28 Various Chapters From Walter C. Lanyon Books
SHADOWS
THE SHAPE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
SILVER AND GOLD
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
THE SMALL, WHITE THING
SMELLING
SO YOU WON’T TALK?
SOUL AND BODY
THE SPACE BETWEEN
THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS
SPIRITUAL ANCESTRY
STAR DUST
STIR UP THE GIFT
THE STORY OF EVERYMAN
SURRENDER
TAKE NO THOUGHT OF THE JOURNEY
TAKING THOUGHT
TASTING
THE TEMPLE OF GOD
THEN WENT HE IN AND SHUT THE DOOR
THERE IS A LAD HERE
THEY SAY
THIS BABBLER
THOU HAST CONQUERED GALILEAN
THOU ART THE BRIGHT MESSENGER
THREE PLANES
THROUGH THE CLOUDS
THROUGH THE CROWDS
SHADOWS
Since matter is the shadow of the Spirit (Spirit slowed down to a point of visibility) it likewise follows that matter and all manifestation is depending upon Spirit to sustain it. The moment the consciousness is withdrawn (the moment you let go of anything in consciousness) the manifestation begins to disintegrate and disappear. In fact, from the moment a thing appears in manifestation it is “on its way out.” So if you only have a manifestation and no consciousness back of it, it will sooner or later disappear.
If you have a consciousness of substance you will be able to cast infinite shadows of manifestation into the world of matter. If you have the shadow of substance – (money) – it will automatically melt away. The consciousness of substance can be manifested anywhere. If you have a consciousness of money it may materialize in the coin of any realm. But if you only have a symbol it is different – it is subject to loss – theft – or expenditure.
If you have a consciousness of substance you can go to any country – and cash in on it – or cast a shadow of it. If you have only money it is different. Substance can never be counterfeited – but money can, etc.
If you have a consciousness of locomotion – or of an automobile, it will materialize from time to time in various types of cars – but if you only have a “shadow” (a car) it is on its way out, and you will have to make another demonstration before you can have another.
Do you begin to see that every manifest thing is on its way out the moment it comes in? When you “Loose it and let it go” in consciousness – the disintegration begins – and carries on into the fullness of the WORD. The man in authority was one who could call or dispatch manifestation. “When I say go he goeth – and when I say come he cometh” – he was comparing himself with Jesus who could call into manifestation whatsoever he would and could also dispatch the fig tree so that by sun-down it was withered away.
As you walk in front of ten thousand mirrors you cast, without doing a thing, ten thousand reflections – and you take them away without effort for you are the reflector. The whole material universe is a maze of mirrors reflecting you and your consciousness. You are the man in authority – and pretty soon you will understand the difference between consciousness and thinking. You will begin to SEE with the single eye of Spirit and know why Jesus dared to send his disciples into expression without thought of the purse or the script, etc., knowing that the thought-taking process could produce nothing of worthwhile value. Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature – or bring out an automobile – or a house or for that matter a red hat?
When you can answer the question “how does this man speak seeing he has no learning” – then you will be able to differentiate between thinking and consciousness.
If you had been born blind and the VOICE had said to you “WILL YOU RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT” certainly it would had done no good for you to think about sight, for you have never had any. It would appear then that you are forced to recognize a thing called consciousness – either you take the impossible by consciousness or the possible by thought. So choose ye this day whom you will serve.
With all your getting get understanding.
THE SHAPE of CONSCIOUSNESS
We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing
that the utility of the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vessel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing
that the utility of the vessel depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
And it is on these spaces where there is nothing
that the utility of the house depends.
Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is.
we should recognize the utility of what is not.
-Lao Tze
AT THE VERY OUTSET, the title seems quite ridiculous, – nevertheless necessary in order to bring out the idea of what takes place when we pray aright.
If we cut a stencil of the figure seven (7), we would remove a perfect seven (7) of opaque paper, – at the same time leaving a perfect seven in space, or a hole in the paper which would have the shape of a figure seven (7).
Now suppose we were in a dark room with no apertures, and we cut a window in the wall, – we take out a piece of material the exact shape of the window. We have not created the LIGHT that comes through the window. The light is eternally existent, waiting to be ‘let’ into expression, – -in whatever shape or form we choose to accept.
The size or outline of the window can be changed at will and an increased amount of light released into the room. We do not build a house around air or atmosphere. It is already there and instantly takes the shape of the room or house. Always the air in a vase takes the shape of the vase. Remove the walls of the house and you have no shape of air left, – break the vase and the shape disappears.
If we hold the stencil of the seven (7) to the light, it casts a light shaped as a seven, – but if we hold the opaque paper seven (7) which we have cut out, it will cast a shadow. Both of them are sevens, – one a shadow, the other a light. The nearer we approach the light, the greater the size of the seven (7).
So it is with the shape of consciousness, – human or Divine. “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. “Through a glass darkly” of human thought, we receive only darkness, – no matter how ever hard we struggle for the light or illumination.
From the inside of the house we can obscure part of the light or all of it, by hanging a curtain over the window. Likewise, we can and do obscure the degree of LIGHT that comes through our lives by human thinking. We ourselves control the amount of LIGHT that comes through, since there is no limitation in LIGHT.
The old habit of trying to visualize an empty form and then attempting to “fill” it with substance lacks the “gesture” or the actual making of the window which brings the whole manifestation of light into being. On one side, we have the attempt to create, – on the other, we recognize it as already existing. The LIGHT is there at all times, – just as LIFE is eternally existent. But if there is no shape or pattern in consciousness, then it is invisible, being obscured by curtains of belief.
Without the shape of consciousness, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things eternally present does not appear understandable to man. The diffused, general concept of Life as everywhere present gives no evidence that it is actually present unless it is manifest in some form or shape.
The stencil of the figure seven (7) is a perpetual seven as long as it is held to the light. There is no exhausting its supply. Once the figure seven is conceived in consciousness and held there, it cannot be depleted.
Whatever we shape in consciousness is immediately filled with substance and remains that way, always fresh and new, as long as there is a consciousness of it. Light is not solid, – neither is health and wealth static, – but a constant pouring through the shape of consciousness we are holding to it. A thousand persons in a lecture hall will each have a different concept or shape of health, – which in reality has nothing whatsoever to do with UNIVERSAL LIFE.
“The measure ye mete”, – the consciousness you form – is all that will come back to you out of the Universal Mind-God. And everyone will have a different measure at will. No one hinders another in any way when it comes to consciousness. All are free agents. “Who did hinder you that you should not obey the Truth”-is answered with a thousand and one complaints, jealousies and fears. “Well, you see I try and try and try…” Do you try to get light from a window, or do you just get it? And does it do any good to try to force more light through the window? It can and does give only the amount that can come through the shape of consciousness you are holding to it.
From this elevation does the command “Enlarge the borders of your tent” mean anything? Why do you wish to enlarge the borders of your tent? So you can have more room. From where is this room coming? Certainly by enlarging the borders of your tent you do not create more space, since your tent is in all space, just as your body is in Universal Life and knows of itself no limitation of health. There isn’t sufficient room in the tent and so you change its shape by pushing out the borders, – and you automatically have more room. You do not create the room space, – it has always been there. You are merely encompassing more of that which already is by the enlarged shape of consciousness.
All the manifestations of God-power are as effortless as light passing through the window. God is pressing against the temple-body for a “shape” of consciousness through which to manifest, – inviting you constantly to accept more and more.
Nothing limits the light in the window but your thought. The same is true of all manifestation. You can drop the curtains of disbelief, or cement it up, or complain that there is not sufficient light, – but this still does not diminish the light, except insofar as you are concerned.
This is true in all departments of Life. The moment you have a consciousness of anything, it comes through the “shape” you have of it and diffuses itself on the other side. If it is insufficient, then it is necessary to enlarge the “shape” of consciousness.
No man ever reduced the size of a window because there was not enough light to fill it. He knows the “measure ye mete” is already filled. All speculation as to who, why, when or where are entirely eschewed and set aside, – in fact, they never existed in his mind. He makes the “shape” and the rest is automatically taken care of because long since he knew that light is everywhere and only needs to be “let” into a room to make it full of light.
When he even faintly knows that LIFE is everywhere and only needs to be “let” into expression, he will understand how it is that the darkened body or temple will be flooded with health the moment there is the “shape” of health in consciousness, – or the moment he takes his health with the same ease as he takes his light, and with the same abandon. He is not asking or begging that when his window is completed, light will fill it. Jesus paid no attention to the quantity of Life in the world when He healed all who asked, – good, bad and indifferent.
That which is true of health and happiness is true of wealth and prosperity. There is only the ONE indivisible substance pouring through any consciousness which holds a “shape” up to it, – and it will continue to pour through until that conscious “shape” is destroyed.
Do you now begin to understand how it is that nothing can be taken away from you so long as you have that “shape” of consciousness, – and how it is that nothing can be lost? And do you understand how it is that “To him that hath is given”? How can it be otherwise !
And so you will be given more and more Light because you already have Light, – and you have the “shape” of consciousness which permits LIFE to take shape and form.
The Adam man, trying to pattern God and become a creator, fashions himself a figure seven (7) and holds it to the light, – but instead of casting a light, it casts a shadow. True, that shadow is the same shape as the light figure cast through the stencil, but it is opaque and in darkness. The nearer he brings it to the light, the larger the shadow becomes. The more he “tries”, the less his results.
And so with the health of the body, – man’s human concept of it, – he “works” and tries to hold it, only to find it constantly diminishing. When man discovers that he has filled in the very shape he wanted to reflect light, he is in despair and may try to paint it in bright colors, – but still it casts a dark shadow.
He must discover that he is in reality “hid with Christ in God”, – that he is lost in the Universal LIFE of God. Then the human-thought shape of consciousness he has been working with goes down and he cuts his new stencil and LETS the Life through into manifestation of health which nothing can take from him. Just as abundantly as he will, is he able to have this health, eternally new and fresh.
Light cannot be stored and saved any more than can health. The moment man tries this he is defeated, – and yet in reality he can never be without all of it, – that is, all that can come through the shape (recognition) of consciousness he has taken unto himself. The moment he thinks to “possess” God, he finds himself without Him, – for he is possessed by God, – and eventually discovers the truth of that statement, “For in Him we live, move, breathe and have our Being.”
Moving in this universal sea of substance, holding always his “shape” or measure of consciousness to the light, he will perpetually manifest the full measure he metes to God. It happens automatically, – and yet nothing happens for it is always there. “He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, … and drink, without price.” No limit for any reason, whether he be a Holy Man or a wretch of the lowest order. It is for every man, no matter whom.
COME unto ME, all ye that labor with the human patterns of belief, and I will GIVE you Life-LIGHT. GIVE is the word. “Cast your burdens upon ME”-and “Take My yoke upon you”. The yoke which binds you to God is one of LIGHT and GLORY. “He careth for you” is enough to set everything aright if the “shape” of your consciousness is right.
A complete surrender to the ONE God will cause you to throw into the Gehenna of purifying fires all the old idols and shapes of human thought you have hugged to yourself through your fears and beliefs engendered by trying to break the law, “Judge not from appearances”. All these evils you see about you are the results of human consciousness casting the shadows of their self-made “shapes”.
It is all so easily changed. We see the old Prophet putting his hand in his bosom and taking it out white with the most dread disease, – and then making the same motion and taking his hand out clean and fresh with health. It is somewhat like taking down the shutters which filled the shape of the window, shutting out the light, – and then putting them in place again. The very thing the human mind thought was something real turns out to be the thing which shuts out the real, – although it has the appearance of the real.
The measure you mete shall be returned to you, pressed down and running over. The measure of the human mind is the human picture of it all. It works in reverse, – “when I would do good, evil I do”,because it still believes it can “create” something that is already there. The “motive” ye mete is what actually will be returned to you, pressed down and running over. If enough light is not coming into the room, then the borders must be enlarged to meet the new demand.
No man has yet been able to shut light in a box and store it for future use. It would be foolish to try. Likewise, no man has ever shut life in a body temple.
No man can create health. Health is the manifestation of life and is not produced by taking a red pill or a green pill. The pill has no more creative power than you have. Health IS. Man can appropriate it through his recognition of it as a reality, and this in any degree he will. He may produce a temporary semblance of it through a belief in a pill, – but health is an already established thing. Prayer may reveal it and cause it to come through into manifestation by the disintegration of the human thought-patterns.
It is a wonderful rest for man when he finally realizes he has no part in creation, – the work having already been accomplished and pronounced good and very good. What do you pronounce it?
And how is it we imagine we are creators or co-creators? God needs no help from man (body). When understood, the body is the reflection of Spirit, – “the temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. When man comes out of his Adam dream, into his heritage, he finds he is a stencil of LIGHT in a world of LIGHT, – even as a transparent bottle is cast into the sea. The whole ocean may take the shape of the bottle, as it passes in and out, – and yet is never that shape.
Jesus taught by parables because His listeners were not able to grasp the wonders of His revelation. And so we go step by step into the thing called “consciousness”. As we arrive at any level of consciousness, we find we have always been there, – and so we have, but did not recognize it.
“The former things are passed away and shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more”-for there is nothing in that mind which can possibly understand them. The ugly beliefs never did exist as a reality, – only as a congestion of human thought, working always from the without to the within and doomed to failure from the start, – no matter how wonderful they appeared from the outside.
Finally Noah cut a stencil in his ark. He had been floating around for a long time, – and when he cut his window, his stencil, the LIGHT flooded in, filling the entire ark with LIGHT. The waters receded and he landed on a mountain-top, – an exalted state of consciousness, – which had always been there. And from that moment he was always THERE.
“Come unto ME”, – the Soul of you calling to the body to come into that great union of body and Soul, – and in that “shape” of consciousness, anything can happen through the body. Yes, the body is the reflector of Soul, coated with human beliefs which obscure the innate capacity to “rise and shine”. The moment this is discovered, “thy LIGHT is come, and the GLORY of the New Day is risen upon you.”
Now we see why Jesus endeavored to bring man to a state of belief in the ONE GOD. When it becomes a matter of “letting” instead of making, man will realize that all this dazzling picture is for the Glory of God and not the glorifying of a human being.
So cut your window in your ark and “let” the LIGHT stream in. Hold your “shape” of consciousness up to the ONE GOD and SEE the Glory of it all. “In a way ye know not of’, your “shape” of consciousness shall be established on the earth.
SILVER AND GOLD
“SILVER AND GOLD have I none, but such as I have give I thee. Rise up and walk.”
A beggar sitting 40 years at the Temple Beautiful asking for silver and gold. What for? To consume, and then ask for more. The endless getting, and using, and being obliged to get more. The endless making of demonstrations. The endless asking for the loaf of bread which is consumed immediately. The endless looking for symbols, instead of getting back of them. Why didn’t he go into the Temple Beautiful?
Picture the cripple at the temple gate. For years he has been there. He has long since accepted his infirmity as his natural heritage, so he begs for a bit of silver. Picture the disciples knowing that if they threw him a handful of gold or silver they were only doing what hundreds of others had done in a more or less degree, that in reality they would not help him. At best, it would only be a temporary relief.
“Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto you”; and then followed the gift of healing. How much silver and gold would it have taken to have bought that healing in the marts of the world? More than likely, from worldly standards, it was beyond price. More than likely the body of that cripple was in such an emaciated state that if the healing were possible, it would have taken years to have brought the cripple back to normal. Back to normal by the knife, by food diet, exercise, and long, long months of convalescing.
“Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have give I thee, Arise!—” The bestowal of the gift instantly rehabilitated the disease-laden body. Instantly the cripple accepted the priceless gift, leaped up and ran rejoicing and singing. Picture the same cripple with a handful of gold. His joy might be increased for a moment, but he would soon return to his former limitation.
Note that the gift was instantly accepted — and what was the gift? It was the full recognition of the presence of the Power of God in the midst of him. Every man has the gift. He learns that the gift is beyond the price of fine gold or rubies. Silver and gold and fine rubies become as worthless chattels in
face of the priceless gift that every man has to give to the world — yea, to give to himself. Arise!
Yet the world is full of cripples who sit at the gates of their own temple and beg for silver and gold. The world passes by and throws them a copper or two; but sooner or later one comes by and says, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee,” and it is at that moment that the beggar has within his grasp complete freedom from the beggardom he has so long accepted. Arise! — Unless, however, he accepts his gift, he will remain at the gates of his own temple begging the crowd of human thoughts that go by for enough to live on.
Always seeking the symbol instead of what is back of it, always looking for the loaves and fishes, makes the eyes more blind and the ears more deaf. Looking to outside conditions for help will result in defeat. After you have consumed the loaf of bread you are hungry again and must get another, and thus goes the game of life; devoid of charm, as crude and misshapen as a statue hacked from a block of wood with a clumsy garden axe.
Hypnotized to the human thinking, man has accepted his state as one which cannot be helped. He blames his heredity, pre-natal influence, environment, accident, or disease. But all or any of these might have entered into the case of the aforementioned cripple, and still they did not act as a wall against the showing forth of the priceless gift of Spirit. No law that man has made is a law to Spirit, and as soon as man looks away from the symbols he will receive the gift of Spirit and will understand why the priceless gift is not in dollars and cents, but in the substance which lies behind them.
“When the Son of Man shall come shall he find faith on the earth?” When the inspiration of the Almighty speaks to you and gives you the priceless gift, can you take it? Can you take your good in the same degree that the cripple at the temple gate accepted that which was given him? It was a tremendous gift that he took, from the standpoint of his bodily condition. It meant that a great physical change had to be made instantly.
It meant that the well-nigh impossible had to happen. It meant that he had to let go of a lifetime of hypnotism of human thought. It meant that it was opposed to every single human law, and was placed in the category of the impossible. It meant that it was sweeping aside like so many cobwebs laws that were hoary with age and concreted with millions of proofs. Yes, it meant all these. And it means that the condition that you may be under can be no more difficult than this single instance that is given you, and it also means that the change which is necessary to bring you from the darkness into the light will be no greater, no more difficult or impossible of attainment, than that performed on the cripple at the temple gate. Arise!
Even at this instant, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” — the very “I” that spoke through the disciples and said, “Silver and gold have I none” — the very revelation of your perfect health and freedom stands offering you the gift of life and happiness, offering you freedom from the human bondage, no matter how long it has been with you. “Is anything hard to Me?” Is there anything that is difficult for the power of the All-God within you to bring forth into manifestation? Arise!
What is this seeming opposition that seems so much more powerful than God? Awake, awake, awake! Arise and shine! The thought that has been trailing its wings in the mud of human existence will scale the heights of interstellar space.
You will note in the case of the beggar, and in the case of many others instantaneously healed by the Master and His disciples, that the healing took place almost before they had time to think. A gift is accepted at the instant it is presented.
When we stop for a moment to reason, “Could this happen to me?” we are lost. God has power sufficient to instantly off-set the oldest and most terrible human concept of law. “Fear not; it is I.” Arise!
Silver and gold have I none” does not in any sense of the word imply poverty or lack on the part of the disciples. They might have added, “Silver and gold I have none — for thee” — knowing that it would not in any way help. “When they ask for bread, I will not give a stone.” The glorious help which enables a man to see his true self is more precious than a handful of gold or a world of human sympathy. Arise!
Most people are beggars in life. Not all of them sit at the temple gates asking for gold, but they are begging for other gifts, or the symbols of other gifts, and missing the glorious gifts of Spirit which are poured out upon them. So hypnotized to the outside manifestation are they that they fail to see or hear the gift that is bestowed upon them. Symbols, always symbols, until they learn that a symbol without something back of it to animate it is nothing but a puppet, and has no power nor life nor expression.
Beggar of life, when will you begin to accept the gifts of the Father? When will you accept your Divine Heritage, and rise from the degrading position and let the light of revelation pour over you in flooding streams? Arise!
When will you come out of the old Pauline doctrine of “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” and accept the glorious gift of God, “Fear not . . . it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom of Heaven”? A gift — yea, even a gift as large as the Kingdom of Heaven — must be accepted. Think of it, beloved — the trembling and fear, the working out of your own salvation, is suddenly all set aside by the acceptance of the gift of God, i.e., the Kingdom of Heaven. And, just as the cripple at the temple gates ran and leaped for joy into his new state of expression, leaped out of years of belief of sickness, ugliness, and filth, leaped into freedom and left behind him all the things that were true of the crippled beggar, so you, son of the Living God, will make the transformation from the present state of sickness, poverty, and unhappiness, into the perfect heaven of harmony and bliss. When will you accept your gift? When will you arise?
“It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Where is your Father? What did Jesus the Master say of this? “My Father within me, He doeth the works.” The Father- consciousness within you is that which will give you, the human body manifestation, the Kingdom of Heaven here and now. Do you see that it is not something afar off that is going to grant this favor to you? “Yet in my flesh shall I see God” — yet in the present body shall you see the glorious revelation, because soul and body have become one, and “whom the Lord hath joined together let no man put asunder.”
“Stir up the gift of God which is within thee.” — “Arise.”
In the midst of your chaotic world is the gift of God — the gift of Life Eternal, the gift of the Infinite Riches of the Kingdom, the gift of increasing the manifestation. “Stir up the gift of God which is within thee.” It is already there — the gift of beautiful life, glorious life, radiant life.
And in turn the beggar goes his way rejoicing, and giving in turn the gift. We are afraid of the gift; we make a sickly attempt at speaking the word. We wonder if God would want us to assume such authority and such proportions, and at the same time we acknowledge, “I am the son of the Living God.”
“When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
This is addressed directly to you — you who read this page; if the prayer that you asked this morning suddenly came bounding out into expression, would you be ready and willing to accept it? If the piece of gold that you had asked for could actually come into manifestation, would you be able to accept it, or would you have to look to see whether it had a serial number, or whether it were in accord with the human intellect? If you were suddenly to have the gift you were asking for made manifest, could you have faith enough to accept it? Until the perfect acceptance can come, and the curiosity has been absorbed in the absolute faith that “all things are possible to God,” these things cannot be, no matter what a thousand voices may say pro or con on the subject. Arise!
If you should tear the hide from a living body to see how the life was produced underneath, you have no life. The killing of the goose that laid the golden egg is the result of curiosity. If you are secretly cherishing in your mind such ideas, you will see nothing, for nothing shall be there. The soul is not of curious, it knows. “I have a way that you know not of.” The I AM has its way that no human intellect can see, understand, or believe. Arise! —
The whole glorious proposition lies within yourself. It is asked of you, “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth (your consciousness)?” You have to answer that for yourself. It does not make any difference what the answer be so far as the outside world is concerned; it is, however, tremendously important to you. What would you think? If the prayer you have just asked were at this instant to be fulfilled, could you — you, who read this, accept it? “Be still and know that I AM God.”
THE SINS of the FATHERS
AND THE SINS Of the fathers shall be visited unto the children of many generations.
The sins of the fathers are not the supposed breaking of civil codes and standards of living generations ago, – but the incorporation into our lives of a thousand and one evil beliefs that have come to us by the grapevine of the “old wives’ tales”, in many instances parading under a thin veneer of pseudo-scientific concoctions.
