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//section Title Page

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Dynamics for Living

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//section Contents

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Foreword ... 5

Practical Christianity ... 9

God ... 29

Creation ... 36

Man ... 43

Consciousness ... 49

Thinking ... 63

The Spoken Word ... 74

Spiritual Law ... 79

Prayer ... 89

Truth Demonstrates Itself ... 109

Living Faith ... 123

Health ... 135

Music and Healing ... 169

Disease ... 175

Prosperity ... 185

Praise and Thanksgiving ... 225

Love ... 236

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Forgiveness ... 245

Adam and Eve ... 255

Conscience ... 263

Judgment and Justice ... 276

Jesus Christ ... 283

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ ... 289

The Holy Spirit ... 299

Baptism ... 309

Atonement ... 318

Transfiguration ... 325

Fulfillment ... 332

Reincarnation ... 339

Treatments for Self-Development ... 351

Golden Snowflakes ... 363

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//section Foreword

//text

After three decades of studying his writings, it is my
conclusion that Charles Fillmore was the greatest sage who
has been embodied in the last five hundred years. His
steadfast research into the realms of God Mind opened to
him infinite adventures. These revelations he generously
shared with all who studied in his classes or pondered over
his writings. Prayer opened this man's human consciousness
to the dynamics of Spirit.

I knew Charles Fillmore as a man with a diamond character.
His sparkling humor, his

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radiant smile, and his luminescent logic quickened the
atmosphere of every room he entered. His genuine humility,
his simplicity of requirements, and his complete dedication
to Truth were always deeply felt by everyone who was in his
presence.

Prayer and faith caused him and his wife Myrtle to be the
responsive instruments for a spiritual movement. What she
first perceived, practiced, and proved with the healing
laws of God, he examined diligently before complete
acceptance. However, when he experienced the full impact of
the practicality of spiritual science, the way was opened
for the evolvement of the Unity movement.

On August 22, 1854, at 4 a.m., Charles Fillmore was born in
a log cabin constructed on an Indian reservation near the
small community of St. Cloud, Minnesota. There was no
thought then, of course, that many people would be
transformed by his influential teachings. But the years are
proving that his consciousness of universal Truth has
established a reliable cornerstone for the spiritual growth
of hundreds of thousands of people.

What is "new" about this book is the arrangement in which
this compilation is offered. Its purpose is to present the
basic substance of Charles Fillmore's writings in a manner

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that will invite an expanded study of what he taught.

The sequence employed is a result of Charles Fillmore's own
logical thinking trends. The various sections cover
particular conceptions. Such were assembled from the
various books and articles by Mr. Fillmore so that each
unit would be complete in treating a specific subject.

It is my prayer that as you unfold your understanding of
the truth that is so beautifully and positively stated in
the following pages, you will find the same dynamics for
living that graced the life of Charles Fillmore.

Warren Meyer

November 15, 1966

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I am now in the presence of pure Being and immersed in the
Holy Spirit of life, love, and wisdom.

I acknowledge Thy presence and power, O blessed Spirit. In
Thy divine wisdom now erase my mortal limitations, and from
Thy pure substance of love bring into manifestation my
world, according to Thy perfect law.

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//section Practical Christianity

//text

PEOPLE everywhere on earth are now realizing as never
before that the well-being of this world rests with its
inhabitants. It is no longer a religious dogma or a
philosophical theory that the destiny of the race is in the
hands of man.

Humanity has built age after age only to find that its
structures do not endure. They are faulty because the
divine plan has not been consulted by the builder. Our
Bible plainly teaches that God implanted in man executive
ability to carry out all the creative plans of the Great
Architect.

The great and most important issue before

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the people today is the development of man's spiritual mind
and through it unity with God. The taproot of all confusion
is our failure to use our minds intelligently. Religion and
all that it implies in prayer and recognition of God in
idea and manifestation is the one and only way out of the
chaos in which we find ourselves. We must therefore begin
at once to develop this unity with the Father mind by
incorporating divine ideas into all that we think and speak.

People in this atomic age civilization ask why God does not
reveal Himself now as He did in Bible days. The fact is
that God is talking to people everywhere, but they do not
understand the message. We need to divest ourselves of the
thought that wise men of the Bible were especially inspired
by God, that they were divinely appointed by the Lord to do
His work. Everything points to their spiritual insight as
the result of work on their part to that end.

Thus, practical Christianity is the only system of
religions before the people today that, because of its
universal appeal to the pure reason in man, can be accepted
and applied by everyone and every nation under the sun.

Revival

Modern metaphysics is merely a revival of the philosophies
taught by an almost forgotten past. The principles that

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underlie existence are being again brought to the attention
of men. The race is again entering the cycle of knowledge.
We catch once more the light of pure reason and honest
logic.

Few people have come into the light. Pure reason is almost
an unknown quantity. When strict deductive methods are
introduced into religion, and logical conclusions are
reached from a stated premise, the average believer is at
sea. People have been taught that certain relations exist
arbitrarily no matter how opposed these relations may be to
the logic necessary to cause and effect.

In order to arrive at a mutually harmonious and correct
conclusion, the result of a logical argument, we must have
a premise or point of beginning upon which we can all
agree. Logic in its strictest sense is the only accurate
method for arriving at truth. That system of philosophy or
religious doctrine which does not admit of the rules of
perfect logic in reaching its conclucions from a stated
premise must be outside the pale of pure reason and in the
realm of manmade dogma.

To know accurately about the reality of things we must
disregard all appearances as indicated by the five senses
and go into pure reason--the Spirit from which was created
everything that has permanent existence.

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The Difference

Practical Christianity and Truth stand upon the same
foundation and are interchangeable terms. Practical
Christianity is not a theory having origin in the human
mind; nor is it a revelation to humanity from some prophet
whose word alone must be taken as unquestionable authority.
It is in this respect totally different from the other
religious systems of the world because it does not in any
respect rest its authority upon revelation. It has no
dogmas nor creeds, nor are its students expected to believe
anything which they cannot logically demonstrate to be true.

It takes as the basis of its doctrine a fundamental truth
that is known alike by savage and civilized, and from that
truth, by cold, deductive reasoning, arrives at each and
every one of the conclusions which are presented. Thus it
does not in any manner partake of the popular concept of
religion, as a vague something which has to be accepted on
faith, and believed regardless of its consistencies. On the
contrary, it invites the closest mental scrutiny. The
analytical logician will find a new world open to him in
following the sequential deductions which this science of
pure reasoning evolves.

Truth of the Ages

This system of deductions from intuitively

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ascertained facts is not new, nor are its conclusions new,
for the historian tells us that similar methods of arriving
at the fundamental truth of things were in vogue thousands
of years ago. Long before the historical period, legend and
tradition report the existence of temples where pure reason
was taught. History also tells of similar schools that
existed five thousand years before Christ.

Faithfulness

You will find, if you are faithful in following the line of
argument here presented, that a principle will be disclosed
to you which will demonstrate itself in an unmistakable
manner. The logical deductions from the premise stated may
not come to your full comprehension at once because of
certain intellectual limitations into which the race has
plunged itself. Men have been so long divorced from logic
and pure reason that they are confused when a clear-cut
proposition is stated and carried to a conclusion along the
lines of perfect sequence.

Independent Thought

To think in an independent, untrammeled way about anything
is foreign to the habit of the races of the Occident. Our
lines of thought and act are based upon precedent and

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arbitrary authority. We boast much of our freedom and
independence, but the facts are that we defer to custom and
tradition. Our whole civilization is based upon manmade
opinions. We have never thought for ourselves in religion,
consequently we do not know how to think accurately and
consecutively upon any proposition. We have not been
trained to draw conclusions each for himself from a
universal pivotal truth. Consequently, we are not competent
to pass judgment upon any statement so predicated. Our
manner of deciding whether or not certain statements are
true or false is to apply the mental bias with which
heredity, religion, or social custom has environed us, or
else fly to some manmade record as authority.

In the study of practical Christianity all such temporary
proofs of Truth are swept aside as chaff. We entertain
nothing in our statements of Truth that does not stand the
most searching analysis, nothing that cannot be practically
demonstrated.

Starting Point

In order to carry on an intelligent, rational line of
argument it is necessary to find a mutual starting point
which is universally accepted as true. There may be many
pivotal points chosen from an intellectual standpoint that
would doubtless

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be accepted as reasonably true. Upon close analysis they
will usually be found resting upon another and anterior
so-called truth. For instance, we might agree that
ponderable objects always fall toward the earth. Yet, the
question quickly arises, "What causes them to fall?" The
ready answer is, "Gravity, of course." "But what is
gravity?" Thus, we are led back and back until lost in
First Cause, or God.

In agreement upon a statement as the basis of an argument
of universal nature, we must be careful to get one that has
no anterior. There can be but one basis of being, and
consequently but one basis of being's movements and forms.
When we have fully agreed that everything of which we are
cognizant can be traced in its last analysis to God, and no
further, we have a basis upon which to rest a doctrine that
cannot be successfully opposed, if its deductions are
logical and can be demonstrated. This is exactly what is
claimed for this science of Christ. It is not only a system
of philosophy which cannot be disputed by the rational
mind, but it also demonstrates in the world of phenomena
that its conclusions are true.

Primal Cause

Having decided upon God, or Primal Cause, as the basis of
our system, the next step is to decide

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upon the nature of this Primal Cause. It is safe to assert
that in all the world not a single person of intelligence
can be found who would say that God is anything but good.
It requires no exhaustive reasoning to arrive at this
conclusion, for it is the ready response of the intuitive
faculty of all mankind, which it is always safe to count as
correct.

Having agreed that God, or the Primal Cause of all things,
is the only safe basis on which to predicate an argument
that deals with life in all its sinuous windings, and that
the nature of that First Cause must necessarily be only
Good, we can by logical deduction evolve a doctrine that
must of necessity be universal in its application.

It is sometimes thought by certain people that man should
not attempt to find out the nature of God because He is so
far above and beyond the comprehension of the finite that
such attempts are sacrilegious folly. Yet when carefully
analyzed it is found that the one aim and end of man's
existence is to find God. The source of life is the great
mystery which has commanded the closest attention and study
of men in all ages, and as that source must be the
Infinite, it is thus ever inviting man to comprehend it.

The Bible says, "No man has ever seen

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God," and our physical scientists all agree that primordial
life, or First Cause, is invisible or spiritual, exhibiting
itself as an intelligent force. Hence, as corollary to the
statement that God, or First Cause, is good, we assert that
He is also Spirit.

Value to Man

Having established a basis grounded in irrefutable truth,
from which deductions may be drawn in an infinite number of
directions, the next very natural question that presents
itself is, "What good can come to man from a study of God?"

The facts are that the only good that has come to this
world has been through the study of God, notwithstanding
that the preponderance of that study has been of a nature
to preclude the discovery of God or His mode of
manifestation. People have been taught that God is a
personal being who rules the universe much after the manner
of an arbitrary monarch. This erroneous and contracted
teaching has led to a belittlement of God in the concepts
of men and they have imaged a man-god, and have also formed
a "graven image" of God, who is Spirit.

The true concept of God is that He is the Intelligent
Principle of the universe, and, like all principles,
totally impartial in His expressions. This is the concept
of God which has

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come to us in this awakening age. It is not new. The wise
old sages of the Orient tell us that their ancestors
thousands of years ago, in secret temples dedicated to the
study of God, or the Primal Cause of all, found that in
certain stages of high understanding, the result of
systematic training, they came into such harmonious
relations with this primal principle, or First Cause, that
they were endowed with causing power themselves.

They did not seek God for the sake of the power over things
which might thereby accrue to them, but that they might
have wisdom and understanding of the good. They found that
by thinking right thoughts and living unselfishly, they
awakened new faculties within themselves. They sought the
good, or God, and in harmony with that law by which like
attracts like, the good, or God, sought them. They found
that when they came into right relations with the good,
they had apparently supernatural powers.

They discovered what Jesus Christ called "the kingdom of
God within," and all things were thereby added unto them.
They caused, so tradition and certain records say, rain or
sunshine, heat or cold, and produced at will all the fruits
and flowers of the field. These records state that they
could also fly through the air, having acquired an
understanding of that which

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lies back of gravity. They, in short, controlled all the
so-called forces of nature by word or thought, and proved
conclusively that we become like that which we study. They
studied cause and became masters of the world of effects.

Transformations

They found that by coming into interior relations with the
invisible Cause, they were moved by it to give expression
both in thought and speech to certain words. When those
words were so expressed by them, wonderful transformations
took place in their surroundings. The conditions which they
had always assumed to be impossible of variation from what
are known as the laws of nature, were in the twinkling of
an eye set at naught. They had always believed that
sickness, decay, and death were part of an immutable law.
Yet, they found that certain words, which are in harmony
with the pivotal truth that First Cause, or God, is Spirit
and All-Good, heal the sick, make happy the sorrowful, and
fill the coffers of the poor.

They found that this invisible Principle of pure
intelligence expresses itself only in the words or thoughts
that produce happy results. They also found that the words
which work such wonders in transforming their surroundings
always

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represent those qualities which by deductive reasoning they
found can originate only with a Being or Principle of
goodness.

The Real and Unreal

They not only knew God as All-Good through the intuitive
faculty, but they proved Him so by demonstrating that He
responds to those attributes only that are representative
of the good. Hence, these words they called words of Truth
or reality.

On the other hand, they found that certain other words or
thoughts that do not correspond to or harmonize with the
attributes of a primal cause of good produce conditions of
inharmony. Under their expression people become sick,
sorrowful, and generally unhappy.

Through spiritual illumination, by comparison, logical
deduction, and practical demonstration, they definitely
arrived at words of Truth and their opposites. They knew
that the words of Truth must proceed from the cause to
which they correspond and consequently must be the Real.
They could find no tenable point of origin for the
opposites or words of error. Thus, they necessarily
classified them as the unreal, the nothings, the dropping
away from the one Principle of the universe.

They arranged and classified their words of

//page 21

reality and unreality as the electrician of our day
classifies the positive and the negative poles of
electrical action. In the realm of mind the effect of the
expressed words of Truth is fully as forcible as is the
positive power of the battery in the realm of electricity.

The effect of words is an exact science. It can be
demonstrated as such by all who will study it assiduously.
It is the science of life. Upon its understanding hinges
the happiness or unhappiness of man's existence. It is not
a science whose laws were discovered and arbitrarily
classified by those metaphysicians of the past. On the
contrary, it is universal in its unfoldment and
application. Every man works in its laboratory every day of
his life and is using its principles with every thought he
thinks and every word he speaks. He uses the law whether he
knows it or not. Hence, no one should be ignorant of the
effects which the manipulation of these hidden forces
produce in the character and surroundings of each child of
earth.

Pure Christianity

Pure Christianity is a spiritual doctrine. It has no
opposite whatsoever. In its purity it is one with the
underlying cause of all that is. It admits of no
differences among those who understand it. The modes of
teaching it may vary,

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as do the characteristics of each teacher; but all its
teachers must necessarily present the same Truth, though
their words and illustrations may differ. Each individual
needs but to be given the key in order to unlock for
himself the entire metaphysical plan of the universe.

The Principle of Being is not only all good, but it is all
intelligent. It is the fount of your intelligence. When you
study it you will find yourself becoming one with the
principle of all wisdom. To be one with the principle of
All Intelligence is to know. When you know you will find
yourself so broad in judgment and understanding that you
will have charity for all who differ from you in religion,
metaphysics, and even politics.

This system of metaphysics is but another name for
universal Truth. It consequently covers the therapeutic,
ethical, and religious departments of life.

Therapeutics

Metaphysical therapeutics treats of healing by an
understanding of the reality of things. It does not in its
exact meaning teach how to heal diseases by the power of
thought. It teaches how, by the power of thought, false
conceptions may be eradicated and the divine Reality
brought into manifestation, showing forth in health and
harmony.

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This department attracts the majority of people because of
the great need of healing.

Ethics

Ethics in the curriculum of metaphysics shows the student
how the moral world may be reformed. It teaches him how he
may be wise and happy by holding in mind certain thoughts
that will bring about these conditions. It shows him how he
may attain his ideal ends in reforming society. It shows
him how a dull, stupid, or ignorant mind may be quickened
morally and brightened intellectually by the power of right
thinking.

Religion

The religion of metaphysics includes all these and adds to
them a certain and sure knowledge of man's immortality and
divine relation. The religion of metaphysics is its
crowning principle--it is this department that places it in
the category of science. Religion is a science--the science
of life. It will so demonstrate itself to the student, both
logically and practically.

When you understand it in its religious aspect you know
your true relation to the Creator, and just what that
relation must lead to. You get a revelation of your status
as a living soul that is impregnable in its logic, and you
are brought into such close relation with the divine

//page 24

Cause that you know intuitively that you are not of the
flesh, but of God.

Upliftment

Nothing is too small or insignificant for God's uplifting
presence. God is not a theory of life. He is life itself.
He is the harmonious manifestation of life.

Those who have honestly studied metaphysics and applied its
rules in their daily work will tell you that it has made
them over physically, mentally, and morally. They will tell
you that they are better men and women; that life has new
zest for them, and that they can now do good and help
others where before they were helpless.

New and Old

Some will tell you that they were not able to make this
science fit into their old theories and incoherent vagaries
in matters religious and ethical. They will tell you that
its very simplicity stood in the way of their quick
acquirement of its power. They had listened all their lives
to learned and ponderous disquisitions of professors upon
the body and mind, man's relation to his Maker, etc., and
had long ago decided that only the very learned could ever
hope to fathom the depths of wisdom necessary to comprehend
even

//page 25

a very little of the subject. They will also tell you that
from childhood they have listened to flowery sermons by
learned ministers about God and man's duty to Him. Yet in
all this, the subjects were so encumbered with the
ponderous appearance of wisdom that they failed to connect
them with simple, everyday life.

Here we have a presentation of the deep things of God, so
simple and easy that the wise and mighty pass it by as a
religious vagary.

Problems of Life

The problem of life is getting into more and more of a
tangle among those who depend upon the material. There is
much running to and fro upon the earth by seekers for
satisfaction, yet no satisfaction is found.

Where will you find a person who will admit that he has
peace of mind, health of body, and a knowledge of Truth?
The rich admit that their possessions bring increased cares
and great mental disquietude. The poor long to be rich, not
knowing that happiness cannot be bought with money. The
learned are not satisfied with their acquirements because
when they just begin to get wisdom their bodies fail them.
So it goes among the denizens of this discontented world of
matter. Many lose faith in things ever being better.

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Happiness Here and Now

Happiness here and now is the beautiful part of Jesus'
teaching. He did not defer health nor salvation to a world
to come after death, but taught that it was attainable
right here. He taught that the kingdom of heaven is within
you. He proved by His works that it could be made to show
forth in the bodies and minds of those who follow the way
He pointed out.

Unprejudiced Mind

If you would get Truth in its purity you must listen to its
statements with the unprejudiced mind of the child. All
about you are potencies and power of which you do not
dream. Your philosophy has not grasped the faintest concept
of the wonderful, undiscovered country that lies right
within your reach, yet unseen and unknown to the mortal
senses because of their narrow range.

You live, move, and have your being in a realm elysian. Now
and then you may catch faint glimpses of its rare beauty in
your high moments of spiritual illumination. This realm is
not of matter but of Mind. It encompasses you on every side
and you contact its invisible glories, but know them not. A
false education has shut you away from God's creation.

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Do you say this is idealism? The illusions of imagination?

Here again you betray the mental congealing which
hereditary prejudices and race education have produced. Did
not that subtle fluid, electricity, exist in the invisible
before it was brought into manifestation? Does not the
modern analytical chemist tell us that our planetary
atmosphere carries in solution all the elements that go to
make up this visible world? It is rash for any man to
assert that anything is impossible.

New Era

A new era has dawned. The old is passing away. In the
advent of this new dispensation the heavens are rolled up
as a scroll, and in that process is revealed the
long-hidden realm of causes. Invisible forces are always
the most powerful. The dynamics of mind control the
universe. In mind originates all that is. By its actions
all things are moved. When man understands the laws of mind
he has solved the mysteries of the universe.

The New Testament is a sealed book to one who has no
knowledge of the laws of mind. It is a secret manual. It
reads like an ordinary narrative unless one has the key
that unlocks its hidden meaning.

Practical Christianity gives that key. He who knows all the
principles of its philosophy

//page 28

can enter the holy of holies of the Bible. He can penetrate
the mysteries of the sacred scriptures of all peoples.
There is no limit as to time, place, or personality in
Scriptural promises.

Study of Truth

In the study of Truth you are not under any circumstances
to listen to testimony of your external senses. You are
placed in the clear light of logic and reason, and are
expected to draw all of your conclusions from that
standpoint. From the premise of Spirit alone you shall
evolve the world of reality in which you live, and you can
demonstrate to your full satisfaction that you have been
deluded all these years in believing that which is not
true. You shall prove each for himself that all causation
is from Spirit, that you can make the world in which you
live conform to that which you know by clear reason to be
true.

The one Life-Intelligence is your life-intelligence. When
you let it freely flow into your consciousness, you know
that it is all good. As there can be but one Cause for all
that is, and as that Cause is All-Good, you have a pivotal
center from which you can draw conclusions that will settle
definitely all the debatable questions of existence.

//page 29

//section God

//text

THE starting point in spiritual realization is a right
understanding of God. By describing God with words in our
human way we are but stating in the lisping syllables of
the child that which in its maturity the mind still only
faintly grasps. Words never express that which God is.
Language is the limitation of mind. Do not expect the
unlimited to leap forth into full expression through the
limited. We must drop the complex and find simplicity
before we can know God. We must become as a child.

//page 30

Being

God's name represents wholeness. He is holy, perfect. God
is Being; the Creator; the Infinite; the Eternal; the Ruler
of the universe. Being is omnipresent, omnipotent,
omniscient; it is the fullness of God. God is the absolute,
incomparable, omnipresent All-Good, the principle of divine
benevolence that permeates the universe. Being exists under
two phases: invisible and visible, abstract and concrete.
The visible comes forth from the invisible, and this coming
forth is always according to a universal method of growth.
From center to circumference is the plan of procedure
throughout the universe.

Principle

We must relieve our minds of a personal God ruling over us
in an arbitrary, manlike manner. God is not person but
Principle. By Principle is meant definite, exact,
unchangeable. It best describes the unchangeableness that
is an inherent law of Being. The fundamental basis of
practical Christianity is that God is Principle.

Divine Principle is fundamental Truth. God as Principle is
the unchangeable life, love, intelligence, and substance of
Being. It is the underlying plan by which God moves in
expressing Himself. Principle does not occupy space;
neither has it any limitations of time or matter,

//page 31

but it eternally exists as the underlying cause out of
which come forth all true ideas. Although Principle is
formless, it is that by which all form is produced. God
immanent in the universe is the great underlying Cause of
all manifestation; the Source from which form proceeds.

Law

God as law is Principle in action. Everything has its
foundation in a rule of action, a law. Divine law is the
orderly working out of the principles of Being. Divine law
cannot be broken. It places first things first. Divine
order is the first law of the universe. Indeed, there could
be no universe unless its various parts were kept in
perfect order.

Reality

God is the one harmonious Principle underlying all being
and the Reality out of which all that is eternal comes.
Reality is that which is abiding, eternal, and
unchangeable. The basic principles of mathematics and music
are real, because they are not subject to change.

Spirit

God is Spirit, the Principle of creative life, the moving
force in the universe, the omnipotent, omnipresent essence
from which all things proceed. God is life. God is in the
universe as its constant "breath." Life

//page 32

is a principle that is made manifest in living. Spirit is
not matter. Spirit is not person. Spirit cannot be analyzed
by the senses. It is beyond their grasp. In order to
perceive the essence of Being we must drop from mind the
belief that God is circumscribed in any way or has any of
the limitations usually ascribed to persons, things, or
anything having form or shape. As the animating life of all
things God is a unit, but as the Mind that drives this life
He is diverse.

Spiritual-Science

The only real science is the science of Spirit. It never
changes. By science we mean the systematic and orderly
arrangement of knowledge. Orderliness is law, and is the
test of true science. The facts of Spirit are of a
spiritual character and, when understood in their right
relation, they are orderly. The lawful truths of Spirit are
more scientific than the constantly shifting opinions based
on intellectual standards.

Mind

By the term Mind, we mean God--the universal Principle,
which includes all principles. In our talk about Mind we
are forced to leave the plane of things formed and enter
the realm of pure knowing. God is the original Mind in
which all real ideas exist. The Mind of the universe is
composed of

//page 33

archetype ideas: life, love, wisdom, substance, truth,
power, peace, and so forth. The one original Mind creates
by thought. The science of Truth is God thinking out
creation.

Truth

God as Truth is the eternal verity of the universe. He is
the underlying, unchangeable Truth. The absolute Truth is
that which accords with God as divine Principle; that which
is, has been, and ever will be; that which eternally is.
The Truth of God is reality. The verities of Being are
eternal.

Omnipresence

God as omnipresence is the only presence in the universe.
This refers to the all-pervading presence of God,
permeating the universe. God is everywhere present. There
is no place where God is not. He is in all, through all,
and around all.

Omnipotence

God is All-Power, all the power there is. God as
omnipotence is infinite power, the Almighty. All things are
possible with God, because He is infinitely all-mighty,
having all power or force to accomplish anything. All the
power, all the force, all the might of the universe are
God's. He is, in truth, Almighty God. Spiritual power is
omnipresent.

//page 34

Omniscience

God as omniscience is all-knowing, all knowledge. God is
Mind. God is omnipresent Mind enfolding and
interpenetrating all things. Mind is common to all, above
and below, within and without. God must be in His universe
as everywhere-intelligent power; otherwise it would fall to
pieces.

Substance

God is substance. This does not mean matter. Matter is
formed while God is the formless. This substance which God
is lies back of all matter and all forms. Substance is the
divine idea of the underlying reality of all things.
Substance is everywhere present, pervades all things.
Through substance all the attributes of Being are
expressed. It sustains and enriches any idea that is
projected into it. Divine substance is supply. It is that
which is the basis of all form yet enters not into any form
as finality. It cannot be seen, tasted, or touched. Yet, it
is the only "substantial" substance in the universe. God as
substance is the all-providing law which supplies
bountifully out of His own abundance.

Ideas

The real of the universe is held in the Mind of Being as
ideas. The firstborn of everything in the universe is an

//page 35

idea in Divine Mind. In God Mind an idea is the eternal
Word or Logos, the original, primary, or unlimited thought
of Being. 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.

Love

Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. Of
all the attributes of God, love is undoubtedly the most
beautiful. Love is the power that joins and binds in divine
harmony the universe and everything in it. Divine love is
impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving. Love is the
great harmonizer.

//page 36

//section Creation

//text

The Key

On every hand men are earnestly seeking to know about God,
and the origin of both the universe and themselves. They
have probed with more or less success nearly every secret
of nature, but of the origin of life they know
comparatively nothing. A right understanding of Divine Mind
is the one and only logical key. When man clearly discerns
the science of Mind, he will solve easily all the mysteries
of creation. To understand the creation of the universe by
God, we must know something of the character of God.

//page 37

Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity is known as the Father, the Son, and Holy
Spirit. Metaphysically, we understand the Trinity to refer
to mind, idea, and expression, or thinker, thought, and
action. These three are one fundamental Mind in its three
creative aspects.

Father

Father is first in the Trinity. Father is Being in the
absolute, the unlimited, the unrelated. He is the Source,
Origin, Essence, Root, Principle, Law, Spirit, All-Good,
Creator of all. Father is the name of the all-encompassing
Mind, everywhere present, forever accessible. The universal
Principle of Being (Elohim God) designed all creation.
Elohim is God in His capacity as creative power. Create
means ideate. Elohim creates the spiritual idea which is
afterward made manifest. God created not the earth as it
appears but that which produced the earth.

Son

The second in the Trinity is the Son. It is called Jehovah
{Lord} in the Old Testament and Christ in the New
Testament. The Son of God is the fullness of the
perfect-man idea in Divine Mind. He is the man that God
created in His image. The Son is Principle revealed in a
creative plan. He is that which

//page 38

proceeds from, is begotten of the Father, like Him in
nature, and essentially all that the Father is. The Son
ever exists in God. Father and Son are one and are
omnipresent in the universe.

Christ

Christ is the one and only complete ideal man in the mind
of the everywhere present God, the "only Son" of God. He is
the divine-idea man. He is all divine ideas, such as
intelligence, life, love, substance, and so forth. In the
architect's mind there may be one masterpiece, but that
masterpiece is the sum of all the beautiful ideas that have
come to his mind. Christ is the cosmic or Grand Man of the
universe. Christ is the name of the all-loving Mind.

The Word

The Son is also called the Logos, the Word, the anointed
One, and the I AM. He is the living Word. The Logos is the
Word of God; the divine archetype ideas that contains all
ideas. This supreme idea is the creative power formulated
by universal Principle. The law of the Logos is the law of
divine creation. It produces the order and harmony of
perfect thought. Law puts first things first. It is a rule
of action. An understanding of the Logos reveals to us the
law under

//page 39

which all things are brought forth, the law of mind action.
Divine Mind creates by thought, through ideas.

I Am

The Son is the I AM identity of Being. I AM is eternal,
without beginning or ending: the true spiritual man whom
God made. Its home is in the realm of God ideals.

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is just what the name implies, the whole
Spirit of God in action. It is God's word in movement: the
working, moving, breathing, brooding Spirit. Holy Spirit is
the all-active manifestation. It is the executive power of
both Father and Son, carrying out the creative plan. The
Holy Spirit is the law of God in action; in that action He
appears as having individuality. It is the personality of
Being. It is neither the all of Being nor the fullness of
Christ, but is an emanation, or breath, sent forth to do a
definite work. Creation is carried forward through the
activity of the Holy Spirit.

