//page 1

//section Title page

//text

Christian Healing

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//section Preface

//text

These are not simply lectures; they are, rather, lessons.
They are not merely to be read; they are to be studied and
applied as one studies and applies mathematical rules.

When the text suggests that the reader "hold a thought," or
affirm or deny a certain proposition, the student should
stop reading, and both audibly and mentally do as bidden.
This will set up new thought currents in mind and body, and
will make way for the spiritual illumination that will
follow in all who are faithful to these instructions.

The statements following each lesson should be used for
mental discipline. Write these statements down and apply
them daily while studying the lesson to which they
correspond. Anyone can do spiritual healing who will use
the simple rules of denial and affirmation here set forth.
If you wish to heal another, hold him in mind and mentally
repeat the denials and affirmations; this will raise your
consciousness to spiritual reality, where all healing power
originates. If you wish to heal yourself, talk to your mind
and body as you would talk to a patient.

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//section Contents

//text

Lesson One

The True Character of Being ... 7

Statements for the Realization of Divine Mind ... 17

Lesson Two

Being's Perfect Idea ... 18

Statements for the Realization of the Son of God ... 29

Lesson Three

Manifestation ... 30

"I AM" Realizations ... 39

Lesson Four

The Formative Power of Thought ... 40

Affirmations for Right Thinking ... 48

Lesson Five

How to Control Thought ... 50

Cleansing and Purifying Statements ... 60

Lesson Six

The Word ... 61

The Power of Words ... 70

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Lesson Seven

Spirituality or Prayer and Praise ... 72

Living Words to Quicken Spirituality ... 82

Establishing the Perfect Substance ... 83

Lesson Eight

Faith ... 85

Faith Affirmations ... 94

Lesson Nine

Imagination ... 96

Perfection in Form Established ... 106

Lesson Ten

Will and Understanding ... 107

The Establishment of Will and Understanding ... 118

Lesson Eleven

Judgment and Justice ... 119

Judgment and Justice Statements ... 129

Lesson Twelve

Love ... 130

Love Demonstrated ... 140

Study Helps and Questions ... 143

Index ... 157

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//section Lesson 1

Lesson One

The True Character of Being

//text

1. "There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the
Almighty giveth them understanding." The science that is
here set forth is founded upon Spirit. It does not always
conform to intellectual standards, but it is, nevertheless,
scientific. The facts of Spirit are of a spiritual
character and, when understood in their right relation,
they are orderly. Orderliness is law, and is the test of
true science.

2. The lawful truths of Spirit are more scientific than the
constantly shifting opinions based on intellectual
standards. The only real science is the science of Spirit.
It never changes. It is universally accepted by all who are
in Spirit, but one must be "in the Spirit" before one can
understand this science of Spirit. The mind of Spirit must
become active in those who would grasp the orderly science
of Being that these lessons proclaim.

3. It is not absolutely necessary that the spiritual part
of man's nature be active at the beginning of his study of
this science. The primal object of the lessons is to
quicken the spiritual realm of consciousness and to bring
about the "breath of the Almighty" that gives understanding.

4. So let it be understood that we are teaching the science
of Spirit, and that those who are receptive to the teaching
will be inspired to spiritual consciousness. It is not
difficult to accomplish, this

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receiving the "breath" or inspiration of Spirit. We all are
inspired by Spirit, in certain states of consciousness.
Understanding of the laws governing the realm of Spirit
will make it possible to attain this consciousness and to
receive this inspiration whenever requirements are met.

5. The starting point in spiritual realization is a right
understanding of that One designated as the Almighty. It is
strictly logical and scientific to assume that man comes
forth from this One, who is named variously, but who, all
agree, is the origin of everything. Since man is the
offspring of the Almighty, he must have the character of
his Parent. If the earthly child resembles his parents, how
much more should the heavenly child resemble his Parent.
The truth that God is the Father of man does away with the
oft proclaimed presumption that it is impossible for the
finite to understand the Infinite. God must be in His
universe as everywhere intelligent power; otherwise, it
would fall to pieces. God is in the universe as its
constant "breath" or inspiration; hence it is only
necessary to find the point of contact in order to
understand the One in whom we all "live, and move, and have
our being."

6. A sense of logic is a fundamental constituent of man's
being, and all minds acquiesce in statements of logical
sequence. We all see the relation and unity of cause and
effect, mentally stated, but, because the realm of forms
does not always carry out our premise, we fall away from
the true standard

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and try to convince ourselves that our logic is, somehow,
defective. The one important thing that the student of
spiritual science must learn is to trust the logic of mind.
If appearances are out of harmony with your mental premise,
do not let them unseat your logic. "Judge not according to
appearance, but judge righteous judgment." You would not
take the mixed figures of a child working a problem in
mathematics as an example of the trueness of the principle;
nor could you detect an error in the problem unless you
were somewhat familiar with the rules of mathematics.
Mental propositions are the standards and governing
principles in all sciences developed by man. In the science
of creation the same rule holds good. You may rest in the
assurance that the principles that you mentally perceive as
true of God are inviolate, and that, if there seems to be
error in their outworking, it is because of some
misapplication on the part of the demonstrator. By holding
to the principle and insisting upon its accuracy, you open
the way to a fuller understanding of it; you will also be
shown the cause of the errors in the demonstration.

7. Then, if you have been in confusion mentally through
contemplation of a world both good and evil, and have, in
consequence, got into skeptical ways, the only true remedy
is to stand by the pure reason of your spiritual perception
and let it clear up the proposition for you. Dismiss all
prejudices based upon the mixed perception; make your mind

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receptive to the clearer understanding that will surely
appear when you have taken sides with Spirit, when you look
to Spirit alone for the outworking of the problem.

8. This is not blind belief; it is, in the
superconsciousness, an acquiescence in the logic of Being.
The superconsciousness is man's only sure guide in the
mazes of the creative process. By trusting to the
infallibility of this guide, man opens himself to the
inspiration of the Almighty. Spirituality may be cultivated
by, and the deep things of God may be revealed to, anyone
who will mentally proclaim and affirm the logical
perception of the goodness and the Truth of Being.

9. The central proposition in the inspiration of Spirit is
that God, or primal Cause, is good. It does not make any
great difference what you name this primal Cause; the
important consideration is a right concept of its
character. The Hindu calls it Brahma, a being of such
stupendous proportions that man shrinks into nothingness in
contemplating it. Although this greatness of absolute Being
is true, there is also another point of view--the smallness
of that same Being as evidenced in the presence of its life
in the most insignificant creations. So, in order to get at
the very heart of Being, it is necessary to realize that it
is manifesting in the least as well as in the greatest, and
that, in the bringing forth of a universe, not one idea
could be taken away without unbalancing the whole. This
brings us to a fuller

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realization of our importance in the universe and to the
necessity of finding our right place. It also puts us into
very close touch with the Father of all, the one
omnipresent Intelligence pervading everything.

10. The Father within you, so lovingly and familiarly
revealed by Jesus, is not a distance, far away in a place
called "heaven." His abode is in the spiritual realms that
underlie all creative forces. As Jesus realized and taught,
"the kingdom of God is within you." Spirit is the seat of
power; its abode is on the invisible side of man's nature.

11. This revelation of God immanent in the universe was
clearly set forth by Paul: "over all, and through all, and
in all." The inspired ministers of all times have
proclaimed the same.

12. The Power that creates and sustains the universe
includes in its activity the creating and the sustaining of
man. The desire for a fuller understanding of this Power
has awakened a great inquiry into the character of the
all-pervading One. On every hand men are earnestly seeking
to know about God, seeking to come into harmonious relation
with Him. Some are succeeding, while others seem to make
but little progress. The diversity of results obtained is
caused by the variety of ways of approaching the one
Mind--for such God is. In mind is the key to the whole
situation, and when man clearly discerns the science of
mind, he will solve easily all the mysteries of creation.

13. The dictionary definitions of mind and spirit

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are nearly identical; with this analogy realized, we much
more easily get in touch with God. If spirit and mind are
synonymous, we readily perceive that there is no great
mystery about spiritual things, that they are not far
removed from our daily thoughts and experiences. "Ye are a
temple of God, and . . . the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you," simply means that God dwells in us as our mind dwells
in our body. Thus we see that God creates and moves
creation through the power of mind. The vehicles of mind
are thoughts, and it is through our mind in thought action
that we shall find God and do His will.

14. There are mental laws that investigators are
discovering, observing, and tabulating as never before in
the world's history. Man has the ability to discern and
understand the various factors entering into the creative
processes of mind, and he is, through the study of mental
laws, perceiving and accepting the science of ideas,
thoughts, and words. But those who investigate nature and
her laws from the intellectual and physical viewpoint fall
short of complete understanding, because they fail to trace
back to the causing Mind the multitudinous symbols that
make up the visible universe. The material forms that we
see about us are the chalk marks of a mighty problem being
outworked by the one Mind. To comprehend that problem and
to catch a slight glimpse of its meaning, we must grasp the
ideas that the chalk marks represent; this is what we mean
by

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studying Mind back of nature. Man is mind and he is capable
of comprehending the plan and the detailed ideas of the
supreme Mind.

15. Divine ideas are man's inheritance; they are pregnant
with all possibility, because ideas are the foundation and
cause of all that man desires. With this understanding as a
foundation, we easily perceive how "all . . . mine are
thine." All the ideas contained in the one Father-Mind are
at the mental command of its offspring. Get behind a thing
into the mental realm where it exists as an inexhaustible
idea, and you can draw upon it perpetually and never
deplete the source.

16. With this understanding of the potentiality of primal
Cause, we find it a simple matter to work the problem of
life--the key to the situation being ideas. Thus life in
expression is activity; in Being it is an idea of activity.
To make life appear on the visible plane, we have but to
open our mind and our thoughts to the divine idea of life
and activity, and lo, all visibility is obedient to us. It
is through this understanding, and its cultivation in
various degrees, that men have acquired the ability to
raise dead bodies. Jesus understood this realm of supreme
ideas, or, as He termed it, "the kingdom of God . . .
within you." When He raised Lazarus He invoked this power.
When Martha talked about a future resurrection, He said, "I
am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me,
though he die, yet shall he live." One who identifies his
whole mind

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with omnipresent Mind becomes so much at one with it that
he can overcome death.

17. The real of the universe is held in the mind of Being
as ideas of life, love, substance, intelligence, Truth, and
so forth. These ideas may be combined in a multitude of
ways, producing infinite variety in the realm of forms.
There is a right combination, which constitutes the divine
order, the kingdom of heaven on earth. This right relation
of ideas and the science of right thought is practical
Christianity.

18. The student in the science of Being should start all
his investigations and mental activities from the one-Mind
foundation. If you are skeptical about the existence of
God, or if you are an abstract believer in God without
having had any experience or conscious mental awakening
that has given you proof, you should be very industrious in
prayer, affirmation, and invocation. Remember, God is not a
king who can force his presence upon you whether you will
or not, but an omnipresent Mind enfolding and
interpenetrating all things.

19. There are goodness everlasting and joy beyond
expression in a perfect union between your mind and this
perfect Mind. The point of contact is a willingness and a
seeking on your part. "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you."

20. This question naturally presents itself: If we are
offspring of Divine Mind, why are we not naturally

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conscious of its presence? The answer to this is: In using
the privilege of our inheritance--the power to make ideas
visible as things--we have created a realm that separates
us in consciousness from the Father-Mind. This is the
teaching of Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son. When
we are weary of the sense consciousness, we have only to
turn our face (intelligence) toward our Father's house;
there we shall meet a loving welcome.

21. The understanding that God is not in a distant heaven,
nor located in any way geographically, gives us a feeling
of nearness to and unity with the parent Mind. This
intercommunion of the man consciousness with the
omnipresent spiritual force of the universe was beautifully
exemplified by Jesus. God was closer to Him than hands or
feet. He referred all things to this loving Father, who was
in constant communion and cooperation with the Son; yet
there was, even in His case, the independent personal
consciousness that beset Him when He sought to be free from
mortal limitations. So we should not be discouraged or cast
down if we do not quickly find the kingdom of God within
us. Jesus spent whole nights in prayer; we should not be
weary with a few moments each day. A daily half hour of
meditation will open up the mind to a consciousness of the
inner One and will reveal many things that are hidden from
the natural man.

