31 Various Chapters From Walter C. Lanyon Books
O COLORFUL ONE
O YE OF LITTLE FAITH
ONENESS
OPERATION
THE OTHER DISCIPLE
THE OTHER FELLOW
WHERE ARE THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR?
OUT OF THE CLOUDS
PAINTING A ROOM GREEN
THE PATTERN
THE PLUS VALUE
THE POOL OF BETHESDA
THE POOL OF RESOURCES
POSSESSION
POWER
THE POWER OF SILENCE
THE POWER OF THE LET THERE BE
PRAYER & POISON
THE PRESENCE
PROTECTION
RAISING HELL
REALIZATION
REALM OF MANIFESTATION
THE RED ROSE
REJOICE, THOU BARREN ONE
RESIST NOT
REVELATION
THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS
THE SECOND COMING
THE SECRET POWER
SEEING
O COLORFUL ONE
I AM the Great White Light in which all the visible and invisible color of the universe and heaven rest. My name is O Colorful One—I am full of light that is white and glistening and at the same time is multicolored and many-hued. My white light passes through the prism of human thinking, reasoning, or teaching, and takes on seven distinct rays. And man, looking through a glass darkly and with the double eye, sees as many different paths all claiming to be the truth; but so long as a man remains in the personal idea of the truth he had not yet seen the Great White Light of his True Self in which are hidden all things-hidden only to the eye that is double.
He may follow a single ray of color, thinking that he at last has the truth, only to find that it terminates in disillusionment. One by one he may exhaust the paths, until finally he comes to the Great White Light of his Soul. It is the whole garment alone that can satisfy, and this comes, not by a mediator, but through the Christ within, and until man learns this he will go seeking in every strange place and chasing every will-o’-the-wisp of color, hoping to fund peace and the All. He will find what the man finds who believes literally that a pot of gold hangs at the end of the rainbow.
Pretty soon he begins to see the Great White Light of his Soul-and, as he recognizes this, he sees hidden in this’ all the glorious colors of Soul. A million colors and tints burst upon his startled eyes as he goes from glory to glory-for he suddenly realizes that for the first time he is seeing. “Having eyes, ye see not,” is changed to the glorious explanation, “Whereas before I was blind, now I can see.” He is thrilled with the exquisite bliss of the awakening in the new heaven (state of consciousness) and the new earth (manifestation in the flesh). He finds there everything that he has tried for long years to demonstrate by one means or another. He finds there overflowing abundance of the All, and he is unafraid and naked. There is nothing between him and the truth-he is lost in the great swirl of color, of light, and glory. He is bathed in its golden mists. His feet are lovely upon the mountains of inspiration and along the still waters, limpid and blue. He lies upon the breast of the new earth under the shifting gold-dust of the sun of life. He tastes of the bliss of the peace which passeth all understanding. He is suddenly One with the Universe, with the All. He is everything and nothing at the same time. “When a man loses his life he shall find it” –when your personal sense of trying to run the universe is ended, and you are willing to let go of the petty personal desires, you shall taste of a fruit of life that will again admit you into the portals of your lost Eden.
Ah, how fair it stands, and has always stood, awaiting the one who could lay aside his dusty, worn, travel clothes and put on the white, shimmering robes of the Son of the Living God. “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the glories prepared for them that love thy law. “What you are about to experience when you can give up or let go of this tinsel personality—painted with the colors of effort and struggle to be or do something personal—is so far beyond anything that has ever been written or told you that the comparison is absurd. What you lose when you give up or let go of the personal something is the difference between Jesus and the Christ. And this giving up is not a straining thing when once you understand the truth as taught by the Master.
Gladys Smith may have been the teacher’s pet, been called a pretty child, and been the pride of her family; but Mary Pickford absorbed all of this Gladys Smith and expanded to a creature beloved by thousands. She pushed out the border of her tent beyond anything little Gladys would ever have dreamed. Do not be afraid that your darling —the little personality that has perhaps to your eyes attained such wonderful things, and wants credit for it always—is going to be lost by giving up and letting the Christ into expression. You will lose nothing but the prison of a name and a following, and find a Name and a hollowing a million times greater than the little consecrated soul you thought you were when working to bring in the millennium and to save the world.
He who travels alone travels far—no man along the way can discuss these things with you. Either you do or you do not know that within you lies this great fountain of life which gushes up into a pure white stream—shoots far up into the azure skies, and is transformed into a mist of glorious color by the Sun of Life.
You are this fountain of pure White Light which is everything and anything. It can be that which it will, and is so chameleon-like that it can harmonize with its surrounding either for protection—lost to the human eye—or to bring forth a glorious revelation. The great floods of understanding will ever be able to speak in that color that is understandable to the listening one. Thou art all colors, twinkling, blazing, flaring up into expression.
O Colorful One, the soul of me, only through this great at-one-ment can I ever find the satisfaction of life. Only when the impersonal comes to be the personal can I repossess my universe and find it heaven here and now.
Many have whitewashed themselves over with a false humility and set themselves in the highways of the world, proclaiming in all their meekness that they are the consecrated souls, and have come to save the world from sin. They have come to save nothing, not even themselves; they are merely selling My robe, casting lots for it in the open market of life-drawing their white garments away from Me, and making themselves official stone casters. Do not imagine that any personal teaching,’ however high, will satisfy you nothing but the discovery of the Great Soul of your True Self will do that.
“Let the filthy be filthy still”—let the personal teaching remain personal—you will find your soul in due time. A filthy mind is always seeing filth. A nude statue made to represent the truth is to him something obscene and dirty. Find out what a man is condemning, and you have a concrete picture of that roan. You give yourself away when you criticize another; you are only letting the wise man see your self which is hiding behind a personality.
O Colorful One—the soul of you—is that which makes you to know concretely-right here and now:
“I AM the light of the world [your manifest world]; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness [human beliefs], but shall have the light of life.”
The I AM, the O Colorful One, will cause you to see the impossibility of walking longer in the human beliefs and limitations of life. Many things that you formerly consigned to the “yes-they-may-be-possible-when-I-get-the-understanding,” will be natural. I have things to show you that I cannot tell you.
Dominion, dominion, dominion, not domination. This is what I give you. There is no need to dominate in the Kingdom of Heaven, for that is only bondage. What you dominate occupies your whole time and attention, and hence dominates you indirectly. I give you dominion, for you have the cloak of invisibility, the cloak of many colors, any color. Do you understand, O Colorful One? Yes, your soul leaps with joy with the boundless possibilities of the Sons of the Living God —with the serene joy of the expression anywhere, and at any time, in the manner necessary. Not just a painter, or a lecturer, or a dancer, but an O Colorful One, who knoweth the deep things and can give to every man that which he asketh—not as a personal gift, but by way of self-revelation.
I AM a pool of iridescent flame—in Me is all; without Me is nothing. When you are lost in My will, then you automatically function from the heights of bliss, abandon, and expression. Your individuality is not lost; it is found. The deep springs of unknown talent and accomplishment gush forth into expression. You shall speak with new tongues, both literally and figuratively. You shall be at that instant just exactly what you recognize yourself to be—when you do not strain to recognize it, but just are it by recognition and assumption—very easy, as the color of white broken up into the rainbow melts from one to another hue.
O Colorful One, is the soul of you. It plays into expression, as the light plays on the water—there is no resistance to the light. It does not need to combat its supposed enemy, the darkness. It finds nothing there to fight, so the human mind, when lifted to the understanding of the Son of the Living God, will find that what it formerly considered obstacles will disappear. What to Jesus was a problem was nothing to the Christ-what to you as a human personality may seem an impossible, insurmountable obstacle is nothing to the soul of you. The tiny resources which you hugged to yourself as a personality become as a drop in the bucket compared to the overflowing of the windows that are opened in heaven when you recognize the Power of the Son of the Living God.
Saul, going to his duty of fighting sin and evil, is blinded by the white light—so white that the human eye has not yet perceived it. It would blind the human eye, because of its limited capacities, and because of the indescribable colors and hues. Millions of tints and nuances are revealed; but by this very blinding is the obstruction removed, the name changed, and the way opened-the new way. All this is just in front of you—you who read this page. Do you hear? You? When will you lay aside the trinkets you borrowed from your masters in Egypt? They have served you well, but they are also souvenirs of your bondage.
The letter that you study is merely a memory of your bondage to the human concept of truth. Presently you shall cast that aside, and exclaim in the soul rapture of the Son of God, the O Colorful One, “I AM free born—I AM a Son of the Living God—I AM a joint heir with Christ.” Glory, glory, glory –and a flood of white light, with its billion of colors and tints, shall descend upon you, and your eyes shall be open, and you will know that “It is well,” and that nothing matters but you and your soul. And in finding this out, then for the first time, and in the true sense of the word, everything matters, and is your special charge, and the command, “heed my sheep,” will be literally understood and not mutilated into a personal service.
I said “Feed my sheep”—not destroy my sheep with the personal fears and personal teaching. Who are you?—standing there with that great mantle of personality about you—passing out some tabloid statements of how to get things and how to attain spirituality by following after you? He that setteth himself up shall be abased. Remembering that the Master had no patience with hypocrites, have a care that you be not classified with those who were called “vipers.” To whom will you be Judas? You may be running about smartly correcting others, and thinking thereby to win a special reward. Watch!
O Colorful One, the soul of you will cause the mantle of secrecy to envelop you. You will not care to chatter about the findings of truth-they will be too precious. Once you have been shown the jewel, the pearl of great price, and seen the luminous floods of color of your real self, then you will know that nothing matters but the following of your own soul instructions. How and whither, no man knoweth. He that hath many cares must remain with the household of the human thought, and try to set it in order-and at the same time he may be a doorkeeper and have many duties to perform.
Do not think, because you discover your True Self, that you will sit idly by and pass out wisdom on a golden platter. You will live and release wisdom on rays of light that the whole world will see. Fear not! If there is anything to you, your fame will find its wings. The dogs barked at the feet of the Master as he passed through the streets of Jerusalem-the holier-than-thou dogs, and those who would have destroyed him. Fear not: I AM mightier than any combination of human belief. Those that are for thee are greater than those beliefs that are against thee.
O Colorful One, soul of me, shine forth—that is, the word shine forth in the particular nuance of expression that is necessary at this instance to bring out the glories of heaven on earth. Can you see how heretofore you have asked for nothing, for you have not known how to ask? You have asked for some trifling thing in order that the human self might be glorified—in order that you might gild over a human personality and make the world fall down and worship you; but now you ask in the true way, that of appropriation. Can I speak plainer than:
“Ask, believing, ye receive. Before ye ask, I will answer.”
Am I then, the soul of you, a liar? Is My word broken constantly and not fulfilled? Do you hear? You who read this page? You? Do not ask another—ask yourself. What are you afraid of? Letting go? Letting me direct your way? Are you going to bend it in order that it may suit another’s idea of you, or what another thinks you should do and accomplish? Be still! Until you can get over that you can never know peace.
Come out from among them (human thoughts) and be free. A man’s enemies are those of his own household (consciousness). These are the only enemies you have, and yet you have a world full of them, because you see your human thought reflected in a million mirrors of the universe. What hope is there for you to change the reflection in the mirror? I said, “I AM a new creature in Christ Jesus” —I call to your attention over and over this statement, for finally you will hear it-a new creature has no need of the old appliances, bandages, and appurtenances—fears. Do you hear? You who read this page–right now? You?
The open road lies before you, no matter if you are bound head and foot with human beliefs. I say unto you, “I”—the O Colorful One—the soul of you. “I” say to you—to you who read this page—to you—are you listening (feeling)? “I” say to you, “Rise up and walk.”
Do you hear? You? I AM speaking to you from out the depths of your very being-I am speaking to you from out the fount of life —I am telling you something that is already possible, awaiting acceptance, awaiting recognition. The open road lies before you, the road upon which all things are discovered, not created. It is the Way of Life, and it leads all over My Universe, and goes directly to its Robe, and Ring, and Upper Chamber, and finds its purse and scrip. Do you hear? I AM that Way, the Blaze of Life, the O Colorful One. I go before the human manifestation, and see that the way he travels is clear, and that there shall be no stones for him to stub his toe against. Are you afraid? I shall clothe thee in the many-colored, seamless robes of pure white which shall be all things to all men.
“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I did not say you should be patched up and fixed up to look better and to have more of my goods-I said ” BE “now, here, at this instant, ” BE ” ye ” transformed “-not temporarily changed-glistening, shimmering, shining, white and all colors at the same time. It is wonderful-wonderful -wonderful. Heaven and earth are full of thee–of thee, of thee-the all-inclusive, the One of which you are a point in consciousness. All my glorious Self pours through you into expression and yet all of it is left. No amount of hearers can ever exhaust music. Because a person listens to music he does not destroy anything of its volume-and yet he has it all. So will it be with you.
So will you go into your own garden and find the eternal Christmas-tree-the gift tree, the tree of life, situated beside the inexhaustible river of life-and you shall be at peace. It is wonderful, O Colorful One; it is glorious. You who read, do you hear? Be quiet, then, let go, and see the salvation of your True Self pour out into expression. Even as I now pour out the words to you on this page, so will I pour out to you your true and wondrous expression. It is well.
You shall descend into the cleansing pool of life and there taste the bliss of heaven. It is well with you-the myst-i-fications of the earth beliefs are even at this instant becoming more translucent and clear-then “through a glass darkly” is beginning to become “then face to face.” O glorious, O Colorful One with healing in your wings, with the strength that is beyond all human limitations in your arms, with the glory of youth eternal written all over you, you are even now stooping down to the human belief and lifting up the poor little personality until it shall be swallowed up in the million hues of spiritual wonders of the Kingdom here and now.
O YE OF LITTLE FAITH
One of the most glorious things said by the Master was “O ye of little faith,” addressed to the disciples after they had failed to heal the sick child. It is glorious because unless the Master had know that it lay perfectly within the power of the disciples to have brought forth this healing, he would not have rebuked them for their failure. Do you see, then, how the secret doctrine is hidden away for those that have eyes? Do you see that you are never rebuked for having left undone something that you could not do? In the rebuke , the powerful encouragement comes that it was, and still is, within the scope of your possibility to perform that which you failed to do.
“Be of good cheer: I (the I AM) have overcome the world,” “I” have COME OVER the world, would give a more adequate idea, for with the coming of the Christ into manifestation, the difficulties of human belief are set aside.
“His rebuke was terrible” – it is terrible because it always carries with it the fact that the one rebuked could have fulfilled perfectly, that which was before him to do.
Even in the midst of the consuming fire of the rebuke, there comes that recognition that unless you had been fully able to perform the task, you would not have been rebuked for having left it undone. A glorious something comes out of it all. The recognition that, even though you failed, still you had the power to do the thing which seemed impossible, and this is why you shall understand the saying, “The chastening of the Lord is sweet” – sweet, as a doctor might speak of a bitter drug being sweet, because of what it contained and not by reason of its flavour.
“Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” No one wastes any time correcting a fool. His mistakes are set down to natural incapacity. The servant who is fully capable of performing the task is rebuked if he fails, and in the stinging rebuke the master really shows forth his love. He shows forth his recognition of the power being present in the one who has been rebuked.
The wise servant is not, then, turned awry by a rebuke; he spends no time nursing a feeling of injustice, but instantly causes the prickly chestnut burr (of rebuke) to reveal the food inside.
In every rebuke administered to you there lies the glorious recognition of the fact that within you is the power to perform perfectly that which you failed to do. A rebuke, when handled from this elevation, should be as a burst of light to you – a new door swinging open, a new opportunity to make your agreement with the power to accomplish that which you previously failed to perform.
Jesus’s rebuke to the disciples – “O ye of little faith,” – was only saying in so many words, “I recognize within you, the perfect capacity to have brought this healing into manifestation.” “Despise not ,then, the chastening of the Lord.” “Prove me and see” is the eternal command. As soon as a new scope of understanding comes to the individual, he must put it into practice, and if he is willing and ready to do this he will not merit the rebuke. Perhaps he will only see the rebuke, and will nurse it as a seeming injustice. Perhaps he will say, “He was doing the best he could.” You will never be rebuked unless you have failed to do that which was possible for you to do.
Therefore rejoice. One moment’s consciousness of this will help to clear away much underbrush from the forest of life. You will be able to destroy many old plague-spots which have been clinging to you. You have tried every means possible to drain the ugly swamps of resentment caused by some rebuke in the past, but always they remained, and at the slightest provocation they were full of stagnant waters again. There is no getting rid of the sting of rebuke unless you see that within it is the sincerest and greatest acknowldgement of your power to accomplish that which you failed to do.
A new joy will come to you. “Even the devils are subject unto us.” Even the devilish thoughts that have stayed to torment us for years, suddenly give way. We have learned the manner in which the Beast is transformed into the Prince. We have discovered why we can say of the evil appearances, “IT IS WONDERFUL.” We see literally why, if we make our bed in hell, God is there. Looking through appearances, we see and recognize the Power. The fiercer the rebuke, the greater the recognition of the Power. “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” might be quoted as, “Whom the Lord loveth, he calls attention always to the wonderful power within them which they failed to employ.” “Arise, arise, get thee up into a high place” – get thee up to the Mount of Revelation.
See the old sores of resentment and hurt healed and vanished by the glorious recognition of what is back of them.
Enter into your temple and cleanse it of all the thieves, dove-sellers and money-changers. Whip out the robbers that steal your peace and joy. Destroy the mental bookkeeper of past evils. Overturn the tables of the money-changers who are forever trying to sell the precious word of life. The doves of purity are freed, not sold. The glory of the soul stands revealed.
“The wrath of man shall bless thee,” because it will only be an indirect way of telling, and pointing out to you the fact that you failed unnecessarily. Then will come the glorious recognition that even they, your enemies, recognize that you had the power within you possible of accomplishment, only you failed to use it.
“Fear not. It is I.”
ONENESS
Mind is infinite and you are a point in that Mind where it becomes conscious. You are not at any moment disconnected from this parent Mind, but as the islands are one with the earth and are merely an expression of the earth, or a portion of it drawn out into visibility from the complete sphere, so are you joined to the infinite Mind. You then are merely an expression or rather an expresser of this inexhaustible Mind from which you can immediately draw all that you can possibly desire.
When you begin to realize your oneness with this Mind you begin to see that all these false claims which have bound you for so long must fall away and that you are free, for you are Spirit and expressing yourself through a body, and not body inhabited by an unseen thing called spirit.
You begin to realize that your great power lies in the fact that the YOU of you is Spirit, one in essence with the Great Mind of God, and that you can now come into your dominion by making the connection between yourself and “your father within.”
The more you realize that you are “One with the Father within” the more harmony, happiness and contentment will be manifested in your life. The more you will be able to tread upon the little troubles of daily life and surmount the obstacles which confront every traveler in the journey from sense, to soul.
Thousands have gone before you and have gained the Mastery, and it is also within your ken to do the same thing. There is nothing you cannot overcome by this simple step, and as we go along we will find it becoming more simple all the while to “become one with the Father within.”
Jesus was the greatest Metaphysician that ever lived and he gave us a complete and perfect set of laws by which to demonstrate the harmony of being, which he explained to us was the natural state of man.
The reason we are striving for this Mastership is because we are told it is ours and that we can attain it. We are to become dominant and forceful and be in authority, overcoming all the false and mistaken results of past thinking. “The works that I do you shall do also and even greater” this was promised by the Master and if we do the Master’s work and even greater, we too shall become Masters. First of all we want to learn the Mastery over thinking. To think correctly is not a difficult process, but it requires a little daily watching and a little daily practice.
The goal then before us is that of Mastership. This means complete dominion and authority over everything which presents itself to us and which would spoil our sense of harmony. In attaining this it is good to know that no willful force or will power is necessary, for that sort of control or Mastership is temporal and soon reacts on’ the person, reducing him to a pitiful state.
Into the hands of the Master has been placed the WORD. The word is the vesture of thought and is there for the thought made audible. By the correction of words we can correct our thoughts as well as vice versa. By arresting evil, critical, revengeful words, we arrest the thought, condemn it to destruction and so rid ourselves of it before it has time to manifest itself. Suppose an evil word is spoken, how far-reaching do you think it may be one single word has been known to end in the murder of a man. Do you think that words are not powerful?
In the same way, one single word has saved a man. Prov. 18:21. Death and- life are in the power of the tongue. Consider well your words. Watch for a whole day and see how many words you can eliminate from your conversation that are weak.
“I AM” are two words that we use thousands of times a day—and they are also the name of God. “I AM that I AM has sent you”—-If you say “I am weak” you are connecting up with a great storage plant and leaving your wires lie on the ground, disaster is bound to happen, for the word is powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. “I am poor”-no wonder you are poor with your great feed wire cast down to the ground and wasting millions of volts of energy and power all for nothing. Your words then will determine the timbre of your thought and the results of the words are pretty sure to be after the pattern held in mind.
Just for a little practice, sit quietly down and say to yourself. “I AM” MASTER OF MY DESTINY”—-repeat it, over five times, slowly and thinkingly—-and see what a fine feeling it gives you. Why? Because it has started the currents of this great Powerhouse on a constructive mission.
There is magic in words—-take the words I CAN and I CAN’T and see what mental attitude accompanies them. Look about you for one of your friends who is making free use of “I can’t” -and you will see not only a weak mentality, but likewise a weak body which is more than likely encountering endless obstacles and who more than likely is assuming the role of a martyr. Look again at the “I can” friend and nine chances to ten there will be a smile on his face, a bright twinkle in his eye and when it storms within your kingdom you feel like running post haste to him and listening to the dominant ring of “I CAN.” What a song, what a thrill, what a joy to hear it “I Can do that” —“I can do that.” Try it for a few times —-then come along a little further, “I CAN BE WHAT I DESIRE TO BE”—-how’s that? —fine, isn’t it. Gives you the thrill of real living.
Remember that words voiced of others usually find lodgment in our own lives and before we know it the camel which is just an embryonic thought in the beginning has pushed us into the corner again.
Don’t criticize, God has relieved you of the unpleasant duty of passing judgment. “Judge not”-for the law is absolute, the judgment you render to another is surely that which will be rendered unto you only it will be pressed down and running over.
For a week, watch every negative word and eliminate it. See what a vast number of times you have had to withhold your speech, but see if at the end of the week you have not gained something. “She is so hateful, he is so dishonest.” Unless you knew what hateful thoughts and dishonest thoughts were, you would never be able to pin them on another. “Yes, I know, but he actually steals”—-is it going to help you or him to tell the world about it? No, it is going to add one more grain to your discomfort.
Your word shall not return unto you void but shall accomplish whereunto it is sent.
What kind of words are you going to send out?
The power of the word has been tried many times in sport. Two or three have decided to greet a perfectly well person with this speech “How bad you look this morning, you must be feeling bad,” and the result produced was sickness. In some of the heathen Islands people are prayed to death as effectively as if they were given slow poison. Unless we get hold of the power of right thinking, we are subject to all these wandering thoughts of which the world is full, and unless we reject them they enter. To return to our illustration of the camel, we are crowded into the corner, not knowing why.
“Speak as one having authority”—-SPEAK —-the word again is brought into play. Do not be afraid to speak your heart’s most cherished desire, into the infinite Mind, into the formless substance and know that it will manifest itself in the desired result. “Only speak the word and it shall be done.”
When you sit in the silence and go within, you can speak the word, you can speak the desire of your heart, knowing that your word shall not return unto you void, but shall accomplish, then as you hold yourself from weak, vacillating words and thoughts you will see the seed word germinate and the idea push up into visibility, for words are seeds and “we reap what we sow.”
Sow a crop of sick words and the harvest will be sickness, sow a crop of health words and the crop will be strength and power.
Some seeds germinate instantly and come to light with the magic of the Japanese water flowers which bloom as you watch them. This is what is called instantaneous demonstration, but it is only that the word was spoken true and the pattern which it set before Infinite Mind was immediately made flesh or visible. Some words are slower to germinate, but sooner or later all of them come to life and bear after their kind.
Now do not throw in a handful of wheat and then cover the ground with seeds of vicious plants and expect to have a golden harvest, be persistent in sowing good words, words of power and happiness, words of strength and courage, words of prosperity and presently the harvest will come. Some people spend fifteen minutes a day in the silence saying good words and thinking grand and noble thoughts and then come out and spend the rest of the 24 hours in the most vicious of thinking.
The more we understand of the Power of right thinking, the more we will be able to make these words appear before us clothed in demonstration.
One thing we must learn as we go along is that if we have been in the habit of condemning either ourselves or others we are to stop this action short. “‘Neither do I condemn thee” does not only apply to our misjudgment of others but also has to do with ourselves. We are learning that we must drop off the “Poor Worm of the dust” attitude and take on the glorious “Sons of God” idea. We must stop degrading the Temple of the Living God by calling it old, worn out, sick, crippled or ugly and begin to praise it and to outline upon it beautiful and noble images. We shall hold in thought the model we wish to carve upon the block of stone before us.
We are all sculptors of our own lives and the block of marble before us is given us for the purpose of carving out something beautiful. If your mind is filled with ugly and angular outlines you will never produce a glory of beauty in your statue. If your thought is full of hate, criticism, sickness and poverty these you will surely trace on the stone before you, and this stone is to be the “Temple of the Living God.” This brings the Power pretty close to you doesn’t it?” Well, the power is within and the sooner you come to the full realization of the fact the sooner you will begin to change the design which you are carving on the marble in front of you.
Another thing—-remember this—that you are the Sculptor and you stand with chisel in hand ready to work, and that as you stand you are vested with infinite power, infinite beauty of design, infinite ability to accomplish any design which comes into your thought. You are the Master Workman—there is nothing which you cannot do.
Master workman, pause right here and see what is the pattern in your thought? What are your models and do you need a new set? Again if you are occupied with your block of marble carving the design in your thought you have no time to watch the next sculptor as he works and either envy or slander his work. While you look away your chisel may slip and you may make an ugly incision which will be hard to remove. Keep well to your task and quietly work out your design.
Remember that the word which is planted in secret will come to light, but do not trample it down nor dig it up every few moments to see if it has germinated.
Plant it and leave it, watering it with the great Powerful words, “My word shall not return unto me void” for I have made my connection with the great storage house of Infinite Mind. Keep it secret, as the seed needs the darkness to germinate, so your ideas and plans need the secrecy of your mind to germinate. If you call it from the housetop, you will dissipate all your energy’ and the seed will die because it has been sapped of its vitality. If you discuss your plans with others before they have fully matured, then you will have the weeds of their wrong thinking to battle with. . Keep your work a secret, when it is ready for the world to know, it shall by so evident that no word from you will be necessary. How often have you known of some one who told what they were going to do, utterly fail in it and finally by angry if any one asked them when they were going to do a certain thing. If the energy they had. spent in telling and repeating this bit of news to another had been conserved and applied, to the right channels of thought, they in all probability would have succeeded in accomplishing their desire, and’ then would have been plenty of time to have told. Guard your work, commune freely with the “Father within” for that is the source of all power:—praise every atom of good you see both in yourself and others, praise every atom of health and glorify the temple in which you are living. Remember you are Spirit and not body, and that the temple you inhabit is under your control. Remember that there is nothing which can in any way sidetrack you but your own thought about a thing.