Creative Process

Creation is the original plan of an idea in Divine Mind. In
the creative process Divine Mind ideates itself. God
creates and moves creation

//page 40

through the power of Mind, through His idea or word, the
universal creative vehicle. The vehicles of Mind are
thoughts (ideas). God is thinking the universe into
manifestation right now. Creation takes place through the
operation of the Logos. The creations of the Logos are
always spiritual, permanent, and incorruptible. The
creative processes of Mind are continuously operative;
creation is going on all the time, but the original plan,
the design of Divine Mind, is finished. The processes of
Mind enter into all creations. God is eternally in His
creation and never separate from it. Wherever there is
evidence of creative action, there God is. His avenues of
expression run in every direction.

Creative Law

The order of creation is from the formless to the formed,
from the invisible to the visible. This goes on perpetually
and there is never a beginning or an ending to the process.
The law of divine creation is perfect order and harmony.
God cannot create without law. God is the Mind force
carrying forward creation under law. First is Mind; then
the idea Mind; then the materialization of the idea. Apart
from Mind nothing can be done. Creative intelligence
forever up-builds God's universe.

//page 41

Involution and Evolution

All of God's works are created in Mind as perfect ideas. He
creates the ideas that form the things. The starting point
of every form is an idea. This is involution. Then the
ideas are made into form and shape. This is evolution.
Evolution is the working out in manifestation of what Mind
has involved. Whatever Mind commands to be brought forth
will be brought forth by and through the law of evolution
inherent in Being. This applies to the great and the small.
In Mind there is but one.

Ideation

God-Mind expresses His ideas perfectly, so that there is no
occasion for them to change. He images His ideas definitely
and in every detail. Divine idealism is God's standard of
perfection. The ideal is continually pouring itself into
its creation and lifting it high and yet higher. Divine
motherhood is the brooding, nourishing element of Divine
Mind in which spiritual ideals are brought to fruition. The
idea is the directing and controlling power. It precedes
the fulfillment.

Ideation Formed

Ideas are productive and bring forth after their kind.
Every idea has a specific function to perform. Every idea
makes a structure after its own

//page 42

image and likeness, and all such ideas and structures are
grouped and associated according to their offices. All
things rest on ideas. The idea back of the flower is
beauty. The idea back of music is harmony. The idea back of
day is light or the dispensation of intelligence.

//page 43

//section Man

//text

MAN IS an idea in Divine Mind. He is the epitome of Being.
Man is the apex of God's creation, created in His
image-likeness. Ideal man is the perfect man, the Christ,
the offspring of Divine Mind. Before there could be a man
there must have been an idea of man. God, the Father,
Divine Mind, had an idea of man, and this idea is his Son,
the perfect-man idea, the offspring of God-Mind. This Son
is the Christ, the only begotten of the Father. The Son,
being the expressed image-likeness of the

//page 44

Father, is perfect, even as the Father is perfect. All that
we find in Divine Mind we find in its offspring.

Manifest Man

Manifest man should be as the ideal. He will be when the
individual identifies himself with the Christ. When he is
identified with anything less than perfection he manifests
some degree of imperfection.

Man makes his world through the activity of ideas in his
consciousness. The realm man is the embodiment of God. All
the God-substance and the power to make it active is
inherent within him.

Image-Likeness

When we are quickened to spiritual understanding and fully
realize the true character of God and our own nature as the
image, or idea, of God we will begin to live as Jesus lived
in order that we may bring forth the likeness. To perceive
the true character of God and His attributes and then to
grasp our relationship to Him is to realize that His
attributes are our attributes. His power is our power. His
character is our character.

Man is not limited in life. He has existed with the Father
always. At the very beginning

//page 45

of creation he was born into being through the Son, the
Christ, the perfect, ideal man.

Three Departments of Man

Every man asks the question at some time, "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." Know yourself as an integral idea in
Divine Mind. 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 harmony, in his consciousness, of Spirit,
soul, and body. If he is all body, he is but one-third
expressed. If to body he had added soul, he is two-thirds
man. 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,

//page 46

which limits his capacity and dwarfs his product. In his
right relation, man is the inlet and the outlet of an
everywhere-present life, substance, and intelligence. It is
imperative that the individual understand this relation in
order to grow naturally. 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.

Spirit-Man

Spirit in man is the I AM, the individuality. The
individuality is the true self; that which is undivided
from God; our spiritual identity; the God part of us. It is
that which characterizes one as a distinct entity or
particular manifestation of divine Principle. Individuality
is eternal. It can never be destroyed. Spirit is the seat
of power. Its abode is on the invisible side of man's
nature. The I AM is the name of the spiritual self. I AM is
man's self-identity, the center around which man's system
revolves. It is established in Principle. It is divinely
guided in its acts and they are in harmony with divine law.
Spirit is the same in character as God. The Spirit is the
divine center in man and is always in the Absolute; it does
not become involved in effects but stands

//page 47

as the creative Cause of the absolute good. It is the
indwelling Christ or spiritual nucleus within each
individual.

Soul-Man

The soul is man's consciousness. It is the underlying idea
back of any expression. In man, the soul is the many
accumulated ideas of his present expression. In its
original and true sense, the soul of man is the expressed
idea of man in Divine Mind. It is that which man has
apprehended or developed out of Spirit. The soul is not of
the realm of God ideas but is the second emanation in the
creative law. The soul touches both the inner realm of
Spirit, from which it receives direct inspiration, and the
external world, from which it receives impressions.

Body-Man

The body of man is soul expressing. Soul makes the body. It
is the outer expression of the soul, or consciousness. The
body is the precipitation of the thinking part of man. God
created the idea of the body of man as a self-perpetuating,
self-renewing organism which man reconstructs into his
personal body. God creates the body idea, or divine idea,
and man, by his thinking, makes it manifest. All thoughts
and ideas embody themselves according to their character.
Material

//page 48

thoughts make a material body. Spiritual thoughts make a
spiritual body. The body is the outer court of the soul, an
exact representative in form of the ideals that are
revolving in the inner realms of its domain.

//page 49

//section Consciousness

//text

CONSCIOUSNESS is the sense of awareness, of knowing. It is
our knowing that we know. The ideas that are held in mind
are the basis of all consciousness. The nature of the ideas
upon which consciousness is formed gives character to it.
Consciousness is the knowledge or realization of any idea,
object, or condition. It is the sum total of all ideas
accumulated in and affecting man's present being. It is the
composite of ideas, thoughts, emotions, sensation, and
knowledge that makes up the conscious, subconscious, and
superconscious phases of mind. It includes all that man is
aware of in

//page 50

spirit, soul, and body. The total consciousness of man is
the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, phases of
mind working as a whole, as a unity. The harmonious working
together of these three is necessary to the bringing forth
of the latent possibilities of man.

Superconsciousness

The superconscious mind, Christ consciousness or spiritual
consciousness, is a state that is based on true ideas, upon
an understanding and realization of spiritual Truth. It is
man's only sure guide through the maze of the creative
process. By trusting to the infallibility of this guide,
man opens himself to the inspiration of the Almighty. This
phase of mind is built in accordance with the Christ ideal,
or in absolute relationship to the Father. It is the
perfect mind.

Conscious Mind

We are all well acquainted with the conscious mind. Through
its use we establish our relations with the outer realm and
recognize our individual entities. The conscious mind makes
one know of one's mental operations. It is that phase of
mind in which one is actively aware of one's thoughts. It
is the mind through which man establishes his identity. The
conscious mind should look ever to the superconscious for
all

//page 51

direction and instruction. The Spirit of wisdom rests in
the superconscious.

Subconsciousness

The subconscious mind, or subjective consciousness, is the
sum of all man's past thinking. It may be called memory.
The subconscious mind has no power to do original thinking.
It acts upon what is given it through the conscious or the
superconscious mind. All our involuntary, or automatic,
activities are of the subconscious. They are the result of
our having trained ourself by the conscious mind to form
certain habits and do certain things without having to
center our thought upon them consciously.

The subconscious is the vast, silent realm that lies back
of the conscious mind and between it and the
superconscious. It may be called the sensitive place of
mind. Its true office is to receive impressions from the
superconsciousness and to reproduce them upon the canvas of
the conscious mind.

Man, however, having lost the consciousness of the
indwelling Father as an ever-present reality, has reversed
the process and impresses the subconscious from the
conscious mind. In this way the former is made to register
impressions according to the thought held in conscious mind
at the time the impression is made.

//page 52

It is the purpose and the nature of the subconscious mind
to reproduce.

Twelve Centers

Inherent in the Mind of Being are twelve fundamental ideas,
which in action appear as primal creative forces. It is
possible for man to ally himself with and to use these
original forces, and thereby cooperate with the creative
law. In order to do this he must detach himself from the
outer forces and enter into the consciousness of the idea
lying back of them.

Man has twelve great centers of consciousness. They are
centers of action. Each of these has control of a certain
function in mind and body, in soul and body. These twelve
powers are all expressed and developed under the guidance
of Divine Mind.

You must keep the equipoise. You must in all the bringing
forth of the twelve realize that they come from God. They
are directed by the Word of God. The twelve centers are:
faith, strength, judgment, love, power, imagination,
understanding, will, order, zeal, renunciation (or
elimination), and life.

Faith

Faith is the perceiving power of the mind linked with the
power to shape substance. It is spiritual assurance. It is
the

//page 53

power to do the seemingly impossible. It is a magnetic
power that draws unto us our heart's desire from the
invisible spiritual substance. Faith is a deep inner
knowing that that which is sought is already ours for the
taking.

Faith is the foundation of all that man does. It is closely
related to the enduring, firm, unyielding forms of
substance. The development of it is a key to spiritual
realization. Faith in God is the substance of existence. To
have faith in God is to have the faith of God. We must have
faith in God as our Father and source of all the good we
desire.

Faith is more than mere belief. It is the very substance of
that which is believed. Faith working in spiritual
substance accomplishes all things. This is the faith that
cooperates with creative law. When it is exercised deep in
spiritual consciousness, it finds its abode. Here it works
under divine law, without variation. It brings results that
are seemingly miraculous.

An understanding faith functions from Principle. It is
based on knowledge of Truth. It understands the law of mind
action. Therefore, it has great strength. To know that
certain causes produce certain results gives a bedrock
foundation for faith.

The term blind faith is an instinctive trust

//page 54

in a power higher than ourselves. Because blind faith does
not understand the principles of Being, it is liable to
discouragement and disappointment.

Strength

Strength is the energy of God. In man it causes freedom
from weakness; stability of character; power to withstand
temptation; capacity to accomplish. Strength is physical,
mental, and spiritual. All strength originates in Spirit.
Strength and faith are brothers in the mind. When this bond
of unity is established it carries one along, even though
one may encounter the most adverse experiences.

Judgment

Judgment is a faculty of the mind that can be exercised in
two ways--from sense perception or spiritual understanding.
If its action be based on sense perception its conclusions
are fallible and often condemnatory. If based on spiritual
understanding, they are safe. Judgment is a mental act of
evaluation through comparison or contrast. Spiritual
discernment is the inner voice through whose expression we
come into a larger realization of ourselves. We also call
this faculty discrimination. It is that quality in us which
carefully weighs a question and draws a conclusion.

//page 55

The prevailing tendency of judgment is toward caution,
fearfulness, criticism, and condemnation, when it draws its
conclusions from the effect side of existence. We should
therefore faithfully seek the spiritual aspect of this
faculty, the guidance and good judgment of spiritual light
and understanding.

Wisdom, justice, judgment are grouped under one head in
spiritual consciousness. Intuition, judgment, wisdom,
justice, discernment, pure knowing, and profound
understanding are natural to man. All these qualities, and
many more, belong to every one of us by and through his
divine sonship.

Love

Love is an inner quality that sees good everywhere and in
everybody. It insists that all is good, and by refusing to
see anything but good it causes that quality finally to
appear uppermost in itself, and in all things. Divine love
will bring your own to you, adjust all misunderstandings,
and make your life and affairs healthy, happy, harmonious,
and free. Like the sun, its joy is in the shining forth of
its nature.

Love is a divine attribute. It is an idea in the one Mind,
a quality in Being. The difference between divine love and
human love is that divine love is broad and unlimited, a
universal

//page 56

and harmonizing power. Human love is based on personality.
When man expresses divine love in limited ways he makes a
separation in consciousness and his expression of love is
personal instead of universal. When love is established in
the consciousness it will draw to us all that we require to
make us happy and contented, all that really belongs to us.
Unselfish love is fearless, because of its forgetfulness of
self. A sense of oneness is a natural product of love. It
is accompanied by a consciousness of security.

Power

Man is the power of God in action. The mind and the body of
man have power to transform energy from one plane of
consciousness to another. This is the power and dominion
implanted in man from the beginning. It is man's control
over his thoughts and feelings. A quickening from on high
must precede his realization of dominion. Power is
increased through exalted ideas. The power of the voice
controls all the vibratory energies of the organism. It is
the open door between the formless and the formed worlds of
vibrations pertaining to expression. Every word that goes
forth receives its specific character from the power
faculty.

//page 57

Imagination

Every form and shape originated in the imagination. It is
through the imagination that the formless takes form. Man
is continually making and sending forth into his mind, his
body, and the world about him living thought forms embodied
and endued with his whole character. These images are
formed in the imaging faculty.

In the realm of the real, the imaging power of the mind is
innocent of error images. It is open and receptive to the
beauty and perfection of Being. This faculty makes the
great, when the soul is lifted up with spiritual fervor.
Exercised without the Christ understanding, it is personal
credulity. It is not in itself error, but may be used in
erroneous ways. In the communication of God with man this
faculty plays an important part.

Understanding

That in man which comprehends is understanding. It
comprehends and knows in wisdom. Its comparisons are not
made in the realm of form, but in the realm of ideas. It
knows how to accomplish things. Spiritual discernment
reveals that knowledge and intelligence are auxiliary to
understanding.

There are two ways of getting understanding. One is by
following the guidance of Spirit

//page 58

that dwells within, and the other is to go blindly ahead
and learn through hard experience.

Intellectual understanding of Truth is a tremendous step in
advance of sense consciousness, and its possession brings a
temptation to use for selfish ends the wisdom and power
thereby revealed.

Spiritual understanding is the quickening of the Spirit
within. Spiritual understanding is the ability of the mind
to apprehend and realize the laws of thought and the
relation of ideas one to another.

Will

The will is the executive faculty of the mind and carries
out the edicts of the I AM. All thoughts that go in and out
of man's consciousness pass the gate at which sits the
will. If the will understands its office, the character and
value of every thought are inquired into and a certain
tribute is exacted for the benefit of the whole man. When
the will of man adheres to wisdom faithfully and carries
out in its work the plans that are idealized in wisdom, it
creates in man a consciousness of harmony and peace.

The will may be said to be the man, because it is the
directive power that determines character formation. When
man wills to do the will of God, he exercises his
individual will in wisdom,

//page 59

love, and spiritual understanding. He builds spiritual
character.

What man wills or decrees comes to pass in his experience.
The will is the center in mind and body around which
revolve all the activities that constitute consciousness.
It is the avenue through which the I AM expresses its
potentiality.

Order

The inner spirit of order is the spiritual way of life. The
divine idea of order is the idea of adjustment. As this is
established in man's thought, his mind and affairs will be
at one with the universal harmony. The faculty of order in
the mind holds every thought and act strictly to the Truth
of Being, regardless of circumstances or environment. The
development of man is under law. Man can never exercise
dominion until he knows who and what he is and, knowing,
brings forth that knowledge into the external by exercising
it in divine order.

Zeal

Zeal is intensity, ardor, enthusiasm; the inward fire of
the soul that urges man onward regardless of caution. It is
the affirmative impulse of existence. Its command is "Go
forward!" When zeal and judgment work together great things
can be accomplished.

//page 60

To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living.
Zeal and enthusiasm incite to glorious achievement in every
aim and ideal that the mind conceives. Energy is zeal in
motion. Energy is the forerunner of every effect. Never
repress the impulse, the force, the zeal welling up within
you. Praise it for its great energy and efficiency in
action.

Let your zeal be tempered with wisdom. Do not let your zeal
run away with judgment. Man is a dynamo of pent-up power,
but he needs judgment in its use. Always exercise zeal in
spiritual ways. Extraordinary zeal in the accomplishment of
some ideal develops what is called genius. Genius is the
accumulated zeal of the individual in some chosen field of
life action. Genius is the breaking forth of the
accumulated achievements of a man in that field of activity
for which he has been very zealous.

Renunciation

Renunciation is a letting go of old thoughts in order that
new thoughts may find a place in consciousness. A healthy
state of mind is attained when the thinker willingly lets
go the old thoughts and takes on the new. This is
illustrated by the inlet and outlet of a pool of water.
Renunciation, sometimes called elimination, carries forward
the work of elimination of error thoughts

//page 61

from the mind and waste from the body.

It is just as necessary that one should learn to let go of
thoughts, conditions, and substances in consciousness,
body, and affairs, when they have served their purpose and
one no longer needs them, as it is that one should lay hold
of new ideas and new substances to meet one's daily
requirements. Therefore it is very necessary that the
eliminative faculty be quickened in one, and a right
balance between receiving and giving, laying hold and
letting go, be established.

Life

In the phenomenal world, life is the energy that propels
all forms of action. The life ego is the most subtle and
most variable of all the powers of man. It presides over
the life of the body. The pure life of God flows into man's
consciousness through the spiritual body idea. Only those
who have come into consciousness of the spiritual body idea
can feel this holy stream of life. Its nature is to vivify
with perpetual life all that it touches. It knows only to
give, give unceasingly and eternally, without restraint. To
desire to be instructed by God is the first step in
exalting the inner life force. Life is divine, spiritual.
Its source is Spirit. The river of life is within man in
his spiritual consciousness. He comes into consciousness of

//page 62

the river of life through the quickening of Spirit. He can
be truly quickened with new life and vitalized in mind and
body only by consciously contacting Spirit.

//page 63

//section Thinking

//text

TO MAN is given the highest power in the universe, the
conscious power of thought. There is a universal, creative
force that urges man forward to the recognition of the
creative power of his individual thought. This thought is
elemental, and all its attributes come under the dominion
of man. When he cooperates with Principle, man sits on the
throne of his authority and the elemental force is subject
to him.

Thinking is the formulating process of mind. The thinking
faculty is the inlet and the outlet of all your ideas. It
is active, zealous,

//page 64

impulsive, but not always wise. Its nature is to think, and
think it will. The thinking faculty in you makes you a free
agent, because it is your creative center. In and through
this one power you establish your consciousness--you build
your world.

Thought

Thought is a product of thinking. It is a mental vibration
or impulse. Each thought is an identity that has a central
ego around which all its elements revolve. Thoughts are
capable of expressing themselves. Every thought clothes
itself in a life form according to the character given it
by the thinker. The form is simply the conclusion of the
thought. The mind of man marshals its faculties and
literally makes into living entities the thoughts that it
entertains.

Energies (thought vibrations) are sent out by the force and
power of thought. Thought power is the moving force within
an idea that gives it expression. All structures are built
by thought power. This power is transmitted from mind to
mind and from mind to body in all living forms. The
omnipresent, invisible substance (thought-stuff) is ever
ready to take form in accordance with one's mental pattern.
The thought-stuff of the universe is more sensitive than a
phonograph record. It transcribes not

//page 65

only all sounds, but even the slightest vibration of
thought.

Thought Aggregation

Like attracts like. A thought will take up its abode in our
consciousness with thoughts of like character. This law of
attraction continues until combined thoughts make a colony.
This colony of thoughts expresses itself in the cells of
the body--for good or ill. This collection or aggregation
of ideas in the mind is a thought center. They build organs
through which they manifest. The surrounding mental climate
or thought atmosphere is created by each person in
accordance with the character of his thinking. Thoughts of
negation build a discordant atmosphere. Thoughts of love,
prosperity, health, and faith create a harmonious mental
atmosphere.

Thought Control

Thought is controlled by the right use of affirmation and
denial--by the power of the mind to accept and reject. This
power of the mind is the I AM, and it is through the avenue
of I AM expression that thought control, dominion, and
mastery are obtained. Thoughts are controlled by the mind
through its power to say "yes" or "no." To "hold a thought"
is to affirm or deny

//page 66

a certain proposition both mentally and audibly until the
logic of the mind is satisfied and spiritual realization is
attained.

Denial

Human consciousness is made up of a multitude of false
personal and race beliefs. Denial is the mental process of
erasing from consciousness the false beliefs. It clears
away belief in evil as reality and thus makes room for the
establishing of Truth. Through it we get rid of the
shadows. We cleanse the mind. A denial is a relinquishment
and should not be made with vehemence. Make denials as
though you were gently sweeping away cobwebs.

Affirmation

When we poise ourselves in Divine Mind our denials and
affirmations will be made in right relation. We will know
just when to let go of a thought and when to lay hold of
another.

The purpose of affirmation is to establish in consciousness
a broad understanding of the divine principles on which all
life and existence depend. By affirming Truth we are lifted
out of false thinking into the consciousness of Spirit. An
affirmation is a positive statement of Truth. By the use of
it one claims and appropriates that which is his in Truth.
It is the mental movement

//page 67

that asserts confidently and persistently the Truth of
Being in the face of all appearances to the contrary. The
sum total of thought in all its positive aspects composes
the affirmations that bring ideas into form. They do not
have to be made in set terms, words, or statements.

Affirmations of words of Truth realized in consciousness
bring the mind into just the right attitude to receive
light, power, and guidance from Spirit. Words are the
vehicles through which ideas make themselves manifest.
Words that have in them the realization of perfect,
everywhere-present, always-present divine life, and our
oneness with this life, are dominant in the restoration of
life and health. When spiritual words abide in man's
consciousness, the word or thought formed in the human mind
must give way to the higher principles of Being.

The Decree

To decree is to command or to ordain. To decree with
assurance is to establish and to fix an ideal in substance.
The force behind the decree is invisible. It binds with
invisible power the one who makes it. We have only a slight
conception of the strength of the intangible. Affirmations
are far stronger than the strongest visible thing in the
world. Words charged with power and intelligence increase
with use.

//page 68

Thought and Word

Man cannot know how the thought or word work except through
his own consciousness. He must understand, control, and put
in order his own thought and word. Our most important study
is our own consciousness. By a right understanding, and by
using right thoughts and words, man will experience the
kingdom within him.

Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves. They think.
Man thinks. He thinks into his thoughts all that he is.
There is 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. If man conformed to the divine creative law, his
word would make things instantly.

Every word has its effect, though unseen and unrecognized.
What we think, we usually express in words. 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.

Talk about nervousness and weakness produces corresponding
conditions. Sending forth the word of strength and
affirming poise will

//page 69

bring about the desired strength and poise. 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. Thus, every word brings forth
after its kind.

Directive Word Power

The spoken word carries vibrations through the universe and
moves the intelligence inherent in every form, animate or
inanimate. Man, the highest emanation of Divine Mind, has
great directive power and is really cooperator with God in
forming the universe. We should be speaking words of Truth
to everything. There are no secrets and no concealments.

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 this power in selfish ways. This should not
deter others who have a better understanding of the law
from using it in right ways. When we need things necessary
to our happiness, it is not sacrilegious to set in action
this higher law in attaining them. The word of one in
authority carries weight and produces far-reaching effects.

//page 70

If your word is selfish, that which will come to you
through its use will be unsatisfactory. Learn to speak
right words only. It is your duty as expresser of the
divine law to speak forth the Logos, the very Word of God,
to manifest for you and in you its innate perfection.

Thought and Act

Every act of man has its origin in thought, which is
expressed into the phenomenal world from a mental center
that is but a point of radiation for an energy that lies
back of it. That point of radiation is the conscious I,
which in its correct relation is one with Cause, and has at
its command all the power potential in Cause.

The conscious I can look in two directions--to the outer
world where the thoughts that rise within it give sensation
and feeling, which ultimate in a moving panorama of
visibility; or to the world within, whence all its life,
power, and intelligence are derived. When the I looks
wholly within, it loses all sense of the external. When it
looks wholly without, upon sensation and feeling, it loses
its bearings in the maze of its own thought creations. Then
it builds up a belief of separateness from, and
independence of, a causing power. Man sees only form and
makes his God a personal being located in a city of
dimensions. This belief of separateness

//page 71

leads to ignorance. When the soul thinks itself something
alone, it cuts itself off in consciousness from the fount
of inspiration. Believing himself separate from his source,
man loses sight of the divine harmony. The only walls of
separation are those built by consciousness of separation.

Thought Forms

Many factors enter into the process of thinking. The
capacity of the thinker to form thoughts, to give them
substance and force, is the great factor. The understanding
of right and wrong, truth and error, substance and shadow,
is important. Many significant conditions enter into that
mental process loosely termed thinking.

Every mental process is generative. From thinking is
evolved what is called living. Thinking is formative.
Thought clothes itself in a life form according to the
character given it by the thinker. Every thought produces a
living organism. Thought is creative and covers every phase
of life. Every life expression originated in some thought.
All of the detestable thoughts that mankind harbors,
produce living organisms after their kind.

Error Thoughts

Error thoughts represent belief in thoughts and

//page 72

beliefs not of God. They are untrue. They have no
foundation in Truth. Error thought is a product of the
fallen human consciousness. It is negation or evil. Evil is
a parasite. It has no permanent life of itself. Its whole
existence depends on the life it borrows from its parent.
When its connection with the parent is severed, nothing
remains. In Divine Mind there are no evil conditions. Such
conditions have no basis of reality. They are conjurations
of a false consciousness. Apparent evil is the result of
ignorance. When Truth is presented, the error disappears.

Man has the privilege and freedom of using God-power as he
will. When he misuses it he brings about inharmonious
conditions. These are called evil. Evil appears in the
world because man is not in spiritual understanding. He can
do away with evil by learning rightly to use the one Power.
If there were a power of evil, it could not be changed.

Experimentation

Man is a free agent. He can open his mind to divine wisdom
and know creative law, or he can work out his unfoldment
through experimentation. Our human race is in the
experimental stage. In our ignorance we transgress the law
to the very limit, and then a great reaction sets

//page 73

in, a general condition that is negative to the point of
dissolution. Then that in us which always looks obediently
to God in an extremity is awakened, and we seek divine
guidance. The human race has formed laws of physical birth
and death, laws of sickness and inability, laws that
recognize no other source of existence except the physical.
The sum total of these laws forms a race consciousness
separate from and independent of creative Mind. When
creative Mind seeks to help men spiritually, the human mind
opposes it and makes every effort to solve its problems in
its own way.

The great need of the human family is mind control. Mastery
is attained through realization of the power of Spirit.

//page 74

//section The Spoken Word

//text

IN PURE metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of God.
This is the original creative Word, or thought, of Being.
In the original it includes wisdom, judgment, power, and
all the inherent potentialities of Being.

Divine Mind creates under law; that is, mental law. 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.

//page 75

Man is the consummation of the Word. The perfect Word of
God is Spiritual Man. It is through Spiritual Man that all
things are made. There is but one idea of man in Divine
Mind. That idea is the perfect pattern of man's character.

As an imitator of Divine Mind, man has power to form and
make manifest whatsoever he idealizes. Unless his thoughts
are unified with Divine Mind and guided in their operations
by infinite wisdom, his thought forms are perishable.

Surroundings and Thought Vibrations

The self of man is spiritual. 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. Under intense mind activity, conditions more or
less permanent are impressed

//page 76

upon the sensitive plate of the universal. Through this
activity they are brought into physical manifestation.

Spoken Word

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.
Through 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. Through this point
the word is expressed in invisible vibrations.

Following the creative law in its operation from the
formless to the formed, we can see how an idea fundamental
in Divine is grasped by the man ego, how it takes form in
his thought, and how it is later expressed through the
spoken word. If man conformed to the divine law, his word
would make things instantly. He has lost, in a measure,
knowledge of the steps in the creative process from the
within to the without.

The mental emanation and the creative word are the forces
that stimulate the receptive intelligence of nature. When
we believe what we hear, there is formed in us the
substance of the word.

//page 77

Words and Zeal

Words of Truth from a zealous man possess dynamic power to
heal and bless because the spiritual man enters into them.
This is why they move multitudes and are not stayed by
conditions of time. When the zone of Spirit, from which
healing words emanate, is unobstructed, they feed the souls
of men and are creative as well as re-creative.

This is why the sayings of the prophets and mystics have
such enduring qualities. They are attached by invisible
currents of life to the one Great Spirit. They have within
them the germ of perfect wholeness that keeps them
perpetually increasing.

The true prophet of God does not even have to write his
words down. He may speak them and through their own
inherent power of perpetuation and growth they will find
their way into the minds of men to uplift and heal. Jesus
did not write a line except in the sand, yet His words are
treasured today as the most precious that we have.

Living Words

The word of Truth has life in it. It has power to restore
and make whole. It cannot perish or grow less with the
changes that come with the fleeting years. The more
spiritual the individual is who

//page 78

gives forth the words the more enduring they are, and the
more powerfully the words move men the more surely they
awaken them to their divine nature.

The words of Jesus were given to common people--according
to the world's standard--by a carpenter in a remote corner
of the earth. Yet these words have moved men for more than
nineteen hundred years to realize, to dare, and to do as no
other words that were ever uttered.

The Inner Word

Jesus spoke in terms of that inner Word which creates all
things. He knew that His words were vivified with a life
essence and a moving power that would demonstrate the truth
of His statement.

These words have rung through the souls of men and set them
afire with God's Spirit throughout the ages. This is
because they are spiritual words, words that have within
them the seeds of a divine life, of a perfect wholeness.
They grow in the minds of all who give them place.