22. The fact is, Truth cannot be imparted--it must be
individually experienced. The presence of

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Divine Mind in the soul cannot be told in words; it can be
hinted at and referred to in parable and likened to this or
to that, but it can never be described as it is. The
ability of the individual mind to combine the ideas of
Divine Mind in a consciousness of its own makes each of us
the "only begotten Son," a particular and special creation.
No two individuals in all the universe are exactly alike,
because there is always diversity in the ideas appropriated
by each individual from Divine Mind.

23. The truth is, then:

That God is Principle, Law, Being, Mind, Spirit, All-Good,
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, unchangeable, Creator,
Father, Cause, and source of all that is;

That God is individually formed in consciousness in each of
us, and is known to us as "Father" when we recognize Him
within us as our Creator, as our mind, as our life, as our
very being;

That mind has ideas and that ideas have expression; that
all manifestation in our world is the result of the ideas
that we are holding in mind and are expressing;

That to bring forth or to manifest the harmony of Divine
Mind, or the "kingdom of heaven," all our ideas must be one
with divine ideas, and must be expressed in the divine
order of Divine Mind.

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Statements For The Realization Of Divine Mind

(To be used in connection with Lesson One)

1. There is one Presence, one Intelligence, one Substance,
one Life: the good omnipotent.

2. God is the name of the everywhere-present Principle, in
whom I live, move, and have my being.

3. God is the name of my good.

4. God almighty, "Father of all, who is over all, and
through all, and in all."

5. Thy name is Spirit. I know Thee as the one, the
all-seeing, Mind.

6. "Our Father who art in heaven [the everywhere-present
inner harmony], Hallowed be thy name [wholeness manifests
Thy character]."

7. Thou art always with me as indwelling wisdom and love.

8. Thy law is now the standard of my life, and I am at
peace.

9. "I in thee . . . and thou in me."

10. Thou art never absent from me--I now see Thee face to
face.

11. I think Thy thoughts after Thee.

12. I dwell in Thee and share Thine omnipotence.

13. In Thee is my perfection.

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//section Lesson 2

Lesson Two

Being's Perfect Idea

//text

1. The foundation of our religion is Spirit, and there must
be a science of Truth. The science of Truth is God thinking
out creation. God is the original Mind in which all real
ideas exist. The one original Mind creates by thought. This
is stated in the first chapter of John:

2. In the beginning was the Word [Logos--thought-word], and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him; and without him was not anything made that hath been
made.

3. Eadie's Biblical Cyclopedia says: "The term Logos means
thought expressed, either as an idea in mind or as vocal
speech."

4. An understanding of the Logos reveals to us the law
under which all things are brought forth--the law of mind
action. Creation takes place through the operation of the
Logos. God is thinking the universe into manifestation
right now. Even He cannot create without law. The law of
the divine creation is the order and harmony of perfect
thought.

5. God-Mind expresses its thoughts so perfectly that there
is no occasion for change, hence all prayers and
supplications for the change of God's will to conform to
human desires are futile. God does not change His mind, or
trim His thought, to meet the conflicting opinions of
mankind. Understanding the perfection of God thoughts, man
must conform to

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them; so conforming, he will discover that there is never
necessity for any change of the will of God in regard to
human affairs.

6. A key to God-Mind is with everyone--it is the action of
the individual mind. Man is created the "image" and
"likeness" of God; man is therefore a phase of God-Mind,
and his mind must act like the original Mind. Study your
own mind, and through it you will find God-Mind. In no
other way can you get a complete understanding of yourself,
of the universe, and of the law under which it is being
brought forth. When you see the Creator thinking out His
universe as the mathematician thinks out his problem, you
will understand the necessity for the very apparent effort
that nature makes to express itself; you will also
understand why the impulse for higher things keeps welling
up within your soul. God-Mind is living, acting thoughts.
God-Mind is thinking in you; it is pushing your mind to
grasp true ideas and carry them into expression.

7. It is therefore true, in logic and in inspiration, that
man and the universe are within God-Mind as living, acting
thoughts. God-Mind is giving itself to its creations, and
those creations thus are evolving an independence that has
the power to cooperate with, or to oppose, the original God
will. It is then of vital importance to study the mind and
understand its laws, because the starting point of every
form in the universe is an idea.

8. Every man asks the question at some time,

//page 20

"What am I?" God answers: "Spiritually you are My idea of
Myself as I see Myself in the ideal; physically you are the
law of My mind executing that idea." "Great is the mystery
of godliness," said Paul. A little learning is a dangerous
thing in the study of Being. To separate oneself from the
whole and then attempt to find out the great mystery is
like dissecting inanimate flesh to find the source of life.

9. If you would know the mystery of Being, see yourself in
Being. Know yourself as an integral idea in Divine Mind,
and all other ideas will recognize you as their fellow
worker. Throw yourself out of the Holy Trinity and you
become an onlooker. Throw yourself into the Trinity and you
become its avenue of expression. The Trinity is known
commonly as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; metaphysically it
is known as mind, idea, expression. These three are one.
Each sees itself as including the other two, yet in
creation separate. Jesus, the type man, placed Himself in
the Godhead, and said: "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father." But, recognizing the supremacy of spiritual
Principle, which He was demonstrating, He said: "The Father
is greater than I."

10. Reducing the Trinity to simple numbers takes away much
of its mystery. When we say that there is one Being with
three attitudes of mind, we have stated in plain terms all
that is involved in the intricate theological doctrine of
the Trinity. The priesthood has always found it profitable
to make

//page 21

complex that which is simple. When religion becomes an
industry it has its trade secrets, and to the uninitiated
they seem very great. Modern investigation of the character
of the mind is taking away all the mysteries of Egyptian,
Hindu, Hebrew, and many other religious and mystical
systems of the past. Advocates of these systems are
attempting to perpetuate their so-called secret knowledge
through the occult societies springing up on every side in
our day, but they meet with indifferent success. The modern
Truth seeker takes very little on trust. Unless the
claimant to occult lore can demonstrate his power in the
world of affairs, people are suspicious of him. Religious
awe for the priesthood, which is prevalent in Oriental
countries, is lacking in the majority of Western people. In
India, a yellow-robed holy man is regarded with reverence
by both adults and children; in this country adults stare
and small boys throw stones until he seeks the protection
of the police. This seems irreverent, almost heathenish,
yet it is the expression of an innate repudiation of
everything that seeks to establish itself on any other
foundation than that of practical demonstration.

11. The mind of God is Spirit, soul, body; that is, mind,
idea, expression. The mind of man is Spirit, soul,
body--not separate from God-Mind, but existing in it and
making it manifest in an identity peculiar to the
individual. Every man is building into his consciousness
the three departments of God-Mind, and his success in the
process is evidenced by the

//page 22

harmony, in his consciousness, of Spirit, soul, and body.
If he is all body, he is but one-third expressed. If to
body he has added soul, he is two-thirds man, and if to
these two he is adding Spirit, he is on the way to the
perfect manhood that God designed. Man has neither Spirit,
soul, nor body of his own--he has identity only. He can
say, "I." He uses God Spirit, God soul, and God body, as
his "I" elects. If he uses them with the idea that they
belong to him, he develops selfishness, which limits his
capacity and dwarfs his product.

12. In his right relation, man is the inlet and the outlet
of an everywhere-present life, substance, and intelligence.
When his "I" recognizes this fact and adjusts itself to the
invisible expressions of the one Mind, man's mind becomes
harmonious; his life, vigorous and perpetual; his body,
healthy. It is imperative that the individual understand
this relation in order to grow naturally. It must not only
be understood as an abstract proposition, but it is
necessary that he blend his life consciously with God life,
his intelligence with God intelligence, and his body with
the "Lord's body." Conscious identification must prevail in
the whole man before he can be in right relation. This
involves not only a recognition of the universal
intelligence, life, and substance, but also their various
combinations in man's consciousness. These combinations
are, in the individual world, dependent for perfect
expression upon man's recognition of and his loyalty to his
origin--God-Mind.

//page 23

Man is in God-Mind as a perfect idea. God-Mind is
constantly trying to express in every man its perfect idea,
the real and only man.

13. The perfect-man idea in God-Mind is known under various
names in the many religious systems. The Krishna of the
Hindu is the same as the Messiah of the Hebrews. All the
great religions of the world are founded upon spiritual
science, but not all of that science is understood by their
followers. The Hebrews had been told again and again, by
the spiritually wise, that a Messiah, or Christ man, would
be born in their midst, but when He came they did not
recognize Him, because of their lack of understanding. They
understood only the letter of their religion. A similar
lack of understanding prevails generally today. The Christ
man, or perfect idea of God-Mind, is now being expressed
and demonstrated by men and women as never before in the
history of the race. Those who claim to be followers of the
true religion should beware of putting the perfect-man idea
out of their synagogues as the Jews put out Jesus Christ.
The ancient Pharisees asked Jesus: "By what authority doest
thou these things?" Modern Pharisees are repeating the same
question. The substance of Jesus' answer was: "By their
fruits ye shall know them." (Read Mt. 21:23-46.)

14. This perfect-idea-of-God man is your true self.
God-Mind is, under the law of thought, constantly seeking
to release its perfection in you. It is your spirit, and
when you ask for its guidance and

//page 24

place yourself, by prayer and affirmation, in mental touch
with it, there is a great increase in its manifestation in
your life. It has back of it all the powers of Being, and
there is nothing that it cannot do if you give it full sway
and make your thought strong enough to express the great
forces that it is seeking to express in you.

15. A most important part of the law of mind action is the
fact of thought-unity. It is absolutely necessary to
understand the nature of this fact before one can
demonstrate the power of the superconscious mind. Among our
associates, we like and are attracted to those who
understand and sympathize with our thoughts. The same law
holds good in Divine Mind--its thoughts are drawn to and
find expression in the minds of those who raise themselves
to its thought standard. This means that we must think of
ourselves as God thinks of us, in order to appreciate and
to receive His thoughts and to bring forth the fruits. If
you think of yourself as anything less than the perfect
child of the perfect Parent, you lower the thought standard
of your mind and cut off the influx of thought from Divine
Mind. Jesus referred to this law when He said: "Ye
therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
perfect."

16. When we go forth in the understanding of man's perfect
nature, we find a new state of consciousness forming in us;
we think and do many things not according to the
established custom, and

//page 25

the old consciousness rises up and asks: "By what
authority?" We have so long looked for man-made authority
in religious matters that we feel that we are treading on
dangerous ground if we dare to think beyond prescribed
doctrines. Right here we should appeal to the supreme
reason of Spirit and proclaim what we perceive as the
highest truth, regardless of precedent or tradition, mental
ignorance or physical limitation: I AM is the "image of
God," the "only begotten Son" (the expressed, or pressed
out, Mind) of the Most High. This is our true estate, and
we shall never realize it until we enter into it in mind,
because there it is, and nowhere else.

17. Only through the superconscious mind can we behold and
commune with God. "No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him." It is taught that Jesus was exclusively
the "only begotten Son," but He Himself said: "Is it not
written in your law, 'I said, Ye are gods'?" He proclaimed
the unity of all men in the Father. "I am the light of the
world." "Ye are the light of the world." Paul says, "As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God." We are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."

18. In this matter of sonship is one important point that
we should not overlook; that point is the difference
between those who perceive their sonship as a possibility,
and those who have demonstrated it in their lives. "Ye must
be born anew," was the

//page 26

proclamation of Jesus. The first birth is the human--the
self-consciousness of man as an intellectual and physical
being; the second birth, the being "born anew," is the
transformation and translation of the human to a higher
plane of consciousness as the son of God.

19. The second birth is that in which we "put on Christ."
It is a process of mental adjustment and body transmutation
that takes place right here on earth. "Have this mind in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus," is an epitome of a
mental and physical change that may require years to work
out. But all men must go through this change before they
can enter into eternal life and be as Jesus Christ is.

20. This being "born anew," or "born from above," is not a
miraculous change that takes place in man; it is the
establishment in his consciousness of that which has always
existed as the perfect-man idea in Divine Mind. God created
man in His "image" and "likeness." God being Spirit, the
man that He creates is spiritual. It follows as a logical
sequence that man, on the positive, formative, creative
side of his nature, is the direct emanation of his Maker;
that he is just like his Maker; that he is endowed with
creative power, and that his very being is involved in
God-Mind which he is releasing by his creative thought. It
is to this spiritual man that the Father says: "All things
that are mine are thine."