Perhaps you think you have already spoiled your block of marble and there is little hope of doing anything with it. This is a wrong thought, for the infinity Mind with which you can make direct connection can easily correct and erase any ugly designs and give you a new and fresh chancy. Even marble becomes plastic under the touch of the Infinite Mind. Opportunity is never lost—it is only lost sight of for a moment. Remember then that you are Master, that you have in your hands the Word which is Powerful and which will accomplish whereunto it is sent.
Remember then from now on we are to watch the words that no weak, idle words are included in our talk either of ourselves or others. Remember that you are a Sculptor at work and that you can chisel only what you see in thought.
OPERATION
There is only ONE operation – no matter how many times it is supposedly enacted by man, nor to what degree of belief. There is only ONE operation – and that is the OPERATION of GOD in his own universe. The moment separation takes place there are thousands of pseudo operations caused by the thought-taking human mind. The confusion that sets in motion is usually followed by disaster and failure. No wonder, then, the Master – when he found himself far afield in the beliefs and affairs of minds many – knew there was no solution but to return to the ONE. All this sounds like useless mysticism until the eyes are opened. Everybody professes God and everybody will say: “I believe in God” – but how can you believe in the law of mathematics and get anything but the solution to the problem that only you have posited. Answers before the problems are readily accepted in mathematics. The answer exists before you make up or accept the problem – and no one doubts this. Yet when Jesus made such statements he was laughed to scorn: “Before ye ask, I will answer” is the identical thing. Whether you can make it appear or not depends upon the one and only word in the Scriptures that unlocks everything, and that is “belief.” Belief is not emotionalism and argument; it is not metaphysical talk and extravagant ideas and vain imaginings – it is fundamental. There it is – and the first thing that must be done is acceptance. If this is not done nothing can, or does, take place. You are not trying to make it so – It is already so.
The moment it is accepted, a blending takes place – all the filth of human thinking and belief, no matter how scientific or wonderful it appears on the surface, is washed out – the kinks of human thought give way – and the bondage of a little life shut up in a body falls to pieces and the ONE is experienced. Then it is that the OPERATION of this power takes over and flows freely into perfect manifestation, and the OPERATION is a success.
Be still, very still. You can begin to let something operate in you that is greater than thought. You can do exactly the same thing Jesus did or the mathematician does – you can go unto the Father and receive the glory that was, and is, yours since the beginning. “NOW, O Father, glorify thou me … with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” before the beginning of the stupid thing called Adam – with all his wisdom which is foolishness, and all his ancestor teachings and beliefs.
Man says he is created of God and is the child of God, and then starts through a hellish morass of problems which, after he has hewn his way through them, leads only to decrepitude and death – a lovely picture to offer anyone. There is nothing in the WORD of Jesus to substantiate this. Returning to the Glory you had before the beginning – is suddenly to merge into the ONE and see a complete revelation and change. No matter what the picture is – whether it is a physical, incurable thing, or five thousand to be fed – it is all the same; the OPERATION of God begins immediately to take place and the patient finds he is no longer a patient, but free from the beliefs of JOHN SMITH.
We are not looking for cures any more – but for revelation of that which was created in the beginning in the image and likeness of GOD – even as the BELOVED proved it so conclusively that LETTING was the only possible way of attainment; and that the moment a person stopped trying to force issues and stopped trying to make things happen, he discovered this OPERATION of GOD passing through the temple Body searching the joints and marrow and revealing that which eternally IS.
So, the operation that you are contemplating whether that be physical or mental, body or business – when it is known to be the operation of God, suddenly causes great and magnificent changes to appear. No matter where you are, HE is there also – and that Presence becomes a MAJORITY whenever you recognize it, – and whenever you stop trying to make it a majority, and recognize there is but ONE and let it fill all the vacuity of human thought and belief. “I have a way ye know not of” – is that good enough, or do you want to add your little bit of human knowledge to it? Do you want to be more than a “majority” by adding your opinions and beliefs? Do you want the GLORY which is the proof of the Presence – or do you want the overcoming by human thought-taking? Do you want to be still and KNOW or be still and tell God just what to do?
Recently, English physicians proclaimed that cures were made by introducing a patient to the X-ray machine without turning on the power. The same article told of warts removed when nothing was materially done. If a wart why not a cancer? You answer it, you with all the knowledge of how impossible it is without the knife. “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up” literally. Do you hear?
So the operation, “MY” operation, took place and nothing happened – and nothing is going to happen but the revelation of that which is glorified by recognition of the ONE.
There is only ONE operation and only ONE operator and only ONE Majority, and you are beginning to see that you are the center of all this and are the ONE through which it takes place.
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee” – does not say maybe, nor yet perhaps. It says “I will answer thee.” It is wonderful! There is only one operation, the operation of God in the Kingdom of heaven.
THE OTHER DISCIPLE
‘THEN WENT IN also the other disciple.’ The other disciple who went into the tomb and found it empty is, symbolically speaking, you. It is you who have experienced all the manifestations of the Christ-consciousness–the healing of sickness and sin, the transformation of one substance into another, the supplying of all things needful, and the overcoming of gravitation, yes, the raising from the dead, and now you have come to a place where proof is given you of self-resurrection. The swaddling-clothes (bondage) of the babe become the grave-clothes eventually left in the tomb. They are the human bondages that must sooner or later be laid aside for the robes that are white and glistening, the garments of light and praise.
Eventually you are brought face to face with the fact that in the final analysis self-resurrection will take place. ‘I have power to pick it up or lay it down.’ Until a man comes to the place of the ‘other disciple’ and goes in, he will be toying still with the idea that his help comes from some other source than God. It is true that up to a certain point much help is given, but after a while the disciple is left to himself . He must either perform the process of self-resurrection, which is put in various terminology, or go the way of all flesh. ‘He must be born again,’ and this ‘borning’ must be from within. It is manifested within each person; it is a personal and individual experience that no one else can do for you. ‘Marvel not’–do not be surprised when these things come to you; your eyes will not always be ‘holden that thou shall not know Him.’ You will not always walk to Emmaus with the Master and fail to see Him.’ The scales will drop from your eyes, and you will perceive the things which eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, and the things that you have not yet thought of.
It takes more than the human sense to recognize when anything has truly happened. The human sense did not recognize Jesus when he presented his risen body. Why? Because the human sense first judges from the intellectual standpoint, which says emphatically that no one when dead rises again. If they rise, they were not really dead, or else a miracle happened.
Go thou in and shut the door, and contemplate the presence–then you will see the nothingness of all the evils to which the flesh is heir.
‘These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly.’ Surely there is no ambiguity about this statement, ‘I shall show you plainly.’ The one who is ready, and who has passed beyond the curious stage, and who is not looking for signs and wonders, who is not searching for the loaves and the fishes, will see. He will hear the things which could not be told because formerly he could not bear to hear them. ‘When the student is ready the Master appears.’ ‘Be still and know that I AM GOD’ is more than a statement. It is not something to be talked about–it is something to experience. ‘Then went in the other disciple.’ You are standing on the threshold of the glorious experience of self -resurrection. You are at the point of receiving the revelation.
‘Hitherto have ye asked for nothing in My name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’
How can your joy be anything else but full when you begin to see–through the thick undergrowth of human reasoning–the Garden of Eden to which you are returning? It is enough to make you thrill with joy, for all the fond imaginations that have strayed over your soul without expression are now understood. The single ear, the single eye, the single voice. You have come away from the tower of Babel, that great galaxy of people who are all shouting in their own tongue that they have the only way to reach Heaven, and that you must follow them or be lost, who have finally succeeded in building up nothing but a tower of jealousy, strife, and hatred. All talking different tongues–confusion. Come away from it all. Seek the Inner Lord, and listen to the glorious revelation that is made to you now.
‘And as we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.’
When the self-resurrection takes place, you shall transform the fleshly body to one of Spirit. ‘The Lord shall become flesh and dwell among you.’ The body shall take on new properties, and you shall then be no more under the laws of the dense matter which has caused you so much grief . ‘If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the Law.’ You are then under Grace. Glorious freedom and cancellation f rom the mistaken evils of the flesh. Why not, since you functioned under the law, ‘When I would do good I do evil?’ Who could blame you for doing evil if you did it in spite of the fact that you wanted to do good? Not any just God. You are beginning to understand why it is that repentance makes a full cancellation for the evil that functioned in your life, and how you are under Grace when you are in the Spirit. The ‘other disciple’ who goes in experiences the new birth, and to him are revealed the hidden mysteries.
‘The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from Heaven.’ Where is Heaven? According to Jesus, it is a state of consciousness. It is within you, and descending out of this heavenly consciousness will come the Lord–the risen Lord. As the shell of a seed gives way, life appears. As the muddy vesture of human thought that has enclosed you falls away, the Christ (the Christing or Anointing) comes into manifestation; is unwrapped from his grave-clothes and set free. Do not be disheartened; it is stated in the Law that ‘it is sow in a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.’ When you are willing to let go of the human beliefs that you have massed together by judging from appearances, then you will raise the spiritual body. That is, you will see the Spirit become flesh and dwell among you. It is wonderful.
‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.’
We understand that the laws of the flesh which are constantly changing and bringing in harmony to the individual cannot inherit the Kingdom. The flesh-and-blood man has not the capacity to accept so much good. He has functioned in such uncertain capacities that he hardly knows what is right and what is wrong.
‘Why seek ye the living among the dead?’ Why look for that which is living in the midst of that which is dead? Why do you seek in the dead letter for the Spirit which in reality dwells eternally within you?
‘Then went the other disciple in.’ Be still–‘I shall come as a thief in the night.’ You are the other disciple. Why don’t you go ‘in’ and discover your permanent identity, and begin now to live in the Kingdom?
THE OTHER FELLOW
I CAN’T help it,” said the young student with a bitter wave of self-pity, “while I want to do the right thing the other fellow always wants to do the wrong. While I wouldn’t deal unjustly with anyone, knowingly, yet the other fellow seems to take a keen pride in ‘getting by’ with all sorts of injustices.”
Did you ever come to this place? Did you ever seem to stand in this fellow’s shoes: that while you loved, you believed that the other fellow hated? That, while you lived in accordance with your highest knowledge of Truth, you manifested all sorts of ailments, while the other fellow went gaily along with perfect health? That while you studied and prayed to be Christlike, you believed that the other fellow derived all the benefits – – that he received the things you wanted and needed?
Of course you have; and you have also believed that while you were more or less righteous (that is, at least, you desire to be) that your path was beset with thorns, while the other fellow thread along a path of roses and ‘lived by the way,’ indulging in all sorts of worldly pleasures.
And then you have wondered and wondered why. And right here a great big wedge of despair would force its way into your mind and make you blue and unhappy.
Suppose two men started to build houses side by side, and one of them would drive a nail and then hurry and look around to see what the other was doing, and because he saw the other making a move which “he considered false,” he would finally get so that his gaze was constantly on the other fellow, and he would whack away at his own house without looking to see where he drove his nails. True, after a time he would be able to drive a nail reasonably well without looking at it, but a good many other errors would creep into the construction while he was watching the other fellow make what he called “some mistake.” At nightfall he would be not only physically fatigued, but would be a mental wreck as well, because he had spent the day assuming one of the most important duties – – and at the same time a forbidden one – – that of judging. God has lovingly relieved you of this unpleasant duty – – you don’t have to judge anything or anybody, for He takes care of this and rewards accordingly. “Judge not from appearances.” How often it seems that something is being entirely destroyed when only way is being made for something much more wonderful and better. The breaking of the tiny blue shell of the robin’s egg does not spell disaster, as might be thought from the appearances; no, it is an evidence of greater progress. So it is with man; often the thing that is taking place in him, the development which is going on, is a tearing down, a reconstruction which seems grossest error to us.
Get real busy looking within, for there you will find the Kingdom of Heaven, and forget the other fellow in so far as criticism is concerned; put him entirely of your mind, and spend your time getting the napkin (mortal bondage) off your own talent so that it can come to light and grow.
Listen! “Ye shall be like a tree planted by the side of a river” – – a great and majestic, swaying tree – – sweeping the water’s edge and touching the sky. Out yonder the mushroom may spring in prominence in a single day, while you are yet a struggling twig – – and your growth may be slow and even tiresome at times – – but when a little flurry of mortal mind takes place, when a little rain descends, the mushroom topples over and drops into the dust, and you are helped on by these storms. They strengthen you and make you cling closer to the real principle of life. After a while in your growth you sit for some sunny moment and look back and remember only faintly the little mushroom which so troubled you. Long ago it passed into oblivion – – long ago it fell into the dust, and you smile inwardly that you ever bothered to “wonder why” and be discouraged because it seemed to be getting all the benefits and you doing all the work.
You want to take with you this little word – – “Judge not from appearances.” Let the other fellow develop through whatever lines that seem best for him – – you are concerned only in helping him when you can. You can let him unfold in the particular way that is best for him, for “He watching over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” and is the only true Judge.
WHERE ARE THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR?
(Francois Villion)
But where are the snows of yesterday? Most of them have been incorporated into trees, plants, rivers and oceans – all of them changed in form.
Where are the thousand and one lectures and Words of Truth you heard in yesteryears? Those vital, burning Words which awakened in you the warmth of true recognition for the moment at least. They are submerged in the thick soil of the subconscious mind, lost to view and forgotten. Like the desert filled with seed of wonders to come, yet barren, as to manifestation, so many of us have found it.
“I shall restore to you the years that the locust have eaten” is as much a law as any other uttered by the Spirit. How will this restoration take place – what will happen? How the transformation, the transfiguration?
“And then the prodigal remembered” – not the fleeting, passing memory of the human thought, but the deep recognition of something that was a reality. The recognition of his Divinity. The remembrance of all this fire which had been lighted years ago came to mind, and the new journey back to the Father consciousness began.
So as you begin to identify yourself with your Permanent identity it is like the drenching rains to the seed filled desert. All the unseen, unheard contacts dropped into the ground, lo! these many years, begin to come to life. All the Truth you have taken in becomes alive and moving. Like the mass of leaven leavening the whole mass of meal – so it is with this recognition of your Christ Self.
The descent of the Holy Ghost awakens the slumbering ideas and truths you have been storing away for years – and every germ of Good begins to unfold. A million forgotten WORDS and laws spring into consciousness – the whole mass is leavened, and the “snows of yesteryears” are found in new and lovely manifestation.
Nothing has been lost.
OUT OF THE CLOUDS
Out of the clouds of human belief St. John saw the “New Heaven and the New Earth” coming into manifestation, and the old heaven and earth passing away. Out of the clouds of human teaching and learning, out of the fog banks of personal instruction and ideas, the New Heaven and the New Earth are emerging. The former imaginary heaven, which had to be entered by death, has at last given way to the New Heaven on earth which John saw – something real and tangible, after the manner of the teachings of the Master; something to be enjoyed, and lived in, and to be experienced, and manifested in a way that could be appreciated and understood.
Gradually the Impersonal teaching of the Master is becoming personal. As soon as man loses his personal teaching, and his personal sense of Life, then the Impersonal, or the God Life and Revelation, personalize themselves in him. “Yet in my flesh shall I see God” has nothing indefinite as to just where we shall see God manifest; and Jesus, assuring us that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand to those who had eyes, causes us to “look again,” as it where, and perceive the New Heaven appearing out of the clouds of beliefs and opinions.
The All-presence of God precludes any other presence, and yet the moment you begin to recognize this, and express such views, the very ones who loudly proclaim that God is All are the first to say, “This is sacrilege, and unthinkable.” That God should be manifest in His own universe ought not to be such a shocking fact to consider. It seems natural and reasonable. That Heaven, which is a state of consciousness, according to the Master Jesus, should result in something other than a sort of day-dreaming, should not be unreasonable or strange.
A builder does not erect his house around air, yet it is filled with air. The air in the rooms takes the shape of the rooms, without any effort on the part of the builder – yea, without any thought. The air was there before and after the house was built, and no one finds it strange, since air is everywhere present. You say the same thing about God. God is everywhere present. It is strange, then, that you recognize this God in the form, and shape, of the design you have in your consciousness? Because you conceive God in a flower, a tree, or a man, does not make God that shape, any more than an oblong room filled with air could be considered as the shape of all air. The measure you mete to the universe is measured to you again – that is, the measure or the desire, or the belief, that you have in mind, is already filled full of the God substance or the Presence; just as the house is filled full of air, because it is everywhere. Is there anything strange in this?
God is everywhere. What is God? And how is it that He seems to be absent from some places? The amount of air in a room is determined by the capacity of the room. The amount of air in the universe is past finding out. The air in a room is not actually divided that great envelope of air around the world; it appears to be, but when the walls of a house are pulled down the oneness of air is natural – nothing happens suddenly, in the nature of a shock, or explosion, because, in reality, the very walls have also been permeated with a certain amount of air. The shape of the room does not have to be destroyed when the walls are pulled down.
So it is with the Spirit, which is compared to the “The wind that bloweth where it listeth, and no man knoweth whence it cometh, or witherth it goeth.” Surely it is not a far cry to recognize The Presence of God within and without all things; and the very Recognition of this Presence is the first step towards the taking away of the mystery of it all. The Oneness of God, and the Oneness of All.
The measure of the manifestation of God in your life is BELIEF. Jesus always asked, “Believest thou this?” – “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” – and “According to your faith” or belief – “Be it unto you”; and there are dozens of other illustrations indicating that the measure of the manifestation is the belief – not credulity, but an actual belief or acceptance – of the Presence. You are already using this magnificent law in daily life. You can only do the things you believe are possible to you at this time. It makes no difference how much may be said to the contrary; you only do what you believe you are able to do, and so Jesus must have been true and just when He said, “According to your faith be it unto you.” According to the belief that you have in the Power, as able to do this thing, so it is unto you. It is wonderful, and it is true. If you only carry a pint measure to the sea, you can only take away a pint of water – though the whole ocean lies before you free. If you have only a limited belief as to what God can do for you, that is all you can possibly manifest.
“My servant lieth at home sick,” said the centurion. “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” The word was spoken, and so we are told that the servant was healed in the self-same hour. The BELIEF must have been one hundred percent whole. The centurion and the servant must have believed that God could do just that thing for them, because it took place. If you believe “all things are possible to him that believeth,” ONLY that is possible which you believe. Again I call attention that we are not speaking about “credulity.” Many people come into the study of Truth with the idea that it is a system of trickery,
whereby natural laws can be set aside with impunity; or that by repeating a few words in a certain tone of voice they will be able to make God do there bidding. “Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light” – the Christ within will give you light to see that the measure you mete to the universe, and get back, is the measure of your belief. No wonder, than, that Jesus continually said, “Believest thou this?”
What do you believe? You who read this line? Do you have any actual belief in the power of Prayer? Do you believe that what you ask for you are going to get? “Believe that you receive them, and you shall have them,” – or do you mearly “wish” that it will take place? And what is the thing that happens when you “believe” in the way of Jesus’ appointing? The signs must follow. You fully believed that you could read before you picked up this book, and accordingly you are functioning your belief out into manifestation, but if you believed that you could not read, you would not read. Do you begin to see the importance of looking into the measure with which you are approaching this Universal God?
The “belief” that Jesus speaks of is a consciousness resulting from the Recognition of the God Power.
“It is wonderful what God can do for you.” He can do for you, according to the Master, only that which you believe possible to Him – no more, no less.
It is recorded that in some places Jesus did not many mighty works, and for the simple reason that His hearers had no belief. That is, they had no measure into which to shape the substance of God. The word becoming flesh must have a form, or a measure, in which to come forth, and so must the Life of God in the universe. The unexpressed must have its expression.
You are told to “Be still, an know that I AM God,” for the simple reason that as you contemplate the Infinite God, you gradually increase the measure of your belief. Your belief is enlarged by contemplating or recognizing this God. When you think of the speed of an airplane, and actually see it moving at a terrific rate through the heavens, your belief in locomotion is enlarged. You begin to believe that it is possible for things to take place which before seemed impossible; and so with God – when you contemplate Him as the Only Power, and become more conversant with the Presence, your measure of belief as to just what He can and will do for you is enlarged, and you have automatically enlarged the place of your tent. It is Wonderful! Be still and know that I AM God.” Meditate upon this Presence, and learn of the great magnificent Spirit that is over brooding all, and presently you will experience the “feel” of your measure of belief enlarging. You will see that “all things that the Father hath are mine.” Where is this Father from whom you are claiming your all? Jesus located Him as within.
“The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” What works? The out-picturing of the BELIEF, or the recognition of that degree of expression which He found possible. All that the Father hath is yours. All that the Father in you has is yours. Your Father, your consciousness. And He is only as large as your belief about Him. It is a marvelous Revelation that Jesus gave us. “According to your faith be it unto you” – according to your belief – no more, no less; and one man is rehabilitated and made every whit whole, and the other one manifests nothing; and one man is prospered, and the other one remains in dire poverty. It is not the fault of the All-God, but the fault of the measure you bring to the Fount of All. According to your belief be it unto you. Only that which you believe possible can take place, no matter what may be said to the contrary. What do you believe is possible to you? You answer it for yourself, and you will see that it is exactly what you are able to bring out into manifestation.
“The Father that dwelleth within Me, He doeth the works”; “I and My Father are One”; and Jesus’ concept of God was so large that He could transcend time, space, and limitations of all sorts. Because He believed it possible, He was able to feed the five thousand, and raise the dead, and a thousand and one other things which clearly set aside the human beliefs of limitation. Most glorious of all is the word He passed along to us;
“The works that I do shall ye do also”; and “Even greater works than these.” Just think of it. Jesus giving us the power, or calling to our attention that it is resident within us, awaiting recognition. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Let this Power be in you – let it come into manifestation. It is wonderful, for, the moment it is recognized, it brings into view the fact that “I have a way ye know not of”; the manner of its operation is wholly unknown to any man. “My ways are not your ways”; “My ways are past finding out.” If this be so, why waste any more time in trying to find out just how this invisible Power can fulfill the measure of your belief? Can you see what a glorious thing you have set into motion, when you are fully convinced that “I have a way ye know not of,” and that way is the way which is past all finding out, and which is past all human laws and limitations? “I AM the Way” – do you begin to sense the quality called “Belief”? No wonder the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of little children. Who else could believe in such a fantastic idea that the harvest came before the planting? – and yet we are told, “Ye say it is four months until the harvest; I say look again.” What kind of human reasoning would believe that a sick man could be instantly healed of a lifelong disease? Or that a poor man could be prospered without the usual methods of earning taking place? “According to your belief be it unto you.”
It is wonderful what God can do for you. He can do only what you believe He is able to do for you.
“Be still and know that I AM God”; be still and contemplate this God Power which is so present, and which is able to save you from the terrible effects of the human beliefs.
Look at the prodigal sitting with the swine – he remembered something, and must have believed something, or else he would not have risen and gone to his father. See how he followed the injunction of the Way-shower: “Judge not according to the appearance.” When we rise and go unto the Father, we have no time to consider whether the garments are right or whether He will receive us. or whether we should do this or that thing before we come before Him. We rise and go unto the Father. Where is the Father? See what Jesus has said about the location of the Father. I shall arise from the human limitations, and go to the Father state of consciousness. Gradually the light is breaking – we are beginning to see the wholeness of it all. “Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father which is in Heaven.” Where is heaven? See what Jesus says about its location, and then you will see that the Father within is the Father of your body, and that from this Father must come all the perfect gifts that you have been seeking on the outside. “I and my Father are one” – and then “My Father is greater than I”; the Universal God is greater than any of His manifestations. We begin to understand better just what we are asked to do. “He shall call upon Me and I shall answer him.” Call upon the Father within and He will answer you, to the extent of your belief in Him. Not one jot or tittle more can be manifested than the belief you have in Him.
It amounts to almost a tragedy, the sudden realization that God only does that for you which you believe possible for Him to do. We seem to have gone so far afield, and to have blamed everything but ourselves. We have seen others go to the Sea of Life, and dip out unlimited Waters, but the measure we took was very small. We complained about the measure, and did not know that it could be enlarged by contemplation. Suppose a man went to the sea for the first time, knowing nothing about its immensity, and took only a pint cup; one look at the infinite supply of water would quickly tell him that he might bring a measure of any size, and fill it, and carry it away – but of course only the measure he brought would he be able to take away.
Just what do you think God could do for you? Just what do you believe is possible?
“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How can the mind be renewed, and how can the transformation take place? It will have to be through the open door of belief – you will have to believe it, or it will not be possible.
A lovely sense of balance and naturalness fills one. Instead of working with imaginary powers and words, suddenly the idea is resolved into a simplicity that is startling. First the Recognition of the Presence and then the belief, and the remembrance that “According to your faith be it unto you” – yea, according to the last jot and tittle of your belief be it unto you. What do you believe God can do for you?
The things that you have asked for have you believed possible? Actually – and was this belief backed up by the Recognition of the Power as able to do all things?
“My words are spirit and they are truth, and they shall not return unto ME void” – how much of this do you believe when you speak a WORD for yourself or anyone? That is the degree of manifestation you are going to bring forth – good, bad or indifferent.
“If ye believe in your heart and confess with your lips, it shall be so.” If you believe a thing in the sense we have been considering, then you can confess with your lips,” for it will be so, and is an absolute certainty. But when you only wish-believe, and you then confess with your lips, you are obliged to “knock on wood,” or perform some other heathen rite, as a protection against its failure of fulfillment. When you believe in your heart and confess with your lips, you do what Jesus did when He said, “Rise up and walk” – and a thousand and one other things.
It is glorious to contemplate the Presence in this manner. It opens wide a new door – a secret door. Enter in quietly, and shut the door, and realize what a wonderful revelation is given to you. It is the means of correcting all the evil beliefs that have been functioning so long. “All things are possible to him that believeth.” All things is a large measure to consider. What do you think? Can you go in and shut the door, and do a little cleansing of the Temple? When you enter in with the Scourge of Understanding, you will drive out of the Temple, or consciousness, the rotten old beliefs of disease, age, and limitations. As you enter in with the light of Truth, the serpents disturbed in the deep grasses of the subconsciousness may hiss about for a little moment, but they are soon put to flight. It is wonderful!
You and God alone in the Holy of Holies. You and your God alone, walking in the cool of day in the garden. “He shall call upon ME and I WILL answer him”; there is no perhaps or maybe about it; or else the Scriptures be false. It is clearly stated, “He shall call upon ME and I will answer him.” Call upon ME. Where is the ME? If you hail a taxi-driver, he answers your call, and takes you where you tell him. Do you find the operation strange? No, contrary to that, if he did not take you there, you would find that unusual. What about God, What about the promise, “He shall call upon ME and I will answer him”? Is a taxi-driver more to be relied upon than God? Look at the difference in the average state of mind in calling on a taxi-driver and calling upon God. One is filled with the belief that he will come to you, and the other is filled with the sickly hope that He may come to you. As we gradually get better acquainted with the Presence, we find it more natural to accept the expression as real and true, and instantly available.
One of the glorious things we learn is the balance that is always there. The balance of The Presence that keeps everything in a marvelously natural state of expression. Anything strange and weird has no place in the Divine plan. The strange and weird belong to the field of imagination. They belong to the “former heaven and earth” which are passing away at the coming of the reality of the Presence and Power of Belief. A thousand old manifestations fall by the way as you go forth silently, secretly, and in the stillness of the Presence. It is Wonderful! “Behold’ I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear MY voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with ME.” If you HEAR the Voice of God in the midst of you, you will feel the assurance of the Shepherd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.” It makes no qualifications – “I shall not want.” All that the Father – your Father – hath is yours. According to your faith be it unto you.”