//page 79

//section Spiritual Law

//text

ALL SANE persons acknowledge the necessity of observing law
in their daily living. The great majority have a human
standard. Now the whole race is awakening to the knowledge
of a higher source of existence. More people every day are
giving attention to the law of Spirit in their life.

We find in the Scriptures constant reference, in symbols
and also in direct language, to order as a fundamental law
of the universe and of man. All peoples have observed this,
and especially

//page 80

the people of God. Paul said, "All things should be done
decently and in order."

Remedy

Suggestion is systematically used in the business world,
and unless you are strong in your own convictions as to
what your needs are, you will be loaded up with many things
for which you have no use. The remedy is to establish
yourself in the spiritual law. You will come under one or
the other of these laws, the manmade or the spiritual, and
it is for you to choose which is best.

Whatever there is in mind, body, or affairs that is out of
harmony is easily adjusted when you open the way in your
mind for the manifestation of divine order.

Jesus' Birth

The birth of Jesus was foretold and arranged beforehand. It
was not left to chance. His mother "magnified" the Lord
before He was born. This illustrates the truth that it is
necessary to have order from the very beginning. The
bringing forth of John the Baptist is an example of the
coming of another state of consciousness and of the
necessity of law and order in prenatal culture.

The same law holds good in our body and our affairs. The
power of the word should be

//page 81

expressed in our homes. We should surround ourselves with
words suggestive of spiritual things. If words count, and
we know they do, we should be careful of every belief taken
into consciousness through the eye as well as through the
ear.

Suggestion

From their inception to their expression, words are
important. The law is fulfilled not only in mind but in
manifestation also. Every suggestion that enters the mind
brings forth like expression in act. The time is coming
when it will be unlawful to print in the daily papers any
record of crime or of anything that will bring discord into
the minds of readers.

Once I read of a man who committed a crime, and in his
pocket was found a newspaper clipping describing almost
identically the same criminal act. His crime was the fruit
of suggestion. How many such suggestions does one large
daily paper carry to its thousands of readers in its
recital of the daily horrors that make up the news?

As the world comes more and more under the spiritual law
editors and publishers will not ask their readers what they
want, but will give them what they should have for mental
food. And as the people are raised to higher

//page 82

planes of consciousness they will demand reading of an
uplifting character. They will be just as careful as
regards what they read as they are now beginning to be in
reference to food. There will be the same demand for pure
reading as for pure food. If it is against the law of the
land to adulterate food, how much more is it against the
law of right thinking to adulterate the truth! We can see
the necessity of order and law according to Spirit. If we
would demonstrate health, every deleterious thought should
be kept out of our mental atmosphere even more carefully
than harmful elements are kept out of our material food.

Food and Clothing

This spiritual law is operative in food and clothing. If we
think about order and harmony our taste in material things
will change. We shall desire the purest foods, and there
will be more harmony in the colors we choose to wear. Man
stands above all creation. He has power to clothe himself
in the richness and glory of Spirit. Out of the air we may
manufacture the things we eat and wear. This is not a
flight of fancy. It is not an assumption of theoretical
metaphysics that we may be able to make our food and
clothing from the air, but a logical conclusion that
follows the understanding of

//page 83

God as the omnipresent source of all that appears.

If you are disorderly and indefinite along any line, put
yourself at once under the order of Divine Mind by
affirming daily that the same law that swings the stars is
operative in and through your life and your affairs.

One Law

All people who have studied metaphysics and understand
somewhat the action of the mind recognize that there is one
underlying law and that through this law all things come
into expression; also that there is one universal Mind, the
source and sole origin of all real intelligence. First is
mind, then mind expresses itself in ideas, then the ideas
make themselves manifest. This is a metaphysical statement
of the divine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The
trinity Mind, the expression of Mind, and the
manifestations of Mind are found in simple numbers and
complex combinations everywhere.

I Am

In the King James Bible the Hebrew "Jehovah" has been
translated "Lord." Lord means an external ruler. Bible
students say that Jehovah means the self-existent One, the
I AM. Then instead of reading "Lord" we should read "I AM."
It makes a great difference

//page 84

whether we think of I AM, self-existence within, or "Lord,"
master without.

All Scripture shows that Jehovah means just what God told
Moses it meant: I AM. So instead of "Lord" say "I AM"
whenever you read it and you will get a clearer
understanding and realization of what Jehovah is.

God was known to the Israelites as Jehovah-shalom: "I am
peace." You can demonstrate peace of mind by holding the
words "I am peace."

If we start any such demonstration and try to apply the I
AM to personality, we fall short. This is frequently the
cause of lack of results in carrying out the laws that all
metaphysicians recognize as fundamentally true.

The mind does not always comprehend the I AM in its
highest, neither does it discern that the all-knowing,
omnipotent One is within man. This recognition must be
cultivated, and everyone should become conscious of the I
AM presence. This consciousness will come through prayer
and meditation upon Truth. In Truth there is but one I AM,
Jehovah, the omnipotent I AM that is eternally whole and
perfect.

If you take Jehovah-shalom into your mind and hold it with
the thought of a mighty peace, you will feel a
consciousness, a harmonizing stillness, that no man can
understand. This consciousness

//page 85

is healing in itself. It must be felt, realized, and
acknowledged by your individual I AM before the supreme I
AM can pour out its power. Then you will know that you have
touched something; but you cannot explain to another just
what it is, because you have gone beyond the realm of words
and made union with the divine cause. It is the quickening
of your divinity through the power of the word. This divine
nature is in us all, waiting to be brought into expression
through our recognition of the power and might of the I AM;
to Jehovah-rapha, which is "I am he that healeth thee."

Inner and Outer

We should not fail to think always of the spiritual law
under which the I AM moves. It is possible for man to take
I AM power and apply it in external ways and leave out the
true spiritual law. We are proclaiming that man can use I
AM power to restore health and bring increased happiness;
in fact, that through righteous, lawful use of the I AM he
can have everything that he desires. But some people are
using this power in a material way, neglecting soul
culture, building up the external without taking the
intermediate step between the supreme Mind and its
manifestation in the outer.

We should remember that the soul must

//page 86

grow as well as the body. For example, a man was overtaken
with physical disability and loss of eyesight some years
ago. In his extremity he turned to the spiritual law for
help and was very faithful in its mental application. Time
passed before I saw him again; his physical condition was
unchanged, but there was a great change in his mind. He had
found the light and he was filled with inward rejoicing. He
had become blind that he might see. However his family
thought all his dependence upon Truth had been a failure
because his physical sight had not been restored. During
all these years he managed his business, and it prospered,
and his family was well provided for. He was himself for a
time disappointed and rebellious because his eyes were not
healed. Then he became glad, because through the prayers
and meditations he found the inner light. His physical
sight will be restored when he has made the complete
connection between mind and body.

If you find yourself disappointed because you do not at
once demonstrate health or success, be at peace and know
that your earnest prayers and meditations are working out
in you a soul growth that will yet become manifest beyond
your greatest hopes.

It is easier to seek the Truth willingly and be watchful
and obedient than it is to be forced

//page 87

by some severe experience. Hard experiences are not
necessary if we are obedient to the Truth that saves us
from them. Time should be given to prayer and meditation
daily. We cannot grow without them, and no man who neglects
them will successfully develop his spiritual powers.

Unification

Before you can realize the mighty power of ideas you must
unify them. All must pull together. Get your ideas in
divine order, and a mighty mind force will begin to work
for you right away. This divine order is necessary to the
upbuilding of both mind and body. This divine order is the
"kingdom of heaven" so often referred to by Jesus. To
attain this unity and harmony of mind it is necessary to
have perfect statements of Truth and to adhere to them in
thought and word.

Ideas change the race thought atmosphere. Jesus had a grasp
of divine ideas. If we believe in and follow Him we shall
come into the Christ state of mind. We become like-minded
by entering into the absolute Mind. In the absolute Mind
there is only harmony.

As man unifies his own mind forces in the one Mind his body
is lifted up into a new state of harmony. If he is not
demonstrating this principle, it is because he is not
unified with the

//page 88

one great harmonious Mind. He is not expressing this Mind
as he should because he is not realizing his oneness with
it.

Resolve to become one with God through Christ. Harmonize
yourself with Him and all your world will be in harmony. Be
on the alert to see harmony everywhere. Do not magnify
seeming differences. Do not keep up any petty divisions but
continually declare the one universal harmony. This will
insure perfect order and wholeness. The Christ Mind is here
as the unifying principle of this race. We must believe in
this mind working in us and through us and know that
through it we are joined to the Father-Mind. In the
consciousness of the Father-Mind the unity of God and man
is demonstrated.

//page 89

//section Prayer

//text

IT IS unthinkable that the Creator should cause to exist a
creation so inferior to Himself as to remove it beyond the
pale of fellowship with Him. In his wise moments man knows
that this is not logical or true. It is man's exalted
concepts of God and his disparaging beliefs about himself
that have built the mental wall that separates them.

Thus man must understand the nature of

//page 90

God and awaken in himself that divine nature through which
to effect his conscious union with Him. God is Spirit. We
are the offspring of this Spirit. God is Mind: man is the
thinker. God is Life: man is the living. God is Substance:
man is form and shape. God is Power: man is powerful. God
is Wisdom: man is wise. God is Love: man is loving. God is
Truth: man is truthful.

God-Mind is a treasure field of all potentialities within
man in which is found the fulfillment of every need one can
possibly have. What we need to know above all is that there
is this place within our soul where we can consciously meet
God and receive a flood of new life into not only our mind
but also our body. With a right understanding of man's
relation to his potentialities his soul grows with infinite
capacity.

Intimate Spirit

The intimate connecting spirit that unites man and his
source is the divine Logos. It is in the highest sense an
innate spiritual umbilical cord that connects us with the
Holy Mother from whom we can receive a perpetual flow of
life. Because of this man instinctively feels and knows
from whence his help comes. In the divine Logos is the
living impetus that vitalizes the soul of man and enables
him to develop his latent powers.

//page 91

Soul Urge

The highest avenue through which God can express Himself is
man. All growth and unfoldment from atom to sun is based
upon the law of soul urge. The hungering for God that is
felt by man in his soul is really God hungering to express
through man. The Spirit of God in man is constantly
working, yes, steadily and persistently working, to
transmute every natural impulse of mind and soul into a
spiritual realization of life. God is always seeking to
awaken man's whole soul to His mighty presence. He is
working to satisfy man's inner craving with living
substance and intelligence, thus expanding and rounding his
soul and body consciousness, offering him opportunity to
express Divine Mind itself more fully and more perfectly.

Desire

Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is the
onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul. It builds from
within outward and carries its fulfillment with it as a
necessary corollary. Man has never had a desire that could
not somewhere, in the providence of God, be fulfilled. If
this were not true, the universe would be weak at its most
vital point.

Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Every impulse or desire
of the soul for life, love, light, is a prayer. It is a
conscious expression of an upward.

//page 92

trend of nature found everywhere. Earnest, intense desire
draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient
joys into the power to appreciate and receive real
spiritual blessings.

Prayer without desire in it, prayer without sincerity in
it, prayer without soul in it, prayer without Spirit in it
is fruitless prayer. So, when you frame your desires in
sound words and place them before your indwelling Lord, you
are using intelligently the supreme law of God in bringing
into manifestation that which He has implanted in you.

Spiritual Character

We find prayer to be many-sided; it is not only asking but
receiving, also. We must pray believing that we shall
receive. Prayer is both invocation and affirmation.
Meditation, concentration, denial, and affirmation in the
silence are all forms of what is loosely termed prayer.

Through prayer we develop the highest phase of character.
Spiritual character building is from within outward.
Spiritual character lives in man. It is what God has
engraved on man's soul, ready for development through man's
spiritual efforts. It is a reserve force of organized
victory over human thought.

Man builds spiritual character by consciously functioning
in God-Mind where, laying hold

//page 93

of spiritual ideas, he realizes the Truth they contain. He
thus weaves them into his soul consciousness and they
become a part of his very nature.

Conscious Union

All down the ages man has been making the spiritual effort
to realize conscious union with that innermost center where
Truth in all its glory abides eternally. Actually, prayer
is man's steady effort to know God. He can make conscious
contact with Spirit by turning his attention away from
material things and thinking about Spirit. Through prayer
he gains an intimate relationship with God.

The ability to merge our mind into the one Mind makes a
great man of us. When man awakens even a slight
consciousness of the cooperative Spirit, he becomes a
co-creator with God. There is a partial conscious unity
with Spirit and there is a complete conscious unity with
Spirit; however, whenever man wholly merges his mind with
the creative Mind he is in the consciousness in which his
prayers are fulfilled. He finds that he can adjust any
condition that comes into his life.

Everyone should pray. Prayer does not change God! It
changes us!

Effective prayer does not agonize. No man

//page 94

who has fused his soul with the soul of God has suffered or
agonized. The suffering comes as a result of separation and
the effort to return to the consciousness of Omnipresence.

Accept the urge to begin the practice of prayer. Through it
make contact with the Source of your being. In prayer you
are able to recognize the Source. As you practice prayer
your innate Spirit showers its life energies into your
conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows.

In your prayers you must meet God face to face and realize
that you are getting that inner assurance which is the real
answer. Your most effective prayers are those in which you
rise above all consciousness of time and space. In this
state of mind you automatically contact the Spirit of God.
When you elevate your consciousness to Spirit, the God
presence becomes meaningful to you. The God presence is an
abiding flame, a flame of life, of life everlasting in
every cell and fiber of being making you more alive,
cleansing and purifying until you become every whit
perfect. During high realizations of Truth you are
conscious of this abiding flame that works in and through
you.

In this state of at-one-ment you truly become aware of
sublimity and power. The God presence establishes you in
spiritual ideas which

//page 95

are needed factors in the unfoldment of the whole man.

Interest

In prayer what should be our attitude, our interest, as we
approach the divine presence? If we knew that right now we
were about to be ushered into the presence of Jesus, to
what extent would our spiritual expectancy be aroused? No
doubt we should be thrilled through and through at the mere
thought. Let us feel this same intense interest, this same
concern, as we approach the divine presence within ourself.
It will add much to the readiness with which we receive
Truth.

Asking

Understanding shows that prayer is more than asking God for
help in this physical world. Actually, we have become a
human race of praying beggars. Prayer is not supplication
or begging. It is more than supplication. Supplication is
impotent. Do not supplicate or beg God to give you what you
need. Prayer is a simple asking for that which we know is
waiting for us at the hands of our Father and an
affirmation of its existence.

When Jesus advised asking for what we want, He was
instructing us to be persistent in our demands. People
ignorant of the relation in which man stands to God wonder
why we

//page 96

should ask and even importune a Father who has provided all
things for us. This is explained when we perceive that God
is a great mind reservoir that has to be tapped by man's
mind and poured into visibility through his thought and
word. If the mind of man is clogged with doubt, lethargy,
or fear, he must open the way by persistent knocking and
asking. Acquire in prayer a facility in asking equal to the
mathematician's expertness in handling numbers and you will
get responses in proportion.

Undoubtedly the one thing that stands out prominently in
the teaching of Jesus is the necessity of prayer. He prayed
on the slightest pretext, or in some such manner invoked
the presence of God. He prayed over situations that most
men would deal with without the intervention of God. If He
were verily God incarnate, the skeptic often asks, why did
He so often appeal to an apparently higher God? To answer
this doubt intelligently and truly one must understand the
constitution of man.

There are always two men in each individual. The man
without is the picture that the man within paints with his
mind. This mind is the open door to the unlimited principle
of Being. When Jesus prayed He was setting into action the
various powers of His individuality in order to bring about
certain results. Within His identity

//page 97

was of God; without He was human personality.

Prayer with a Purpose

When we pray, let us pray with a purpose. Purpose gives
life a real meaning. Purpose gives joy and zest to living.
When our eye is on the goal we are not so easily perturbed.
Purpose awakens new trains of thought. Purpose directs
these trains of thought into new fields of achievement. To
succeed we must have some great purpose in mind, some goal
toward which we are to work. Above all, we must always
purpose in our heart to achieve spiritually. As we study
the one great Presence and Power, we come to know that
there is no chapter in our life that is such a failure but
has back of it a grand purpose, which purpose must
eventually somewhere, somehow work itself out in a most
ennobling manner.

Communion with God

Prayer is communion between God and man. This communion
takes place in the innermost part of man's being. It is the
only way to cleanse and perfect the consciousness.

Prayer is the most highly accelerated mind action known. It
steps up mental action until man's consciousness
synchronizes with the Christ

//page 98

Mind. It is the language of spirituality. When developed,
prayer makes man master in the realm of creative ideas.

As in all matters where we seek divine help we are free to
use any words we choose or no words at all. However, to a
person in the understanding of Truth, prayer should be an
affirmation of that which is in Being. What is the
necessity of the prayer of affirmation if Being already is?
In order that the creative law of the Word may be
fulfilled. What you earnestly desire and persistently
affirm will be yours.

The Silence

The highest form of prayer we know is quietly entering the
inner chamber within the soul, shutting the door to the
external thoughts of daily life, and seeking conscious
union with God. Prayer is man's steady effort to know God.
Through prayer we gain an intimate relationship with God.
The purpose of the silence is to still the activity of the
personal thought so that the still small voice of God may
be heard. For in the silence Spirit speaks Truth to us and
just that Truth of which we stand in need.

When entering the silence, close the eyes and ears to the
without. Go to God within and hold the mind steadily on the
word until that word illumines the whole inner
consciousness.

//page 99

Think what the mighty vitalizing energy of God releases.
Penetrate deep into God consciousness within yourself and
hold your prayer word steadily until you attain spiritual
realization and the logic of your own mind is satisfied.

To realize an idea in the silence is to clothe it with
life, substance, and intelligence. To realize a prayer is
to actualize it. To realize it is to clothe it with soul,
to know there is fulfillment.

The word of prayer has in it a living seed that is bound to
impregnate the soil of the mind and cause it to bring forth
fruit after its kind.

Intellectual and Spiritual Silence

It is man's concept of God that makes prayer intellectual
or spiritual. There is a vast difference between mere
intellectual silence and that constructive silence which
always gives the victory within the soul. The intellectual
silence, which is limited in power, is the silence where
one's whole attention is fixed on the intellect. The
intellect has thought its power supreme. While it is a
wonderful faculty, it is in truth the tool of Spirit. As
such it needs discipline if it is to be able to perform its
perfect work. The intellect is always busy, jumping from
one thing to another. Much of the time it dwells on the
daily routine of the

//page 100

workaday world or on conditions in the world at large. The
first step in scientific silence is simply to still these
outer intellectual thoughts so that the consciousness may
become subservient to the Spirit within.

The operation of prayer saves the soul from all past and
future mistakes. In prayer we are led not to doubt,
distrust, or hate man but to love him with all our mind,
soul, and strength. Instead of fighting life and struggling
to compete with millions of others in the same foolish war,
we cooperate. Instead of wasting energy in tearing down, we
conserve in building up. Prayer shows humanity how to love
life, how to love the Author of life, and how to love
life's activities. In this state of consciousness man
automatically drops the burdens of the intellect and enters
into the freedom of real living. Man must have the
spiritual ability to discern life's perfect pattern if he
is to fulfill the requirements of scientific prayer.

By quieting the mental man, by passing through the
discipline of intellectual silence, man arrives at the very
threshold of God's workshop, the threshold of Being. As he
passes into the inner chamber he finds he is entering the
holy of holies, where noiselessly, silently, a mighty work
is always going on. God works in the stillness.

//page 101

As man comes into the presence of God with his prayer in
the form of an affirmation of Truth, holding the prayer
steadily in mind and consciously unifying his mind with the
mind of God, he is aware only of the soundlessness of God's
Word as it weaves itself in and out through the whole soul
and body consciousness, illumining, redeeming, and
restoring him according to his faith and trust, according
to his strength and power to receive.

Meditation

Persistent meditation on the Truth contained in the Word of
God opens the mind to a greater inflow of Spirit. When we
let our meditations fall on the knowing part of ourself, we
go into a higher mental state or an exalted condition of
mind, wherein we receive a higher and clearer conception of
things spiritual. Every student of Truth builds the Christ
body as he constantly abides in the Christ mind through
daily meditation upon words of Truth. Then all words become
quickening life and nourishing substance in both mind and
body.

Attention and Concentration

In prayer attention is the concentration of the mind upon a
statement of Truth. Man can take a word of Truth

//page 102

and through "one-pointed" mind concentration unite his
consciousness with the Mind of God. He can hold a realizing
prayer until the truth it contains is engrafted into the
very soul. Through the engrafted word, he becomes a strong,
positive spiritual character.

Attention is focalizing the I AM or inner entity upon a
word of prayer, until the inner meaning is realized and the
soul is aware of a definite spiritual uplift. As a lens
focalizes the sun's rays at a given point--and we know how
intense that point of light may become--concentration
focalizes the mind on a single idea until it becomes
manifest and objective.

In concentration the Holy Spirit works through the divine
mother substance to bring forth the fruits of Divine Mind.
The Holy Spirit is the teacher. The teacher and the student
use the same principles, but the teacher arouses and
inspires the student to greater achievement. The Holy
Spirit urges us to great spiritual effort.

When we direct the mental powers upon a definite idea,
faith plays its part. It is involved in concentration. As
we give attention to the idea through one-pointed mind
concentration, we break into a realm of finer mind activity.

Realization

In spiritual silence man's realization is established in his

//page 103

heart and he has the assurance that his prayer is answered
and that the law of demonstration brings forth the fruit.
The realization is written not only in the soul but in the
intellect. The intellect always perceives what has taken
place within and has power to retain its perception and to
express itself accordingly. Thus the intellect serves
Spirit, and as it unfolds it becomes more and more like
Spirit. It becomes in deed and in truth the instrument of
God.

Realization is the deep inner conviction and assurance of
the fulfillment of an ideal. It means at-one-ment,
completion, perfection, wholeness, repose, resting in God.
It is the dawning of Truth in the consciousness. When
realization takes place, one abides in the light of
God-Mind. It is the inner conviction that prayer has been
answered, although there is as yet no outer manifestation.

The supreme realization is unity with God-Mind.

Constructive thought force is a great and mighty power.
When it is realized in the silence it becomes the one and
only power in all the earth. The understanding of this
makes one an adept in the domain of scientific prayer.

Prayer and Faith

It is necessary to pray believing that we have

//page 104

received because God is all that we desire. The good always
exists in Divine Mind as ideas. We bring it into
manifestation through the prayer of faith, affirmation,
praise, and acknowledgment.

Within the deep stillness of the soul, listen first to the
innate voice of faith. Man builds up an enduring state of
faith by repeated realizations of Truth. The illumination
thus gained comes forth in man as spiritual understanding
expressed in sound words. Faith draws upon substance.
Dynamic, creative, transforming power is roused to
spiritual action when man affirms his unity with
Almightiness and his undaunted faith in its power.

Man must not only be submissive and obedient to the divine
law, but he must also realize that he is the offspring of
the Ruler of the universe. When asking the Father for that
which belongs to the Son under the divine law, man should
assume the power and dignity of the Prince of Peace. He
should not crawl and cringe before an imaginary king on a
throne. Instead he should feel that he is the image of an
invisible Being who has created him to represent His
mightiness as well as His lovingkindness.

The prayer of faith is not supplication, a begging God to
give things to man. Prayer at its highest is the entry
through faith into a realm of mind forces that when rightly
contacted

//page 105

change the character of every cell in brain and body.

Faith, the conviction of a higher providing Source, is
based upon spiritual logic or innate reason and on the
certainty that an all-wise and all-powerful Creator's plan
includes necessary provision for His offspring. When man
emerges from the limitations of human consciousness and
feels within him the stirring of Spirit, he finds that it
is supremely logical and true that Spirit has provided for
his supply and support.

When we have achieved spiritual realization of our prayer
and our innermost soul is satisfied, we have the assurance
that the thing is accomplished in Spirit and must become
manifest. We may continue in our realization of faith until
the whole consciousness responds and the instantaneous
demonstration takes place. Prayer is impotent and
unfruitful when the one who prays is without the firm
belief that his prayers are answered. When man turns
wholeheartedly to God, the prayer of faith brings forth
abundantly. Since the prayer of faith is the activity of
divine love, let us pray without ceasing, knowing that God
hears and grants our petitions.

Faith is the fire of Spirit. Faith opens the door into an
inner consciousness, where we hold the word steadily in
mind until the spiritual

//page 106

substance responds to our word. Earnest, steady, and
continued attention along this line is bound to bring forth
the fruits of the Spirit in abundant measure. A steady,
unwavering devotion of heart to the Spirit develops in us
supermind qualities.

Prayer and Praise

Praise is the quality of mind that eulogizes the good. It
is one of the avenues through which spirituality expresses.
The purpose of praise is to awaken in ourself a higher
realization of the omnipresence and power of God. Prayer
and praise change man, not God. The mental attitude that
praise sets up stimulates, quickens, whirls into action,
and finally establishes in character the ideals of which it
is the vehicle. Through an inherent law of mind action we
increase whatever we praise. Make practical application of
the law of praise by giving thanks always for all things.

Prayer and Joy

No man yet knows all of life's joys, nor will he until he
has come into the full understanding of spiritual communion
with God. No man knows the fullness of life, nor its joys,
until he has prayed in meekness and thanksgiving and has
received the sweet, pure realizations of Spirit.

//page 107

True and lasting joy arises from within. The nature of the
deep inner life is revealed only to those who spiritually
penetrate into its source.

If you would feed the soul on the joys of Spirit, you must
realize them and give thanks in prayer for the more
abundant life. Then you find that a great subconscious well
of living water will begin to bubble up in your soul. You
will come to know that hitherto you have been living in the
shallows of life instead of in its mighty depths. You will
be blessed with a knowledge of the unity of all things, and
a great peace and harmony will well up within.

It is impossible to found a lasting stronghold within on
anything less than the understanding that God is a God of
joy. It is through our realization of this truth that we
drink heartily of the wine of life. Often even during
serene, yes, sober moments, the inner man is athrill with
some newborn, joyful anticipation. In prayer every high
realization that comes to us is to strengthen us for
greater achievements.

Conditions for True Prayer

These are the seven necessary conditions for true prayer:
1. God should be recognized as Father. 2. Oneness with God
should be acknowledged. 3. Prayer must be made within, in
"the secret place." 4. The door

//page 108

must be closed on all thoughts and interests of the outer
world. 5. The one who prays must believe that he has
received. 6. The kingdom of God must be desired above all
things, and sought first. 7. The mind must let go of every
unforgiving thought.

//page 109

//section Truth Demonstrates Itself

//text

TRUTH must be demonstrated. It defines itself. Truth is
that which is true in the pure logic of the mind,
regardless of appearances. We can talk about Truth. We can
write books describing Truth, but we must realize the
informing intelligence of the Spirit of truth. Truth is a
quickening, creative energy. Truth is established by Divine
Mind omnipresent, and the Spirit of truth is now right here.

We enter into the consciousness of the Spirit of truth by
recognizing that it is. We enter into Spirit by praying and
affirming.

//page 110

Truth demonstrates all its propositions. Jesus represented
Truth. He was Truth. He had but to call attention to His
works to prove His authority. Jesus delegated all authority
for His doctrine to the Spirit of truth.

The Truth, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, is a
restorative power. It restores all things to their divine
order. Error has torn down the natural world, including
man. Man is God manifest. If he is not demonstrating the
perfect structure of divine life, there is ruin somewhere.
Jesus demonstrated that Truth proves itself in restoring
perfect order and wholeness.

Know the Truth

When you "know the truth" in substance, in life, in power,
in love, in all its qualities, your body will demonstrate
it. Your eyes will receive their sight, and your ears will
be opened; you will walk as you never walked before; and
that poor, sinking, empty spirit in you will have the "good
tidings" preached to it.

Jesus did not mean that people poor in worldly things would
have the gospel preached to them, and that rich people
would go without it. He meant that those who were poor in
spiritual things would, because of their open mind, eagerly
receive the words of Truth.

Truth does not demonstrate its abiding

//page 111

power until it is understood. That is why the people whom
Jesus raised from the dead died again--they did not get the
quickened understanding of Truth. Propositions of Truth
must be thought out and lived out to be fully demonstrated.
Many people are deluded by cramming the intellect with
lessons on Truth. One Truth statement understood and
demonstrated in life is worth more than many lessons and
statements about Truth. Every mental process involves brain
action, and spiritual knowledge demands the deepest kind of
thought.

Something Intuitive

There is an intuitive something in us that tells us, when
we think, when we meditate, what Truth is. For God reveals
Himself to every one of us when we, with open mind,
listen--listen to the word of Being itself. "It is the
spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him
understand."

You can analyze God. You have a right to. Men have been
taught that they are poor, weak, and ignorant, that the
finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Inner logic and the
Spirit of truth assure that there is neither great nor
small in Divine Mind.

Man is the offspring of the one omnipresent Mind. He has
the capacity in him to know that

//page 112

Mind. He has the power to know himself as the one Divine
Mind manifest. Consequently all men can know and comprehend
God. Divine Mind is open to us through the Spirit of truth.
This understanding clears away all the fogs of personality,
ignorance, and superstition; all the wrong beliefs that we
have had about the character of God and man. When with your
I AM you pierce these limited concepts of yourself and God
that have separated you from your real being, the Spirit of
truth will open your higher understanding.

Toward Perfection

We know that the tendency of the universe is toward
perfection. Everything is striving to perfect itself. Where
does the initial force come from? We say that it comes from
nature; and nature is another name for God. Divine
perfection is making happy and joyous everything and
everybody in the universe. This is good; so we intuitively
and logically listen to our higher reason, and arrive at
the conclusion that God is good. This is the first
postulate and conclusion of Truth: God is good and good is
all.