21. Understanding of the status of all men in

//page 27

Divine Mind gives us a new light upon the life of Jesus of
Nazareth and makes plain many of His seemingly mysterious
statements. This spiritual consciousness, or Christ Mind,
was quickened in Him, and through it He realized His
relation to First Cause. When asked to show the Father,
whom He constantly talked to as if He were personally
present, He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father." His personality had been merged into the
universal. The mind of Being and the thought of Being were
joined, and there was no consciousness of separation or
apartness.

22. Everything about man presages the higher man. Foremost
of these prophesies is the almost universal desire for the
freedom that spiritual life promises, freedom from material
limitations. The immortal perception spurs man on to invent
mechanical devices that will carry him above limitations.
For example, he flies by means external. In his spiritual
nature he is provided with the ability to overcome gravity;
when this power is developed, it will be common to see men
and women passing to and fro in the air, without wings or
mechanical appliances of any description.

23. The human organism has a world of latent energies
waiting to be brought into manifestation. Distributed
throughout the body are many nerve centers whose offices
are as yet but vaguely understood. In the New Testament,
which is a work on spiritual physiology, these centers are
referred to as

//page 28

"cities" and "rooms." The "upper room" is the very top of
the head. Jesus was in this "upper room" of His mind when
Nicodemus came to see Him "by night"--meaning the ignorance
of sense consciousness. It was in this "upper room" that
the followers of Jesus prayed until the Holy Spirit came
upon them. The superconsciousness, or Christ Mind, finds
its first entrance into the natural mind through this
higher brain center. By thought, speech, and deed this
Christ Mind is brought into manifestation. The new birth is
symbolically described in the history of Jesus.

24. "Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and
righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and
saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and
heard them not."

//page 29

Statements For The Realization Of The Son Of God

(To be used in connection with Lesson Two)

1. I am the son of God, and the Spirit of the Most High
dwells in me.

2. I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of the
Father.

3. I am the lord of my mind, and the ruler of all its
thought people.

4. I am the Christ of God.

5. Through Christ I have dominion over my every thought and
word.

6. I am the beloved son in whom the Father is well pleased.

7. Of a truth I am the son of God.

8. All that the Father has is mine.

9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

10. I and my Father are one.

11. My highest ideal is a perfect man.

12. My next highest ideal is that I am that perfect man.

13. I am the image and likeness of God, in whom is my
perfection.

14. It is written in the law of the Lord, "Ye are gods, and
. . . sons of the Most High."

15. These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have
life in his name.

//page 30

//section Lesson 3

Lesson Three

Manifestation

//text

1. As a rule, religious people are not scientific. They
think that religion and science are separated by a gulf,
and that the scientific mind is spiritually dangerous.
Science, to them, is associated with Darwin, Huxley, and
other students of natural law who have been skeptical about
the accuracy of the Bible from the standpoint of natural
science, and whom, because of this skepticism, they brand
as infidels. Hence it has come to be almost heresy for a
good Christian to think about his religion as having a
"scientific" side.

2. By science we mean the systematic and orderly
arrangement of knowledge. This definition does not confine
science to the facts of the material world. There is a
science in Christianity, and it is only through the
understanding of this science as a fundamental of
Christianity that the Christ teachings can be fully
demonstrated in the life of man. To fail to understand the
science upon which spiritual understanding rests is to fail
in nearly every demonstration of its power. Paul says: "I
will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the
understanding also."

3. There is a gulf between the high spiritual understanding
and the material manifestation. It is only by bridging this
gulf that science and religion can be reconciled. The
bridge needed is the structure that thought builds. When
Christians understand

//page 31

the science of thinking, the power of thought to manifest
itself, and how the manifestation of thought is
accomplished, they will no longer fear material science;
when material scientists have fathomed the real nature of
the living force that they even now discern as ever active
in all nature's structures, they will have more respect for
religion.

4. Both the religionist and the physicist incorrectly hold
that the Bible is a historical description of man's
creation. Beginning with the very first chapter of Genesis,
the Bible is an allegory. It is so regarded by the majority
of Hebrew scholars, and they certainly ought to know the
character of their own Scriptures. Paul was a Hebrew, and
thoroughly versed in the occultism of spiritual writings;
he said, referring to the story of Abraham and Sarah,
"Which things contain an allegory." Hebrews almost
universally claim that the story of the Garden of Eden,
Adam, Eve, and the serpent is symbology.

5. In the face of these facts, it seems strange that
orthodox Christianity should insist that the Bible is a
literal history. It is this literal viewpoint that has
stood in the way of true spiritual understanding. Read in
the light of Spirit, the 1st chapter of Genesis is a
description, in symbol, of the creative action of universal
Mind in the realm of ideas. It does not pertain to the
manifest universe any more than the history of the
inventor's idea pertains to the machine that he builds to
manifest the idea. First the problem is thought out, and
afterward the structure is

//page 32

produced. So God builds His universe. This is explained in
the 2d chapter of Genesis, which says that God "rested . .
. from all his work," and yet there were no plants of the
field, "and there was not a man to till the ground." "And
Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul."

6. Only through perception of the mental law by which ideas
manifest from the formless to the formed can we understand
and reconcile these two apparently contradictory chapters.
In the light of true understanding everything is made
plain, and we discern just how Divine Mind is creating man
and the universe: first the ideal concept, then the
manifestation.

7. The six days of creation, as described in the 1st
chapter of Genesis, represent six great ideal projections
from Divine Mind, each more comprehensive than its
predecessor. The final climax is reached in the sixth
degree, when that phase of Being called man appears, having
dominion over everything, or every idea, that has gone
before. This ideal man, who is made in the "image" and
"likeness" of Elohim, is the epitome and focal center
around which all creation revolves; hence the one important
study of man is the mind of man. In mind is the key to all
mysteries, both religious and material. When we know how
mind manifests from the ideal to the so-called real, we are
no longer in the

//page 33

dark, but have that Truth which Jesus said would make us
free.

8. There is but one man. On the spiritual side of his
being, every man in the universe has access to that man,
eternally existing in Divine Mind as a perfect-man idea.
When man appreciates this mighty truth and applies it in
his conscious thinking, all manifestation becomes
harmonious and orderly to him, and he sees God everywhere.

9. A right understanding of the divine law of creation
reveals man as a necessary factor in God's great work.
Through man, God is forming or manifesting outwardly that
which exists in the ideal. In order, then, that the
creation shall go on and be fulfilled as God has designed,
man must not only understand the law of mind action in his
individual thought, but he must also understand his
relation to the universal thought. Not only must he
understand it, but in his every thought he must consciously
cooperate with divine ideals. Jesus understood this law and
repeatedly claimed that He was sent of God to carry out the
divine will in the world. This commission is given to every
man, and man will not have satisfaction in life until he
recognizes this universal law; until he becomes an
obedient, willing co-worker with Divine Mind.

10. Spiritual man is I AM; manifest man is I will. I AM is
the Jehovah God of Scripture, and I will is the Adam. It is
the I AM man that forms and breathes into the I will man
the "breath of life."

//page 34

When we are in the realm of the ideal, we are I AM; when we
are expressing ideals in thought or in act, we are I will.
When the I will gets so absorbed in its realm of expression
that it loses sight of the ideal and centers all its
attention in the manifest, it is Adam listening to the
serpent and hiding from Jehovah God. This breaks the
connection between Spirit and manifestation, and man loses
that spiritual consciousness which is his under divine law.
In this state of mind the real source of supply is cut off,
and there is a drawing upon the reserve forces of the
organism, the tree of life. It is in this experience that
man is described as being driven out of the Garden of Eden,
or the paradise of Being.

11. Every idea projects form. The physical body is the
projection of man's idea; we carry the body in the mind.
The body is the fruit of the tree of life, which grows in
the midst of the garden of mind. If the body-idea is
grounded and rooted in Divine Mind, the body will be filled
with a perpetual life flow that will repair all its
imperfect parts and heal all its diseases.

12. When man realizes that there is but one body-idea and
that the conditions in his body express the character of
his thought, he has the key to bodily perfection and
immortality in the flesh. But "flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God." The "flesh and blood" here
referred to is the corruptible-body idea that men carry in
mind. When we get the right idea of the origin and
character of the body,

//page 35

the corruptible will put on incorruption and our bodies
will be raised from the dead, as was the body of Jesus.
"Neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see
corruption."

13. The resurrection of our bodies from the dead begins in
our minds. We must change our ideas about the body, and
hold to the truth of its origin and destiny as conceived of
God, in whose mind its real being exists. The spiritual
body of man is the conception of Divine Mind, the creation
of Spirit for us. Our work is to make this spiritual body
manifest.

14. When we have the right understanding of creation, and,
with the help of this understanding, begin the redemption
of the body, the Spirit of God quickens the inner life of
the whole organism, and we know that the promise in Acts
2:17 is being fulfilled in us: "In the last days, saith
God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh."

15. The problem before man in the present race
consciousness is how to get back to the "Father's house,"
in which is inexhaustible abundance. As it is by an
exercise of the free will inherent in us that we separate
ourselves from the Father, so it must be through that same
faculty that we again make conscious union with Him. We
must realize the foolishness of living in that most
external realm where only the husks of things are, and upon
which we would fain satisfy ourselves, but cannot. Then let
us turn our attention within; by traveling for a season in
that

//page 36

direction we find the source and substance of life.

16. This turning within, after one has for a long time been
looking without, is no easy matter. The mind that has been
trained to the standards of the formed universe is often
slow to grasp the formless. But there is a state of
consciousness in the soul that has, through ages of
experience, learned about this formless world and is at
home in it. Our dreams, visions, and spiritual experiences,
of which we seldom speak, come from this inner realm. So it
is found that we have a household waiting for us on the
subjective side of our being, and its welcome is worth all
the effort of our seeking it. "We seek a country from which
we came forth," Paul said in substance.

17. Individualize yourself in the highest degree by
affirming that in Spirit and in Truth you are all that God
is. This is true of man in his spiritual nature, and he
must claim the supreme inheritance before he can enter into
the mighty mental and spiritual forces that are released
from the kingdom of God within man. No one enters the
kingdom of God, and sits upon the throne and abides there,
until he has the courage and fearlessness to proclaim
himself joint heir with Jesus. Then he must prove his
dominion by his purity of motive, an unselfish devotion to
Truth universal, and a steady industry and patience in
overcoming the limitation of his own sense consciousness.

18. Man's true identity is as the perfect-man idea

//page 37

in Divine Mind. This idea has no mind separate from the one
universal realm of ideas. Man must establish himself in the
one and only Mind. He came forth from it, and his whole
existence depends on it; then why should he not consciously
make the mental connection that will establish in himself
the harmony and order on which all existence depends?

19. Nearly all religious systems aim to bring about this
unity between God and man, and many of them are quite
successful in their methods. We owe much to the church, to
the education and the help that we have received directly
and indirectly through the efforts of spiritual-minded
people in all ages. The Truth has pressed upon them, and
they have demonstrated it up to their highest understanding
of it. We are now in a fuller degree of enlightenment
concerning the spiritual laws that govern man and the
universe, and consequently we can more definitely and
scientifically apply the methods for spiritual development
that, in religious systems, are usually followed through
faith. To your faith you can now add understanding.

20. One's getting back into the Garden of Eden, or taking
possession of the Promised Land, is a conscious entering
into the subjective part of one's own being. In divine
order the will acts upon the body center from within; in
the average person this action is through reflection from
without. In practice we live outside our body instead of
within it. This gives us a very slender hold upon it, and
it is in consequence

//page 38

weak and likely to slip away from us on very slight
pretexts.

21. Man should constantly affirm: I AM, and I will
manifest, the perfection of the Mind within me. The first
part of the statement is abstract Truth; the second part is
concrete identification of man with this Truth. We must
learn the law of expression from the abstract to the
concrete--from the formless to the formed. Every idea makes
a structure after its own image and likeness, and all such
ideas and structures are grouped and associated according
to their offices.

22. All ideas pertaining to power group themselves about
structures impregnated with power. Such ideas are not
attracted to ideas of love. Love has its group, and it
builds its structures in a place apart. We have observed
certain of the manifest centers in our body; we have
recognized and named them as the seat of emotions, as the
expression of characteristics supposed to exist in the
soul. Love is universally recognized as expressing itself
through the heart, and intelligence as expressing itself
through the head.

