What All The World Is Seeking

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

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

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

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

“Thy Faith hath made thee whole,” is in direct opposition to the testimony of personal sense, which pronounces a thing incurable. That which is impossible to the intellect is divinely possible to the inspiration of the Almighty, for “all things are possible to God.”

We begin to see that life is a matter of joyous co-operation. If you do not co­operate with the school teacher, you will be kept after school until your lessons are learned. Yet it is an act of love which keeps you there; it is for your own ultimate good, though it may seem to trouble you while you are kept there. The lesson must be learned, and if you will not accept the simple way of cooperating with life, you will come under the rod of the schoolmaster.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heaven is a state of unchanging good.

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

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

“There is nothing new under the sun,” Man cannot change the eternal verities. “Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” You can only become aware of that which already is—your divine destiny. You are fatalistic to one thing only, and that is the divine decree of good. Every­thing that belongs in your Kingdom of Heaven to make it a place of complete harmony and satisfaction is already there, waiting your coming, your acknowledgment of its existence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I sent my Soul through the invisible

Some letter of the After-life to spell;

And by and by my Soul returned to me,

And answered, “I myself am Heaven and Hell.”

-OMAR.
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Walter C. Lanyon