Can you stick to that proposition in spite of all
appearances? If you can, the Spirit of truth is working
within you. But you have something

//page 113

to do to maintain your position. You will find, when you
declare this word of Truth, that there will crowd into your
mind every appearance of evil, and the voices, outer and
inner, will say to you: "Oh, yes, of course, God in
essence, in Spirit, away off somewhere in heaven, is good;
but here is a world of evil. See the evil in the world; see
the evil in man; behold the evil tendencies in yourself!"
But in the face of all error you must demonstrate: "God is
good and good is all."

God Is All-Powerful

Then you must lay hold of another quality of the infinite
good: "God is all-powerful." Now, remember that Divine Mind
is made up of ideas. Each one of these ideas must be
wheeled into line in man's mind before he can put on the
fullness of Truth. So, if we find ourself weak in our
demonstration of the allness of good, we must hold that the
good is all-powerful. It does not make any difference how
powerful the evil may seem, you must hold to the Truth.

The poor people, the lame people, the deaf people, the sick
people, do not disprove the proposition. I know that God is
good, and good is all, and good is almighty. This
knowledge, adhered to, will heal all apparent evils.

//page 114

Add this idea to your mind and you will find that a certain
clearness, a certain spiritual perception, and a power will
come to you that you never have had before, because you are
loyal to the Spirit of truth. With the realization of the
almightiness of the good there may come to you the thought
that all evil and all bad people should be destroyed at
once. Very zealous Christians have been so possessed with
this idea that they have given God the vengeful character
of the Devil, instead of the Spirit of good.

Spirit of Love

Right here all Christians should know that the greatest
idea in Divine Mind is love--"God is love."

When the Spirit of love begins to work in you, a soothing
tendency, then a forgiving grace and charity will spring
into your consciousness. The surest sign of the spiritual
mind at work is forgiveness. You will love those who have
despitefully used you. You will see unity in Spirit and
strive to establish it in the world. If God should destroy
all the evil people, what would become of the race? Why,
there would not be a baker's dozen of us left! We should be
like the man who wrote for prayer: "My wife and I do not
get along together; please treat her."

Do not let the destructive idea, the idea of

//page 115

burning up in hell-fire and the instant wiping out of all
bad people, enter into your scheme of Truth. God is
preserving His universe. He is redeeming it. He is
educating it. And if we, in our overcoming, would fall into
line with this patient regenerative process, which sets in
just the moment that we perceive Truth, we must take every
quality of God as revealed to us through Christ, and put it
into execution in its right relation in Divine Mind.

Body Building

Truth is a healing force. Truth builds up the man. Truth
restores the body. Some Christians have not fully perceived
this. When Jesus Christ was accused of healing through the
power of Beelzebub, He called attention to the
inconsistency of the proposition, a "house divided against
itself." Then He called particular attention to the
restoring power of God; that God is the only good; that God
heals man's bodies; that God is not the author of sickness.

God is not the author of evil in any of its forms. God is
the author of health, and all health comes from God.

Unpardonable Sin

In Truth there is no such thing as an "unpardonable sin"
but when we attribute our ills

//page 116

to God in the belief that they are sent upon us for some
good purpose, we are committing a so-called "unpardonable
sin." If you are under the thought that you have committed
such a sin, just remember that the only way to be forgiven
is to go to God and ask His forgiveness for your thought
that He was the author of evil.

You must get into your own mind a clear idea of what the
goodness of God is, and that that goodness extends into
every department of your being. If there is any evil in
you, it is the result of your own error thought. If you are
sick, do not lay it to God. Do not lay any of your ill
luck, your failures, or your shortcomings to God. Do not
think for a moment that God has sent them upon you for a
lesson.

Many people, good people, Christian people, sit down in
humility and claim that God is giving them a lesson through
some great trial, some great bodily illness. That is a
grievous sin. So long as you continue in that attitude of
mind, how can God forgive your errors and bring you back
into the kingdom? You can see that all people who stick to
such beliefs are beyond divine forgiveness.

Change Your Mind

You must change your mind. You must realize that God, the
good, demonstrates

//page 117

good only. Truth demonstrates itself in Truth. Know that
God is the omnipresent good, and that when God occupies (as
the Spirit of good) every part of your being, including
your body, then the Spirit of truth from that moment begins
to build you up. It restores your hearing. It strengthens
your eyes. It heals your lameness. It makes whole every
part of your body.

Do not let go of the proposition that God is the health of
His people. God is infinite life. Hold to the Spirit of
God, demonstrating itself in life everywhere.

That is what the scientific world is preaching today. We
cannot get away from this proposition of the omnipresence
of the one life. There is nothing else to come but the
Spirit of truth. We do not look for another. We know that
the Spirit of truth is here. It has always been here. We
have turned our faces in another direction. We have looked
somewhere else rather than to the Spirit of truth. The
Spirit of truth is in the midst of you. It is in you. You
will never have peace of mind, you will never have success
in any way, you will never have health of body, you will
never have anything satisfactory until you demonstrate its
presence and its power in your life.

Would it not be well to think about this, right now? We are
all striving for some ideal.

//page 118

I never knew a man or a woman who failed to have an ideal
deep within. Everyone desires to be something beyond his
present achievement. I tell you right now, you will never
realize that ideal until you go into partnership with God.
You must know Truth of Being. You must conform to Truth in
every thought and in every act. Then you will have success.
Then you will be satisfied. Then you will know that the
Spirit of truth does demonstrate itself in man.

Secret of Satisfaction

Many passages from the Bible come to us without force
because we apply them to a time beyond the grave instead of
to the present life. One of these misapplied texts is:
"When I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy
form." The realization of omnipresence puts meaning,
substance, force, into this statement.

The foundation of the truth expressed in this text is
written in the very beginning of the Scriptures. "Then God
said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' .
. . So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; . . . And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good."

To awaken to the consciousness of this God-likeness is the
secret of satisfaction. The degree

//page 119

of awakening measures the degree of satisfaction.

To be lost is simply to be unconscious of the divine
perfection in man. This state of consciousness is
ignorance, darkness, dissatisfaction, fear, and all that is
pictured by the word hell. There is but one way to be saved
from this condition and brought into heaven, or divine
harmony, and that is through Christ, the perfect man, the
only begotten, the image and likeness of God, the real self
of every man.

Awakening comes from the quickening power of the word of
Truth. Sense man is under a great many delusions, all
arising out of the one great misunderstanding of the true
character of man. The truth about himself will make him
free.

Wisdom must be characteristic of man, since he is the image
and likeness of God. If a man does not manifest wisdom, it
simply shows that he is not awake to his true likeness. One
must choose whether he wills to identify himself with the
real self who knows, or with the natural, sense man who
does not know.

Choice

Men do not always consider that the responsibility for this
choice rests with them. Choose this day whom you will
believe in as yourself. Choose Christ and serve

//page 120

Him by identifying yourself with Him, in the face of
appearances that deny you. This course will bring the
quickening word of Truth into your consciousness, and you
will be begotten by the Word and made a new creature in
Christ.

The creature that you have seemed to be will no longer
appear. The new man, image and likeness of God, will become
manifest when you awaken to the consciousness of it. This
new man does not appear all at once. His likeness must be
held in mind in its absolute perfection or he will not
appear at all.

The best way to prove that all wisdom and all understanding
are in man is just to believe it to be true. Coming into
the Christ consciousness is, in its first steps, all a
matter of faith. The intellect, sense mind, thinks that it
could understand if only somebody would explain Truth to
it; but it never seems to understand.

The best way to prove this is to take some statement of
Truth that is not clear. Hold it in mind. The power of the
word will quicken the understanding, and light will flash
from within. This is spiritual knowing.

Believe in the quickening power of the word. Hold the word
in mind. It will reveal itself, for wrapped in the word is
its meaning, and you, being the image and likeness of God,
can understand it if you make connection with

//page 121

it in your inner consciousness. By planting it in
consciousness and waiting for its fruit, anyone can prove
that the word is seed.

The Eternal

Anything eternal has neither beginning nor end. We shall
never get the realization of eternal life until we see it
without beginning and without end. Jesus' words are a great
help in awakening us in the likeness of the life that never
began.

The demonstration of eternal life is open to everyone, but
it cannot be made by anyone who identifies himself with the
personal man and his limited concepts of life. Only he who
awakens to the consciousness of himself as a son of God can
have eternal life.

Selfishness has its stronghold in the personal man's claims
upon the things that he loves. No one was ever permanently
satisfied with personal love. Some of its fruit is bitter
and its end is death. This may seem a hard saying, but it
is true, and we might as well awaken at once to the love
universal, in which is perfect satisfaction.

Hope of Satisfaction

We are awakening out of our dream and false hope of
satisfaction in personal kinship, into the likeness of the
God-love in which

//page 122

we feel the joy and the satisfaction of universal
brotherhood.

This idea of awakening in the likeness of God might be
carried out in all that we can conceive as belonging to the
character of God. It will lift us out of negative
conditions to consider His power and His strength and to
awaken to His likeness in these attributes.

To be like Him in substance will clothe us with that
glorified body which Jesus demonstrated. "Christ in you,
the hope of glory" really means "Christ in you, the
assurance of glory." The word hope is not strong enough;
the glory is not in a far distant heaven, but within
men--"Christ in you."

//page 123

//section Living Faith

//text

IF WE are wise, we shall cultivate faith in and
understanding of omnipresent life. The man who is grounded
in faith does not measure his thoughts or his acts by the
world's standard of facts. Those who are in spiritual
understanding know that faith has open eyes. Certain things
do exist in Spirit and become substantial and real to the
one who dwells and thinks and lives in faith. Such a one
knows.

Concentrate on Faith

Faith is the foundation of all that man does. We should
concentrate faith on the invisible, the real things, the
things of Spirit.

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How wonderful would be our demonstrations! How effective we
should become in using the mighty power of Spirit!

We must raise our faith to the very highest in us and rest
in the "assurance" or substance of its reality. Spiritual
understanding reveals the universality of all things.

The word, the imagination, and faith work together. You
must not only practice an idea; you must also give it form
by infusing into it the substance of your living faith.

If you want to do the works of God, you must follow Christ.
If you want to elevate yourself out of the physical, you
must have faith in God and cultivate that faith through
affirmation of your spiritual power and faith. The Lord's
Prayer is continual affirmation from beginning to end.

Our Relation to God

We must have the understanding that our relation to God is
that of a son to his father; that we exist in the one Mind
as superman, even Christ. Man is the offspring of the
Almighty. If the earthly child resembles its parents, how
much more should the heavenly child resemble its Parent.
The truth that God is the Father of man does away with the
presumption that it is impossible for the finite to
understand the Infinite.

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A sense of logic is a fundamental constituent of man's
being. The science that is here set forth is founded upon
Spirit. It does not conform to intellectual standards.
Nevertheless, it is scientific.

Demonstration

There are three steps in every demonstration: the
recognition of Truth as it is in principle; holding the
idea; and acknowledging fulfillment. Pray believing that
you have received, and you shall receive.

God is our resource. All things are provided for us by our
Father. It is necessary to cultivate these ideas by
considering them daily in all that we do. By prayer and
meditation on words of Truth in the silence we may so open
our consciousness to the inner divine presence that the
necessary understanding, love, and power may be given us to
enable us to bring forth in our own life the good results
that we wish to see manifest. This is much better than
waiting to see the demonstrations of others before
believing and before attempting to bring forth
demonstrations of our own. With the growth of faith in the
mind of the individual there comes a quickening of all his
thoughts by the influx of Truth. True faith in God
separates itself from all negative beliefs.

//page 126

God is never absent from you. He is constantly taking form
in your life according to the exact pattern of your words,
thoughts, and actions. Just as soon as you really bring
your words and your expectations up to the measure of God's
love for you, you will demonstrate.

Thoughts Are Seeds

Thoughts are seeds that, when dropped or planted in the
subconscious mind, germinate, grow, and bring forth their
fruit in due season. The more clearly we understand this
truth the greater will be our ability to plant the seeds
that bring forth desirable fruits. After sowing the plants
must be tended. After using the law we must hold to its
fulfillment. This is our part. God gives the increase. You
must work in divine order and not expect the harvest before
the soil has been prepared or the seed sown. You have now
the fruits of previous sowings. Change your thought seeds
and reap what you desire. Some bring forth very quickly,
others more slowly, but all in divine order.

God does not do things in us against our will, as will acts
in both the conscious and subconscious realms of mind.
However much it may appear that the word is thwarted in its
original intent, this is never true. It goes on and it
enters where reception is given it.

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Theory to Life

Each one of us must not only see the image of his desires
as a theory, but he must also form it into a living,
breathing thing through every motive and act of his life.
If we have an idea, we must act just as if it were part of
our life.

No man ever demonstrated his God-given powers in even a
small way who did not help many others to do likewise.
Preaching is good. Practice is better.

There is work for everyone who will listen to and obey the
Spirit. That work is important, because it is eternal and
brings results eternal in their nature. If you have heard
the voice of the Lord and are obedient to it at any cost,
you are chosen.

The kingdom of God is now existing right here in our midst.
It is being externalized little by little. Whoever has a
high, pure thought and affirms his allegiance to it as a
part of his daily life is adding to the externality of that
kingdom among men. Whoever affirms his allegiance to the
good, regardless of all appearance of evil, and in dealing
with his brother declares by word and act that only the
good exists, is building white spires to the one and only
true God.

We are the temples of God, of good. Through us is the light
to shine, which is so bright as to dim the rays of those
shining orbs

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of the night and the day.

We are all the chosen of the Lord. We make the covenant
that carries us into His visible presence by laying down
the personal man and taking up the universal man. He it is
that thunders in the depths of our soul.

The Faith Faculty

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. 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 far more than those who do not believe
in their own ability. We call this self-faith innate
confidence. Confidence is a form of faith. Belief is
another of the expressions of faith.

In Spirit, faith is related to omnipresent substance or
assurance. By meditation man lights up the inner mind, and
he receives more than he can put into words. Faith can be
extended in consciousness in every direction. It will
accomplish wonderful things if quickened and allowed free
expression in its native realm. Where faith is centered in
outer things, the results are not worthy of mention. Men
have

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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.

Intellectual people do no miracles through faith. They
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
seemingly are miraculous. Perseverance is required in our
use of faith until we make connection with the higher
realms of consciousness.

Though our faith be as small as the smallest of seeds, it
will spring forth and demonstrate its power to carry out
every desire into which we infuse it.

Faith Seeing

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; we mentally discern.

Have faith in what you do. After it is done do not condemn
yourself. We are all 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

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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. The better we understand the
innate substance of the world about us, the more do we
appreciate it.

Faith Ability

Faith is ever active. 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.
Whatsoever is of faith is not sin. Sin is a missing of the
mark. We miss the mark by not having faith.

A very little faith often produces surprising results. The
invisible forces are much closer than we think. 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.

We are constantly making conditions through our thoughts.
In all our experience we

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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. You are getting the
results of your acts, according to your faith. Be wise;
pronounce nothing evil, and only good will come.

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?

Faith-thinking

The most important power of man is the original
faith-thinking faculty. We all have the thinking faculty
located in the head, from which we send forth thoughts,
good, bad, and indifferent. If we are educated and molded
after the ordinary pattern of the human family, we may live
an average lifetime and never have an original thought. The
thinking faculty in the head is supplied with the
secondhand beliefs of our ancestors, the dominant beliefs
of the race, or

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the threadbare stock of the ordinary social whirl. This is
not faith-thinking. Faith-thinking is done only by one who
has caught sight of the inner truths of Being, and who
feeds his thinking faculty upon images generated in the
heart.

Faith-thinking is not merely an intellectual process, based
upon reasoning. The faith-thinker does not compare,
analyze, or draw conclusions from known premises. He does
not take appearances into consideration. He is not biased
by precedent. His thinking gives form, without cavil or
question, to ideas that come straight from the eternal
fount of wisdom. His perception impinges upon the spiritual
and he knows.

When there has been an aspiration and a reaching out for
the spiritual life, the faith faculty becomes active in
consciousness. Spiritual faith includes unfailing assurance
and immediate response. Faith in the reality of the
invisible builds a real, abiding substance in the mind and
in body. All kinds of ideas grow quickly when planted in
this rich substance of the mind.

There is but one real faith. The avenue of expression
determines the character and power of faith. Trust is a
cheaper brand of faith, but trust is better than mistrust.
People who merely trust in the Lord do not understand all
the law. If they had understanding they would affirm the

//page 133

presence and power of God until the very substance of
Spirit would appear in consciousness.

Faith Words

Faith words should be expressed both silently and audibly.
The power of the spoken word is but slightly understood.
The word is the creative idea in Divine Mind, which may be
expressed by man when he has fulfilled the law of
expression. All words are formative but not all words are
creative. The creative word lays hold of Spirit substance
and power.

The word of faith has an inner force. This force rushes
forth and produces remarkable transformations in the
phenomenal. It is not necessary that the one who touches
faith shall understand all the intricate machinery with
which he makes contact. Affirming the activity of this
super-power will quicken it in consciousness.

Believing

If a man sanely believes he can do a thing he will
eventually find a way to do it. The mind generates an
energy that contacts the universal energy, and causes
circumstances and events to fall into line for the
attainment of the latent ideal. Tap this inner reservoir of
faith, and you can do what Jesus did.

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Belief is closely related to faith. It is an inner
acceptance of an idea as true. Belief functions both
consciously and subconsciously. Many false individual and
race beliefs are very active below the conscious level. To
erase these hidden error beliefs, a comprehensive program
of denial is necessary.

Jesus' Faith

Jesus did not claim an exclusive supernatural power, which
we usually accredit to Him. He had explored spiritual
substance, which He called the "kingdom of the heavens."
His understanding was beyond that of the average man.
However, He knew and said that other men could do what He
did if they would only have faith.

He encouraged His followers to take Him as a pattern for
faith and to use the power of thought and word. Divine
healing is due to the application of the same law that
Jesus used. In most instances, He demanded faith on the
part of those He healed. With this faith as a point of
mental and spiritual contact, He released the latent energy
in the atomic structure of the one in need of healing, and
that one was restored to life and health.

//page 135

//section Health

//text

MAN, the apex of God's creation, was created in His image
and after His likeness. Man is God's supreme creation. He
may know God and become the vehicle and expression of God,
the unlimited fount of life, health, light, and love. God
is the health of His people.

The God Imprint

When Elohim God created man in His likeness, He imprinted
upon man's supermind two body pictures: first the picture
of a natural body, and second the picture of a spiritual
body. In the primal cell He then enclosed the elements
necessary to the building of the natural and the spiritual
body.

To man was given dominion and authority

//page 136

over these living atoms and cells out of which he must
build mind and body into visibility. As God created man,
His image and likeness, by the power of His word, so man,
God's image and likeness, projects his body by the same
power.

Our physical body is carried in our mind as thought and it
obediently reflects every mental attitude. When in the
course of our evolution we discern that an all-wise Creator
must have designed perfection for all His creation and we
begin to affirm that perfection, then the transformation
from the natural to the spiritual body begins. It continues
until our body is wholly regenerated and appears
objectively in its divine perfection.

Object of Existence

The object of man's existence is to demonstrate the Truth
of Being. This demonstration takes place through
experience. 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. All experience develops personal
identity--the consciousness of the power 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

//page 137

arrives at the place where he feels his own ability. He
knows that he can exercise it without restraint.

The Human Body

Through man, God is forming or manifesting outwardly that
which exists in the ideal. Every idea projects form. The
physical body is the projection of man's consciousness. He
carries 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.

The human organism has a world of latent energies waiting
to be brought into manifestation. The human body is
undoubtedly the most powerful dynamo in existence for the
carrying on of life. By thought, speech, and deed the
Christ Mind is brought into manifestation.

The body is made up of cells. The presiding ego of I AM in
each organism determines the particular kind of impulse
that the cells shall radiate. Some are in a radiant state.
Some are in a crystallized form. The field of dynamic
energy is limitless.

Crystallizing of these radiant thought forms is the result
of affirmations in man's mind that his body is material
instead of spiritual. The

//page 138

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.

Thought Builds

Thought is the builder of the body. The body is moved by
thought. Thought not only moves the external members of the
body, but it controls the fluids flowing within the body.
Man's body has power to replace worn parts. 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. Nature is not a blind force working in
darkness and ignorance. All her works indicate
intelligence--mind in action.

Jesus is the outstanding pioneer in the realm where the
health-producing processes of cells are released and imbued
with supermind vitality. He spent years in becoming
acquainted with His body, freeing its cells from the
material

//page 139

bondage to which the race thought had bound them.

Birthright

Health is fundamental in Being and is man's divine
birthright. To be healthy is natural. Health is the normal
condition of man and of all creation. It is the orderly
state of existence. It is a state of being sound or whole
in mind, body, and soul. God's man is hale, whole, hearty.

Health, real health, is from within and does not have to be
manufactured in the without. Health is the very essence of
Being. It is as universal and enduring as God.

There is in man a capacity for knowing God consciously and
communing with Him. Man must learn to use the knowledge of
Truth to sustain his consciousness of health. This alone
insures health, joy, and satisfaction.

To heal is to bring forth the perfect Christ man that
exists within each of us. Christ in us is the little seed
through which is brought forth the strong, healthy Christ
man.

To know God as health one must take up the study of the
healthy mind. When he lays hold of the principle of
wholeness, he finds that he is automatically working with
God and that much new power is added. He perceives
principle working out his health problems for him.

//page 140

By realizing a healing prayer man lays hold of the
principle of health itself and the whole consciousness is
illumined. When man becomes so much at one with God-Mind
that he abides in the consciousness of health, he enters
eternal peace in which he knows that "it is finished."

Illness

There is but one body-idea. The conditions in body express
the character of thought. 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.

A majority of the ills that afflict the body have their
origin in erroneous thoughts about life. 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. The result is
bodily discord in multitudinous shapes. Pervading all
nature is a universal thought substance. Thought substance
transcribes the slightest vibration of thought. The message
is transcribed and carried into action.

Sin

Jesus always connected sin and sickness as cause and
effect. All the ills of humanity are the effect of broken
law, of sin. That word sin covers more ground than we have

//page 141

usually granted it. There are sins of omission and
commission. If we fail to cultivate the consciousness of
the indwelling spiritual life, we commit a sin of omission
that eventually devitalizes the organism. To be
continuously healthy we must draw on the one and only
source of life, God. God is Spirit. Spirit pours its
quickening life into mind and body when we turn our
attention to it and make ourself receptive by trusting
Spirit to restore us to harmony and health. The more
enlightened man becomes, the greater his desire for health.

Sin is a missing the mark, a falling short of divine
perfection. Sin is man's failure to express the attributes
of Being. Sin (error) is first in mind and is redeemed by a
mental process, or by going into the silence. Error is
brought into the light of Spirit and then transformed into
a constructive force.

Through the Christ Mind, our sins (wrong thinking) are
forgiven or pardoned (erased from consciousness). When we
have cast all sin (error thought) out of our mind, our body
will be so pure that it cannot come under any supposed law
of death or corruption.

Indulgence

Like a child who refuses to take the advice of one who
knows, man falls into indulgence of the sense

//page 142

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. These opposing forces are reflected into the body.

Sin is the result of desire manifesting itself in erroneous
ways. When the error is discovered and there is a
willingness to correct it, under the law of forgiveness man
erases it easily.

In spiritual understanding, the I AM of man forgives or
"gives" Truth "for" error; then the mind is set in order
and the body is healed.

Do not hold anyone in bondage to the thought of sin. If you
do, it will pile up and increase in power according to the
laws of mental action.

Right images become active through the power of thought.
Man has unlimited power through thought. He can give his
power to things or withhold it. If he thinks about the
power of sin, he builds up and gives force to that belief
until it engulfs him in its whirlpool of thought substance.
He forgets his spiritual origin and sees only the human.
Thus he thinks of himself as a sinner.

The way out of this maze of ignorance, sin, and sickness is
through man's understanding of his real being, and then the
forgiving or the

//page 143

giving up of all thoughts of the reality of sin and its
effects in the body.

If anyone tries to free himself while holding others in the
thought of sin, he will not demonstrate his freedom. You
must build upon faith in the reality of the spiritual. Put
your selfishness away. There cannot be two in this kingdom.
It is the kingdom of God, and man must give up. The kingdom
is for the larger man. The personal man must be eliminated.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness really means the giving up of something. When
you forgive yourself, you cease doing the thing that you
ought not to do. Man has power to forgive sin. Sin is a
falling short of the divine law. Repentance and forgiveness
are the only means that man has of getting out of sin and
its effect and coming into harmony with the law. All sin is
first in the mind; the forgiveness is a change of mind or
repentance. We forgive sin in ourself every time we resolve
to think and act according to the divine law. The mind must
change from a material to a spiritual base. Change must all
be on the part of man and within him. The moment man
changes his thoughts of sickness to thoughts of health the
divine law rushes in and begins the healing work.

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The law is Truth. The Truth is that all is good. There is
no power and no reality in sin. If sin were real and
enduring (like goodness and Truth), it could not be
forgiven but would hold its victim forever.

Duty

Lack of health is not prevalent in God's universe. If such
lack appears anywhere it is the work of man. It is our duty
to do away with it. There is something wrong in a world
where suffering and sorrow prevail. We would not create
such a world. We all want to see these things blotted out
in this world. This is the index pointing the way to the
possibility of doing so. Just accept the promises of
Scripture. Proceed to carry them out in faith. Act as if
they were true. Trust God in all things. Whatever we see as
wrong is for us to right. The new Christianity elevates man
to a realm in which seeming miracles of healing become
possible to those who train their mind to think spiritually.

Presence of Health

God is never absent from His creations. His creations are
never absent from their habiliments. Wherever you see the
evidences of life, there you may know that God is.

Health has a source that is perpetually giving

//page 145

itself forth. A perpetual giving forth implies a perpetual
presence.

There is no absence or separation in God. His omnipresence
is your omnipresence. There can be no absence in Mind. If
God were for one instant separated from His creations, they
would immediately fall into dissolution. In spirit and in
truth you can never for one instant be separated from the
life activity of God.

God lives in you. You depend on Him for every breath you
draw. You could not think a thought or speak a word or make
a movement were He not in it. Your body is the soil in
which God's life is planted. Your mind is the light for
which He supplies the oil.

Draw upon the omnipresent God for every need.

A good healing drill is to deny the mental cause first.
Then deny the physical appearance. The mental condition
should first be healed. Then the secondary state, which it
has produced in the body, must be wiped out and the perfect
state affirmed.

Nature and Health

We have been so persistently taught that nature heals that
we do not as a rule give the question of the origin of her
healing power any serious thought. If we center our
attention on

//page 146

nature as the healing principle, we stir up natural
activities that are secondary to the one cause of all
action, that is, infinite Mind. It is our privilege as
creations of supreme Mind to bring into action all its
forces, primary and secondary. By our thought and the
mighty mind energy back of thought we can stir to action
all the power of Being and get the results of their
concentrated healing currents instead of the weakened,
segregated seepage from one.

Spiritual Healing

Nearly everyone needs both mind and body healing. Those who
give faithful attention to the law as it operates in man
are rewarded by demonstrations of healing.

Man and the universe are under the creative direction of a
supreme being. Man needs but to conform to the laws of
creative Mind in order to be healthy, happy, and wise. All
healing methods consist in establishing the unity of the
individual and the universal consciousness. No man heals
himself or another. The supreme Mind does the work.

The first step in all spiritual healing is to believe. The
next step is openness and receptivity to the stream of
healing life. Through the exercise of faith and our words,
our spiritual quality is fused into unity with the power of

//page 147

Christ and the work is marvelously accomplished.

All healing is based on mental cleansing. When the mind is
free from error thoughts, harmony in the body ensues.
Permanent healing is never accomplished until the mental
cause of the disease, the error thought, is removed. The
true way to heal is to find the mental cause and destroy it
forever.

Consciousness and Health

Man's consciousness is formed of mind and its ideas. These
determine whether he is healthy or sick. Mind is the common
meeting ground of God and man. Only through its study and
the observation of all the conditions and factors that
enter into its operation can we come into the realization
of God as abiding health and sustenance.

You are mind. Your consciousness is formed of thoughts.
Thoughts form barriers about the thinker. You are compassed
about with thought barriers, your heredity, your education,
your own thinking. Your degree of health is determined by
your thoughts, past and present. These thoughts may be true
or false, depending on your understanding and use of divine
law.

God created man in His image, in the image of perfect
health. We make living cells through

//page 148

the imaging power of thought. We nourish a good thing by
thinking how good it is. Suppose we take the negative side,
shall we then get results also? Yes, absolutely! We get
just what we think about. The thought of nourishing is a
very good thought, because it shows us just what we do.
Either we tear down our bodies or we build them up.
Withdraw the error; then build in the good.

Processes of Mind

There is a definite relation between the thoughts of man
and the conditions in his body. The body is moved by the
mind. All the conditions of the body are brought about by
the mind.

Jesus was the great teacher and example of obedience to the
law of constructive thinking. The reform of Jesus is an
inner transformation. If we follow Him we shall give our
strength and substance and thought force to constructive
activity. The movement of every mind in bringing forth the
simplest thought is a key to the great creative process of
universal Mind. In every act is involved mind, idea, and
manifestation. The mind is neither seen nor felt; the idea
is not seen, but it is felt; and the manifestation appears.

The mind functions in ways that are strange

//page 149

and unbelievable. In order to understand God-Mind we need
to study our own mind. The more we analyze the processes of
the mind the more plainly the mind with its mental
"compounds" appears as the source of health and of all
other things. If we want to know the secrets of health and
how right thinking forms the perfect body, we must go to
the mind and trace step by step the movements that
transform ideas of health into light, electrons, atoms,
molecules, cells, tissues, and finally into the perfect
physical organism.