PAINTING A ROOM GREEN
I DECIDED to paint a room green and decorate it accordingly. The whole action was invisible, inaudible and unthought of by the world moving around me – the entire transaction had to take place within – the when – the why – the color and all the rest of it.
The first thing that came up on the outside was something like this – “for the duration” – etc., etc., and then followed a string of impossibilities – they were not unlike the impossibilities which confronted Jesus when he had let five thousand into the desert and found they were “murmuring.” Can you imagine what the murmurings were like – the same old stuff – there isn’t any bread – why did we come – we are three days away from the city – and so and so and so –
Either you do what Jesus did or your room is not going to be painted green. If you begin to judge from appearances – no matter how time honored or how well established, you are not going to “feed the multitude” of human thoughts – so you will have to make your decision – and follow the plan of Jesus.
It appears – that in spite of all the lack, and the impossibility of getting bread and fish – He went within – and whatsoever he performed there – was called from the housetops of manifestation. And so was the room presently painted green.
There is integrity and plenty of mechanics to take place – so “have them sit down in groups of fifty” – why not fifty-one or forty-nine? Well, there is obedience and there is integrity – so make up your mind whether you want to follow what “you” know – see – feel, hear and smell – or what “I” (the Spirit) speaks.
“Stretch forth your hand” and “Look again” – is of another dimension than – “well, where are we going to get a painter, paint – bread and fishes” –
“Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee Light.” Do you want to paint the room green or not?
THE PATTERN
“The pattern shown to him on the mount.” The archetype or the created thing – unchanging, made in the image and likeness of God. Returning to this permanent pattern the delineation of it on matter becomes more and more perfect.
The archetype remains unchanged. Billions of reproductions of it may be made, copies which disintegrate if not held in place by consciousness. The archetypal symbol of substance never increases nor decreases. If you are conscious of this Prototype you will never lack, no matter how many reproductions of it pass through your hands. The alphabet remains intact no matter what use is made of it. From the original “n” you can take as many reproductions as you please without depleting the original “n.” The fashion of the reproduction is up to you. It can be written in millions of different ways – but it does not change the original.
Jesus, knowing this archetypal thing, always returned to that point in consciousness – and the defective or distorted copy was thereby corrected. To contemplate the permanent unchanging source of life is to correct the distorted pictures of health and disease which are supposed to be copies of it. It is no good making a copy of a copy of a copy …. the moment you start this, defects appear.
The reason you are commanded to judge not from appearances, but judge righteous judgement is that the righteous judgment is made from the consciousness of the Prototype – the perfect thing. The moment this is recognized the distorted congested human thought pictures dissolve. Nothing goes anywhere when sickness is apparently cured – the congested thought is “uncongested.” The rubber ball pinched out of shape is set free and it automatically returns to its natural shape, so with any organ of your body held in thought. It is distorted — and the moment you discover the archetypal model you release the picture in thought and the organ or condition returns naturally to normal.
If all the money in the entire world were to be destroyed it would in no way affect the substance or the original Prototype of it. No wonder then that Jesus went within, closed the doors – stopped talking and arguing and contemplated the Presence of the archetypal tiling created in the beginning and as changeless as God.
THE PLUS VALUE
HAVING BEEN ACCUSED many times of having eyes and seeing not, and ears and hearing not, one finally concludes that the so-called physical senses must have a further reach beyond the generally accepted limitations of human thought and findings.
In every instance of miracles, we see Jesus “looking again”, – an extension of the sense of sight which looked beyond all human findings to a place of permanent completion.
Since in a dream you can live many years of time in a few moments, and experience apparent reality with equal vividness as in the waking state, the extension of the senses beyond time-space does not seem so strange and unreal after all.
All of the human senses can be and are being continually deluded. Synthetic conditions and hypotheses are set up which are accepted as real to any of the five senses.
When through the recognition of the fundamental fact of life, there is an awareness of something greater than human thinking, the slim tender “feelers” go out through the gloom of thought and “touch” something beyond, – and yet strangely enough, present.
The moment human reason attempts to handle or analyze this new dimension of the senses, it disappears, – for there is no thought-shape which can capture it. It cannot be put in the straight-jacket of man-made knowledge, – and yet it is more real and enduring than anything man knows or sees, – a subtle sixth sense which runs through the other senses and causes them to function in a place of the Fourth Dimension.
A mass of real and pseudo evidence has been given of extended sight and hearing. One hesitates to mention the word “psychic” because of its prostitution. A shade of difference is given in the word “prescience”, as opposed to “psychic”. Any of the results from real extension of the senses comes through or into being instantly, – “In the twinkling of an eye”, – and cannot be induced by so-called spiritual “work”.
Digging into the trite words and sayings of the Bible, we discover chinks in the armor of human thought, – ways out, as it were, – -into this extended area, – –
There is something about the sense of “touch” which is ably allied with agreement, – “Two shall agree as touching-and it shall be established”.
There is something about the capacity of “taste” which can and does savor of the impossible. “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”, – the unconsciously implied connection between taste and sight. And then “smell” has something to do with the Breath of Life, – and quite naturally all this hooks up with the “speaking of the Word” on the breath, – and the “power of life and death” being in the tongue.
“Blessed are your eyes, for they ‘see’; and your ears, for they ‘hear’. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”
And then over all is the command to disregard appearances, – and to judge from the righteous point of consciousness. And the advice, “What is that to thee, – follow thou me”, – taking away the findings of human observation.
It is likewise interesting to note that “In my Father’s House are many mansions”. A mansion being larger than a house, it gives us another indication of a plus power, and the many degrees of the extension of the senses, with their accruing degrees of manifestation.
THE POOL OF BETHESDA
Now around the Pool of Bethesda, there were five porches filled with the lame, the halt and the blind. It does not take a great stretch of imagination to understand that the five porches represent the five senses – and that the sick were segregated into five divisions, each coming under the affliction of one or more of the senses.
Strange as it may be, while they all had various manifestations of disease, from all sorts of causes, yet they could all be healed by the same remedy. No one would even pause for a moment to consider an eye doctor as good for a deaf man – yet all these people at Bethesda were expecting to receive healing from the same source.
Having tried every sort of “panacea” and receiving no help, we at last come to the level of consciousness wherein we believe that a miracle is the only way to change things, a quickening of the Spirit – the Presence of God. Naturally then, when the waters are troubled, we are more than anxious to step down into them and be healed.
We are willing to follow after every new fad that comes along in the hope of getting well – but again the old limitation is presented: – We must be the first to step down. There is always some catch – and so the measure of God is stopped down to the human capacity to receive which is small.
How can a healing power be turned on or off, if that power be GOD? “No good thing will He withhold” – “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters … without money and without price.”
One is blind another is deaf – another cannot breathe – and yet another is numb with pain – and another cannot earn his living. None have heard the word, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” or “Take, eat; this is my body. Drink ye … for this is my blood” and be healed. They are all choked with the dead letter of words – manmade words, and are still looking for more words, systems, affirmations and teachers with “secrets” to assuage their hunger and thirst.
The one that is numb with pain cannot “touch ME” in the crowd until he recognizes the dynamic power of agreement, which when made by TOUCHING, shall be established on the earth – and the numbness shall pass away as the River of LIFE and LIGHT flows through him. Why do you not touch ME? NOW?
The blind having eyes or having no eyes are both the same. They cannot see because they believe that sight is in the physical eyes instead of in the power which made both eyes and sight. They do not know that I AM looking through the beautiful eyes of those who believe – and see past the time-space limitation to the harvest. VISION expands the narrow confines of sight – time and space are eliminated. Presently you begin to see what is going on and know some of the dimensions of God.
“No man (not any) cometh unto the Father, but by ME” for “I Am the door of the sheep” are the rules laid down for the sheep. If a man does not believe wholly and utterly in Jesus Christ, both actually and symbolically, he will “taste” death and all the things that lead up to death. But if he makes the recognition of the WORD, then will he discover the innate capacities which will enable him to get into the pool of healing before another, because he can enter at will.
“The pool” is the Pure Consciousness of God, which is the sixth sense, and which man is aware of from his human birth, but which he fails to enter because of the false beliefs he has established and in which he Lives. Once he enters this consciousness, he arises and goes into a never ending series of revelations. He has discovered the light within and without.
The old hypnotic pattern, “Another steppeth down before me” gives way to the overflowing Well of Salvation within. The newly discovered Consciousness is the Pool of Bethesda – and the Angel of the Lord makes himself apparent at certain times; in fact, every time he is called upon in the Name of Jesus Christ. The waters are troubled – and at this instant, anyone who touches you is healed. The descent of the Holy Ghost is the consummating operation – the quickening of the Lord – the stirring of the lethal waters of human thought into the LIVING WATERS of God.
Now you may enter the “POOL” – and be clean. Now you can!
THE POOL OF RESOURCES
According to Sophocles, man is a pool of resources. Sounds very much as if he might have been right, when THE Law giver, Jesus Christ comes along and makes it clear that anything could be done through that very dimension of consciousness, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus.” All is enough. The language of cultured Greece puts the idea so beautifully: that within man when awakened is a pool – an inexhaustible pool – of resources, from which he could draw whatsoever he would. “Whatsoever” – that is a very comprehensive word “You ask in my name” whatsoever you find in the pool of resources within you, you can have, and not maybe nor perhaps, but Yes – that is what it says. Can you take it?
So did Sophocles along with the other magnificent Greek writers and sculptors hit upon the law. Yet were the streets full of ignorant intellectuals who denied it then, and would do the same thing today. They all want proof first before they can believe. I know it is insulting to the great, ponderous intellect – but it is so.
Digging a little more in the remains of Greece, we discover he spoke of “wind swift thought” – thought of and about, and which accomplishes nothing until it is merged into the Christ consciousness, and then like a swift flying javelin hits its mark.
Yes, there is something rather startling about the command
“AWAKE”
Give it a little contemplation – something might happen. You might suddenly awaken from the “waking” dream that goes on around you – and see through the film of ancestor lore that obscures the vision. And again you might hear something beyond the narrow confines of man. I think, quoting – Sophocles more accurately, “man was a Miracle of Resources.” Take it along with you. Do not ask any man not even your greatest Master – but ask ME and keep still and listen, and then at a moment you think not, it will come through and take form and shape. It is wonderful!
One of the common questions today emanating from the greatest intellect to the lowest is “How did this ever happen to me?” and a lot of other questions about the WHY of life and existence. So we find the Epicurians explaining it all very neatly by saying that life had no rules or system of ideas but was an “accident.” You may smile, but it is as good an answer as the ones I got from fifty people of normal and supernormal intelligence, to whom I asked the same question. Most of them did not have any answer except “You’ve got me.” And from the standpoint of the Ancestor teaching, life is nothing but a series of accidents. People have been killed while on errands of mercy. I presume it was something like an atom making a fortuitous and violent encounter with another atom – and that which happened is called man. Well – anyway the Epicurians who rejected the revelation of Sophocles had their own thought out ideas.
What rejoicing should take place within the temple of your being when you recognize the Truth as given by the Beloved Jesus Christ. No more chance, no more wonder or guessing, but an ability to plunge into the Pool of Resources and come up with the right solution and answer to the question. Yes – It says:
“Awake thou that sleepest” – that is what it says.
Tone and echo; consciousness and manifestation.
POSSESSION
“The arc of sky over the canyon was silver blue, with a pale yellow moon, and presently stars shivered into it, like crystals dropped into clear water. This was the first time I ever saw it as a whole. Something had happened in me that made it possible for me to coordinate and simplify, and that process, going on in my mind, brought with it great happiness. It was possession.”
“Something had happened in me that made it possible for me to coordinate and simplify, and that process, going on in my mind, brought with it great happiness. It was possession.” Such a lovely “feel” of what man has is store, a becoming One with the Whole of Creation. Nothing is lost but the personal limitations, and these you will lose anyway, sooner or later. All the flutter of things that were immensely important to you ten years ago is as nothing today. You wonder why you were so excited and fearful about your graduation day oration; when you look back on it now, it was nothing to get excited about, and you cannot see why you were excited. The reason was, that you were a little personality, standing before a room full of other personalities – and you thought the success of it all depended on you. What of the fame of that little moment? It, too, faded, almost as soon as the room was emptied, and you held your “sheep-skin” in your hands; but it was already an empty sheep-skin.
The awakening that comes to you is that “losing your life” – your personal sense of life – causes you to lose the limitations of that personal sense. An ignorant person might imagine that the power in a locomotive was all the power in the world. He might even imagine that the power was generated by the engine, and was dependent upon the engine. So a man might imagine that he, and his body, generated the strength with which he operated, and the power with which he succeeded, and the intelligence by which he gained his daily bread.
It is wonderful to contemplate that which is slowly evolving in these words – to you as you read, to me as I write. You are coming into the deeper Revelation as you read, just as I am as I write; we arriving there at identically the same time, for this only comes into your world NOW.
It is absurd to imagine that the locomotive, with its shrill whistle, generates power; and yet this is what it seems to do. By destroying the engine one has not destroyed power. Power is instantly available, anywhere, at any time. It is Wonderful!
It is equally foolish to believe that your body generates health and power, and yet it seems to do so, and as long as the belief is fixed on this limited machine, the body, so long will the power be measured by the so-called strength of the machine. Unfortunately, however, both the locomotive and the human machine have an enormous capacity to generate evil. The machine gets too hot, too cold, too dry, too old and so does the human machine. In fact, the human machine appears to have an infinitely greater capacity to generate evil than good. No wonder life becomes such a nightmare.
The system is set forth that if you beg hard enough of God, maybe He will give you a little health, and that this getting of a little health should be cause for life-long gratitude. Perhaps, if you beg hard enough, you will get a few shekels pay increase in your pay envelope, and, while this increase will not nearly meet the desires of your soul, yet you will be expected to sing a song of praise for it.
What is the heart singing, while the lips are singing the song of praise for that which is not satisfactory? It is singing the song of hypocrisy.
Deep in the soul of every man is the glorious vision – he knows that he should not beg for life. He knows that he was, and is, born to rule powerfully, gloriously, in his kingdom. He knows that his body is the temple beautiful, but before it he sees his human self lying daily, begging alms. The amazement of it all, the bewilderment of it all, causes him to run into a hundred mazes of belief before he comes upon the New Day. And then it dawns. This wonderful inner coordination – this Inner Whispering of the Secret to you – this inner oneness which causes all the little personal deeds and ideas to flutter away. Deep in the heart of you it is being said, it is being revealed to you. The little personal power is being lost in the universal. The little power that pushes the locomotive around is released, and becomes one with the power that rolls universes in their orbits.
The little power that was narrowed down to a lot of inherited beliefs and opinions of yourself is freed into the glorious Power, that knows no limitation – no not one limitation. “He that loseth his life shall find it,” which means expressly that he who is unafraid enough to lose the personal sense of power and life shall find it. What a glorious promise, and what a glorious “find.” Just as soon as you stop limiting the Power to the little personality, then you begin to experience the New sense of Life and Power pass over and through you. A power which is not stored up for so many years in an old, decaying body, but a Power that is endlessly fresh and new, and clean and holy, which is unconditioned, untrammeled, and free. It knows neither age, limitation, nor lack. It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful!
Taking the attention away from the body and placing it on the Power is not imagination; it is a sudden and sure mounting to the At-one-ment of you with yourself. The beggar of personality – with all his limitations – who has been lying all these years outside the Temple Beautiful, waiting, waiting, waiting, has risen and entered into his temple, and is lost in the glorious Revelation of his true Self. It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful!
“This was the first time I ever saw it as a whole.” This is the first time I ever saw it – the reality of just quietly, and joyously, beginning the process of the assumption of my true Self – no matter about the appearances, or beliefs, or anything of that kind. Just be still. Everything is being placed in order. The dirty rags of the beggar will fall in the light of Truth, and the garments of perpetual praise shall be thrown around you. It is Wonderful! Do you see? See with the inner eye that “feels” with its sight, and places the seal upon the lips, and waits patiently, but with deep signing soul? What if winter has stripped the forest, and nipped the buds, and killed the appearances? Deep in the roots is the substance that can out-distance a thousand and one human winters of belief. The inexhaustible, ever-lasting Reproducer of that which IS, is. Do you hear? The first time you conceive it as a Whole you will begin to be more unafraid of your universe.
“Something has happened in me.” Something has happened in me – it thrills me – thrills me with the new idea, the new conception, which is secretly being brought into expression; nothing matters, even though it be born in a stable, because it will take care of itself. Just so the Christ that is being born in you; the union of the body and soul will cause you to sidestep the human limitations under which you have been living, and from which you have been trying too escape all these years. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! Be still. It is well.
Are you afraid to fling the whole thing on to God? “Cast your burdens on Me, and I will sustain you.” Are you afraid to take a chance? Well, if you cast your burdens on “Me” and then begin speculating how “I” can help you, you will be trying to figure out how a machine can run after it is all worn out.
Just be still. Joy has entered into the portals of your being – do you hear? I am telling something to you at this time. Do you accept it? Then are you right now radiant with joy – with the inner thrill? It only takes the two that are now here to make it possible. We two are agreeing, and we are giving, and accepting, the wonderful deep sense of joy right NOW. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“Something has happened in me.” Something has happened in you, in me, in everyone who reads this line and accepts the Word. Not the word of a man, but the Word of the Lord, Who says, “For this IS Life Eternal, to know ME.” The Eternal Life that you are one with cannot go on through the limitations of a personality – it cannot be tied down to the Adam law. It is the freed son of the Living God, and it will go its way in silence, and that silence will be loud with the praise of accomplishment. “The signs shall follow” – yea, and the signs shall be sufficient. Do you see? You do not have to tell the world. Let the world tell you. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” Do you see? It just works automatically, when you let your life blend with the universal – and then you are here, there, and everywhere. You are everywhere – in truth and in deed. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” The Christ- Consciousness comes to its own (bodily) expression; and the members of the body, through centuries of false education and belief, refuse to receive Him. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any [I do not care who] man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him.” When you sup with a person, you break bread with him: you divide the substance, you show forth the abundance. It is all Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! Blessings, blessings, blessings. A new and lovelier day is dawning; we are beginning to perceive, “Of a truth Thou art the Christ.” It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
There must be a stir of joy – like the stir of joy that passes over one when he sees a flock of blue birds in the boughs of a blossoming peach tree – when he perceives himself, the beggar, sitting at the gates of the Temple Beautiful, begging, and suddenly senses that he is sitting in front of his own temple/ There must be such a stir of joy that almost forms the lips into an eternal smile when he suddenly catches a flash of this truth: no matter if he is in the dirtiest rags of the human belief. The crowds of people milling about him, the masses of human belief, do not know anything of what has happened, and he wants to suddenly cry out – but what should he cry? What words should he say to express what this Revelation means to him? Before he could get to the first doorway of the temple, he would be destroyed by their unbelief.
They would stone him to death for even hinting that he, the beggar, was the master of the temple. It is all so wonderful – so beautiful and glorious. Do you see the secret that the beggar finds out whilst he is lying impotent, without food or shelter, and with all the thousands of human thoughts and beliefs pacing back and forth? What a human power they represent – heredity, sickness, sin, lack – all these pointing there thumbs down. When he looks at them, he has an impulse to quail before their supposed strength. But something has happened to him – something has appeared, even as far away as if looking through the wrong end of a telescope of high power; but it has appeared, and wrapped up in this vision will be the power to express itself, and the power to send the pack of human beliefs into the desert of oblivion. How they will scurry away, afraid of the “Brightness of His coming,” though they cannot name it or tell what it is. It is Wonderful! Arise! The loverly shimmering garments of Light and Revelation are being thrown over you. You do not have to see them yet; the eye becomes single first, then the “Eye” sees what “eyes have not seen” – it is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
Be still; little by little the Word is edging through into realization. “In the twinkling of an eye” I can cause you to catch up with all the supposed lost Time element. In the twinkling of an eye I can cause you to have more than your fondest human wishes ever hoped for. I will open up fountain in dry places, and cause the desert to blossom as a rose. Do you hear? I, the I AM, am the Doer of the impossible. The reversal of the human law is the natural law of the I AM. Where the human law stops at its highest attainment is only the beginning point of the Divine Law. And this secret is not to be bartered, and sold in the open mart. It is given without price, but you have to be ready to receive the gift before it can be yours. The readiness is the Recognition of The Presence, and the absolute reliance on the Power, as being able to accomplish; and not only able, but actually accomplishing Now, the harmonization of the All in One. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! This glorious Revelation has come to you and me. We have been sitting long enough outside the Temple called Beautiful; it is time to enter in, and be saved from the pernicious human beliefs to which we have given life by accepting them.
“I can of myself do nothing; the Father within, He doeth the works.” It is the complete giving up of the human belief in a power opposed to God which enables the Father within to come into full fruition. Fear not; “I have a way you know not of.” Ways that are beyond human conception are brought into play so that the way of the Lord is made straight and smooth. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
Always comes the remembrance that giving up does not mean inertia, or letting-go, and idly sitting by for the Power to work. It is an alertness within, without strain and fear, a glorious sense of readiness – “Send me, Lord, send me” sort of feeling. You shall not be long in getting the word, “Arise, shine, for thy light has come” – and this very word, when it has come to you, will bring with the Light all that is necessary for you to arise and shine, and to show forth the light into expression. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“For God is not the author of confusion” – do you hear? Then the confusion of beliefs that you have about you are without a real author. God is the author of salvation. The Book of Life, your life, is already written in harmony and joy. It is independent of any so-called outside influence, and is dependent on nothing but self-sufficiency, by reason of its union with the Godhead. It is Wonderful! “Before Adam was, I AM.” Before Adam – the human belief – and his world existed, I AM, and so I AM before anything that Adam has invented or found out, and I AM greater than anything that he has found out, and set down as the Truth. I AM THAT I AM, and beside Me there is nothing else. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! “My sheep hear My voice.” Are you afraid to be alone with God, and hear if He has something to say to you that no book, teacher, or preacher can, or ever will, say to you?
God is not the author of confusion; what is all this confusion about? Be still. God is the author of everything you express – just as the God-power is the author of this book; is the author of any book, no matter how poorly it may be expressed. The Divine Urge that goes forth will find some kind of expression, and, when you Recognize this, you will be able to “let” God be the author of your “doings,”and will know that in proportion to your willingness to “let” Him be the author, just to that extent is the immediate success assured. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! “God is the author of eternal Salvation” – the Author of your salvation from human beliefs. The Book of Life lies wide open before you. It is the instant panacea for all human beliefs. Open Sesame – let the doors of the temple swing open – let the book open before your unveiled eyes – read. “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life,” is replaced by the glorious Revelations that are shown to you in the Book of Life. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
“This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes,” is the way to open the “doors” to flooding inspiration, in whatever manner you are expressing. Are you afraid to claim your birthright, and open the gates of the treasury, and free floods of golden inspiration into expression? It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! I know you will do it, because I AM telling this to you NOW. I AM speaking to you NOW. It is Wonderful!
“Here am I, Lord; send me” – not in a sanctimonious, long-faced way, but with the shining radiance of that one who stands at the line ready to “run,” knowing the glorious race that is before him. It is Wonderful! Joy is half the victory. There is no sadness in the God Kingdom. Anyone who is consecrated to God is so full of radiance, that he cannot long with-hold it from expression. “Serve the Lord with gladness and thanksgiving.” Do not worry – God knows. You do not have to add up your works every little while; they are only between you and God, anyway. You know – and the other man will find out, when it is time. The Lord, Who sees in secret, “will reward thee openly.” It is Wonderful! I am glad to tell this to you. You are glad that I AM telling it to you. All is gladness, and joy, and happiness, in heaven. And So It Is. It is truly Wonderful!
POWER
“All power is given unto ME in heaven and in earth.” In spite of this, men still wonder if it is possible for God to set aside the evil in their lives; if it is possible for the All-power to neutralize the fearful problems that have come to them. “All power is given unto ME in heaven and in earth.” This statement is certainly not true of man, for he seems strangely without power. In fact, everything else in the Universe seems to have more power than man. Hence he is subject to all sorts of influences over which he seemingly has no control. God is ruled out of His Universe and a power of evil is enthroned.
When man examines his human self to ascertain his capacities and abilities, he finds them strangely lacking in power. He takes into account his birth, breeding, education, muscular power, general health, etc., and knows exactly what he can do, even to his earning capacity. This is verified by thousands of laws, statistics and proofs, as well as the findings of the wisdom of the world. What good is it to tell a man who has measured himself by these standards that a power exists that can and does make every one of his findings null and void?
He knows he cannot lift a two-hundred-pound weight — he has tried it. What is the good of argument on this point? He can prove it to you. Yet occasionally he finds that someone in a moment of excitement or stress has lifted many times his own weight, and this in spite of the best findings of human intellect. He knows it cannot be done, and yet time and again it has been done — and man says “by a supernatural power.” Exactly, and that is what he should say, and that recognition should suddenly turn his attention away from the limited human capacity unto the Supernatural Power. The law by which this power is discovered and used is by taking the attention away from the limitations of the human world, and contemplating the Real and Supernatural Universe, the unconditioned power of God. The following was clipped from the New Yorker. It was found in an article on Zimbalist, the great violinist:
“Somehow, nobody told Zimbalist that he was supposed to play the piano, too; but during the final examinations, in his eighteenth year, they handed him a Beethoven sonata to be read at sight, in the presence of the whole facility. He had never touched a piano except to get his ‘A’. He sat down, however, got his breath, played. When he finished, he was told to close the book and repeat the whole sonata from memory; he did so. After a moment of silence the room broke unanimously into applause — an unheard-of demonstration.”
All the human intellect in the Universe could not conceive this possible. They would immediately say it could not take place, and yet it did take place. Few things could be more difficult. It bespeaks a power which is entirely outside human capacity. Imagine reading a difficult sonata once, and then playing it note perfect, and this, too, on an instrument you had never touched. Just think about it a moment, then you will begin to see what the power of which Jesus spoke is capable of doing. It is capable of setting every human law at naught. Is it any wonder, then, that within this law lies the Kingdom of Heaven, and should it not thrill you to know that this very law is possible of operation within your midst?
“Ah, but Zimbalist is a genius.” Not being able to dispose of the Power, which upsets the most cherished laws of the human mind, it finally disposes of the matter thus. But presently it is confronted with another interesting news item concerning an invalid who had been paralyzed for twenty years and was being conveyed on a stretcher to another town. In crossing the tracks, the carriers suddenly discovered they were in the way of an on-coming express train. Without time to go forward or backward the length of a stretcher they did the most natural human thing. The law of self-preservation came into play and they dropped the stretcher and fled. From the human standpoint it was certain destruction to the invalid, who had not walked a step for years and could not move himself. But what happened? He, the invalid, suddenly seeing the train, leaped from the stretcher and ran. But how? Only a moment before he could not move.