23. In the study of Mind and Spirit, these inner centers of
consciousness are concentrated on until they respond to the
I will and become obedient to it. By this method man finds
that he can control and direct every body function and
perpetuate it.

24. This is the "regeneration" of the New Testament, a
process of body refinement to the point of

//page 39

physical immortality. Jesus called this estate "the
regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of
his glory."

"I AM" REALIZATIONS

(To be used in connection with Lesson Three)

1. "I AM THAT I AM."

2. I am identity demonstrated.

3. I AM THAT I AM, and there is no other besides me.

4. I am one with Almightiness.

5. I am the substance of Being made manifest.

6. I am formed in the perfection of the divine-idea man,
Christ Jesus.

7. My body is not material; it is spiritual and perfect in
all its being.

8. Centered and established in the one Mind, I am not
disturbed by the falsities without me.

9. My identity is in God, and my work is to establish His
kingdom within me.

10. I can do nothing of myself, "but the Father abiding in
me does his works."

11. I am striving in all my thoughts and ways to make the
image and likeness of God manifest in me.

12. My "life is hid with Christ in God."

//page 40

//section Lesson 4

Lesson Four

The Formative Power of Thought

//text

1. That the body is moved by thought is universally
accepted, but that thought is also the builder of the body
is not so widely admitted. We know that thought moves the
various members of the body, because we have constantly
before us manifestations of the close sympathy between
thought and act. Before I run, I think that I will run, and
my legs begin to move swiftly in imagination before I begin
the action outwardly. It was found by a system of
experiments made at Harvard University that the thought of
running causes the blood to rush into the legs. A man was
put flat on his back on a balanced beam, which was adjusted
so that the least bit of added weight at head or foot
registered on the index. When a perfect balance was
attained the man was given a problem in mathematics to
solve. Immediately the index showed increased weight at the
head, indicating that thought had called the blood there.
Then he was told to imagine that he was running, and the
index showed added weight shifting to the feet.

2. Here is proof that thought not only moves the external
members of the body, but that it controls the fluids
flowing within the body. If thought so readily moves the
blood from place to place, who shall say that it does not
move the nerve fluid, or that still more volatile
substance, the magnetic force that pervades all organisms?
We affirm that thought controls

//page 41

nerve forces and magnetic force, and that it not only moves
them but also forms and organizes their activities in the
body.

3. Medical authorities of the highest repute tell us that
certain organs of the body are self-renewing; that it is a
puzzle to them how these parts ever wear out. If you had a
sewing machine that constantly replaced the little
particles worn away by friction, would that machine ever be
destroyed? In health, man's body has this power of
replacing worn parts and when it is in harmony it never
wears out. The harmony referred to is self-adjustment to
the law of Being, to the law of divine nature, to the law
of God. It does not matter what you call this fundamental
principle underlying all life--the important thing is to
understand it, and to put yourself in harmony with it.

4. We have often been told that we should be healthy if we
conformed to the laws of nature, but no one has been able
to tell us just what those laws are. Some have said that
this conformity consists in eating the right kind of food,
or in drinking the right kind of water in the right sort of
way, or in breathing pure air and wearing suitable clothes.
We have done all these things, and there is yet something
lacking. It is quite evident that we have not, by observing
these external adjustments, gotten at the underlying
principle of nature. Nature works intelligently, and we
shall never be able to conform to her laws until we
approach her as we would a wise

//page 42

and loving mother, who, we know, gladly gives us what we
want when we use it wisely. Nature is not a blind force
working in darkness and ignorance. All her works indicate
intelligence--mind in action. This being true, we perceive
that we cannot conform to the laws of nature until we
recognize the Mind through which she works.

5. Those who have not thought about this proposition, those
who have not tried to know and understand the mental side
of life, are like men walking in broad daylight with their
eyes closed. The mind has eyes, and we can see (perceive)
the inner intelligence when we look with mind. But those
who look wholly with the physical eye are really
blind--having eyes, they see not. Man's salvation from sin,
sickness, pain, and death comes by his understanding and
conforming to the orderly Mind back of all existence. "Ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

6. Man is an epitome of Being. Psychology finds his soul
responding to all the emotions, sensations, and vibrations
of the sentient world about him, and spiritual science
discerns that his superconsciousness is inspired with all
the ideas fundamental in Divine Mind. Man, then, is the key
to God and the universe, and he may know all things by
studying his own constitution. Supreme in this constitution
is mind. Man must base all his researches on mind, because
mind is the starting point of every thought and act.

7. Some metaphysicians teach that man makes

//page 43

himself, others teach that God makes him, and still others
hold that the creative process is a co-operation between
God and man. The latter is proved true by those who have
had the deepest spiritual experiences. Jesus recognized
this dual creative process, as is shown in many statements
relative to His work and the Father's work. "My Father
worketh even until now, and I work." God creates in the
ideal, and man carries out in the manifest what God has
idealized. Jesus treats of this relation between the Father
and the Son in the 5th chapter of John: "The Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for
what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in
like manner."

8. Thought is the creative power by which man builds a
mentality and a body of perfection. Man understandingly
uses his creative thought power by mentally perceiving the
right relation of ideas, "what he seeth the Father doing,"
as stated by Jesus. Thus we see the necessity not only for
thinking right thoughts, but also for having a right basis
for our thinking. We must think according to universal
Principle. The successful mathematician bases all his
calculations on the rules of mathematical science; so the
successful metaphysician bases his creative thinking on the
unlimited ideas of the one Mind. Christianity is a science
because it is governed by scientific principles of mind
action. These principles are really the foundation of all
the various sciences, but these sciences are secondary;
divine science is primary.

//page 44

9. The physical scientist deals with the electron, or
molecule, or cell, in his analysis of forms. He postulates
that atoms exist, but he has never seen one. He assumes
that the realm beyond the ken of physical perception is not
possible of investigation. The metaphysician, however,
delves into the realm where atoms, and molecules, and cells
are formed, and he not only sees how they are made, but he
acquires the ability to make them. He finds that they all
are dependent on ideas, and that by using right ideas he
can make manifest any form or shape that he may desire. For
example, what externally is named substance has its source
in a mental idea of form and shape. What is termed life has
its source in an idea of action. What is termed
intelligence has its source in an idea of knowing. All the
manifestations that we see about us are produced in the
same way; they have their source in some idea in mind, and
they can be formed and transformed at will by one who
understands and uses this mind power.

10. A study of the mind and its innumerable manifestations
reveals often a difference between a thing and the mind in
which the thing has its original impetus as an idea. Life
in Divine Mind is unlimited as an idea back of perpetual,
omnipresent action, but by man's thought it may be
subjected to many limitations. Substance in Divine Mind is
an idea of perfection in form, but man's thought usually
caricatures it. Intelligence in Divine Mind is all-knowing,
but man's thought has said that there is ignorance, so

//page 45

ignorance has been demonstrated. But we should not assume
that all manifestation is good because the originating idea
came from Divine Mind. All ideas have their foundation in
Divine Mind, but man has put the limitation of his negative
thought upon them, and sees them "in a mirror, darkly."

11. Applying this reasoning to individual consciousness, we
find just how man thinks his body into disease. Instead of
basing his thought on what is true in the absolute of
Being, he bases it on conditions as they appear in the
formed realm about him, and the result is bodily discord in
multitudinous shapes. Pervading all nature is a universal
thought substance that is more sensitive than the
phonographic record. The mechanical record receives and
preserves vibrations of sound, but the thought substance
does better than this; it transcribes not only all sounds,
but even the slightest vibration of thought.

12. The telephone system of a large city is a good
illustration of the manner in which thought works on the
organism. The nerves are the wires and the nerve fluids are
the electricity. The ganglionic aggregations throughout the
body are the substations. The presiding intelligence sends
its thought from the head; "Central," at the solar plexus,
receives the message and makes connection with the part of
the body designated. You think of your stomach; instantly
the connection is made with that center and the presiding
thought stationed there takes your message and carries it
into effect. If the message is,

//page 46

"You are weak," weakness is recorded. If you say, "You are
strong, vigorous, fearless, spiritual intelligence, life,
and substance," that message is transcribed and carried
into action.

13. Every part of the body is connected with the great
solar-plexus central station, which is very obedient in
carrying out instructions received from the presiding
intelligence in the head. There are several great
subcenters and innumerable minor centers in the organism.
These centers of thought are the formed ideas of mind that
have an affinity for one another, based upon the attractive
power of love, the binding factor of the organism. Physical
science calls this binding energy centripetal force, but
all forces of whatever character are fundamentally
spiritual, and they must be reduced to ideas, thoughts, and
words, in order to be understood.

14. All ideas pertaining to life expression have their
center of action in that part of the body called the
generative system; whatever thought we think or express in
words about life is immediately sent to this generative
ganglion and registered there. Not only are these thoughts
registered, but man has, by repeated thinking, built up an
ego, or identity, at that center. The dominant thought of
this identity is life action in its various phases. The
life center is divine, and should be thought about and used
in the purest, highest way. This will lead to the perfect
manifestation of life in the whole body. All thoughts about
the loss of life, or the weakness of life, or

//page 47

the impurity of life, should be persistently denied out of
mind, and we should make the strongest kind of affirmations
of what life is in God. In this way we connect the life
center with its spiritual source, and it is restored to
divine harmony.

15. A majority of the ills that afflict the body have their
origin in erroneous thoughts about life and in misuse of
the generative life function. In Genesis the life center is
compared to a tree--its roots are in the ground and its
branches reach up to the heavens. All the pleasant
sensations in the organism are produced by the forces
emanating from this center. Along the nerves, or branches,
the life center sends its currents of life to the very
extremities of the body, and even beyond, into the finer
ethers of the soul. The life center is spiritual, but its
vibrations are so subtle (serpentlike) that man is tempted
to eat its fruits, to consume in its pleasant sensations
the reserve forces of his organism. His indulgence unfrocks
him--takes away his robe of power and mastery and dominion
over the physical forces that environ him. Instead of
abiding at the center of his body and consciously ruling it
and the world of nature without him, he is cast out "from
the garden of Eden."

16. By a right understanding, and by using right thoughts
and words, man will regain the kingdom within him and will
be reinstated in the Garden of Eden. This process of man's
taking up power and dominion again is now being carried out
in all those

//page 48

who are seeking the righteousness of the Christ
consciousness. In this higher-thought realm, all ideas
pertaining to the life of man are in harmonious relation,
and when we ask in silent thought for this knowledge, our
mind is flooded with its light. We apprehend only according
to the receptivity, steadfastness, understanding, and
persistent faith of our mind. But we grow in faith and
understanding, and no matter how slowly we seem to be
progressing we should never be discouraged or give up.
Everyone is heir to this higher-thought consciousness, and
all must eventually attain it. When the beauty of this
spiritual realm is spread before us we should express
gratitude--give thanks to the great Soul of the universe.
When the astronomer Kepler realized the grandeur of the
laws that were revealed to him, he exclaimed: "O God, I am
thinking Thy thoughts after Thee."

AFFIRMATIONS FOR RIGHT THINKING

(To be used in connection with Lesson Four)

1. "As he thinketh within himself, so is he."

2. My heart is righteous toward God.

3. Where my thoughts are gathered together in my Christ
name, there I am in the midst of them.

4. I will think no evil, for Thou art always with me.

5. The thoughts of God are His angels: "He shall give his
angels charge concerning thee."

//page 49

6. "The thought of foolishness is sin."

7. "The thoughts of the righteous are just."

8. "Commit thy works unto Jehovah, and thy purposes shall
be established."

9. "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil."

10. "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!"

11. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know
my thoughts."

12. "Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ."

13. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things."

//page 50

//section Lesson 5

Lesson Five

How to Control Thought

//text

1. Each thought of mind is an identity that has a central
ego. By this we mean that every thought has a center around
which all its elements revolve and to which it is obedient
when no higher power is in evidence. Thoughts are capable
of expressing themselves--they think. Man thinks, and he
thinks into his thoughts all that he is; hence man's
thoughts must be endowed with a secondary power of thought.

2. There is, however, a difference between the original
thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating
center in Spirit; the other, in thought. One is Son of God;
the other is son of man.