We exist right in the midst of forces that would yield us
power to do all our work if we knew how to utilize properly
their energies. This is not only true of our use of the
many elements in the natural world all about us but
especially of our utilization of the energy generated by
our mind. With every thought there is a radiation of
energy. If a person is untrained in thinking and lets his
mind express all kinds of thoughts without control, he not
only used up thought stuff but fails also to accomplish any
helpful result. Right thinking is using the mind to bring
about right ends idealized by the thinker. Through
concentration and conservation of thought force man regains
consciousness of health in his mind, and health then
becomes manifest in his body. Concentration, one

//page 150

pointed attention, forms a mental magnet in the mind to
which thought substance rushes. Then follows confidence or
faith in one's ability to accomplish the desired end. This
is the law by which the universe was brought into
manifestation.

To think is to express.

There is a chain of mind action connecting cause and effect
in all the activities of life. This chain is forged by man,
and its links are thoughts and words.

If I can conceive a truth, it follows that there is a way
by which I can make it manifest. If I can conceive of
omnipresent life as existing in the omnipresent substance,
there is a way by which I can make that life appear in my
body. No one ever fully sees the steps he is to take in
reaching a goal. He may see in a general way that he is to
go on from one point to another. The details are not
definitely clear to him unless he has gone over the ground
before. In demonstration of the spiritual powers that are
ready to find expression through man he must be willing to
follow the directions of one who has proved his efficiency
by demonstration.

Faith

The blessing of health comes through the exercise of faith
on the part of the man who seeks it. Faith opens the

//page 151

mind to the influx of power from on high. The power of the
Highest heals all diseases both of soul and of body. When
faith is sufficiently strong to dissolve all adverse
conditions and to open the mind fully to the power of God,
healing is instantaneous.

Through faith in the reality of things spiritual we begin
soul evolution. We must have faith in Spirit and through
our thinking build it into our consciousness. Then our body
will be restored to harmony and health. In order to create
as God creates, man must have undoubting faith in God-Mind
and the obedience of the creative electrons hidden in the
atoms of all substance. Although we all get definite
results in body and affairs from the words we utter, those
results would be infinitely greater if we understood the
power of words and had undoubting faith in their creative
power.

Imagination

Through the power of the imagination we impress upon the
body the concepts of the mind. A man can imagine that he
has some evil condition in body, and through the imaging
law build it up until it becomes manifest. On the other
hand, he can use the same power to make good appear.

//page 152

Order

If we desire to demonstrate health when we receive more
spiritual life, we must order this life rightly. If it is
not so ordered, mental and physical discord will ensue.
This applies to all that we think and do. Everything must
be brought in order. There must be order in the spiritual
life as well as the material life.

How can you order your life by the divine plan? By
accepting it as a truth that there is such a plan and by
making this plan yours through affirming your oneness with
the omnipresent Mind in which this plan exists in its
righteousness.

Ask for wisdom; then affirm divine order. Put yourself in
unity with Spirit. Then you will come into the
consciousness of a new world of thought and act and find
yourself doing many things differently because the orderly
Mind that directs the universe is working through you. A
harmonious relation will be established in all your ways.

Holding some disorganizing thought will produce inharmony
and discord in body and affairs. Lack of orderly
arrangement of thoughts is responsible for many delayed
demonstrations of healing.

The bringing forth of man even in the material sense is an
orderly process.

//page 153

So long as we believe in the slow processes of what we call
nature we shall place ourselves under a law of slowness.

Let us begin anew and lay down the law of order in all that
we do. If there is a tendency to hurry, let us stop and
affirm divine order and rest ourself in its poise. There is
no need to hurry. You live in eternity now. This thought of
omnipresent eternity will alleviate nervous tension. Put
every thought and act under the divine law.

Healing Words

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. These in the end shatter the strongest
organism if not counteracted by constructive forces. The
word of one in authority carries weight and produces
far-reaching effects. Man has the power to deny and
dissolve all disintegrating, discordant, and
disease-forming words. Knowledge of this fact is the
greatest discovery of all ages. You can make yourself a new
creature.

Every word has within it the power to make manifest
whatever man decrees. Spiritual words have this power. When
one understands the power of words spoken in spiritual
consciousness

//page 154

the results are in fulfillment of divine law. The quick and
lawful way to attain health is to put your creative words
to work and bring into swift action the superman Christ.

To understand the new life in Christ we must give attention
to that mystical Word, or Logos. In it are wrapped the
principles that, planted in our mind, will spring into new
life in mind and body. Next to Spirit the Word of Spirit is
the most powerful thing in existence. Man is the incarnate
Word of God.

Our words bring forth whatever we put into them. Words are
quickened by those who speak them. They pick up and carry
the viewpoints of the speaker, weak or strong, ignorant or
wise, good or ill.

One who heals by the power of the Word should become
familiar with the inner meaning of all words and use those
that appeal to him as possessing the greatest healing
potency.

Every word we speak goes forth from our mouth charged with
atomic energies. Our mind determines the character of our
words. What the mind determines the mouth obediently
utters. Its words are loaded with constructive or
destructive electrons all mathematically arranged to build
up or blow up ourself, our aims, and our ideals.

Some persons are overzealous. They consume

//page 155

their vitality by talking and acting without wisdom. They
would find a much-coveted and needed poise by linking their
minds with the Christ. Such persons are so enthusiastic in
externals that they lose contact with the source of things.
They destroy the body. However, these are the minority. The
great majority lack zeal in doing even the most ordinary
things.

When the mind of man is set on high, he never gives up or
allows defeat to thwart his righteous ambitions. A failure
state of mind throws the whole organism into a panic. Its
functions are weakened in their life action. 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.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will keep the heart fresh. True thanksgiving
may be likened to rain falling upon ready soil, refreshing
it and increasing its productiveness.

All things have their cause. Every cause is mental. Whoever
comes in daily contact with a higher order of thinking
cannot help but take on some of it. Ideas are catching. No
man can live where true ideas of wholeness are being
without becoming infected with them.

//page 156

Words which express thanks, gratitude, and praise release
energy of mind and soul. Their use is usually followed by
effects so pronounced that they are quickly identified with
the words that provoke them.

Let your words of praise and thanksgiving be of Spirit. The
increase will be even greater than when they are addressed
to man. The resources of Spirit are beyond our highest
flight of imagination. You can praise a weak body into
strength, a fearful heart into peace and trust, shattered
nerves into poise and power.

It is an easy matter to give thanks for what we have
already received. It is not so easy to give thanks for what
we hope to receive. Giving thanks in advance brings to pass
a present expectation. Pray believing that you have
received, and you shall receive.

Praising and giving thanks liberate the finer essence of
soul and body when we center our attention upon Spirit.
Spirit is the dynamic force that releases the pent-up
energies within man. The energies have been imprisoned in
the cells and when released are again restored to action in
the body by the chemistry of creative Mind. The perfection
of this restoration is in proportion to the understanding
and industry of the individual.

Every thought we loose in our mind carries

//page 157

with it a certain substance, life, and intelligence.
Whenever praise is bestowed it is carried to every part of
the body and through a large area of our soul aura, and our
whole consciousness and everything about us is tinctured
with praise. Praise and thanksgiving divinely directed tap
the mighty reservoirs of infinite Mind.

Joy

Nearly all persons have some pet fear. They give up to it
without trying to find its source. There are various
methods of erasing fear from the mind and preventing its
congestions in the body. One of the most direct and
effective shatterers of fear is laughter. Laugh your fears
away. See how ridiculous they are when traced to their
source.

We should cultivate those mind activities which stimulate
naturally the currents of life in the body. Joy is a very
important one. There is an intimate relation between
happiness and health. When you feel good you sing, either
audibly or silently. Singing promotes health because it
increases the circulation. A good circulation is a sign and
promoter of health. Nearly anyone can sing a little song.
It is a marvelous health restorer. Singing restores harmony
to tense nerves. Its vibrations stir them to action, thus
making it possible for the ever-waiting healing Spirit to
get in.

//page 158

Back of every true song is a thought of joy. It is the
thought that counts. It is the thought that invites the
healing Spirit. We should sing with the thought that the
Lord is right with us and that His joy is giving our words
the healing unction.

When men think a great deal about spiritual things and
especially about God as an indwelling spiritual presence,
both mind and body are thrilled with joy, a feeling of
satisfaction, and a tendency to break out in songs of
gladness.

Everybody can sing. Cultivate the singing soul. Through the
vibrations of the voice joined with high thinking every
cell in the body is set into action, and not only in the
body but out into the environing thought atmosphere the
vibrations go and break up all crystallized conditions. The
whole universe is in vibration. Vibration is under law.
Each particular thing has its rate of vibration. What
causes vibration? We answer: Mind.

Sing in your soul. You can sing 'way down inside yourself.
Soon you will be singing with your voice. Persons
everywhere, in every age, have told of an inner glory and
happiness when they got into the habit of concentrating the
mind on God.

//page 159

Will

Every organ of the body is affected by the action of the
will. Willfulness makes tenseness. A tense mind ties knots
in the nerves, muscles, and tendons of the whole organism.
Contrariness is another name for perverted will. Persons
who are contentious for their personal rights place
themselves in bondage to material conditions and stop
spiritual growth. The will is not to be broken, but
disciplined.

Peace

The Mind of Spirit is harmonious and peaceful. It must have
a like manner of expression in man's consciousness. If we
are not anchored to supreme and immovable reality, we shall
be exposed to the storms of mortal thought and shipwrecked
on the rocks of materiality. The mind may be compared to
the sea, which is calm or stormy according to the wind that
moves it. Thought utilizes the substance of the mind and
forms that which man ideates. A restful state of mind is
greatly to be desired because of its constructive
character. When the mind is lashed by a brainstorm the
cells of the whole organism are shattered and exhaustion
ensues.

When a body of water is choppy with fitful currents of air
it cannot reflect objects clearly. Neither can man reflect
the steady strong glow

//page 160

of Omnipotence when his mind is disturbed by anxious,
fearful, or angry thoughts.

Steadfast affirmations of peace harmonize the whole body
structure and open the way to attainment of health
conditions in mind and body. Cast out enmity and anger and
affirm peace, and your healing will be swift and sure. Be
at peace, and your conscious unity with God-Mind will bring
you health and happiness.

Love

The word is the mind seed from which springs every
condition. It is the most enduring thing in existence.
Words make cells, and these cells are adjusted one to the
other through associated ideas. When divine love enters
into man's thought process, every cell is poised and
balanced. Love overcomes hate, resistance, opposition,
obstinacy, anger, jealousy, and all states of consciousness
where there is mental or physical friction.

Through the joining of the creative forces of Spirit by
souls attuned in love, the new body in Christ is speedily
formed. The work can be done through individual effort.
There must always be continuous constructive action between
the faculties of soul and body. If in quietness and
confidence the presence and the power of divine love are
affirmed, the law will be fulfilled.

//page 161

Some of the most terrible ills are brought upon the body by
the misuse of love.

Love wins when everything else fails. Nearly all sick
people lack vital force, hence the life treatment is good
for all. Hate, anger, jealousy, malice, and the like are
almost universal in human consciousness, and a treatment
for love will prove a healing balm for all.

Old Age

The marks of old age can be erased from the body by one's
mentally seeing the body as youthful. If you want to be
healthy, do not imagine so vain a thing as decrepitude.
Make your body perfect by seeing perfection in it. The work
must be an inner transformation. Actually old age is a
false belief deeply embedded in the race mind. It accepts
biological law as the ultimate for man instead of the law
of God which is eternal life in the body.

Vitalization

We all need vitalizing. How shall we get life? What is the
source of life? The life source is spiritual energy. It is
composed of ideas. Man can turn on its current by making
mental contact with it.

God is life and they who worship Him must worship Him in
the life consciousness, that is, in Spirit. When we worship
God in this way,

//page 162

we are vitalized all at once. There is no other way to get
real, permanent life. We cannot get life from the outer man
or from anything external. We must touch the inner current.

We turn on the life current by means of thoughts and words.
We can have fullness of life by realizing that we live in a
sea of abundant, omnipresent, eternal life, and by refusing
to allow any thought to come in that stops the
consciousness of the universal life flow. We live and move
and have our being in Mind life.

You can think of your life as mental; every faculty will
begin to buzz with new life. Your life will never wane if
you keep in the consciousness of it as Mind or Spirit; it
will increase and attain full expression in your body. If
you have faith in the life idea in your consciousness, your
body will never be run down but will become more and more
alive with spiritual life.

We must think life, talk life, and see ourself filled with
the fullness of life. When we are not manifesting life as
we desire, it is because our thoughts and our conversation
are not in accord with the life idea. Every time we think
life, speak life, rejoice in life, we are setting free, and
bringing into expression in ourself, more and more of the
life idea. Here is the place of abundant life, and we can
fill both mind and

//page 163

body, both our surroundings and our affairs, with glad,
free, buoyant life by exercising faith in it.

Truth

Many have learned how to hold the truth about health
steadily in faith even in the midst of the most adverse
appearances. They clearly understand that they are not
telling falsehoods when they deny sickness right in the
face of the appearance of it. Persons who are quickened
spiritually can do very much greater works through the law
of faith than those who are still in the material
consciousness. Once having discerned the power of Spirit,
we should be on our guard and send forth on every occasion
exalted ideas of the spiritual.

The one and only reason that we do not always succeed in
our demonstrations is that we do not persist in our mental
work. We must begin to discipline our mind and raise our
thoughts to the point where they abandon the slow inertia
of the natural man for the speed and spring of the
spiritual man. This is accomplished by prayer, meditation,
and the repetition of true words.

It is not the vain repetition of words over and over,
parrotlike. It is the quiet realization that there is a
listening Mind and a ready host of great ideas at all times
waiting for us.

//page 164

Praying for Others

One who prays for the health of another should understand
that it is not the fault of the healing principle that his
patient is not instantly restored. The fault may be in his
own lack of persistency or understanding; or it may be due
to the patient's dogged clinging to discordant thoughts. In
any case the one who prays must persist in this prayer
until the walls of resistance are broken down and the
healing currents are tuned in. In treating others see
patients as perfect.

Miracles

The universe was not created through illogical assumptions
of law. Law is its foundation. There are no miracles in
science. Jesus did no miracles. All His marvelous works
were done under the laws that we may learn and use as He
did. As the body is moved by mind, so the mind is moved by
ideas. Right here in the mind we find the secret of the
universe.

In reality miracles are events that take place as a result
of the operation of a higher, unknown law. All true action
is governed by law. Nothing just happens. All happenings
are the result of cause and can be explained under the law
of cause and effect.

//page 165

Mighty things have been wrought in the past by those who
had mere blind faith to guide them. To faith we now add
understanding of the law.

Jesus Christ

Quite a few Truth students ask why we emphasize Jesus
Christ so strongly in our writings and statements of Truth.
Spiritual psychology proves that the name of a great
character carries his mind potency. Wherever his name is
repeated silently or audibly his attributes become manifest.

We are all, in our personality, wearing the mask that
conceals the real, the spiritual, I AM Any declaration man
may make in which the name Jesus Christ is used reverently
will contact the Christ I AM and will open the mind and
body to the inflow of spiritual healing rays. When man
thinks or says "I am" he is potentially giving freedom to
the seed ideas that contain in their spiritual capacity all
of Being. The natural man in his narrowed mental
comprehension barely touches the seed ideas that expand in
the Christ man to infinite power. The more we dwell upon
and expand our I AM the greater looms its originating
capacity before us. The Christ substance and the Christ
life are accessible at all times and in all places to the
one who

//page 166

awakens his I AM to spiritual omnipresence.

Proofs

We find as we study and apply the doctrine of Jesus that
our body must be included. Faith in the omnipresent pure
substance precipitates the substance in the body and we are
transformed.

Proofs may be found in profusion that the divine law of
body restoration is in action in a large way right here in
our midst. The literature of Unity teems with testimonials
of persons who have been healed and are grateful to God for
renewed health, strength, prosperity, and happiness. Thus
it is not necessary to strengthen your faith by reading
about the work of God in ages past; you can personally
consult your neighbor, who can doubtless tell you of
marvels fully as great as any recorded in the Bible.

The majority of cases that come to us belong to the class
of the discouraged woman told of in Luke 8:43 (A.S.V.),
"who spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be
healed." Doctors have pronounced them incurable, and as a
last resort they turn to God. The hardest part of the work
in their healing is to get out of mind the verdict of
doctors that their cases are incurable. We have discovered
that there are no incurables. Any experienced metaphysical
healer will tell you that he has been the instrument

//page 167

through which all the "popular" diseases have been healed.

Personal Testimony

When a boy of ten I was taken with what was at first
diagnosed as rheumatism but developed into a very serious
case of hip disease. I was in bed over a year, and from
that time an invalid in constant pain for twenty-five
years, or until I began the application of the divine law.

Two very large tubercular abscesses developed at the head
of the hip bone, which the doctors said would finally drain
away my life. But I managed to get about on crutches, with
a four-inch cork-and-steel extension on the right leg. The
hip bone was out of the socket and stiff. The leg shriveled
and ceased to grow. The whole right side became involved;
my right ear was deaf and my right eye weak. From hip to
knee the flesh was a glassy adhesion with but little
sensation.

When I began applying the spiritual treatment there was for
a long time slight response in the leg, but I felt better,
and I found that I began to hear with the right ear. Then
gradually I noticed that I had more feeling in the leg.
Then as the years went by the ossified joint began to get
limber, and the shrunken flesh

//page 168

filled out until the right leg was almost equal to the
other.

Then I discarded the cork-and-steel extension and wore an
ordinary shoe with a double heel about an inch in height.
The leg became almost as large as the other, the muscles
were restored.

I am giving minute details of my healing because it would
be considered a medical impossibility and a miracle from a
religious standpoint. However I have watched the
restoration year after year as I applied the power of
thought, and I know it is under divine law. So I am
satisfied that here is proof of a law that the mind builds
the body and can restore it.

//page 169

//section Music and Healing

//text

THE healing power of music, which is heralded as a modern
discovery by those who are practicing it in hospitals, is
not new. The fact is, this method of healing has always
been recognized and practiced, the most striking
illustration being the universal lullabies which mothers,
civilized and savage, sing to soothe their tired children.
In every nation, and in every tongue, the lullaby has its
place. We assume that every child has been harmonized
mentally and physically by the mother's song, however crude
that song may have been.

//page 170

Harmonious Ideas

Metaphysicians have discovered that a harmonious
arrangement of ideas in mind produces harmony in body; that
within the five avenues of expression, called the senses,
there are certain thoughts that can be adjusted one to
another. The mind and body can be filled with such harmony
that a song of joy springs forth without volition. This
relation is governed by an exact science, and works out the
same way every time.

The relation is similar to the mathematical accuracy which
governs the arrangement of tones in musical harmony. Ideas,
mathematics, and music are related. When the mind
understands that relation and applies it the harmony called
health follows.

Pythagoras went to Egypt, and stayed there twenty-one years
learning occultism. When he returned to his home, he
preached some strange doctrines. He said that man and the
whole universe were created as a musical production.

Musical Vibration

If dry sand is placed on a plate and a violin bow is drawn
across the plate, the sand will arrange itself in
symmetrical forms. Probably the earth took form from the
harmonious vibrations of the Word, and it may be that God is

//page 171

singing the universe into expression this moment.

The most wonderful music box in the world is man's body.
There are reeds and bellows and pipes. The whole physical
organism seems to have for its purpose the production of
sweet sounds. Who can tell what he may do when all his
forces are brought into play and he knows how to control
them properly?

When the faculties are in spiritual harmony, music flows
from man as naturally as the brook murmurs in cadence or
Niagara roars in organ tones. A free, unburdened mind
naturally expresses itself in some sort of music; for
example, the whistling boy.

A poet says that the man who has no music in his soul is
fit for treason, stratagem, and spoils. It is universally
observed that people who live on the seamy side of life
seldom express themselves in song. An employer of wide
experience once said that he always trusted the man who
hummed or whistled at his work.

Seven Tones

God is the universal Spirit of harmony. Man is the
offspring of that Spirit. We have seven centers that
correspond to the seven tones of the musical scale. When
these seven tones are in harmony, like an aeolian harp the
Spirit plays

//page 172

tones in your body if you will study them.

In the head is intelligence. It is "do." I AM is the
keynote. Next is power, then come love, substance, order,
life, strength. Each of these has a ganglionic center in
the body. It makes a great difference how you play on them.
If you believe in weakness and failure, your voice will
express that belief. You have let go of your power center.
How may you key it up? By going to the Source of power, and
affirming your oneness with it. Declare that you have power
to express in all its fullness your Christ mastery and
dominion. Think of all the power of the universe centered
at your throat. Sing songs of victory. Raise your voice in
praise, and you will lift your whole organism into high,
harmonious spiritual radiation.

When you know this law, you will know just how to tone up
your body. When thoughts are making it lax or tense so that
it cannot sound forth divine harmony, you can speak the
true, freeing, toning-up word, and put yourself in tune,
within and without.

Spirit of Music

The spirit of music is within all of us. When we have
developed and brought it forth; when the quickening,
harmonizing life has entered the physical, by the union of
God with man,

//page 173

then we will realize that there is a power in us which will
produce harmony. And harmony is health.

So we see that the body is a musical instrument, meant to
give forth the harmony of Divine Mind. It must therefore be
kept in tune with the Infinite. We need to learn how to put
it in tune, keep it in tune, and how to play upon it, and
this is all done by right thinking and right speaking.
Thinking in wisdom produces harmony of mind and grace of
body. All discord is produced by ignorant, unwise thoughts
and words.

Healing by Music

In time, probably, there will be schools of healing based
on music, where patients will be taught how to center
themselves in the harmonious Christ mind. The body will
then respond, for it is mind, has its foundation in mind,
lives in mind, and is moved upon by mind. The more we think
about the great pulsating, universal life, the more we
shall express it.

We may apply music in every department of life. The body is
not only a musical instrument, it is also the composition.
You are constantly composing as well as playing.

As you come into the harmony of Divine Mind, you will be
able to play above and below

//page 174

the staff, and your ear will be quickened far beyond its
present range of hearing. You will hear, not only the music
of the spheres, but you will be able to discern musical
tones in what now seems to be merely noise. The whir of the
dynamo is the music of a bass viol; in the traffic of the
street you will catch a deep musical tone, and when you are
in perfect harmony in thought, you will hear music
everywhere.

Time and Music

As time in music is merely a measure of pulsations, so
years are measures of events. Time, therefore, being but a
measure, is under your control. You can diminish or
increase the movement at will. You can crowd into one year
experiences that will make it seem like a hundred. This
understanding that you are not in bondage to time, but that
you control it, gives you a sense of freedom and your
life's music will have fuller and better expression. You
will not play mechanically, but your soul will be free to
express its own harmony.

Bring harmony into your life by singing and praising.
Everybody should play and sing. We should rejoice in the
divine harmony. We should sing songs of joy and of love and
of peace and of the unity of the Spirit, the Spirit of
Jesus Christ, the supreme Man expressed.

//page 175

//section Disease

//text

IT IS NOW almost universally accepted by physicians that
the majority of diseases are caused by minute forms of life
commonly called germs. Each disease has its specific germ.
They may be seen with very strong microscopes, and the form
and the character of the different varieties are described
by experts.

The antidotes for these destructive little germs have been
widely advertised. The remedies consist in destroying them.
They do not attempt to explain their origin. They find the
little worker busy in the bodies of mankind,

//page 176

and they seek to put it out of action, not asking whence it
came nor whither it may go.

The reflective mind is not satisfied with this superficial
way of dealing with such destructive agents. It asks their
cause, but no answer is vouchsafed on the part of those who
study them. Only the students of mind can answer the
question of the origin of disease germs. Only in terms of
mind can there be given a rational explanation of these
minute life forms.

The Adam man, the intellect, is responsible for them. He
gives character to all the ideas that exist--he "names"
them. This process is intricate, and it may be explained
and understood in its details only by metaphysicians of the
deepest mental insight. It is summed up in what is commonly
called thinking.

Thoughts Produce

Thoughts of health produce germs whose office it is to
build up healthy organisms. Thoughts of disease produce
germs of disorder and destruction. Here we have the
connecting link between materia medica and metaphysics. The
physician observes the ravages of the disease germ. The
metaphysician stands in the factory of mind and sees
thoughts poured into visibility as germs. This opens up a
field of causes unlimited in extent. Every thought that

//page 177

flits through the mind of every man, woman, and child in
the universe produces a living organism, a germ of a
character like its producing thought. There is no escape
from this conclusion, no escape from the mighty
possibilities of good and ill that rest with the thinker.

Following Directions

Anger, jealousy, malice, avarice, lust, ambition,
selfishness, and in fact all of the detestable patterns
that mankind harbors, produce living organisms after their
kind. If we had microscopes strong enough, we should find
our body to be composed of living germs, doing to the best
of their ability the tasks which our thoughts have set
before them.

If you have said, "I hate you," there have been created in
your atmosphere hate germs that will do the work for which
you created them. If one's enemies alone were attacked by
these germs of thought, the law would not be so severe, but
they have no respect for anyone, and are likely to turn
upon the body of their creator and tear it down.

So the fear, the doubts, the poverty, the sin, the
sickness, the thousand erroneous states of consciousness
have their germs. These organisms whose office it is to
make men miserable do their work to the very best of their
ability. They are

//page 178

not responsible for their existence. They are the formed
vehicles of thought. They are the servants of those who
gave them life. It is not to the germs that the wise
regulator of affairs should look, but to those who are
creating them and thereby bringing into existence discord
and disease.

Counterfeit

Remedies beyond number are advertised for germs. They are
guaranteed to kill the germ only. What is needed is a
medicine that will prevent its appearance. To apply the
remedy to the poor little germ is like trying to stop the
manufacture of counterfeit money by destroying all that is
found in circulation.

All counterfeit thought comes from the intellect, which
alone originates the disease germ. We need to go no further
than the disobedient intellect to find the cause of all the
ills to which humanity has become slave. Wisdom is not an
attribute of the intellect. The assumption that its
observations are a source of wisdom is the one thing
against which the Lord God especially warned Adam. This
very clearly indicates the inability of the intellect, on
its own account, to set up a standard of knowledge of good
and evil. It also declares the end to which man will come
if he disregards the prohibition specified.

//page 179

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
die."

Good and Evil

That there is something wrong in the present standard of
good is evidenced by the variety of opinions in the world
as to what is good and what is evil. There should be no
question on such vitally important points. There would not
be if the intellect would relinquish its claim to a
knowledge of good and evil, and would relegate to Spirit
the offices of wisdom and understanding.

The intellect is the formative, character-giving mechanism
in the man. It draws its substance and intelligence from
the Spirit. Like the prism through which the ray of white
light is passed, it shows the potentialities of Spirit. If
it looks within and seeks the guidance of Spirit, it
reflects divine ideas upon the screen of visibility. This
is the plan that the Lord has for it, and it is building
according to that plan only when it admits that there is a
higher source of wisdom than itself, when it submits to
wisdom, for approval or disapproval, the ideas that it
conceives.

Manifestation

The manifestation of life is through the Adam consciousness,

//page 180

which is, in a way, attached to and responsible for the
forms thus made visible. Hence the reform--the
transformation--of existing conditions must be made from
the standpoint of Adam as an important factor. To ignore
Adam is to slight one of the established creations of
Jehovah God. If Adam were not a part of the divine plan,
why was he formed from the dust of the earth, the breath of
life breathed into him, and a living soul capacity given to
him?

We are not to erase Adam. We are to transform him. He is
not a safe guide in anything. His conclusions are derived
from observation of conditions as he sees them in the
external world. He judges according to appearance, which is
but one side of the whole. Appearances say that germs are
dangerous and destructive, but one who is familiar with
their origin is not alarmed. He knows that there is a power
and wisdom stronger and wiser than the ignorant intellect.
It is to this power that we are compelled to go before we
can right the wrongs that now dominate the mind of man.
There is but one fount of wisdom, and that is wisdom itself.

Wisdom

The belief that wisdom is attained through the study of
things is an error prevalent in this age. They

//page 181

who wait upon the Lord shall be wise. That the wisdom of
health can be evolved from the study of disease germs is a
concept of the intellect in its tendency to look without
instead of within. The without, the universe of things
formed, is not and never can be a source of wisdom. The
things formed are the result of efforts to combine wisdom
and love, and their character indicates the success or the
failure of the undertaking. When wisdom and love have been
invoked, and their harmony has been made manifest in the
thing formed, God is manifest.

We love to name or give character to the ideas of Jehovah
God, because it is our office in the grand plan of creation
to do so. The glory of the Father is thus made manifest
through the Son. In no other way can the ideas in Being be
made manifest, and man should rise to the dignity of his
office and formulate them according to the plans of Divine
Mind.

Disease germs would quickly disappear from the earth if men
would consult God before passing judgment upon His
creations. It is not man's province to give form to
anything but what will be a pleasure in God's eye. If he
makes germs it is because he thinks germ thoughts. When he
thinks God thoughts he will form only the beauties of
nature and mankind, and there will no longer be anything in

//page 182

all his world that will cause a fear or a moment of pain.
God is not the author of this condition of so-called
"progress from matter to mind." God is the one source from
which and of which man makes his existence.

Unfoldment

There is a law of unfoldment in Being, a law as exact as
the progressive steps in a mathematical problem in which no
error is made, a law as harmonious as that which governs a
musical production where discord has found no place.
Disease germs are not a part of the divine law. They are as
far removed from it as would be error in the steady,
careful steps in the progressive unfoldment of numbers, or
false notes in symphony or song.