A miracle had happened, said the Press, and so it had. Something that the human mind could not conceive as possible had happened, and laws of twenty years’ standing were as naught. What about it? Do you think it is necessary for the God-Power to have an express train in the picture in order to operate? Do you think it is always necessary to have some terrific thing about to happen before God is able to come into manifestation? It does not matter whether it takes an on-rushing express train, an earthquake or torrent to produce it, or whether you produce it in the quiet of your own soul. One thing alone is necessary, and that one, all important point is your willingness to take your attention away from the limited human concept of yourself. In the simple language of Jesus, we find “that to be absent from the body and present with the Lord” is the way of great miracles. Looking at the appearances of things only binds you to the human capacity which is practically nil.
The story of the prophet and his servant is the story of every man. The servant, looking to appearances, saw they were about to be destroyed, and called out in fear. But the prophet was smiling and called the servant’s attention to the invisible-visible power and said, “Those that are for us are more than those that are against us.” That is, the power that is for you is greater than all the combined beliefs opposed to you. The reward is rich if you can heed the Scriptures — “Be absent from the body and present with the Lord.” If the Lord knows your every need, and supplies it before you ask, then why not fix the attention on the Allness of God now? “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.”
Can you but place your Trust in the Lord; not as some mysterious power, but as the very presence of Life within you and your Universe, then you can know the feel of instant release from the evil of human belief. “With God all (not some) things are possible.” ALL things are possible. Do you hear, you who read this book? “Believest thou this?”
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, even as the waters covers the sea.”
We begin to see, then, that Jesus was a Truth sayer when he said, “I come not to destroy, but to fulfill.” The idea that we are here for the purpose of destroying something gives way to the truth of the redemption of everything. The fulfilling of the Law is the realization of the presence of the Power which is able to do that which the human limitation finds impossible.
“God is able to do for us exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.” The God-Power is able and willing to do that which completely outdistances human thinking with its limited idea of the possibilities of the God-Power; but note the crux of the whole thing lies in the word “according.” According to your acceptance of the God-Power as everywhere present, and as omnipotent, will It be able to do more than human thought can conceive of. The God-Power reverses every human law. “Before they ask I shall answer” is one of the interesting things to be considered. From the standpoint of reason this is absolutely ridiculous, so inversely to the Divine Mind the “Reason of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.”
Cannot you see, you who read this page, how we are fast approaching the state of “Be still and know that I AM GOD”? Can you see why the noisy chattering of the human mind must give way to the glorious peace and poise of the Presence? If your question is answered before it is asked, why repeat it over and over, why not stay on the finished idea?
“The former things have passed away, they shall not come into mind nor be remembered any more.”
Even the memory of the evil shall be passed through the waters of forgetfulness and man shall arise from this glorious bath and be clothed in a cloud of perfume from an unseen flower of spirit. He shall stand on the heights naked and be enveloped by a golden veil of life. The former things shall have passed away and shall not be remembered any more.
“The works that I do, I do not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth within me, He doeth the works.”
Indwelling in every man is this Father which is able to do more that we ask or think, and which is able to set aside the limitations of the human expression. Making your union with this Father brings you to the point of which Jesus spoke: “I can of myself do nothing, but with God all things are possible”; and a little contemplation will cause you to see that if you will open wide the doors of your consciousness and let this Christ come into your life and become one with you, “The Father within” will do the works. “Behold, I have received a commandment to bless, and He hath blessed and I cannot reverse it.” The capacity of the Father within is to bless, and the meaning of the word “bless” conveys that heavenly capacity of invoking the Divine favor. It is wondrous and beautiful to contemplate that “I have received the commandment to bless.” The “I” of you hath received the commandment to bless, to “invoke the Divine favor” — it is that which sets aside the sternest human laws and beliefs; it is the power which causes the oldest and time-honored limitations to crumple as a sand-castle before a tidal wave.
Nothing can revoke this Divine blessing, when once it is recognized and called into manifestation. All that is necessary to bring out the glorious revelation are the simple words, “I bless you” spoken from the conscious recognition of your at-one-ment with the Father within. Remembering all the while that this glorious teaching is given to the child. Not the child in years, but in consciousness — the mind that can accept the fact that God is the only Power and is everywhere present. “All power is given unto ME in heaven and in earth.” In the mind and in the body is all power given unto the I AM.
Arise and go forth with this glorious command written in gold across your heart: “Behold, I have received a command to bless (to invoke the Divine Power), and He hath blessed and I cannot reverse it.” You can go your way invoking the Divine Power because you are the Child of the Living God, and right now and right in the place you stand you have the power to do this. “Arise, shine, for thy light hath come and the glory of God hath risen upon you.” You are the Being of Light in the Universe of Light. It is well with you NOW.
Jesus had the ability to look into darkness and see light. Jesus was totally convinced of God willingness to manifest. Jesus knew that he contained this Power. Jesus knew that this Power was “let” into expression.
THE POWER OF SILENCE
“Keep silent before me.” From the Silence springs the new life. The seed must be first buried in the silence of the earth, away from the noisy clamoring of appearances and circumstances, before it can break its shell and live. All self resurrection takes place in the silence of the tomb. Nothing that is born of noise and clatter can survive long.
There is a vast difference between talking about Truth and talking the Truth. Talking about Truth does not aid the so-called growth, any more than talking about the principles of music makes a musician. In reality there is no such thing as growth. What we call growth is merely becoming more aware of the isness of life. The more we contemplate the eternal facts of existence the more we seem to grow or progress; yet in reality nothing happens, except that we become more conscious of that which eternally is. “There is nothing new under the sun,” the principle of the automobile and the radio existed eternally in the Mind which is God. Man can only become aware of that which is; he can never create anything. When man is awakened to the glorious facts of existence, he drops the foolish idea that he can change God or the universe, or can induce God to do something for him in the nature of a miracle, by begging or beseeching him to do so. God is impersonal. The operation of his law is natural, not miraculous. Get away from the sickly idea of making a demonstration. What are you doing between the “so-called” demonstrations? Living without God? If “demonstrating” is becoming conscious for a few moments that God is, it follows naturally that when you are not demonstrating you are entirely out of the radius of God’s power. Where are you, then, between whiles? And where is God?
“Awake thou that sleepest.” Know ye not that you are always in the presence of the one and only power? Cease from idle chatter about your little good and your little demonstrations. Come into the full reality of the isness of everything. Get rid of the asinine words, “miraculous” and “wonderful.” Is anything wonderful to God? And is there anywhere he is not? By hanging on to the idea that something “wonderful” has happened, you introduce into your life mystery, which is the very antithesis of the teachings of Jesus.
Divest Truth of every bit of mystery. Lay firm hold on the facts of existence. Start always from the premise, “it is done.” Do not hinder your progress with the thought of the future — “Now is the accepted time.” This is the time to accept the finished and perfect manifestation. In the Silence recognize the vast possibilities of bringing into visibility the dream of reality that has swept over your inner vision. “It is done. It is done.” Silently and quietly you contemplate this great fact.
Jesus knew the power of Silence and said: “See that ye tell no man,” knowing well that until the consciousness of man is fully aware of the isness of Life, he would dissipate it by talking about it. All the energy that should be used for manifestation is wasted talking so much about it. “That which is told in secret shall be called from the housetop” does not refer to a public scandal: it is a statement of law. Do not worry that your good or your healing shall not be known; if it is a reality, all the world shall know of it and glorify God, not you. Fear not.
In face of this command, “Keep silent and tell no man,” comes the command, “Go tell how the blind receive their sight, and the deaf their hearing,” and again there is this admonition: “Cast not your pearls before swine.”
What a confusion to one who is still arguing and toiling with the letter, and what a struggle to the person who is making demonstrations and trying to get the “loaves and fishes” out of the Truth! But what a blessed revelation to that person who has come, even in a degree, to know that neither he nor anyone else, no matter how learned or wonderful, is going to change the eternal facts of existence.
The truth finally dawns on man that “becoming one with the Father” is not a means of making God do his bidding, but rather a chance for man to do the will of God, whose will is good. Man then moves with the universal tide of peace, and stops his clamoring for things; things will take care of themselves.
“Be still and know,” has been used by many a one as an occasion to know that God would give him a fur coat or an automobile. Can God give more than all? Into what kind of black magic have we strayed when we imagine that by saying a few words, we can draw out of the invisible all manner of things, just as a magician draws rabbits and eggs from his pocket?
“Except a seed first fall into the ground and die, it shall not live.” Until we part with all the silly notions we have had about God and his universe, we shall never know the real life which is Spirit — birthless, ageless, and deathless.
To the person who is awake, “consider the lilies” is about the biggest lesson in the world. It is a lesson in peace and silence. A glorious consciousness dawns upon the awakened one, that “it is well” with not only the lily, but with man, when he stops trying to use the Power in a mysterious way to obtain that which is given to him in the open sunlight of God’s love, if he has the courage to take it. Can anything be changed or added to a finished universe governed by a changeless Power?
“Keep silent before me.” If you perceive the Spirit of this message, keep silent. In due time you shall tell the world by your works, not by your words. An engine would never get the steam up with all the valves open. What matter whether the outside world sees anything happening or not? You know, and it is well. Fear not.
In the insect kingdom there is a white ant which lives on wood. It has been known to eat away the entire framework of a house without being discovered. Silently and unseen it eats the rafters and beams. On the outside nothing seems to be happening — in fact the house may seem as strong as ever — but behold! Quite suddenly it collapses and is reduced to nothing.
So it is with one who knows the law, even in a degree. He is on the inside contemplating the isness of Being. Every day the rafters and beams of beliefs are giving way, though the man in the street may argue that nothing is happening. Every time you pray the prayer of the all good, something is taking place on the inside.
“But see that ye tell no man.” Why should you waste time telling the world that presently the house will tumble down? It would only laugh, or perhaps try to prevent it. Rest assured it will be seen when it is down. Watch also that you do not run to the outside of the house to see if anything is happening and so get hypnotized by the appearance; if you do this you are defeated before you begin. Go within, close your door, and contemplate the Finished Kingdom with thanksgiving and joy, well knowing that the “Father who seeth in secret rewards openly.”
Fear not.
No more chattering with this one and that one. You have seen the Vision and “discretion shall preserve thee.” No matter what this great one or that learned one thinks or believes; you know, so “be still,” remembering that he who can argue on the Truth has not yet heard the Truth. There is nothing to argue about an established fact, it is and that is all. God is, and this is all. Why worry over terms, expressions, this teaching or that teaching? Be still and know.
Fear not.
THE POWER of the LET THERE BE
“Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Sprit leads Walter Lanyon into the depth of “LET,” and through Christ consciousness Lanyon journeys into the realms of Natural and Supernatural–the undisciplined mind of man. But there is PRESENCE and with Union “LET THERE BE” manifested as he writes,
“IN THE beginning–in the starting as it were– there enters into the equation the speaking of the WORD, the ‘LET THERE BE.’
And God said LET there BE–with the ease– with the nonchalance– with the consciousness that it was possible– did he SPEAK the WORD ‘LET.’ So small a word and yet so full of wonder and power. Spoken with the effortless, unlabored action of Mind.
In the command ‘Let’ there is hidden the possibility– yea, the infinite possibility, that it is so and can take place. A little later in the story we hear the command ‘Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’
The world is filled with people TRYING to ‘LET,’ who make the most glorious failures on one side, i.e., the side of accomplishing GOOD, and who make the most magnificent demonstrations of the power on the negative side.
The ease with which you catch disease is magnificent– I say magnificent– for without an effort you merely say ‘I am catching cold,’ and you do–without an effort you say ‘I lost my job– I have poor health– I am going down hill,” etc., etc., a thousand and one things in the negative side of life prove in the reverse the law of ‘Let there be.’
Jesus said the human mind was a liar and the father of it–it therefore works perfectly in reverse–and proves the law of the Presence in a manner which is alarming. ‘When I would do good I do evil, etc., etc.’– amazing and yet interesting.
Hundreds of people say to me, ‘I cannot grasp the truth,’ and they cannot and they do not see they are grasping the LAW of ‘Let there be’ in the reverse and functioning it perfectly. A ‘successful failure’ is more than a play on words. To be a successful failure requires a reverse action of the Law of God—and the reverse action of God is all that the human mind is capable of.
When man in his own FREE WILL decided to become a co-creator with God he left the Edenic state of Life and wandered into a labyrinth of human incarnations and beliefs– always imagining he could create something–but always winding up with failure, disease, fear, poverty, etc. It is an easy thing for any human being to ‘commit’ poverty. He finds it easier to lose a job than to keep one. Easier to be diseased than at ease. Easier to commit sin than to live in righteousness and finally easier and more natural to commit WAR than PEACE. Always setting up a pair of opposites– good and evil warring against each other– there is no possibility for the human mind to ever attain peace as such. Jesus knew this well when he said, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing but—-.’
Thousands of people are praying for release from evil of human thought–WHICH IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF EVIL AND THE ONLY SUSTAINER OF IT. They pray ‘hard.’ They pray emotionally. They pray with all the might in their human minds, yet little happens. Nations pray for peace but nothing happens– because it is so difficult to have prayer answered– or so the human mind says– but on the other hand it is very simple to have misfortune or sickness or poverty, etc., etc.– yes, it is easy because it is natural.
Strange how long we have been in the place of the manifestation of thought and have not yet seen why Evil manifested itself so much more easily than good.
When you pray believe that you receive– ‘LET’ that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Let is the stumbling block you can easily ‘let’ yourself catch cold. Why? Because you consciously know it is easy and natural and that you cannot stop it. All your human mind is in a perfect state of acceptance of it all. In other words, you are practicing the perfect law of Prayer in reverse and you are getting the exact results. And still you will not see that when you pray you have to have the same ease of LETTING the WORD come through into manifestation. It should be as easy to catch good as it is to catch a cold. Perhaps this all seems a little facetious to you. It is not meant to be– as soon as you can arrive at the place of the easy and natural acceptance of the PRESENCE you will see good manifested with the same assurance you see disease and evil. Do you begin to glimpse why Prayer is not answered– it is because you try to ‘MAKE’ God do your bidding– you try to ‘make’ demonstrations– but LET yourself catch cold. You are so saturated with the so-called truth of evil that it has the open ground and cooperation of everything and it easily comes into manifestation.
‘When you pray believe that you receive’– that does not say ‘make’ yourself believe– it does not indicate credulity, hypnotism or a lot of mental tricks. ‘Believe’– not Make yourself believe. When you ‘LET’ on the positive side of life, you will not ‘Make’– nor try to let– but you will see that fine distinction of LETTING with the same hopelessness that you let evil into manifestation. By recognition in the human mind of the Power of evil you have been educated to know that ‘As for man his days are few and full of trouble’– and you function on that basis– until you begin to see and understand–‘what is the height and breadth and length and majesty of God’–and then you see why your prayers have not been answered.
Could you pray the ‘LET’ prayer of recognition, the speaking of the WORD with the abandon of Jesus, you too would see the results just as naturally as you do in your evil dimension. The Supernatural state of affairs has made it so impossible– you, a ‘Natural,’ have been trying to use the Supernatural. Jesus warned you against this, knowing that such prayer would be only emotion or fear or something other than LOVE. He said over and over again, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing.’ He was not foolish enough to think the human mind, undisciplined as it was and steeped in fear and hypnotism, could approach the Supernatural. If He was to bring forth the reality of being he would have to enter into that state of being where the Supernatural becomes natural. As soon as you go into a state of consciousness you partake of that consciousness and it then becomes natural and real. It ceases to be supernatural. So with the revelation of Jesus–He said, ‘I go unto my Father,’ a statement that has confused many because they have wanted to make something mystic out of it all; wanted to do something mysterious and strange with life. Yet with ease any time, they could enter into the Opposite realm of disease, fear, poverty, evil, accident, etc., etc., and see it function with perfect success. It is so natural. God must finally be Natural.
When you enter a warm room you take on the temperature of that room and you do not make your body warm– it partakes of the nature-temperature of that room– no miracle is performed. ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all manifestation unto me’ is quite natural even though it be to man a miracle. Do you begin to see the state of mind one must be in, in order to bring out the WORD made flesh? It must be as easy and as natural to bring forth good– to LET God express in you– as it is to LET a cold take possession of you.
‘When you pray’ what a wonderful statement– what do you do? Begin to ask for a thousand and one things, or do you Go unto the Father within– the Perfect Identity– and see what the picture that is forming on the Face of the deep is to be for you? Remembering that your Father, your own consciousness, knoweth that ye have need of all of these things– you do not need to bother with the forcing or asking or trying to cajole God into giving you something of which you stand in ‘actual need.’
‘And God said– Let the Dry land appear’– the impossible takes place. ‘Dry’ land out of ‘wet’ water. How is that to happen? Try to reason that out. Is there anything in your human thinking that can produce a like phenomenon? Can you by the widest reaches of human thought take dry land out of wet water? It is impossible but it can only be done by the “LET” of God– and not by any effort, belief, affirmation or treatment– it must be on the place of the LET.
Still it is something to wonder at—can you see any difference in that equation and the one on which you are working? How can you let prosperity come out of poverty? How can you let health come from disease? How harmony from in harmony and order out of chaos– and yet you are ‘trying’ to do all of these things. As long as you try you are not going to do them, you are only going to intensify the problem. You will still seek for something on the outside that can help you; or a way in which you can introduce something into the picture which will cause the land to suddenly appear dry out of the water; but you will fail, for nothing on the outside can happen until it takes place on the inside.
Whatever takes place within takes place in the without– and does not ask for permission or power to perform the so-called wonders. No one can vaguely understand how you can take a well body out of a state of disease– chronic or acute– but it can be done by the LET, and no one can understand how a man in Job’s fix, having lost everything, reputation, fortune, friends, and family, can suddenly have ‘Twice as much as he had before’ and have his captivity turned. It is not within the possibilities of man to understand that. ‘Who can understand the Mind of God?’ Answer that and then you will stop trying to ‘Make’ things come into being and you will take good with the same ease that you have heretofore taken evil– you will begin to see what Jesus meant when he ‘entered in and shut his door’– when he went unto his Father state of consciousness and contacted God– and whatsoever he ‘TOLD’ the Father, that was called from the housetops–but he told it in Secret. He was not trying to cajole God into doing anything– but was finding out just what should be taking place at that moment. Jesus the personal entered into the impersonal God and lost all his human thought consciousness–in that impersonal blending with God, he was able to SEE and to LET the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven take place. When he personalized again as Jesus he always brought the solution of the human problem with him. ‘The Ways of God are past finding out’ but they are WAYS which are greater and stronger than any human thought can imagine– they are ways which are free and are not cumbered with the pygmy mind of man– no matter however strong he may appear. ‘I shall make your enemies your footstool’ is the WORD. And it is literally so.
So the ‘LET there BE’ comes into manifestation in the Life of the awakened ONE. He is beginning to see what true prayer is– how he relaxes the conscious mentality –the old wayward thing which was hypnotized with its own importance– begins to LET the Supernatural become the Natural– presently he finds it easier and easier to LET ease come into manifestation– it becomes easier to take God than it is to TAKE a cold, which many people claim is VERY easy.
PRAYER & POISON
In a newspaper recently appeared a report of a plague of grasshoppers, which were said to be destroying all the crops in a certain part of the States. A mass meeting was held, and prayers for deliverance were offered up. Quoting from a New York paper of July 28th, 1931: “PRAYERS AND POISON WERE RESORTED TO AS WEAPONS. MORE THAN A THOUSAND FARMERS KNELT AND ASKED DIVINE AID AGAINST THE SCOURGE.” They prayed and then resorted to poison. There is no condemnation in mentioning this article. It is only a trite illustration of how many people pray, and what they think of the power to which they pray. They pray, and then resort to the use of poison to deliver them. They treat in the most approved manner, and then resort to all sorts of means to make things happen. They plant, and then immediately dig up the seed to see if anything has taken place. They place an egg under the hen, and then crack it open to ascertain if anything has transpired.
“O ye of little faith,” why do you look for a sign? Why do you pray to a tribal god when the way of true prayer is open to you; and the way of sure success? Why will you doubt? Why will you pray and then resort to poison? Know ye not that “my ways are not your ways? My ways are as high above your ways as the heavens are above the earth.” Have I not said unto you: If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say to yon mountain “Be removed,” and it shall be so. I did not suggest the ways and means of bringing it to pass after you had spoken the word. Have I not told you, “Thy faith hath made thee whole”? – Not NEARLY WHOLE, but whole.
If you would only take your attention away from the mountain of difficulties that has been in your way all these years, it would then be possible for your troubles to disappear.
Then would you be able to say, with a thrill of joy: “This is the Lord’s doings.
It is marvelous in our eyes.” Ask of me and I will show you things that are not written in any book: “THE HILLS MELTED LIKE WAX AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” There is nothing which can stand before the presence of this Unconditional Power. The most adamant condition you can conceive of, melts like so much wax in the fierce heat of a furnace. What is the condition that you hug to yourself as difficult and impossible of destruction? In the presence of the Unconditioned Power nothing is a condition – nothing is difficult – nothing is impossible; and this “presence” is the Lord which is in the midst of thee, NOW and always. Do you see what the power of God is? “Be not afraid; it is I.” I AM – not the little god built up by a man or a nation – I AM that I AM, and I AM here NOW to deliver you – yes, you who read this line – out of the hand of your oppressor, whatever and whoever he may be.
“Open thou my eyes, that I may behold the wonderous things of the Lord,” is the new prayer that fills your heart, for it is the prayer that asks to see that which is already created, and not the prayer that attempts to create, or thinks to win a special favor from a tribal God.
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold the wonderous things of the Lord.” “Make a joyous noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.” “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.” “Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” “For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations.” The making of a joyous noise will take place when you realize the presence of God and worship Him in Spirit and in truth, instead of paying tribute to a tribal god that sits upon a throne judging the sinners of the earth. Do you see the wonderous things that are to be revealed to you, the Son of the Living God? “THY HANDS HAVE MADE ME AND FASHIONED ME: GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING, THAT I MAY LEARN THY COMMANDMENTS.” If for one instant you realize the magnificent truth which lies back of the statement “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me,” you will see that the hand of the Potter did not shake, nor was its work distorted and full of disease and limitations.
“TURN UNTO ME, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, AND BE SAVED” – saved from the terrible fury of the misguided beliefs which have run wild and gone prodigal in their search after things.
“THY TESTIMONIES ARE WONDERFUL; THEREFORE DOTH MY SOUL KEEP THEM.” The testimonies of the Lord are wonderful – and you will awaken to this glorious truth, and will go about in your universe calling the name of “wonderful” down upon everything. The ugly shell shall break and give forth its promise at the calling of its name; the soul of the hard parched earth shall answer and give forth her abundance of flowers and fruits; your forty years’ wandering in the desert of human thought shall come to an end, and you shall see that you have been going around in circles, in a desert of your own making.
“THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORD GIVETH LIGHT; IT GIVETH UNDERSTANDING UNTO THE SIMPLE.” Do you hear? The entrance of the word giveth light. Speak the word, then, and see the illumination take place. See that the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk; come again unto ME and tell ME. “EVEN THE DEVILS ARE SUBJECT UNTO YOU” – the devils of belief.
Can you see? Can you hear? “NOW WE KNOW THAT WHAT THINGS SOEVER THE LAW SAITH, IT SAITH TO THEM WHO ARE UNDER THE LAW: THAT EVERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED AND ALL THE WORLD BECOME GUILTY BEFORE GOD.”
The doctrine that man is a worm of the dust, and a sinner conceived in sin, is found herein stated. But between the lines lie the glorious pearls of truth. It saith to them who are under the law: “If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law” – you are freed from the human law of destiny and fate which hangs like an ugly black cloud over mankind, and from which you can not escape so long as you are UNDER the human law.
Presently you see that the law of human belief is put to naught, and you are no more under it; you are under grace.
“BUT NOW THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WITHOUT THE LAW IS MANIFESTED, BEING WITNESSED BY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.” Do you note the righteousness WITHOUT the law is made manifest? Everything that Jesus did in his wonderous career was “WITHOUT THE LAW” – without the laws of the human reasoning, or of the best of the accepted laws of physics of that day or any other day.
“AND THEY SHALL SIT EVERY MAN UNDER HIS VINE AND UNDER HIS FIG-TREE; AND NONE SHALL MAKE THEM AFRAID FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS HAS SPOKEN IT.” Beloved, you are gradually coming into your Divine Inheritance; you shall see the wonders of the new heaven and the new earth.
“BEHOLD, ALL THEY THAT WERE INCENSED AGAINST THEE SHALL BE ASHAMED AND CONFOUNDED; THEY SHALL BE AS NOTHING; AND THEY THAT STRIVE WITH THEE SHALL PERISH.” The host of evil thoughts that have seemingly tried to destroy you, no matter from what source, shall be confounded, and shall be as nothing, and one by one, as these thoughts come forth to strive with you, the Son of the Living God, they shall perish. It is wonderful.
“FEAR THEM NOT; FOR I AM WITH THEE. BE NOT DISMAYED; FOR I AM THY GOD. I WILL STRENGTHEN THEE; YEA, I WILL HELP THEE; YEA, I WILL UPHOLD THEE WITH THE RIGHT HAND OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS.” If ye be upheld by the right hand of MY righteousness, ye have nothing to fear.
Therefore, beloved, when ye pray, do not resort to poison. Stand and see the salvation from the plague of evil thoughts and beliefs that is destroying your substance.
THE PRESENCE
MARY “lived, moved, breathed, and had her being” in the Presence, but not until it became a personal thing did the Annunciation come.
Mary symbolizes every man, living in the midst of the Presence and yet not being aware of it until the annunciation is made, the annunciation that foretells the bringing forth of a Messiah.
The beautiful Annunciation which came to Mary urged upon her the need of contemplation and recognition. The thing stirred within her and she became conscious that she was to bring forth that which was to rule. “The government shall be upon his shoulders.” The necessity of deep secrecy is so obvious in the symbology which is given that it hardly needs to be mentioned. What would have happened literally had a Jewish girl announced to the world that she was going to bring forth a child whose Father was Spirit, unseen, unknown, and unrecognized? What would happen to the same girl today? The same thing would happen to her that happens to you when you tell the annunciation, when you expose the holy urge of Spirit within you which is awakening the Christ into being. So Mary took the better part and “magnified the Lord within,” and knew full well that the manifestation would take care of itself.
Historically the incident is full of interest and daring, but symbolically It is fraught with such powerful revelation that it proclaims itself from the “housetops” of your being.
Think of what it is to find the Christ within yourself. Think of what it means to become conscious of the Presence within you, and to know that you are partaking of the blessed nature of God.
Yes, finally the command “Be still and know that I AM God” becomes something more than a metaphysical affirmation. The glorious, pulsating Presence, like a heavenly symphony, enfolds you. A piece of music must be enjoyed as it is expressed. Waiting to enjoy it puts it off in the fanciful and uncertain place of imagination. So is it with the Spirit. Waiting to enjoy it, to live with it, to experience it, and to know it, is like remembering a single experience you have had, which eventually becomes old and stale with repetition.
The lovely sense of the Presence which keeps hovering about you, and announcing the coming of the new idea, is here and now, and must be recognized in the present tense or it is nothing.