A child comes into the world freighted with these beliefs and immediately learns fear of every sort. Ancient teachings of his fathers are heaped upon him. If he can surmount these beliefs in sin, sickness and death, he may live to “work out his own salvation by the sweat of his brow”, under the curse of being born of woman. He in turn passes his sins on to the next generation, augmented with all the “witchcraft of yesteryears”. And so “the children’s teeth are set on edge” because we have failed to break this false pattern.
New and fresh escape is offered from this curse through the Revelation of Christ Jesus. “Call no man – (not any) – your father, upon the earth: for ONE is your Father, which is in Heaven.” With this Light we see the sins of the fathers, the dark shadows of heredity, environment, slip into the limbo of oblivion. Pulling ourselves out of the mire of ancient sins, we discover exactly what Jesus discovered when He “left all” – everything – and followed into the Light of being “born again”, – born into the recognition that God is a literal and actual Father of everything that lives, moves and breathes. A new beginning is offered, – a wholesale elimination of the heritage of evil.
Oftentimes the sins or beliefs of the fathers are outgrown and people say, “I no longer believe in that”, – only to take up the same belief in a new garb. And so the wheel turns, – the game of hide-and-seek goes on and on. But when they are seen in their true light, much of the witchcraft and fear that has haunted every child born-of-woman, will pass away. “I will arise and go unto my Father”, – the prodigal suddenly takes his NEW BIRTH and returns to his true inheritance, irrespective of the fact that he may have squandered his apparent substance in riotous living. He will “follow ME”, – leaving everything, person, place and condition.
This is not a dramatic display of power, but an inner “letting go” of the sins of the fathers and a releasing of all those who bind you and who are more than likely bound by you. You are “a NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST JESUS”. The teachings of the “man whose breath is in his nostrils” fall
away. No more do you accept the beliefs of yesteryears, – no longer are you under the “curse of the law”, of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” You are UNDER GRACE! You are BORN AGAIN! You are FREE!
It is one thing to talk about casting out sin and overcoming it, – it is another to do it. You may purify a river at its mouth, but if a poison is poured in at the source, it is a hopeless task. Why should we waste time endeavoring to overcome the sins of our fathers? Unless the poison is eliminated at the source, the denial of a sin is an endless job.
But what did Jesus say about it all, – how to be rid of not one sin of the fathers, but the whole gamut in one instant? “CALL NO MAN YOUR FATHER!” When this is accepted and taken into consciousness, then the old-wives’ tales and remedies are done with. You are a NEW creature when you transfer your birth from matter to Spirit, and you sense your true nature. The human mind, being a liar and the father of it, can produce nothing but evil, discord and inharmony. And what else is a man to look forward to, who is born of woman, few of days and full of trouble. The redemption comes with the discovery that “God is your Father”, – the only one you ever had or ever will have. Claiming your birthright, you go not back to dig in the dusty archives of yesterday with its false beliefs, nor do you accept them under their new, up-to-date names under which they are being offered on all sides.
Behind the mask of personality lies your individuality, – and one of these times you will tear that mask away and BE your God-given self, endowed with undreamed of capacities, – and will accept the things your eyes have not seen nor your ears heard, that have never entered your mind. How could they enter into a mind that has no capacity to accept them?
A wholesale house-cleaning takes place when you recognize God as the ONE POWER expressing through you and through all. Time and space disappear, – in the twinkling of an eye all is changed, and in less time than the human mind can register, the transformation takes place. You will recall in the case of Mary Magdalene, so complete was this change that the multitude did not recognize her, (though she had been among them for years) – and even then were on the verge of stoning her. Neither did they know Jesus, who had also been in their midst for years. “Is this the carpenter?”
How the “dust” gets into the eyes of the multitude in the presence of one so transformed. In reality, the dust is the dazzling Light of Spirit emanating from the enlightened one, so overpowering that the limited sense of sight becomes blinded and the crowd says, – “Is this the carpenter?” – “Is this the Magdalene?” – “Is this John Smith?” Considering this Father idea as a reality and not as a hackneyed statement of the Bible, you discover that “if your human father could give you good gifts, how much more can I”, – and you will know that God LOVES you, – not with the selfish human love, but with an ALL-ENVELOPING nobleness which gives you such strength and causes you to exclaim at each new manifestation, “I have gotten a man-(ifestation) of the Lord”. One barrier after another goes down, – all the crazy beliefs you have had in two powers crumble into dust and are blown away by the breath of God.
Only “watch with ME one hour”, – the most important hour when perhaps things look the darkest, – and “I” will show you how it all takes place with and through you.
And when the seven devils are cast out, you will find yourself in your right mind, sitting at the feet of the Master; – the “John Smith” with his load of sin and karmic debt casts his burden on the Lord and is not only in his right mind but he is now being sustained, – and his burden is LIGHT.
And now I know you feel as you read, the Holy inrush of Life, real LIFE, real POWER, permeating your temple-body. Yes, – you are a NEW creature, – with NEW and more wonderful possibilities than you ever dreamed of. You need not “work” any more, – you have discovered a NEW way, – and you “let” things take place. What things? ALL the things that are prepared for you which you could not accept with the limited human thought.
So you make your agreement and give up the struggle to “make” things happen, – accepting the wonderful things that come through you, – yes, YOU, the wide-open channel through which God will express.
You are not afraid now, – you are clad in an aura of LOVE which brings everything to you belonging in your Kingdom. And oh, so very much belongs there. The obedience to God that is asked is so easy and so beautiful. “What would you have me do?” And then the mechanics, – and the sluggish old body finds itself operated by the LIGHT of GOD, – and rests. The hellish sins of the fathers fall away, taking the appearances with them, – and you abide in the LOVE of God.
Then ARISE and SHINE for YOUR LIGHT IS come, – YOUR Light that is different from the Light of any other, although the same in essence. It is this that makes you hopelessly original, – a different, a “peculiar” people. Your success is assured, for there is no competition, – no opposition. You are now in your Father’s house, – and He has said unto you: “Thou art ever with me, – and ALL that I have is thine.”
THE SMALL, WHITE THING
In the sacred scrolls it is written, “and in the morning the ground lay covered with a small, white thing” – and they said it is manna; we shall gather and eat. And every morning they did gather and eat of the white manna;neither did they try to eat or gather sufficient one morning to last them a week, but each morning they partook of this bread which came down from heaven, and which sustained them through the long day. And what was this small, white thing which came to supply them every morning with food? Was it not the bread of life which, if eaten in the morning, would nourish the waste places and save from sudden attacks of the enemy? Was it not the renewing of the mind by contemplation of the real – early in the day before the contemplation of the unreal had darkened the thought so that they could not see the small, white thing which lay on the ground?
And another one sayeth, “I shall arise and go unto my Father.” He shall arise out of the sleep and chaos of darkened thinking and go unto my Father. Not after I have spent the day in by-play full of evil thinking and doing, but I shall arise and go immediately to my Father. The Father is not far off when we arise and go to Him in the morning; in fact, He is right at hand, and we may commune with Him almost instantly by turning to Him and addressing Him, “My Father which art in heaven (Heaven, our consciousness). My Father which is within my consciousness.” Instantly we are within the portals of His abode – heaven. But when we arise and busy ourselves with a thousand and one little worries and cares, when we put our conversation and prayer with God, after we have fretted through a dozen little irritating encounters with our brethren – after we have passed judgment on a dozen or more of our brothers – we find that when we turn to enter the Father’s house the way is covered with nettled briars and weeds, which have to first be rooted up before we can find the “WAY – the truth and the life.”
And even though, through all the sweat of agony in ridding ourselves of the weeds of the day, we hear the soft knocking at the door, so tightly have the tendrils of that vining material thinking bound themselves about our door that we cannot open unto Him until we have gotten at the root of the vine and torn it away. And, oh, how glad we are to “open unto Him and sup with Him.” See how compassionate He is with us. He has offered us a morning meal of love, purity and safety from all this struggling, and when we have refused to partake of it and gone our way over material roads – and at last evening has found us weary and worn – then His great compassion is still with us, and He is prepared to sup with us if we will but open unto Him.
No end of love feasts has He prepared for us; no place in the journey is He not ready to “prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies”; no end to His inexhaustible love which constantly invite and enfolds us.
Then why, my dearly beloved, will you not except the morning refreshing, gather and partake of that manna, that bread of life, that substance from above? Suppose you give thanks while you are partaking of this heavenly manna – suppose you acknowledge to yourself that you are filled with the bread of life, that you are sustained and kept by it, and that your spiritual body is like a well-watered garden in the midst of which flows the River of Life, purifying and beautifying it eternally; then, after you have bathed in the purity of this inflowing love, arise and be about thy Father’s business, and see if, during the long day, He does not direct thy every step. There will be a little thrill of joy ripple up in you as you secretly keep the Faith – within yourself – and you will feel the joy of doing His bidding; a little thrill of joy that will grow and broaden as it flows on because it is fed by an inexhaustible source of joy, and the hand-writing on the wall shall be your protection, and it shall be just the wisdom you need at that time. If, for example, you are about ready to judge your brother, the hand-writing on the wall will appear, “Judge not.” What a happy translation follows, for God has relieved you of the burden of passing judgement on anything – you do not have to judge; and think how easy it is to get rid of criticism when you say, “Well I do not have to bother with judging you – God will attend to that.”
Think of the joy that will come to you that night when you have passed one whole joyous day wherein you have judged no man, and when you have said to yourself, “Neither do I condemn you.” Think of what a restful, peaceful state of mind it brings you in, not only all the world, but within yourself as well.
So to-morrow, when the first faint flushes turn the sapphire night into morning, gather you a measure of manna and take it up unto a high hill and there partake of your morning repast. Perhaps on this particular morning all the manna which falls about you will be gratitude and praise – and you will gather together all the joys and gratitude and thanksgiving you can think of and take them with you and feed your soul upon them, so that all through the day it will go singing and praising God and shedding its soft healing light of Love all about you as you go. Perhaps it will be faith – pure and simple faith – the kind that was rewarded with a perfect healing when it said, “Speak the word.” Do you know what that means – to be able to say, “Speak the word”? It means a complete abandon to a living, vibrating faith that is sure to accomplish. So it may be faith – but whatever it is, take unto yourself a full measure and feed thereon.
SMELLING
“There is the odour of sanctity.”
“HE BREATHED into him the Breath of Life and he became a Living Soul”—something alive, not something that had to be kept alive. Once he becomes a “living” soul he has no beginning or ending, for it is Life Eternal to be inbreathed with the Breath of Life; living and functioning on all planes, instead of existing with a bit of “breath” in the nostrils.
The sense of smell which man has been using is stopped down to a matter of odours. A thing may be sweet, sour, pleasant, or unpleasant. Outside of this the sense of smell has no function. Since the limited sense of smell can be easily fooled and made to believe that a synthetic odour is the real one, what reliance could one put on any information or wisdom gathered from this source? Do you begin to see why Jesus stressed the fact that “the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God”? All the wisdom of man is founded on this very uncertain basis of the foreshortened senses.
The sense of smell has directly to do with the “Breath of Life,” and is one of the avenues through which man feels his indissoluble connection with the Presence. When the sense of smell is extended beyond the limiting shell of conscious thinking, then it reaches out into the universal Breath of God. All this symbology is to better acquaint man with the Oneness of all things, and presently all this scaffolding of words, parables, books, lecturers, teachers, and organizations will fall away from the revealed Presence in which you live, move, breathe, and have your being. It is wonderful to contemplate.
“And he came near, and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him and said, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field [state of consciousness] which the Lord hath blessed:
“Therefore God give thee of the dew of Heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.”
The Aroma of Spirit comes from the Breath of Life inbreathed into man. Man is inbreathed by the Breath of Life and he becomes a “living” soul, and the Aroma of Spirit is exhaled from him. He is surrounded by a halo of the Presence. He has the “smell of a field blessed of the Lord”-a fertile field full of seed and ready to bring forth its abundant harvest. “Thrust in the sickle.”
The dews of Heaven, the blessings of manifestation, follow the recognition of the “fatness of the earth”; the unlimited expression of the Presence comes forth. There shall be plenty of corn and wine. The deep inspiration of the Almighty has taken place, and the smell of “a field that the Lord bath blessed” comes from you. The blessings of the Lord have no sorrow added. The blessings of the Lord are not after the limited measure of man, neither is their capacity nor quantity discernible by the man “whose breath is in his nostrils,” who is dependent upon a series of events in order to bring forth, and whose best efforts may be crowned by the worst kind of failure. He is alone with his breath in his nostrils, and hence at the mercy of any human belief that may come along.
“And he breathed into him the Breath of Life and he became a living soul.” “The inspiration of the Almighty shall, when it has come, lead you into all things.”
At the very thought of Inspiration the breathing becomes deep, profound, and tingling with life.
“Flee from that man whose breath is in his nostrils.” There is no inspiration to the breath that is only in the nostrils, and hence no life. It must be the deep breathing that fills the entire temple body that accomplishes Life. The symbolic man whose breath is only in his nostrils has not yet experienced the “Breath of Life,” and hence he has not yet become the living soul. He is in the strictest sense of the word unenlightened, and has to do with all sorts of beliefs and theories concerning God. He is still at the point of comparison and argument regarding the unchanging principle, or Breath of Life, hence you are warned to “flee” from that man, for all that he knows is gathered from his foreshortened senses. What a glorious “feel” to know that you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life. Not a temporary sense of life, but Life Eternal, unchanging and vibrating with power.
The Breath of Life, the true sense of smell rushing through the temple of your being, permeating the joints and marrow, taking life out of the narrow confines of conscious-thinking, i.e., health and sickness, and freeing it into the Universal, where the beliefs of frailty are non-existent. Nothing is expended because you make a physical movement when you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life, when the sense of smell has broken the bonds of its former limitation. One moment’s contemplation of this oneness with the Breath of Life dissipates the sense of fatigue as you “smell” the Presence. No one can imagine God as becoming tired, or fatigued, and likewise when you are one with this Divine Breath you cannot experience what Life cannot experience. “You shall find your life when you lose it” indicates that we have not yet experienced the thing called Life. Certainly we have tried hard enough to find it through the foreshortened senses, and have been sharply rebuked for having all the capacities of these senses and yet not experiencing any of them.
“The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth rejoice.” The Breath of Life is moving in and through the holy temple, and every manifestation (earth) shall rejoice because of this thrilling, moving Presence. Suddenly you become alive; you are “smelling” out the Presence, just as you taste and see and hear and feel the Presence. You are aware of the freshness and eternal newness of life which is not under the ban of the limited conscious-thinking. You have become a living soul, alive in all ways, mentally, physically, financially, morally. Alive, awakened, transmuted into the substance which is permeated with the Divine Breath. It is wonderful. You are a Living Soul—you are alive mentally. Do you know what it means to be alive mentally? It does not mean the gushing forth of facts and data regarding everything in the universe. It does not mean the development of a colossal brain or a quality attributed to what the world calls a “prodigy” or “genius.” It does not mean an abnormal memory nor a “lightning calculator.” All of these states immediately introduce the thought of “brain-fag.” You have the feel that these states of mind would have a brief moment and then have to retire utterly worn out.
When you become a Living Soul mentally you begin to sense that you are endowed with the Divine Memory, the inspired memory which says, “I shall recall unto you whatsoever I have said unto you.” Everything that is in the Universal Consciousness is at the disposal of the one who has become “alive mentally”—he does not have to go through the ordinary processes. The consciousness that has ever been established on the earth of anything mental is ready to be tapped by the Living Mentality. It has broken down the limits of the excessive or limited capacities of conscious thinking and moves out into the new dimension. It knows and can call and can dispose of, and yet it does not have to bother with the accumulation of material. “When I say go, he goeth, is the law of the mentally alive one. It is wonderful when your mentality is awake, when you see it is for the purpose of releasing wisdom and not for the limitations of human intellect. It is true it may absorb all of this intellect, just as the egg is absorbed into the eagle, but in doing this it instantly breaks the shell of limitation and frees itself into a new realm of manifestation.
This being alive mentally gives you the power to know whatsoever concerneth Me—there is “nothing hidden that shall not be revealed” which concerns you. So far is this faculty removed from the curious mind that would meddle with the lives of others that the gulf dividing them is greater than that which separated Dives and Lazarus. At the same time this alive mentality can, if recognized, give you anything and all information concerning you and your ongoing. “Call upon Me and I will answer you.” Do you begin to see what Jesus was working with? Call it out on this Divine Breath; nothing shall be hidden from this searching Breath which scents out all things. It is said that the savages can scent the coming of a stranger miles before he arrives in camp. This capacity has been lost to most people, but even this quality is a limitation to the Divine sense of smell. You are alive mentally, and if you need the name, place, or word it is always there in the Universal Consciousness awaiting the simple “letting” which takes place when you are once alive mentally.
You are a living soul—you are alive morally. The idea of morality has been so mistakenly narrowed down to mean sex with most people that its grand mission has been completely submerged. Hardly anyone will deny that a great deal too much importance has been placed on sex. Gradually the beliefs of man, who was only recently in the throes of believing that everything he did, said, heard, or saw was traceable to the all-important thing, sex, are being somewhat released.
To be alive morally is to experience the Natural Integrity of Life which is so necessary. It enables you to “judge not from appearances.” It causes you to see the necessity of fulfilling your own contracts. It causes you to be as good as your word. It brings a sort of human decency, which is fearfully lacking in most people, to the surface. It enables you to live in the world and be not of it; and yet keeps you from the fearful, self-righteous habit of condemning everything that does not fit in with your own ideas of life.
You are inbreathed with the Breath of Life. You begin to employ the sense of smell and are conscious of the aroma of the Presence. There is no separation between you and this Presence any more than there is a separation of the air in the great out-of-doors. You are a soul alive. Alive for the first time and conscious of the substance of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. You are the Word of God made manifest, nothing more or less. When will you begin to claim this heritage and see it through into manifestation? When the senses unfold into their true function, when they extend to the capacity which has so long been unrecognized, then will you begin to “sense” the Presence. When the sense of smell is awakened to the place of the inbreathing of the Breath of Life, it is as if the heavy, limp canvas of a balloon were suddenly to be inflated with gas. Suddenly it expands into new dimensions and possibilities. The impossible takes place; the heavy canvas, with its ballast-loaded basket, rises through the air. This illustration is inadequate—the coming of this Divine Breath to you permeates every cell and segment of your being.
You are a living soul, inbreathed with the Breath of Life. The old subconscious ruts and patterns are suddenly straightened out-the “rough places are made smooth and the crooked places straight.” There is no offsetting of one habit by introducing another, but a releasing of the heavy creases and crevices which stored up the memory of evil. “The former things shall pass away; they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more”; because when the suggestion is made the former place for the reception of this evil is not there-the old subconscious pattern has not only been broken up, it has been completely obliterated. It is not a state of overcoming evil but an arising and following Me out of the Sodom and Gomorrah of the subconscious mind. It is wonderful.
The sense of smell extended into the Divine Breath opens the door of Inspiration. When the breath stops in a man he is pronounced dead. When he is separated from the great Spirit, or Presence, he dies. The little breath (a human lifetime) which man has in his nostrils must be extended into the great Universal Breath or else it is soon snuffed out. Its very limitations bring upon it all sorts of evils from which there is no escape. The more the breath is stopped down to the human organism the more affectation of the throat and nose are visible. It is impossible for you to go out of the presence of God. You are living, moving, breathing, and having your being in this Presence, in this Atmosphere, now, and presently you will recognize that at the same time you are performing this it is also “living, moving, breathing, and having Its being” in you. Then in the great Oneness of this recognition do you experience the sense of Life Eternal.
You are inbreathed with the Breath of Life and you are a living soul financially. To be alive financially does not necessarily mean the handling of the symbol, but it does mean the consciousness of substance which out-pictures itself in five thousand loaves of bread or a simple meal. It puts one consciously in touch with the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” When Jesus raised his eyes to Heaven and gave thanks, he was recognizing this substance, and the symbol had to take place. He was alive financially, and produced the loaves and fishes by a telescoping of the ways of man into the instant manifestation of that which was needed. Instead of demonstrating the money, sending for the baker, etc., the “way that ye know not of” was able to bring forth what was necessary at that particular instant. Yes, it must be true that we have eyes and have not seen. “He careth for you” is only true from the height of the understanding of what it means to be “alive financially.”
It is written in the Law:
“They have ears but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not.”
When this sense of smell is extended to the Breath of Life, the Inspiration of the Almighty fills you, and it is this very quality which is to lead you into all things. Beloved, you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life and you have become a living soul. Do you hear? It is wonderful. The Breath of God is not mechanical. It is as a cloud of sweet smelling incense enfolding all, and revealing its radiant creation-in breathed forever. A living soul is immortal.
SO YOU WON’T TALK?
So you won’t talk? Well, then you can take a City (new state of consciousness) – Not so bad for holding your tongue. Pretty sure of results too for the “Power of Life and death are in the tongue.” Sounds ominous doesn’t it?
“Keep silent before ME” – why?
“Well, you see my problem is”; and then a Niagara Falls of evil and negativity bursts forth. All of which you immediately proclaim as false and untrue. But you have just set it into motion and have gotten the agreement of another on the same subject. No one is spiritual enough for you to expose your evil mind to. When you merge into the light of the Christ consciousness it will dissipate the darkness without having to put it through the human mind. So “Hold your tongue – and take a City” a new state of consciousness.
“See that you tell no man.” Show John.
If you are talking about your little self all the while and your problem, you cannot hear what “I have to say to the churches” – (your body) – and so things in the Church are not going to go right – too many dove sellers and money changers – no place for the Christ to come in.
Don’t you dare tell it. Keep every valve of your mind shut up and presently the Power of the risen Lord in the midst of you will break the pattern of the limited consciousness and come out into being. It is wonderful! Such a glorious experience is waiting for you.
I don’t have to call you a fool again do I “Thou Fool do you not know that a seed must first fall into the ground and rot before it shall be made alive?” – an acorn may contain a potential oak tree but it has first to lose the shape of the acorn before it can take on the new shape of the oak tree. And that is about the thing that has to happen to you – you cannot have what the oak tree has coming to it as long as you are an acorn. Secrecy helps mightily on bringing out this new stage of things – So, don’t talk. Evil will die if not spoken of – it lives on thought and agreement. And Truth will enlarge the borders of your tent until it has changed the whole face of things. “Hold your tongue and take a City”.
SOUL and BODY
SUDDENLY THE REVELATION CAME, – -like a shaft of lightning striking a powder magazine. When the explosion of discovery was over, I realized for the first time that we, as a race of “truth-seekers” have been working in reverse.
Strange too, – since we have followed to the best of our ability the precepts laid down by Jesus Christ. But there has been such an appalling sense of failure in prayer. And such a tendency on the part of man to compromise, – first for the half loaf, – then for the slice, – and finally finding himself under the proverbial table eating the crumbs.
And then the torrent of words, – pro and con, – as to why the prayer was not answered. And the beseeching and begging and agonizing before a supposed Deity, – the groveling in the dust of human thought and words, trying to curry the smallest favor from God. All of this in spite of the fact that man has been told to “Come boldly before the Throne of Grace”.
In spite of our best efforts, God seemed more human than Divine, – and at times a very “spoiled” human, whose most important activity seemed to be laying traps in which to ensnare humanity, – then gloating over the slow, tortuous punishment. Yet Jesus made it plain that God is LOVE, – and is concerned over the fall of a single sparrow, though four of them could be had for a farthing.