It does not require labored arguments or hard thinking to
see how easily the problems of life would be made orderly
and divine if men would let the Lord into his mind. Jesus
said that the yoke was easy and the burden light. He was
victor over all the hard conditions to which men and women
yoked themselves. He made light of sin, disease, and
poverty, by annulling them and preaching boldly in the face
of an adverse theology that it was the prerogative of the
Son of man to blot these errors from the world of mankind.

//page 183

Royal Road

There is a royal road for every man--a road in which he
will be conscious of the dominion that is his by divine
right. That road, Jesus said, leads out from the I AM. As
Moses delivered the Children of Israel from the Egyptian
darkness of their ignorance by affirming in their ears the
power of the I AM, so Jesus gives us a series of
affirmations that will deliver us from the wilderness of
ignorance.

Your I AM is the polar star around which all your thoughts
revolve. Even the little, narrow concept of the personal "I
am" may be led out into the consciousness of the great and
only I AM by filling its thought sphere with ideas of
infinite wisdom, life, and love. Your I AM is that which
carries you up or down, to heaven or to hell, according to
the concept to which you have attached it. Hitch it to a
star. Let it carry you to the broad expanse of heaven.
There is room aplenty. You will not knock elbows with
anyone if you get out of the surging crowd and hitch your I
AM to the star of spiritual understanding.

Disease Antidote

Cease making disease germs. Turn your attention to higher
things. Make love alive by thinking love. Make wisdom the
light of the

//page 184

world by affirming God's omnipresent intelligence. See in
mind the pure substance of God, and it will surely appear.
This is the way to destroy disease. This is the antidote
for disease germs. The real, the enduring things of God are
to be brought into visibility in just this simple way. This
is the way in which the I AM makes itself manifest. The
method is so easy that the man of great intellect passes it
by. It is so plain that a simpleton may understand it. One
does not have to know about anything whatsoever except God.
How easy it is: how light the burden! No long, tedious
years of study, no delving into depths of intricate
theories and speculations are necessary. All that is
required is a simple, childlike attention directed to the
everywhere present Spirit, and a heart filled with love and
goodness for everything.

//page 185

//section Prosperity

//text

THE teachings of Jesus stand out prominently, because they
can be applied practically to the affairs of everyday life.
His is not a religion in the sense that this word is
usually taken but is a rule of thinking, doing, living, and
being. To some people it is unthinkable to connect His
teachings with the countinghouse and the market place.
Deeper insight into their meaning and purpose shows that
these lofty teachings are the most practical rules for
daily living in all departments of life. They are vital to
modern civilization and the very foundation of business
stability.

//page 186

We have not been more successful in making the teachings of
Jesus a practical standard for everyday guidance because we
have not understood the laws on which they are based. Jesus
would not have put forth a doctrine that was not true and
not based on unchanging law.

Men have taken the letter or appearance side of Jesus'
doctrine and materialized it to fit their beliefs and
customs. That is the reason why His message has not
purified commerce, society, and government. It should be
made spiritually operative in those fields. It will easily
do the work desired when its mental side is studied and
when it is understood and applied from the spiritual
viewpoint. No permanent remedy will ever be found for the
economic ills of the world outside a practical application
of the laws on which the doctrine of Jesus Christ is based.

The Provider

It is perfectly logical to assume that a wise and competent
Creator would provide for the needs of His creatures in
their various stages of growth. The supply would be given
as required and as the necessary effort for its
appropriation was made by the creature. Temporal needs
would be met by temporal things, mental needs by things of
like character, and spiritual needs by spiritual elements.
For simplification of distribution

//page 187

all would be composed of one primal spiritual substance,
which under proper direction could be transformed into all
products at the will of the operator.

Jesus taught that we can incorporate life-giving rays into
our mind, body, and affairs through faith. He taught man
how by the exercise of his mind he can make that life obey
him. Instead of a universe of blind mechanical forces Jesus
showed the universe to be persuaded and directed by
intelligence.

What we need to realize above all else is that God has
provided for the most minute needs of our daily life, and
that if we lack anything it is because we have not used our
mind in making the right contact with the supermind and the
cosmic ray that automatically flows from it.

New Era

We are now in the dawn of a new era. Old methods of supply
and support are fast passing away. New methods are waiting
to be brought forth. In the coming commerce man will not be
a slave to money. Humanity's daily needs will be met in
ways that are not now thought practical. We shall serve for
the joy of serving, and prosperity will flow to us and
through us in streams of plenty. The supply and support
that love and zeal will

//page 188

set in motion are not as yet largely used by man.

The very air is alive with dynamic forces that await man's
grasp and utilization. These invisible, omnipresent
energies possess potentialities far beyond our most exalted
conception. Truly, all things have their source in the
invisible spiritual substance.

In the new era that is even now at its dawn we shall have a
spirit of prosperity. The principle of universal substance
will be known and acted on. There will be no place for
lack. Supply will be more equalized. There will be no
overproduction or underconsumption or other inequalities of
supply, for God's substance will be recognized and used by
all people. Men will not pile up fortunes one day and lose
them the next, for they will no longer fear the integrity
of their neighbor nor try to keep their neighbor's share
from him.

Is this an impractical utopia? The answer depends on you.
Just as soon as you individually recognize omnipresent
substance and put your faith in it, you can look for others
around you to do the same. When even one bears witness to
the truth of the prosperity law he will quicken the
consciousness of the whole community.

The Heavens

According to the Greek, the language in which the New

//page 189

Testament has come to us, Jesus did not use the word heaven
but the word heavens in His teaching. He was not telling us
of the glories of some faraway place called "heaven" but
was revealing the properties of the "heavens" all around
us. He taught not only its dynamic but also its intelligent
character, and said that the entity that rules it is within
man. He told His followers that it was the kingdom from
which God clothed and fed all His children. In His many
parables and comparisons referring to the "heavens" Jesus
was explaining to His hearers the character of the
omnipresent substance that has all potentiality and is the
source of everything that appears on the earth. The kingdom
of the heavens, or the kingdom of God, is within man. It is
a kingdom of substance and of Mind.

Mind

All is Mind. The things that appear are expressions of
Mind. Mind is reality, and it also appears as phenomena.
The is-ness of mind is but one side of it. Being is not
limited to the level of is-ness. It has all possibilities,
including that of breaking forth from its inherencies into
the realm of appearances. Mind has these two sides, being
and appearance, the invisible and the visible. To say that
mind is all and yet deny that things do appear to have any

//page 190

place in the allness is to state but half the truth.

Substance

God is substance. If by this statement we mean that God is
matter, a thing of time or condition, then we should say
that God is substanceless. God is not confined to that form
of substance which we term matter. God is an intangible
essence. Matter is a mental limitation of the divine
substance whose vital and inherent character is manifest in
all life expression. God substance may be conceived as God
energy, or Spirit light.

God is substance, not matter, because matter is formed,
while God is the formless. God substance lies back of
matter and form. It is the basis of all form yet does not
enter into any form as a finality. Substance cannot be
seen, touched, tasted, or smelled, yet it is more
substantial than matter, for it is the only substantiality
in the universe. Its nature is to "sub-stand" or "stand
under" or behind matter as its support and only reality.

Inexhaustible Mind substance is available at all times and
in all places to those who have learned to lay hold of it
in consciousness. Spiritual substance from which comes all
visible wealth is never depleted. This unfailing resource
is always ready to give. It has no choice in the matter; it
must give, for that is its nature.

//page 191

Spiritual substance is a living thing. It is living bread
and living water. He who feeds on God's substance shall
never hunger and never thirst. This substance is an abiding
thing. It is an unfailing principle that is sure in its
workings. Man can no more be separated from his supply of
substance than life can be separated from its source.

Ideas

Substance exists in the realm of ideas and is power when
handled by one who is familiar with its characteristics.
The ideas of Divine Mind are contained potentially in
substance. All things exist as ideas. These ideas are
manifested only as man becomes conscious of them. Divine
ideas are man's inheritance. They are pregnant with all
possibility. 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.

Unification

Substance is first given form in the mind. You have
doubtless in your own experience caught sight of the
everywhere present substance in your silence, when it
seemed like golden snowflakes were

//page 192

falling all about you. This was the first manifestation
from the overflow of the universal substance in your
consciousness.

Be still and turn within to the great Source. See with the
eye of faith that the whole world is filled with substance.
See it falling all about you as snowflakes of gold and
silver. In laying hold of substance in the mind and
bringing it into manifestation, we play a most important
part. Man's work is to express substance ideas in material
form. Identify yourself with substance until you make it
yours.

Actually, you are unified with the one living substance,
which is God, your all-sufficiency. From this substance you
were created. In it you live and move and have your being.
By it you are fed and prospered.

Spiritual substance is steadfast, immovable, enduring. It
does not fluctuate. It does not decrease.

As you lay hold of substance with your mind make it
permanent and enduring. Realize your oneness with it. Then
you will soon begin to rejoice in the ever-present bounty
of God.

Law

All true action is governed by law. Nothing just happens.
There are no miracles. There is no such thing as luck.
Nothing comes by chance. All happenings are the

//page 193

result of cause and can be explained under the law of cause
and effect. This is a teaching that appeals to the innate
logic of our mind. We sometimes feel like doubting it when
we see things that have no apparent cause.

Happenings that seem miraculous are controlled by laws that
we have not yet learned and result from causes that we have
not been able to understand.

Man does not demonstrate according to the law but according
to his knowledge of the law. That is why we must seek to
learn more of it. What are the rules of the law? First, God
is good and all His creations are good. When you get that
firmly fixed in your mind, you are bound to demonstrate
good, and nothing but good can come into your world. If you
let in the thought that there is such a thing as evil and
that you are as liable to evil as to good, then you may
have conditions that conform to what you believe about evil.

Those who live in accordance with the law will get the
desired results. Those who fail to do so will get the
opposite results. The law applies to our demonstrations of
prosperity.

God is law and God is changeless. God has ordained the law
but does not compel us to follow it. We have free will. The
manner of our doing is left entirely to us. When we know the

//page 194

law and work with it, we are rewarded by its protection and
use it to our good.

The Father's desire (law) for us is unlimited good, not
merely the means of a meager existence. The Father gives us
all that He has and is when we return to the consciousness
of His house of plenty. We cannot be happy if we are poor.
Nobody needs to be poor. It is a sin to be poor. It is a
sin to wear poor clothes.

The law cannot fail to operate when once set in operation
in the right way. All men who have prospered used the law,
for there is no other way. Perhaps they were not conscious
of following definite spiritual methods, yet they have in
some way set the law in operation and reaped the benefit of
its unfailing action. Others have to struggle to accomplish
the same things.

You will not have to wait for seedtime and harvest when you
learn to use the power of your mind. When you have the
consciousness in which your ideas are tangible, all your
demands will be quickly fulfilled by the higher law. Throw
into your ideas all the life and power of your concentrated
thought, and they will be clothed with reality.

Your conscious cooperation is necessary to the fullest
results in the working of the universal law of increase.
Use your talent, whatever it may be, in order to increase
it. Have faith in

//page 195

the law. Do not reason too much but forge ahead in faith
and boldness. If you let yourself think of any person or
any outer condition as hindering your increase, this
becomes a hindrance to you. Keep your eyes on the abundant
inner reality. Do not let the outer appearance cause you to
falter.

Consciousness

The possessions of the Father are not in stocks and bonds
but in the divine possibilities implanted in the mind and
soul of every man. Through the soul of man God's wealth
finds its expression. Wealth of consciousness will express
itself in wealth of manifestation. One who knows Principle
has a certain inner security given him by the understanding
of God-Mind.

In order to demonstrate Principle we must keep establishing
ourself in certain statements of the law. Affirmations are
for the purpose of establishing in our consciousness a
broad understanding of the principles on which all life
existence depends. The more often you present to your mind
a proposition that is logical and true, the stronger
becomes that inner feeling of security to you.

Housecleaning

A mental housecleaning is more necessary than a material

//page 196

one, for the without is but a reflection of the within. Old
thought must be denied and the mind cleansed in preparation
before the affirmative Christ consciousness can come in.
When we consistently deny the limitations of the material,
we begin to reveal the spiritual law that waits within us
to be fulfilled. When this law is revealed to our
consciousness, we begin to use it to demonstrate all things
that are good.

Loose all thoughts of lack and lay hold of thoughts of
plenty. See the abundance of all good things. We live in a
very sea of inexhaustible substance, ready to come into
manifestation when molded by our thought.

No step in spiritual unfoldment is more important than
renunciation or elimination. We must learn to let go, to
give up, to make room for the things we have prayed for and
desired. It is simply giving up and casting away old
thoughts that have put us where we are, and putting in
their place new ideas that promise to improve our
condition. There must be a constant elimination of the old
to keep pace with growth. When we cling to the old we
hinder our advance or stop it altogether.

Denial sweeps out the debris and makes room for the new
tenant that is brought into the mind by the affirmation. It
would not be wise to eliminate the old thoughts unless you

//page 197

knew that there were higher and better ones to take their
place.

Rewards

Those who seek the things that the material realm has to
offer usually find them. Those who aspire to spiritual
rewards are also rewarded. The law is that we get what we
want and work for. Where there is no reward for effort,
there will be no effort, and society will degenerate. We
may talk about the inner urge, but when it has no outer
field of action it eventually becomes discouraged and
ceases to act.

Effort

If your prosperity does not become manifest as soon as you
pray and affirm God as your substance, your supply, and
your support, refuse to give up. A continuity of effort is
necessary. Show your faith by keeping up the work. You do
not have to work laboriously in the outer to accomplish.
Most of us rush around trying to work out our problems for
ourself and in our way, with one thought, one vision: the
material thing we seek. You need to devote more time to
silent meditation. Remember that substance ideas with which
you are working are eternal. The same ideas that formed
this planet in the first place sustain it now.

//page 198

Faith

The subject of faith should be applied especially to the
demonstrations of prosperity. It is our starting point in
building a prosperity consciousness and making our world as
we would have it. We all have faith, for it is innate in
every man. Our question is how we may put it to work in our
affairs.

In a sense faith represents substance. With it, it is
possible to possess a reality that cannot be seen, touched,
or comprehended by any of the outer senses. It is faith
when we are fully conscious of "things not seen" and have
the "assurance of things" not yet manifest. In other words,
faith is that consciousness in us of the reality of the
invisible substance and of the attributes of mind by which
we lay hold of it. We must realize that the mind makes
things real.

"Just a thought" or "just a mere idea," we sometimes
lightly say, little thinking that these thoughts and ideas
are the eternal realities from which we build our life and
our world.

The foundation of every work is an idea. Faith is that
quality of mind which makes the idea stand out as real, not
only to ourself but to others. When others have faith in
the thing you are doing, making, or selling, they see it as
real and worthwhile. Then your success and your prosperity
are assured. Whatever you put into

//page 199

substance along with faith will work out in manifestation
in your world. You demonstrate prosperity by an
understanding of the prosperity law and by having faith in
it. Faithfulness and earnestness in the application of the
prosperity law will assure you of success.

If you have faith in outer things, you are building shadows
without substance, shadows that cease as soon as your
supporting thought is withdrawn from them, forms that will
pass away and leave you nothing.

Do not have faith in anything less than God, in anything
other than the one Mind, for when your faith is centered
there, you are building for eternity. Mind and the ideas of
Mind will never pass away. There will never be an end to
God. There will never be an end to Truth, which God is.
There will never be an end to substance, which God is.
Build with the divine substance. Cultivate faith in
realities.

We must find a way to connect ideas of substance with ideas
of material expression. This is accomplished by faith
through prayer according to our decree. We are always
decreeing, sometimes consciously, often unconsciously. With
every thought and word we are increasing or diminishing the
activity of substance. The resulting manifestation conforms
to our thought.

//page 200

Loyalty

When you first begin to think of God as everywhere-present
substance, your mind will not always adhere continuously to
the idea. You need to develop certain stabilizing ideas.
One of them is continuity or loyalty to Truth. Love sticks
to the thing on which it has set its mind. Nothing so tends
to stabilize and unify all as love. And nothing is so
important as sticking to the ideal and never giving up the
work we have set out to accomplish.

Perhaps some adverse condition of your own thought has
prevented a full demonstration. Do not let this swerve you
from your loyalty to the law. You may seem to attain
results very slowly. That is the best reason for sticking
closely to your ideal and not changing your mind. Be loyal
to Principle. The adverse condition will break up. The true
light will come and the invisible substance you have been
faithfully affirming will begin to reveal itself to you in
all its fullness of good. It will destroy your fears, stop
your worries, and change your finances.

Going Forward

It is necessary to let go of old thoughts and conditions
after they have served their purpose. One should lay hold
of new ideas and create new conditions to meet one's
requirements. We cannot

//page 201

lay hold of new ideas and make the new conditions until we
have made room for them by eliminating the old.

Things are never so bad as you think. Never allow yourself
to be burdened with the thought that you are having a hard
time. You do not want a soul structure of that kind and
should not build it with those thoughts. You are living in
a new age. Yesterday is gone forever. Today is here
forever. Something grander is now unfolding. Put yourself
in line with the progress of thought in the new age and go
forward.

Nothing is too great for you to accomplish, nor is anything
too trivial for you to handle with perfection and dispatch.
The Spirit will guide you in perfect ways, even in the
minute details of your life, if you will let it do so. You
must will to do its will and trust it in all your ways. It
will lead you unfailingly when you follow it.

To give up all anxiety and trust in the Lord does not mean
to sit down and do nothing. We are to work as God works. To
work with God as a son follows the occupation of his
father, we are to form what God has created. The anxious
thought must be eliminated. The perfect abandon of the
child of nature must be assumed.

Self Study

There is an all-sufficiency of all things. There is a
kingdom of

//page 202

abundance of all things. It may be found by those who seek
it and are willing to comply with its laws. Whoever you are
and whatever your immediate need, you can demonstrate the
laws. If your thoughts are confused, become still and know
that you are one with the substance and with the law of its
manifestation.

To desire is to have fulfillment. If you are obedient to
the Spirit and are willing to follow without protest, the
way is easy for you. If you question and argue, you will
meet many obstructions and your journey will be long and
tedious.

Do not give too close study to yourself or your present
condition. To dwell in mind upon your seeming limitations
only prolongs their stay and makes your progress slow.

Never allow yourself to come under the control of the "I
can't" man. He believes in limitations. He wraps his talent
in them. He hides it away in the negative earth. No
increase is possible to him.

If there is any lack apparent in your world it is because
the requirements of the law of manifestation have not been
met. This law is based on mind and its operation is through
thoughts and words. God gives the increase. It comes by the
operation of the law. Our part is to keep the law.

//page 203

Use your talent. It will expand wonderfully. Talk about it.
Praise it. Give God thanks for it. Act as though it were
alive. The increase follows.

See what you need as already manifest and as yours. Do not
put it off to some uncertain future time.

Money

Prosperity does not mean the same thing to any two persons.
Some people think of prosperity as something separate from
their spiritual experience. They live in two worlds. It is
not a crime to be rich nor a virtue to be poor. Take God
into all your affairs. Do all things to the glory of God
seven days a week. Be alert in doing whatever comes to you
to do. Be cheerful and competent in the doing, sure of the
results.

No one is ever given the keys to the Father's storehouse of
wealth until he has proved his faith and his reliability.
Supply unfolds at the same rate as the need or ability to
use substance is developed. The more conscious you become
of the presence of the living substance the more it will
manifest itself for you and the richer will be the common
good of all.

There is an inherent faculty that instinctively lays hold
of what it calls its own. The power of the mind to draw to
us those things to

//page 204

which we are divinely entitled is a power that can be
cultivated, and should be.

Substance in the form of money is given to us for
constructive uses. It is given for use and to meet an
immediate need, not to be hoarded away or be foolishly
wasted.

If you ask for money, do not look for an angel from the
skies to bring it on a golden platter. Keep your eyes open
for some fresh opportunity to make money. An opportunity
will come as sure as you live.

Money is man's instrument, not his master. Money was made
for man, not man for money. It is not money that controls
men, but the ideas and beliefs they have about money. Every
man should be taught how to handle ideas, rather than
money, so that they serve him rather than have dominion
over him.

You may think that you could live better and do more good
if you had lots of money. Things would not be a bit better
with you if you had a million dollars, unless you also had
the understanding to use it for the good of yourself and
others. Would you give a child a million dollars to go buy
candy and ice cream for himself? We must evolve with our
possessions until we get the ability to handle them. Then
the law is fulfilled.

You must have in your finances a consciousness

//page 205

of the permanency of the omnipresent substance as it abides
in you. You are standing in the very midst of it. When you
take a prosperity thought, hold it. Refuse to be shaken
from your spiritual stand in the very midst of God's
prosperity and plenty, and supply will begin to come forth
and plenty will become more and more manifest in your
affairs.

Men's thoughts about money are like their thoughts about
all possessions. They believe that things coming out of the
earth are theirs to claim and control as personal property.
They must give up some of their erroneous beliefs about
their "rights." They must learn that they cannot possess
and lock up that which belongs to God without themselves
suffering the effects of that sequestration.

Every thought of personal possession must be dropped out of
mind before men can come into the realization of the
invisible supply. They cannot possess money, houses, or
lands selfishly, because they cannot possess the universal
ideas for which these symbols stand. No man can possess any
idea as his own permanently. He may possess its material
symbol for a little time on the plane of phenomena. It is
the mind that believes in personal possessions that limits
the full idea.

Money can indeed be a cheat. It promises

//page 206

ease and brings cares. It promises pleasures and pays with
pain. It promises influence and returns envy and jealousy.
It promises happiness and gives sorrow. It promises
permanence and then flies away.

Money saved as "an opportunity fund" brings an increase of
good. It is good to have some money on hand for good uses,
such as hospitality, education, for developing industries
that will contribute to the good of numbers of people, for
the furtherance of spiritual work, for helping others to
build useful and constructive lives, and for many other
purposes and activities. In such conservation of money one
should keep ever in mind the necessity of a constructive
motive back of the action.

Money accumulated for a definite and definitely
constructive purpose is quite a different thing from money
hoarded with the fearful thought of a "rainy day" or a
prolonged season of lack and suffering. Money saved for a
"rainy day" is always used for just that, for fear attracts
that which is feared unfailingly.

Do not expect or prepare for adversity of any kind. To do
so is not only to invite it but to show a doubt of God and
all His promises. Money hoarded from fear as a motive or
with any miserly thought in mind cannot possibly bring any
blessing. When one finds freedom

//page 207

from the binding thought of hoarding money, he should not
go to the opposite extreme of extravagant spending. Money
is to be used, not abused. It is good to keep one's
obligations paid.

Do not plan to lay up for the future. Let the future take
care of itself. To entertain any fears or doubts on that
point saps your strength and depletes your spiritual power.
Hold steadily to the thought of the omnipresence of
universal supply, its perfect equilibrium, and its swift
action in filling every apparent vacuum or place of lack.

If you are fearful that you will not be provided with
necessities of life for tomorrow, next week, or next year,
or for your old age, or that your children will be left in
want, deny the thought. Do not allow yourself for a moment
to think of something that is outside the realm of
all-careful, all-providing good. You know even from your
outer experience that the universe is self-sustaining and
that its equilibrium is established by law. The same law
that sustains all sustains you as a part. Insulate your
mind from the destructive thoughts of all those who labor
under the belief in hard times. If your associates talk
about the financial stringency, affirm all the more
persistently your dependence on the abundance of God.

//page 208

Blessing

God is the source of a mighty stream of substance. You are
a tributary of that stream, a channel of expression.
Blessing the substance increases its flow. If your money
supply is low or your purse seems empty, take it in your
hands and bless it. See it filled with the living substance
ready to become manifest. As you prepare your meals bless
the food with the thought of spiritual substance. When you
dress, bless your garments and realize that you are being
constantly clothed with God's substance. Do not center your
thought on yourself, your interests, your gains or losses.
Realize the universal nature of substance.

Giving

The act of giving complies with the divine law. It involves
the recognition of God as the Giver of all increase; and
unless we have a recognition of the Source of our supply we
have no assurance of continuing in its use.

Let us give as God gives, unreservedly, and with no thought
of return, making no mental demands for recompense on those
who have received from us. A gift with reservations is not
a gift; it is a bribe. There is no promise of increase
unless we give freely. Let go of the gift entirely.
Recognize the universal scope of the law. Then the gift has
a chance to go out and

//page 209

to come back multiplied. There is no telling how far the
blessing may travel before it comes back. It is a beautiful
and encouraging fact that the longer it is in returning,
the more hands it is passing through and the more hearts it
is blessing. All these hands and hearts add something to it
in substance. It is increased all the more when it does
return.

True giving is the love and generosity of the
Spirit-quickened heart responding to the love and
generosity of the Father's heart. Without giving the soul
shrivels. When giving is practiced the soul expands and
becomes Godlike in the grace of liberality and generosity.
No restoration to the likeness of God can be complete
unless mind, heart, and soul are daily opening out into the
large, free, bestowing spirit which so characterizes our
God and Father.

In order that the plan of giving may be successful there
are several things that must be observed. First there must
be a willing mind. Second, the giving must be done in
faith. There must be no withholding because the offering
seems small. It is not the amount of the offering but the
spirit in which it is given that determines its value and
power. The results of giving in faith are sure. The law is
unfailing in all ages.

A requisite for keeping the law of giving

//page 210

and receiving is that the offering shall be a just and fair
proportion of all that one receives. Wise distribution is
closely related to the matter of filling God's treasury.

To whom shall we give and when are questions quite
important. There are several truths that may be considered
in this connection. Each person finds it necessary to trust
his spirit of wisdom to manifest in his own heart. There
are no rules or precedents that one can follow in detail.
Careful study of the underlying laws of spiritual giving
will help one to exercise these divine faculties as they
should be exercised.

True spiritual giving rewards with a double joy. One of the
blessings is the satisfying knowledge that we are meeting
the law and paying our debt of love and justice to the
Lord. The other is the joy of sharing the Lord's bounty.
Justice comes first: then generosity.

See yourself as the steward of God handing out His
inexhaustible supplies. Be happy in your giving. Do not
give with any thought that you are bestowing charity. Do
all that you can to annul this mental error. The one with
the surplus is simply a steward of God and is merely
discharging the work of his stewardship. When one asks for
divine wisdom and understanding about giving it becomes a
joy both to the giver and the recipient.

//page 211

Tithing

In the Old Testament the tithe or tenth is mentioned as a
reasonable and just return to the Lord by way of
acknowledging Him as the source of supply. Tithing is the
giving of a tenth of one's supply to God and His work.
Tithing is a tacit agreement that man is in partnership
with God in the conduct of his finances. This leads to
confidence and assurance that whatever is done will bring
increase of some kind.

Tithing establishes method in giving. It brings into the
consciousness a sense of divine order that is manifested in
one's outer life and affairs as increased efficiency and
greater prosperity. It is the surest way ever found to
demonstrate plenty, for it is God's own law and way of
giving.

We are living now under larger and fuller blessings from
God than man has ever known. It is meet therefore that we
give accordingly and remember the law of the tithe. If a
tenth was required under the law in olden times, it is
certainly no less fitting that we should give it cheerfully
now.

The tithe may be a tenth part of one's salary, wage, or
allowance, of the net profits of business, or of money
received from the sale of goods. It is based on every form
of supply, no matter through what channel it may come, for

//page 212

there are many channels through which man is prospered. The
tenth should be set apart for the upkeep of some spiritual
work or workers. It should be set apart first even before
one's personal expenses are taken out, for in the right
relation of things God comes first always. Then everything
else follows in divine order and falls into its proper
place.

The great promise of prosperity is that if men seek God and
His righteousness first, then all shall be added unto them.
One of the most practical and sensible ways of seeking
God's kingdom first is to be a tither, to put God first in
finances. It is the promise of God, and the experience of
all who have tried it, that all things necessary to their
comfort, welfare, and happiness have been added to them in
an overflowing measure. Tithing establishes method in
giving and brings into the consciousness a sense of order
and fitness that will be manifested in one's outer life and
affairs as increased efficiency and greater prosperity.

Another blessing that follows the practice of tithing is
the continual "letting go" of what one receives, which
keeps one's mind open to the good and from covetousness.
Making an occasional large gift and then permitting a lapse
of time before another is made will not give this lasting
benefit, for one's mind channel may in

//page 213

the meantime become clogged with material thoughts of fear,
lack, or selfishness.

When a person tithes he is giving continuously, so that no
spirit of grasping, no fear, and no thought of limitations
get a hold on him. There is nothing that keeps a person's
mind so fearless and so free to receive the good constantly
coming to him as the practice of tithing. Each day, week,
pay day, whenever it is, the tither gives one tenth. When
an increase of prosperity comes to him, as come it will and
does, his first thought is to give God the thanks and the
tenth of the new amount. The free, open mind thus stayed on
God is certain to bring forth joy, real satisfaction in
living, and true prosperity. Tithing is based on a law that
cannot fail.

Debt

A thought of debt will produce debt. So long as you believe
in debt you will go into debt and accumulate the burdens
that follow that thought. Whoever has not forgiven all men
their debts is likely to fall into debt himself.

Debt is a contradiction of the universal equilibrium. There
is no such thing as lack of equilibrium in all the
universe. Therefore in Spirit and in Truth there is no
debt. Men hold on to a thought of debt. This thought is
responsible

//page 214

for a great deal of sorrow and hardship.

Debts exist in the mind. In the mind is the proper place to
begin liquidating them. These thought entities must be
abolished in mind before their outer manifestations will
pass away and stay away. Analyze the thought of debt. You
will see it involves a thought of lack. We should fill our
mind with thoughts of all-sufficiency. Where there is no
lack there can be no debts. The way to pay our debts is by
filling our mind with the substance of ideas that are the
direct opposite of the thoughts of lack that caused the
debts.