3. The one essential fact to understand is that there can
be no manifestation without intelligence as a fundamental
factor or constituent part. Every form in the universe,
every function, all action, all substance--all these have a
thinking part that is receptive to and controllable by man.
Material science has observed that every molecule has three
things: intelligence, substance, and action. It knows where
it wants to go, it has form, and it moves.

4. This intelligent principle in all things is the key to
the metaphysician's work. He does not concern himself with
the action and reaction of the chemistry of matter, nor
does he need to know all the intricate laws of electricity
and magnetism in order to get the very highest use of them.
They are

//page 51

susceptible to thought through the knowing factor in their
construction, and to this susceptibility he appeals. It is
through this all-pervading intelligence that man exercises
his highest dominion. The scriptural statement of man's
power and dominion over all things is true only when his
power and dominion are estimated mentally and spiritually.

5. It is the testimony of all philosophers that everything
is in a state of construction or destruction. These two
states are all-pervading, and they are apparently essential
in building the universe. The metaphysician discerns the
cause of these two movements to be the "yes" and the "no"
of mind. These dual attributes of mind are in evidence
everywhere, but they are not understood by those who
observe only form instead of Spirit. The positive and
negative poles of the magnet are states of mental
affirmation and denial. In acid and alkali, in sour and
sweet, chemistry is proclaiming "yes" and "no." Day and
night, heat and cold, sunshine and shadow, intelligence and
ignorance, good and evil, saint and sinner, all are the
reflections of mental affirmations and denials. The
constructive or destructive factor in all manifestation is
"yes" or "no."

6. It is found that, by the use of these mind forces, man
can dissolve things by denying their existence, and that he
can build them up by affirming their presence. This is a
simple statement, but when it is applied in all the
intricate thought forms of the universe it becomes complex.
The law of mental

//page 52

denial and affirmation will prove its truth to all those
who persistently make use of it.

7. The power of the mind to build or destroy is exemplified
most strikingly in the human body. Whatever we affirm as
true of us manifests itself in due season somewhere in the
organism. Whatever we deny is taken away, when the law has
had time to work itself out.

8. The body is made of cells; some in a radiant state, some
crystallized into form. The crystallizing of these radiant
thought forms is the result of affirmations in man's mind
that his body is material instead of spiritual. The
affirmative state of mind is a binding, holding process; it
involves all thoughts and all thought manifestations that
come within its scope. If man affirms his unity with the
life, substance, and intelligence of God, he lays hold of
these spiritual qualities; if he affirms the reality of
matter and of the physical body he forms a material picture
that works itself out in flesh.

9. Affirmations do not have to be made in set terms, such
as, "I affirm my body to be spiritual"; the general trend
of the mind, the sum total of thought in all its aspects,
aggregates the affirmations that fix and crystallize
thoughts into forms. The universal desire and striving of
men and women for material possessions is the strongest
kind of affirmation, affecting both mind and body in a
marked degree. Stomach troubles and constipation seem to be
common complaints with those who are financially

//page 53

grasping. The tense state of mind that this affirmation
sets up extends throughout the body; all the muscles,
nerves, and organs become fixed and almost immovable. This
was forcibly illustrated in a certain banker, who was so
grasping that his right hand closed rigidly, so that he
could not open it. Again, a set ambition and intense desire
to excel in some chosen field of work will produce like
results. A dominating will fixed in any direction is a form
of affirmation, and it affects the life action in the body
organism according to its intensity. Congestion, stiffness,
rigidity, may all be traced to excessive affirmation.

10. The metaphysical remedy for this selfish state of mind
is denial. Jesus said that man must "Deny himself . . . and
follow me." The "me" here referred to is the higher self,
the Christ, and the "himself" is personality. Denial is a
putting away of the mental error and an entering into
conscious relaxation of both mind and body. The healer does
not tell the patient that constipation is caused by
grasping, stingy states of mind. Instead, he mentally
denies these habits and holds the patient open and
receptive to the great unselfish Mind of the universe.
People do not realize how they are bound by their
selfishness, and it is not wise to tell them openly, until
they understand the difference between their real being and
the mortal personality.

11. Where the "no" phase of mind is too much in evidence,
the whole consciousness is in relaxation. This excessive
negation makes the thought indefinite

//page 54

and vacillating, the body weak and flabby. Prolapsus,
dropsy, certain forms of kidney complaints, nearly all
relaxations in body and functions, are the result of the "I
can't" state of mind. For example, if a businessman who for
years had been intent on money-making should meet with a
large loss and mourn over it, he would have kidney trouble
of some kind. He would believe that he had lost his
substance, and a void-thought would begin its dissipation
of the voiding cells of his body. One who has been very
ambitious for the attainment of some office or position,
and who has been defeated in that ambition, will usually
let go the positive mental pole and drop to the negative.
The result is bodily weakness somewhere. We speak of such
people as having "lost their grip." This is exactly what
they have done--their mental relaxation has loosened their
grasp upon the organism, and it is in a condition of
dissolution. Physicians have marveled that so many public
men have diabetes and heart disease. It is because, through
defeat, they have dropped from success to discouragement.
The failure state of mind throws the whole organism into a
panic, and its functions are weakened in their life action.
Instead of the tonic of aspiration and hope, there is the
enervation of discouragement and despair.

12. These are conditions that come to those who trust in
the arm of flesh. When the mind of man is set on high, he
never gives up or allows defeat to thwart his righteous
ambitions. His thought is not

//page 55

set on selfish attainment, consequently he does not develop
a mental vacuum when he meets with loss. To one in
spiritual understanding there is no loss. The going and
coming of material and intellectual things are but changes
in the panorama of life. Changes are constantly taking
place and will continue so long as we live in the
consciousness of duality, the "yes" and "no" state of
existence, which is mortality.

13. The object of man's existence is to demonstrate the
Truth of Being. This demonstration takes place through
experience; but there are two ways of working out
experience. The first is by knowing the law of every
process, and the second is by blindly testing the process
without understanding the law.

14. The human race made a choice when a certain stage of
discretion was attained. An illustration of this statement
is the allegory of the Garden of Eden. Adam represents
generic man. In his early stages he was under the law of
divine knowing--the Lord God was his guide and instructor;
he made no mistakes, but lived consciously in divine
understanding.

15. All experience develops personal identity--the
consciousness of the powers of Being in the self. This is
the bringing forth of free will, which is inherent in all.
In the course of his demonstrations of Being, man arrives
at the place where he feels his own ability, and he knows
that he can exercise it without restraint. "Satan" is the
personal mind that

//page 56

tempts man to try experience without knowledge. In divine
illumination man does not consciously enter into that dual
condition typified by "the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil." Good is all; evil is that which might be if man
forsook his guiding light. In the serene mind of God there
is no duality, no good-and-bad, no
understanding-and-ignorance. The brilliancy of all-knowing
Mind dissolves all shadows, all negations.

16. It is man's privilege to abide in the light, to know
how to work out the problem of existence as accurately as
the mathematician who follows, without deviation, the rules
of his science. The Lord admonishes the unfolding Adam not
to "eat"--not to incorporate into his consciousness the
knowledge of duality, good and evil. But, like the child
who refuses to take the advice of one who knows, man falls
into indulgence of the sense of pleasure and excess. The
reaction of sense indulgence is pain. Through these
experiences, man comes into a consciousness of an opposite
to the good. The dual mentality naturally sets up positive
and negative forces in his mind, and these opposing forces
are reflected into his body. The commotion is so great that
the soul is forced out of its temple--man is put out of the
garden, and in time forgets his former Edenic state.

17. Some metaphysicians argue that eating the fruit of the
tree of knowledge was a necessary step in man's evolution;
that by experience we learn all truth, and that without
experience we should always

//page 57

remain infants. Herein is the difference between the
practical Christian and other men: the one seeks the
guiding light of Spirit in all his ways, while the other
ignores that light and works out his character as did Adam,
in the sweat of his face. Hard experiences come into our
lives because we do not know the law of harmonious
thinking. If we think that evil exists as a power in the
world, that it is working in our lives and in the lives of
those about us, we make it an active force, and it appears
to be all that we imagine it. The poet truly discerned that
"there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so."

18. Some metaphysicians claim that it is not wise to make
denials; that affirmation includes all the mental movement
necessary to man's perfect development. This position would
be tenable if we had built up our consciousness according
to divine law. The student who has carried his mathematical
problem forward without making an error does not find it
necessary to erase. But if he sees where he has made a
wrong computation, what then? Nothing but an erasure,
followed by a right computation, will bring the correct
answer. We have all fallen short of divine ideals; we must
cross out our errors and insert Truth, until our character
is brought up to the Jesus Christ standard.

19. Repentance is a form of denial. The forgiveness of sin
is an erasure of mortal thought from consciousness. The joy
that comes to the converted Christian results from the
inflow of divine love,

//page 58

which occurs after the mind has been cleansed by denial of
sin. This is a real experience, which may be repeated again
and again by one who understands the law of Holy Spirit
baptism, until the whole man is sanctified and freed from
sin. Christians think of the joyous exaltation that marked
their conversion as a special sign from the Lord in
recognition of their change of heart. They look back upon
it as an experience that comes but once in a lifetime. But
metaphysicians who have studied the law of mind, who have
practiced denials and affirmations as a science, find that
they can throw themselves into this ecstatic state at will.

20. The personal self is the ego around which revolve all
thoughts that bind us to error. We cannot cross all out at
once, but little by little we cast out the specific
thoughts that have accumulated and built up the false state
of consciousness termed Judas. In the life of Jesus, Judas
represents the false ego that error thought has generated.
This "son of perdition" is so interwoven into the
consciousness that to kill him at one fell swoop would
destroy the mental entity, so he must be counted as one of
the twelve, even while we know that he "hath a devil."

21. In the symbology of Jesus' life, Judas is represented
as the treasurer; he "had the bag." This means that this
ego has possession of the sex, or life, center in the
organism and is using it for its own selfish ends. Judas
was a "thief." The selfish use of the life and vitality of
the organism for the gratification

//page 59

of sense pleasure robs the higher nature, and the spiritual
man is not built up. This is the betrayal of Christ, and it
is constantly taking place in those who live to fleshly,
selfish ends.

22. A time comes, however, when Judas must be eliminated
from consciousness. The agony of mind and the final
crucifixion of Jesus represent the crossing out wholly of
the false ego, Judas.

"I die daily," said Paul. The "I" that dies daily is
personal consciousness, formed of fear, ignorance, disease,
the lust for material possessions, pride, anger, and the
legion of demons that cluster about the personal ego. The
only Savior of this one is Christ, the spiritual ego, the
superconsciousness. We cannot, in our own strength, solve
the great, self-purifying problem, but by giving ourselves
wholly to Christ and constantly denying the demands of the
personal self, we grow into the divine image. This is the
process by which we "awake, with beholding thy form."

//page 60

Cleansing And Purifying Statements

(To be used in connection with Lesson Five)

1. God is good, and God is all, therefore I refuse to
believe in the reality of evil in any of its forms.

2. God is life, and God is all; therefore I refuse to
believe in the reality of loss of life, or death.

3. God is power and strength, and God is all; therefore I
refuse to believe in inefficiency and weakness.

4. I am in authority. I say to this thought, "Go, and he
goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh." (Read Mt.
8:5-13.)

5. God is wisdom, and God is all! therefore I refuse to
believe in ignorance.

6. God is spiritual substance, and God is all; therefore
there is no reality in the limitations of matter.

7. God is inexhaustible resource, and God is all; therefore
I refuse to believe in the reality of lack or poverty.

8. God is love, and God is all; therefore I refuse to
believe in hate or revenge.

9. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and
he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city."

//page 61

//section Lesson 6

Lesson Six

The Word

//text

1. In pure metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of
God. This is the original creative Word, or thought, of
Being. It is the "God said" of Genesis. It is referred to
in the 1st chapter of John as the Logos. It cannot be
adequately translated into English. In the original it
includes wisdom, judgment, power, and, in fact, all the
inherent potentialities of Being. This divine Logos was and
always is in God; in fact, it is God as creative power. The
Divine Mind creates under law; that is, mental law. Man may
get a comprehension of the creative process of Being by
analyzing the action of his own mind. First is mind, then
the idea in mind of what the act shall be, then the act
itself. In Divine Mind the idea is referred to as the Word.

