THE INVISIBLE RESOURCE
By Charles Fillmore
(First Published in Unity August 1906)
And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. — Mark 6:41, 42.
Man never had a desire that could not somewhere in the providence of God be fulfilled. Creation would be weak in its most vital part if this were not true. Desire is recognized as the onward impetus of the ever evolving soul as it builds from the within out, and it carries with it fulfillment as a necessary corrollary.
All is Mind, and the things that appear must be statements of Mind. Thus Mind is, and it also appears to be. The is-ness of Mind is but the one side of it. Being is not limited to the level of is-ness—it has all possibility, which includes the breaking forth of its inherencies into the realm of appearance.
Thus Mind has two sides, the invisible and the visible. Neither can be left out of a true philosophy. To say that Mind is all, and at the same time deny that the things that do appear have any part in that allness is to give place to but one-half of the Great Truth.
Every mental problem has its statement. That statement is made in response to the desire to know experimentally whether the ideal concept is capable of proof. A variety of factors are involved in every statement of a mental concept. These factors are not an integral part of the statement itself, but it is through them it is worked out. Thus in the simplest problem in mathematics enter processes which are not preserved after the solution has been arrived at, yet were necessary to that solution. These processes are made up of a combination of factors, and the exact outcome of each step is a matter of experiment. The ultimate must be the fulfillment of the idea, but the intermediate steps may be diverged or retraced many times.
If this be true in the simplest problem of mathematics, it must be true in the creation of the universe. “As it is above, so it is below.” Here is where he who has caught sight of the perfectness of the ideal realm falls to denying the appearance because it does not express that perfectness in its wholeness.
With like judgment the student in the depths of a mathematical problem would suddenly erase all his work because the answer was not at once apparent, though he may have completed but a portion of the process leading up to that answer. We would not consider a farmer of sound judgment who cut down his corn in the tassel because it did not show the ripened ears.
Don’t jump at conclusions. Study the situation carefully before you decide. Look upon all sides, the visible and the invisible, the within and the without.
The fact that you have an ideal world carries with it the possibility of fulfillment in expression. In Being you cannot shirk expression. To think is to express, and you are doing that without cessation. You may deny that these things of the world have existence, yet so long as you live in contact with them you are recognizing their place. A wholesale denial of their existence keeps you even as a house divided against itself. A reconciliation must take place before you can demonstrate the power of the Christ-man over death. Jesus did not say that his body was nothing, but he did say that he had power to take it up or lay it down. He laid it down in corruption, and raised it in incorruption. He found that his ideal was not being expressed in the body which was subject to decay, so he let the corruptible be crossed out, and from the ruins raised the body of light, which appeared and disappeared at will. This was the fulfillment of his ministry, and the demonstration of the power of the Spirit to overcome that last enemy, death.
All men desire to overcome disease and death.
The fulfillment of this desire would be perpetuation of existence in form; so in its last analysis we see that we all want to continue our chain of expression unbroken in duration indefinitely extended. This has always been the desire of mankind, and the whole world is today, and ever has been, fighting this monster, death. Oceans of medicines are swallowed daily, millions of doctors are exerting all their energies, and prayers unnumbered are uttered in a blind struggle to vanquish this dreaded enemy of mankind. This indicates a most powerful desire to be fulfilled. Jesus showed how it might be done, and gave the recipe. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death.” He also said, “The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me,” and, “The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life.”
Here is a chain of actions connecting cause and effect. This chain is forged by man, and its links are thoughts, words. Jesus laid great stress upon the power of the word. Yet he was wise in the injunction that his words should be kept; that is, men were to keep before them the ideal which he had. This ideal is the realm from which the word draws its substance, and its character determines the result.
These ” sayings ” of Jesus were tremendous. They raised the ideal of man and God far above what had ever before been conceived. They so far transcended the thought plane of the people that even his followers could not accept them, and many “walked no more with him.” And until the last decade men have not grasped the lesson of the power of the Word expressed from his high ideal. Who in past has taken Jesus literally, and sought to overcome death by keeping his sayings? Many have believed absolutely in his doctrine, and a great industry has been built upon it as a foundation, but who has taken in full faith the very words of Jesus and made them flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, by not only believing them but by saturating his mind with them until they reincarnated themselves in his very body? Yet this is the secret of every spiritual demonstration; not only a concept of what is true of Being, but a carrying out in thought, word, and act, that concept.
If I can conceive a truth, it follows that there is a way by which I can make it apparent. If I can conceive of inexhaustible supplies existing in the omnipresent ethers, there is a way by which I can make those supplies manifest. When once the mind has accepted this as an axiomatic truth, it has then arrived at a point where the question of processess begins. No one ever fully sees the steps he is to take in reaching a certain end. He may see in a general way that he is to go on from one point to another, but the details are not definitely clear to him unless he has gone over the ground before. The architect tells the builder to follow the plans. So in this demonstration of the spiritual powers ready to express through man, he must be willing to follow the directions of one who has proved his efficiency by demonstration.