See substance everywhere and affirm it, not only for
yourself but for everyone else. Especially affirm abundance
for those whom you have held in the thought of owing you.
You will help them pay their debts more easily than if you
merely erased their names from your book of accounts
receivable. Help pay the other fellow's debts by forgiving
him his debts and declaring for him the abundance that is
his already in Spirit. The idea of abundance will also
bring its fruits into your own life.

Debts are produced by thoughts of lack, impatient desire,
and covetousness. When these thoughts are overcome, debts
are overcome, forgiven, and paid in full, and we are free.

//page 215

The way is now open for you to pay your debts. Surrender
them to God along with all your doubts and fears. Give Him
full dominion in your life and affairs. Give Him your
business, your family affairs, your finances, and let Him
pay your debts. He is even now doing it. It is His
righteous desire to free you from every burden. He is
leading you out of the burden of debt, whether of owing or
being owed. Love will bring your own to you.

Waste

Any form of waste is a violation of the divine law of
conservation. Men and women scatter their energies to the
four winds in the effort to satisfy the desires of the
flesh and then wonder why they do not demonstrate
prosperity. If your substance is going here, there, and
everywhere, being spent in riotous thinking and living, how
can it accumulate to the point of demonstration? When you
overcome your desire for dissipation, then you will begin
to accumulate substance that must manifest itself as
prosperity according to the law. Do not spend foolishly or
save foolishly.

Lack

The only lack is our own lack of appropriation. We must
seek the kingdom of God and appropriate it aright before

//page 216

things will be added to us in fullness.

Overcome any leaning in the direction and every belief that
you were meant to be poor. Do not hesitate to think that
prosperity is for you. Do not feel unworthy. No one is ever
hopeless until he is resigned to his imagined fate.

Deny every appearance of failure. Stand by your guns. Think
prosperity. Talk prosperity. Affirm supply, support, and
success in the very face of question and doubt. Give thanks
for plenty in all your affairs. Know for a certainty that
your good is now being fulfilled in Spirit, in mind, and in
manifestation.

Every time you say "I am a little short of funds," "I
haven't as much money as I need," you are putting a limit
on the substance in your own consciousness.

It is important to watch your thoughts so that the larger
supply may come through your mind and into your affairs.
There is no lack of anything anywhere in reality. The only
lack is the fear of lack in the mind of man. We do not need
to overcome any lack. We must overcome the fear of lack.

Fear of lack led men to speculate in order to accumulate
substance and have a lot of it stored up. This caused a
still greater fear of lack in other men. The situation grew
worse

//page 217

and worse until it became generally believed that we must
pile up the material symbols of substance for a possible
lack in the future. We must learn to understand the divine
law of supply and the original plan, which is that we have
each day our daily bread. Anything more than we need for
today is a burden. The substance is here all the time,
supplying us with every needful thing. Start with the
fundamental proposition that there is plenty for you and
for me.

Loss

Deny that you can lose anything. Let go of negative
thoughts of financial loss or any other kind of loss.
Realize that nothing is ever lost in all the universe.
There are opportunities everywhere. There always have been
opportunities to produce all that you need financially or
otherwise.

New ideas come to you from within. Do not think for a
moment that you are limited to the beliefs that come from
without. Many of those beliefs are outgrown anyway and have
outlived their usefulness. That is why we go through
periods of change. Old outworn beliefs should be discarded
and replaced with new and better ones. We can find new ways
of living and new methods of work. We are not confined to
the ways and methods of the past.

//page 218

Paying Bills

The funds to pay all your bills may not suddenly appear in
a lump sum. As you watch and work and pray, holding
yourself in the consciousness of God's leadership and His
abundance, you will notice your funds beginning to grow
"here a little, there a little," and increasing more and
more rapidly as your faith increases and your anxious
thoughts are stilled.

Do not yield to the temptation of "easy-payment plans." Any
payment that drains your pay envelope before you receive it
is not an easy payment. Do not allow false pride to tempt
you to put on a thousand-dollar front on a hundred-dollar
salary. There may be times when you are tempted to miss
paying a bill in order to indulge a desire for something.
This easily leads one into the habit of putting off paying,
which fastens the incubus of debt on people before they
realize it.

Creditors

Bless your creditors with the thought of abundance as you
begin to accumulate the wherewithal to pay off your
obligations. Keep the faith they had in you by including
them in your prayer for increase. There is a legitimate
commerce that is carried on by means of what is called
credit. It is a convenience to be used by those who
appreciate its

//page 219

value and are careful not to abuse it. To do so would be to
ruin it. No one should assume an obligation unless he is
prepared to meet it promptly and willingly when it comes
due.

Never for a moment allow yourself to entertain any scheme
for getting the better of your fellows in any trade or
bargain. Hold steadily to the law of equity and justice
that is working in and through you. Know for a certainty
that you are supplied with everything necessary to fulfill
all your requirements. Give full value for everything you
get. Demand the same for everything you give. Do not try to
enforce that demand by human methods. There is a better
way. Think of yourself as Spirit working with powerful
spiritual forces. Know that the demands of Spirit must and
will be met.

Prosperous Home

The first thing to do in making a demonstration of
prosperity in the home is to discard all negative thoughts
and words. Build a positive thought atmosphere in the home,
an atmosphere that is free from fear and filled with love.

The home is the heart of the nation. The heart is the love
center. Love is the world's greatest attractive power. The
heart of man, or the home that is the heart of the nation,
must be aglow with God's love; then it becomes a

//page 220

magnet drawing all good from every direction.

God has amply provided for every home. The provision is in
universal substance which responds only to law. Through the
application of the law the substance is drawn to us and
begins to work for us.

Never make an assertion in the home, no matter how true it
may look on the surface, that you would not want to see
persist in the home. By talking lack you are making a
comfortable place for this unwelcome guest by your
fireside, and it will want to stay. Fill the home with
thoughts and words of plenty, love, and God's substance,
and the unwelcome guest will soon leave.

If your rooms are empty, deny the appearance. Determine
that prosperity is manifest in every part of every room.
Never think of yourself as poor or needy. Do not talk about
hard times or the necessity for strict economy. Even "the
walls have ears" and, unfortunately, memories too. Do not
think how little you have but how much you have.

Talk plenty. Think plenty. Give thanks for plenty. Enlist
all the members of the home in the same work. Make it a
game. It's lots of fun. Better than that, it actually
works. Every home can be prosperous.

You should never condemn anything in

//page 221

your home. If you want new articles of furniture or new
clothes to take the place of those you now have, do not
talk about your present things as old or shabby. Watch your
words. See yourself clothed as befits the child of a King.
See your house furnished just as pleases your ideal. Plant
in the home atmosphere the seed of richness and abundance.
It will all come to you. Use the patience, the wisdom, and
the assiduity that the farmer employs in planting and
cultivating, and your crop will be sure.

Being like Others

The delusion that it is necessary to be just like other
people, or to have as much as other people have, causes a
spirit of anxiety that hinders the exercise of faith in
demonstration. Each one unconsciously follows suggestions
and furnishes his home with the same sort of things as his
neighbors. Here and there are exceptions. Someone expresses
his individuality, overcoming mass suggestion and buying
furniture he really wants or that is really comfortable and
useful. This free, independent spirit has much in its favor
in making a prosperity demonstration.

Do not envy the rich. Never condemn those who have money,
merely because they have it and you do not. Do not question
how they got

//page 222

their money and wonder whether or not they are honest. All
that is none of your business. Your business is to get what
belongs to you. You do that by thinking about the
omnipresent substance of God and how you can lay hold of it
through love. Get in touch with God riches in spirit. Lay
hold of them by love and you will have sufficient for every
day.

Attitudes

Tell me what kind of thoughts you are holding about
yourself and your neighbors, and I can tell you just what
you may expect in the way of finances and harmony in your
home. Are you suspicious of your neighbors? You cannot love
and trust in God if you hate and distrust men. Love and
hate, or trust and mistrust, simply cannot both be present
in your mind at one time. When you are entertaining one,
you may be sure the other is absent. Trust other people,
and use the power that you accumulate from that act to
trust God. There is magic in it. It works wonders. Love and
trust are dynamic, vital powers. Are you accusing men of
being thieves, and fearing that they are going to take away
from you something that is your own? With such a thought
generating fear and even terror in your mind and filling
your consciousness with darkness, where is there room for
the Father's light of protection? Build

//page 223

walls of love and substance around yourself. Send out
swift, invisible messengers of love and trust for your
protection. They are better guards than policemen or
detectives.

Simple Life

The soul wearies of the wear and tear of the artificial
world. There is a great difference between the simple life
and lack. The two have been associated in the minds of some
people. This is the reason they shun the idea of the simple
life. Even those who have come into some degree of
spiritual understanding sometimes put out of mind all
thought of a simple manner of living. They fear that others
will think they are failing to demonstrate prosperity.

The simple life does not imply lack and it is not ascetic.
The simple life is a state of consciousness. It is peace,
contentment, and satisfaction in the joy of living and
loving. It is attained through thinking about God and
worshiping Him in spirit and in truth.

Success

Success or failure depends upon the attitude of mind active
in both those who achieve success and those who fall under
the negations of failure. To attain prosperity, think about
prosperity, industry, and efficiency. Fill your mind to
overflowing with

//page 224

thoughts of success; realize that the fullness of all good
belongs to you by divine right. To this add a feeling of
happiness and joy, and you have the recipe for abundant and
lasting prosperity and success.

Whoever seeks supply through Spirit and submits his cause
to the law of justice and righteousness always succeeds.
The reason why men fail to demonstrate the many promises of
divine support is that they cling to some selfish or unjust
thought. Once the Christ Mind is perceived and obeyed,
success follows.

God prospers us when we give the best that is in us and do
all things unto Him, acknowledging Him in all our affairs.
This is a sure way to success, and when success does come
we should realize that it resulted from the work of Spirit
in us, because we made ourself a channel through which the
Christ Mind could bring its ideas into manifestation. The
true Christian never boasts that he is a self-made man, for
he well knows that all that he is and has, together with
all that he can ever hope to be or to have, is but God
finding expression through him.

//page 225

//section Praise and Thanksgiving

//text

IN SPIRIT, praise accumulates. In sense consciousness this
faculty is called acquisitiveness. It accumulates material
things. Praise opens the portal of the 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.

Praise is the complement of sight and hearing. It is the
redemption of weariness. From it issues the Savior of the
world. Instead of a supplication, prayer should be a
jubilant thanksgiving. This method of prayer quickens the

//page 226

mind miraculously. Like a mighty magnet, it draws out the
spiritual qualities that transform the whole man when they
are given expression in mind, body, and affairs.

Spirituality

Spirituality (prayer and praise) 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 is in the top of the head and becomes
active and our attention is naturally drawn to it.

Prayer

Prayer is natural to man. It should be cultivated in order
to round out his character. Prayer is the language of
spirituality. When developed, prayer 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 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.

//page 227

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.

God's Will

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.
The Father does not take our will from us. He gives us the
utmost freedom in the exercise of the will faculty. He also
imparts an understanding of the law, through the operation
of which we can make any condition that we desire.

Aggregation

One of the offices of spirituality is to aggregate divine
ideas. Through this action man draws absolutely true ideas
from the universal Mind. Thus prayer

//page 228

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.

With understanding and realization of the relation between
the idea and the fulfillment of the idea, Jesus 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 beliefs nearer to the perfection of the
realm of divine ideas.

Response

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.

//page 229

Animal trainers pet and reward their charges with
delicacies for acts of obedience. Children glow with joy
and gladness when they are 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.

Thought Stuff

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 mind 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 praise, 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 seemed
unmanageable.

//page 230

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 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 dealings with them, does not matter so long as
the desired end was attained.

Health and Supply

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 lack to affluence, from
sickness to health. The little lad with a few loaves and
fishes furnished the seed that,

//page 231

through prayer and thanksgiving of Jesus, increased
sufficiently to feed five thousand people.

All causes that bring about permanent results originate in
Spirit. Spirituality, faith, and love are God-given
faculties. When we are raised in consciousness to their
plane they act naturally under a spiritual law that we may
not comprehend. 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.

We all need a better understanding of the nature of God if
we are to comply with the laws under which He creates. We
must begin by knowing that "God is Spirit." Spirit is
everywhere--the breath of life and the knowing quality of
mind active in and through all. The highest form of prayer
is to open our mind and quietly realize that the one
omnipresent intelligence knows our thoughts and instantly
answers, even before we have audibly expressed our desires.

This being true, we should ask and at the same time give
thanks that we have already received. Jesus expressed this
idea. When we think or silently speak in the all-potential
substance of Spirit, there is always an unfailing effect.

//page 232

"Always praise the cooking of the cook" is the instruction
of the veteran hobo to the novice. Experience has taught
the gentlemen of the road that praise and thanks melt the
hardest heart and often open the door to amazing
hospitality. Tradespeople have found that "Thank you" has
commercial value. The prophets of old knew the power of
increase inherent in thanksgiving. "Praise ye the Lord" is
repeated again and again in the Psalms.

Increase

We increase our vitality by blessing and giving thanks in
spirit. To bring about this increase efficiently we must
understand the anatomy of the soul and mind centers.

It has been found by experience that a person increases his
blessings by being grateful for what he has. Gratitude even
on the mental plane is a great magnet. When gratitude is
expressed from the spiritual standpoint it is powerfully
augmented. The custom of saying grace at the table has its
origin in man's attempt to use this power of increase.

A woman who had been left with a large family and no
visible means of support related how wonderfully this law
had worked in providing food for her children. In her
extremity she had asked the advice of one who understood
the law, and she had been told to thank

//page 233

God silently for abundant supply on her table, regardless
of appearances. She and her children began doing this, and
in a short time the increase of food was so great at times
that it astonished them. Her grocer's bill was met promptly
and in most marvelous ways the family was supplied with
food. Never after that time did they lack.

A simple word of blessing poured out upon that which we
have or that which we can conceive as possible for us as
sons of the all-providing God will at least begin to
release the superabundance of Spirit substance, and we
shall have an inner confidence and faith in the providence
of our Father.

Jesus warned us not to be anxious about temporal needs but
to pray, believing, and to bless and give thanks; then
right in the face of seeming insufficiency we should be
enabled to demonstrate plenty.

Get Ready

When we commune with the Spirit within and ask for new
ideas, they are always forthcoming. When these ideas from
within us are recognized, they go to work and come to the
surface. Then all the thoughts we have ever had, as well as
the thoughts of other people, are added to them and new
things are quickly produced. Let us

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quit depending slavishly on someone else for everything and
become producers, for only in that direction lies happiness
and success. Let us begin to concentrate on this inner man,
this powerful man who produces things, who gets his ideas
from a higher-dimensional realm, who brings ideas from a
new territory.

What kind of character are you giving to this inner
substance by your thoughts? Change your thought and
increase your substance in the mind, as Elisha increased
the oil for the widow. Get larger receptacles and plenty of
them. Even a very small concept of substance may be added
to and increased.

The widow had a very small amount of oil, but as the
prophet blessed it, it increased until it filled every
vessel she could borrow from the neighbors. We should form
the habit of blessing everything that we have.

It may seem foolish to some persons that we bless our
nickels, dimes, and dollars, but we know that we are
setting the law of increase into operation. All substance
is one and connected, whether in the visible or the
invisible. The mind likes something that is already formed
and tangible for a suggestion to take hold of. With this
image the mind sets to work to draw like substance from the
invisible realm and thus increase what we have in hand.

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Elisha used a small amount of oil to produce a great amount
of oil. So when we bless our money or other goods, we are
complying with the divine law of increase that has been
demonstrated many times.

Blessing and Curse

The Israelites set great store in blessing. Rightly
understood, a blessing is a great source of inspiration. It
lays a firm foundation in the mind. It brings out the good.
A curse sees the evil and emphasizes it. A blessing sees
only the good and emphasizes only the good. He who uses his
mind to curse gets the curse in return, while the mind that
blesses receives blessings in return. Blessing imparts the
quickening spiritual power that produces growth and
increase. It is the power of multiplication.

Praise is the positive pole of life. If you depreciate your
life you decrease your consciousness of life. All who have
reached heights in things spiritual have been noted for
their devotions. Jesus spent whole nights in prayer. He
seemed to be asking the Father and thanking Him in almost
the same breath on every occasion where He did a great work
or expounded a notable truth. Praise is an active principle
in our spiritual thoughts and should be given first place
in all our thanksgiving.

//page 236

//section Love

//text

LOVE, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In
expression, love is the power that joins and binds in
divine harmony the universe and everything in it. Among the
faculties of the mind, love is pivotal. Its center of
mentation in the body is the cardiac plexus. The physical
representative of love is the heart, the office of which is
to equalize the circulation of the blood in the body. As
the heart equalizes the life flow in the body, so love
harmonizes the thought of the mind.

We connect our soul forces with whatever we center our love
upon. If we love the things

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of sense or materiality, we are joined or attached to them
through a fixed law of being. In the divine order of being,
the soul, or thinking part, of man is joined to its
spiritual ego. If it allows itself to become joined to the
outer or sense consciousness, it makes personal images that
are limitations.

Regeneration

In the regeneration, our love goes through a
transformation, which broadens, strengthens, and deepens
it. We no longer confine love to family, friends, and
personal relations, but expand it to include all things.
The denial of human relationships seems at first glance to
be a repudiation of the family group, but it is merely a
cleansing of the mind from limited beliefs of love when
this faculty would satisfy itself solely by means of human
kinship.

Meditate on Love

One should make it a practice to meditate regularly on the
love idea in universal Mind, with the prayer, "Divine love,
manifest thyself in me." There should be periods of mental
concentration on love. Think about love, and all the ideas
that go to make up love will be set into motion. This
produces a positive love current which, when sent forth
with power, will

//page 238

break up opposing thoughts of hate, and render them null
and void.

The thought of hate will be dissolved, not only in the mind
of the thinker but in the minds of those with whom he comes
in contact in mind or in body.

The love current is not a projection of the will. It is a
setting free of a natural, equalizing, harmonizing force
that in most persons has been dammed up by human
limitations.

The ordinary man is not aware that he possesses this mighty
power, which will turn away every shaft of hate that is
aimed at him. Here is a faculty native to man, existent in
every soul, which may be used at all times to bring about
harmony and unity among those who have been disunited
through misunderstanding, contentions, or selfishness.

Love is more than mere affection, and all our words
protesting our love are not of value unless we have this
inner current, which is real substance. Though we have the
eloquence of men and of angels, and have not this deeper
feeling, it profits us nothing. We should deny the mere
conventional, surface affection, and should set our mind on
the substance of love.

Phases

Charity is not love. You may be kindhearted, and give to
the poor

//page 239

and needy until you are impoverished, yet not acquire love.
You may be a martyr to the cause of Truth and consume your
vitality in good works, yet be far from love. Love is a
force that runs in the mind and body like molten gold in a
furnace. It does not mix with the baser metals. It has no
affinity for anything less than itself. Love is patient. It
never gets weary or discouraged. Love is always kind and
gentle. It does not envy. Jealousy has no place in its
world. Love never becomes puffed up with human pride, and
does not brag about itself. It is love that makes the
refinement of the natural gentleman or lady, although he or
she may be ignorant of the world's standards of culture.
Love does not seek its own. Its own comes to it without
being sought.

Jesus came proclaiming the spiritual interrelationship of
the human family. His teaching was always of gentleness,
nonresistance, love. To do this, one must be established in
the consciousness of divine love, and there must be
discipline of the mental nature to preserve such a high
standard. The divine law is founded in the eternal unity of
all things.

Fearlessness

Divine love in the heart establishes one in fearlessness
and indomitable courage. A woman who understands

//page 240

this law was waylaid by a tramp. She looked him steadily in
the eye and said, "God loves you." He released his hold
upon her and slunk away. Another woman saw a man beating a
horse that could not pull a load up a hill. She silently
said to the man, "The love of God fills your heart and you
are tender and kind." He unhitched the horse; the grateful
animal walked directly over to the house where the woman
was, and put his nose against the window behind which she
stood. A young girl sang "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" to a
calloused criminal; the man's heart was softened, and he
was reformed.

The new heaven and the new earth that are now being
established among men and nations the world over are based
on love. When men understand each other, love increases.
This is true not only among men, but between men and the
animal world, and even between man and the vegetable world.

Feelings

We may talk about the wisdom of God, but the love of God
must be felt in the heart. It cannot be described, and one
who has not felt it can have no concept of it from the
descriptions of others. The more we talk about love, the
stronger it grows in the consciousness. If we persist in
thinking loving thoughts and speaking loving words, we are

//page 241

sure to bring into our experience the feeling of that great
love that is beyond description--the very love of God.

Purity

It is popularly taught and believed that there is but one
love; that God is love and that all love is from Him, hence
that all love is God's love. Love is a divine principle and
man can know it in its purity by touching it at its
fountainhead. There it is not tinged in any way by man's
formative thought, but flows forth a pure, pellucid stream
of infinite ecstasy. It has no consciousness of good or
evil, pure or impure, but pours itself out in great oceans
of living magnetic power, to be used by whosoever will.

Thinking gives color, tone, shape, character to all
creation. Error thought has put greed into love. Wherever
love is tainted with selfishness, we may know that error
thought has made muddy its clear stream, so that it no
longer represents the purity of its source.

A Magnet

Love is the drawing power of mind. It is the magnet of the
universe, and about it may be clustered all the attributes
of Being, by one who thinks in divine order. Many who have
found the law of true thinking and its effect wonder why
supply does

//page 242

not come to them after months and years of holding thoughts
of bounty. It is because they have not developed love. They
have formed the right image in mind, but the magnet that
draws the substance from the storehouse of Being has not
been set into action.

To demonstrate supply, we must think supply, and thus form
it in the consciousness. We must conserve all the ideas of
substance in the mind. We must vibrate with love in
thought, word, and act. Then will come to us on the wings
of invisibility that which will satisfy every need. This is
the secret of demonstrating plenty.

Love never sees anything wrong in that which it loves. If
it did, it would not be pure love. Pure love is without
discriminating power. It simply pours itself out upon the
object of its affection, and takes no account of the
result. By so doing, love sometimes casts its pearls before
swine, but its power is so great that it transforms all
that it touches.

Evil

Do not be afraid to pour out your love upon all the
so-called evil in the world. Deny the appearance of evil,
and affirm the omnipotence and omnipresence of love and
goodness. Take no account of the evil that appears in your
life and your affairs. Refuse to see

//page 243

it as evil. Declare that what seems evil has somewhere a
good side, which shall through your persistent affirmation
of its presence be made visible. By using this creative
power of your own thought you will change that which seemed
evil into good, and divine love wilI pour its healing balm
over all.

Always remember that love is the great magnet of God. It
is, of itself, neither good nor evil. These are qualities
given to it by the thinking faculty in man. Whatever you
see for your love, that it will draw to you, because as a
magnet it attracts whatever you set your desire upon.

To focus your love about self and selfish aims will cause
it to draw around you the limited things of personality and
the hollow shams of sense life. To focus your love upon
money and the possessions of the material world will make
you the slave of it, and will make your life a failure and
a disappointment.

Difficulties

You may trust love to get you out of your difficulties.
There is nothing too hard for it to accomplish for you, if
you put your confidence in it and act without
dissimulation. Do not talk love and in your heart feel
resentment. This will bring discord to your body. Love is
candor and frankness. Deception is no part of love. He who
tries to use

//page 244

it in that sort of company will prove itself a liar, and
love will desert him in the end.

Love is satisfaction in itself--not that satisfaction with
personal self, its possessions and its attractions, which
is vanity, but an inner satisfaction that sees good
everywhere and in everybody. It insists that all is good,
and by refusing to see anything but good it causes that
quality to appear uppermost in itself and in all things.
When only good is seen and felt, how can there be anything
but satisfaction?

Universal Goal

When love, the universal magnet, is brought into action in
the consciousness of our race, it will change all our
methods of supplying human wants. It will harmonize all the
forces of nature and will dissolve the discords that now
infest earth and air. It will control the elements until
they obey man and bring forth that which will supply all
his needs without the labor that is called the sweat of his
face. The earth shall yet be made paradise by the power of
love. That condition will begin to set in for each one just
as soon as he develops the love nature in himself.

//page 245

//section Forgiveness

//text

FORGIVENESS is a process of giving up the false for the
true; erasing sin and error from the mind and body. It is
closely related to repentance, which is a turning from
belief in sin to belief in God and righteousness. A sin is
the falling short of divine law. True forgiveness is only
established through renewing of the mind and body with
thoughts and words of Truth.

Forgiveness really means the giving up of something you
should not do. Jesus said that man has power to forgive
sin. Repentance and forgiveness are the only means that man
has of

//page 246

getting out of sin and its effect and coming into harmony
with the law.

Repentance

Repentance is a reversal of mind and heart in the direction
of the All-Good. When we repent, we break with human
thought and ascend into a spiritual thought realm, the
kingdom of God.

The Greek word metanoia is translated "repentance," which
has been interpreted to mean an admission to God of sorrow
for past sin and a resolve to be good in the future. The
field of action for that which has been assumed to be
goodness in the sight of God has nearly always been in
conduct.

There is always hope for the repentant sinner. A repentant
state of mind is an exceeding good state for one who has
been on the error side. If you find yourself suffering the
result of transgressed law, begin at once a righteous
repentance. As soon as you repent and recognize that the
way of Spirit is the way of pleasantness, your sins are
forgiven you, and you are made whole and well.

Law

The law is Truth. Truth is all that is good. There is no
power or no reality in sin. If sin were real and enduring,
like goodness and Truth, it could not be forgiven but

//page 247

would hold its victim forever. Our first work in the
demonstration is to contact God. Therefore, we must forgive
all men their transgressions. Through the divine law of
forgiveness we cleanse our mind so that the Father can
forgive us.

Man can do everything with the thoughts of his mind. They
are absolutely under his control. He can direct them. He
can coerce them. He can hush them or crush them. He can
dissolve one thought and put another in its stead. There is
no other place in the universe where man has mastery. The
dominion that is his by divine right is over his own
thoughts, only. When man apprehends this and begins to
exercise that dominion, he begins to open the way to
God--the only door to God--through mind and thought.

Law of Dissolving

How can you expect to forgive your transgressions before
you have first forgiven others their transgressions? One of
the laws of mind is that one belief must be dissolved
before another can take its place. If you have in mind a
thought that someone has wronged you, you cannot let in the
cleansing power of Spirit until you have dissolved and cast
out the belief of the wrong.

//page 248

You may be wondering why you do not get spiritual
illumination as others do. What kind of thoughts fill your
mind? Have you by forgiving your debtors made room in your
life for spiritual blessings, or is your mind filled with
thoughts of resentment against this one, and a feeling that
you have been slighted by that one? Jesus recognized this
infallible law of mind.

Thoughts have substance and form. They may easily be taken
to be permanent by one who lacks spiritual discernment.
They bring forth fruit according to the seed ideas planted
into the mind. They are not enduring unless founded in
Spirit.

The question is not "How guilty is that man," but "How do I
stand in the sight of the Father as to my ideas about his
guilt?" Reform yourself first. That means very much more to
one who enjoys an understanding of mind and its laws than
it does to the ordinary individual.

He who knows not himself wholly, but just his superficial,
external personality, thinks that he is reformed when he
conforms to moral and municipal laws. He may be filled with
self-righteousness and may daily lift his voice in prayer,
thanking God that he is not as other men are; but he has
not forgiven men their transgressions. He looks upon every
man who does not conform to his understanding of morality,

//page 249

religion, or finances as a transgressor, and thanks God for
his own supposed insight and keenness. But he is not at
peace. There is something lacking. God does not talk to him
"face to face," because the mind, where God and man meet,
is darkened by the murky belief that other men are sinners.
God is too pure to behold iniquity, so our first work of
reform is to forgive all men their transgressions. Through
this forgiving act on our part, the Father can enter with
forgiveness of our transgressions.

Forgiving All

Our forgiving "all men" includes ourself. You must also
forgive yourself. Let the finger of denial erase every sin
or "falling short" that you have charged up against
yourself. Pay your debt by saying to that part of yourself
which you think has fallen short: "See, you are well! sin
no more, that nothing worse befall you." Then "loose him,
and let him go."

Treat sin as a mental transgression, instead of considering
it as a moral defection. Deny in thought all tendency to
the error way and hold yourself firmly to the Christ
Spirit, which is your divine self. Part company forever
with the "accusing conscience." Those who have resolved to
sin no more have nothing in common with guilt.

//page 250

Forgiving Debts

Deny that any man or woman owes you anything. If necessary,
go over your list of names separately and sincerely forgive
the thought of debt which you have been attaching to each
person named. More bills may be collected in this way than
in any other, for many of these people will pay what they
owe when you send them this forgiving thought.

Let the law of plenty work itself out in you and in your
affairs. This is the way the Father forgives your debts:
not by canceling them on His books but by erasing them from
His mind. He remembers them no more against you when you
deny their reality. The Father is the every-where-present
Spirit in which all that appears has its origin. God's love
sees you always well, happy, and abundantly provided for.
God's wisdom demands that order and right relation exist in
your mind before it may become manifest in your affairs as
abundance. His love would give you your every desire, but
His wisdom ordains that you forgive your debtors before
your debts are forgiven.

To remedy any state of limited finances or ill health that
has been brought about by worry, one must begin by
eliminating the worry that is the original cause. One must
free one's mind from the burden before the debt can be paid.