Everything worked for Jesus, – though at times it may have seemed that it was a special power which He alone embodied. But to counteract this idea, He invited all to “Go thou and do likewise”, – and “even greater things”, – greater than He had ever performed.
Well then, – why don’t we at least approach in some minor degree the works He did two thousand years ago? True, – from time to time a so-called healing or miracle takes place, – but an occasional healing is no indication that a definite law is underlying it, – no more than the very occasional working out of a problem in mathematics. In mathematics we demand a hundred per cent efficiency. Is mathematics, then, more certain and definite than God? The Power which Jesus used was certain of definite results.
There is no currying of favors in mathematics. The humblest wretch, the worst sinner, the most lordly prince, all have an equal chance. There is no limitation as to the use of the law. It is not bestowed upon man as a reward of merit. It just IS, and must be accepted and entered into before it becomes alive. And in this respect, Jesus also made it plain that “God is no respecter of persons” I was listening one day to the radio, to a very prominent singer who had become almost an institution during the war years, so appealing and warm was his voice. The natural comment was, – “That man has a beautiful voice”, – but suddenly I realized just the reverse was true, – that voice has a beautiful body through which to express. The song was singing him, – singing his body, – expressing through every cell and atom.
And then the LIGHT flared, – and I saw that this is exactly the difference between the manifestations of Jesus and the attempted demonstrations of man. Jesus “went within and shut the door”, – and became a soul with a body through which to manifest.
The unintelligent mass of atoms called the body and named John Smith or Mabel Jones or Jesus, has been attempting to establish its power in the body, – attempting to make a singer, a dancer, a writer, a healer of John Smith, – and with mighty poor success.
But when the idea is glimpsed, – this revelation of Jesus Christ, – then man is seen to be a soul with a body, – and whatsoever he then designates the soul, that the body performs. Jesus knew that the John Smith could do nothing, when He said of His Jesus body, “I can of mine own self do nothing”, – and He stopped there as far as making Jesus perform. He went within and identified Himself with Soul, – and whatsoever He designated that soul to be, that did Jesus perform, – whether speaker, healer, financier, baker or vinter. He was a soul with a body, – and not a body with a soul.
This subtle change in consciousness causes one to see the infinite possibilities. It is then easy to understand the so-called illusive financial demonstration which comes through the “no-time no-space” idea, – and to understand, too, how healings automatically take place through this recognition. The revelation of the soul as the healer releases LIFE through the Jesus with one hundred percent success. If the soul is designated as a speaker, the unintelligent body of Jesus or John Smith will speak, even though he has never learned how to speak. He draws on the infinite resources of the ALL.
“Then went He in and shut the door, – and WHATSOEVER He told the Father in secret, that was called from the housetops.”
Having admitted that He could of Himself do nothing, – that the unintelligent body had taken unto itself a mass of human beliefs, none of them true and most of them evil, – Jesus made His escape from this thought congestion, into His soul. Then WHATSOEVER He designated the soul, became true, for it had a body, a perfectly pliable body, through which to express, – with no resistance, no opinions, no beliefs to hinder.
Now it is not difficult to see how “IT searches the joints and the marrow”, – how it is the soul with a body can and does naturally disentangle the snarls of human thinking with its patterns of evil, poverty and disease. The body becomes the servant of the Lord. Hence, when the soul is specified as any given thing, this soul then holds the body in its grasp, causing it to manifest the desire. The body, though wholly incapable of performing of itself, does the thing it could not do, – and in less time than it could be done, – with greater success, – a sustained success.
This is the resurrection of the beseeching sinner man, – worm-of-the-dust, – born – of -woman, – full-of trouble. He leaves the pig-sty of human thinking, becoming a LIVING SOUL with an unresisting, unintelligent body through which to express. There is no argument or quibbling now from the body, – it is in its right place, – sitting at the feet of the Master.
When the body with a soul attempts to work out a problem, he runs the gamut of human emotions, from humility to hatred, – from the making of many affirmations to high powered psychology, – none of which work, even though he may have gone through a hundred courses, all of them guaranteeing positive and definite results. And this in spite of the admonition, “Be not like, the heathen, who think by repeating many words, they will gain the ear of God”.
If nothing happens, he compromises, – and then, if nothing takes place, he begins to “work’) things on the outside. The ignorant John Smith, never having had a consciousness of substance, does not know what money is, and is only fooling himself when he tries to imagine that he is wealthy. He has no capacity to accept that which he does not understand.
Jesus had no great earning capacity as a man. His trade was lowly, and in a small town, – and yet He became a master financier when needs be. He knew that the “Jesus” could not afford to feed five thousand men (not counting the women and children), – and yet, He did just that.
“Then went He in and shut the door”, – became the soul with a body, – and WHATSOEVER He designated from that elevation, the Jesus-body carried out without comment, speculation or effort.
Every financier in the world today works through his body into manifestation. Physically, his body may not compare favorably with yours. If he had to use the body to earn a living, he would fall far short of the millionaire. But he is the soul with an unintelligent body which does not know how to make more than a bare existence, and then is in danger of having that taken from him at any time.
And to the financier is given success, – and more and more money, although he may not need it, because the law states “to him that hath (consciousness) shall be given”, in like kind. The power of this “SOUL-consciousness” causes the otherwise sick or poor body to be suddenly transformed.
The moment you know you are a speaker with a body, you will speak in eloquence and with a fluidity hitherto unknown. When the soul is designated as any given thing, it not only brings that into manifestation, but all else that goes with it, – and automatically. Therefore the soul who designates himself a speaker, will find his audience, his hall, his success, – and the flow of the Bright Substance called Wisdom, pouring through him into manifestation. If he stays upon his point, he will see his words take actual shape before his eyes, – he will see the word HEALTH become embodied in well-being, – and WEALTH in the substance of things hoped for.
If the club-footed girl who wants so to dance, would recognize that she is soul, and that soul a dancer, she would find the body would move with such rhythm and beauty as to prove the “height and breadth and depth” of this thing called God, whenever it has half a chance to come through into expression. The hard, opaque walls of human thought give way, and the body becomes plastic to the touch of the soul, – and expresses in a way hitherto impossible.
If you will but grasp the idea that you are a soul with a body, and that soul is awaiting the announcement of the capacity it is to take on, then you will understand all- of the demonstrations of Jesus Christ. You will see why He invited you to partake of the same power, – so that God may be seen before men, instead of this awful human thing, born of Adam, filled with nothing but evil and death. Small wonder then, the insistent commands of “Awake, thou that Sleepest” , – “Awake, and arise from the dead”,”Arise and shine, for thy LIGHT has come”.
Yes, – with the recognition of this wonderful truth you will arise, for the unintelligent body is now obeying the command of the soul and will carry on into expression “whatsoever you ask in My Name (nature)”. WHATSOEVER! What a word! No beginning, – no ending! WHATSOEVER!
So overpowering is this revelation that at first you may well cry with Monte Cristo, – “The world is mine”. But why possess the world or attempt to horde the riches of unintelligent matter, – when within you is the ALL to be brought forth at your command? Long since you have washed your garments white of the greed for power, place or thing, – and so you may have them all because now they are for the Glory of God, – and not for your own vain-glory.
The pictures cast forth disintegrate the moment they are released. This is why Jesus said, “Loose him and let him go”. Now for the first time, working from the elevation that you are a soul with a body Upon which to cast your pictures, you can understand how it is that a picture of paralysis can be “loosed” and “let go”, – and all the thought-congestion of disease slip into oblivion.
When Jesus went from His body to soul and identified Himself with this Permanent Identity, He immediately recognized that everything which Jesus desired already existed. “Body” cannot understand how it is that “before you ask, I will answer, and while you are yet speaking, I shall give it unto you”. Jesus never posited a problem and then try to work it out. He started always from the answer as definitely established, – and the LIGHT of this knowledge ran through the human, limited thought, – replacing the false appearances with the manifestation of the soul.
Whenever man (body) relinquishes his preconceived idea that he is a body with a soul and takes on this NEW elevation, he will find that “whatsoever he asks” is already taking place, – and that the old voluntary action is replaced by an involuntary power which carries on without the thought or suggestion of the John Smith body.
Jesus counseled, “Be absent from the body and present with the Lord”. He knew He was an Immortal, with a body through which to express, – a body which He could lay down and pick up at will. Operating from this level of consciousness, it is easy to understand the miracles.
Centuries of identification with the body has caused man to accept it as an intelligent organism, which calls upon something outside of itself for help. When it is discovered that the body is but a handful of malleable clay, formed of the dust of the earth, – then it is simple to grasp the power which Jesus said He had over the body-temple. Whatever He desired to be, He became in soul, – and the unintelligent body obeyed, without comment and offering no limitations or beliefs. And so the musician who realizes that he is a musician with a body, will find the body performing effortlessly, beyond all its former limitations.
“Then went He in and shut the door” This is the key to the Kingdom of Dominion. The body is the unintelligent screen upon which the soul throws its desires and truths.
Many people attempt to demonstrate finances or health or position by working from the “body” standpoint, – demanding, affirming, declaring that God is the thing they desire. And the success is sketchy, at best. But when the Immortal YOU makes the designation, the body will of necessity carry out the details “by a way ye know not of”. You stand in the place of the Christ instead of under the hypnosis of John Smith, and call upon the LORD with the knowledge that “before you ask, I will answer”, – and “Thank you, Father, – -I knew this was already done”. The body, John Smith, doesn’t know, and thinks something has to be done.
In MY Name! What name? God has many names, – infinite angles of expression. So when you approach the Deity through the Immortal BEing of you, the answer already is, – whether it be decision, – acceptance, – agreement, – – appropriation, – or any one of the various Name-Natures of God.
Whatever NAME-Nature you designate comes into being through the unintelligent body John Smith. At last he (John Smith) has been divested of his power apart from God, his knowledge of both good and evil, – and comes under the benign influence of having had the seven devils cast out of him. So he relaxes, seated at the feet of his Divinity, clothed in his right mind.
The movement of this Immortal YOU, divinely indifferent to the beliefs of John Smith and his thought world, is always in the dimension of success. It does not try, – -it does not work for it, – it is an indigenous quality. Whenever there is an expression of this Immortal YOU, success is assured without effort and thought.
Intelligent, then, is the command, – “Take no thought of the purse, the script, the body”-and so on. Now we see why, – because operating from your Immortal Self, you do not create, or come under the laws of limitation. You release the unseen power into manifestation through the temple-body, – and John Smith, if a cripple, leaps into the air, praising God, – or he opens his blind eyes, – or he is prospered “by a way he knows not of”.
THE SPACE BETWEEN
The space between the cruse of oil and the manifestation of abundance stems from the belief there are vacuities in God. The space between is like the apparent space between electricity and equipment … nothing can take place until a tiny fuse is inserted and the “space between” is filled. The omnipresence of God needs only this fuse (you) of complete recognition or belief to cause the oil to start flowing and from three drops come barrels of oil. It will not stop flowing as long as there is an empty measure.
All this lovely symbology is nil until man discovers that he is the fuse: – the thing which fills the space between something and nothing, and causes manifestation to take place. No wonder Jesus stressed the importance of being silent. No wonder He asked you to be absent from the body, and to come out into the ONENESS of spirit wherein you would find FREE ONENESS. Free Oneness is an Oriental expression of oneness with God. Man is then freed from all beliefs of degrees of life. It is wonderful.
So you enter into the Space Between. You are now at the place where the invisible becomes visible. No one believes this. That is why you are told to place the coal of fire on your Lips, and to go within and shut the door. This law is much disobeyed by earnest seekers of the Light who cannot understand why there are no results, and why the oil does not pour. Yes, you are to borrow vessels not a few. And it means just that. You have been living in a world of limitation.
When you enter or become the “Space between” the flow fills everything around you, – and neutralizes the belief so completely that the problem of lack and limitation does not exist in your universe.
Enter into the Place between and let the flow of light come through you and fill all measures not for the sake of self aggrandizement, but for the free oneness of you and God.
Yes, you are the space between … Enter in and let the flow of LIFE begin to take place. You, yourself, are the answer to prayer. Free ONENESS:
Take it into the sanctuary. Take that word and return unto Jehovah, – the point of power and creation, and see what takes place in the movement of ONENESS when it is freed from the involvement of your human belief, teaching, and thought. You are suddenly a new creature in this light and understand how it is that FREE ONENESS moves by its own power, and has nothing to overcome. It suddenly arrives and IS, and so do you go within and shut the door and stop telling of and about, and begin to experience the action of FREE ONENESS in your own life. Yes, it is like the man who found the pearl of Great Price and bought a field and buried it, after he had let go of all the old worn out cliches and ideas he had picked up from the man whose breath was, and is, in his nostrils. And that buried pearl will illumine the whole earth. Go in – shut the door – put the coal of fire on the lips. IT IS WONDERFUL.
THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS
‘The Spirit of the Consciousness of the presence of God is the Source of all Supply.
‘The Spirit moving upon the face of the water’ – the Spirit of the consciousness is that activating motive which brings into manifestation the unseen things of the spiritual world. The Word becomes flesh by reason of the eternal action of the Spirit. The quickening Spirit is that which has brought it into manifestation here and now.
All people have in some degree the consciousness of the Presence of God. Many can speak volumes of words of and about this consciousness, without manifestation enough to sustain them. Ten thousand holy men, under ten thousand banyan-trees, are not able to do what one simple soul, without name or station, can do through the recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness. Thousands may sit in meditation – in a perfect state of inward bliss – while the worms unfasten the very temple. They may proclaim ‘lord, Lord’ until the end of time, and may experience all sorts of Nirvana while their bodies are rotting with disease, yet until the Spirit becomes flesh it remains invisible: hence, as far as the human manifestation is concerned, useless and unreal.
What though I tell you of the riches of my Father, the King, if I drop with hunger while relating the fabulous stories? What though I tell you of the all-health of Spirit, if I die with disease as I am speaking? What though I tell you of the guiding influence of Spirit, if I cling tenaciously to a position – am looking to an organization or a salary to support my feeble voice – while I loudly proclaim, “The Lord is the source of a supply’?
Until recognition of the Spirit – the living, pulsating Spirit of the Presence of Consciousness of God – is made, man is but another fully equipped power station, with infinite possibilities to illuminate the whole universe, but with no manifestation. As a beautifully installed system of electricity remains in darkness until the wires are connected, so man, though he be fully equipped to flood his universe with light, remains in darkness, until he recognizes the presence of the Spirit.
We recognize that the universe is filled with infinite music, which may be produced anywhere, at any time, yet is inaudible until this recognition. So likewise we shall come to realize the All-Presence of God, and this recognition in the ALL-NOW will produce the quickening Spirit of instantaneous accomplishment. Hitherto we have thought of music as stored up in a gramophone record, or in the soul of a person. We had no thought of its All-Presence in the ALL-NOW, but had to go to people and localities to produce it. However wonderful the manifestation was, it was always hedged about with limitations. Then suddenly came the recognition of the ALL-PRESENCE in the ALL-NOW, and at that instant it became known that it was possible anywhere, at any time, instead of in a single isolated spot. So when man comes to recognize the Spirit of the Consciousness he realizes that, instead of this magnificent power being stored up in certain spiritual teachers, books, or places, it is infinite, and is instantly available in an intensely practical way.
‘If the blind lead the blind, thy both fall into a ditch.” The Truth Speaker will be known by the impersonality of his words. He will not speak of himself but of the power that has sent him into expression. He will not spread himself as a peacock. or call attention to his high spiritual accomplishments. “What went ye out to see?” When are you going to see ME, the glorious Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God in the midst of YOU?
To the coward, death comes many times. “Prove Me and see” is the command. ‘By their works” – not by their words – ‘shall ye know them.” “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” there is the multitude listening. Look about you and see. The living, pulsating, vibrating SPIRIT of the Consciousness – the glorious thing made alive.
A thousand wonderful buildings dedicated to God and His work stand empty while words of, and about, the truth are poured out in any tomes. Once the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God enters in, the walls of the churches will burst with the multitude. Such a power is the Light, that leads by an invisible way, the souls that seek the Light. And this glorious manifestation is possible to you. You – do you hear?
You lay aside the filthy garments or personal worship: you will flee from man “Whose breath is in his nostrils.” You will cease the worship of personality, however consecrated and holy it may appear. You will thrill with the Spirit which is at last recognized within you. “you will know that it is well with ME
As the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God is recognized within you, the belief of poverty or limitation of any sort evaporates. As the mist of belief clears away, you find the Kingdom of Heaven here and now. This recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God acts not as a destroyer of evil, but as a revelator of the ALL-GOOD in the ALL-NOW, and instantly brings out the reality: “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.” When it is once NOW to the soul, it has ALWAYS been
As you are reading these lines I, the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence, am awaiting recognition. You – yes, you, the poor little discounted one, the one who stood farthest from the pulpit, and received scarce a sign of recognition from the consecrated souls – I have come to you, and I AM the same One who has been standing at the door of your consciousness knocking for ages. “Behold I [the Spirit] stand at the door [of your consciousness] and knock. If any [no distinction is made] man will open up to ME, I will come in and sup with him and he with ME.” No matter who you are, neither the grade or the length of your teaching, nor the fears of condemnation. You who read this page, do you hear? Do you see? I AM that which will tear the veil of belief, and you shall see, not a little demonstration of supply that will last you for a week, but the fields white with substance, and you shall know that deep in the secret place of your being is the Key to the Universe. The catering to persons will drop away. You will ask no man permission to perform the work I sent you to perform. “Those that are for there are more than those that are against thee,” for there is but One, the Only, the All.
It is the recognition of the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God that suddenly transforms you and your universe, just as the spirit of the dance transfers an inert figure to a flying, moving thing of grace. Just as a smile transforms the entire face of a person, so the recognition of the Spirit will transform with all the ease, and none of the difficulties, of human effort, the entire life of a person. ‘And the fashion of his countenance was changed.” Do you hear, you who read this page, how radical the change is? The ‘fashion,” even the hard lines that have been with you so long, whether in body, in expression, or accomplishment, all are subject to change to the extent that you will know “the former things have passed away.
Beloved, do you see the extent of this glorious awakening? Do you see the sublime heights to which the Spirit of the Consciousness shall lead you? Not a little healing for the moment, but the revelation or the Son of the Living God here and now; and this revelation will naturally change the “fashion” of your entire expression.
What the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God “decrees”, that shall come to pass, for it is merely decreeing the manifestations it sees in the Kingdom. All the human laws fade into nothingness as shadows disappear before the light. Every law is turned aside in order that the Real Lasting Grace of the Living Word shall be made manifest. Why will you bring such limited measures to the Fount of the All Present? When will you stop trying to do things and appropriate the All-Presence? Only when you have recognized the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God. Only when you stop running to and fro asking people and listening to people whose breath is in their nostrils. “I break the bread with you.” “Give not that which is holy unto dogs.’ Why will you argue and compare, and listen to some wise head, hash and rehash the wondrous words that I speak direct to you from my Son? Be still – be still. ‘thou fool, do you not know that a seed must first fall into the ground before it can be made alive?” When are you going to let the stillness hold you in its heavenly bonds of secrecy and revelation – self-revelation – My interpretation to you, to you alone?
“The Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God is the source of all supply.’ Not of SOME supply, but of all supply. When you know this, you will not try to hoard there will be no need, for supply will be as much present in one locality as another. It will be wherever you are and wherever you desire it. Do you hear? You who read this page? Look between the lines; I speak to you. I cast not my pearls before swine, but I AM pouring them out to you. I AM giving you the keys to the gates of heaven, which you have sought through many avenues, and not yet found. the sordid robes of personality, name, and fame will fall finally from you, and you shall put on the glorious shimmering robes of immortality. I speak to you. Do you hear? You who read this page?
When you are ready to lay down your life, then shall you find it. Then you shall find that you are alive for the first time, and, instead of the ghastly futility of trying to get enough health, happiness, and supply to live by, you will find yourself in the Presence of the All, there nothing is lacking.
That Power which you tried to produce so that you might be known of men, shall be so innately interwoven into your soul that it will be a natural manifestation. Heretofore you have said your words and done your deeds to be known of the populace. You wanted always to be sure that your name was attached to any healing or help that was given, but “then through a glass darkly, but now face to face.” Face to face with the power you have sought for so long.
When you are once enveloped in the secrecy of the Spirit of the Presence, you will know why it is that “their shoes wax not old’ and that the ‘manna falls daily.”
“The whole creation groaneth” – to wit, for the redemption of the body. We see this redemption within ourselves. Verily this has been true to our blinded eyes. A world of people writhing and twisting, begging for mercy, seeking money, health, success, happiness; eternally seeking “things,” and finding only ashes. The veil shall be torn from your eyes by the Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God, and you shall see that the whole creation – your creation – your heaven – rejoiceth and maketh a glad sound, for the Redeemer has come into manifestation. Do you see? You who read this page? You?
You may call ME by a thousand names, yet 1 AM One. ‘you are not another, but the same One’, will finally be said of you. You will realize that you are not a separate little manifestation, with certain powers stored up within you, but you are the same One. There is only THE One.
It is one. It is won. It is wonderful. The limitations of human language make it almost impossible to express anything but the vaguest idea of this glorious revelation.
Behold, I make all things new” – ‘I’ – the Spirit of the Consciousness. I make them new to the eyes that have been seeing through the belief of birth, growth, maturity, decay. I make them new by revelation of the eternal freshness and newness of the changeless universe of God. I make You new by revealing your true self to you. The quickening Spirit of the Presence brings into manifestation power hitherto unknown.
Dare you go your way with Me alone? Dare you rely on Me the Spirit? Dare you to launch out into deep waters, and to push out the borders of your tent? You, I speak to – you who read this page!
Be still, then – I AM HERE NOW – I AM the Spirit of the Consciousness. You have always had the Consciousness of the Presence of God, no matter how little you knew it, no matter how many spiritual busybodies have told you that it has to be evolved. If you were created by God and out of God, you have had the consciousness of God always, and no lying mortal man, no matter if he have a thousand diplomas to tell of his learning, shall make this false. You have this consciousness whether someone has told you, you were consecrated or damned. You are the Son or the Living God, and you are already in possession of this consciousness, and when you recognize the Spirit of the Consciousness, the instantaneous manifestation of the Kingdom is revealed to you.
Do not look for a sign. I, the I AM, descend into the stagnant pool or your human belief. I descend into the dirty waters and purify them. I free you from the prison of your own making.
‘The Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of God is the Source of all Supply. The overflowing, unending, unlimited source of all supply. ‘I come quickly.’ ‘In the twinkling of an eye all [not some, but all] shall be changed. ‘
“The Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence or God is the Source of all Supply. Thank you, Father.
SPIRITUAL ANCESTRY
But I say unto you:
“Call no man your father upon the earth: for ONE is your Father, Which is in Heaven.”
Now that you have taken off at the new level of Spiritual Ancestry, you will begin to experience new dimensions of power hitherto unknown. You take on some of the talents and capacities so beautifully shown by Jesus Christ, who constantly relied on His Spiritual Heritage to do those things which the material parentage could not understand, let alone perform.
Remembering his God Heritage, man performs those things which are both impossible of explanation and of accomplishment in the relative world. All action of God is miraculous to human thought. You are unborn, created instead, immaculately conceived in the mind of God out of immaterial substance.