We all intuitively know that there is something wrong in a world where poverty prevails. It brings sorrow and suffering. We would not, any of us, create a world where it exists. We all want to see it blotted out. This is the index pointing the way to the possibility of doing so. Whatever we see as wrong, it is for us to right. Lack of any kind is not prevalent in God’s universe, and if there is such an appearance anywhere among men, it is our duty to do away with it.
There is a way—the “highway of the Lord.” Will you take that way? It is a broad way, and there is room for everybody. Jesus said it was the kingdom of heaven, and that all these things should be added to those who sought it. This implies that you do not have to fully enter this kingdom to have the things added, but you have to seek; you must turn your attention in that direction—then they com* mence to come to you.
This is being proven by many thousands in this age who have accepted the promises of Scripture literally, and are looking to God for every need. They may not in the beginning of the seeking have a single thing to encourage them to expect that they would be provided for in any particular. They just accepted the promise, and proceeded to carry it out in faith; they acted just as if it were true, and there gradually came to them new ways of getting a living. There were avenues opened up along lines to which they were strangers, but which they found by experience to be pleasant. This encouraged them to go on still further in seeking this kingdom of God; and many of them are now rejoicing in its bounties.
These are they who have wisely used their one talent. They may not have caught sight of the Holy of Holies in that inner sanctuary, but they are gradually getting closer and closer to it. This is the step that everybody is commanded to take. Trust God in all things, and see the result made apparent by the mental currents which you set going all about you. You may not be able to point out just how each separate word of allegiance to the Father took effect, but as the months go by you will gradually observe the various changes that are taking place in your mind, body and affairs. You will find that your ideas have broadened immensely to begin with. The little world has been transformed into a big world. You have begun to think about realities instead of appearances. Your mind is more alert, and you can discern where before you were in doubt. You are not so fearful. The consciousness that there is a Divine Hand guiding the universe and you, has given you a feeling of security. This has extended to your body and to your affairs. There is an absence of prejudice and fault-finding in you. You do not judge so harshly. You are more generous, and other people appreciate you by returning the compliment. Things are coming your way now where you tnought they were stranded.
This is not only true of your own particular affairs, but if you are observing you will note its effect in a measure upon those with whom you come in contact. They are getting more substantially prosperous and happy. They may not in the remotest way connect it with you or your thoughts, but that does not affect the truth about it. All things have their cause, and every cause is mental. Whoever comes in daily contact with a high order of thinking cannot help but take on some of it. His mind takes it on unconsciously just as his lungs breathe the air of the room. Ideas are catching, and no man can live where true ideas are being held without becoming more or less infected with them.- “No man liveth unto himself alone.”
Now these are some of the tangible steps along the way to that larger realization which you desire. These steps are necessary, too, because no one is introduced into the storehouse of the Father, and given the keys and authority to fully pass out the goods, until he has proven his efficiency and reliability. Suppose that men of the world, with their present ideas of mine and thine, were given without mental cleansing the power to produce at will whatsoever they desired? Would not the same ambitions and selfishness lead to still greater oppressions? Would there be any improvement over existing conditions? Verily not! So it is wise that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness before these things are in their fullness added.
But there is such a kingdom, and it may be found in its supreme fullness by those who are willing to come to its admission terms. Jesus said that the rich man’s entrance into the kingdom must be like the camel going through the eye of a needle. This comparison referred to the little gates in the wall about Jerusalem — so small that the camel had to be unloaded and then get down on its knees to squeeze through. This is an excellent illustration of the way in which every one has to go into the kingdom. Something has to be unloaded. It is not necessarily money, because the poor man gets in no faster than the rich man, unless he also unloads. That unloading is of your ideas about money; about its use, and who it belongs to.
Men’s ideas about money are index to their ideas about all possessions — they believe that the things that come from the earth, the air, and the water are theirs to take control of and claim as individual property to be held in store regardless how needy ior those things other men may be. These ideas are today prevalent in both the rich and the poor, and if these two classes were to suddenly change places it would not remedy the inequalities in possessions which these ideas produce.
Men must understand their relation to God, to each other, and the status of the universal resource. They must unload some of their errorneous ideas about their rights in the sight of an all-provident Father. They must understand that they cannot possess and lock up that which belongs to God without suffering the effects themselves of that congestion. It is not the poor man who in the end is the greatest sufferer from this action, because he has not by his concentrated belief in and trust of material things chained his soul to them. Those who are rich in the things of this world are by their dependence upon those things and faith in them binding themselves in material darkness, a darkness that will take ages to dissipate.