2. According to Genesis and all other mystical writings
bearing upon creation, Divine Mind expresses its Word, and
through the activity of that Word the universe is brought
forth. Man is the consummation of the Word, and his spirit
has within it the concentration of all that is contained
within the Word. Jesus is called the Word of God. "The Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father)." God being
perfect, His idea, thought, Word, must be perfect. The
perfect Word of God is spiritual man. It is through
spiritual man, or the

//page 62

Word of God, that all things are made, are brought into
manifestation." "And without him was not anything made that
hath been made." The Word is the "only begotten" of God,
because there is but one idea of man in Divine Mind, and
that idea is the perfect pattern of man's character.

3. In the 1st chapter of John it is implied that there are
things made that are not after divine ideals, consequently
not real. The creations of the Word of God are permanent
and incorruptible. As an imitator of Divine Mind, man has
power to form and make manifest whatsoever he idealizes;
but unless his thought is unified with Divine Mind and
guided in its operations by infinite wisdom, his thought
forms are perishable.

4. Mental processes enter into all creations. Physical
science has discovered that every atom has substance,
force, and intelligence; these are the three constituent
parts of mind. Mind is the one and only creative power, and
all attempts to account for creation from any other
standpoint are futile. The creative processes of mind are
continuously operative; creation is going on all the time,
but the original plan, the design in Divine Mind, is
finished.

5. Man cannot know how the thought, or Word, works except
through his own consciousness; consequently he must
understand, control, and put in order his own word, for
through it he comprehends the Word of God. Our most
important study, then, is our own consciousness. The old
Greeks recognized

//page 63

this and wrote over the door of one of their temples: "Man,
know thyself." The self of man is spiritual, and when it is
in direct conscious unity with the Father-Mind it has
permanent formative power. Even in his ignorant use of
thought, man's mind is forming conditions, even to the
changing of the face of nature itself. Every thought that
goes forth from the brain sends vibrations into the
surrounding atmosphere and moves the realm of things to
action. The effect is in proportion to the ability of the
thinker to concentrate his mental forces. The average
thought vibration produces but temporary results, but under
intense mind activity conditions more or less permanent are
impressed upon the sensitive plate of the universal ether,
and through this activity they are brought into physical
manifestation.

6. Every idea originating in Divine Mind is expressed in
the mind of man; through the thought of man the Divine Mind
idea is brought to the outer plane of consciousness. In the
organism of man are centers that respond to the divine
ideas, as a musical instrument sympathetically responds to
musical vibrations. Then through another movement on what
is termed the conscious, or most outer, plane of action,
the thought takes expression as the spoken word. There is
in the formed conscious man, or body, a point of
concentration for this word; and through this point the
word is expressed in invisible vibrations. For example, at
the root of the tongue is a brain center, and through it
the mind controls the

//page 64

larynx, the tongue, and all the other organs used in
forming words. Following the creative law in its operation
from the formless to the formed, we can see how an idea
fundamental in Divine Mind is grasped by the man ego, how
it takes form in his thought, and how it is later expressed
through his spoken word. If in each step of this process he
conformed to the divine creative law, man's word would make
things instantly, as Jesus made the increase of the loaves
and fishes. But since he has lost, in a measure, knowledge
of the steps in this creative process from the within to
the without, there are many breaks and abnormal conditions,
with more failures than successes in the products.

7. However, every word has its effect, though unseen and
unrecognized. Jesus said that a man would be held
accountable for "every idle word," and a close observation
of the power of mind in the affairs of the individual
proves this to be true. What we think, we usually express
in words; and our words bring about in our life and affairs
whatever we put into them. A weak thought is followed by
words of weakness. Through the law of expression and form,
words of weakness change to weakness the character of
everything that receives them.

8. The nerves are the wires that transmit the mind's
messages to all parts of the body, and these parts, being
thought formations, carry out, in their turn, the word that
has been spoken into them. Talking about nervousness and
weakness will produce

//page 65

corresponding conditions in the body; on the other hand,
sending forth the word of strength and affirming poise will
bring about the desired strength and poise. Your talking
about a weak stomach will make your stomach weak. Your
talking about your bad liver will fix that idea in your
liver. The usual conversation among people creates ill
health instead of good health, because of wrong words. If
the words speak of disease as a reality, disintegrating
forces are set in action, and these, in the end, shatter
the strongest organism, if not counteracted by constructive
forces.

9. As an example of the vibratory power of the spoken word,
a vocalist can shatter a wineglass by concentrating upon it
certain tones. Every time we speak we cause the atoms of
the body to tremble and change their places. Not only do we
cause the atoms of our own body to change their position,
but we raise or lower the rate of vibration and otherwise
affect the bodies of others with whom we come in contact.
By telling the little child that he looks sick and tired,
the mother produces these conditions in the child's mind
and body. If the mother addresses words of health, life,
and strength to the child, these will set his bodily
functions into activity and they will express the harmony
of the dominant thought.

10. Thus every word brings forth after its kind. The "seed"
is the creative idea inherent in the word, the nature that
it inherits from its parent source--God. The enthusiast in
floral culture, who hovers

//page 66

over and talks in loving tones to his flowers, always has
success with them, while his neighbor, who is cold and
indifferent, fails. The mental emanation and the creative
word are the forces that stimulate the receptive
intelligence of nature, and although the enthusiast may
know nothing of the law of mind, he is using it in its most
effective mode, the creative word. In like manner the
spiritual healer mentally and audibly speaks to the same
all-pervading receptacle, and it responds by building up
wasted tissues and weakened functions.

11. Mind is everywhere and its avenues of expression, like
the ether waves of radio, run in every direction. The
wonderful discovery that messages can be sent around the
earth without wires should forever silence those who have
been incredulous when thought transference through a like
ether is claimed. But there is a means by which ideas may
be transmitted even more rapidly than by mental vibrations,
and that is unity with supreme Mind. This Mind exists as
the absolute, the unlimited. In its consciousness there is
no apartness, no separation, and whoever puts himself into
its consciousness can accomplish things instantly.

12. When the centurion said to Jesus, "Only say the word,
and my servant shall be healed," the Master said that He
had not found so great faith in all Israel, and His healing
word was: "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
We must have a certain amount of faith in the substance of

//page 67

the invisible and in its ability to do our will. When Peter
recognized in Jesus that inner principle called Christ, the
Son of God, the response was: "Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." The
Father must have been present to Peter as He was to Jesus,
and the "heaven" in which Jesus said that the Father was
must also have been there. The fact is, Being is always
present. Mortal ignorance and lack of faith prevent our
realization of this truth. The more we believe in the
wisdom, power, substance, love, and life of the one Mind,
the greater is its activity in us and our affairs. Not only
should we have faith in the All-Presence, but we should
also develop our understanding to the end that we may know
why the All-Presence manifests through us. Physical science
is today in advance of religion in its recognition of a
universal life substance and intelligence. Religion is
looking for this mighty Creator away off in some distant
heaven, right in the face of the distinct teaching of Jesus
that God is Spirit and that His kingdom is within man.

13. But physical science falls short in that it fails to
recognize the unity between omnipresent Intelligence and
the knowing principle in man. Science is seeking to know
intellectually, or from the plane of forms and shapes, that
which is of the mind. Physical science has recognized the
presence of the creative forces, but it does not know the
power that moves them. Divine metaphysics has discovered
the moving

//page 68

power to be the thought and word of man, and is proving the
truth of this principle through results in a multitude of
directions.

14. The spoken word carries vibrations through the
universal ether, and also moves the intelligence inherent
in every form, animate or inanimate. It has been discovered
that even rocks and all minerals have life. This is proof
of the omnipresence of the one animating substance. Man,
being the highest emanation of Divine Mind, has great
directive power and is really co-operator with God in
forming the universe. We should be speaking words of truth
to everything, not only to mankind but to the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The fine discernment of the
poet reveals that "the very stones cry out" where a tragedy
has occurred. The all-penetrating ether receives our
thoughts and words, like the wax cylinder of the
phonograph, only a thousand times more accurately; it
preserves them and echoes them back to us in continuous
vibrations. There are no secrets and no concealments. Jesus
said that what you think and speak in the inner chamber is
proclaimed from the housetops, and now we know why this is
true. The very walls of your room, aye, even the substance
of the atmosphere in that room, are proclaiming over and
over the words that you have spoken there, whether you are
present or not. For example, a woman rented a room in a
certain city. Several nights in succession, just as she
fell asleep, she heard a man talking incoherently about the
grain

//page 69

market. This continued for some time, and she mentioned it
to the landlady who informed her that the room had been
last occupied by a dealer on the board of trade.

15. The power of the word is given man to use. The better
he understands the character of God and his own relation to
humanity, the more unselfishly will he exercise this power.
Some are using it in selfish ways, but this should not
deter others who have a better understanding of the law
from using it in righteous ways. "If ye shall ask anything
of the Father, he will give it you in my name," is a
promise that none should ignore. If we need things and if
they are necessary to our happiness, it is not sacrilegious
to set into action this higher law in attaining them.

16. The curses of the witch and the blessings of the priest
have always been believed in by so-called ignorant and
credulous people. In the light of modern revelation, the
charge of ignorance should be shifted to the unbelieving.
The word of one in authority carries weight and produces
far-reaching effects. The fiat of the physician that a
certain disease must result disastrously to the patient
will, when believed, counteract all the healing forces of
nature. A pin scratch has resulted in blood poison, because
there was no proper denial that such a result might follow.

17. Man has the power to deny and dissolve all
disintegrating, discordant, and disease-forming words.
Knowledge of this fact is the greatest discovery

//page 70

of all ages. No other revelation from God to man is to be
compared with it. You can make yourself a new creature, and
you can build the world about you to your highest ideals.
Do not fear, but speak to the law supreme the desires of
your heart. If your word is selfish, that which will come
to you through its use will be unsatisfactory, but you will
profit by the experience and thus learn to speak words of
righteousness only. But it is your duty as expresser of the
divine law to speak forth the Logos, the very Word of God,
and cause the Garden of Eden, the everywhere-present
Mind-Substance, to manifest for you and in you in its
innate perfection.

The Power Of Words

(To be used in connection with Lesson Six)

1. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

2. "The tongue of the wise is health."

3. "He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life."

4. "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul
from troubles."

5. "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the
snare of his soul."

6. "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is
more hope of a fool than of him."

//page 71

7. "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul,
and health to the bones."

8. "The lips of the wise shall preserve them."

9. "Put away from thee a wayward mouth, and perverse lips
put far from thee."

10. "Shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further
in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene."

11. "He that would love life, and see good days, let him
refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak
no guile."

12. "To him that ordereth his way aright will I show the
salvation of God."

13. "I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my
tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the
wicked is before me."

14. "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many
days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and
thy lips from speaking guile."

15. "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment."

//page 72

//section Lesson 7

Lesson Seven

Spirituality or Prayer and Praise

//text

1. By the employment of many symbols the Bible describes
man in his wholeness--Spirit, soul, and body. The symbols
used are men, places, tents, temples, and so forth. The
name of every person mentioned in the Bible has a meaning
representative of that person's character. The twelve sons
of Jacob represent the twelve foundation faculties of man.
The name of each of these sons, correctly interpreted,
gives the development and office of its particular faculty
in triune association; that is, its relation to
consciousness in Spirit, in soul, and in body. For example,
when the sons of Jacob were born, their mothers revealed
the character of the faculty which each represented. This
is set forth in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters of
Genesis.

2. It is written of the birth of Reuben, "Leah conceived,
and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she
said, Because Jehovah hath looked upon my affliction." The
emphasis is upon the word "looked," and by referring to the
concordance we find that the meaning of the word Reuben is,
"One who sees; vision of the son." It is clear that this
refers to the bringing forth of sight.

3. "And she conceived again, and bare a son: and said,
Because Jehovah hath heard that I am hated." Here the
emphasis is upon the word heard, and we find that Simeon
means, "That hears or

//page 73

obeys; that is heard." This is the bringing forth of
hearing.

4. "And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now
this time will my husband be joined unto me." In this case
the emphasis is upon the word joined. Levi means "unity,"
which in body is feeling; in soul, sympathy; and in Spirit,
love. So each of the twelve faculties in the complete man
functions in this threefold degree.