Claim your heritage. Check the capacities shown by Jesus Christ and begin the assimilation of this heritage, the unborn. The “Before Abraham.” It is wonderful! The Mind which was in Christ Jesus is literally in you – and gives you unlimited scope of expression. “Now O Father glorify thou me … with the Glory which I had with thee” bespeaks much to the one who has ears to hear.
“Thou art confined by no bonds, and thou art the moulder and maker of thyself. Thou canst grow downward into the lower natures which are brutes. Thou canst again grow upward from thy mind’s decision to the Life of higher natures which are divine.” – MONTAIGNE.
Your birthright is the immaterial substance called God.
No man could possibly teach you the things that are revealed from your Spiritual Ancestry. Brushing aside the three dimensional limitations, the power moves into manifestation effortlessly and transformation takes place. As we go from one dimension to another, we instantly take on all of the powers and qualities of the new dimension. As the two dimensional photograph becomes the three dimensional statue, so does the man who moves from (the human-thought) third dimensional realm become the Christ – and instantly finds that those limitations of the former dimensions are nil. He neither overcomes them, sets them aside, or does anything with them other than to ignore them. You are the unborn, call no man father-you were created.
A chalk line may represent a prison to a two-dimensional being, if there could be such a thing – but when he raises himself up into the third dimensional consciousness, he neither works out of, overcomes, nor yet destroys the prison. Now the chalk line represents nothing to him to be overcome or destroyed. “If I be lifted up… I will draw all men unto me” is true because when you enter into the consciousness of any degree of God, you instantly appropriate all the power in that “mansion,” as natural and normal – and you likewise draw all the manifestation to you of your new consciousness.
“I will arise and go to my father” is the last gesture of the human mind which man makes when he goes into a new dimension: from. the Son to the Father. And whatsoever he seeth the Father do, that can he do likewise, for now he is about his Father’s business – the releasing of this wondrous LIGHT into the darkness of human existence and the results are sure and natural.
We see the power of the new dimension in the commands of Jesus Christ. When He spoke, His word carried with it the capacity of fulfillment and revelation, so do your words when they are spoken from this elevation of recognition.
It is after repeated failure to make the wisdom of man “work” that man finally turns from the human father and enters into his Spiritual Heritage, his Spiritual Ancestry – which so completely changes the pattern of life.
“Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith.”
As long as we are identified with the human parenthood, we partake of the foibles of that ancestry – and there are many fables and endless genealogical discussions. There are the grandfathers with their predisposition to evils from certain bloods and races. All this is cast into the discard literally, too, for you are “born again.” And this being born again causes a new set of ideas and pictures to take place. The discovery that you are literally propelled by God and not by man gives you a wonderful relaxation into LIFE.
You are told to let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. The mind of Christ Jesus is that which enables you to know without the intricacies of human reason. It is intuitive – that which is mistakenly labeled psychic.
When you consult the man whose breath is in his nostrils, you have most certainly “turned aside unto vain jangling.” It is recorded of those “desiring to be teachers of the law” that they understand “neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”
So with the NEW LIGHT, do we discover that:
“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.”
When we enter into our Spiritual Ancestry, we are no more under the curse of the Eater, – but under grace, that indefinable quality and power which functions in luminous silence through the channels of being. It is the unseen Presence which is so necessary and which is so evident and which apparently increases in all its capacities when once recognized. The law is not made to inhibit the actions of man. It is only when he does not belong, or understand, he feels the sharp surplus of the “wrath of God” because he ignorantly or intentionally attempts to break it.
Like oxygen which is an invisible, tasteless, colorless, odorless substance within the atmosphere and which is so essential to man, so is the Grace of God, the immaterial substance which abounds for us everywhere, even in hell – and has the pouter of resuscitation and resurrection for those who recognize it.
There could not be an argument about the existence of oxygen, even though it is impossible to handle or see. Why should it be so difficult to accept the unseen power coming from the Spiritual Heritage and Ancestry of man? Why should it be thought that you can handle God, any more than you can handle oxygen? You can only move with it.
With the acceptance of Spiritual Ancestry will come the qualities and talents so long withheld.
“But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become
the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man,
BUT OF GOD.”
STAR DUST
God Smiles on You
WHENEVER YOU “touch ME”, God smiles on you. A feeling of “well done” envelopes you as does the ambient perfume from a field of flowers. Nothing may have changed for the moment, – but a sense of all-rightness sings within, – and then you are feeding among the lilies. All this beautiful symbology becomes real, tangible and true, – and you find you have been seeking ME “as the hart panteth after the water brooks”. Then you “touch ME”, – and God smiles on you.
Through the iridescent clouds of REALIZATION and LIGHT, the manifestation appears, the “dry land” pushes up into reality in such a strange and magical way. The flickering candlelight of human reasoning has burned low, – and “Jocund day”, – joyous day, – a NEW DAY, stands tip-toed on the misty mountain tops. And miracle follows miracle.
And God smiles on you! And sometimes in that smile such LIGHT falls upon a darkened Temple as to rid it of a loathsome disease, or a nagging, never-ending worry, – and PEACE, – yes, PEACE that passeth all understanding, comes to abide in you.
And God smiles on YOU !
The Stream of Consciousness
There is a “stream of consciousness” flowing from the God-head to man. When you “PROVE ME”, you will SEE the Windows of Heaven open and the blessings descend in a never-ending stream, – so many you cannot count them. This is the NATURE of God. “Whatsoever you ask in My Name (nature)”, – whatsoever you “take” in that NATURE, – whatsoever you conceive in the pure consciousness, will instantly begin building its body or vehicle of expression, – just as the moment conception takes place, gestation sets in and the body is formed, and in due time the Child is born.
This process has little to do with the old worn out thought patterns of yesterday, – that which imagined all it had to do was to “think hard” enough and God would do something He otherwise would not have done.
The matrix or model is conceived in the invisible. Like the potter standing before his batch of clay, but detached from it, – and in his mind there appears the perfected object of his desire. When he recognizes it as a reality, then the “stream of consciousness” begins flowing through his temple into the clay, – towards the embodying of his desire. It is invisible to everyone except the potter. In fact, the world would deny its existence, – and would endeavor to prove their point, – just as the potter will “PROVE ME”, and SEE the manifestation HERE and NOW.
The appropriation of the “Finished Thing” is now taking the place of the outgrown “thought” systems. Jesus worked from the basis “before you ask”, – and “Thank you, Father”, – the recognition of the consummation and completion of the idea before it appeared to the limited human sight. And so must we do likewise.
Jesus and His Sisters and Brothers
It is recorded that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were present when the people were marveling at His works and words, – and “they were offended at Him”. A lot of help He received from His family! One would think that if they did not understand or approve of Him, they would have remained at home. No wonder He said, – “A prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house”. “All my familiars watch for my halting.” So goes the old human record. All teachers and revelators have met with the same thing. People who worship emotionally one moment, hate with like violence the next, – for there is no LIGHT there.
And so your enemies are only a testimony of the LIGHT within you. If you did not have the Light, they could not see you. So rejoice, – and be glad! “Blessed art thou, when men shall curse and revile you for MY Sake”. So if you are blessed, – take your blessing and be glad!
What Did Jesus Write on the Ground?
After giving the accusers an ever-lasting rebuke and seeing them slink away in their guilt, He must have written something about the shifting, transient human accusation and forgiveness, – something bespeaking of the incapacity of the human mind to have any enduring principle, – something indicating that their accusations and their forgiveness would last about as long as His writing on the sands.
The Juke Box
(Concerning Choice)
One day recently I sat down at a crowded lunch counter. In front of each one was a slot machine connected with a Juke Box. The gentlemen next to me inserted a nickel, – and we were all treated to a most gorgeous thing about a “hep cat”. When this meowling ceased, someone else dropped in a nickel, and a lovely rendition of Chopin’s Polonaise filled the place. Then food came along, which we all proceeded to put in our bodies.
And then I thought, – “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile him.” Some of the customers, perhaps, were destined to have heart-burn, – others stomach-ache or even ptomaine poisoning. And still others might feel stronger, fatter and more satisfied.
On the Juke Box slot was a little wheel listing the musical numbers from which to choose, – the nickels that went in were alike, but what came out was very different in each instance, according to the choice made.
We choose from a menu what goes into our body, and at the same time, either consciously or unconsciously, choose the effect thereon, with results far surer than dropping the nickel into the Slot. “Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.” “L-a-a-dies, and Gentlemen, – step up and put in your nickel!”
Pancakes
“What are you doing”, said the Prophet to the widow.
“I am picking up sticks to build a fire and cook a pancake for my son and me, – after which we will lie down and die.” How very sad ! Why prolong the agony?
Then said the Prophet, “Well, give me a pancake”.
Of all things! “Didn’t I tell you I only had two?” “Well, then, eat your pancake and die.” All that stood in the way of heaven with that widow was a pancake. Not much, – but she had to remove it in order to see the flowing oil and meal.
You haven’t a pancake in the way of your heaven, have you?
Think This One Over
Did you ever think how that the Children of Israel were supposed to be so abused and enslaved, beaten and underfed, – and then, without any explanation, they borrowed all the jewels and wealth of their masters? How come? And then you discover that in their hurry to get away, they forgot to return the jewels. Now was that nice?
Liars
It is said that no man has a good enough memory to be a liar, – and this is true, unless one belongs to that classification called Pathological Liars.
After several experiences with them I came to the conclusion they are one of the phenomena of life. The things they tell and the minute details into which they go can be accurately checked so far as authenticity is concerned, – and yet the so-called liars have never been near the place they so accurately describe nor experienced the things they so scientifically describe. They never make a mistake when repeating a story, and apparently cannot be caught up on any point.
It causes one to wonder if they are really liars, or if, through some reach of consciousness, they are possessed of the capacity to “see” things. Many children have this extended capacity and have been punished for lying, – and in after years it has been discovered that they ‘knew’ what they were talking about.
Jesus saw all things, persons and places at will. Perhaps these people have somewhat the same power to see, – since everything is eternally existent, and all that has ever taken place is photographed on the ethers.
However, I am not inviting you to join this group unless you can recognize this capacity as a power of consciousness, as did Jesus, – and not assume it as a personal experience, for the glory thus gained is short-lived.
Contracts
One day a young Hollywood Hopeful came to me, radiant with the news of his interview with a studio official.
“Yes, I have signed a contract. I told them what I wanted, – and now I am all set.” “Then all you have to do now, is to go to work.” “Well, – just as soon as they sign. I have already signed.”
Three months later I met him again, – still without work. The studio had not yet signed the contract, – in spite of the fact that he had signed it.
A contract of itself is a mere scrap of paper. If the spirit of it is not fulfilled, nothing takes place.
I remembered the many contracts I had made with God, – telling Him exactly what I wanted, drawing up my own contracts and signing them, but strangely enough, they were not fulfilled. And then I saw, as in the case of the Young Hopeful, if the contract had been executed from the other side, things would have been all right.
How refreshing and how wonderful it would be if we would look over the many contracts God has made with us and signed, – and then affix our signatures to some of them, – and LET them come to pass.
Emotions
If you can check the emotions when discussing a thing, you will be saved many disagreeable ventures. The moment you become emotional over an issue, you automatically take sides in accordance with your personal opinion, – which after all, may be erroneous.
“Come boldly to the Throne of Grace” All wrong disintegrates when the LIGHT of this Throne passes through your temple. “Be not afraid, – it is I”, – the Permanent Identity, which has the power – to “pick it up and lay it down”. When you are ready, “I will do the works”.
If there are no “works”, be not discouraged and go back again to your former bondage. Take all condemnation from your body and self, – then walk straight into the Christ Light, – and naturally and normally bear away your blessings.
Self-pity
David Seabury gives this definition of Self Pity: “A common term for Masochism, – an ugly form Of Egotism”. Masochism is a neurotic state of mind which enjoys suffering.
There is no doubt that self-pity is, as someone has said, more opaque than a solid body. No light or illumination can come through the dense clouds of feeling sorry for oneself.
But if you enjoy indulging in it, that is your business. But no one else does, – which is their business. And so!
This is Where I Came In
I entered a Cinema toward the end of a rather. ghastly newsreel, – an ugly picture of suffering and torture. Closing my eyes, I waited for the feature. When the feature had run its course, the newsreel started again, finally unwinding to the place of torture. I said to myself, – “This is where I came in”, and left the theater. But the pictue continued as long and as often as it was projected, – and the repetition of the suffering and torture would be reenacted over and over, – although the original incident was probably already years old.
“Here’s where I came in” has more meaning than at first appears. We find a unique spot in consciousness in the picture of evil, and if we do not “go out”, the reel will be repeated over and over. The”Squirrel” in the cage of human thought, never gets anywhere, although he travels miles in thought. The wheel he manipulates remains an eternal repetition. There is no escape until he is released from the cage, – -until he “goes out”
But once we awaken and arise and “go out” into the consciousness of the Presence, we are freed from the negative pictures. The reel may continue to unwind, but it has no screen on which to project the pictures into visibility. Memory of an unpleasant incident and not the incident is what perpetuates the evil pictures.
Let us, then, “go out”, – leaving all the ugly human thought-pictures, – and enter into our rightful Inheritance.
This ONE Thing
Attention is the focusing of the ALL of you on one point. Drawing the diffused sunlight through a magnifying glass to a sheet of paper will set it afire.
When we pray, we are told to do just one thing, and one thing only, – and that is to BELIEVE. Through this “magnifying glass” of BELIEF will that for which we pray be “set afire”, or come into manifestation.
“Be not afraid, – only believe.”
“Thou art careful and troubled over many things. But ONE thing is needful.” “This ONE thing I know, – ”
Then do not be like the Ancient Knight, who rushed out, jumped on his horse, and rode off in all directions. Have a definite point and stay on it.
“This ONE thing I do !”
This Temptation-Devil
What are you going to do with this devil which the human mind has made so real through recognition and blame? Yes, perhaps you think that after you said to him “Get thee behind me, satan”, he pushed you, – BUT the push is always from within you. Remember the ancient saying, – “If thou hast not seen the devil, look to thine own self”.
Everything that can tempt you, you have endowed with that power. Nothing can attack you of itself. It has no power so far as you are concerned unless you have transmitted that power to it.
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.”
Obedience
The human mind, with its great or little erudition, always “knows better” than the Divine, – and tries to argue its point, – like Naaman, the leper, who couldn’t see the difference in dipping seven times in the Jordan and in the Pharpar rivers. There probably wasn’t much difference as far as the water was concerned, – but there was a great deal of difference when it came to causing the old human thought to break through its fixed limitations.
“Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, – a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God.”
“We ought to obey God rather than man.”
“Obey my Voice and I will be your God.”
STIR UP THE GIFT
JESUS has not commanded you to do anything that you cannot accomplish. The gift of God which you are asked to “stir up” is already there. If it were not, there is no power on this earth which could put it there. When we speak of the Christ, it is not something that is to be created, evolved, or demonstrated. It is something that is, whether you recognize it, or, for that matter, whether anyone in the whole world recognizes it. It is just this point of recognition that makes it possible to follow out the program laid down for you by the Master. “Go thou and do likewise” does not seem so utterly impossible when you realize that the Power which enables you to “do” the likewise already exists within you.
When Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, it was not to overcome death in the general accepted sense of the word, but it was to call forth this “gift” which Lazarus had apparently forgotten. If it had not been there, it would never have brought him forth from the tomb. Recognition that you are in no way a creator will assist you in awakening the “gift” which is within you. It is the hope of the race, and the hope for you. Nothing is hopeless in this glorious light, for, no matter how wretched the outside may be, the “gift” within is able to lift you up into the perfect manifestation of the “picture shown to you on the mount.”
There is no person with sufficient power to heal you if the “gift” within is not recognized.
Without this recognition of the Father within, or the “gift” of God, it is impossible to accomplish anything.
With this “gift” recognized as resident within every individual, the sick man, the poor man, the criminal, yea, even the murderer, has his opportunity. We all have the same opportunity, no matter what the pictures that are exposed or unexposed in our conscious-thinking may be. That something that was in Lazarus, in the servant of the centurion, in the cripple, and in the harlot, is likewise in you. Until you recognize it you are stoned to death by condemnation or futility.
When you realize this truth, you materialize it. When you know “Our Father, which art in Heaven,” you also begin to experience the result of the recognition, “Thy kingdom come,” or the word begins to appear. Just as soon as you recognize this glorious “gift,” then you begin the materialization.
“Believest thou this?”
Upon the answer to this question depend the results. That which you accept comes to reality and that which you reject passes into oblivion. The highest form of rejection is not resistance; it is Divine indifference.
When the Prodigal remembered the Father, he was able to arise and go there, no matter how far he had gone into prodigality. You are able to call a name you remember, to recite a poem, to describe a thing, and so on. When you remember the Presence of the Father, you stir up this “gift,” and it brings into manifestation “whatsoever” you can ask for in that Nature. The proposition is a personal one. It does not make any difference what another can or cannot ask for. It is up to you. What can you ask for? You can only ask for that which you definitely believe is possible. The other asking is merely ranging about in the quagmire of imagination If you are dissatisfied with what you are able to ask for, there’s only one way to change that, and that is by contemplation and prayer. If you can forget yourself and the ceaseless “Give me — give me — give me” long enough to look into the Nature of the Presence, and see of what it is composed, there will be no more “give me’s.” They will suddenly turn into “Thank you, Father.” They will become the recognition of the Presence in manifestation.
“Believest thou that I am able to do this?” cannot be answered through the conscious-thinking, for at the very outset you do not believe it is possible or you would have performed it long ago. Something higher has to be recognized. A confirmed cripple cannot “believe” that he will be healed from the human thinking standpoint. Jesus could not feed the five thousand people from that level of consciousness. He had to withdraw into the Presence, and whatsoever he found there, that could he materialize. When you realize the Truth you materialize it.
“I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord hath to say to me.” Standing upon this “watch” is not a constant deluge of words, telling what has to be done, and what should happen, and how much you used a certain thing. It is “seeing” what the Inner Power, the Father hath to say unto you. Rest assured it will so far surpass the limited cravings of the human mind that they will be beyond comparison. Remember, beloved, that “my ways are not your ways.” To remember this is to relieve the tension as to the how, why, when, where.
“When ye pray, believe that ye receive.” What a statement! Can you do it? Jesus could do nothing of himself, neither can you, but with the Christ within (the “gift” which you recognize) “all things are possible.” It is wonderful! It is glorious and radiant, the light that is breaking over you now.
As you “acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace,” your whole disposition changes and consequently your whole surrounding changes. “The former things have passed away” – the things which belonged to the former disposition. The lack, sickness, unhappiness, and all other untoward conditions which were a part of you, have been automatically released by coming into alignment with this Divine “gift.” What was formerly true has become untrue to the present state of consciousness. “Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace.” It is wonderful when “Jesus” is acquainted with the “Christ within.” The first sign of this acquaintance is Peace. Excitement, meaningless motion, and restlessness subside. Yet the coming of Peace from this very glorious acquaintance is not drifting aimlessly along through life, nor folding the hands waiting for something to happen. It may bring greater and more continued activity than you have ever known before.
It is said that as a last resort, in ancient Hebrew customs, the name of a person (who was found to be dying in spite of the best efforts) was changed. He was called by a new name, thus bringing into force the idea of a new disposition. Saul and Paul illustrate the changed dispositions. That which was the disposition of Saul was not the disposition of Paul. He was changed, and manifested a completely new background to work against. The former things had passed away and the new day had dawned.
The mere changing of a name means nothing without the consciousness back of it. Because they have heard of the wonders worked by this change on others, many people have tried such tactics without results. Unless the consciousness is changed, the name means nothing. Many say, “Lord, Lord,” and “Peace, Peace,” without any visible change taking place. The doing of anything on the “outside” is futile. The changing of names is as empty of results as the changing of clothing. Dieting according to the findings of others is not always successful. More often than not it is a failure. Yet all of these very things may be dictated from the inner depths and be hugely successful. It is wonderful! When you can stand upon your watch – I said your watch; not the watch of another, but your watch – alone, unafraid, and in the glorified state of “believing,” then will you “see” what the Voice has to say to you. It may call you by the unuttered name, which will snap the cord holding the veil of conscious-thinking between you and Heaven. It is wonderful!
All through the long years of “study” of the how and why of Power, you have been so busy telling “me” what to do that you have not had time to follow the wonderful inspiration, “I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord hath to say unto me.” But now, somehow or other, you are feeling for the first time the Presence enfolding you, and the urge of Spirit tells you of things which the world knoweth not. The startled human thought immediately “tries” to stand upon its watch, and this very “trying” prevents it from doing so. The effortless giving-up which Jesus experienced when he went unto his Father is the state best adapted for you to “see what the Lord has to say unto you.”
When you are through seeking Me for things, then all things shall be added unto you. Why seek further the outside manifestation instead of the Power behind things? Before you I place an open door of attainment which no man, organization, or combination of human thought can close. Enter! No amount of trying to get in by the way of personality will accomplish anything. If you think for a moment that the finding of Christ is for the purpose of glorifying you, to set you up among men, to be known of your good works from a personal standpoint; then you are mistaken in the Word, and when you seek Me thus you cannot find Me. This may seem strange in view of the fact that at that instant I Am in the midst of you, telling you to “seek and find Me there.” The dust of human cunning gets in your eyes and you cannot find Me, when you are seeking after the things of Me and not Me. But when you seek the Me, then the things shall be added.
When you have experienced the Voice you will know why Jesus said, “None of these things move me.” None of the appearances moved him, although he walked in and among them constantly. He was said to be moving always with the wine-bibbers and sinners, and yet he was not moved by them.
“I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord hath to say unto me.” Until you begin to sense the Spirit of Life you will imagine that this command is merely an idealistic utterance. But when you realize that the Word is being made flesh you will receive definite instructions as to what is to be done. The instructions given when you are “standing upon your watch” are so radical that your whole manifestation is changed – yes, in the “twinkling of an eye.”
A woman with a cleft palate, who was unable to make herself understood without great effort, stood upon her “watch” and is today a successful lecturer. It is marvellous to behold in what an extreme manner the expression of the Power comes through when you “stand upon your watch.” Probably the least expected thing or the least possible comes to pass – thus are My ways.
Yes, I would advise, “Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace.” At peace with all the conflicting opinions and beliefs, systems, and methods of knowing the Truth. Acquaint now thyself and be at peace – “thereby all good shall come unto you.” Do you hear? It shall be the manner of your own acquaintance which will be peculiar to you, and it shall have its own ways and means of communicating the revelation unto you. Why acquaint yourself with what a man thinks and believes? “Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace – thereby all good shall come unto you.” All is enough.
If “none of the things” are to move you, you must be in a place of vantage which enables you to look out upon them, and see why they do not move you. Where is the me which cannot be moved by the appearances? Certainly not in the conscious-thinking.
“When you are ready, I will do the works through you.” You are never ready until you find it for yourself. You will never find this out by asking another person. Immediately he will throw up a barrier of questions undermining your convictions, and hence the power cannot manifest through you. Just what you can ask God, for that can He do for you. What you can perceive as done within, will find its outer manifestation, “Stand and deliver!” is the message to the freed soul. When you recognize, with Jesus, that you can do nothing of yourself, and do not try, then you will know what it is to “see” the will of God being done through you.