This glorious Power hovers over you with its announcement of the New Messiah. Your part is the recognition of it, and the magnifying of the Lord within. The coal of fire will have eventually sealed your lips against the possibility of casting that which is holy unto dogs. Curious minds and people who are looking for fantastic results will wait with empty lamps. No matter how much oil they borrow, it will never be sufficient to light the way dear enough for them to “see” the approaching Bridegroom.
The deep secrecy of the precious word which has been spoken to you is enough to make you experience a joy which knows no limitations. What do you care about the clattering masses who have much advice and thousands of worthless opinions to offer? They are as the woman at the well. The only thing she could see was a man who told her fortune. She wanted to assemble a big crowd to “see” a man.
I cannot come to the curious adult any more than Father Christmas can continue to come very long to the curious child. He will finally destroy this beautiful reality by finding that he cannot fit it into human reason. So with the Presence, the curious mind cannot entertain it because the cumbersome human reasoning and beliefs cannot see how it can possibly be true.
“Be still”‘ it is well. Even at this instant the hovering wings of the announcing Angel, the urge of the Presence, are about you, calling attention to something which is to come forth. “Magnify the Lord” within yourself and let the embodiment take care of itself.
“To the poor the gospel is preached.” To those who are “poor” in human reasoning and beliefs “gospel” of the annunciation is preached, revealed, or shown. Their emptiness is filled with the new idea which is to embody itself on earth.
“Be still”; it is wonderful how the Spirit of the Word is descending upon you, filling you with the Inspiration of the Almighty. You shall want nothing after this happens. You will magnify the Lord within you and see it come forth with power and plenty.
The “gospel” (good spell) is the Power which breaks the “evil spell” of conscious-thinking which has held you so long that it has become real to you.
“The government shall be upon his shoulders.” A new day is merging out of the night of thought. A new code comes into being. “Rend the veil” which keeps you from this Presence – the veil of conscious thinking. The more you fight the pictures shown thereon the more the veil, which is only as old as your last thought, becomes a wall of steel. “I come as a thief in the night.” I emerge into being quietly, and “my reward is with me.” Fear not !
“Put up thy sword” is a command, just as “Peace be unto you.” If you are “hid with Christ in God,” nothing can find you, and this very place of hiding or oneness makes you a majority, which sends conscious thinking scurrying into the outer darkness of unbelief. It is wonderful what the New Messiah, who is to come through you, is to show you. “Be still!”
“Go thou and do likewise.” Likewise is in a like manner. If you are going to do likewise to the Christ Power you cannot do likewise to your conscious thinking; and you will soon discover the difference. This does not mean likewise to Jesus – that would have been in the manner of a carpenter; but likewise to the Christ is a different story. When you go to do likewise, see that it is not the likewise of a barber, writer, dressmaker, painter, etc., etc.
“As he is, so are we in this present world.” Exactly the same, without the shadow of difference. As the Christ in Jesus was, so are we.
“My Kingdom is not of this world.” The Kingdom of Spirit, the force and power back of the manifestation, is not concerned with the manifestation as a reality. The person standing before a thousand mirrors is not of the kingdom of the reflections, because they are nothing and depend entirely upon the reflector. So the thing called matter or manifestation is eternally coming and going, but the Power remains untouched or unmoved by these shadows forever.
Just as the law of gravity existed long before Newton became aware of it, so the Power of the Christ existed before Jesus, and “Before Abraham was – I AM.” It is wonderful when you begin to perceive life and to know that is is not something that was invented within the last hundred years, trade-marked, copyrighted, and ear-marked by a thousand personalities, all claiming the right to be the discoverer of God. In the realm of Spirit there is no “personal” brand on God. You may write your initials in fire on the side of a steer and show your possession, but trying to make a personal possession of God shows a feeble understanding of the Infinite. If God is all, what then is the protection thrown up about the discoveries of Him?
Losing the personal, you find the impersonal, and it immediately personalizes itself, just as we see in the case of Jesus. When he lost the narrow confines of Jesus, a carpenter, he found the Father, and then we find this same Jesus doing what the Jesus (carpenter) could not possibly have done. Do you begin to see and understand the dimensions of Spirit” It is wonderful to contemplate the truth of “Lose your life.” You immediately find the Presence when you do, and then the Presence comes to expression through you; and you, who have been unable to do anything, suddenly exclaim, “I can do all things through Christ.”
“Old garments and old bottles” are cast aside instead of trying to refurbish them and refill them. So are the old ideas of man when he becomes conscious of the Presence. It is wonderful ! All manifestation is but a limitation of the Infinite, since it could never show forth the all. “Loose it and let it go” then. Fear not; coming by the way of God is coming by the way of Man-ifestation and not by the way of man.
“My grace is sufficient for thee.” Do you hear? What are you locking for?
“These things have I spoken that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.”
PROTECTION
“The Almighty shall be thy defense.” “My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.”
“The Lord is round about those that trust HIM.”
“The Lord is the Light of my Life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
And so the glorious testimonies of defense and protection align themselves before us, the sure and certain defense of the Power called God. Defense against those beliefs which we have endowed with power to destroy or hurt us. Defense in the nature of Light, which dispels the darkness of the human mind, and shows that which we feared to be nothing but a mass of accepted beliefs in a power apart from God.
“But what would you do if you were suddenly attached by a band of robbers?” asks one; of “If you were suddenly shot in the back by a stray bullet?” asks another; or “If you broke your leg, or lost your ticket, or your purse, or were suddenly stricken down with sickness?” And the answer is, that the Consciousness which is stayed on the Power will not meet with such things, because it is immune from them, and the speculation as to what you would do if any of these things did happen shows a lack of Recognition of the Presence. Remembering that the God of Israel is He Who neither slumbers or sleeps, and that He is there, to immediately neutralize the “sudden attacks of the enemy,” and has the exact antidote for the case in hand. Why speculate on imaginary evil? How you would act one time is no criterion for another time.”It is I, be not afraid” of what man can do unto you. “I will never leave you” and “One with God is a majority” are usable truths, which can be brought into manifestation without difficulty, provided you have recognized that the “promises of God are kept,” and that the ONENESS of Life is more than a legend. It is Wonderful!
“Call upon ME in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee.” How is it that this Invisible ME is going to deliver you from the belief of evil which suddenly confronted you? It will do so by immediately bringing the LIGHT of understanding to you, which will resolve the power of the adversary into meaningless nothingness. If a savage who was quaking with fear, because of a manifestation made by a live wire on the ground, were to be suddenly apprized of the truth about electricity, he would, in the degree that he grasped it, instantly be master of it, and of his fear. So with you; when you realize that the Source of POWER is God, any other manifestation of power is but the belief in something apart from God, and this understanding will bring about order where chaos prevailed. It is Wonderful!
Your right to this protection is indisputable. It is yours for the acceptance and the Recognition. Until you recognize that it is a free gift to you, it remains eternally in the realm of the mysterious – a sort of magic, which acts intermittently, as if the law of mathematics were suddenly stumbled upon by a child, and thereby the problem solved, or at least the answer got.
“Claim your right and press your claim” – claim your right to the glorious protection that is yours. “Nothing shall by any means hurt you, is a statement of fact, and it can be proven, if you will accept your God-given heritage. It say “NOTHING” – which leaves no loophole for your particular fear to slip through. It says “NOTHING” shall by ANY means hurt you. Not by any means – do you hear? You are a citizen of the NEW Day in the NEW Heaven which has appeared out of the clouds of your former beliefs. You are entitled to all the rights of this citizenship in the Kingdom. It is Wonderful!
“Though an host of men be encamped around me, yet shall my heart not be afraid.” Though a host of beliefs in evil be round about you, with their overwhelming evidence of reality in evil, yet shall your heart not be afraid, for you shall look away from the appearances, and to the LORD, and this calling upon the NAME of the LORD – this ME – will bring instant release from the terrible fear that has beset you.
Be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Be absent from the appearances of evil and present with the Lord. Turn to the ME within, and call upon ME, and I will answer you. The servant saw the armies of the enemies round about him, ready to destroy him, and exclaimed: “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes,” said the prophet, and the mountains, the heights of Recognition, were filled with the Heavenly Hosts. It is wonderful the Power of this PRESENCE within and without us.
“Claim your right and press your claim”
“Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?” is answered in the first person always, when it is answered correctly. Nothing hinders us but ourselves, although we see it as everything else. No matter what has gone before, the moment we come into alignment with this glorious Truth of the Father within being the Help in the time of trouble, the time of accepting appearances as real, we will see the manifestation of the “legions of Angels” put to flight the armies of the alien belief in two powers.
He who puts his trust in God shall put up his sword and know why “ye shall not need to fight” – he will understand why he can “stand, and SEE the salvation of the Lord.
A clipping from a magazine or newspaper came to me recently. It was but a pasted fragment of an article, evidently on Protection. I do not know the name of the author, nor the paper, but I found this beautiful bit therein:
It all depends whether you are part of the Great Plan that is working out in this generation for the permanent ennoblement of mankind. If you are, then it is mearly a means of your identification, showing you to be a person, not in life purely for experiences unto yourself, but for the public good in the ultimate.
“If this is true, then you are automatically protected; you have your ‘pass’, as it were, through every type of danger, and should go forward with confidence of the strong athlete or armored warrior, secure in the knowledge that a principle of Great Cosmic Physics is your shield and buckler, and that nothing can penetrate you.”
You know whether you are a PART of the Great Plan. You know, because this desire to bring out this Christ Life in your own, as well as in other peoples’ existence, is that which makes you a “part” of it all; and so you have a right to “claim your right and press your claim” to the Presence and Power of this Inner Lord. It is Wonderful!
We have come too far along the path to have to qualify every statement that is made. He that hath eyes, let him see. Any thought of selfishness in the final working out of this glorious principle is eliminated. Little by little the weights drop from us, and the gravity of the human bondage becomes less and less.
“Fret not thyself because of evildoers.” We have to much to do in bringing out this Christ, this ME, to waste time in criticizing someone else who is trying to bring out something in his own way. “What is that to thee?” – do you hear? “Follow thou ME.” You cannot follow ME if your attention is eternally turned upon another, and your time is spent trying to tear him down or find out what is wrong with him. Rest assured that whatever you find WRONG in him will be exactly what is WRONG in you, when it comes to settling accounts.
“Yes, but Jesus saw evil in others” – yes and He did not broadcast it to a third party, but He called the attention of the person to it, with the hope that an agreement could be made, and the elimination of the belief take place. The sickly mind, that eternally tries to hide behind an excuse, must come out of the cellar of belief into the glorious sunshine of Truth, and let all the damp rags of theory and evil blow away from him.
“Call upon ME in the day of trouble: I WILL deliver thee.” It is Wonderful! Your REDEEMER draweth nigh the moment you draw nigh unto Him. The moment you recognize that the ME within you is the point of contact with the universal WHOLE, you will see how the Redeemer draweth nigh.
“He that is not against us is on our part,” was the answer to the disciple who wanted to get Jesus to give an opinion against another who had discovered the Principle of Truth. It is Wonderful! “Go and do thou likewise.”
“If you have sincerely devoted yourself to the work of the incoming Christ Age, you have thereby identified yourself as among those who cannot be touched, because of your Cosmic exemption from personal disaster.” The article above referred to contains this great Truth. It is glorious that such wonderful revelation could come to us. “Cosmic Exemption” sounds like something transcending any force of the human mind – “exemption” gives the sense of freedom from. It seems to imply and indicate
that we were, or are, not eligible in any way to the fear or danger; that it was simply out of or class altogether, and so it is with the Child of God – the Recognizer of the Presence in whose fullness is all.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all HIS benefits.” Praise and thanksgiving for this power – praise and Recognition of the Presence. The continual “Thank you, Father,” before the question is asked, causes you to SEE the manifestation. “Before they call, I will answer,” is the law which caused Jesus to say, “Thank you, Father,” knowing that the answer had already been given. “Before they [you] call, I will answer.” I will answer with the protection and the sure and certain defense against the belief in evil. We are beginning to ACCEPT our good. When a statement of Truth is made to you, it is FOR you. Do you hear?
“I have opened for you the windows of Heaven, and poured out a blessing of Divine Understanding, Knowledge, and Truth, knowing that you in this Unity of Life, will impart to all people the Key to the Gate of Heaven, and to the eternal Gift, which is the Gift of the Father to the son. The Message of Divinity – Light, Life, and Love. It is wonderful, for the Kingdoms of this World have become the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and all people are One people, and Love is prevalent everywhere, for I AM here, I AM there, I AM everywhere. So raise your consciousness High to where I AM, concentrating ever on the ideal, and consecrating your life in willing surrender to God, for the Lord is Good, and His Mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations! Hold Me uppermost in your mind, keeping your mind stayed on Me, and in perfect peace and joy and happiness, in prosperity and health, I shall keep you ever.”
Do you begin to see the promises of God fulfilled? Keeping your mind stayed on ME, the Father within, and thanking that Father within and without for the manifestation of His Power, causes you to sing a new song, and rejoice in the peace of new pastures and still waters. “The Lord [this very ME within] is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Do you hear? It is Wonderful! “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.” “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” “The Power is within you Now and Here, and it is well. Peace be unto you.”
The glorious revelation is breaking over us, and we are walking in the Kingdom of Heaven here and NOW.
A further thought contained in the illuminating article mentioned states:
“If we told you that there are some of you wearing bodily armor stronger than the strongest steel, because of your identities, or the things you have agreed to perform, you might declare: “It is strange, if so, that I do not seem to be aware of it, since it does not handicap or distress me.” None the less, such a protective armor is about you, because the universe has qualities of material in matter that are stronger than steel, although imperceptible to the naked eye.”
The Armor of the Lord is round about them that love Him – this invisible armor through which nothing can penetrate. It is Wonderful! “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” You are supported and protected and are borne up, “lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Are you happy, child of the Living God, with this Glorious Father within, and the power of “calling upon ME” at any time, or in any place?
“So draw near unto Me, ask in My Name, doubting nothing, for I AM your supply. I AM all good and plenty and I am a full and a free salvation. And in you I will be glorified, a light to Mankind, for the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand. So fear ye not, for in the abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of good make known to all men that the path of him who walketh not after the flesh, but after the Spirit of Life, and speaks justly and truthfully, is a way of sacredness, of joy and gladness, of prosperity, success, and well-being.
So relax and rest in the Blessed Assurance of this illuminating White Christ Light. Cast out all personal thought or illumination, going on to the mark whereunto you were called, for the Glory and the Power of my Fullness is ever with thee and within thee. Therefore in sublimity claim your inheritance; Heir, even as the Only Begotten, with your Father God. Rejoice and give thanks and praise and know that you are indeed blessed of the Father. Beyond your highest affirmation lies the endless field of joy beyond degree.”
RAISING HELL
Aunt Clarissa had a funny way of stating things, which always called to mind that perhaps we do not always hear what we hear.
She used to announce, “Well, I’m going to go out and raise hell,” when she left for her work in the slums, and in the evening she always reported that she had raised a good deal of “Hell” to heaven that day. There are different ways of raising hell.
REALIZATION
STOP waiting and start realizing. “All things are possible to the man who believes and who trusts in God.” You don’t have to wait for the Kingdom of Heaven until you die. You cannot die into it, and long years of waiting will not bring it any nearer, for “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” NOW is your keynote – – stop living in the future and get into the NOW of your life.
Wherever this finds you, look about you and see what percent of your life you really live in waiting, expecting something that is coming, and never grasping the idea that it is all here right now.
“Act as possessing all things.” Jesus’ mission on earth was to set aside all old ideas of material growth. He didn’t have to spend long years digging in the mountains to find gold with which to pay his taxes. He turned to the illimitable source of supply which was at hand to bless, and drew his substance – – his gold. He did not have to plant wheat, cultivate it and worry along with it in order to have bread to feed the multitude. He just reached out into the storehouse of the all-present Mind and realized that it was the substance of all things and that what he needed to do was to realize it. He realized all things and always acknowledged their presence before they were seen with the material eye. For we read that he “raised his eyes to heaven (centered his attention on the inexhaustible source) and gave thanks.” Yes, he gave thanks before he could see it. Why? Because he knew that God is the source of all there is and that he abundantly supplied his ideas with that which was needful. Not gold in the desert, where there was nothing to buy, but water. The mind of God is logical – – it is logic – – it works in rhythm – – in cadence – – and never loses or gains in action, but is a steady perpetual motion.
“God is in his heaven – – all is well with the world.” “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” – – “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” Only believe, and all things are yours. “Now is the accepted time” – – right now, while you are reading this. Right now while I am writing “is the accepted time” to bring about realization, to live it, to sing it, to go about our Father’s business, using his inexhaustible supply. Absence of God in our thoughts is the only thing that can keep away demonstration. Where God is, there is an abundance of all things – – he feeds us on his ideas.
You think you lack love, money, home, etc., but what you really lack is the consciousness of God. If He were dwelling in your thoughts continually these things would be added. Jesus did not worry about hotel accommodations when he went from place to place, he simply knew that “the upper chamber” was always ready for him. All things are mental before they are expressed in the material. Then speak the word out: “My word shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish whereunto it is sent.” What a wonderful command to leave with us, and he has said that “the things I do, ye shall do also – – and even greater.” He spoke the word to the sea and it was calm; he spoke supply to tangible existence; he spoke health to light; and “the things I do, ye shall do also.”
Wake up your realization – – make it part of your daily task to realize things for right now. Act as possessing all things. “When ye pray, believe that ye shall have these things.” The Bible is vibrant with help and instructions for the NOW-ness of our lives – – constantly are we invited to live now.
Start realization to work today – – realize that you have God’s love with you right now – – and as you grow from step to step you will see the “word made flesh” you will feel the thrill of this present PRESENCE. Keep saying to yourself, “Now is the accepted time – – now is the day of salvation.” There is no material law that can hold you back – – the way is clear and the open door is through this consciousness of Realization.
REALM OF MANIFESTATION
For some years the Metaphysical World has been gradually stepping out of the field of “Demonstration” into the place of manifestation. To be conscious of a thing is to see it manifest. It is the only level of mind wherein a thing can be “let” through into expression. We are told to get away from the heathenish habit of repeating words, hoping thereby to gain the ear of God. The habit only shows a lack of real faith, and posts a belief in mental magic.
When a child becomes conscious of the law of mathematics he is that law in action, and in order to do “greater things than these” he has to contemplate and magnify the consciousness of mathematics – then he can with impunity employ this consciousness to disentangle the congestions of human thought called problems.
All problems of whatever nature are made up of thought forms and pictures believed in by man. When a man sets out to write a new arithmetic book, he starts with a full knowledge that the principle of Mathematics has no problems. He must therefore invent and superimpose upon his pupils a series of problems made up for the sole reason of proving to the pupil that the answer existed before he made up the problem. The more conscious the pupil becomes of the principle the easier it is to disintegrate the picture problems confronting him. Not by any manner of means would he be taught or think that by repeating a rule – no matter however true – would it work out a problem. He must become conscious of that principle, enter into it, become the law in action in order to prove his premise that the answer exists before the problem. There is a reason for the faith that is in him, and it is not an emotional, religious or superstitious sort of thing.
Jesus eternally started with the “It is done” state of mind. From that point the LIGHT of consciousness penetrated the so-called structure of the problem – whether it was cancer, in harmony or even death – and as the intensity of this RECOGNITION continued, the light became so strong that it completely absorbed the darkness of human thought. But this process did not change anything, it revealed something that was already done.
“I thank you, father – I knew this was already done – but I said thank you for they did not know it was so,” or words to that affect. He was working or expressing from the plane of Manifestation – or the place of the Archetype. The place of the indestructible idea. The Archetypal idea of substance (called money on the earth plane) is as unchanging as life itself – and to be in that place of manifestation (unmanifest for the moment to the human limited vision and understanding) is to cast the reflection or shadow of whatsoever it gazes upon, into the realm of matter.
It is both heartening and glorious to start with the premise it is done, and especially when you are not trying to make that so – but are recognizing that it is so. At once the labor or work of Prayer is dissipated and a lovely sense of releasement takes over. “Let the child be born” – does away with the labor pains of trying to make or create the child.
The Affirmation which is true is merely the statement of a fact, unchangeable and eternal. It is a celestial dimension of mind. The moment an affirmation is made from that standpoint a confirmation is on its way to you. How and when it will come depends entirely upon your ability to “BELIEVE”. Believing is not credulity but your acceptance of the Fourth dimensional consciousness of which Jesus spoke and proved. If you cannot believe – accept and become one with the established facts – you can never see the eternally existent answer appear.
So you begin to enter into the Realm of Manifestation, which you from a human sense call the “unmanifest” – but which was CREATED in the beginning and has never changed – and to which nothing can be added and nothing can be taken. In this realm of the finished mystery you become conscious of the “how” much Jesus showed you in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, and yes – even greater things than these too shall you perceive, because “there were many things I could not tell you in Jerusalem because of your unbelief.” He did not say I would not tell you when you were ready. For when you are ready I will do the works through you – not maybe or perhaps – but I will. It then behooves you to be ready for the works by accepting the beautiful natural laws of God and getting away from the million and one superstitions hung upon the Teaching of the Master as thick as barnacles on a ship a long time from port.
A painter returns often to his model – a copy of a copy of a copy begins to show many divergences from the original, and so we are returning to God and gazing once more on the fair things of creation. Small wonder then “ye shall feed among the lilies” – and that “Ye shall go in and come out and find pastures.”
You must then, enter into the realm of manifestation (unmanifest) and take whatsoever ye will – for it is written, “When ye pray believe that ye receive (present tense) and it shall be so.”
“If ye believe (recognized as finished and done) nothing shall be impossible to you.”
“Then went he in and shut the door” – then went he into his own Temple, Consciousness and shut the door to opinions and beliefs and prayed the Father – recognized – partook of the Bread of Heaven. And so I feel it is about time you “Went in and shut the door” – and discovered some of the celestial ways and means of bringing the manifestation of heaven on earth into view. What do you say?
THE RED ROSE
DO you know what it means to dwell “in the bosom of the Father”? Do you know what it means “to live and move and have your being in God”? Since God is ever-present mind – then to live and move and have your being in God is to live and move and have your being in mind; and since thought is the chief fiber of mind, then man is in reality the thought or idea of God – sustained and protected and dependant on that mind. Think for a moment of, let us say, a very red rose. Where does the thought rest – where is the thought? In your mind, of course, entirely separate from the external. Now think of that very same red rose in the next room, then in the garden, then in some foreign country. Easy, isn’t it, to think that rose around over the entire world – to make it go large or small as you will, because it is a thought in your mind. All things are possible to it that are possible to your thinking. You could even think the rose growing out of a block of ice. The most frigid winds could not nip it or the most torrid suns could not wilt it so long s you thought of it as a perfect rose.
Now, then, if man is the idea or thought of God, then God literally thinks man into his proper place. He holds in mind always the perfect conception of spiritual man – unchanged by any exterior condition, be it heat or cold, or any other man-made condition. He continually sees man as His offspring, perfect, indestructible, and eternal, and so He holds him in His mind. The perfect pattern is not lost or destroyed, but remains whole and intact, whether it is being expressed in China or New York, whether in the fields or in the office, the individuality of the God idea man is retained in all its primal beauty.
Then when you realize that you are one with this mind – that God is expressing you as His idea – is it for you to stand in the way of this perfect manifestation by thrusting in the distorted mortal ideas that come to you? Rather, should not this prayer be on your lips, “Thy will be done,” and put aside all outlining and striving to bring certain results to pass. He will not suffer you to be lost; He will abundantly prosper those who give all and follow Him – But He will do it in His own way and in the place or land that He has given unto you. Have no fear, He will not think His ideas into a place, a problem or condition which cannot be perfectly met. “When thou passeth through deep waters I am with thee,” and “No plague shall come nigh thy dwelling.”
Then again I say unto you, “Be not afraid.” God is mindful of His own, and His Way is peace
REJOICE, THOU BARREN ONE
“FOR IT IS WRITTEN, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband” (Gal 4:27).
Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for the Lord Omnipotent reigneth. When we begin to see that the great Universal God overshadowing the Universe causes it to bring forth in due season, we begin to understand why it is stated, as quoted above, that “the barren and desolate shall have many children.” We begin to see that, when we contact the Father within, the old order of trying to make things appear from the outside is done away with. The old order passeth away — “Behold, I make all things new, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
Thousands of people have tried in every way to bring forth the manifestation of Spirit; to make demonstrations; yea, even to help others in the name of the Lord; and have found themselves and their lives barren as the desert, while others about them seemed to bring forth many children; and they have wondered, and finally fallen under the belief that the manifestation of spirit was not for them, but only for a special few; or that they were not fit avenues, or not yet ready to express the Christ Truth — hence they bore no children.
But the old order changeth. The light is breaking over the dense human consciousness. Man is awakening to know that contact with the Father within is the propagating influence which will bring forth many more children than “she that hath a husband.” He is beginning to understand that the creative force of the Universe is even at this instant at work within the secret place of his being, and that just as soon as he is ready to “let” (through the process of recognition), “the word will become flesh and dwell among them,” and he shall say, “Let the child be born,” and the barrenness of a thousand life-times in the flesh shall be swallowed up in the glorious expression of the flowering desert. “It shall blossom as a rose.” The well-watered garden shall take the place of the barren waste.
Martha had many cares in preparing to receive the physical Jesus. Symbolically speaking, the most she got for her work was perhaps a “Thank you,” while Mary feasted upon the hidden manna of Spirit. The human sense would like to condone poor, long-suffering Martha. A thousand reasons why she acted as she did are offered, but the rather uncompromising fact stands that she was rebuked, and that the blessing was given to Mary. All this symbology does not mean that the Mary consciousness might not do just as much work with her hands as the Martha, but from a different standpoint.
When we are on the outside of being, trying to bring forth, we are finally rebuked for our barrenness, even though we have put into expression the best that seemed to be in us. Likewise the state that dreams of perfection, and dwells in a mental state of rightness and perfection, is also rebuked for vain imaginings. The Word must become flesh. “In my flesh shall I see God.” One extreme is as bad as another. The Word must become flesh, and the flesh must become spiritualized or resurrected, until the two become one. We then have Jesus the Christ — instead of Jesus the son of the carpenter and Christ the Son of God dwelling in one body. The two become one, and the sayings of the Scriptures are made true. It is then that “death is swallowed up in victory,” because death could only come to the one of a divided consciousness.
What is told in secret shall be called from the housetop. Thus we see that the Christ of God decided to submit to what is known as the crucifixion in order that the world might see the transcending power of spirit over matter, and to know that the law, “I have power to pick it up and lay it down,” was true and provable. To stay on the heights of this law was to escape the seeming ugly reality. Do you imagine that the Christ who was able to open the eyes of the blind, restore lost substance to the body of Lazarus, and do a thousand other things directly in opposition to the best accepted laws of the physical world of that day and this could not have averted the Crucifixion? If so, then read Matt. 26:53:
“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
Where is the Father, and how do we pray? You see, then, that the Christ decreed this to come to pass. When He descended to the human Jesus state of consciousness, then He asked that the “cup pass from me.” We understand that what He had accepted or decreed in secret should come to pass. So is it true with you. You will begin to see that all the unborn children shall be released when the body and soul become one. To pray then will be to speak forth only that which is about to appear. Prayer will not be the old idea of wondering whether God wants to do a certain thing; it will be merely an exquisite feeling of gratitude, which says, “Thank you, Father,” because it knows that the answer exists before the question.