5. What is here described as the birth of the twelve sons
of Jacob is the first, or natural, bringing forth of the
faculties. A higher expression of the faculties is
symbolized in the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Simon
Peter is hearing and faith united. John is feeling and love
joined. When we believe what we hear, there is formed in us
the substance of the word, which is Peter, a rock, a sure
foundation. "Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the
word of Christ."

6. The Bible is a very wonderful book; as man develops in
spiritual understanding it reveals itself to him, and he
sees why it has been reverenced and called holy by the
people. It is a deep exposition of mental laws, and it is
also a treatise on the true physiological estate of the
body. It shows that the human organism is mind in action,
rather than an aggregation of purely material functions.
But above all, the Bible explains the spiritual character
of man and the laws governing his relation to God. These
are symbolically set forth as states of consciousness,

//page 74

illustrated by parables and allegories. Paul says,
referring to the history of Sarah and Abraham, "Which
things contain an allegory." It is written of Jesus, "And
without a parable spake he nothing unto them: that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,
I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things
hidden from the foundation of the world." Jesus was Himself
a parable. His life was an allegory of the experiences that
man passes through in developing from natural to spiritual
consciousness; hence the Bible and the prophets can be
understood only by those who arrive at that place in
consciousness where the writers were when they gave forth
their messages. It requires the same inspiration to read
the Scriptures with understanding that it required
originally to receive and write them.

7. In the 29th chapter of Genesis we read of Jacob's wife,
Leah: "And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she
said, This time will I praise Jehovah: therefore she called
his name Judah." The Hebrew meaning of the word Judah is
"praise." In Spirit praise, or prayer, the Judah faculty,
accumulates ideas. In sense consciousness this faculty is
called acquisitiveness; it accumulates material things and
when self is dominant, "hath a devil." This is Judas.

8. Each of the twelve faculties has a center and a definite
place of expression in the body. Physiology has designated
these faculty locations as brain and nerve centers.
Spiritual perception reveals them to

//page 75

be aggregations of ideas, thoughts, and words. Thoughts
make cells, and thoughts of like character are drawn
together in the body by the same law that draws people of
kindred ideas into assemblies and communities. The
intellectual man centers in the head; the affectional man
lives in the heart; the sensual man expresses through the
abdomen. The activities of these indicated regions are
subdivided into a multitude of functions, all of which are
necessary to the building up of manifest man as he is
idealized in Divine Mind.

9. At the very apex of the brain is a ganglionic center,
which we may term the throne of reverence or spirituality.
It is here that man holds converse with the knowledge in
Divine Mind. This center is the place or "upper room" of
spiritual consciousness, and is designated in Scripture as
Judah. Its office is to pray and praise. The Judah faculty
opens the portal of that mysterious realm called the
superconsciousness where thought is impregnated with an
uplifting, transcendent quality. Every lofty ideal, all the
inspiration that elevates and idealizes in religion,
poetry, and art, originates here. It is the kingdom of the
true and real in all things.

10. The importance of Judah is indicated by his place in
the family of Jacob and Leah. Jacob (supplanter) was
betrothed to Rachel (ewe). At the time of the espousal the
father of Rachel substituted his elder daughter Leah for
the covenanted bride. Leah means "weary." The first son of
Leah was

//page 76

"sight"; weariness saw the light of Spirit. The second son
was "hearing"; she was able to receive the word. The third
son was "union"; she merged with the limitless. The fourth
son was "praise." After the birth of Judah, Leah "left off
bearing." Praise is the complement of sight, hearing, and
unity. It is the redemption of weariness, and from it
issues Messiah, the anointed One, Savior of the world.
Instead of a supplication, prayer should be a jubilant
thanksgiving. This method of prayer quickens the mind
miraculously, and, like a mighty magnet, draws out the
spiritual qualities that transform the whole man when they
are given expression in mind, body, and affairs.

11. Spirituality is one of the foundation faculties of the
mind. It is the consciousness that relates man directly to
the Father-Mind. It is quickened and enlarged through
prayer and through other forms of religious thought and
worship. When we pray we look up from within, not because
God is off in the sky, but because this spiritual center in
the top of the head becomes active and our attention is
naturally drawn to it.

12. Prayer is natural to man, and it should be cultivated
in order to round out his character. Prayer is the language
of spirituality; when developed, it makes man master in the
realm of creative ideas. In order to get results from the
use of this faculty, right thinking should be observed here
as well as elsewhere. To pray, believing that the prayer
may or may not be answered at the will of God, is to miss

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the mark. It is a law of mind that every idea is fulfilled
as soon as conceived. This law holds true in the spiritual
realm. "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." In the light
of our knowledge of mind action, the law expressed in these
words is clear. Moreover, the faith implied is absolutely
necessary to the unfailing answer to prayer. If we pray
asking for future fulfillment, we form that kind of thought
structure in consciousness, and our prayers are always
waiting for that future fulfillment which we have
idealized. If we pray thinking that we do not deserve the
things for which we ask, these untrue and indefinite
thoughts carry themselves out, and we grow to look upon
prayer with doubt and suspicion. This is called the prayer
of blind faith, but it is not the kind that Jesus used,
because His prayers were answered.

13. It should not be inferred that the will of Divine Mind
is to be set aside in prayer; we are to pray that the will
of God enter into us and become a moving factor in our
life. "Not my will, but thine, be done," prayed Jesus. The
Father does not take our will from us; rather, He gives us
the utmost freedom in the exercise of the will faculty, and
He also imparts an understanding of the law, through the
operation of which we can make any condition that we
desire. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I
do," becomes our assurance.

14. One of the offices of spirituality is to aggregate

//page 78

divine ideas. Through this action man draws absolutely true
ideas from the universal Mind. Thus prayer is cumulative.
It accumulates spiritual substance, life, intelligence; it
accumulates everything necessary to man's highest
expression. When we pray in spiritual understanding, this
highest realm of man's mind contacts universal, impersonal
Mind; the very mind of God is joined to the mind of man.
God answers our prayers in ideas, thoughts, words; these
are translated into the outer realms, in time and
condition. It is therefore important that we pray with
understanding of the law, important that we always give
thanks that our prayers have been answered and fulfilled,
regardless of appearances. When Jesus multiplied the loaves
and fishes, He prayed, blessed, and gave thanks. With
understanding and realization of the relation between the
idea and the fulfillment of the idea, He quickened the slow
processes of nature, and the loaves and fishes were
increased quickly. We may not be able to attain at once
such speedy operation of the law, but we shall approximate
it, and we shall accelerate natural processes as we hold
our ideas nearer to the perfection of the realm of divine
ideas.

15. Praise is closely related to prayer; it is one of the
avenues through which spirituality expresses itself.
Through an inherent law of mind, we increase whatever we
praise. The whole creation responds to praise, and is glad.
Animal trainers pet and reward their charges with
delicacies for acts of obedience; children glow with joy
and gladness when they are

//page 79

praised. Even vegetation grows best for those who praise
it. We can praise our own abilities, and our very brain
cells will expand and increase in capacity and intelligence
when we speak words of encouragement and appreciation to
them.

16. "What is seen hath not been made out of things which
appear." There is an invisible thought-stuff on which the
mind acts, making things through the operation of a law not
yet fully understood by man. Every thought moves upon this
invisible substance in increasing or diminishing degree.
When we praise the richness and opulence of our God, this
thought-stuff is tremendously increased in our mental
atmosphere; it reflects into everything that our minds and
our hands touch. When common things are impregnated with
our consciousness of divine substance, they are transformed
according to our ideals. Through persistent application of
the Judah faculty, a failing business proposition can be
praised into a successful one. Even inanimate things seem
to receive the word of praise, responding in orderly
obedience when, before, they have seemed unmanageable. A
woman used the law on her sewing machine, which she had
been affirming to be in bad order. It gave her no trouble
afterward. A linotype operator received a certain spiritual
treatment given him by a healer at a certain hour, and his
linotype, which had been acting badly, immediately fell
into harmonious ways. A woman living in a country town had
a rag carpet on her parlor floor; she had for

//page 80

years hoped that this carpet might be replaced by a better
one. She heard of the law and began praising the old
carpet. Greatly to her surprise, inside of two weeks she
was given a new carpet from an unexpected source. These are
a few simple illustrations of the possibilities latent in
praise. Whether the changes were in the inanimate things,
or in the individuals dealing with them, does not matter so
long as the desired end was attained.

17. Turn the power of praise upon whatever you wish to
increase. Give thanks that it is now fulfilling your ideal.
The faithful law, faithfully observed, will reward you. You
can praise yourself from weakness to strength, from
ignorance to intelligence, from poverty to affluence, from
sickness to health. The little lad with a few loaves and
fishes furnished the seed that, through the prayer and
thanksgiving of Jesus, increased sufficiently to feed five
thousand people.

18. If we do not receive answers to our prayers it is
because we have not fully complied with the law. "Ye ask,
and receive not, because ye ask amiss." This does not mean
that we ask of the Lord things that we do not need; it
means that we miss the mark in the method of asking, that
our relation to Divine Mind is not in harmony with the law;
the failure is not in God, but in us. We should therefore
never be discouraged, but, like Elijah praying for rain, we
should persevere until our prayers are answered.

19. All causes that bring about permanent results originate
in Spirit. Spirituality, faith, and love

//page 81

are God-given faculties, and when we are raised in
consciousness to their plane they act naturally under a
spiritual law that we may not comprehend. There is a law of
prayer, which man will eventually recognize and apply as he
now recognizes and applies the laws of mathematics and of
music.

20. Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that
will I do." We ask in His name when we pray in the Jesus
consciousness of universal Spirit. He attained unity with
Divine Mind, and realized that His thoughts and words were
not from Himself, but from God. When we pray in His name we
enter into His unity with the Father, and attain the same
consciousness that He attained.

21. God is the always present, indwelling Mind. To realize
God we must quiet our outer thoughts and enter into the
stillness, peace, and harmony of Spirit. "When thou
prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut
thy door [outer consciousness], pray to thy Father who is
in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall
recompense thee." If we make proper connection with Divine
Mind in the kingdom of heaven within us, the Father will
surely answer our prayers. No good thing will He withhold
from us if we comply with the law of righteous asking. "Be
still, and know that I am God."

//page 82

Living Words To Quicken Spirituality

1. "It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth
nothing."

2. "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

3. "The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and
are life."

4. "Ye must be born from above."

5. "I am the light of the world." "Ye are the light of the
world."

6. "Let your light shine before men; that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

7. "I am the light" that "lighteth every man, coming into
the world."

8. My understanding is illumined by Spirit. I am the light
of my consciousness.

9. I acknowledge God at all times as the one source of my
understanding.

10. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of
Jehovah is risen upon thee."

11. The glory of the Lord is risen upon me, and I walk in
the light of life.

12. My body is the temple of the living God, and the glory
of the Lord fills the temple.

13. Christ within me is my glory. The brightness of His
presence casts out all the darkness of error, and my whole
body is full of light.

14. "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and
there is no occasion of stumbling in him."

//page 83

15. "Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I
fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I
be afraid?"

16. "Then shall Thy light break forth as the morning, and
thy health shall spring forth speedily."

Establishing The Perfect Substance

(To be used in connection with Lesson Seven)

1. "And God created man in his own image, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them."

2. My perfection is now established in Divine Mind.

3. "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect."

4. By seeing perfection in all things, I help to make it
manifest. "I must be in my Father's house."

5. The corruptible flesh is changed into incorruption when
it is seen as perfect and pure in Christ.

6. I see in mind that perfect character which I desire to
be, and thus plant the seed thought that brings forth the
perfect man.

7. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."

8. "When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then
shall ye also with him be manifested in glory."

//page 84

9. My mind is opened anew to the splendor of God's kingdom,
and a flood of rich substance now pours itself into my
affairs.

//page 85

//section Lesson 8

Lesson Eight

Faith

//text

1. Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction
of things not seen. . . . By faith we understand that the
worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is
seen hath not been made out of things which appear.

2. In the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we find the achievements
of faith piled mountain high:

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death.
. . . By Faith Noah . . . prepared an ark to the saving of
his house. . . . By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up
Isaac. . . . By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid
three months by his parents. . . . By faith the walls of
Jericho fell down. . . . And what shall I more say? for the
time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were
made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies
of aliens. Women received their dead by a resurrection.