Presently the need of secrecy comes to the awakened soul. “Tell no man – show John” is written with fire in the heart of the awakened one. Why not tell? For the same reason you do not tear the cocoon from the caterpillar. The Word must drop into the dark and the conscious-thinking, pro and con, must rot away from it, in order that it may come to fruition. It is wonderful when you know the way of secrecy – it is the way of God. “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform” – and if you are going to “let” God move, it will have to be in a way that “Mr. and Mrs. Blank,” however holy they may be, know nothing about. Neither can it possibly be of interest nor help to hear what either of them has to say. But it will be a tremendous hindrance to you if you listen to their advice. When they warn you against the doctrine, “:When you are ready I will do the works through you,” they are talking from the plane of the human thought, and are either consciously or unconsciously trying to make you believe in the impotence of God. Yes, after you have experienced the dire effects of seeing what “Mr. and Mrs. Blank” have to say about God’s work, you will come to know that God of which they are ignorant.
You are traveling the sacred path with Jesus Christ, who is the only companion you need. In His own blessed words lies the key to everything. It does not need further interpretation. When this recognition has come unto you, it will lead you into all things.
Don’t be afraid of me. Don’t be afraid of anything. Put the seal upon your lips, and let your conversation be “yea, yea, and nay, nay,” when it comes to exposing the inspiration which has come unto you.
There be many who, not being able to let go of their limited personalities long enough to hear the Voice, will warn you against Radical Acceptance of the Word of God. What can they say when you produce the works “The signs will follow them that believe” – in My Name (Nature) shall they raise the dead, heal the sick, etc., etc. It is written that this takes place in the Nature of the Christ and not in the opinion of “Mr. and Mrs. Blank,” no matter how successful they have been, nor for what an interminable number of years they have studied the Truth. In My Nature, the promise reads. Do you believe it? Ye shall reap, if ye faint not.” You only faint when you hear the discouragement, the pity, or the venom which come from saluting the man you pass on the highway of life.
Walking with God used to be the special province of the prophet and the poet. Today we are beginning to “feel” the Presence walking in us and with us, talking in us and to us. We are not ashamed to confess Christ as here and now, and the Kingdom of Heaven at hand. Every lip shall finally confess the Christ. Simple confession is good for the soul. When you discover that you believe in the Presence of God, here, there, and everywhere – going before you, preparing the way; walking with you and in you; revealing to you and through you the hidden mysteries; showing you things not told since the beginning of the world – you will find you are in the New Day.
Be still – be very still – stand yet a while on your ((watch)) and “see” for yourself what the Presence has to say unto you. Whatever it has to say, that you can fulfill with ease and efficiency by the Way of God.
Yes, beloved! Christ in you is not at the mercy of evolution. It is not something that is created by the study of words. It does not increase in size and strength as you learn about it. It is eternally the same, and remains unchanged beneath the reels of human pictures which you have thrown upon it. Whenever you become aware of the True Self, referred to as the “picture shown to you on the mount,” the human sense seems to see the manifestation increase in size, just as the tree in the distance seems to grow larger as you approach it. In reality it changes not. It is a glorious revelation to know that this is true and eternal. Any time you remember this fact, you will arise from your human beliefs, and go to your Father.
The gentle persistence of the Power which is bent upon one thing – i.e., awakening you – is nowhere more beautifully illustrated than in the words, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.”
The clearer the recognition of this Presence the more the time-space idea of the lumbering human thought is put to naught. We begin to understand in a degree the “Look again” of the Harvest revelation. Look into My face and see reality, and the slow, heavy, leaden feet of thought will give way to the something that cannot be measured by human standards of velocity. “Before you ask” is quicker than any human measurement of speed. “Look unto me and be ye saved – all the ends of the earth.” Saved from what? One man is saved from death, another from debt, another from unhappiness, another from disaster. In other words, each is saved from his conscious-thinking, which has thrown a veil of false beliefs before him. “Rend the veil?” Do you hear? You who read this line! “Rend the veil” by looking straight into the face of this Presence. Die to it all. “No man shall see my face and live”; he dies instantly to former things and beliefs. “Now through a glass darkly” will resolve itself into “Then through a glass darkly, but now face to face” with the Presence, the Power, and the Glory of the Risen Lord.
The foreshortened vision of the human sense can only see as far as the heavy veil of conscious-thinking, consequently all its reason must be founded on just this. “Look again” lies outside the possibility of this narrow vision. It is wonderful! Praise God! Praise His Holy Nature – let all the earth rejoice! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth !
THE STORY OF EVERYMAN
You are Everyman. The Bible is the story of your life. You have only to supply your name and change the dates and places to bring the present incidents of your life into line with the story of the Bible. It is so with every book.
Who has not written a thousand Psalms of praise and desolation? Who has not stood in the place of Job with all the world slipping about him, only to find the solution of his problem lay in praying for another? When Job prayed for his friends God turned his captivity into freedom, and he had twice as much as he had before. Seeing that he had nothing when he came to the understanding of the situation, it is interesting to note that by praying for another he had his former goods restored to him increased a hundred per cent. Praying for others seems to be more profitable than praying for one self.
Man often becomes so obsessed with what he calls his own problem, that he cannot possibly see good. His thought is constantly dwelling on appearances and he crystallizes to circumstances. But there is always a way out, and if you will read the Bible in the first person in the present tense you will see the solution to every difficulty into which you have drawn yourself.
It is not the mere fact that Job prayed for his friends that brought about the transformation. The secret lay in that fact that what he was able to see for another, came true in his own life. Becoming intent on good in another, breaks the continuity of the thought of evil and causes the good to manifest. That which you see for another you see for yourself, and you often are able to bring out your own good by turning your attention directly to another and insisting on seeing the good and perfect in him. While you are seeing good for someone else the thoughts of evil concerning the appearances of your own universe are dropped from thought. When this takes place the manifestation drops from sight. It can only remain as long as it is held in thought.
What you accept for another you accept for yourself. There is only one Self, and all? There are those who believe there is God and something else, but where this cannot explain. Can you be conscious of something that God does not know? Can you get rid of something that God does not know exists?
“Awake the that sleuth.” “Having eyes yea see not.”
Again, who has not heard the command to arise and go into a new country (state of consciousness)? Who has not been commanded to leave a present state of consciousness and look not back? And who has not indulged in the painful process of looking back only to find for the time, like Mrs. Lot, that he or she was crystallized to past conditions, and could not move from the spot? A pillar of salt is the price one pays for rehashing and rehearsing past conditions. “What is that to thee?” If it were nothing in the first place, why go over it? “Awake thou that sleepeth.” Why make the evil you have overcome so great by constant repetition until it assumes such proportions as to look almost insurmountable? You need not be surprised if you are comforted with the condition again, for what you prefigure so terrible and strong will have to be eliminated from your kingdom. “Let the dead bury their dead.” You have no time to talk about past victories. Press on to the great calling. “There are many things that I could not tell you,” for you would not have appreciated them because you were still looking and talking about signs and wonders. There is something greater than getting things and making demonstrations, and that is the constant realization that you are God in essence; a point in consciousness.
“Turn not back;” on, and on you go. You are free. You are scaling the Mountains of Abandon. What matter what others think, do, or say? You are free. You have heard the voice of Truth. You are free, free, free!
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.” (Many states and stages of consciousness await you, when you are ready to “let go” of the desire for things.) Remember “things” will be added when they are needed. That is enough, and enough is plenty. Why worry? Do the ravens or the lilies worry? “Awake thou that sleepeth.” God can, and does turn his universe without your aid or suggestion, and he will not change the unchangeable law to suit your wishes. Awake! Awake! Awake!
Once in your life at least you have been the Shulamite woman. Once you have known the glory of absolute faith. Once you have known the isness of God, and doubted not, and even when the dearest manifestation (the son in the Orient is the dearest) seemed to be taken away from you, you did not quake; you went to the prophet; and when he saw you coming, he asked: “How are things with you?” and you answered instantly, “It is well with me,” and threw yourself down at his feet (understanding) and did not depart until he came with you, and it was well with you.
Oh, the glory of it all, the glory of beholding the isness of life, when the whole circumstance world is saying just the contrary!
And again, who at some time has not been gathering a few sticks-hunting around the circumstance world for a little help-to cook a handful of meal before lying down to die? Then the prophet came and said unto you: “Give me first.” On the very face of the request it seemed almost cruel to take the meal from you, and yet, what a glorious lesson–” “Give and it shall be given unto you;” give from thy nothingness, as it were. When the command comes to give, the command is for that one who has written on his forehead “He who hears obeys.” The coward, the fearful one, the glutton, the miser will all argue, and so they eat their cake and die. It is so written in the law. You are not asked to do anything that you cannot do. Fear not; if you give of your handful of meal there will be plenty for you, and you will not die, but live as a giver of good. He who gives in his want breaks the so-called law which binds him.
And again, with your few drops of oil and your heavy debts, you are sent to borrow the empty vessels of your neighbors and fill them with joy. You cannot have good for yourself until you recognize it for all the world. Heaven is not a place where you monopolize good and see your brother in need. He must be filled from the same cruse of oil, and verily, your curse shall not run dry. Joy (oil) increases every time it is used. A smile an inch long will encircle the globe when it is let loose–when it is given.
Decision is the keynote. “Choose ye this day.” “He who hesitates is lost.” If he wavers in the decision of good he will get the poison of indecision and roam in a desert of his own making–a desert of long, tiresome waiting. He waits for something to happen, not realizing that everything has already happened. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.” all this signifies that you have the light to shine with and can do it, for you are the light. do not seek it in another.
Have you not crucified yourself a thousand times on the cross of your own making? Have you not been placed in the tomb of your own making and finally resurrected yourself? Have you not died daily and been born daily? Is there anything in the Book of Books that is not the story of your personal experience in one way or another?
Have you not worried about who was going to roll the stone away, when in reality the stone was never there? Have you not exclaimed, “They have taken away my Lord,” only later to hear the Voice calling your name and your attention to the living principle of life?
Again, have you not entered your temple and driven out the money-changers (grasping, cunning thoughts that would sell Truth) and the dove-sellers (thoughts that would deceive the very elect)?
Has it not been proved that God is the only Power? Have you not gone out in your little craft only to find yourself over taken by a raging tempest, and then, filled with fear, you remembered the Master and called, “help or we perish,” only to hear the “Peace be still?” You are the boat, the disciple, and the Christ idea, all in one.
Yes, Beloved, you are everyman. You are every book, every song, every play, every picture and poem.
The glory of it all comes flooding over you. You again build your Ark and take therein the male and female (knowing and feeling) of every idea that is worth keeping, and then the descent of the Holy ghost takes place and floods out undesirable thoughts. the former things are washed away and shall not be remembered nor come to mind any more.
“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have life eternal.” Is God dependent upon air, exercise, diet, or drug to keep his manifestation alive? What is that is the image and likeness of God? Where is the image and likeness, and where is God?
As you have written all the parables of the Book, and lived them over many times in your life, so you will one day be able to go through the fiery trials (or circumstances) and come out, “without the smell of fire on your garments.”
“Who is so great a God as our God?” The Scriptures are history and parable until they are read in the present tense, with yourself taking on the role of the doer in every story and circumstance. You will gradually learn that there is not a single problem into which you can possibly bring yourself that is not already solved by the story of the type-man Jesus Christ and his group of co-workers.
You have been both the “sinner” and “the holier than thou”–the one beating upon his breast, and the other praising himself. See that you fall not again into this duplex state of self-pity or self-praise. Both states belong to the man of the circumstance world. They are not a part of the Son of God.
Everyman reads the handwriting on the wall. Only that man who has eyes can read, eyes for good alone. This handwriting is so plain that he who runs may read, and yet so secret that he who stands before it all day and argues from the intellectual standpoint sees nothing but the letter. “The letter without the spirit is dead.”
“Know ye not that ye are gods?” was asked of those of the hearing ear. It is the vainest confusion to the man of the circumstance world. He, hearing it, attempts to be a god, but his clay feet give way and he is reduced to the dust from which he came. “What went ye out for to see?” asks John. Ask yourself this.
Away with the sense of futurity. You are spiritual at this instant, as spiritual as you are ever going to be, if all be Spirit. Because you do not perceive this, at this instant, does not make it untrue. There are many things that you denied formerly that you admit as true to-day. When you begin to accept the isness of life, you begin to bring it into manifestation, by becoming aware of it.
“It is done” is more than a phrase; it is a statement of a fact, changeless and eternal.
You have been the “stoned” and the stone-caster. You have drawn your holy garments aside in your ignorance, not realizing that by so doing, your own mentality was casting the evil vision you saw as another, in front of your dimmed eyes. It is hard to wash clean the garments you have stained at the expense of another’s peace. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, ye have done it unto Me.” Be careful that you be not guilty of offending the Christ with your misguided sense of holiness.
“Awake thou that sleepeth.” Awake! Awake! Awake! The new day has come. Arise and go forth in the glory of your revelation.
When the world says it is hopeless, and you are cast into a sea of doubt and fear, there is a way of escape. If you get in Jonah’s place, remember that, to make the scene perfect, the whale comes at the right time. “Fear not, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” A gift must be accepted before it is yours. Do you believe this? “It is your Father’s good pleasure”–a pleasure for God to bring his kingdom into manifestation. This is not figurative to the seeing eye. It is literal and practical. Awake! Awake! Awake!
You have been baptized by reason, but now you have come to inspiration. You go from glory to glory, “for now ye be in the Spirit and are no more under the law.” What law? The law of the belief in evil.
“”What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” You, awakened one, do not stay in the former order of things. The glory of the Lord hath been revealed to you. You have seen the Christ. You have served him in a million forms and shapes. You can never lose the image of his glory. You have washed his feet and received his blessing. It is well with thee.
No more do you talk about Truth. You talk the Truth. Works and words are as far apart as the poles. Awake! Awake! Awake!
Do not argue. Do not try to please or displease. Live and let live. Live the life. Be the life. Be Truth, and you shall know that no “word of God is void of power.”
Until the inspiration is awakened and opened in you, all outside teaching is vain–clouds without rain.”
The inspiration of the Almighty will lead you into all things and teach you all things. What more can you desire? Inspiration is a gift which must be accepted as a present possibility before it can come into being.
SURRENDER
When you come to the place of giving up – letting go and relaxing all the human opinions and beliefs – all the substance of your affairs and your body you will also begin to experience a new Power moving into expression.
Surrendering all your wishes and desires will release into expression all the wonderful power of God which is to fulfill in you that which you have sought so long. It is wonderful.
When you surrender, you let go of all the substance of your present life – your body – your affairs – and a sudden influx of light takes place.
“When my will is your will, and your will is my will, then the will of God is being done” – in other words, when you are able to surrender your own ideas – and notions – even to the surrendering of the substance of your body, then you begin to understand what the complete surrender means.
When you have surrendered, or let go of, your every desire, or human belief, you find yourself suddenly aware of the fact, that you are the temple of the living God, and that all this substance (matter) suddenly becomes plastic – shapeable to this Christ Consciousness within.
The substance of your body then is free from the beliefs of disease, age, limitations, fear – the substance of your body becomes – the fluidic “something” which can be fashioned into the perfect body – or temple of God. The moment you see this Truth, you will let go of the old human idea that man is to be healed by prayer. Prayer that is effective is only pure recognition of your divine heritage.
To arise to your freedom into the new day of realization, you must be willing to let go of all the “John Smith” ideas of life.
You are NOW entering into a new plane of expression. Do you hear? Answer me? Are you (the reader) ready and willing to surrender the old John Smith consciousness for this new, lovely life?
Can you understand that if you let go of this “John Smith” consciousness, you will let go of all the history (his story) of the present incarnation, and come out into the new revelation of who you are? The new revelation is that which takes place when you surrender all the silly beliefs of John Smith.
A new door into a new expression will suddenly open to you. Like the chambered nautilus, you will begin to understand your on-going.
With this surrender will come a great relaxation – “a peace that passeth all understanding” – it so far above all human reasoning.
Surrender – give up – cast all your burdens on ME, and I will sustain you. It is wonderful. You are in the new day.
TAKE NO THOUGHT OF THE JOURNEY
“Go into all the world, preach the Gospel, take no thought of the journey, the robe, the ring, the purse,” etc.
Christ is rich, and all you need, and Christ is all in all. Christ is the denomination of everything. Most of us are looking for things, and in fact we think it is things that we need, but presently we learn that Christ is rich and ALL we need, and we make this true and then we understand how it is that we can go without thought of the robe, purse, scrip, etc. – because we “take the name Jesus with us”; the very nature of the Christ through which all things can and do happen. “I can do all things through Christ, Who strenghteneth me.” We begin to see that this invisible Christ becomes flesh, as in the case of Jesus. Discovering the power within Him, Jesus found that He could call upon this name or nature and produce that which was lacking to the human sense. Seeing the utter impossibility of such a thing taking place from the relative plane of things, He said “I [Jesus] can of mine own self do nothing, but with God all things are possible.”
All things are possible through this Christ within when you actually recognize that it is the denomination of everything. “Call upon ME and I will answer you” – there is something definite and certain about this command. We are through with the promises that are to be filled in the future. “Now is the accepted time” sounds like something worth while, something worth holding on to. And all this NOWNESS comes through when we begin to realize even in a remote way that Christ is all we need. This indefinable quality of consciousness which is inherent in all of us is the ALL of everything we need. It is the invisible SEED in itself. “Every day it is increased by as many more,” it is a process that is beyond the human reasoning, and produces results that go beyond the grasp of the human intellect, for it functions in the plane of manifestation covering those things which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man.”
“Call upon ME and I will answer you.” There is no perhaps or maybe about it – if it is possible for you to CALL upon this Power it will automatically answer you, in a way and by a means that ye know not of. You cannot determine the manner of its coming, for “My ways are not your ways.” “My ways are as high above your ways as the heavens are above the earth.” There is little use trying to figure out a “way” for this Power to operate. It is Wonderful!
You can only CALL upon the ME when you come to a full belief in this ME. “Whom do you say that I AM?” must finally be answered rightly. “I say that you are the Christ.” Every man must finally answer that same thing to the VOICE within. “Whom do you say that I AM?” when answered and recognized as being more than a theory, will suddenly open the doors of attainment to you, and the new day sets in and then you can understand and appreciate how it is that you are commanded to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel” without price, etc. and how you are told to take no thought about any other things.
Turning your attention from the appearances and on to the Christ within, you are getting at the very source of the ALL. You have discovered the treasure of life, an inexhaustible source of all things, for then things will have lost their importance and value, and will take up their proper place as vehicles for the Power to find expression in. So is your body merely the vehicle of Power, the temple of the Living God. The Christ in you, when recognized, begins to unwrap the grave clothes or the swaddling-clothes that have bound you, and the cry, “Who will deliver me from the bondage of this death?’ (who will deliver me from this body or embodiment of beliefs that hold me so fast into the race idea of limitation, disease, age, poverty, and unhappiness) is answered. The Christ within will resurrect Himself and come forth, and celebrate the Christ Mass in you and in your holy temple. It is Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! “Yet in my flesh shall I see God” – the Word shall become flesh and dwell among us; the very thing we have been seeking to USE as a power apart from us becomes the actual us in manifestation. It is Wonderful!
“Take the name of Jesus with you” – the nature of this power with you is the Open Sesame to all doors. “Call upon Me and I will answer you.”
“Believest thou this?” The manifestation rests on this one thing. “Believe and thou shalt be saved.” Not credulity, but a something that has recognized the all Presence of God and the Power of Christ within as more than a theory.
“Take the name of Jesus with you” “Christ is rich, and all you need.” ALL is enough. “Be still and know that I AM God.”
TAKING THOUGHT
WE are taught concentration; we are taught relaxation; and we are taught to speak as one having authority; but until we obey the Law which says: “And I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on” and “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” we shall ever be fussing about trying to think ourselves out difficulties, and finding in the last analysis that we have been largely under self-hypnosis.
If the Law states clearly that nothing is to be changed by thinking, then why does man persist in trying to think himself out of difficulties? A survey of the thinking process of making success, happiness, and health shows clearly that there is more failure than success.
No matter what your opinion may be regarding the subject, you never will change anything in Reality by your thought process. If the eternal verities were to be changed by the mere thinking of man, the whole of existence would be at the mercy of man, and chaos would result. The only thing that is changed by thinking is your attitude toward a thing.
Some people think that meat is harmful to them, others that they cannot do without it. What about this? Is the help or harm in the meat? It does not follow, because you think a certain way, that makes it the same for another. Because you think a thing is good does not necessarily make it so. At one time it was thought to be good to force religion on people, obliging them to attend religious services. Today this is changed . Only beliefs can be changed – Realities never can. And so man again finds that he is up against a shifting, changing system of thought, he has beseeched, begged, pleaded, and even demanded what he claimed was his Divine Heritage, without the slightest result. He has lived upon some far distant demonstration of the Power, and has drained it dry of Its inspiration, hoping against hope that he might have a return of the Power. He has asked himself and others why it is that he is unable to heal or get healed, and eventually he turns to the plane of-
Spirit
“I Am of too pure eyes to behold iniquity” is the watchword. Man begins to understand that the Power of the Christ-consciousness, which is quicker than the thought, is awareness, and not creation. For the first time he sees that his eye has been double; that he has been living in a world of good and evil; that he has had to accept evil before he could get rid of it; that if he could get rid of it, it of necessity must have been unreal, l lc sees that belief is the only thing that can be changed, and that the eternal laws of God cannot be broken. If they could, they would be worthless. What man does is to attempt to break them, and is himself broken in the attempt. Awareness of his God Self lifts him to a place of recognition. He sees clearly that all evil is ignorance (ignoring God). Just as a student of music who ignores the principles of harmony will achieve small results and much discord, so his acceptance of evil as something that has to be got rid of is merely his ignorance of the Something that must be recognized. In spite of the injunction “Take no thought,” thousands of people are today fighting a terrific battle With evil, which is more or less real to them by reason of their acceptance of it.
“Come out from among them [your beliefs] and be ye separate.” You can believe, anything, but that docs not make it true. Eventually man will take the path of pure Christ Truth as manifested by Jesus, and will learn there is no time which is before the Christ-consciousness. Before Abraham was I AM. That is there is no Before Christ. There is a before Jesus. “Before Abraham was, I AM,” but there is a very definite period prior to the Jesus. The “Jesus” comes and goes, but the Christ remains in his changeless state of glory, waiting recognition. If Jesus had not recognized his True Self, the Christ, he would have passed away unknown, an obscure carpenter in a small village. He admitted that as Jesus he could do nothing, but that with the Christ he could do anything. He made it perfectly clear that what he did through the man Jesus is a present possibility with every man, knowing the Impersonal Power which was and is impartial, and everywhere instantly available.
Man begins to see that he cannot change the eternal facts of Being. Thousands have said “Lord, Lord,” and received nothing. Thousands have said “Peace, peace,” and there was no peace; and thousands have said “Peace, be still,” and seen a raging sea of human belief calmed like a millpond at sundown. No authority rests in the plane of the mental, for its basis is constantly changing.