Do you begin to see why it is that the one who was barren of manifestation will suddenly become fruitful? The limiting laws of the human concept of creation shall be dropped off, and the recognition of the Father of all shall cause thy barrenness to be a forgotten state. “The former things shall pass away — they shall not be remembered nor come into mind anymore.” Thus the barrenness shall be swallowed up in the abundance.
From the human standpoint we even admit that we have teachers of Truth or music who cannot demonstrate for themselves, but can give readily to others. From the Divine elevation this is an utter impossibility. This state of barrenness which brings forth no manifestation shall be fertilized with the overshadowing influence of the Ever Presence, and what it has so long conceived on the invisible shall come into manifestation. No more shall the world be filled with barren ones who talk but who do not show forth the works, for they shall have united the body and soul and resurrected the risen Christ, which hath a body and which lives in the world, but is not of the world insofar as coming under the hateful laws of the human mind. Death is swallowed up in victory, and with it all the things that go to bring about or make death possible.
“Call no man your father,” for “every man is a liar, and the father of it.” We see what lies have been told about us in the name of family, nationality, etc. We are burdened with hateful lies of every sort, because we have recognized a human parenthood. We have assigned to ourselves all the limitations of human-kind, and therefore we are full of troubles, and so are our days. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”
Do you begin so see, O barren one, that your name shall be changed, and that you shall be as a land flowing with milk and honey? For the spirit of the Infinite Spirit broods over all, and has broken the hateful bondage and set the prisoners free. Then is thy house gladsome with the laughter and joy of many children — your glorious ideas that have so long remained in the silence of your mind come forth with joy and thanksgiving. “This is life eternal, to know ME.” Where is this ME, and what will you do with this life eternal? Do you expect to carry on this limited personality for eternity? Do you expect to be John Smith for eternity?
Only when Jesus the son of the carpenter became Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, did He ascend above the limiting influences of beliefs that belonged to His family, nationality and time. When He became Jesus the Christ, and “the Word became flesh,” He transcended ont only nationality, but time and space, and was able to set aside any law of the belief-world, just as the intense sunshine sets aside the dark shadows of night.
All disease and all barrenness out-pictured on your body and affairs are merely the shadows of beliefs cast upon the screen of your life. When the light has come, the shadows disappear. It is no good to throw a picture on a cinema screen if that screen is illuminated. So the shadows of the belief-world, that have been formerly true to the human mind, fail absolutely to record when you have come to the place of letting “the light within so shine before men.” We do not heal the Christ, nor yet prosper Him, nor yet change Him. We merely recognize Him, and as we do so we bring out that which has been eternally. Thus healing is swallowed up in victory. Were anything real to be healed, it would be utterly impossible to accomplish it.
The Christ of God needs no assistance, no help, no healing. But until the John Smith realizes this Christ within himself, and permits it to come into manifestation, he will merely be working on a plane of imagination. Nothing concrete nor definite can take place. So many of us have stood about and seen the demonstrations; yea, we have even partaken of the bread, the fish, and the wine; but we have forgotten to partake of the spirit, so when we had consumed the manifestation we rushed back for more and found ourselves far from the source of substance. So many people are so engrossed in listening to words that they only bask in the light of another’s understanding, and hence miss the glorious possibility of the command, “Go thou and do likewise.” Many are asking for life free which is promised, while still holding a miser’s consciousness within themselves.
Do you not know, until you can give yourself to the Universe it cannot give the ever-flowing substance to you, for the simple reason that there is no capacity to receive it? The mind which is still hoarding cannot have the infinite rivers of abundance poured into it, else it would be destroyed; but the consciousness that has given itself to the Infinite is an open way through which the torrents and floods of substance can flow. It thereafter does not have to seek — it receives before it asks, for a infinite stream of substance is constantly pouring through into expression. “It is written” — so full of meaning is this statement, nothing shall retract or rub out a single word until it be fulfilled.
“Not one jot or title shall be removed until the law shall be fulfilled.” It is written that “the barren shall be more fruitful than she that hath a husband.” The law that is so full of promise, and so glorious to all those who have wondered and grieved and tried to bring forth the works of the Master. “Go thou and do likewise” is a pretty big command, but there it is. What are you going to do about it? Talk it over with some wise one who will go into gushing phrases and words, and whose barren life is filled with mute testimony of failure? Be still; be very still. Finally you will hear the command, “Go within and shut the door,” and you will let the glorious revelation take place within your own consciousness. “Nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Who are you, and what are you going to do about it?
“And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.” Ye, the newborn, the resurrected one. In the silence, in the tomb, in the aloneness, shall ye know the things which ordinarily are not written nor spoken of — things which are neither seen nor heard by the noisy ones who are clamoring for place and power. “Behold, I make all things new.” Do you see? You who read. “All the nations shall call thee blessed,” for they will recognize the Christ within you; the same glorious Christ that functioned in the man Jesus and enabled Him to go against the laws of the human mind and set them aside as non-existent. “None of them is lost but the son of perdition.” The only thing that is lost is the memory of the human personality — the subconscious mind — the storehouse of all evil. The god that was. The god of the kingdom of WAS is lost, forgotten, wiped out, and the place thereof is no more. The Holy Presence of Christ in the eternal NOW is here. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” The desolate barren land shall blossom as a rose.
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.”
It seems a strange thing to say, Buy gold in order that you may be rich. It would seem that if you had money with which to buy gold you would already be rich. But the secret doctrine causes the light to break over this symbology and to reveal that the complete giving up of the symbol is the buying of the gold which will make you rich. “Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor” is merely another way of stating that man is to take his attention away from the worship of symbols and place his allegiance on the Power. Awake, thou that sleepest.
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev 3:18).
Do you begin to see the treasures incorruptible that lie within the consciousness of Christ, awaiting the coming of the Master? Awaiting the coming of that one who will take his Divine Heritage and assume the proportions of the Son of the Living God. The barren one who will suddenly realize that the Father — Infinite-Omnipotent — overbrooding all, has suddenly brought into manifestation the unborn children of desire. It is wonderful!
“Who is my father, mother, sister, or brother?” is the question you will answer with deep joy. Not to become a “holier than thou,” but because you are ready to partake of the infinite nature of your Divine Fathership. The wonder of the invisible shall be made manifest to you. You shall begin to partake of the qualities of Spirit. As ye have borne the earthly image, so shall ye bear the heavenly. Do you hear? “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.” It is wonderful!
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.” When you hear what it is saying to you (for you are the Church of the Living God — the center from which pours this glorious white light of revelation), then you will fold your tent and steal silently away into the new place of expression. And this shall be a natural event, not some human concept of moving out of evil conditions, but a showing forth of the God-power into expression. Do you see why “He that travels alone travels far”? And why the command, “Salute no man as thou passest along the highway,” is not unfriendliness, but the essence of wisdom? “Behold, I make all (not some) things new.” Do you believe that? Where is the I? What about it — you who read these lines? Are you going to run to someone and ask him to explain this to you or are you going to be still and let ME explain, and thereby turn your barrenness to fruitfulness and make you a gladsome land?
Just so soon as you begin to see the futility of opinions and beliefs regarding life and the Truth, just so soon will you go within and lave in the living waters, and partake of the hidden manna and “buy gold that has been tried by fire.”
“The old order passeth away” — the old order is the order of your human personality and its destiny; the old law of cause and effect, of karma — the endless karma that you have been making and passing through. The Spirit of Life has suddenly thrown you off the wheel, and you are freed into expression as the Son of the Living God. Do you suppose that the Son of the Living God has anything to do with the son of the carpenter? He has only this much to do: to absorb the personal idea into the glorious impersonal nature of God, and thereby free him of the limitations and narrow confines, yea, the barrenness of the human concept of existence.
Hear ye, you who read this page: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God.” Do you hear? Do you see? When will you take your Divine Heritage? When will you appropriate the gifts of the Spirit? Not until you can go within and shut the door, and listen not to the noisy man whose breath is in his nostrils.
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” So the unborn ideas that you have been holding in your mind, and wishing for all these many years, suddenly come into expression, for the Christ and Jesus are one. “Whatsoever things ye ask in my name, that give I unto thee.” It is well.
“For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.”
Do you believe this? If so, you are at this very instant rejoicing. The rejoicing is a command and a statement of a fact at the same instant. You are automatically rejoicing because you have suddenly discovered that the barren years and efforts have been turned to good account, and the glorious ideas have all been freed into expression.
When you come to the place of belief you have come to the place of acceptance. You have come to the place where you have accepted the Reality of Being, and you are therefore not surprised nor are you dismayed at the appearance of the Power of Spirit which instantly neutralizes the beliefs of the flesh. “Let the dead bury their dead” — so the old conditions and beliefs and acts all fall from the cliff of oblivion and you stand on the heights, rejoicing in the name of the Living God which is written on your forehead. You stand on the heights, not as one balanced for the space of few joyous moments, to be dashed again into the valley of despond, but you stand there and rest in the new understanding which has shifted the weight of the human mind and beliefs and has freed itself from the law of human gravitation. “If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law.” You are in the Spirit when you recognize the Christ within and act in accordance therewith.
The whole proposition is put to the one who seeks the light. When he has come to the place that he seeks not another’s opinions and beliefs, then he has arrived at the point of:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.”
Here is a simple statement of a fact. “Believest thou this?” If so, you are beginning to experience a new life, a life that is everlasting, right here in the flesh, and the life which is now coming into manifestation cannot come under the condemnation of the former self. You are freed from the condemnation of the John Smith against which you fought so long. You are now passed from the death of these things — these beliefs and difficulties — into Life. Finally man is unveiled to himself. When agreement is made — conception takes place. The new idea or concept gathers quickly a body — and the child is born.
RESIST NOT
“Resist not evil.” That which you resist is to you real. A thing that becomes real cannot be destroyed. That which you fight as evil, fights back with equal force, since it is but the reflex action of your own belief. A rubber ball thrown against a wall will return without effort on your part. The contour of a rubber ball is destroyed by grasping it firmly in the hand, and nothing can restore its natural shape until the resistance is released. Then quite automatically the ball assumes its normal condition. The same is true of any organ of your body. That organ which is constantly in thought, constantly worked with or held in mind is usually diseased. The body which is fatigueless and perfect, is the body which is most out of thought.
That which you resist, you fear. That which you fear, you hate. The thing that you greatly fear comes into manifestation in proportion to the intensity of your fear. Not because it has any power to come into manifestation, but that it is called into visibility by your acceptance of it as a fact. That which you accept as a fact must sooner or later come into visibility. That which you accept as yours must surely come to you; it cannot go to another. Inversely, that which you reject or refuse to accept as yours certainly can find no lodgment in your kingdom.
“He that feareth is not made perfect.” “Perfect love casteth out fear.” Perfect love cannot graft itself on to a house (mentality) divided against itself, for that house shall fall. Every mentality is divided against itself as long as it believes in two powers, or believes there is something called evil which it must fight. “You do not need to fight; set yourself and see.”
If you believe that God, good, created the universe out of himself, you certainly know that it cannot contain any quality that is not inherent in him. Holding to the isness of good firmly and unwaveringly, in spite of the illusion of evil, will cause it to manifest in your universe, for it will eventually become a reality to you.
“Ye have eyes and see not.” Sometimes the word “believe” means standing firm, and sometimes only a weak desire or hope that something better will take place. When we “believe” in the latter sense of the word, we can never have peace, for a belief can be destroyed or changed at any time. A man can believe anything regarding himself, but he can only know the Truth. You may believe that two times two is anything or everything. That will not change the eternal fact that it remains the same always, irrespective of the argument and so-called proof to the contrary. The same thing is true of your body and universe. Because you and the whole world have believed that it is sick, sinning and inharmonious does not change the eternal fact of existence. As soon as you understand this even in a small degree, you will realize that the only safe thing to do is to stand firm on the eternal facts of Being, unchanging, untrammelled and perfect.
“Ten thousand may fall at thy right hand” — then thousand who argue and believe may fall — but he who knows himself as pure Spirit, birthless, ageless, and eternal, shall stand, even though the whole world of circumstance say he must and will fall. He who keeps his contemplation on the isness of life shall go untrammelled, free, and abandoned. Why should you not be abandoned when you know the facts of existence? What matter though the noisy crowd clamour to make you tune into their level of thinking. You are keyed into the reality of life and you shall see works in place of noisy words. You shall be abandoned and happy and shall keep your mental gaze fixed on the realities of a God-made universe. You shall thrill with joy at the knowledge that you do not want to change anything, or anybody — you have only to accept and see the good everywhere. To understand the reality of life man does not waste time studying unrealities, any more than a musician would spend years in the study of discord trying to find harmony. If he desires to know harmony, he studies the isness of its fundamental laws. There is no science of discord. It has no basic principle. It is a constant attempt to break the law, and is a product of belief only. A banker becomes so conversant with real money that he recognizes counterfeit coins by the feel, the touch and the hearing. The more he knows of the real and genuine, the more easily he recognizes it, and the quicker he is able to reject the unreal as worthless.
No amount of study of evil is going to make you better. A man may spend a lifetime denying what he is not, and yet get nowhere. He may deny that he is sick, and die while doing so. Calling an evil condition a “belief” and making that belief something real, does not help the situation. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” A sickness or inharmony called a “belief” will give off the same aroma and effect.
Understanding the nature of God, man understands the nature of himself. The greater his understanding of God, the greater his understanding of himself. Man’s business, then, is the recognization of the eternal facts of a changeless, harmonious universe. As he rises, so to speak, in the scale of this understanding, he sees personal sense as a mystification of the appearance world, which is constantly changing. All “things” are in a constant state of disintegration and change. Conditions are constantly going and coming. Personality imposes difficulties on itself and then resists and fights them. “Awake thou that sleepeth, and God shall give light.”
Evil conditions are but parasites that feed upon your thought formation. Break the continuity of the thought-stream which is feeding the so-called evil circumstance and the manifestation must change. That which you accept as real comes to abide in the realm of manifestation for you. A circumstance is only as old as the last thought about it. Any time the thought about it is changed the manifestation instantly disappears. Darkness does not intensify with age. Any moment a light is brought, darkness disappears. It is absorbed, as it were, in the light. The same thing is true of sickness and inharmony. It is as easy to destroy a chronic as an acute disease. Both are dispelled by bringing the light of the isness of Being to bear on the situation.
When you wish to dispel darkness your whole attention is given to the light. No provision is made for what is to become of the darkness. Neither do you consider how and when it will go. At the same time you know that it goes nowhere, because it is not a reality, but the absence of light. “I am the truth and the light and the way.” The moment you come to recognize yourself as the light, that moment the darkness of your universe goes. You do not force it to go; your consciousness rests in your universe and floods it with light. It is so!
In healing disease, waste no time as to how the law will operate or even when. Keep your whole thought on the isness of yourself as light, and the action that seems to take place, called healing, will be instantaneous. As out of the darkness of nothingness appear many new and wonderful objects, so in the chaos of night and fear appear the glorious actualities of the kingdom, here and now.
In the case of inharmony and disease, just as in the case of darkness, you realize that it does not go anywhere, but has simply been absorbed or picked up. The Power that was being misinterpreted is gathered up into the manifestation of good. Ignorance does not go anywhere when you gain knowledge. Ignorance is simply ignoring God as being everywhere evenly present.
A light shines by its own inherent power. You do not make it shine, you let it. So it is with you; you do not work, but let yourself into expression, by recognizing that it is an inherent right and state of the Son of God to be happy and perfect, here and now.
Jesus knew well the isness of perfection. He said, “I thank thee, Father, that thou hast heard me,” not because he acknowledged an outside Father to whom thanks were due, but that those who heard him might understand that the perfection existed before any request had gone forth, and that “before ye call, I will answer.” So many need to have something done — some sign or wonder — something mysterious — before they can believe; but blessed is that man who is not looking for a sign. What Jesus did when he said, “I thank thee, Father,” was to turn from the race-consciousness of a belief regarding evil to the absolute state of the God-man.
How often Jesus gave the word, “it is done,” but there were many who could not understand. Likewise today thousands are praying for things, believing that by praying they can change the eternal facts of existence. Yet to those who have ears and eyes there is something worthy of consideration in such expressions as, “Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will give it unto them.”
The answer to your prayer has always existed, since in the realm of the Real there has never been a problem. True prayer is the recognition of the Finished Kingdom here and now. No amount of beseeching and begging will change the eternal facts of Being, but the moment man catches the glorious vision of the Finished Mystery, he will see it become manifest before his very eyes. God cannot do more than all, and He has done all and called it good.
The keys to the kingdom were given to Peter (absolute faith). This understanding faith does not beg or wish; it does not hope, but takes that which belongs to the Son of God. Its password is “let.” We let everything into manifestation. Finally we come to understand that only that which we “let” come into visibility can actually come into manifestation, so we begin to “let” our health, happiness, and success come into expression instead of trying to wrench these things away from life. But to do this we must first recognize that these conditions actually exist and always have existed in the Kingdom of Heaven, which we are told is within us.
When we come to this understanding we are through with the possession of things for the things’ sake; we use all and pass them on. We truly hear the glorious words, “Heretofore you have asked for nothing; ask that your joy may be full.” This seems a foolish statement in view of the fact that while dwelling on the three dimensional plane of judging from circumstances we were constantly praying and trying to demonstrate things, only to finally hear the rebuke, “Ye seek me for the loaves and fishes.”
All is confusion as long as the attachment to things remains with man. Why attach yourself to things when abundance is everywhere? The fourth dimensional man gives up the worn-out password, “make,” which has caused a constant struggle, for the glorious word of accomplishment, “let,” which causes new worlds to leap up into expression where old chaos and night existed before. “He that hath eyes, let him see.”
REVELATION
EVERY man is a teacher, after one fashion or another, and many are teachers of the word of Jesus, of Buddha, of Mohammed. All teaching is of and about the subject. It is eternally the letter, dead and cold. Fused with the enthusiasm of the teacher, it becomes alive for the time, but lapses again into the dead, cold thing. Hence thousands today find themselves well stocked with the letter of truth and yet are unable to make manifest the promises that have so richly been made to man.
“Physician, heal thyself” is the command of Spirit to the teacher. “What have ye in your house?” is the searching question. The teacher at last learns that if he will teach he must live from his own words, he must eat them, and many times he is unable to do this. He is on an endless treadmill – he traces over and over the same monotonous pattern – he hears himself reiterating the same words and phrases, year after year, and, like a worn-out gramophone record, he finally gives out, never having got within sight of the goal he talked so much about.
Comes the awakening to man, and if he be unafraid he will find that the Christ within is not a teacher, but a revelator of that which is and eternally has been; that, instead of teaching of and about healing, prosperity, and happiness, he is revealing these true states of mind as inescapable – yea, as inescapable as the opposite states were formerly. He then stops the silly attempting to set things right in a universe that is run by law and order, and enters in upon the process of revelation. He reveals the inner things, the secret things that have been so from the beginning of the universe. He reveals, shows forth, that which is true and perfect. He is no more concerned about the letter, knowing that when the revelation is once recognized the letter will take care of itself. He is not concerned about the outcome, knowing that a rubber ball thrown against a stone wall will return without any effort on his part. He knows that a word released from the center of his being is bound to accomplish whereunto it is sent, and knowing this, he is not concerned nor worried about the outcome.
Most of us have spent endless hours trying to make the return action something different from the sending action of the ball; but the ball can only return with the same force with which it was released. There is no chance for the word to go astray or to fail to find its own; all this is under the Divine direction, which is above the frailty of human law and order. Human law changes constantly, but the Divine Law and Order remaineth, and nothing is added to it and nothing is taken away.
Gradually confidence is established in the God power which is constantly revealing itself to the one who is ready to lay aside the human accouterments and accept the glorious Power of the Sons of God. Confidence to stand, having done all – having recognized the eternal rightness of the God universe – he is unafraid to rest. He pushes the borders of his tent farther out into glorious new fields of untried expression, and finds to his joyous surprise that new avenues are opening up to him. Undreamed-of possibilities lie before him – for at last he has come to a place where he believes in the reality of the Kingdom as here and now, and himself a revelator.
To the revelator comes the understanding of the Unconditioned Power – that indescribable thing which is seen to operate in a supernatural way, and yet which could never be anything but natural – that power which set aside the laws of the three-dimensional plane without regarding them as existent.
To a child playing a game a chalk line may represent a prison, and as long as he abides under the rules of the game he will act in accord with that, and will accept it as a barrier to his freedom. When he is through with the game, however, he drops the whole thing and finds himself free, and of course realizes at the same time that he was never anything else but free. His acceptance of that which constituted a prison was all that made one for him. To the grown-up child many prisons exist in just the same way – he accepts certain limitations of health, wealth, and happiness and is hypnotized to the belief, and eventually he finds himself helpless. If he suddenly comes to an understanding of himself as the Son of the Living God, and reveals to himself the Freedom of the Son, then there happens in his life a miracle, or the working of some supernatural power; but in reality it is merely the out-picturing of a natural state of the Son of the Living God – recognized – revealed.
I AM a revelator of the Living Word – I Am the revelator of the Living Word – and I am, therefore, not surprised that the thing decreed shall come to pass. A stone thrown into the air will certainly come down without any aid from the one who threw it; so the word of the revelator will certainly return to him freighted with results, and he will not have to care about its return – that will automatically take place. “My own shall come unto me” – by a sure and certain way. Why worry, then?
And some will say, “What, am I to do nothing?” – and if you have not gone further than to ask this question, I can only advise you to drop the book in the nearest wastebasket; it is not for you.
O glorious revelator within me, let thy light shine out through the beliefs that have bound me !
When you arrive at the consciousness that you are ready to lay your Isaac on the altar, then you find that it is not necessary to give up anything in order to have heaven here and now; but the willingness to give up your Isaac without a question or doubt entering into the proposition can come only to the one who believes actually in God – believes that there is a God who expresses, regardless of whether he prays or not – believes in a God who could not do other than express eternally of His bountiful nature. Understanding God in this fashion will make it easy to let go of symbols in order to acquire the reality.
Many people believe – or at least they act as if they did – that God is perfectly static until they tell Him what to do, what to get rid of, and what to bring into manifestation, and for this reason they recite long man-made prayers, when the true prayer is “Be still” -“Be still.” This is one of the last revelations to come to man, because he will not listen. He is so busy telling the world what is wrong with it, and peddling the truth for a price, that he has no time to be still. He feels within himself that if he were to be still the world would forget him, and so he has to keep shouting to the world how much he knows about the truth.
But surely the revelation of the Silence will eventually come into being and man will find that by being still something will be told him which will, from then on, settle all questions regarding the right course to pursue. A revelation as deep as the infinite will be made unto the still soul – something will take place within which will burst the shell of human consciousness and free him into a new and finer growth-expression.
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” was addressed to a soul that could be silent. Have you ever been called that? Do you want to be? Then be still – cease the chattering of and about, and be still, for when you hear those words pronounced over you, you can rest assured that your expression from that time on will be pleasing in the sight of God and nothing else matters.
“Though ten thousand fall at thy right hand, it shall not come nigh thee,” only means that the still soul has heard and is able to understand the indestructible nature of Spirit. No man from the standpoint of reason can bring it about. That, and a lot of other things that man has failed to demonstrate, come with the revelation of the silence. Be still; I have many things to say to you when you are ready to listen – when you are ready to be still.
When in the stillness I tell you the promises, then they are ready for fulfillment. When I say to you in the silence – or, rather, when I impress you with such a thing as, “My grace is sufficient for thee” – you will from that time know that you are no more under the law of former human beliefs, but you are under grace – and this will be a new secret to you, a precious secret. It will be so wonderful that you would no sooner think of repeating it just to make conversation than a fearful banker would leave his vault open overnight. Silence will come to you, and with it the gold, and with it the too, too precious truth that must not be cast to the swine of human thought. It will become so obvious that it will not be necessary for you to relate what it has done for you. Little trick demonstrations may please the child, but revelation is quite another thing.
I have many things to say to you when the burning fiery coal has touched your lips and you are still. I have something to tell you about time and space that no man shall write on paper; but which I, through the man Jesus, showed forth to those who had eyes. Instantly is not soon enough for me to act; but it is the shortest measure the human mind can grasp – be still; I have things to tell you. I will never leave you. I will speak to you through any and every channel. Fear not; I know your every need, and will bring it into manifestation in the easiest possible manner when you are ready to see Me.
Go out, then, and consider the lily – you must be still when you consider a thing – but consider the lily, and, if you have seen what I have shown you there, you will not be running about like a ship without a rudder, asking first one and then the other what to do and how to do it, and getting a different formula from each one, only to become a mass of complexities and confusion. Be still; I shall eventually be able to show you some of the mysteries.
Beloved, when you are still and you hear me say, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” then will you know the joy of the Giver of Good – then will you see the veil rent asunder, and you will stand before the throne of your own soul, nothing lacking, not asking favors, but appropriating the gifts of the infinite Godhead which pour out upon you in such abundance, and secret name and in a twinkling all shall be changed. Do you hear? I am speaking to you as plainly as I can through the medium of the printed page. Fear not; I (the consciousness once awakened) will never leave you, and I know all things. If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God and let him know that God is within himself, and that is the only point of contact he can possibly have with God. God within your own consciousness will supply you with every bit of information necessary if you ask and are ready to be still at the same time. If you contemplate Me, the I AM, as the God within, then you will know that the limitations of the human personality are broken. Be still. Let me reveal myself to you – in a way which will cause you to know the Allness of the Kingdom here and now.
“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
This glorious change will take place when the new birth takes place, when man realizes that he is here and now a being of Spirit and is willing to walk in new ways. What has a butterfly to do with the ways of a caterpillar? What have you to do with that from which you have evolved? Why turn back and imagine that you still have to rake over the difficulties overcome or not overcome? Why rehearse things of the past which belong to the caterpillar life? You are a new creature, and as surely as you bore the out-picturing of the consciousness of a creeping caterpillar, so you shall bear the image and the capacities of the butterfly. As surely as you have borne the image of the long-suffering human personality, with its tremendous limitations, so you shall bear the image and have the capacities of the Son of God – of the Living God. Dare you to take your good here and now?
How silently the change must take place. Hid away in the cocoon of secrecy, the ugly limited caterpillar goes its way – with a whole avalanche of condemnation, hatred, limitation, and other difficulties. It is not announced to the world that he will transform himself, or else the curious disbelieving world would tear his cloak of secrecy from him and kill him. So will it be with you when you are ready to go into your cocoon of silence – I can bring to you a greater change than that which happens to the caterpillar. When you are ready, I will do the work.
When you can be still, and are ready to lose everything that has to do with the caterpillar, then I will make the transformation. But if you, in your heart, imagine that you shall be transformed for the sole purpose of rushing about calling attention to the fact that you were once a caterpillar and are now a butterfly, and therefore great and wonderful, you may stay in your shell of secrecy from now on and nothing will happen. I am not concerned with the telling of Truth, but with the revelation of its boundless and priceless glories. Be still.