3. The idea that faith is something that has to do only
with one's religious experience is incorrect. Faith is a
faculty of the mind that finds its most perfect expression
in the spiritual nature, but in order to bring out one's
whole character it should be developed in all its phases.
That it is a power is self-evident. People who have faith
in themselves achieve

//page 86

far more than those who do not believe in their own
ability. We call this self-faith innate confidence, but
confidence is only a form of faith. Belief is another of
the expressions of faith. Jesus apparently made no
distinction between faith and belief. He said, "Believe ye
that I am able to do this?" and "Whosoever . . . shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith
cometh to pass; he shall have it." In an analysis of the
constituent parts of man's consciousness, we locate belief
in the intellect, working in the thought realm without
contact with the more interior substance of Spirit, upon
which true faith is founded.

4. In Spirit, faith is related to omnipresent substance or
assurance. Jesus used the same illustration when He
referred to Peter, a type of faith, as a rock upon which He
would found His church. Here is proof that faith is closely
allied to the enduring, firm, unyielding forms of earth
substance. But free faith has power to do, and power to
bring about results in the affairs of those who cultivate
it.

5. Like the other faculties, faith has a center through
which it expresses outwardly its spiritual powers.
Physiologists call this center the pineal gland, and they
locate it in the upper brain. By meditation man lights up
the inner mind, and he receives more than he can put into
words. Only those who have strengthened their interior
faculties can appreciate the wonderful undeveloped
possibilities in man. The physiologist sees the faculties
as brain cells,

//page 87

the psychologist views them as thought combinations, but
the spiritual-minded beholds them as pure ideas, unrelated,
free, all-potential.

6. Faith can be extended in consciousness in every
direction. It will accomplish wonderful things if quickened
and allowed free expression in its native realm. When Jesus
said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye
shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place;
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
you," He referred to faith's working in spiritual
substance. Such results are possible only to the faith that
co-operates with creative law. Where faith is centered in
outer things, the results are not worthy of mention. Men
have named them luck, accident, chance, and the like. Such
charms seem to work for a little while, then suddenly
change, so it is evident that they are not under any
enduring law.

7. When faith is exercised in the intellectual realm, the
results are usually profitable to the man of brains. If he
has faith in his art, or his science, or his philosophy, it
answers his purpose, for a time at least, but it never gets
beyond the traditions and experiences of precedent.
Intellectual people do no miracles through faith, because
they always limit its scope to what the intellect says is
law. It is when faith is exercised deep in spiritual
consciousness that it finds its right place, and under
divine law, without variation or disappointment, it brings
results that are seemingly miraculous.

//page 88

8. Faith has always played a very large part in the
experiences of religious people because they have given it
free scope, expecting great things through it from the
Lord. But nearly all faith demonstrations have been the
result of a sort of blind confidence that God would carry
out whatever was asked of Him. Sometimes a petitioner has
been disappointed, and a series of disappointments has
usually led to doubt and to the conclusion that God has in
some way changed His law. The early Christians were taught
by Jesus and His disciples to have faith in God, and they
did wonderful, so-called miraculous, works. As time went on
and their attention was more and more drawn to worldly
things, the Christians of a later day became separated from
the spiritual forces within them, and their faith lost its
energy. Then they began teaching that miracles were no
longer necessary; that God had given them to the early
Christians because they did not have the Bible or an
organized church. They also taught that the miracles had
been given to prove that Jesus was the Son of God.

9. Now we have a fuller understanding of the law of God,
and know that whatever has been done once can be done again
under like conditions. If Jesus and His disciples and the
early Christians did marvelous things through the prayer of
faith, we can do likewise. All that is required is
perseverance in our use of faith until we make connection
with the higher realms of consciousness, where, as Jesus
said, though our faith be as small as the smallest of

//page 89

seeds, it will spring forth and demonstrate its power to
carry out every desire into which we infuse it. "Nothing
shall be impossible unto you," if your faith is in Spirit,
and if your work is in harmony with Divine Mind.

10. The Christian religion has been a great factor in the
development of faith in the inner realms of man's being.
"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed." The power to see in Spirit is peculiar to faith.
In its outer expression this power is sight; interiorly it
is that which perceives the reality of the substance of
Spirit. Mental seeing is knowing; when we perceive the
truth of a proposition, we say, "I see, I see," meaning
that we mentally discern.

11. Faith in the reality of things spiritual develops the
faith center in the brain, called the pineal gland. When
this mental eye is illuminated with spiritual faith, it
sheds a radiance that hovers like a halo around the head
and extends in lessening degree throughout the whole body.
"When thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of
light." The halo that the early artists painted around the
heads of saints was not imaginary, but real. This
illuminating power of faith covers the whole constitution
of man, making him master of all the forces centering about
spiritual consciousness. Faith and prayer go hand in hand.

12. "The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before
God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself

//page 90

in that which he approveth." Have faith in what you do, and
after it is done do not condemn yourself. We all are
seeking happiness, contentment, and we know by experience
that we are happy when we are in tune with our environment.
There is a great variety of ideas that cause us inharmony.
We think that if we have money and friends we can be happy;
but things do not make happiness. It is our mental attitude
toward things that fixes our relation to them, and the
better we understand the innate substance of the world
about us, the more do we appreciate it.

13. Faith is ever active, and it should be made the truth
substance of every idea. We should have faith in our own
power, capacity, and ability; if we are to have this faith
our thoughts must be centered in the great universal Mind.
Success lies in God. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin;
then whatsoever is of faith is not sin. This is the new
standard of righteousness for the man who would "put on
Christ." It is his breastplate, his protection, while he is
coming up into knowledge of the absolute good. Sin is a
missing of the mark, and we miss the mark by not having
faith.

14. Faith in the reality, power, and willingness of the
mental and spiritual forces is absolutely essential to
success in demonstrating the higher law. Jesus was the
herald of a set of laws that will revolutionize the
civilization of this world and will produce a new and
higher type of man. He spoke of a new condition for the
uplift of the race; He called it the

//page 91

"kingdom of heaven," and He said that it must be built upon
the foundation typified by Peter (a rock), which is faith.
The development of the faith faculty in the mind is as
necessary to the worker in spiritual principles as is the
development of the mathematical faculty in the worker in
mathematics. Neither of these faculties comes at a bound
fully formed into consciousness, but both grow by
cultivation. "Increase our faith," said the apostles, and
Jesus answered: "Have faith in God."

15. Nearly all readers of Scripture recognize Peter as a
type of faith. By studying his experiences we may get
suggestions on the development of that faculty in
ourselves. The fluctuating allegiance of Peter to Jesus
illustrates the growth of faith in one who has had no
development of that faculty. Faith and doubt contended for
supremacy in Peter, and we wonder why Jesus chose as His
chief disciple this vacillating, weak, and cowardly
fisherman. But we observe that Peter was enthusiastic, bold
at times, receptive and patient under reproof. He had never
walked on the water, but when Jesus said, "Come," he boldly
went out to meet Him. Doubt entered his mind, and he sank;
but the helping hand was extended to him and he was made
stronger by the experience. This and many other
illustrations in the history of Peter show how faith grows
in the mind, and we should not be discouraged if our first
efforts fall short of the desired end.

16. A very little faith often produces surprising

//page 92

results. The forces invisible are much closer than we
think, and when we turn our attention in their direction
the response is usually so pronounced and so swift that we
cannot but feel that a miracle has been performed. A more
intimate acquaintance with the divine law convinces us that
under it all things are possible if we only believe, and if
we at the same time conform our thoughts to its principle.

17. Peter (faith), James (judgment), and John (love) were
the three apostles who were very close to Jesus, and they
are more prominent in His history than any of the others.
This indicates that these three faculties are developed in
advance of the others, also that they are closely
associated. Understanding reveals to us that God is a
mind-principle whose foundation is ideas. When this
character of the creative principle dawns upon us, we see
how easy it is to commune with God. Through this communion
we almost unconsciously strengthen faith, and we find that
one faculty helps another to grow. But there must be room
in which to grow, and room is made by love. Selfishness is
limitation; it binds man in a little prison called
personality. The only way to enlarge one's character and
give play to all the faculties is through love. Love
enlarges the field of consciousness by leveling the
thoughts of enmity and opposition. Make friends with all
your adversaries quickly, whether they be persons,
thoughts, or things.

18. We are constantly making conditions

//page 93

through our thoughts. Some people declare that everything
is against them. If they miss a car, they say, "It is
always that way," and they build up a state of mind in
which everything seems contrary to them.

19. In all our experience we should condemn nothing that
comes to us and nothing that we do. We know the law; let us
keep it, and not set up any adverse conditions by our
thoughts of condemnation. Whatever you are doing, be happy
in it. If you are getting wrong results, do not believe in
an angry God. You are getting the results of your acts,
according to your faith. Be wise; pronounce nothing evil,
and only good will come. Shall we call everything good?
Yes. If the savage knew this law he could lift himself to a
higher consciousness by it. We get out of savagery by
idealizing the good.

20. Have faith in the innate goodness of all men and all
conditions. Do not condemn, no matter how great the
provocation. What you think, you create in your own
consciousness. Enlarge your range of vision, and you may
see good in what now seems evil. God is good and God is
all, hence there can be no real condition but the good. Why
should we waste our time fighting evil? If we build our
character upon faith, understanding, and love, with the
great I AM as the focal center, we shall become pillars in
the temple of God.

//page 94

Faith Affirmations

(To be used in connection with Lesson Eight)

1. "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a
conviction of things not seen."

2. Holding continuously to the reality of things spiritual
establishes them in mind--they become mental substance.

3. I believe in the presence and power of the one Mind, and
it is to me substantial intelligence.

4. "According to your faith be it done unto you."

5. My doubts and fears are dissolved and dissipated; in
confidence and peace I rest in God's unchangeable law.

6. "Great is thy faith: be it done unto thee even as thou
wilt."

7. With my mind's eye I see more and more the reality of
the true ideas ever existing in divine principle.

8. "I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

9. Jesus said: "Have faith in God."

10. I am saved from pain and sorrow through my unswerving
faith in the protection and care of God.

11. "Lord, increase our faith."

12. My faith grows greater day by day, because it is
planted in Truth, and through it the mountains of mortal
error are moved into the sea of nothingness.

13. The understanding of Spirit clarifies my faith.

//page 95

14. "I know him whom I have believed." I am persuaded that
He is able, that He is willing, that He is eager, to give
me whatsoever I ask.

15. My faith comprehends the beauty of wholeness.

16. My faith is of God and in God.

17. "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole."

//page 96

//section Lesson 9

Lesson Nine

Imagination

//text

1. The teachings about the things of Spirit are said to be
mystical. We have thought them so because we have not come
into consciousness of the many faculties necessary to
comprehend Spirit. Victor Hugo said: "There are no occult
or hidden truths; everything is luminous with mind." So we
find in the study of Truth that what is called mysterious
and occult is simply a range of facts that man has not yet
explored. When he expands his mind and takes in a larger
horizon, he sees the interrelation of a multitude of
hitherto unknown laws which, from his former viewpoint,
seemed mysterious.

2. Mind manifests through faculties; if mind is to
comprehend increasingly, there must be an increase of these
avenues. That man has latent possibilities goes without
argument; that there is a limit to the ability of the mind
is unthinkable. What a man imagines he can do, that he can
do. The doing is a question of adopting the right way. To
allow the imagination to drift in daydreams never brings
anything to pass. Ideas must be worked up into living,
breathing, thinking things. Man can compress his vagrant
ideas into visibility as the chemist liquefies and makes
visible the invisible atmosphere; but to do this he must,
like the chemist, have the necessary machinery.

3. Physiology says that, in order to think, man

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must have brains. However, thinking is not limited to
material brain cells but, like everything else in the
universe, has a wide range of expression. There are brains
within brains, and cells within cells. All through the body
are brain centers, whose offices have not yet been
determined. Psychology shows that these nerve centers are
acted upon by invisible forces; it teaches that man has
what is called a subconscious mind, which transcends the
conscious mind in knowledge and in ability. Jesus gives us
this still higher teaching concerning our mental powers:
Man has a mind called the Lord, transcending both the
conscious and the subconscious minds. Yet the harmonious
working together of these three seemingly separate minds is
necessary to the bringing forth of the latent possibilities