Not so long ago people believed that every true prayer should be prefaced with endless denials; this being eventually found unproductive of results, the idea was changed to intense and repeated affirmations of the truth. This too is beginning to crumble. Trying to take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence has not proved successful. Telling the Creator that He is God, and the only Creator, is no revelation to God, and does not make it any more true than by repeating a thousand times over that two times two are four, makes four any more than it was before. It has always been that and always will; nothing will ever change that, for it is an eternal verity.
Gradually man begins to see that all his thought-processes have come to naught-he has merely builded up a universe of beliefs which he finds tumbling about him. In his desperation he reaches out for the Reality of the Spiritual Plane, the place of Changeless Reality, and begins to experience the first real and enduring peace he has ever known–the Peace which passeth all understanding, HE sees now that the injunction, “I will overturn and overturn, until he comes whose place it is to rule,” is made true, and he is happy at last to be rid of the bulky letter of that teaching which was given to the child and kept from the wise and prudent.
Why man has gone so far afield is the amazing thing when he begins to see the simplicity of life and the beauty and holiness of the true creation. He smiles when he thinks with Shakespeare, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” and he sees the utter impossibility of such a creation proceeding from God. Imagine a world that is constantly subject to change by taking thought!
Awakening to the glorious possibilities of the Sons of God, man is self-revealed- in a burst of glory he suddenly sees the portals of Heaven (self-expression) loom white and glistening before him. He begins to experience here and now his Heaven. He calls from the watch-towers of the universe:
It is wonderful!
His Name – the name of your I AM – is Wonderful, and the government of the life of your Jesus – your human personality – shall be upon His shoulders.
Beloved, rejoice; it is wonderful. All the tiresome job of governing this erratic personality which you have called by a special name falls away. You take My yoke upon you and find My burden is light. My burden is merely the bearing of the testimony to the world that the Law of a Changeless Universe is here and now effective, and that the Sons of God are not in any way subject to the limitations of the human personality. Man begins to see that true prayer means alignment with that which IS, and the consciousness of “thine and mine” passes away and the Divine Ours comes into being.
Heaven and earth are full of Thee. Think of it ! You are living, moving, and having your being in the pure substance of Spirit. You do not have to think it into manifestation; you have to recognize that Jesus was a truth-sayer and not a liar when he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand – it is within you.” Believest thou this? — you who read this book — or will you drag in your dead fathers and your qualifications and limitations and your special brands of teaching?
When the eye becomes single the whole body is full of light – full; not nearly full. Full to overflowing, because it has lost the shadow of belief, which says there is evil in the universe and that thinking can change it into good. When the eye is single, it will perceive Reality instead of belief, and will them-by see Reality into manifestation everywhere. It is wonderful.
Before you, [who read this book], a new door has opened, the door of Christ. “I AM the door”and at the same time, “Behold I stand at the door.” When you, through the process of recognition, know that there is such a thing as a Perfect Universe, created and sustained by God, who found it very good, you will, by opening the door of your human consciousness, find that I AM there, ready to enter into expression. The I AM is your individual expression of the Universal God. And no sooner is the door opened than you find that the I AM (your own individual point of consciousness) is the door of every wall, to every room (new state of consciousness), to everything that formed a shell about your good and which you termed problem. Behold! behold! It is I – your Real Self. Be not afraid.
Quicker than thought is the thinker of the thought – quicker than the twinkling of an eye – quicker than any human measure is the I AM – knowing everything, needing nothing, awaiting recognition. I must increase – the Christ-consciousness must come more and more into visibility; you (human beliefs) must decrease. The going of the personality, with its petty desire for fame or name, or its holier-than-thou, stone-casting propensities, must decrease in order that the Son of God may come to rule in his own universe.
Contemplation of the Perfect Universe – not the attempt to create it – will cause your human universe to take on new proportions. The borders of your tent will be enlarged; you will launch out into deep waters; you will sing a new song.
To be absent from the body and present with the Lord is not an emotional experience, but a present possibility. To be present with your True Self is to find yourself in possession of everything that is necessary to sustain the no-problem state of existence. It is wonderful!
TASTING
THE sense of taste is virtually limited to the flavor of foods and a recognition of temperature of such foods. It is confined almost wholly with that which goes into the mouth, and yet every man knows that synthetic flavorings are so common as to fool very often the most exacting connoisseur. In view of this limitation it would not be very safe to found anything very definitely on the results of this sense; any wisdom gained from this limited and uncertain sense would surely come under the “foolishness” mentioned in the quotation referring to the wisdom of man. In view of this limitation man is asked to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” How are you going to taste and see an invisible thing at the same time? The “Wisdom” of man immediately charges the whole idea off to an impossible abstraction. Not realizing the extensive possibilities of the sense of taste, he only uses it in its lowest and most uncertain capacity.
As this “taste” is extended into the place of understanding, man begins to learn that he “shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the Mouth of God,” and that “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead, but you have manna they knew not of”——i.e., the manna that cometh down from Heaven. We have treated all this wonderful wisdom for ages as nothing but abstract poetry, but gradually we see that the “years” have not produced through the “wisdom” of man anything more than the same old helpless and hopeless pattern of “birth, growth, maturity, and decay,” and so the “eyes” are beginning to seek out something beyond this “foolish wisdom.” The mouth is beginning to “try” the words, and gradually is feeling its way into a new dimension.
“Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead, but”-are you going to do the same thing or begin to partake of the “bread that cometh down from Heaven” and live? Certainly if you are going to eat the bread from Heaven it will not be something put into the mouth which will be sour or sweet, hot or cold, solid or soft. “Not that which goeth into a man, but that which cometh out, defileth,” or maketh him. A thousand and one food faddists have convinced you that health does not always come out, even though you eat only the foods which are guaranteed to produce it. The moment you depend on anything for that which is a natural expression of God, at that moment the “thing” which comes out becomes unnatural and uncertain. There is such tremendous power in the sense of taste, when it is extended into its full capacity, that it transmutes that which is set before it.
“Eating` that which is set before it in the name of Jesus Christ” is one of the capacities of “taste” which frees itself entirely from any power in food. At the same time this very taste excludes nothing. The automatic sense of selectivity which is in this awakened sense of taste will gauge, regulate, and choose without any confusion or outside help that which will perfectly sustain and manifest the necessary condition of body. Is it too far a reach to imagine that you may glimpse this glorious extension of the sense of taste, which, like all the other senses, does, in the twinkling of an eye, what a thousand years of the “Wisdom” of man cannot possibly do? “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is enough to know that no reliance whatsoever can be placed in anything outside of God. There be those who know that food is more powerful than God, and so it is to them. It is poison to many, and meat to many; why?
Yes, “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and they are dead, but-” Does it not thrill you to contemplate that remark of Jesus-and more especially the inference that “death is not necessary to you,” whether you can sense it or prove it? It is definitely inferred, and it definitely has to do with the sense of taste. The foreshortened sense of taste which did eat the manna in the “wilderness” of human belief caused the death, apparently. At least, this very taste finds that food, or the lack of food, can kill a man. “But ye have bread they know not of-the manna which cometh down from Heaven.” Where is Heaven? Do not ask any man; ask Me. The Heaven to which Jesus referred was a State of Consciousness, and so the “Bread” which cometh down from Heaven and is eaten by you is to proceed out of the Consciousness of the Presence, and must be eaten and tasted by something more extensive than the limited sense of taste as known by the average man.
When Jesus came to the woman at the well in Samaria, he asked her for a drink, which she gave him. Then he said to her, “If you had asked me I would have given you living waters to drink, which if a man tasteth thereof he shall never die.” “What? Why, you haven’t a rope, or bucket, or any dipper, and the well is deep”-and so she missed the great chance to use the sense of taste, and to be watered with the “Living Waters.” Immediately her human wisdom came into play. She drew water from the well daily, and knew just how deep the well was, and how impossible it would be for Jesus to “give her to drink,” and that settled that (just as you know how impossible it is for you to taste the Lord and see that He is good). So she rushed back to the village and said, “Come and see a man who told me all things”-in other words, “Come out and see the fortune-teller by the well.” What do you want to know? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God”-that is just as impossible to most people as it was to the woman who explained, “But you have no rope, or bucket and the well is deep.” “Have you no sense, man? Can you not see how impossible it all is? It is nothing but talk.”
“I sees what I sees and hears what I hears and I draws my own delusions,” said the old man who knew all about it, and so, “How can you give me to drink?” But yet it remains, “If you had asked me 1 would have given you living waters which if a man drink thereof he shall never die.”
“Eat my body and drink my blood.” The capacities of the sense of taste widen at each moment. It is so far removed from the limitations of tasting with the tongue as to be almost unrecognizable to the unenlightened, who for the most part will consider it pure mysticism, wholly impracticable. And yet it is the most practicable thing in the world, and when a man begins the use of the true sense of taste he shall never thirst again. Whatsoever things he does in Spirit shall immediately be done in the physical. If he can drink deep of spirit or of the living waters when the physical body is parched and thirsty, he will find “wells of living waters in deserts” of human belief, and food in abundance to assuage the physical hunger. When he learns the pure mysticism of “eat my body, drink my blood” he has solved once and for always the problem of food and drink. It is bound to manifest in the flesh. “That which is told in secret is called from the housetops” -that which you perform in secret is made manifest in the flesh.
A woman once proved this rather miraculous thing of partaking of the living waters. Finding herself incarcerated in an institution of questionable character, and suddenly perceiving that the purpose of this place was to torment her until her reason had completely fled, she realized that no amount of struggle or railing would avail her anything. The thirst brought on by salty foods had been allowed no water for forty-eight hours, and the manifestations of this enforced fast from water were rapidly appearing. The adjoining bathroom was shut away only by a screen door, which was kept locked, but all the faucets remained wide open and gallons of water poured away. It was at the point of being almost too much to stand longer when the revelation of the true “taste” came into being. “If you had asked Me I would have given you living waters, which if a man drink thereof he shall never thirst again.”
And suddenly she asked, and quite as suddenly she received, and a fountain gushed up within her and watered her whole being and body. So beautifully was this mystical thing accomplished that every desire for liquid of any sort ceased and the relaxation of the body took place. At the instant the “living waters” were “tasted” the attendant came rushing in with a large pitcher of water, almost as if some power had suddenly propelled her in against her wishes or understanding. She did not then drink, for there was no need of it, but it was there to drink, and so will it be with you when you begin the “eating of my body and the drinking of my blood.” These abstractions take on a more real quality than the human mind can imagine or dream of. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” is the universal substance feeding you eternally; and this “manna from Heaven” has to be tasted by something more comprehensive than the sense in the consciousness which consistently argues, “But the well is deep and you have no rope.”
“He that hath ears, let him hear what the Scriptures say unto the churches”-bodies, temples. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Do you hear? Do you begin to see what Jesus was bringing to the world when he told us so definitely to “eat my body and drink my blood”? It is wonderful to contemplate the magnificent reaches of life as viewed or experienced through the extended senses.
“Come see a man”-and so the metaphysician rushes about from one “man” to another, finding out more about the life and history of the man than the principle he brings. “Come see a man” persists as the cry until the light comes, and then it is, “Come, see a principle.” There is nothing impossible to God, and presently this will be more than an affirmation; and, when questions of physical distance or inability come into the pictures, they will be disregarded, and the distance will be bridged by performance in Spirit. Jesus never tried to “fix” or “figure out” the appearances of things, but he did span the seeming gaps in the realm of the Presence, and then discovered these gaps or empty measures all filled to overflowing.
You—yes, you—have “manna” they know not of-but what about it? What does it amount to if you cannot taste it? Can you begin to see what hopeless things words become without the Spirit, and how the dead letter offers nothing worth while to live on? Philosophy, Christian or pagan, is all right for the open forum, but it is a poor meal ticket.
Do you believe that the Lord is God? Answer me. “Taste and see.” Whatsoever you perform through the extended senses comes into manifestation, and so the problem of eating and drinking is for ever settled. No wonder, then, that Jesus advised the journey without thought of the purse, scrip, robe, etc. What need to be burdened with all this if you have the power within you to “eat my body and drink my blood”—–if you have the power to “hear my voice” and to “look again” and to “touch me in the crowd” and to “feel after me” and find me?
The Lord in the midst of you is strong and mighty, but you must find Him there before you can find the manifestation of this strength in your temple-body. The “searching” of the joints and marrows becomes more than a Bible quotation when the senses are awakened to their true capacity. The Lord circulating through the Temple. Nothing can separate you from this revelation—-neither height, breadth, length, powers of darkness, not even the gates of hell. Do you begin to grasp what Jesus was giving to the dull ears?
The River of Life flowing through the midst of the “Garden” shall water the seeds of desire and hope, long since abandoned, and cause them to bloom in all their glory. Yes, the desert shall blossom as a rose, and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places shall be made smooth, as this River of Living Waters flows on and on through the Garden of your body-embodiment.
“Come eat and drink without price” can be understood. The extended sense of taste causes man to see the great “free” gift of Life. “My grace is sufficient for you”-and now you are beginning to know that this “grace” is not a sort of sorrowful bearing up in the miseries of the human destiny, but a wide, sweeping sense of the Presence, nurturing and caring for you. “If your mother and father know how to bestow good gifts, how much more do I, the Father of All, understand these offices”-or words to that effect-are said unto the listening ear. “He careth for you.” “Consider the lilies, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet-”
The Blood of Jesus is the Wine of Inspiration, which lights every man unto salvation. When the sense of taste is extended beyond the narrow confines of the human mind it can “taste” this Wine of Life and receive the “inspiration” which leads into all things. Until that time man tastes the “wines” of his own making, and for the moment he may ascend into a place of inspiration only to fall back into a hell of despondency later on. You cannot take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. The drunkard is trying in his desire to get away from the limitations of the human taste. He “feels” while he is in his “cups” as if he were a millionaire, or he feels generous, magnanimous, and free, but this false entering into the Kingdom always ends in being cast out as a robber and a thief. When the sense of taste is extended to the mystical “eating of the body and drinking of the blood,” man enters at will into the place of inspiration. He begins to understand what it is to live and move and breathe and have his being in the Inspired Presence. Revelation after revelation passes over him, and whatsoever he performs in the Secret Place takes on a body and a form in the realm of the physical.
If you ever “hear My voice and open unto Me, I will come in to you and sup with you and ye with me.” The thin shell of belief which is holding all these lovely things away from you suddenly bursts, and the disbeliefs and fears of a lifetime are washed away by the torrents of the Presence coming into expression through the extended senses.
As you begin to understand the glorious possibilities of the extended senses, you see how they widen out and include much that has not been even dreamed of before. It is stated that the “power of life and death are in the tongue,” and this very sense of taste extends out until it includes the spoken word-The Word which is made flesh and the “yea, yea,” and “nay, nay” which instantly puts to flight the manifestation or brings it into being with the Authority of the Christ Jesus nature. “Only speak the word and my servant shall live” and the word “I will” which the servant tastes restores him to life. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” You cannot live on the manifestation alone, else you will manifest the living-dead state of the unawakened. You have to live on the word of God if you are to experience Life instead of a limited sense of it.
“The Power of Life and death are in the tongue”-the dying of a belief, as the cracking of a shell releases the flower or bird, with you releases the desires of your heart.
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is Good.”
THE TEMPLE OF GOD
“What is man that thou are mindful of him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, and gave him dominion over the earth.” What a farce all these lovely words are in the face of the slavery of man as we see him today!
What am I?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
The air is surcharged with the unreality of life. In the distance a terrible note of futility sounds like a doomsday dirge. Yet Jesus discovered, and gave to the universe two thousand years ago, the simple truth of the relationship of God to man. Misunderstanding the revelation man has “sought out many inventions” even though he was created perfect. Man has conceived the idea that he is here as a special pawn or toy of the Almighty, subject to a devastating thing called human life, from which he can escape only through death. A ray of hope came with the teaching — though oft misunderstood — of Jesus Christ. Being able to demonstrate the Power of God at rare intervals — making something happen that otherwise would not happen — working miracles, brought some joy; but the uncertainty of it all, the apparent failure, turned man again to the questions:
What am I?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
Jesus answered all these questions. You are the temple of the Living God. Your body is the temple which is incorruptible and indestructible — the temple of the Living God. All this means nothing very definite to the listener, until it is finally revealed that not only is man here as the temple of the Living God, but he is here in order that God can find expression. The temple “embodiment” known as man, is here for the purpose of God making Himself manifest. The temple is the place where the invisible is stepped down into the visible — as in a distilling plant where steam becomes water and is later turned into ice. Without man, or this embodiment known as temple, none of the present-day inventions would have found expression. Though man has sensed this, he has mistakenly thought to work independently of this Power. When he become conscious that it is the NATURE of the temple “embodiment” to express God, and that is its only reason for being, the dis-ease, struggle, anxiety, fear and questioning will cease. He will be no more surprised that the works of God are being done through him than he would be to find water turning to ice in zero weather. There is nothing curious, mysterious or miraculous about the appearance of God through his temple, and when this is seen, the excitement of “demonstrating” the Power will cease.
It is said, “I will walk in you and talk in you.” Just what does this mean and do you believe it? Not until you understand the temple “embodiment” as being here for the express purpose of manifesting God, or bringing the unseen into the seen, will this “walking and talking” take place. Suddenly, when your right relationship is established, you will not be surprised or even moved, by the appearance of that which it is your nature to cause to appear. If I be lifted up to the point of the naturalness of my desire, “I will draw all manifestation unto me.” If you are lifted up to the place of the naturalness of God functioning in the temple “embodiment” then you will find all the elements drawn unto you. In bringing forth the automobile it had to come through the temple “embodiment” into visibility. It had to come through a thick wall of opinion and belief. It had to be conceived in the temple “embodiment” and magnified — the appearances and the existing laws and beliefs had to be completely disregarded. It had to take on a “naturalness” if it was to come forth in the name or nature of God. Just as a letter is born when it is accepted as possible to the consciousness, and the materials necessary for its “embodiment” come from the far ends of the earth, so it is with the “embodiment” of anything.
Your desire is the urge of spirit giving the temple “embodiment” instructions as to what should come into manifestation through that medium. If you assume the work yourself it immediately becomes impossible or marked with the ugly shadow of personality or is still-born, but when you make the assumption that your temple “embodiment” is for the express purpose — and only for the purpose of making the invisible visible, then that glorious relaxation and naturalness of the expression of God through you will take place. Jesus made himself as God. You are told to do likewise. Why? Because if you are to do the works of God you will have to have the nature of God, or else you will find yourself only an imitator. Nothing strange about an author producing books or a singer singing is there? Why should it be thought unnatural for one who knows himself to be as God to do the works of God? If an author does not produce books he is called an ex-author, or a would-be-author, and he is like the fig tree, without figs. Why cumbereth it the ground? When you see the purpose of your existence — the expression of God, the releasing of the unseen into the seen, all the greediness for things, place, power, name or fame fades away. Why should you be greedy for things when you know that you are automatically the distributor of all — that you can give to all men whatsoever they ask because the giver within the temple “embodiment” is God?
It is marvelous to contemplate the freedom of the temple of God. The temple of God is with man —man is the temple of God when he recognizes the naturalness of it all. Without an expression God would be unexpressed, nothingness, but with the temple “embodiment” He is able to project Himself into manifestation. The “Behold I stand at the door and knock” is the eternal pattern which is to be expressed through your temple trying to let Me into manifestation. If you will see that your body, temple “embodiment,” is for the express purpose of stepping down the invisible into visibility, you will open unto Me and I will come in and sup with you, and you with Me, I will show you many wonderful things which shall not be said with the noisy voice of man nor written in books. Do you begin to understand why the wandering in the desert of human thinking is about finished? The veils of belief are getting thinner — you are beginning to see and understand the purpose of life — and nothing matters.
The more naturally you approach the pattern or desire given to you, the simpler will be its appearing. The hovering spirit of the Presence is waiting to pour out the infinite gifts through your temple “embodiment,” but like Jerusalem you will not because you want only the loaves and fishes, not seeing that the moment you place yourself in the position of Temple, and Spirit in the Temple, you will have enough and to spare. The temple “embodiment” is for the purpose of supplying, not acquiring things. It is amazing what takes place when you come consciously into the understanding that you are here simply for the purpose of letting this God Power into expression. All the greedy demonstrations pass — they mean nothing. “I will walk in you and talk in you.”
The Power has an actual right, not a demonstrated right to walk in you. The walking in the temple will be so filled with revelation it will amaze you. Wheresoever the Power “walking” in the temple wishes to go, there it goes and takes its temple, body, with it. So Jesus’ constant command, “Judge not from appearances”; “Absent from the body and present with the Lord” — Law — have a definite meaning. The recognition that your body “temple” is for the purpose of the Word becoming flesh so sets aside any effort or struggle you can make on the outside to accomplish this, you are filled with amazement. No more do you consult or consider the appearances, not matter how terrifying they may be, no matter how impossible they may be: “When you are ready I will” (not perhaps nor maybe) “do the works through you.”
You will search the Scriptures for they have a message for the TEMPLE — and you are one of the Temples, one of those points where God becomes visible. That is the only reason for your existence. The stupid idea of trying to make God appear for a moment and do something for you fades out of the picture.
“I will walk in you and talk in you”: the VOICE heard in the temple is one of authority, it speaks the Word that cannot return unto you void. The little human voice cannot be heard against this “still small voice” which will talk in you, and will tell you of things that are to come. The cooperation of the temple is so essential and must become so obedient that it goes to the Jordan without question, no matter if there be a thousand rivers between, which are better. The temple, the “embodiment” which you are, is sufficient and able to do anything the Power directs. Great athletes do not necessarily accomplish great things in the universe. The frailest of bodies may bring forth the greatest finance. This does not have to be true, but is noted to call your attention to the fact that no matter what your present temple looks like, through it can be brought into manifestation the works of God. The old human desire to do and accomplish things in order that the praise of man may be called into being, drops by the way, and with it will go the ancient and greedy thought of “demonstrating.” You are arriving at the point of giving. Do you begin to understand why Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing, but with GOD all things are possible” through the temple, known to the world as Jesus? So with you — there is little you can do of yourself, but through that same helpless, impotent temple comes the power of God doing what the world calls impossible and what the metaphysicians call demonstrations. “In my NATURE” must become such a part of you that you will make the assumption of this Divine Nature as your own.
It is the most natural thing in the world for Jesus (symbolically speaking) to do the works of God, and he definitely said, “The works that I do ye shall do also” — the same mind being in you, the same God in the midst of your temple. When these two, body and soul, are joined together you will find yourself as the giver of every good gift. You will supply your brother’s need not as a personal favor, not as a special bequest, but because it is the nature of God. Whenever you are in the nature of a thing you express that nature. If you arrive at the nature of a writer you will write as a natural expression, otherwise you will “try,” struggle, and force some scribling on to the universe which will be rejected, because it would be an unnatural expression. If it is not natural then it cannot last, neither can it find a place of expression. We are not attempting to do the unnatural nor the impossible when we follow the path of Jesus Christ. He made himself as God — He made Himself of the same nature and found it not strange that He should do the works of that nature. We do not find it strange that figs grow on fig trees, and why should we find it strange that the works of Spirit come from the consciousness of the Spirit?