O beloved, presently you shall be lost in the immensity of this glorious power, and the trifling events of the human personality will be so much thistledown before the hurricane. To your opened eyes you will see that such wondrous fields of attainment lie ahead that the village you are leaving must be wiped out of memory. Be still. Let me reveal Myself. Let Me tell you something. Let Me fill you with the Spirit of Fire and Water, and let Me send you forth into expression, a burning flame of revelation and a thirst-quenching fountain of life. You ! You, the little insignificant thing that you are, or You, the great pride-swollen manifestation that knows so much or has so much, or bears such a wonderful name, and are covered with fame. You, you who read – throw off the mantle of this human self and lose yourself in Me; then you will know of the limitless blessings and freedom of the Son of the Living God. Do you hear, you who read this page? You?
THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS
A COLD, blustery wind came down the avenue carrying everything before it. It was a terrifically cold wind, one that made the telephone wires literally sing and snap with tension. It had a sting in it like the lash of a whip, and made you think unpleasant things. It was just this particular kind of wind that painted everybody’s nose red and ears purple. You halfway hated yourself without a cause; you sort of wished you had migratory sense to move with the sun, instead of so-called human intellect that tried to bluff an impossible game.
At the corner Jimsy, the newsboy, was struggling against almost insupportable odds to keep his stock in trade under control. The wind laughed at him as it stung his half frozen face, and snatched a paper from his hands, tossing it to the top of the tallest building. He blew on his purple, benumbed fingers and cursed the whole thing.
“Damn it, anyway, dis is a fine day for the day before Christmas, but,” he went on talking into his hands, “what difference does it make to me, whether it is the day before Christmas or the day before Fourth of July? It’s all de same to me – ‘cept, perhaps, I gits a free meal, fer nothin’, at the hall with the other nuts. But nobody cares really fer me, where I comes or goes.” All the grey of the leaden sky settled about him mentally; the whole thing seemed so futile and useless: – what was it all about? – just work and barely enough money for a bed and a scant meal or two.
Slumbering in the soul of Jimsy was a wistful longing for something better and nobler than his present existence – an innate longing for some of the good things of life. Sometimes he almost heard it speak to him, and he longed to find the secret spring that would be the “open sesame” to all he desired. He knew that it was there, yet undiscovered. Everywhere he sought for light. He listened to the Socialist speaker tell about how everything should be divided and then all would be happy; but inwardly he knew this was not the happiness he sought. At the slum mission he heard them say “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” at the same time shoving a collection basket in his face. He rather resented this sort of teaching. How could he give, when it took every cent he could make to buy his papers, pay for a poor living, and supply him with a cheap bed. Still, the mission was generally warm, and after the ordeal of the collection basket he could stand the rest.
And so, on this very day, he stood there in the blustery wind pondering this very sentence, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” “It’s a cinch I’ll not be much blessed,” he soliloquized, “but it’s not my fault; I ain’t got nothing to give with.” The heart of Jimsy was big, it yearned for expression, it was a loving heart that wanted to do for others. Just like the great blue eyes that begged for understanding, his heart longed for that freedom to do and to be. After having reasoned himself into the depths of despair, he turned on his reason and with a bitter smile said, “Aw, well,it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good.” Hardly had he uttered the words when out of the last gust of stinging wind a little booklet dropped on his stand. “Hello,” he said, “what’s dis? – it must be the ‘good’ and I must be the ‘nobody.'”
“The Road to Happiness,” he read out loud, taking the book up, and opening it he began to read. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Jimsy had heard this many times, and had passed it by without a thought, but to-day it somehow or other stuck with him; it held his attention, and so he read on:
“Rome was not built in a day, neither can a man by one thought think himself a king and attain that place. Wherever this finds you in life – start by taking the next upward step, be it ever so small. Then, step by step, you can climb to any height.
“For the first step suppose you try thinking happiness; start your progress with a happy thought; change your frowns into smiles, your bad words into good. If you have the faith that you can be absolutely happy right here and now, that you have in your present unhappy situation, you have succeeded with the first step.
“Be happy in spite of weather, ancestors, or circumstances. Happiness is like oil on the axle of a wagon, it keeps it from wearing away. So happiness will keep your life from becoming a grind. Remember – one step at a time. To-day let us try happiness.”
Jimsy read the page over carefully; he saw the logic of it; he knew that he could change his thought if he so desired, and perhaps it would be the beginning of the upward climb to something better. “Be happy in spite of weather . . . or circumstances . . . Happiness is like oil.” He half smiled to himself as he read this; he wondered if the writer of this little book had ever stood on a windy street corner and handed out papers to a growling, scolding public, which thought no more of you than it did of the box on which your papers lay.
The nearby subway belched forth its stream of hurrying, disgruntled passengers. As they came up the damp, smelly stairway and out into the street, His Nibs the wind was there waiting to snatch away their hats and breath and make them unhappy if possible. He waited there to sting them in the face and make them cross (like bears are supposed to be).
“Whoopes, she’s colder than a seven hundred dollars,” said his first customer, peering out of a great fur-collared coat. I hate this kind of beastly day.” Jimsy was just about ready, through force of habit, to second the remark when he remembered the book – “Start your progress with a happy thought.” “Well,” he said, making change, “it’s colder at the North Pole, I guess,” and smiled up at the man. “It sure does make your blood circulate, this kind of day does.” The man stopped a moment and looked at Jimsy; he looked at the purple, half-frozen fingers, and smiling back at the boy said, “Well, if you’ve got no room for complaint, surely I haven’t,” and hooking his great fur collar, he went away chuckling to himself, unmindful of the wind.
Later in the day a limousine drew up to the curb, and a little grey lady called out, “Here, boy, bring me a paper.” When Jimsy came with the paper she took it, saying, “If this isn’t the nastiest day I ever saw! If I were a man, I’d surely swear.” The last gust of wind, which had disturbed the little lady so, had not helped Jimsy to keep his resolution to be happy; rather, he felt like cussing for the little lady, but he turned to her and said, “Well, it is kind of cold, but think how you’ll like your nice warm fire when you get home.”
“A warm fire,” repeated the little lady, looking at the large blue eyes smiling up at her. There was a queer sort of pity and love in her glance, and smiling back at the boy standing there in the cold, she said, “Well, come to think of it, a fire does feel pretty good this kind of weather.”
And so through the whole long, cold day Jimsy kept turning frowns into smiles; he began to see how many smiles he could get from his customers; he began to count those who had come up half mad at the whole world, and who had gone away with a smile; and at night when he sought out his cheap lodging house he felt an inward thrill that he had accomplished something. He felt that he had taken the first step up the ladder that was to lead him out of this dark pit of circumstance. He proved not only that “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” but also that “As a man thinketh in his heart, so are all other men” who come into contact with him.
On the next page of the little book Jimsy read:
“All things are possible to him who believes in an absolute, positive Good. Believe, and it shall be so; ask, and it shall be given; ask, believing that all that you desire will be given you, for good is all about you, waiting to be spoken into manifestation, to be asked for.
“Why seek ye a God that is afar off, when the Living God who is able to do ‘exceeding abundant, more than we ask or think,’ is right at hand, waiting to bless?”
Jimsy had never prayed nor asked for anything. He only bowed his head when they prayed at the mission. The preacher always did the praying; he was the only one who knew how to get in touch with the God who was away off yonder in the skies. Jimsy never even thought of so much as trying to pray – he knew that he could never find the God who was away off somewhere with the angels – but the book said, “Why seek ye a God that is afar off when the Living God, who is able to do all things, is right at hand, waiting to bless?” Then somewhere also in the little book it explained that since all good things came from heaven, the inward desire of every living being to be better and nobler, to give and help the less fortunate brother, was but the “still, small voice” of truth trying to make itself manifest in us, only we stood in our own way, we went on trying to arrange and force conclusions rather than leaving our lives completely to the will of God, Good.
Jimsy felt rather ashamed as he read on and on in the little book; he remembered the voice that spoke so often, half pleading with him to do this or that, and how it had been drowned in his belief in circumstances and conditions. Then the little book said that within every man lay the possibility of being that which he desired to be; but as surely as it took proper care and attention to bring the mighty oak tree out of the tiny acorn, so it took care, good thoughts, willingness to be led as a little child, good words and deeds to draw the perfect man out of the limited human concept of him.
That night when Jimsy was ready to climb into his fifteen-cent bed, for the first time in his life he knelt down and prayed. He gave thanks for the little book; he gave thanks for the happy day; and last he asked with the heart of a child, “Give me, dear God, a nice warm fire and a little love.”
The next day was not much of an improvement. It was blustery and cold, but the heart of Jimsy sang on, it thrilled with a certain something, it felt as free as if a great responsibility had suddenly been lifted. He felt a careless abandonment, verging on recklessness, but which was stayed by perfect Faith. Looking over his papers, he smiled to himself. “Nothing has changed,” he said, “still everything has changed.” He kept repeating to himself, “I believe, I believe.”
The clock over in the church chimed out ten when the limousine with the little lady drew up to the curb. “Come here, boy,” she said. “If you haven’t a good warm fire and a nice hot dinner to go home to to-day, I want you to come home with me.” Jimsy lifted his large blue eyes to her and said, “I’ll go, and thank you, thank you so.” Picking up his three remaining papers, he got in with the little lady, and away they flew through the “nasty, cold wind,” all housed in the sweet-smelling, electrically-heated limousine.
Pretty soon they stopped in front of a comfortable looking old house on the park, and Jimsy followed the little lady through a hall and into a great, comfortable living room, at one end of which blazed a merry fire. “My boy, ” said the lady, coming up to him and putting her arms about his shoulders, “it did not mean much to me until yesterday; you made me stop a moment and be grateful, and so I am sharing with you. It is more blessed to give than to receive,” she said to him, and Jimsy knew now what it meant to “give” – not a little money, but a little smile, a little cheer, a little love.
As they sat there before the great fire, the door opened, and the man in the great coat with the fur collar came in. The lady rose to greet him. “Well, mother,” he said, not noticing Jimsy, who was buried in a huge armchair near the fire, “our little ‘happy lad’ newsboy had gone. A boy who can smile and be pleasant in a gale of freezing wind like we had yesterday, has the right kind of stuff in him to make good, and I have decided to give him a chance in the office.” “Come here,” said the little woman, taking him by the arm, “I have a gift for you, a gift I shall both give and keep,” and leading him up to the large armchair she showed him Jimsy, who looked up from the Road to Happiness with a little smile, a little cheer, a little love, gleaming in his deep blue eyes.
THE SECOND COMING
“THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens . . . and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory.’
‘Yet in my flesh shall I SEE God.’ The second coming of Christ is at hand and yet it is as far away as it always has been. For those who ‘have ears to hear what the scriptures say unto the churches’ ( temples, bodies ) the new dispensation is at hand. This time right into the FLESH. The union of Jesus ( the body ) and Christ ( the Spirit ) bringing forth the ‘Flesh’ which is attuned to the new rate of manifestation, and will enable you to experience many new things. It is wonderful for it is secret and hidden and only those — who see– shall SEE– just what it is that the Scriptures are saying unto the churches ( temples–bodies ).
The Second coming upon which the ‘second death’ ( the final physical death) shall have no effect, is again presented for those who have ‘eyes,’ for those who BELIEVE in the WORD–not the words, but the WORD of the CHRIST.
This is the day when Immortality in the flesh is possible or “impossible;” and if ‘Impossible,’ then it is right for the Christ consciousness to bring it into manifestation. Everything that is Possible has been done as far as you are concerned it is the IMPOSSIBLE that is to be brought out. ‘Yet in My Flesh shall I SEE God.’ Do you believe it or do you want to argue about it all? Is it so? Or is Jesus Christ a liar? Until you can arrive at the premise that you stand alone, divorced from every man, woman, organization or book, you cannot “enter into the Holy of Holies,” the consciousness of the PRESENCE here and now.
First comes the Recognition of the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that the Land, into which you are to enter, is actually in existence just as you believe that the picture you took is on the film, even though you cannot see it before it is developed.
It is essential that you BELIEVE that the consciousness you are trying to bring out actually and literally exists, before it is humanly possible for the materialization of it to take place. Even after you accept this state of things it is not yet done. It is necessary for you to have the courage to enter in and become one with it, seeing no sign.
‘Go in and possess the land’ requires that you first recognize the LAND (consciousness) as a finished and completed manifestation in the invisible–and then that you have the authority to enter in and POSSESS the LAND, consciousness. You may be able to do all this symbolically, but are you able literally to enter IN? Are you able to move into the place of ‘He made himself as God’ and accept your authority to ‘Go in and possess the land?’ This you must answer for yourself.
The ‘second coming’ is to be a material thing, for it is to be a completion of the Work of Jesus, a fulfillment of the Power–‘Yet in MY (not somebody else’s–but mine) flesh shall I (not another) SEE GOD.’ In the temple or body raised to the Spiritual concept of ‘Flesh’ shall you see this power. For it is only through this body temple that you can and will step down into manifestation all the things that are to come into your kingdom.
For instance this ( yet to you invisible) book must be recognized by me as finished and completed. Without this recognition I cannot step it down through the temple-body and make it real. Otherwise it would remain a ‘book’ in the symbolical world. An unborn child, as it were. So presently you will come to the Place of realization that through your temple-body must appear all that is to do with your heaven-on- earth manifestation. This is perhaps the hardest step to take, for the human mind has failed so ignominiously in its attempts to do things that It has become self-conscious instead of SELF-conscious.
Until you conceive, perceive, accept and appropriate the fact, literally and actually that your body temple, John Smith, is the place or manifest point in consciousness where the things that concern you must be stepped down into visibility, all the teaching of Jesus is in vain. The Union of the body and soul makes this possible, otherwise you have only symbolical manifestation, i.e., unborn children. All the desires of your heart are crying out for bodies–crying out to be born–and you have laid them away in the perfumed memorries of human thought. ‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give THEE Light.’
Your Body-Temple is the place of ‘Stepping down’ the manifestation to a point of visibility. As the Spiritual, permanent thing moves towards materialization, even as this book is now moving into reality out of the unseen, you suddenly realize the wonder of it all. Until you realize this you continue to move about in a world filled with evil manifestations and chance. There is no ‘Chance’ in the Divine plan–chance exists only in the human consciousness, because it has pairs of opposites–two powers eternally warring with each other.
The ‘Losing your life’ means the finding of your Life. It is a breaking of the small limited pattern of the human consciousness. If you are still thinking to glorify the ‘John Smith’ you will be defeated–your power will be for the moment–as the green bay tree, which flourishes gloriously and then is suddenly withered away.
You are the dispenser of the Revelation–you are the Revelator.
The Second coming is so wonderful and glorious–nothing matters NOW– and yet somehow or other, everything matters. You can go in and possess the land because you are no longer working ‘Miracles’ but are actually recognizing the WORD as it issues forth from the mouth of God. It is wonderful.
‘For as the Lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.’
Do you begin to see that the ‘Coming of the Second Coming’ is entirely beyond the human idea of time or space? Have you ever thought of a flash of lightning from the east to the west? Well, if not– think of it for a moment and then see how quickly the Spirit can come into manifestation in your LIFE.
So is it with the WORD ( not words) spoken from this revelation of consciousness. It is like the Lightning that in an instant flashes across the horizon and lights up everything. Do you begin to see what YOUR word is? Or do you believe? Remember the words of Master Jesus were ‘The works that I do ye shall do also and even greater works than these shall ye do.’ It is wonderful, isn’t it?
Now you MUST be about your Father’s business, which is so much greater than the business of John Smith–and yet which suddenly picks up the limitations of John Smith and frees them into something glorious. It is wonderful — the Quickening of the power which causes the manifestation to be stepped up into the fulfillment of what it is doing. Do you hear what I Am saying unto you– or do you hear? Who are you? And when will you begin to accept your birth- right?
Do you know that you were made in the IMAGE and likeness of God? Or do you? And if so, what will happen to this poor old human image of John Smith? Suddenly the Life Force will rush unto manifestation and fill full the measure of your TRUE Self and the age and limitations of John Smith will be wiped out. Do you SEE? But not of course to prove to others that you have a power they know not of. What do you care what they think or try to prove? ‘Behold I come quickly and my reward is ( right ) with ME.’ Do you believe? Or do you? RIGHT with ME. I come quickly–do you hear? In the darkest, most chaotic condition in your LIFE I–the I ( blended spirit and matter– Jesus Christ ) come quickly into manifestation and it is so.
‘For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away: So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.’ So shall also the coming of the Son of man-(ifestation) be.
Note that the old human so-called scientific mind continues with its thousand and one proofs of life. But the floods come. In your Ark in this new consciousness will you sail away over the whole lot of human testimony which has bound you for so long and in that Ark–consciousness– you will have taken all that matters. It is wonderful! You are performing the Noah drama– building the ARK and taking therein all that matters and then drowning out all that doesn’t matter–along with the entire history of your case. Do you hear–or is there something that you want to retain from it all? Is there something you wish to carry over? You must answer– for in this Ark (consciousness ) you are taking over only that which is productive of increase and newness– a something that is to populate a new universe. Your universe! And with the sailing of that Ark all of the former things have passed away– the age, the history of your case, the fears and the mistakes– you are actually a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is wonderful and if you read further you will understand that the ARK had only one window and that was “‘Straight up” — no looking to the right or left or the past or anything that had gone before– it was only looking to the new dimension. It is wonderful! Or is it?
‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, BUT my WORD shall not pass away.’ You are the Word and no matter what you have put yourself through–You shall not pass away. Do you hear? When will you awaken to this Permanent Identity, the Fatherhood Degree?
Silence will come to you– the real silence–‘Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other remain’–do you begin to understand the SILENCE? It is the same thing which covers the situation of ‘Ten thousand shall fall at thy right hand, etc.– but it shall not come nigh thee.’ Be still and pass through. You cannot prove anything because when you try to prove it for the curious you fail. But you HAVE to ‘prove ME and see if I will not open windows in heaven and pour out a blessing you will not be ABLE to receive.’ It is all so paradoxical– you must not prove in order that you can prove. One proving is from the standpoint of doubt, the other a fulfillment.
Keep silent– keep silent– for it makes no difference if the man you are working with or the manifestation you are in is not ‘Taken’ or is taken–do you SEE? ‘Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other remain.’ There are lots of Women grinding at the mill–one may be grinding with You– but you may be taken and she may remain– even if she is your best friend, your mother, father, brother, daughter do you SEE? You may be taken into the new consciousness and then will you be Silent and secret and yet you will withhold from no man. You can and will give to any man whatsoever he asks of you–but this time you have the proper interpretation of what he is asking. So you will give sometimes by withholding that for which he is asking. It is wonderful. You are through with all the outward show for you have found the CHRIST consciousness– and you are the TEMPLE of THE LIVING GOD. Stepping down into visibility the things that were formerly dreams and imagination. Praise the Lord. It is wonderful! Can you pause for a moment in your glorious revelation and recognize that wonderful One who discovered the Allness of Life and gave it unto YOU ?
‘Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man– (ifestation) cometh.’ It is wonderful–this ‘readiness’– this willingness to LOSE your life and FIND it. To lose ( loose the limitations of John Smith ) and find the infinite capacities of Life in Christ Jesus. I write this unto you.
‘Blessed is the servant, whom HIS lord, when he cometh, shall find waiting.’
Are you waiting? Are you in the consciousness which knows that IT IS SO, and consequently are QUIETLY waiting for the LORD to come into full manifestation? Wonderful isn’t it?
The glorious Second coming of Jesus Christ is here for you– that is if you hear it. It must be heard before you will open the door and let HIM in to sup with you and to break the substance with you? It is HERE now and completely when you recognize that your body, even John Smith, is the Temple of the living GOD.
Such a deep welling up of praise and glorification of the power come over you when you are willing to let go of everything and follow ME.
‘Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season.’
Are you the ‘faithful servant’ or are you still the silly Adam– John Smith, who tasted of the fruit of separation? You have to answer all this for yourself–not for you and another– but for yourself .
Are you the ‘Faithful servant– the ruler over the HOUSEHOLD,’ or are you the little thing which is still trying to glorify John Smith, who has his seventy years and then death? You have to choose–and you have to recognize the principle back of your choice. Who are YOU?
Answer for yourself to yourself no one else cares. ‘Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods.’
Do you hear? If you are the Temple-servant of the Universal God power, you shall be made the ruler over ‘All his goods.’ Is all enough? Or do you need more– is it more rent, more health, more life– more something that you need? What do you need? Could it be you need more God? You answer. The Second Coming is at hand.”
THE SECRET POWER
“LET, there be light, and there was light.” We seem to hear those words spoken in English by a great and terrible Jehovah. Unconsciously we think of God as speaking English, and yet the Frenchman, reading the same verse, no doubt hears the same God speaking: Que la lumiere soit.” This does not mean a thing to one who cannot understand French. Until we begin to understand that words are only sounds, noises, explosions of breath, which, in limitation, attempt to express the Secret Power, we will fail to sense the Spirit and will die filled with the dead letter. Gradually awakening man begins to understand how utterly impossible it is to make anything happen by mere use of words.
The Word (the power and the Glory) which is spoken of in the Bible is thickly hung with “words” made by man, like barnacles on a ship. These words are only alive to the degree that they convey the SPIRIT of the WORD. The moment we find the SPIRIT of the WORD, we discard the words, as we discard the shell of a nut once we have the kernel. “The still small Voice” is the loudest voice in the world, because it does not speak words, but the WORD.
He spake to us in parables because of our inability to grasp the WORD. Yet those parables are as dead and worthless as the mottoes which adorn many walls if the SPIRIT is not discerned.
If it is “words” instead of the WORD you are hearing, you could not understand Jesus if he were to appear and speak to you directly, for he would speak in his mother-tongue – Aramaic. But if you are actually hearing The WORD, it would make no difference in what man-made language he spoke. You would understand him perfectly. Hence the differentiation between words and WORD. The SPIRIT is revealing to you some of the mystery which is heard by the hearing ear. “Having ears, ye hear not, and eyes, ye see not,” because you hear only in your own language and cannot understand even that unless it be on the level of your own intelligence.
The Secret Power which is universal and ever-present comes through when “recognized,” no matter what the appearances are nor in what incomprehensible words or language it is given. Suddenly, by this process of Recognition, the Voice speaks to you in the language you can best understand. Even though you are in hell, this Secret Power is present, awaiting recognition. The moment it is recognized, the manifestation changes from disease to ease. The untrue words or pictures painted by the human belief disintegrate in the Presence of the WORD. At HIS coming all things die and all things live. All the appearances die and realities live. It is a wonderful thing to “feel” this Word in contradistinction to the words of man.
With “words” men try to build a temple reaching to Heaven. Their ignorance as to where Heaven is presages utter failure, and the confusion of words causes the whole thing to collapse. “A house divided against itself shall fall,” and so a state of consciousness filled with opinions and beliefs of the human kind is bound to fall. The Secret Power in the midst of you – the WORD, which is all things to all men, is eternally present. The only veil between you and this glorious WORD is your belief about God. You can only see the Power through the limitations of your belief. “Through a glass darkly” you only see the picture colored by your human thinking.
If a so-called miracle were to take place in your presence, you could only see it through the limitations of what you believed. Hence if you were ever present when, symbolically speaking, “three drops of oil” were filling all limitations, literally and figuratively, you would only see oil flowing from a perfectly natural source. Your human thinking would slow down or speed up the vision, so that nothing but an ordinary functioning of a human law would be taking place. And if the manifestation got a little beyond your human thinking you would charge it off to a phenomenon.
No wonder that the people who are “looking for a sign” cannot see anything. Most of them make the ridiculous proposition of a Man-god: “Well, if I could see something happen”, I would believe.” What difference to the sum total of Life does it make whether you believe or not?
After finding out definitely that the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God, you continue to limit the Power, just because you cannot handle it with your hands, or make it come into manifestation to gratify a personal sense of power.
“What have ye in your house?” The answer is always the same: “Only three drops of oil and a handful of meal.” “Borrow vessels!” The reaction to this command tells the whole story. If you hear the command you proceed to “borrow vessels not a few.” If you hear words, you indicate this by asking a question or interposing some ideas regarding the situation. In other words, you have not heard the WORD, YOU have heard words, and immediately the limitations of the conscious thinking makes itself apparent in a thousand ways.
So almighty is the action of the Power that it is described as “terrible.” No sooner does it call upon you to “borrow vessels not a few,” in spite of the fact that you have only “three drops of oil,” than it insists upon a further manifestation of the same unbelievable belief: “Pour.” If you consider a single angle of the situation from the standpoint of the conscious thinking, you cannot make the gesture which frees you from your limitations. Do you begin to see that the “window” (an Oriental symbol of the most wretched state of existence) could not for one instant “square” anything that was taking place by understanding gleaned through the “glass darkly” of her human mind?
“Believest thou this?” Jesus asking you if you believe the unbelievable. The answer determines whether you are looking through the “glass darkly” and trying to believe, or whether you have suddenly left behind all the “unbelief” of the man-made idea and ascended to the Father within. Jesus could do nothing of himself, and so quite naturally he could not have believed in the unbelievable any more than you could. He did not try; he ascended to that state which we designate as Father within. It is the same Power, the Secret Power, which in the beginning said, “Let there be light,” without speaking a single word in any language, and yet at the same time speaking definitely in every language, even the remotest unformed language of the savage tribes fast in the jungle of ignorance. It is wonderful when you begin to perceive the Spirit – and do away with spirits; when you begin to see the WORD and do away with words; when you begin to experience POWER and do away with powers. “Before you I place an open door”; the rest is up to you. Can you enter?
It would appear, then, that Jesus was calling upon YOU to believe the “unbelievable.” And of course you cannot do this from the limited concept of the human mind, any more than Jesus, a carpenter, could give a banquet for five thousand – yet he did just this. It is tremendously interesting to note that Jesus did not prosper his own family in the way most people imagined he should. There is no personal use of the Power possible. As soon as it becomes personal it again loses its magnitude and is narrowed down to the limitations of the language which you speak.
Stop trying to “believe” with your human mind. Examine into the teachings of Jesus. See what instructions he has to give for the attainment of this Power. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”
“I am the Light of the world” – that is all you need to recognize in order to clear any darkened veil of human belief from your eyes. It is wonderful to contemplate the Power of the Presence and the Word in the midst of you.
The Name of which we speak so often (the Name or Nature which accomplishes) is “unutterable,” and yet we are told to ask anything in that “Name.” It seems a contrary idea, but when you think of a half-dozen men speaking in different languages, each calling on a different Name, you understand why the True Name is never uttered “neither can be” – it is the Unutterable Name you are asked to utter, just as it is the unbelievable you are asked to believe.
The human intellect is dumbfounded by the works of God, and the more it tries to “reason,” the more confused it becomes, until in sheer desperation it charges everything to imagination.
Do you by any chance imagine that you could feed five thousand? Do you by any chance believe that you could raise the dead? Do you by any chance believe that you could open the eyes of the blind? Until you do you are not obeying the command: “Go thou and do likewise.” Until you realize that you can do nothing of yourself you cannot do the “something” that is demanded of you as a follower of the Master. We do not correct the shortcomings of the individual in order that he may do the “works”; his recognition of the Presence will attend to all these minor details. Getting ready to serve God is just the procrastination of the human unbelief, and is the surest sign that you will end by serving yourself.