Before man can get into the realization of the Supply Invisible, he must drop out of mind every idea of personal possession. He cannot possess money, houses, or lands, as his own. He cannot possess the idea in his mind for which these stand. In fact, he cannot possess any ideas whatever as his own. There are possessions that rust and get motheaten besides those on the plane of phenomena.
Men possess as valuable their education, their trade, their ability, their talent in any of the many ways of the intellect. Ministers of the gospel possess eloquence or scholarship; some are proud ot their spiritual possessions. These are burdens that have to be unloaded at the narrow way into the kingdom of heaven. Even the saint who is puffed up with his saintly goodness must unload before he can get in. Whoever is ambitious to do good, whoever strives to excel in righteousness above his fellowmen—these must unload before they can behold the face of the all-provident Father.
The realm of causes may be compared to steam in a glass boiler. It is perfectly invisible, and if the glass is without flaw the eye might look right at it without seeing anything at all. Touch an escape valve and it rushes out, instantly condenses, and becomes visible. But by this process it has lost its power. Ideas exist in a realm of ideas, and they are powerful only when they are handled by one who is familiar with their characteristics. The ignorant open the valves of the mind and let them flow forth into a thought realm in which they have nothing in common. They are condensed into the bondage of time and space which ignorance conceives as necessary to their fruition. Their power is thus lost, and a weary round of seed time and harvest is inaugurated to fulfill the demands of that world.
It is the mind that believes in personal possessions that is responsible for this limitation of the full idea. God does not have it that way. His world is a world of results following demands simultaneously. This is the world where man finds his true home. Labor, as we understand it, has ceased for the man who has found this inner kingdom. The Divine Supply is brought forth without laborious struggle — to desire is to see fulfilled. This is the second step in demortstration for everyone who has dedicated himself to the Divine Guidance. He immediately enters into easier lines and more happiness than the world affords when he has covenanted to follow the Good only, but this is an advanced degree along the same line of initiation into the mysteries of the Divine Mage. Before this step may be taken a deeper and more thorough mental cleansing has to be undergone by the devotee. He awakens the action of a higher set of faculties within his own body, and there are opened to him fresh avenues of expression for his powers, or the powers of the Spirit manifesting through him. As he proceeds in the exercise of the inner faculties, he may find them clogged by the crystals of thought which some selfish idea has deposited, and he must go through a fresh cleansing. If he is obedient and willing to meekly follow the leading of the Spirit without cavil or protest, the way is easy. If, however, like Job, he finds fault, questions, and argues, he will meet with many obstructions, and his journey will be tedious.
Again, he who seeks the kingdom of God for the loaves and fishes he may get out of it, will surely be disappointed in the end. He may get the loaves and fishes — this is possible, but if there remains in the soul that which would use them to selfish ends, the ultimate will be disastrous.
We see many people in this day seeking the aid of the Spirit to cure them of their physical ills. They do not approach it with that true desire for the higher life which should inspire them. They find indulgence of their lusts and passions curtailed by some infirmity, which they want restored in order that they may continue in the fleshly way. The Spirit does not judge motives. It is Principle, and applies principles; so he that is in sin may be healed and again go forth and repeat his folly. Jesus said, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee.”
It is the experience of those who have dealt with the Spirit that it is a vigorous stimulant. It restores the vitality of every organ, and they become even more acute to pain or pleasure than before the treatment. This super-sensitiveness renders them liable »c more rapid waste, and when the fleshly indulgence s gratified they are quickly burned out, and the collapse is even more complete than before the healing. This is why those who receive Spiritual healing should be instructed in the Truth of Being. They should be shown that they are sinning against the law of their existence when they indulge their appetites and passions for mere sensation. Retribution always follows this, and the ignorant suffer equally with the wise.
Dedicate yourself to God and His work. Lay at the feet of the Spirit all your desires, passions, and appetites. Make a definite and detailed covenant with the Father, and agree to use in the most exalted way all your substance. Turn resolutely away from the old habits that have robbed you of your vitality and sunk your body into the depths of inanition.
Most people are today in the grasp of bodily death through the indulgence of false appetites. They can never put on the immortal robe of purity until they covenant with God to sacrifice upon His altar of spiritual fires all their energies. They must lift up the old serpent that they are now crawling in the dust with. No one can do this without Spiritual aid. Jesus Christ saw this, and through him was provided a helper, “Even the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name.”
Whoever silently calls upon this Spirit, and in its abiding place in his own soul agrees to follow it and do its will, shall be helped to overcome all the habits and indulgences that are keeping him out of the kingdom of heaven.
“Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”