The glorious Voice, the “still small Voice” of God speaking in the temple “embodiment” gives to every man the WORD, not words, and that WORD will bring to man that which he is seeking, if he will accept it. Perhaps he does not want the Word — he may want the loaves and fishes, then he will not find ME. Think what a glorious revelation is taking place within you! The discovery that your consciousness is the place where God comes into visibility; where the unseen becomes the seen. The complete surrender to “My will” is not difficult when you see the magnitude and the glory into which you are moving. You understand what is meant by “from glory to glory,” from revelation to revelation, from one degree of manifestation to another. All the glory, might, and power alone belong to God. It is wonderful!
“What is man that thou are mindful of him?” What are you? You are the temple “embodiment” of the Living God. You are the transformer, the point at which the invisible takes on a body and form. The child is born — the idea is given a body and a form, and is put on earth through the temple. You are the temple of the LivingGod. Can you begin to sense the freedom you are getting from things? This does not mean that you will not have “things,” but it does mean that you will not be held by them. It makes you the giver and causes you to know that the Spirit within the temple will dictate the symbol of your giving. God is mindful of His temples, for within these temples the blessed event takes place. The Holy of Holies is the point in consciousness where this sacred desire is given a body and form. “If I be lifted up” (to the nature) “I will draw all ‘manifestation’ unto Me.” If you are one with the nature of your desire then its fulfillment is sure and certain, and is entirely apart from the workings of the conscious thinking.
The temple is a little lower than the spirit that is hovering over it. “He made him a little lower than the angles” and “Gave him dominion over all the earth” — manifestation. Do you begin to see what is the height and breadth and majesty of this Power called God? It is wonderful to contemplate. “You (yes, you) are the temple of the Living God.” No matter what the temple looks like, no matter how you have scarred and scratched it with beliefs, fears, diseases and evil. “You are the temple of the Living God.” As the consciousness is aligned with the true nature of God the transformation of the temple will set in and continue until it arrives at the full resurrected state.
Your body is the Word of God made flesh — it is “The temple not made with hands and is eternal in the heavens.” It is for the manifestation of God. The thing that is made with hands, the inanimate thing is not the body or temple of God: if it were it could not manifest evil. Your body is the temple of the Living God, it is the temple not made with hands and is eternal in the consciousness of heaven. No matter how far you have strayed from the place of recognition, no matter how terrible the temple may appear: the real temple is eternal in the heavenly consciousness of God, and is for the express purpose of LETTING the Power through into manifestation. “I will walk in you and talk in you” suddenly takes on a glorious meaning — it answers the question “Where am I going?” You are going from glory to glory, from one revelation to another, from one glorious experience to another. You are going to hear and say the things which ears have not heard, and the things that have not yet entered into the heart of the unawakened man whose breath is in his nostrils. It is wonderful!
Your (yes, your) body is the temple of this LIVING GOD. Do you understand the word living? Not a God who has to be generated into life by what you think or do not think but a LIVING GOD — a living something that will draw all manifestation unto It. It is true “When you lose your life you shall find it.” It is true because you are losing the sense of a separate life which is struggling to keep the body or temple in place. It is working to earn its bread by the sweat of its brow for the purpose of keeping body and soul together, but how does this check against the statement “The temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens”? What does it need to sustain it but the manna that droppeth down from heaven, which when it feeds thereon the manifest bread comes forth: just as Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes? He ate of the bread that “cometh down from heaven.”
His body, the Jesus body — when recognized as the temple of God — experienced the works of God as natural, and what He did in secret that also the body of Jesus, or the manifest temple, did openly. “My words are not mine but are those of Him who sent me into expression.” — “I will walk in you and talk in you.” If I am lifted up to the consciousness of the singer I will sing and find it natural. Do you understand what it is to begin the recognition that your body is for the purpose of expressing God — for the purpose of bringing the invisible into the visible?
Is there anything you can learn through the processes of evil which could not come to you through the revelation of God? So many are clinging to the fact that problems are good for them and that they grow by these ugly experiences. It may be true — but do you mean to say that the All-powerful God has to stoop to the plane of evil in order that you should find out about Him? Answer me.
“Awake! thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light!”
It is glorious the readjustment that takes place when you find yourself as the temple of the Living God and for the purpose of expressing God. It is wonderful when you discover it is quite natural for figs to grow on fig trees and the works of God to emanate from God. “Whatsoever you ask in my nature — that give I unto
you.” Do you hear?
Who are you?
What are you?
Why are you here?
Where are you going?
These are all answered through the revelation of the TEMPLE of God with men. As soon as it is discovered that you are the temple of God and your will is given over, you will discover that by losing your life you have found it; just as the apparently square-shaped air in a room loses nothing when the walls are torn away, but a sense of limitation. “Why cumbereth it the ground?” should be said of all fig trees of thought which bear no figs. “Make a way for our Lord” — the Bridegroom cometh, your joy is full, you have found the Lord. Gradually you experience the awakening that you have always been. The matrix of you in all its glory and beauty remains eternal in the Mind of God. Give this some contemplation, and experience a subtle change as the Light passes through the temple. It is wonderful! You are the temple of the Living God. “The Lord is in His Holy Temple.”
THEN WENT HE IN AND SHUT THE DOOR
“THEN WENT HE IN and shut the door.” What goes on behind the closed doors is going to be of tremendous interest to the outside world. “That which is told in secret is called from the housetops.” When you think of the word “secret” you think of the “closed door”—-you think of the “Secret place of the Most High”—-in fact, you think of the center of Being. Until a man learns the law of silence he cannot leave his burning desert of human experience.
“He that travels alone shall travel far”; “He that holdeth his tongue shall take a city [a new state of consciousness]”, and so he who learns to “come apart from among them and be separate” is getting his feet firmly placed on the ladder that leads safely to heaven-realization.
Power is noiseless; its manifestation may make a terrific tumult, but power of itself is noiseless. “Be still and know that I Am God” has been a command which has been as little heeded as the one “Before they ask I will answer”—-but that also bespeaks silence accomplishing something that noise could not. The burning coal which is placed on the lips seals them forever, and it is to such an one that power is given-given because he has discovered something in the silence that he can never discover anywhere else. He has found certain secret springs which, when released, will cause the whole face of his universe to change, and people will say, “It is a miracle,” but he will know differently.
Until man learns the law of silence, he will travel on in the heat of the burning desert of experience, comparing notes with others; discussing and arguing about the vital truths which never seem to work, and yet seem so plausible and real.
“I do not see why it is that I cannot make more progress.” “I have been faithful—-I have helped many—-I have heard hundreds of lectures—-I have read hundreds of books—-I have given of my substance-and am still in this terrible condition.”
The answer to all this is simple, yet it will be rejected by many because they like to “talk it over” first with someone who is supposed to know more than they do; and then they want to talk it over with God and tell Him just what to do before things will be right in the Universe. But nothing happens, and they either go down into the ditch of human failure or hear the “still, small voice” which constantly says, “Be still, be still, be still, and know that I AM God.”
“In quietness and peace shall be thy strength.” A thousand times that is read over, and by the very one who is seeking light and understanding, but will you obey it? Nay! nay! you will pass it over, and go again into the desert of human hope seeking for shade and water. In the desert through which you are traveling is the deep secret well of silence, and when you drink the waters thereof you are refreshed, and the water there from will transform the desert into a garden.
“Be still”—be very still and KNOW that I AM God, and you will find out something about the Promised Land you have been seeking, lo, these many years. The something you will find out is that the Promised Land lies in your own consciousness, and the moment you are through seeking it, and begin the process of recognizing it as here and now within the secret place of your heart, that moment you see the transformation beginning to make itself manifest.
Do not expose the seed to the parching winds of human opinion. “Thou fool, do you not know that a seed must first f all into the ground and rot before it shall be made alive?” Do you not know that the seed idea must be dropped into the secret place, and there lose its outer wrapping of human opinion and belief, before the new manifestation shall come forth? The ugly brown bulb is transformed into a cluster of lilies. What a transformation-all for the simple following of the law. Yet this process of change is no more wonderful than the transformation that shall go on in you—-“O ye of little faith”—–when you can follow the law. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How can the mind be renewed if it be not still? How can the earth be renewed unless it go deep into the secret place of the roots and there restore itself or its manifestation by the substance that is stored up there? Do you begin to see why it is that the lips shall be sealed? You who read?
The butterfly and chrysalis, the chick in the shell, and a thousand other things give you an ample idea, but all these are inadequate to convey the power of the Word which is to work out in you when you can be still. The law states very clearly, “Ask and it shall be given you: seek and ye shall find: knock and it shall be opened unto you,” and yet there be thousands that will say they have done all these things and are still without the bare necessities of life. Seeking amidst the husks of human reasoning and opinions—–among the findings of the human intellect-will not be productive of much more than a grain or two of substance. Asking the world at large for freedom from your sorrows will merely bring pity or ridicule on your head. Knocking at the gates of human temples is disheartening, and yet the law continues: “For every [no exceptions] one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
The pristine beauty of this assurance sounds forth like a glorious bell across the smooth waters of a silver lake, or like an answered S O S to a tempest—–tossed ship, and yet no results have come. Men have gone down in the ditch trying to wrench away from the Universe just a decent living. One by one the dreams of youth are exploded because they cannot be fulfilled, although they seemed so right and so possible of attainment.
“For everyone that sketch receiveth.” You may prove that you spend hours a day in good works and prayer, just as a man states, and truly, that he holds an oak tree in his hand when he shows you an acorn. In spite of the fact that you have “faith as a grain of mustard seed” that is said to be enough to move mountains, nothing happens, and nothing is going to happen until you enter the place of silence and set the seal on your lips.
When you are once in this place of silence you find the processes reversed. “Before you ask I will answer.” The asking is merely voicing something that is about to be made visible. It is the decreeing of the thing that will eventually come into manifestation. The chick in the shell, hidden away from the world of curious human eyes, is evolving into a new state; you will begin to see what takes place in the silence of your being, and why you are commanded to “Be still and know that I Am God,” and presently you leave the noisy company of those traveling in the desert and enter into your secret place, to discover that the Promised Land is not a place, but a state of consciousness, and it exists in the Now of time, the HERE of space.
“But the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven; a land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”
Note the words “the Lord thy God,” and see if the light of the governing influence of your Christ consciousness does not blaze forth with such effulgence that the noon-day is as the twilight, and in this revelation are revealed the glorious things that heretofore were hidden from the human mind. “Eyes have not seen,” etc., etc. But it is there all the same, and makes itself manifest when the eye becomes single and when the lips become silent and when the recognition is made in the secret place. Here and Now does not mean more waiting, more patience with the appearance of things, but it means a beautiful transformation that goes on before your eyes, a coming into being of the Promised Land. When you pause for a moment to consider that the Lord thy God is watching over this Promised Land, “whither ye go to possess it,” from “the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year,” then you can understand why you are admonished to take no thought for the body, for the food, f or the purse, scrip, or upper chamber.
“I have much to say unto you, but you could not bear it now.” No one can bear the deep Truth of Life until his lips have been sealed. No one can take the new state of consciousness until he can hold his tongue, for it is by means of the tongue—-symbolically speaking—-that you shall be defiled. Watch, therefore, that ye enter not into temptation to tear away the protective coating of silence from about the new idea. Let not the manifestation be retarded or deformed by your anxiety, for, the moment you recognize the new idea, the soul of you is singing, no matter what the outward appearances-for anon the Child shall be born. Every idea that has its immaculate conception in the mind of silence will come forth to rule over its domain gloriously. Be still, be still, be still and know that I AM God.
The sign of a silent soul is serenity-poise and power. There is a confidence and an abandon. There is a light of joy in the consciousness.
“Serene I fold my hands and wait”
Quite a different waiting from the old idea of waiting for something to happen. It is the confident waiting for the Divine event to take place-a serene confidence that it is done and the mechanics will be perfectly executed. Can you see why it is necessary for you to come apart from them and be separate? Be still, be still, be still.
“Be silent, 0 all flesh, before the Lord.” “For the froward is an abomination to the Lord; but His secret is with the righteous.”
The froward is an abomination to the Lord, the same as the one who digs up the garden after it is planted, and opens the egg after it has been placed under the bird. Abomination, because he is destroying the manifestation that is due to appear.
“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light”—awake and arise from the dead. Fold your tent and steal silently away into the secret place where you can enlarge the borders of your tent without asking the permission of anyone. No matter how loving the advice may be, the things of spirit that are deep and pure will have to be found alone in the silent place, alone with God.
All that is necessary to enter therein is willingness on the part of the student-willingness to listen instead of to tell; willingness to accept the promises as made by the Master, and to plant the seed and let the human limitations and husks of belief rot away from it, in order that the new life may appear. In the place of the Most High you have no favors to ask, no special permission to gain. What you tell yourself in secret shall be called from the housetop -the Word shall become flesh-there is a rest f or the people of God. All of these beautiful things become true to the silent soul. “Be still and know that I AM God.”
THERE IS A LAD HERE
The disciples were faced with five thousand problems all at once – and did not know what to do. The situation looked hopeless enough and the way out remote. It was exactly as the man who must “raise” a certain number of dollars in a given space of time – and has apparently nowhere to get them. Words, ideas, beliefs were but sterile agitations of thought. They would get nowhere.
Already the hungry men, who had followed Jesus into the desert pass for three days, were murmuring and complaining. It never occurred to them that perhaps they had something to do within themselves. They were following a “miracle worker” and expecting His miracles to go on forever. He was attempting at least to stir them to the elevation of doing the miracles.
The disciples talked among themselves as the situation grew more acute. But Jesus went away without moving physically from the whole thing. He went into the Consciousness of the Christ, which is the prerogative of every man – and presently one of the disciples came to him with the announcement:
“There is a lad here …”
And this lad had five loaves and two fishes. There is always a lad in the offing. He is right in the midst of the problem which seems so overwhelming, but he is so little and so insignificant he is usually brushed aside in the fury of trying to get something or making something happen on a big scale.
Jesus always went away from the picture, no matter what it represented. It is of little use to superimpose a new idea on a mind already filled with evil, any more than it is to take a picture on an already used or exposed plate. When Jesus went away to the place He called “I go unto my Father,” He went to the place of consciousness, the Virginal Mind of God, where upon was cast the new picture. When this was done, there was the subtle contact between the seen and the unseen – there was the “lad” with the five loaves and two fishes which turned the whole picture into harmony.
There is always the handful of meal, the three drops of oil, the dregs of wine: – there is always the point from which the new picture can take on form and shape. There is always the LIFE of GOD in the midst of thee – no matter how low the flame seems to have burned. “A mountain cannot stop the progress of a cloud.” In our excitement, we fail to see the “lad.” He is too insignificant – but he is the “grain of mustard” that does the work. Once this is recognized, the power of the pure consciousness of Christ – which has been entered into will take care of the manifestation. No one knows the manner of the miracle or the expression, for “I have a way ye know not of” – a way that is “past finding out.” The only thing you can do is to leave the picture of confusion or lack as quickly as possible, taking nothing of it with you, and enter into the Christ Consciousness; the Virginal unsullied Mind of God. Once having seen-felt this new picture or recognition, the manifestation will come through. The “lad” will always be there with his five loaves and two fishes.
This “lad” has appeared many times. We see the same thing taking place in the case of Naaman the Leper. There is “a little maid” here – and she had the password unto the so-called miracle. Interesting that both of these keystones to the miracle should have been children. Again we see the need of the unsullied innocence; – instead of trying to operate from conclusions derived from the mind which is filled with adultery and uncleanness. The adult makes foul and then tries to cleanse. The moment you really “go unto the Father” your mind is cleansed – and the five thousand hungry men are fed.
There is “a little maid” here. She had the WORD of revelation which was mightier than all the power of Naaman, in spite of his great military prowess.
When you awaken to your true heritage, you will see there is always “a lad here” – there is always “a little maid” here. There is always that point of manifestation – no matter what the problem may present on the outside. Do you hear? There is a lad or a little maid right here NOW.
THEY SAY
From the Quiver of Human mind the most poisonous dart of all is labeled “They Say.” One day after a very illuminating lecture on God Love, a woman came to me and asked for a few moments. Not being in the habit of giving interviews I told her so – but she persisted and clung to me and finally forced her attentions on me by walking with me to the car – what she had to say ran something like this:
“Of course, Mr. Lanyon, far be it from me to speak anything evil about another – but I feel it is my duty to warn you that the lady I saw you with yesterday after the lecture – well “they say” – she has broken every one of the ten commandments but one.”
I looked at her – her otherwise rather nice looking features were drawn down into the mask of a sensuous monster – her eyes slimmed – her lips tightened – she was the embodiment of the murderess – yet she would protest that she could not kill a chicken for dinner –
All I said to her which incensed greatly – “Well, Madam, you are trying to break that ONE” – why don’t you use a knife?”
What did all the stupid repressed and suppressed ladies do with the “bad order” they had on their hands after Jesus had asked them “He that is without sin cast the first stone”? I wonder? Do you – well some of them had a lifetime job trying to get rid of that which Mary Magdalene dropped off like a soiled garment. Unconsciously they had cast lots for her robe – and got it. But what to do with it? Rather a difficult situation, especially to a respectable man or woman.
Remember that everything – a lovely fourth dimensional word – EVERYTHING goes into the Kingdom of heaven before the scandal monger. – Are you going to get in?
The other morning on the way to the lecture – a man waiting at a bus stop asked if he might ride. He did. Hardly had he gotten in the car before he started a filthy story about a prominent Hollywood Star who was making the headlines in a rather unsavory light. He “spewed” his venom all over the place. When he finally came to a period in his talk – I asked him if he knew the person he was talking about – “Well, no – not exactly – but my wife has a cousin who works in the cutting department of the studio – and a girl told her!” I watched the expression on his face in the mirror – gradually his upper lip extended – his teeth seemed to distend like fangs – the rattle of his filthy mind made the picture perfect – coiled ready to strike.
Weeks after the person was exonerated – and I wondered of that one, what he has done with the “Bad order” he set out into the world as a reality – for it was a positive reality to him and he would have to handle it from that standpoint.
“They say.” I have often asked the “Holier than thou one” who was carrying the “precious news” who “THEY” were? Ah – that is where the great Christ love comes to the front. “I wouldn’t think of betraying a confidence – I couldn’t tell who said it.” No – neither could the friends of Judas “betray his confidence” – and so the beautiful manifestation of God love – went on her way to see if she could “demonstrate” a healing of a cancer or leprosy or some other little trifle that might feed upon just that sort of thing. It is wonderful how the POWER takes care of these scandal mongers and now that the new descent of light is here – the re-action will be more direct and effective – praise God for that – for they must learn not to “displease the chastening of the LORD” – it is wonderful!
THIS BABBLER
It is reported that the audience was made up of the intelligentsia of Greece (minds of the Golden Age) who had set up a government and such perfect living conditions that it is almost impossible to imagine. And so they stood waiting for the “Babbler” to tell them something.
Paul was the “Babbler” and he straightway addressed them in no uncertain terms. There must have been a tense silence when he uttered his famous words:
“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious”
and then continued – you are worshiping at the Altar of the Unknown God: “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” Imagine what a statement like that would do today if some voice would tell all the space hunters and men of like ilk that it was all going to be revealed to them – that the principle they worshiped and worked so hard to discover and develop was at last going to be explained and shown to them, and that the end of speculation and guessing was at hand.
I can well imagine the Athenians were all ears and filled with surprise when he told them that the GOD of which he spoke was not worshiped in temples made by hands – “as though He needed any thing, seeing he Giveth to all LIFE, and breath, and all things.”
With one powerful stroke of oratory, he neatly gathered the rapt attention of the whole crowd with his “Him declare I unto you.” Can you imagine what the truth of his statement “as though he (this God you ignorantly worship) needed any thing” – seeing he is the giver of all, and is not worshiped in temples made by hands. What a statement and interesting, too, that he was standing in the midst of Mars’ hill in front of a group of buildings and temples that have not yet been surpassed in their purity of design and beauty. This very statement might do something today if it were heard again. Worship, in the minds of many has much to do with buildings and pageantry and men.
If he had said nothing further about this Unknown God than “seeing he giveth to all LIFE, and breath, and all things,” he would have overturned a world of superstition and beliefs and opened doors to the literal and actual Kingdom of Heaven here and now.
The temple not made with hands is the temple of the body – is that upon which has been hung all the evil history and belief of the old Adam man with his distorted idea that he could create in a universe already created and done, and you and I come under the stupid superstition and hypnotism that he was right. But a Babbler has to set right, and, of course, we have to hear the Babbler, and having heard we obey and begin to experience some of the new dimensions of LIFE. It is wonderful !
The Babbler is here again, for you are beginning to hear and he may meet you almost anywhere but in the temple made by hands, though he is there too. He is the unannounced Voice of one crying in the wilderness of belief, and he passes you on the highways of Life and speaks to you “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.”
Yes, the Babbler is here again – listen and you will hear him, and put the coal of fire on your lips. It is wonderful – filled with wonder.
Is it any wonder then that the Athenians suddenly declared with one accord: “The gods are come down to us” from Mount Olympus.
But the Babbler was not through with his revelation; he had something greater to tell them. This time it was a question which you, too, have to answer. Know ye not that, “ye are gods”? What an explosive statement made at any time, nothing but dead letters until it is heard, and it is not heard by the one who imagines that he is “God” or that swells his ego into personal power. He may flourish as a green bay tree, or like a toy balloon that gets larger and larger until it bursts of its own accord, or runs into the sharp point of the sword.
And so the voice is speaking again and saying:
“Ye men of Athens,” you are worshiping an Unknown God, a man-God. You are worshiping him in temples made with hands, and are offering him all sorts of things if in turn he will prosper you – but he is worshiped in temples not made by hands eternal in the heavens – Temples not made by hands. Temples wherein there are no arguing voices professing a dozen different kinds of theology. When you enter the first law is “Lay your gift on the altar” – and that gift is the surrender of all desire and preconceived notions. The sudden silence will eventually become filled with the VOICE of Spirit, and you will hear the inaudible definition of the words you have tried for so long to demonstrate. “Be still.”
AN ALLEGORY
THOU HAST CONQUERED GALILEAN
If the thing called AGE had any REALITY, God would be hoary with years. Age is the illusion that is accrued by memory. The Countess of Patoka died at eighty. An autopsy reported her body to be eighteen. She became mentally stationery at THAT AGE, due to a great shock. This is only an incident, – and is tossed aside as a “once in a while.” Yet do we see that if Age were a reality then God would be the first to record it, and all emanation from God would be decrepit and ancient. Yet is the day perpetually new, the tree, the bird, the flower. Memory then is, as the old song says, “The only thing that grief can call its own” – and it might be added that Age can call its own. The human mind is invincibly maladroit. Anything can happen if it has an excuse.
That which kept the garments new in the desert for forty years – and which RESTORES Thy Youth like the eagle’s, and causes transformation and transfiguration to take place is not THOUGHT OUT, or made to appear by thinking.
It MAY be satisfying to know how to work out a GIVEN problem. A child could memorize the formulae for a problem in Euclid, – set it down and show the results – but that is the end of his manifestation. The slightest SHADE of difference in the problem leaves him helpless. Did the people who wore the garments and shoes that waxed not old, age? If so, why?