The beggar at the gate was asked to “rise.” The blind man was told to open his eyes. These holy manifestations are possible at any time they are accepted. So it is with you. No matter how the mire of human life has closed in about you, you are in a position to serve the Secret Power by carrying out its commands. Stop looking to your limitations or qualifications to serve God. Both of these are cast away in favor of the new light which reveals the hidden things – hidden since the beginning of the world. These hidden capacities will be sufficient to release you into the place of manifestation. “Call upon Me” (you, the reader) – “Call upon Me and I will answer you” (not maybe nor perhaps – “I will answer you.” Utter the Unutterable Name, believe the unbelievable. “Launch out on to deeper waters – come to Me – rise up and walk – open your eyes – arise from the dead.” Do you begin to see, to hear, to understand, what is the height and might and majesty of your Risen Lord?
“What have ye in your house?” Nothing? Well, that nothing is sufficient to make everything run over with the joy of the Presence. Why should we choose oil as a symbol except that it embodies the joy and richness of Life? “Thou anointest my head with oil” (joy). After that “My cup (the consciousness I hold to the universe) runneth over.” And so the symbology goes on. The most wretched state of mind has within itself the necessary “three drops” which can fill everything. Yes, beloved! I say to you, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.” It is wonderful what this WORD is saying to you! You are hearing it through your own understanding – in the language – in the manner – after the fashion; but I Am speaking it universally only in the WORD.
Presently the English god and the French god and all the other national deities fall from their niches in favor of the One God, the Presence here, there, and everywhere.
The WORD which was the substance, both visible and invisible “in the beginning,” remains invisible until it is recognized. Just as God, or the WORD, in a hell of beliefs, which burn and consume everything remains invisible and inaudible until He is recognized. To recognize the WORD as present is to cause it to embody itself, and thus consume the limitation which you are experiencing through the belief in “words.” All this may seem to be a play on words – but if you will contemplate the wholeness or oneness of the unbroken, indivisible thing called WORD, you will understand what is meant. You will also see why it accompanies you always, and why the absent one can be, and is, healed by the WORD. It is as if you were swimming in the Atlantic Ocean near the English coast, and another swimming in the same ocean near the coast of New York, physically apart yet in the One. The wholeness and oneness of the WORD in which we all live and move and have our being suddenly comes to light, and we perceive how it is that “if I take the wings of the morning and go into the uttermost part of the earth, still thy hand shall lead me.” There is no place you can go, no condition you can encounter that is not filled with the WORD. This very WORD remains invisible, inaudible, impersonal, awaiting recognition. “Call upon me”; you have to call from the standpoint of recognition of the Presence, or else you are calling to a God a long way off. “Am I not a God at hand – am I a God afar off?” The answer to your recognition is as certain and as automatic as an echo in a canyon. You have nothing to do with the answer; that is entirely out of your hands, just as the matter of the echo is entirely out of your control once you have “called.”
Water takes any shape ready to receive it, without question or comment – and yet it only has that shape so long as the form holds together. It has no shape or form of its own. Spirit, or the WORD, has been likened unto air – the wind that bloweth where it listeth. No man can know whence it cometh or whither it goeth. Everything is filled full of it, and it takes the form and shape of anything, but at no time is it that form. So the WORD takes the form of the idea which has been called out.
It is deeper than the old idea of visualization; it never solidifies. It simply fills full the form placed before it, and yet at no time is it that form.
“Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light! Awake, and rise from the dead.”
The embodiment of the WORD, which took place in the beginning at the command, “Let there be,” still goes on. When you understand that the purpose of God is not to work out problems, but to reveal, you will also realize that your business in life is not to receive but to give,
The old threadbare psychological trick of giving as a means of getting must be exposed before this stream of substance can run into manifestation through you. You give because you cannot help it, and would not once you conceive of the nature of the WORD. It does not need to receive; it is so conscious of the all substance; and yet in this very giving state of mind it is conscious of receiving everything from the Source, which leaves nothing to be desired. At the same time it does not in any sense of the word turn away from the gift. All this glorious revelation of giving and receiving will be brought clearly to your consciousness if you contemplate the Presence of the WORD here, there, and everywhere.
Have you not often heard of a person repeatedly going out of his way to help another, being suddenly turned upon and rent sore by the other? What ingratitude! You have only heard what every man experiences if he insists upon taking the part of God and depriving another soul of its own contact with the Presence. The conscious thinking may whine and cry for another to carry its burden; to support its weakness; to sympathize with its negation; but in the end that soul will rise and throw off this shackle, and will claim that it has been brutally treated by acceptance of its shortcomings as realities. It is too common to mention, and yet it contains the marvelous law of “letting” the soul come into its own place of expression.
The “helper” in life is so very often the “hurter.” He makes real all the limitations that he would relieve. He is filled with sympathy; he recognizes the evil conditions even while trying to alleviate them. No wonder, then, that the Soul held in such a false light, rises and puts an end to this bondage to another’s sympathy. The Christ stands with compassion but never descends to the point of recognizing evil by sympathizing with it.
The apparently cold, unfeeling reply to the beggar at the temple gate was the kindest and most loving thing that could be said. Instead of condoning his fearful condition (which had already been pronounced incurable) by throwing him a handful of gold, the glorious “gift of gifts” was given unto him. “Silver and gold have I none (for you; it would only prolong your present wretchedness), but such as I have (the Power of recognizing the Christ in you – or the Presence of the WORD) give I unto you. Rise and walk.”
‘What a gift! How would you like to receive it? The human mind, in its limitations of words imagines it would rather have a loaf of bread or the piece of gold than the gift of Spirit. I have often heard the beggar at the temple gate asking for revelation when in reality all he wanted was a piece of gold. The dramatizing of the situation of the beggar at the temple gate goes on in the mind of many. “What is all this talk about abundance, anyway? Why do they not give me the five hundred dollars I am trying to demonstrate?
Even the beggar at the gate had to “take” his gift. If you cannot receive the WORD when it comes to you, it is of no avail.
“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have Life Eternal.” What is the nature of Life Eternal? Could it be a continual fight for existence, for food, for clothing, or for other necessities? You answer the question. When you begin to understand the WORD, and the Presence of the Word, you will begin to see your own innate ability to give it freely.
“Freely ye have received, freely give.” It has already been given you, and unless you give it away you cannot keep it.
“Be not deceived. God is not mocked.” Do not try to mock the principle by thinking to “give” in order to receive. If there were any such possibility, men would cease business entirely, and rush from one service to another giving gold, assured they would receive ten times as much in exchange. Why risk money on the Exchange if you can get such tremendous increase by giving? “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light!” It is wonderful how the revelation of the Power comes to you as you go forward into the revelation of the WORD.
“Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me.” Just as Heaven is in the midst of hell, and abundance in the midst of lack, and all in the midst of nothing, so the reward is always at hand awaiting recognition.
“In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God.” Do you begin to sense the Presence, the WORD, indivisible in contradistinction to the kingdom created by “words,” which is divided against itself with its eternal pairs of opposites?
“He that loseth his life shall find it, and he that withholdeth shall lose it.” When you let go of the limitations of the conscious thinking you will find the universal WORD present, and discover vistas, and scopes of expression, which are “unbelievable” to the human mind. Jesus had to lose his life, to let go of the limitations, in order to feed five thousand and to raise the dead. It was not possible to him as Jesus. Only when he recognized the Presence of the Father, and became one with Him, was he able to do that which was otherwise impossible.
When the walls of a prison are knocked down, the putrid, stagnant air of the dungeon becomes one with the universal air and is purified, made clean – reimbursed, as it were, with all the life-giving qualities. It is lost in the universal. So with man the “little” life he has kept shut up within himself, which has yearly become more and more stagnant, suddenly is absorbed into the God-life, and the narrow prison walls of conscious thinking crumble away. He is free!
It is wonderful to contemplate the WORD.
Beyond the conscious mind you see and hear and feel the Presence as Substance, as WORD, and this very recognition causes it to embody itself. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among them.” Beyond the affirmation, which to be effective must be the simple expression of what you find true, is the great realm of manifestation. When you look upon a red apple, the only reason you affirm that it is red is because you are conscious of that fact. It is not red to one afflicted with belief in color blindness. It is true, not because you said it, but in spite of that. So is it with the Word of God; it is not true because you say it or affirm it, but in spite of anything you do or say. Learn this at once and for always – that the affirmation which is effective never changes anything, never causes anything to happen. It merely is a statement of that which you find to be true in the WORD. Other affirmations are merely the “vain repetition” against which you are warned.
When you have become conscious of the WORD, even in a small degree, it will “give magic charm to your companionship. It will idealize your personality. It will make you responsive and receptive. It will give to your smile warmth and depth. It will impart a luster to your eyes that will impel attention. It will make you a finer soul, loved and admired. It will add radiance to culture, brilliance to intellect.”
The WORD; the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the three in one; the I AM; the physical, mental, spiritual; the three measures of meal. It is glorious to see this quickening power of the WORD. “Behold I come quickly, and my reward (or manifestation) is with Me.” To perceive the wholeness of the WORD is to understand how it is that “before they call I will answer.” It is something outside the human reasoning and beyond the conscious thinking.
A child believes the reason for mathematics is to work out problems. He is confronted with a book called arithmetic which is filled with problems – all imaginary. The engineer has an entirely different viewpoint of the same principle. He looks upon it as a way and means of revealing the unseen thing. Many people believe that the only reason for God is to solve problems which are self-imposed by the individual. If that isn’t his raison d’etre, then what IS? It is thrilling when we enter the door of revelation, which brings to our attention the fact that God is not for the purpose of working out problems, but for the revelation of Heaven on earth. It is wonderful to contemplate this state of consciousness. You cease the going out to “get” something and go out to “give” or “do” or “let.”
The uninitiate can only see that the principle must be for helping him out of his difficulties. He tries to believe in God, but in reality he believes in evil. His whole life is spent in protecting, or learning how to protect, himself against the “evil day.” He is astonished to discover that the conscious mind has no capacity to accept and to believe in God. It is true that he would like to, but he cannot. He has seen too much to the contrary, and has coded his life something after this fashion: “As for man, his days are full of trouble”; “earn your living by the sweat of your brow,” etc.
Be not discouraged! It is wonderful for you to have arrived at this point. When Jesus arrived there, he said definitely, “I can of myself do nothing.” So you see, beloved, if “you can of yourself do nothing,” you are in precisely the same position in which Jesus found himself when he began to do the great and wonderful things called miracles. Just as soon as he recognized the helplessness of “Jesus” and let go of the idea of trying to do anything, he became a transparency for the WORD. As the glass of your conscious thinking becomes clearer you begin to see things that were otherwise invisible, and hear things that were formerly inaudible.
“A transparency for the Power” gives a faint idea of what we become. There is no possession, no personal idea entering in, and hence no limitations of the personal can keep it out of expression. “Let your light so shine before men.” We are beginning to see how some of these commands can be fulfilled naturally and normally.
When Jesus recognized the WORD, “He spake as one having authority,” because he spake not of himself but of the HE who had sent him into expression. Jesus ascended into the place of oneness and was a majority. Anyone who recognizes the presence of the WORD is in a majority, for it is whole and fills all space. Everything else is but a series of opinions and beliefs, which the world holds in the conscious thinking. Yes, beyond your conscious thinking lies this great and glorious WORD – the Three in One.
“I was glad when he said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord.”
A glorious revelation dawns upon you when you realize that it is possible for you to go into the House of the Lord. And what, if anything, do you expect to find, if you go into the consciousness of the Lord? What did Jesus find? “I go unto my Father, and your Father, and Our Father.” I go into the consciousness of the Lord, and whatsoever I find there, that can I bring into manifestation.
Do you recognize that in the invitation, “Let us go into the consciousness of the Lord,” is included the possibility of so doing? Can you accept anything so absolutely beyond the human thinking?
Jesus going into he consciousness of the Father was able to bring forth that which the human thinking called “miracles.”
The “My father, your father, our Father” spoken of reveals the universality of the WORD; brings it to your attention as a common denominator. If you can reduce everything to a common denominator, you can solve the problem and handle the little misfits that are so irritating in life.
The Spirit of the WORD quickeneth, the letter killeth. The Spirit is the WORD, and the letter is the “words.” It is wonderful to contemplate the WORD.
SEEING
We have been accused of having eyes, and seeing not, and ears, and hearing not; and have been told that the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God, indicating that nothing we are gaining from our present use of the senses is aught but foolishness in the eyes of this Power called God. We are invited to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord,” and to listen to the “still small voice” instead of the audible voice of man. We are told to “flee from man whose breath is in his nostrils,” and yet, with these foreshortened senses, man has attempted to “demonstrate” a truth which, apparently, is entirely outside of these limitations.
We have constant invitations to “come up higher,” and references as to what takes place “if I be lifted up,” and we are told of the extension of vision when the eye becomes single.
Seeing that all the works of Jesus were not done in the supposed fashion of “metaphysics” (as used in its present-day interpretation of the word, i.e., “using” a God power to change something which seemed impossible of change, and for the purpose of producing miracles), we are only faintly beginning to see the necessity of the extension of the senses.
The Law of Jesus Christ is one of fulfillment and not of destruction, and so the use of the senses as we know them today is not destroyed or put aside, but rather absorbed in the immensity of the whole.
“You must decrease; I must increase,” carries with it the idea of breaking down a wall or limitation and thereby increasing that which already is, or extending it, as, at the pushing out of the walls of a room, the air, which formerly held the shape and limitations of the four walls called room, now finds itself lost in an infinity of its own self.
All that was true of the air contained in the room remains forever true, but the limitations of the room make it impossible to judge by this small amount of air the true and infinite quality of the whole body of air. If, therefore, a person were setting down, as a fact, what he found to be true of the air in the room, his judgment about air as a whole would be faulty and absolutely untrue. So must the world we live in be, viewed through the foreshortened senses.
Jesus apparently knew this as his true nature, for he asks with impunity those things which are entirely outside of the possibilities of the finding of the human senses.
When he calls Peter, “Come to me,” he is telling him to do something that cannot be done through the foreshortened senses and understanding of the ordinary man. When he says, “Look again,” explaining that the fields are white with harvest and the labourers are few; he is speaking of something which is outside the sense of sight, as recognized by the average man.
The reason such gross failures have come forth from the “Schools of Demonstrating the Truth” is because it all has been done on the plane of the impossible. Back of every one of them is the idea that, by taking thought or making affirmations or meditating on God, they can, or will eventually, cause God to do their bidding, and whatever takes place will be unnatural. Many will deny this, but, if it were not “unnatural,” they would not make a practice of rehearsing it for the rest of their natural lives, and testimonies would not be told, enlarged upon, and finally printed about this “unnatural”-natural thing which had happened to them because they “treated.” We find Jesus very naturally coming to the conclusion that Jesus could do nothing with the limited, false sense of life gathered through the foreshortened senses.
“I can of myself do nothing, but I can do all things.” Moving into the naturalness of the Presence immediately put him in the plane of the natural functioning of the Presence. The miracles, to man, were the natural functioning of the law to the man of extended senses, or one who had pushed out the walls of the personal into the impersonal.
“You shall find your life when you lose it” is the paradoxical teaching of the Presence. Only when you begin to understand that the “Look again” is not a straining of the muscles of the eyes, or an exalted or emotional state of the consciousness, nor yet a vivid imagination, can you begin to see the fields are white, and that the harvest which you distinctly did not plant, is ripe. The command, “Thrust in the sickle,” is one of the most futile, and yet it persists, and must finally be obeyed—-else you remain a lifelong gleaner to a miserly harvester.
“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light” -no light can come through the foreshortened senses. Sifting through the wisdom of man is like looking through the husks for the few grains of wheat that the “swine” have left.
“Ye have eyes and see not.” Does the statement intrigue you? Does it hold you in its everlasting grasp? Do you ask, “See what”? “Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that are prepared for those who love the Lord.”
The things that are to be seen and which we are not seeing “through the glass darkly” of the foreshortened senses are the things which already have been prepared. This takes us into an entirely different classification from those who think they can and do create things by “taking thought”-or that they make things happen because they “treat.”
The things that are to be seen with the blind eyes already are prepared. It is an entirely different premise from which to work. We at no time are concerned with that angle of it. When you are told to “look again,” that “look” does not in any way create the “fields white with harvest.” The Sonship degree is constantly concerned with making things happen that would not otherwise happen, but the Son has his limitations and eventually must function into the Fatherhood degree where the finished mystery is revealed.
The moment the prodigal rises to go to the Fatherhood degree, it-seeing him a long way off-comes toward him with the robe, ring, fatted calf, etc. So when man begins to leave the level of “making demonstrations” which come and go constantly, and very often leave embarrassing gaps between, the Fatherhood consciousness moves, figuratively, towards him.
Jesus was not concerned with the creating of things. He constantly was seen touching the next dimension or the Presence where that which appeared to the three-dimensional mind a miracle, was a natural, ever-moving thing. At this height, he had but to give thanks or recognition, and the vacuum, caused by beliefs in the mind of an individual or a group as to the absence of God in one form or another, was instantly filled. It was not a running of unformed substance into a matrix or mould, but a becoming aware of the Presence which broke down the limitations of the thing called problem, or “room,” and a joining of the one with the whole.
The “room,” then, was no more, and yet its invisible dimensions might still remain; or, for want of a better idea, we say the hard, solid walls of granite were suddenly made of the most open of screen wire. The individuality of it is still retained, but it is one with the universal whole. “I and my Father are one; my Father is greater than I” just as the air of the universe is greater than the air taking the shape of the screened-in room. Yet are the two one-the temperature, density, movement, etc., would be the same and the air in the room could take all of the qualities and powers of the air surrounding it. All illustrations are inadequate and stupid when it comes to bringing out the relation of God and man, soul and body, but they give us a faint inkling of the truth as taught by Jesus the Christ.
No wonder, then, that Jesus, realizing the limitations of the senses, first invited man to take his attention away from appearances, and asked him to judge “righteous judgment.” Certainly he could not find the “righteous judgment” in the appearances of things created out of the limited concept of life.
Through the limited senses, man could see only what his consciousness was capable of seeing. Hence we realize that, although five thousand people saw the so-called miracle of the loaves and fishes, perhaps only a small percentage could see anything taking place, other than the most orderly passing out of bread and fishes.
It was not possible for them to see anything different, no more than a man looking through rose-coloured “specs” can actually see a horse white. The horse, no matter what its true colour, will appear eternally pink; so the most glorious revelation viewed through the foreshortened sense of sight would have to conform to that sense. “Through the glass darkly”—-through the beliefs and thoughts that you have accepted as real and true. Darker or lighter, according to your ability to perceive the reality of existence.
“If thine eye be single, thy whole body is full of light”
seems to give us an entering wedge to this new dimension. The whole body being full of light posits the fact that all of the senses of the body would be freed into their new field of activity.
Undoubtedly Jesus saw-literally as well as symbolically—-the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, because he saw it in his own consciousness. “Look not lo! here, nor there, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is marvelous to contemplate what the slight change in the mental elevation may suddenly do for you.
If you are still working with a dual world, still working against evil, still finding evil as a reality which you are especially appointed to destroy, your whole body cannot be full of light, and your eye cannot be single.
The coming of the Power to fulfill, not to destroy, will teach you much, and the awareness of the Presence, even in hell, where you may have made your bed, will cause you to understand that Jesus was not in the business of fighting a supposed thing called evil. He constantly recognized the Presence; and the manifestation of evil, which in its final analysis is a belief that a place exists apart from the Presence, is filled full or discovered to be already full of the Presence.
“Even the wrath of man shall bless you” is just another way of “seeing” with the single eye the Presence. It is so different from trying to force the Presence into the evil situation. Gradually, as you begin this calling on Me in the midst of every picture of so-called evil, you will understand the lack of sympathy in Jesus and his deep sense of compassion. The old Prophet, putting his hand in his bosom and bringing it out white with leprosy and then restoring it to normal health by doing the same thing, should open the eyes of the blind, who believe that disease is even a belief which has to be destroyed. It is not in any sense of the word “handled”; the awareness of the Presence is all that is necessary.
“Call upon Me and I will answer you.” Do you believe that? Answer me. Do you believe that the calling upon this Me will bring about the manifestation? You will when the dual standard of life passes away and you find that “I came not to destroy but to fulfill”-that the senses are extending into the real existence which pushes out the walls of the narrow concept of Life in which you have existed all these years.
When this extended vision begins to be a reality to you, and you have stopped looking on an evil situation as something outside of God, then you will be able to look upon disease and produce ease; and upon poverty and produce wealth; and upon unhappiness and produce happiness. Your “gaze,” extended into the reality of being, will not be concerned with the shells which drop from the eagle preening its wings for its divine destiny. It is wonderful that the old idea of turning the eyes away from what we called pictures of evil gives place to the Divine Glance which, to the three-dimensional mind, appears to heal.
Healing by the glance? What a fantasy to the old human intellect, what a fantasy everything God-like is to the old human foreshortened senses, and yet it is amusing at least to see that the most hardened atheist, as he is gasping his last breath, usually calls on the God power.
“No man shall see My face and live.” The moment you begin to see this finished mystery you die a thousand deaths. One belief after another passes away, and with them the landmarks and the memory of them finally pass out too. If you see the Presence with the single eye, you see it, and, no matter what the appearances, your vision is extended just a little beyond the mystification of human beliefs.
The Prophet and his servant, you and your body, had come along many a highway of life when, all of a sudden, the servant discovered that the way of life was infested with a thousand and one beliefs armed to the teeth and out-pictured as an army of horsemen and chariots. Debts, impossible situations, disease, fears-all of these things have come and blocked the only way-and the servant is afraid, even as you and I.
“Look” the terror-filled voice of the one judging from the foreshortened senses. By every reason of man he has a right to be afraid. “Look again”-the prophet is speaking, and the sense reaches out into the state of “Look again,” and now the mountains round about are filled with chariots and horsemen. “Those that are for us are more than those that are against us. And so the revelation of the Presence takes place through a thousand parables and stories. When you recognize the Presence in any place and stop trying to handle the mystifications of belief, you suddenly find the sight extended to the point of “Look again,” and find there the God and Heaven rising into expression out of the hell of human beliefs.
We are gradually coming into alignment with the Oneness of Life, and can faintly understand how this understanding causes everything to fall into perfect agreement with everything else.
“I AM of too pure eyes to behold iniquity” is not a moralistic statement of a tribal Jehovah. It is the actual uttering of that pure, unsullied state of consciousness wherein no evil exists.
Recalling very definitely to mind that your problem is no problem to another, and likewise another’s problem is nothing to you, you will begin to understand what it means to move into the place where the single vision exists.
“When thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light.” When you begin to see the Oneness of life, and stop judging from appearances, you will find that you are not concerned with effects. They will automatically take care of themselves. Those, still working with demonstrating the Power, are more concerned with the manifestation than the Power. The rebuke is always the same: “Ye seek me for the loaves and fishes”-and not because of the miracle.
When you begin to understand, even in a little way, this Single Eye doctrine of Jesus, you will understand how it is that the manifestation flows constantly into place without any outside aid or assistance. Remaining on the point of Power—magnifying the Lord within, merging into this Oneness of Mind—suddenly frees you from a host of beliefs and reveals to you that the “Harvest is ripe.”
The “getting” and “demonstrating” ceases at this point—-yet, in reality, it only begins. The Oneness of it all causes you to see that Jesus became the giver, and in giving he placed himself in such a position as to receive all. As it passed through him into expression there was nothing lacking in his life. Do you begin to understand the outpouring of the Substance, and how it sidesteps all of the laws of man?
It is recorded that Jesus “raised his eyes to Heaven”-and quite naturally most religious pictures portray Him standing gazing into the skies. But Jesus explained that Heaven was not a locality, but a point in consciousness. It is the place of recognition of the Presence, a point of awareness.
Man can only know God in his own consciousness. Certainly he cannot know Him outside of his consciousness. He must meet Him in his own consciousness, and until he does he cannot perceive Him in the hell of human belief which has emanated through the wisdom of man.
When once man recognizes God in his consciousness he can then see Him everywhere and in every situation. He does not have to bring Him from afar; he can call upon Me and I will answer him.
It is wonderful the light that rushes in as your sight moves toward the single standpoint, as you begin to leave the old battlefields of belief and come out into the place of “If I be lifted up I will draw all manifestation unto me.” It is wonderful that this being “lifted up” comes through the recognition of the Presence, here, there, and everywhere.
The drawing of all things unto you is quite a different thing from the “demonstrating” them of old. One quite naturally takes place, and brings with it no surprise or emotion; the other is as much surprised when the “demonstration” is actually made as if he did not expect it.
“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Do you hear? Are your ears beginning to be unstopped? Are the scales beginning to fall from your eyes?
“Then shall the blind receive their sight.” It is wonderful to contemplate this Oneness of Life, for it carries with it the possibility of all the dreams of yore.
The “picture shown to you on the mount” cannot be seen through the glass darkly of human belief, because these beliefs have never even dreamed of anything so beautiful and glorious. So, steeped in the fearsome laws of life-“Work out your own salvation”; “As for man, his days are few and full of trouble”; “Earn your living by the sweat of your brow”; “When I would do good I do evil”-how can man see through this dense fog the “picture shown to him on the mount”? It is too good to be true, and it is not true if squared by the findings of the human senses.
But the promise stands, “Thine eyes shall see the king in all his beauty.” That promise that you shall see your soul in all its beauty is enough to carry any man on into the place of awareness.
Are you curious about the things that have been prepared for you? And the things that have not been able to enter into the heart of man? Only through the extended senses is it possible of attainment. If you cannot see God in the devil who is disrupting your life, God in the disease, God in the thing lying in the gutter, you cannot find Him in the temple, for He is all or nothing.
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” And the choice is up to the individual. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the opinions and beliefs of another. The coal of fire is placed upon the lips of the initiated. He has ceased from “talking it over” with another. He knows and will “let” the light shine, but he does not try to “make” it shine.
“By their works, not by their words, ye shall know them” —you have the yardstick always at hand.
“Ye shall see Him as He is” when the eye becomes single, and that will satisfy you. When you even glimpse Him, this Oneness, you will have answered the question, “Is this He that should come, or look we for another?” If you are still asking this question, you are still expecting another Messiah, and another will come and another will be found to have clay feet, because you will finally have to find Him within.
Digging out the clay feet of Messiahs is the pastime of metaphysicians, not knowing that at each digging they are only showing forth their own lives and disbelief in the One Power. Spending time seeking into the personal lives of speakers and lecturers suffices for understanding of the Christ to many. “Follow Me”-“Follow Me”-do you hear?
Yes, it is true, the “fields are white with harvest and the labourers are few” because they have the double eye of lack and substance and coming and going of the Presence which is only possible to the “wisdom of man.” When Jesus said, “Look again,” it was an extension of the sense of sight into vision where the Presence was recognized as a manifested thing. The looking again, the Divine Glance that heals, does nothing but become aware of the Presence, and the flames of the hell of belief subside. Hence the Healing Glance-the looking past the glass darkly unto the Presence which shatters the belief manifested in death or disease.
“Thrust in the sickle” becomes a present possibility as soon as the eye becomes single and the greediness has subsided into the recognition of the Presence.
“Yet in my flesh shall I see God”—it is wonderful! The universe in which you live is a mirror of your consciousness. It can only reflect what you discover within. It can only respond to you. It can only answer to your conscious word, be it good, bad, indifferent.