you know why.

The deepening of consciousness takes place, and with it the glorious accompanying manifestation. Have I not said to you in many ways, “If a man lose his life he shall find it”? If you lose the personality, letting it be swallowed up in the I AM, then will you lose also all the human law pertaining to that personality; the problems of that personality will then be of no concern to you, for they will cease to exist. The personality is on the plane of cause and effect—the four months to the harvest—the “as ye sow, so shall ye reap”; but when you are lost in ME you find your real life, the life everlasting. Literally some will find this and appropriate it, and be translated into the new and wondrous Spirit.

Remember, I have said unto you, “The last enemy that shall be overcome is death.” When you lose your limited personal sense of life in the All-Life, you lose the sense of disease and evil, and, without disease, death cannot come into manifestation. Hence the last enemy, the last belief in a power outside of the All-Presence, is swallowed up. Death is swallowed up in Victory, in Life, and you shall say, “Whereas before I was dead, Now (the only now) I AM alive.”

Take away the condemnation from your world, bathe it in the new Light of Love and Life. When you cease to look for evil, evil will cease to manifest for you.

“Kick the hell of rigid things from ‘neath your feet and leap through space; and space shall hold you
with the thrilling flux of life ascending; and hold you more complete in every part than did the rigid
coils you flung behind you.”

The rigid coils of human thinking—the age—old beliefs and laws that have seemed like the coils of a python, crushing the very life out of you! These shall finally be put from you by being divested of their power. There is that upward rising, that quickening, that going to the Father, which is the recognition that lifts up to the Mount. “Underneath are the everlasting arms; the everlasting power is with you, in you and through you. The great changelessness of the LAW of God—which is,

“As above, so below;
As within, so without.”

No place can you go where I AM not. If you take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, there AM I; or into hell, there AM I. I only have to be recognized to be made manifest in that spot. I only have to be recognized to set a flame the bush by the wayside. I have myriad ways of speaking to you—when the scales of a double universe have dropped from your eyes. I AM that I AM. Do you hear? Nothing is hard for ME.

You who have struggled all night with the angel shall have at last the bandage of human belief torn from your eyes, and you shall loose it and let it go. So many have tried this by first recognizing that the angel had power which was working against them, and then, in trying to let go, found it practically impossible to do so. Do you not see that the only reason a problem has power is because you feed it constantly with your thought? The more your attention is upon it, the greater it becomes to you; then one day you recognize the startling fact that you are sustaining it like a parasite, which is mocking the meat it is feeding upon, and you take from it the nourishment of your thought, and find that in so doing you have loosened the only hold it had upon you. Do you see? You who read this page? You!

In the spaceless and timeless center of your soul you will see the nothingness of the dust of human existence—you will see that the thousand years have been but a day, and that you stand gloriously revealed to yourself, and it is this inner revelation which causes the human manifestation to come to higher and more perfect proportions and expression. The effect will take care of itself. The out-picturing of the state recognized within will automatically be made manifest. When the mind lets go of what it is holding in the hand, the hand unfolds and drops the article automatically, even though it was holding on with all might and main before. Do you see that the results that follow are the signs which follow, and which do not precede? When you are not looking for signs, for results, it will be because you are completely satisfied that the Law of God never fails, and, therefore, any anxiety or thought you take regarding the outcome of the inner vision, is totally wasted, and in many cases acts as a mist that obscures the Truth which should appear.

I have passed you of ten on the highways of life, and you have failed to see or hear Me, because you are eternally looking to the outward shell. Remember that I speak through any avenue that is free enough to let Me into expression. I do not always come with purple and fine linen or the approval of a Church; I come in the manner in which you can best see Me; but if you are hypnotized to the outside, to the appearance, then you will pass Me by.

Fear not! When you are ready, I will do the works through you. When you are ready to let go of the limiting sense of things about you, and the limiting personality with which you have identified yourself, you will see ME.

I AM here, there, and everywhere— Blessings, blessings, blessings.

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Thrust In The Sickle by Walter Lanyon

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