If he understood the PRINCIPLE of the law, – he could work out endless combinations called problems. All problems are only mental equations. They have no actuality. They all start with the acceptance of a false equation. Even the problems in arithmetic have to be made up, in order that you may return to the place from which you started, – the NO PROBLEM place, the One. Everything in human thought must eventually return to the ONE. Life in the raw – the undesignated substance which is everywhere present and appears when recognition takes place. Hence a man can and does produce in the desert that which cannot be produced according to the appearances of things. Clouds of words have obscured the Laws given by Jesus Christ.
How hardly then shall a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. He is rich and loaded with beliefs and records established on the flimsy basis of that which his ancestors have accepted as Truth. When he awakens, he HEARS – “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” Come out from among what? and why? and Where? It is all so much talk and meaningless until you begin to sense-feel the difference between Spirit and thought. The Place of suspended animation – the place of “Beholding” something too big for thought and utterly impossible of definition. It is the discovery of God – the universal – the ONE – the LIFE.
LIFE is that immaterial substance everywhere present; – ready to come into manifestation at the moment of recognition. It is that IMPELLING force back of you which from the moment of your creation has been with YOU, and is instantly available. Now you are becoming conscious of your immortality, and when you begin to sense this, you will see what Jesus meant when’ he implied that you had never been born and consequently have never been unconscious. The eternal creation of God in all its glory and perfection has never gone through the processes of birth and death. It is eternally what it is – a creation of the Living God. As we sense this ETERNALITY of the LIFE CREATION, we begin to see how it might be likened unto a bolt of Lightning which passes through a hundred incarnations of human belief.
“Who are your father, mother, etc?” Who are you? What are you doing? Where have you been? In the land of NOD- belief in an existence apart from God, hypnotized by the Adam mesmerism, – dazed and bemused into believing that you were a matter body, a creation of man and woman, that your days were naturally filled with fear, sickness and trouble, quibbling about going to heaven even as you profess belief in Jesus Christ, who explained the Kingdom as here.
Could anything be more magnificent than the prayer “Now O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was”? What world? The world called John Smith? The world of hypnotism and belief which you have taken upon yourself, over and over, as you went wandering through the thing called reincarnation. There is the sudden remembrance, and the SUDDEN arising and the sudden going to the Father state of Life; the re-discovery that you were Created by God; – created perfect. As you sense this, perfection begins to appear; when the body is absent from the mind, the bondage of fear and disease are relaxed. The temple is cleansed and comes again to its fair proportions. It is wonderful – it is filled with wonder and Light – revelation – recognition and secrecy. It is as morning radiance filled with splendor. You will say with the Emperor Julian, after he had seen all the hellish devices to destroy the Christ Revelation fail – “Thou hast conquered, Galilean.” As the Lord said to Moses – “See, I have made thee a God,” so has He said to thee; – thou Golden One, made in the image and likeness – given power over all the things on the earth, under the earth, and above the earth; – created a little lower than the Angels – (the great centers of power and force emanating from the Center of Centers) – the heart of God – that which operates the universe and all its wonders from the tiniest manifestation unto the greatest.
This deeper abiding consciousness causes you to KNOW all the things that are to be added.
“The believers in ONE God change not, age not, die not; everything else: earth, men, their beliefs and opinions is subject to decay and change.”
Sophocles.
“Thou hast conquered Galilean.”
That is what his crucifiers had to say. What else could they say? The Galilean is still conquering.
THOU ART THE BRIGHT MESSENGER
Thou art the Bright Messenger — the Shining One, the being of pure Spirit. Thou art not the man thou hast been, lo! these many years. Thou art new-born, fresh, clean, and pure. Thou art not an old creature patched up by various treatments. Thou, Bright Messenger, Golden One, hast never descended to the level of belief, and therefore hast not consorted with the shadows of the play-life. Thou art the Bright Messenger, with winged feet, who goeth where he will, and knoweth no obstruction, nor adverse condition. Thou art the unconditioned, the untrammelled, the free — the individualized yet inseparable manifestation of the All-God. Thou art the Bright Messenger. Thou art full of light — bathed in All Light. Whithersoever thou goest is light – not consciously projected, but unconsciously conveyed; a natural effect of thy presence. Thou art the Bright Messenger. Thine eye is single to the Allness of God, the Oneness of creation. Thou therefore seest with the eye of light. Thou lookest into a universe of All Light, and seest through the shadows of belief. Thou seest the world in a world, the rose in a rose, and the Man in a man. Thou perceivest with thine eye of Light that which IS and always has been — not that which shall be changed by begging, beseeching, or praying to a tyrant called God to make whole. With the eye of Light thou seest nothing to heal, for thy sight is perfect in the understanding.
“I AM of too pure eyes to behold iniquity.”
If God cannot perceive it, how can the man in the street perceive it and make long prayers over it? Thou art the Bright Messenger — the being of Light. In the touch of thy hand is light. As the warmth of spring touches the frozen earth, so thy touch of light causes the seed to swell and burst and the flower to leap in her chalice. Thy touch of light is like the soft rain on the parched desert, which causes it to blossom as a rose. Whomsoever thou touchest — in the true sense of the word — thou transformest, instantly, gloriously, freely, joyously. And men shall call it health, but thou shalt call it revelation. Thou art the Bright Messenger. Thou hast the Golden touch which transforms everything into the gold of which Ophir never dreamed. Thy touch shall be able to take from the fish’s mouth the needed symbol. Thy touch it is which gives that which is beyond price, and which makes a man rich even when the saying goes, “Silver and gold have I none, but of such as I have give I unto thee.” Such as thou hast in the touch, O Bright Messenger, is beyond the price of pearls and rubies — the transforming touch which is gentle yet firm, which is soft like the surface of the ocean, but which has the power to dash a whole fleet of evil ships into oblivion. Thou art the Bright Messenger — thy touch is Golden.
Thou art the Bright Messenger. The aroma of thy presence precedes thee. Thy passing is as the passing of a cloud of incense from the sacred lilies of the enchanted woods. In thy presence the precious perfume of the soul is sensed above the stagnant odors of human beliefs. When thou comest to the soul, it is as the bridegroom before whom the lovely flowers of purity open and shed their perfume in superabundance. At thy coming the rose loosens the silken tassel of her soul and gives forth the glorious attar of her being. At thy coming the trees and minerals loosen the glorious refreshing odors of woods and stones. From thy nostrils comes the Breath of Life. From thy breath comes the appearance of the new creation. Man becomes a living soul by breathing thy breath — man lives, and moves, and breathes, and has his being in thy breath. Thy breath fans the small sparks of faith into the flame of realization. From thy nostrils comes the flashing, dazzling fire which consumes the dross of belief. Thou art the Bright Messenger.
Thou art the Bright Messenger. Thy invitation is, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” Eat my body (my substance) and drink my blood (inspiration). Thy taste is Golden. The milk and honey of the universe of the All-God art thine. The hidden manna (that which the eye — the human belief — cannot see) thou feedest upon. Thy eternal drink is the Living Water. Thou shalt never be without the sustenance of Spirit, no matter whither thou goest. Thou shalt realize this all-substance, and thou shalt cease from thy thought-taking process of wondering wherewithal thou shalt be clothed and fed. Thou shalt eat, and hunger no more; drink, and thirst no more — for thou shalt feed upon the reality of life instead of the husks of material belief, with its shadow appearances.
Thou art the Bright Messenger, the bearer of Glad Tidings. Upon thy breastplate, encrusted in gold, is the motto, “Speak no evil nor listen to it.” Thou art of too pure ears to hear evil — thou hearest with the ear of Spirit. Thou hearest with the silent ear — closed to the din of the human relative conditions, but open to that which “eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man (human thought) the things which art prepared for them that love Thy Law.” Thou hearest the word of peace and an ocean of fury of belief is stilled and made calm. Thou hearest the reports of that which IS, and thou tellest of these. Thou hearest the things that “ear hath not heard” — the ear of man whose breath is in his nostrils, and whose eye is double — and yet thou hearest the report of the Kingdom Here and Now – thou hearest the Glad Tidings of the eternal Christ walking today in the Garden of Attainment. Thou hearest the words, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and thou knowest these words to be addressed to thee. Thou art not ashamed, nor afraid because of thy nakedness; the stark tragedies of the human belief fade into the distance when thou obeyest this call with the “Aye, Aye,” of Spirit. Thou hearest in the truest sense of the word — in the fearless sense of the word, “Arise and shine, for thy light hath come.”
No need to create this light, to stimulate it, but only to recognize this light as being within. How can a man who is constantly looking for evil to heal and treat know anything of the Kingdom? How can he understand the things which cannot be seen nor heard with the human ears? How can he set right that which He has already done? And yet there art those poor deluded souls who have appointed themselves official stone- casters for the Christ, not realizing that thy art casting stones at Him. Thou art the Bright Messenger — the Being of Light — the Unafraid. Why should there be fear when the realization has come that thou art the Bright Messenger, the being of pure Spirit — not subject to the beliefs of the thought world, not subject to the failures and successes of thy human life, but suddenly up and above that which has always seemed so real?
Bright Messenger, Unafraid Being, Holy Creature, Son of God — arise — shine. Arise; let thy light so shine. Take no thought — if thou takest thought, it will be of fear or limitation. Thou art the Bright Messenger — the Being of Light that goeth before the manifestation of thy human self, and maketh straight the way. Thou art the Unafraid, the Unbound, the Prometheus Unbound. Thou shalt smite the rock and make it gush forth the Living Water of Life. Thou art the Bright Messenger, the Being of Light, the Unafraid. Thou art glorious — thou art free — thou art not bound by human limitations — “Thou art not another (a separate one) but the same One.” Thou art the Christ. Hail! Soul of Me, I salute you; Son of God — Christ — Bright Messenger.
THREE PLANES
The three planes of existence – matter, mind, Spirit – referred to as three measures of meal which eventually all become leaven, explain themselves somewhat after this fashion:
MATTER PLANE. Here matter is used to heal matter. Medicine is poured into matter with the hopes of healing it. Man earns his living by the sweat of his brow. He belongs to the classification, “you say it is four months until harvest.” He says it takes time for man to grow – he is a creature of time and space, and all the laws he concocts by looking at the appearances of things. Finally, having exploded one material remedy after another, he turns to the process of thought.
MIND PLANE. Here man thinks, or attempts to think, his way out of difficulties. He believes that by thinking along a certain line he will arrive at the desired end. He goes so far as to believe that he can prosper himself by merely thinking he is prosperous. He believes he can heal disease by thinking there is no disease. When confronted by the millions of failures along the line, he says it is not merely thinking, but knowing, that will make the difference; but, in spite of the fact that many things have been known for ages, no results have followed.
It is a known thing that the Master walked on the water, but that does not mean that the knower of this fact can do the same thing. He may know perfectly how to treat, and also that perfect health is man’s heritage, and die while he is in the very process of “knowing the truth,’ as he calls it.
HE may, and probably does, think and know that ‘all that the Father hath is mine”; but it does not follow that he has enough to live on. From time to time his “work” seems to have been effective, but much of it has failed utterly. There is no set formula, no way of approaching the world of thought. One system tells him to enter from one end, another tells him diametrically the opposite.
We are taught concentration; we are taught relaxation; and we are taught to speak as one having authority; but until we obey the law which says: “And I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink: nor yet for your body what ye shall put on” and ‘which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?’ we will ever be fussing about trying to think ourselves out of difficulties, and finding in the last analysis that we have largely been under self-hypnosis.
If the law states clearly that nothing is to be changed by thinking, then why does man persist in trying to think himself out of difficulties? A survey of the thinking process of making success, happiness, and health shows clearly that there is more failure than success.
No matter what your opinion may be regarding the subject, you never will change anything in reality by your thought process. If the eternal verities were to be changed by the mere thinking of man, the whole of existence would be at the mercy of man, and chaos would result. The only thing that is changed by thinking is your attitude toward a thing.
Some people think that meat is harmful to them, others that they cannot do without it. What about this? Is the help or harm in the meat:, ‘As a an thinketh in HIS heart, so is he,” is a clear summing up of the man from the mental plane. It does not follow , because you think a certain way, that makes it the same for another. Because you think a thing is good, does not necessarily make it so. At one time it was thought to be good to force religion on people, obliging them to attend religious services. Today this is changed.
Only beliefs can be changed – realities never can. And so man again finds that he is up against a shifting, changing system of thought. He has beseeched, begged, pleaded, and even demanded what he claimed was his Divine heritage, without the slightest results. He has lived upon some far distant demonstration of the Power, and has drained it of its inspiration, hoping against hope that he might have a return of the Power. He has asked himself and others why it is that he is unable to heal or get healed, and eventually he turns to the plane of
SPIRIT. ‘I am of too pure eyes to behold iniquity” is the watchword. Man begins to understand that the Power of the Christ-consciousness, which is quicker than the thought, is awareness and not creation. For the first time he sees that his eye has been double; that he has been living in a world of good and evil; that he has had to except evil before he could get rid of it; that if he could get rid of it, it of necessity must have been unreal. He sees that belief is the only thing that can be changed, and that the eternal laws of God cannot be broken. If they could, they would be worthless. What man does is to attempt to break them, and is himself broken in the attempt. Awareness of his God Self lifts him to a place of recognition. He sees clearly that all evil is ignorance (ignoring God). Just as a student of music who ignores the principles of harmony will achieve small results and much discord, so his acceptance of evil as something that has to be got rid of is merely his ignorance of the Something that must be recognized. In spite of the injunction ‘Take no thought,’ thousands of people are today fighting a terrific battle with evil, which is more or less real to them by reason of their acceptance of it.
‘Come out from among them [your beliefs] and be ye separate.” You can believe anything, but that does not make it true. Eventually man will take the path of pure Christ Truth as manifested by Jesus, and will learn as Father Divine has often stated, ‘There is no B. C.: there is only a B.J.’ There is no time which is before the Christ consciousness. “Before Abraham was I AM,’ but there is a very definite period prior to the Jesus. The Jesus comes and goes, but the Christ remains in his changeless state of glory, waiting always for recognition. If Jesus had not recognized his true Self, the Christ, he would have passed away unknown, a little obscure carpenter in a small village. He admitted that as Jesus he could do nothing, but that with the Christ he could do anything. He made it perfectly clear that what he did through the man Jesus is a present possibility with every man, knowing the Impersonal Power which was is impartial, and everywhere instantly available.
Man begins to see that he cannot change the eternal facts of Being. Thousands have said ‘Lord, Lord,’ and received nothing. Thousands have said “Peace, peace,” and there was no peace; and thousands have said ‘Peace, be still,’ and seen a raging sea of human belief calmed like a millpond at sundown. No authority rests in the plane of the mental, for its basis is constantly changing.
Not so long ago people believed that every true prayer should be prefaced with endless denials; this being eventually found unproductive of results, the idea was changed to intense and repeated affirmations of the truth. This too is beginning to crumble. Trying to take the kingdom of Heaven by violence has not proved successful. Telling the creator that he is God, and the only creator, is no revelation to God, and does not make it any more true than repeating a thousand times over that two times two is four, makes it any more four than it was before. It has always been that and always will; nothing will ever change that, for it is an eternal verity.
Gradually man begins to see that all his thought processes have come to naught – he has merely builded up a universe of beliefs which he finds tumbling down about him. In his desperation he reaches out for the reality of the spiritual plane, the place of changeless reality, and begins to experience the first real and enduring peace he has ever know -the peace which passeth all understanding. He sees now that the injunction, ‘I will overturn and overturn, until he comes whose place it is to rule,’ is made true, and he is happy at last to be rid of the bulky letter of that teaching which was given to the child and kept from the prudent.
Why man has gone so far afield is the amazing thing when he begins to see the simplicity or life and the beauty and holiness of the true creation. He smiles when he thinks with Shakespeare, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,’ and he sees the utter impossibility of such a creation proceeding from God. Imagine a world that is constantly subject to change by taking thought!
Awakening to the glorious possibilities of the Sons of God, man is self revealed – in a burst of glory he suddenly sees the portals of heaven (self-expression) loom white and glistening before him. He begins to experience here and now his heaven. He calls from the watchtowers of the universe;
‘It is wonderful! It is wonderful! It is wonderful!”
His Name – the name of your I AM – is wonderful, and the government of the life of your Jesus – your human personality – shall be upon his shoulders.
Beloved, rejoice; it is wonderful. All the tiresome job of governing this erratic personality, which you have called by a special name, falls away. You take My yoke upon you and find My burden is light. My burden is merely the bearing of the testimony to the world that the Law of a Changeless Universe is here and now effective, and that the Sons and Daughters of God are not in any way subject to the limitations of the human personality. Man begins to see that true prayer means alignment with that which is, and all ‘thine and mine passes away and the Divine Ours comes into being.
It is Wonderful! It is wonderful! It is wonderful! Heaven and earth are full of the. Think of it! You are living, moving, and having your being in the pure substance of Spirit. You do not have to think it into manifestation; you have to recognize that Jesus was a truth-sayer and not a liar when he said, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand – it is within you.’ Believest thou this? – you who read this book – or will you drag in your dead fathers and your qualifications and your limitations and your special brands of teaching?
When the eye becomes single the whole body is full of light – full; not nearly full. Full to overflowing, because it has lost the shadow of belief, which says there is evil in the universe and that thinking can change it into good. When the eye is single, it will perceive reality instead of belief, and will thereby see reality into manifestation everywhere. It is wonderful.
Before you, who read this book, a new door has opened, the door of Christ. ‘I AM the door’ and at the same time, ‘Behold I stand at the door.” When you, through the process of recognition, know that there is such a thing as a perfect universe, created and sustained by God, who found it very good, you will, by opening the door of your human consciousness, find that I AM there, ready to enter into expression. The I AM is your individual expression of the Universal God. And no sooner is the door opened than you find that the I AM (your own individual point in consciousness) is the door of every wall, to every room (new state of consciousness), to everything that formed a shell about your good and which you termed – problem. Behold! behold! It is I – your real self. Be not afraid. It is wonderful, it is wonderful, it is wonderful.
Quicker than thought is the thinker of the thought – quicker than any human measure is the I AM – knowing everything, needing nothing, awaiting recognition. I must increase – the Christ consciousness most come more and more into visibility; you (human beliefs) must decrease. The going of the personality, with its petty desire for fame or name, or its holier-than-thou, stone-casting propensities, must decrease in order that the Son of God may come to rule in his own universe.
Contemplation of the perfect universe – not the attempt to create it – will cause your human universe to take on new proportions. The borders of your tent will be enlarged; you will launch out into deep waters: you will sing a new song, and that song will be, ‘It is wonderful.” To be absent from the body and present with the Lord is not an emotional experience, but a present possibility. To be present with your True Self is to find yourself in possession of everything that is necessary to sustain the no-problem state of existence. It is wonderful!
THROUGH THE CLOUDS
THE WEATHER was threatening when we took off. A heavy, leaden sky blocked out every vestige of sunlight. The Pilot, a mere slip of a boy, picked up the plane, thousands of times his own weight, from the wet field and hurled it into space with more ease than a child flies a kite.
He flew straight on, hitting the ugly wall of black clouds at dead center. For the space of a few moments the plane was lost in a dense wet fog. By observation no one could tell which direction we were traveling,-and then suddenly we cut through into Elysian fields, under a sapphire dome. Great masses of clouds, snow-white now, shot with a myriad of colors, lined the heavenly fields of bright gold. It looked not unlike a picture of a field day of the gods of Mount Olympus.
The pilot sat back relaxed. He knew the only way to this heavenly state was to hit the thing that obscured it on dead center instead of trying to circumvent or avoid it.
And so does the enlightened one, by going straight up to his fear, by doing the thing he is afraid to do, find that it is composed of a mist-I-fication of human thought and gives way to the terrific on-rush of the unafraid consciousness. If you do the thing you are afraid to do, there is no fear left. “If you slay me, yet will I say you are God” will not produce death to anything but a quaking mis-belief in God as a terrible tyrant. God has no capacity to kill anything other than a false belief which is better dead anyway.
And then presently after a few hours of travel, the slim young pilot set the plane on the field again, thousands of miles from where we started. He had the power “to pick it up and lay it down” – just as you have. In your case, the thing called avoirdupois is not matter, but human thought. The more you contemplate evil as something, the heavier it becomes. All gravity is in the human mind.
When next a wall of misbelief obscures your Elysian fields, pick up your plane and hurl it straight into the belief, – and you will discover it is made of the stuff of dreams.
THROUGH THE CROWDS
“AND JESUS passed through the crowd.” Crowd of what? – Crowd of human thoughts which was gyrating human bodies in all directions, causing them to do all manner of evil.
And to you He gave the same power, – “Go thou and do likewise”. So why not accept your spot in consciousness and move through the turbulent streets of this war-torn world, filled with all manner of human invention.
Consciousness is the emanation of your God light, – and is a direct connection between you and the infinite resources which await you. When you see the differentiation between thought and consciousness, you pass through the streams of negative thinking and its resultant evils.
There is nothing strange in the occasional reports of the child prodigy. He may be only five years of age, and yet able to solve an almost unsolvable problem in mathematics, – he may play a difficult concerto before he can reach an octave, – he may answer questions which research laboratories have not as yet fathomed. And why? Because in one way or another he has a direct line of consciousness which touches the Infinite ALL-KNOWING, – and since problems are built around an already-existing answer, he is able to give the answer before it is perceived by thought.
Jesus knew this, – and we find Him constantly going to the Father within, – the Permanent Identity, created in the beginning, in the Image and Likeness, – unchanging and yet endowed with the ALL-CAPACITY of Spirit. And He tells us what He can do, we also can do.
“If you believe, – – ask WHAT you will”, – – what YOU will, – and again, – “If ANY man (and this includes YOU) lack wisdom, let him ASK of God”.
Yes, if you believe, – not a process of human thinliing, – not the human desire to believe, – but if you have discovered in your on-going that there is a POWER bigger than the human thought and its machine-humanity, and you believe in IT, – you, too, move through any congested crowd of thought pictures, – unhampered and undisturbed. Then why remain longer in the pig-sty of human limitations which today says one thing and tomorrow another?
It is true, many people were cured by the method of suggestion, but only because the race consciousness accepted it so strongly that the force of this thought brought temporarily into manifestation what it accepted. Because it was the result of human thinking, there was no permanence to it,and today it would be difficult to find anyone advising you to tie twenty knots in a string. Yet it did work, – and it could again. But this is not the STREAM of LIGHT emanating from the “Let there be Light” consciousness, so beautifully revealed through the Temple Jesus.
Functioning from this consciousness, you pass through crowds of violent reports of evil and disease, and “it shall not touch thee”, – and “if ye drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt thee”, – because all the laws of thought are as nothing.
Deeper and deeper you go into the Light, and the shadows of human problems fade, absorbed into the Light, – deeper still into the place where the “former things are passed away”, – dissolved by the Power of Light flooding your Temple, – and “they shall be remembered no more.”
Are you beginning to see the HOW of it, – that when you have the answer, the problem is completely absorbed?
Silence is a good thing to remember at this point. “Tell no man”, – for the human thought mind believes nothing good about you. How can it, when it is a liar and the Father of it?
When next you encounter a problem, begin at the “answer” end and work down through the seemingly hard-set beliefs, disintegrating them. Try this “new-old” revelation of Jesus, – look, – look again, and then look again until you SEE. Have your sickle ready, for it states, “the harvest is rich, but the laborers are few”. Step right up and thrust in the sickle, – and reap. This is the TRUTH, for no man has told me.