//page 251

Many people have found that the statement "I owe no man
anything but love" has helped them greatly to counteract
this thought of debt. As they used the words their minds
were opened to an inflow of divine love and they faithfully
cooperated with the divine law of forgiveness in thought,
word, and deed. They built up such a strong consciousness
of the healing and enriching power of God's love that they
could live and work peacefully and profitably with their
associates. Thus renewed constantly in health, in faith,
and in integrity, they were able to meet every obligation
that came to them.

The statement "I owe no man anything but love" does not
mean that we can disclaim owing our creditors money or try
to evade the payment of obligations we have incurred. The
thing denied is the burdensome thought of debt or of lack.
The work of paying debts is an inner work having nothing to
do with the debts already owed but with the wrong thoughts
that produced them. When one holds to the right ideas,
burdensome debts will not be contracted.

Love

Your thoughts should at all times be worthy of your highest
self, your fellow man, and God. The thoughts that most
frequently work ill to you and your associates are thoughts
of criticism and condemnation. Fill

//page 252

your mind with thoughts of divine love, justice, peace, and
forgiveness. This will pay your debts of love, which are
the only debts you really owe. Then see how quickly and
easily and naturally all your outer debts will be paid and
all inharmonies of mind, body, and affairs will smooth out
at the same time. Nothing will so quickly enrich your mind
and free it from every thought of lack as the realization
of divine love. Divine love will free you quickly and
perfectly from the burden of debt and heal you of your
physical infirmities, often caused by depression, worry,
and financial fear. Love will bring your own to you. Adjust
all misunderstandings and make your life and affairs
healthy, happy, harmonious, and free, as they should be.
Love indeed is the "fulfilling of the law."

In the kingdom of Truth and reality, ideas are the coin of
the realm. You can use the new ideas that divine wisdom is
now quickening in your mind and start this very moment to
pay your debts.

Freedom

Begin by thanking God for your freedom from debt-burden
thought. This is an important step in breaking the shackles
of debt. Debt is soon vanquished when wisdom and good
judgment are in control.

//page 253

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is
possible with the means you have and as you proceed in this
spirit the way will open for you to do more; for through
the avenues of Spirit more means will come to you and every
obligation will be met.

No one can understand how forgiveness sets free the
sin-bound soul and the sick body unless he studies mind and
has some understanding of its laws. There is a universal
thought substance in which thought builds whatever man
wills.

Change

There must be inner growth that is a fuller consciousness
of the new life which comes with the entering into the
kingdom of Christ. There is a foundation for a worldwide
movement in behalf of purer men and better things for all.
There is something back of it all, and the old conditions,
diseases, and limitations must pass away. The time is now
ripe for entering into this kingdom, this attainment of the
spiritual side of life, this growing of a new body; and
every one of us can enter in if only we will do so.

In all actual transformation of mind and body a dissolving,
breaking-up process necessarily takes place, because
thought force and substance have been built into the errors
that

//page 254

appear. In each individual these errors have the power that
man has given them by his thought concerning them. These
thought structures must be broken up and eliminated from
consciousness.

The simplest, most direct, and most effective method is to
withdraw from them the life and substance that have been
going to feed them, and to let them shrivel away into their
own nothingness. This withdrawal is best accomplished by
denial and forgiveness of the power and reality of evil and
the affirmation of the allness of Spirit.

Nothing is destroyed, because "nothing cannot be destroyed.
The change that takes place is merely a transference of
power from an error belief to faith in the Truth, through
the recognition that God is good and is all that in reality
exists.

To get the actual overcoming power of Christ we must
appreciate life and enter into it thankfully and heartily.
The abundant life is always present. When we recognize it
and open our consciousness to it, it comes flowing into
mind and body with a mighty quickening, healing power that
renews, transforms, and changes.

//page 255

//section Adam and Eve

//text

THE BIBLE veils in its history the march of man from
innocence and ignorance to a measure of sophistication and
understanding. Over all hovers the divine idea of man, the
perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a perpetual source of
inspiration and power for every man.

Allegory

What is stated in the Book of Genesis in the form of
allegory can be reduced to ideas. These ideas can be worked
out by the guidance of mental laws.

//page 256

God creates through the action of His mind, and all things
rest on ideas. Divine Mind images its ideas definitely and
in every detail. The idea precedes the fulfillment. Ideas
are productive and bring forth after their kind. They
express themselves under the law of divine imagery.

The Book of Genesis gives two accounts of the creation of
man; the first is that of the creation by Elohim and the
second is that of the creation by Jehovah. The first act of
mind is the formation of the idea, and the second is the
expression of that idea. Elohim or God-Mind creates a
Spiritual Man, in whom are conceived to be present all the
attributes of his source. Next this Spiritual Man, Jehovah
God, God-Mind identified as I AM, forms man in spiritual
substance, in the "dust of the ground."

Adam

Adam is the first movement of mind in its contact with life
and substance. He represents the generic man, or the whole
human race epitomized in an individual-man idea.

If the ego, or will, which is man, has adhered to wisdom
faithfully and has carried out in its work the plans that
are idealized in wisdom, it has created a harmonious
consciousness. Adam in the Garden of Eden is symbolical of
that consciousness.

//page 257

Eve

Eve is love, or feeling, in individual consciousness. The I
AM (wisdom) puts feeling into what it thinks, and so Eve
(feeling) becomes the "mother of all living." Feeling is
Spirit which quickens. Woman symbolizes the soul region of
man and is the mother principle of God in expression. Back
of the woman (feeling) is the pure life essence of God.

Eden

Eden is a pleasant, harmonious, productive state of
consciousness in which are all possibilities of growth.
When man is expressing in harmony with Divine Mind,
bringing forth the qualities of Being in divine order, he
dwells in Eden, or in a state of bliss in a harmonious body.

The "garden" symbolizes the spiritual body in which man
dwells when he brings forth his thoughts after the original
divine ideas. This garden is the substance of God or state
of perfect relation of ideas to Being. The Garden of Eden
is the divine consciousness.

The Fall

Adam in his original creation was in spiritual
illumination. Spirit breathed into him continually the
necessary inspiration and knowledge to give him superior
understanding. But he began eating,

//page 258

or appropriating, beliefs in two powers--God and not-God,
or good and evil. The result, so the allegory relates, was
that he fell away from spiritual life and all that it
involves.

Having developed a consciousness apart from his divine
nature, man must "till the ground from which he was taken,"
that is, he must come into a realization of God as the
source of his Being and must express ideas in harmony with
Divine Mind.

Adamic Consciousness

Man is Spirit, absolute and unconditioned; but man forms an
Adamic consciousness into which he breathes the breath of
life; this, in its perfect expression, is the Son of man,
and expression of the divine idea. This Adam is all of what
we term soul, intellect, and body. We are continually at
work with this Adam. We can breathe into his nostrils the
breath of life, inspiring him with the idea of life in all
its unlimited fullness. We can lift up this Adam by
infusing into him these sublime ideas, and in no other way.
Wisdom and love are joined in God, and a perfect balance is
struck in consciousness between knowing and feeling when
man spiritualizes his thoughts.

Man is falling just to the extent that he is ignoring the
living Word in himself. Man must

//page 259

keep affirming the living Word; then he will have the
transformed body. Jesus Christ is the Word demonstrated as
perfect man, and through Him we are saved from the fall.

Development

Time is a human invention and acts as a barrier to a
broader conception of creative processes. All attempts to
find a date for the beginning of man are futile. Years are
associated with events, and when the events are past the
years go with them. States of mind make events, and new
states of mind are constantly being formed; consequently
every moment is the beginning of a new creation to the
individual. It is of no practical value to a man to know
that the world has journeyed around the sun six thousand or
six million years since it was formed. The important thing
is to know where man stands in relation to the creative law.

The Bible puts history before us as if we were part of
every event, which we are. The one Mind is moving in its
realm of ideas "over all, and through all, and in all."

The allegory of the Garden of Eden, of the man and the
woman and the serpent, represents the development of ideas
in individual consciousness, not the development of a
planetary system. Creation is the evolution of ideas in

//page 260

mind. Creation is the development of individuality; hence
the one object of all creative processes is the making of
man.

In the development of individuality the factors described
in the allegory are active in every one of us at this
moment. The creating is going on right now. The reason why
God created man potentially perfect and then set him the
task of proving it is found in the mysterious process
called self-identification. Man makes himself after the
pattern designed by the Great Architect. In proving his
ability to carry out the divine plan he proves himself
perfect.

The Serpent

Three fundamental factors are at the basis of all
manifestation, namely intelligence, life, and substance.
Divine intelligence reveals perfect ideas as the basis of
existence. Any conception other than this is "eating" or
appropriating thoughts that seem both good and evil. This
conception of opposites leads to all kinds of inharmonies.
It is the serpent, "more subtle than any other wild
creature," that suggests this to man. The serpent
represents life, in which is vibration, color, sound, in
fact all sensation. Sense consciousness is another name for
the serpent. The life idea is manifest in the mighty
lightning chain darting from sky to earth as well as in

//page 261

the subtle sensations that sweep through the soul.

Indulgence

The soul (Eve) is attracted by this realm of sensation and
is psychologized by its promises of pleasure. When we
indulge any of the sensations of the flesh for the mere
pleasure that accompanies the indulgence, we are following
the delusive suggestions of the serpent instead of
listening to the word of God. Pain, disease, and finally
death always result from such ignorant transgression of the
divine law. Life is a fundamental factor in all existence.
Without life there could be no existence.

When man fails to master his sensations and gives himself
up to the uncontrolled enjoyment of life, he is losing his
dominion and must suffer the consequences of transgressing
the law. Man should therefore be ever on the alert to
maintain his dominion and mastery over all the ideas of the
mind and sensations of the body. Everything has its use in
the divine economy, and man as the master builder should
ever be seeking to carry out the divine plan.

Wisdom

Wisdom shows us what the law is and where we have fallen
short in our use of it. We are not punished for

//page 262

our sins but by them. We establish ruling attitudes of mind
by our daily thoughts. They may or may not be in harmony
with Principle. Our dominant thoughts establish a general
character. What we love or what we hate builds cells of joy
or pain.

Obedience

To be in subjection to the higher Power is the highest goal
of human attainment. The spirit of obedience is the spirit
of love. Love is the most obedient thing in the universe.
It is also the greatest worker and will accomplish more for
our happiness than all other faculties combined. Love is
divine ordinance. It has a balm for every ill.

Disobedience to Spirit is refusal to do right at all
hazards. We all know the right. We do not always do it,
because it seems to foil immediate attainment of the
objective that we seek. We want quick returns.

If you are obedient to Spirit you will not suffer burdens.
You will live in the present, do your highest duty every
day, forget the past, and let the future take care of
itself. To trust Spirit you must know of its guidance by
experience.

//page 263

//section Conscience

//text

THERE is a divine goodness at the root of all existence. It
is not necessary to give in detail the place of abode of
each sentient part of this central goodness, for it is
there, wherever you look, and whenever you look. No man is
so lowly but that at the touch of its secret this divine
goodness may be brought to light in him. Even the animals
exhibit its regulating and directive power. This goodness
sleeps in the recesses of every mind and comes forth when
least expected.

Many stifle it for years, maybe for ages, but eventually
its day comes, and there is a day of

//page 264

reckoning. This is the law of universal balance--the
equilibrium of Being. It cannot be put aside with
transcendental philosophies or metaphysical denials any
more than it can be smothered in the forces of the blind
passions.

Monitor

Men and women are loath to admit that there is within them
a monitor with which they have sooner or later to cope.
They put off the day of reckoning as long as possible. They
do not like to deal with this leveler of Spirit. It is too
exact. It wants justice to the very limit.

Whoever has felt the prick of conscience has been spoken to
by the Holy Spirit. Whoever has sat at the feet of his own
inner conviction has been aware of God's presence.

Guidance

Man is never without a guide, no matter how loudly he may
be crying out for leading. There is always at hand a sure
torchbearer if he will but follow the light. It is too
simple, too easy! Man has formed in his mind a far-off God
who talks to him from some high mountain in invisible
space. By thus looking afar for his God he ignores the
spark of divinity shining in his own being.

Herein is man fooled into believing that he

//page 265

can do the things that are not in harmony with his ideas of
goodness and yet escape the consequences. He presumes that
God is too far away to behold his shortcomings. He loses
sight of the fact that God is right with him every moment.

This is the meaning of the old saying that a man and his
conscience are good friends as long as the way is smooth.
When it grows rugged, they fall out. They fall out because
man has reached a point where he begins to consider his
ways and he looks carefully over the life he is leading.
This brings him to a beholding state of mind. He sees that
what he considered right in the clear light of divine good
is not up to standard. Here the divergence takes place
between man and his conscience. They were friends in
appearance only before or during the period of license. The
conscience may seem to assent to the derelictions of man,
but it is ever the inner protestant that keeps knocking at
the consciousness until the steps are arrested.

Questionable Methods

Worldly fortune is not always a blessing to man. In fact,
under present customs it is apt to be just the reverse. As
long as questionable methods are successful in bringing
results, conscience has but a small chance for a

//page 266

hearing. It is only when failure follows the efforts of the
misguided that conscience gets his ear. Then the field is
surveyed with the eye of a general defeated in an unjust
cause. The heat of battle blinded him, and he gave no
thought to the lives he was uselessly sacrificing.

Here remorse gnaws the vitals of the unwise. Here the true
wisdom is revealed. It is said that experience is a dear
school, and only the wise learn therein. This carries with
it its own nullification, like many of the intellect's wise
observations. Experience is the school of fools. The truly
wise do not take lessons within her doors.

Understanding

There are two ways to get understanding. One is to follow
the guidance of the Spirit that dwells within, and the
other is to go blindly ahead and learn by hard experience.
These two ways are open to everyone. It is recognized by
the man who has had experience that he can advise the one
who has not and thus save him the laborious steps of that
rocky road. In the light of omnipresent intelligence, is
there not One who knows all things, all roads, all
combinations, and what will be the outcome of every one?

Prophecy

Do not men and women by their constant efforts to peer into
the

//page 267

future prophesy a wisdom that knows all future? They
certainly do. When man looks in the right direction he
finds such an oracle.

It is the prerogative of Spirit to know the future. When
man consults Spirit with pure heart and unselfish motives
he has pointed out to him the very lines his life shall be
cast in if he is obedient to his most high God.

It is no great achievement for one who follows the leading
of Spirit within to forecast the future. To Spirit the
future is a succession of events based on the ideas
revolving in the mind at present. Whoever rides into his
own ideal realm can read his future for himself. He finds
there a chain of causes at work that he can easily see will
produce certain results. It is not necessary for him to
read the definite line along which each separate idea will
travel to its ultimate. This is the method of reasoning
from cause to effect. In Spirit, cause and effect are one.
They appear as one and the ultimate is just as clear as the
inception.

In mind, all things reach fruition the very instant they
are conceived. Time not being a factor, how can there be a
beginning and an ending? The architect plans a house and
sees it finished in his mind before a single stone is laid
or a pound of earth excavated. He can change his plan many
times before the construction

//page 268

commences. He can destroy it entirely if he so desires. So
man builds the house of his own conscience. If he has been
planning to build a home for himself alone, in which there
is but one room, he created in mind just such a plan, and
it is complete and awaits its coming into visibility. If he
has made a plan of a larger structure, in which are many
rooms, this plan will also come into visibility.

Wasteful Speech

Some persons build their houses far ahead in mind and say
nothing to anyone. Such persons make very substantial
plans, which are infused with the most enduring substance
of the invisible.

Talking is a waste of energy--a dissipater of power. If you
wane the greatest success, do not talk too much about your
plans. Keep a reserve force of new ideas always on hand as
a generative center. Let your work speak for itself.

Dynamics

The electrician recognizes a certain universal law of
action in the revolutions he builds into his dynamo. The
energy produced is based on the size and texture of the
dynamo and the rapidity of its motion. Mind has a law of
dynamics equally as scientific. The character of an idea is
the estimate of its size. One's active faith in it
determines

//page 269

the rapidity of its motion. Ideas generate energy with a
swiftness unparalleled in physical dynamics. Rather than
moving inanimate things, they move men and women. Rather
than temporarily lighting our streets for a few hours, they
light the lamps of intelligence that burn eternally.

The secret of doing this successfully lies in knowing how
to handle our ideas. The electrician constantly improves
the efficiency of electricity by studying the machinery
that generates the power. The same rule holds good in
mental dynamics. We must study ideas if we want to improve
the service of our body, of our intelligence, and of our
surroundings. From ideas flow forth the currents that move
the machinery of all of them. If our beliefs are based on
Truth and we are satisfied that they will stand the test of
the most rigid justice, we do not want to let the currents
they produce in our mind leak away on some grounded wire.

The world is full of people who are filled with high and
mighty resolves to do good. They are sincere, but they are
connected with grounded wires. We must keep our wires
properly insulated, or our plant will not prove successful.

For instance, we are holding an idea of health, which is
generating currents in our mind

//page 270

that might flow out on the wires of faith and heal the
world. But we have broken the current by believing that it
should pass through a pill, a magnetic hand, or the mind of
someone who we think is stronger than we are. We must stop
all this and send our idea of health straight to the mark
on the wires of our own true word. We have an intuitively
correct idea of the truth on every question that comes to
our mind, but we do not trust the idea. We impede its free
currents by believing that some book, some person, or some
church organization has sifted the truth and somehow
established it before we came into existence. This fallacy
makes a menial of the genius and puts out the light of the
world in the minds of generation after generation of the
sons of God.

Spiritual ideas must have spiritual wires, or their power
dissipates. So we need to watch both the beliefs we hold
and the words with which we set them free. If we have an
ideal world in which we see things as we want them, yet
think it an impossibility that that world may be realized
here and now, we are dissipating the power that our ideas
are generating. So throughout the category of thought
generation, every idea must have a wire that corresponds to
its circuit or current. Our words, our acts, and our whole
life must be in accord with our ideas.

//page 271

Available Ideas

The realm of ideas is at the call of each of us. It is, in
fact, the source from which we draw our real sustenance. It
exists in Being as universal intelligence. Since it is the
cause and source of all intelligence, sooner or later it
must assert its unobstructed sway in the life of all
mankind. When this realm of ideas becomes so active in the
consciousness that it attracts our special attention, we
call it a quickening conscience. It is the universal
intelligence of Being asserting its inherent moral
equilibriums. Man cannot always distort the fair face of
the God-Image, whose likeness he is. He may for a season
wear the grotesque mask of the mountebank or the fool, but
in God's own good time he will be unmasked by the silent
inner self that must be heard when its hour has come. God
is not mocked, nor is the secret place of the Most High in
every heart forever made a cave for thieves.

Listening

When conscience cries out in your heart, "Make straight the
way of the Lord," you will save time by heeding it. Let its
cleansing waters of denial flow over you. Change your
beliefs. Be meek and lowly. Let your thoughts go up to the
Christ Spirit. Acknowledge Him as One whom you, in your

//page 272

human consciousness, are not able to comprehend in the
majesty of His spiritual understanding.

If you are of a haughty, domineering, self-sufficient will,
you stand as Herod, the ruler of Judea. You are married to
the passions of the human soul. These passions lead you
into sense gratifications so deep, so degrading that you
cut off the head of conscience that would have turned you
into the highway of good. But the reign of the sense man is
shortlived. Your kingdom is taken from you, and you are
banished from your native land. This was the fate of Herod
after he beheaded John the Baptist. This is the fate of
everyone who refuses to listen to the voice of his higher
self.

Meekness

The key to the development of Jesus' great powers was in
His meek and lowly submission to the Father. Whoever makes
himself nothing in the presence of God may be possessor of
all things below God.

Man is open to God when he wills to be open. This opening
is made by our attitude of absolute mental humility in the
contemplation of spiritual realities. Thus, the likeness
takes on the express image of the Father, and in no other
way can it be done.

"I am gentle and lowly in heart," said the

//page 273

mighty Nazarene. "Not as I will, but as thou wilt," was the
mental attitude He always took when communing with the
Father. It was always in the same spirit of love and
willing obedience to the guidance of a wisdom that He knew
transcended His own.

Jesus did not take the universe on His shoulders by
affirming His self-sufficiency. He unloaded every burden
and rested in the all-sufficiency of the Father. "I can do
nothing on my own authority"; "the Father abiding in me
doeth his works." This is the total denial of self--the
giving up of all personal desires, claims, and aims. Before
man can do this successfully he must change his
beliefs--there must be a mental house cleaning.

Denial

The command, "If any man would come after me, let him deny
himself . . . and follow me," is not broadly interpreted by
the world. Some men think that self is denied sufficiently
when they acknowledge God as mind, life, love, substance,
and all else as error; others think that they have only to
give up the recognized sins of the world and believe in a
personal Savior, Jesus. But the denial of self goes deeper
than all this. To be effective, it must reach the very
depths of the consciousness and dissolve all the organic
forms that the beliefs

//page 274

held by the personal self have there precipitated. Every
human body has its stratified layers of consciousness.
These strata have, like the earth, been built up layer
after layer through ages and ages of sidereal time.

The body we live in is the result of a labor that we began
millions of years ago. It is the stored-up memories of our
experience in thought generation. We may have dissolved
that body ten millions of times, but no part of its reality
has ever been lost to us. Because we have failed to
energize it to the perpetuation of its form indefinitely is
no argument against its being the very body we have had for
aeons upon aeons. The form of it changes, but the mental
pictures we have formed in all those ages are intact
somewhere in our own private gallery.

Selflessness

Now the clouds are clearing away from our world. The "sun
of righteousness" is rising with "healing in its wings." We
are awakening to our powers and possibilities as sons of
the Most High.

The day of selflessness has come. This day delivers us from
all our burdens. We find that we do not have to bear any of
the cares of existence on our shoulders. We say with Jesus,
"All things have been delivered to me by my Father." We do
not breathe for ourself, but

//page 275

rather God breathes in and through us. We do not have a
life of our own, but we feel the life of God surging
through all our organs. We say to every part of our body,
"You are now one with God; you are perfect in His sight."

We do not think and speak by ourself alone. We think and
speak God's thoughts after Him, which rush through our mind
like a mighty wind. Then tongues of fire come upon us,
because we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Neither do we
have possessions of our own nor cares nor troubles about
our life or our family. We leave all these things to God.
We are absolutely without responsibility when we have fully
denied ourself and followed the Christ. All responsibility
drops from us when we let go of the belief that we are a
personal being, and possessed of parts, passions, and
faculties that belong to us personally. Nothing like a
personal man exists in the idea of God.

The idea of God is Jesus Christ--one universal man. Men are
but the mind organs of that one man. They do not possess of
themselves anything whatever, but all that the Christ
possesses flows through their consciousness when they have
ceased to believe in personality. This is the at-one-ment
and the apprehension of that at-one-ment dissolves forever
the inner monitor called accusing conscience.

//page 276

//section Judgment and Justice

//text

TRUTH is ready at all times to give judgment and justice.
As God is love, so God is justice. These qualities are in
Divine Mind in unity, but are made manifest in man's
consciousness too often in diversity. It is through the
Christ Mind in the heart that they are unified. When
justice and love meet at the heart center, there are
balance, poise, and righteousness. When judgment is
divorced from love, and works from the head alone, there
goes forth the human cry for justice. In his mere human
judgment, man is hard and heartless; he deals out
punishment without consideration of motive or cause, and
justice goes awry.

//page 277

Good Judgment

Good judgment is developed from Principle. In its
perfection it is expressed through man's mind, with all its
absolute relations uncurtailed. Man has the right concept
of judgment, and ideally the judges of our courts have that
unbiased and unprejudiced discrimination which ever exists
in the Absolute. A prejudiced judge is abhorred. A judge
who allows himself to be moved by his sympathies is not
considered safe.

It is necessary to place judgment in the Absolute in order
to demonstrate its supreme power. This is accomplished by
one's first declaring that one's judgment is spiritual and
not material; that its origin is in God; that all its
conclusions are based on Truth and that they are absolutely
free from prejudice, false sympathy, or personal ignorance.
This gives a working center from which the ego, or I AM,
begins to set in order its own thought world. The habit of
judging others, even in the most insignificant matters of
daily life, must be discontinued. The law of judgment works
out in a multitude of directions. If we do not observe it
in small things, we shall find ourselves failing in large.

Condemnation

Judging from the plane of the personal leads into
condemnation. Condemnation is always followed

//page 278

by the fixing of a penalty. We see faults in others, and
pass judgment upon them without considering motives or
circumstances. Our judgment is often biased and prejudiced;
yet we do not hesitate to think of some form of punishment
to be meted out to the guilty one. He may be guilty or not
guilty; decision as to his guilt or innocence rests in the
divine law. We have no right to pass judgment. In our
ignorance we are creating thought forces that will react
upon us.

Whatever thought you send out will come back to you. This
is an unchangeable law of thought action. A man may be just
in all his dealings, yet if he condemns others for their
injustice, that thought action will bring him into unjust
conditions; so it is not safe to judge except in the
Absolute. This is the stand which everyone must
take--resting judgment of others in the Absolute. When this
is done the tendency to condemn will grow less and less,
until man, seeing his fellow man as God sees him, will
leave him to the Absolute in all cases where he seems
unjust.

Judgment Day

The great judgment day of Scripture indicates a time of
separation between the true and the false. There is no
warrant for the belief that

//page 279

God sends man to everlasting punishment. Modern
interpreters of the Scripture say that the "hell of fire"
referred to by Jesus means simply a state in which
purification takes place.

The word "hell" is not translated with clearness sufficient
to represent the various meanings of the word in the
original language. There are three words from which "hell"
is derived: Sheol, "the unseen state"; Hades, "the unseen
world"; and Gehenna, "Valley of Hinnom." These are used in
various relations, nearly all of them allegorical. Hell is
a figure of speech that represents a corrective state of
mind. When error has reached its limit, the retroactive law
asserts itself, and judgment, being part of that law,
brings the penalty upon the transgressor. This penalty is
not punishment, but discipline, and if the transgressor is
truly repentant and obedient, he is forgiven in Truth.

Vacillation

Another form of thought related to judgment is the
vacillating of the mind that never seems to know definitely
what is the proper thing to do. There must be singleness of
mind and loyalty to true ideas. Everyone should have
definite beliefs of what is just and right, and stand by
them. Condemnation in any of its forms retards freedom

//page 280

of action in the discriminative faculty. We hold ourselves
in guilt and condemnation, the natural energies of the mind
are weakened and the whole body become inert.

Unjust Treatment

The remedy for all that appears unjust is denial of
condemnation of others, or of self, and affirmation of the
great universal Spirit of justice, through which all
unequal and unrighteous conditions are finally adjusted.

Observing the conditions that exist in the world, the just
man would have them righted according to what he perceives
to be the equitable law. Unless such a one has spiritual
understanding, he is very likely to bring upon himself
physical disabilities in his efforts to reform men. If his
feelings come to a point of "righteous indignation," and he
"boils" with anger over the evils of the world, he will
cook the corpuscles of his blood.

Put all the burdens of the world upon the one supreme Judge
and hold every man, and all the conditions in which men are
involved, amenable to the law of God. By so doing, you will
set into action mind forces powerful and far-reaching.

If you think that you are unjustly treated by your friends,
your employers, your government,

//page 281

or those with whom you do business, simply declare the
activity of the almighty Mind, and you will set into action
mental forces that will find expression in the executors of
the law. This is the most lasting reform to which man can
apply himself. It is much more effective than legislation
or any attempt to control unjust men by human ways.

Jealousy

Jealousy is a form of mental bias that blinds the judgment
and causes one to act without weighing the consequences.
The remedy for all this is a dismissal of that poor
judgment which causes one to be jealous and a fuller trust
in the great all-adjusting justice of God.

Success

Success in the world is largely dependent on good judgment.
Everywhere businessmen are looking for people who have
judgment equal to the making of quick decisions, on the
spur of the moment.

By clearing your understanding and acknowledging the one
supreme Mind in which is all discrimination, you can
cultivate the ability of your mind to arrive quickly at
right conclusions. Take the stand that it is your
inheritance from God to judge wisely and quickly. Do not
depart therefrom by statements of inefficiency

//page 282

in matters of judgment.

When you are in doubt as to the right thing to do in
attaining justice in worldly affairs, ask that the eternal
Spirit of justice shall go forth in your behalf and bring
about and restore to you that which is your very own. Do
not ask for anything but your very own under the righteous
law. Some people unconsciously overreach in their desire
for possessions. When they put the matter into the care of
Spirit, and things do not turn out just as they had
expected in their self-seeking way, they are disappointed
and rebellious. This will not do under the spiritual law,
which requires that man shall be satisfied with justice and
accept the results, whatever they may be. Justice can be
cooperated with by one who believes in things spiritual and
he will thereby be made prosperous and happy.

//page 283

//section Jesus Christ

//text

JESUS was the Man of Nazareth, son of Mary. According to
present-day belief He is the Savior of mankind.
Metaphysically He is the I AM in man, the self, the
directive power, raised to divine understanding and
power--the I AM identity.

His Mission

As the result of lack of conscious connection between the
thinking faculty and the fountainhead of existence,
humanity had reached a very low state. Then came Jesus of
Nazareth, whose mission was to connect the thinker with the
true Source of thought. Thinking at random had

//page 284

brought man into a deplorable condition, and his salvation
depended on his again joining his consciousness to the
Christ. Only through that connection could he be brought
back into his Edenic state.

It is plain to any reasonable, unprejudiced mind that Jesus
of Nazareth was a religious reformer with a mission from on
high. He had an insight into those things which are ever
mysteries to men immersed in the sense consciousness.
Through His knowledge, and in harmony with His mission, He
set into motion spiritual ideas that ever since His
ministry have been operative in the world.

It is evident to even a cursory reader of His life and
teachings that He was the representative of a thoroughly
organized plan to help men into a higher realization of God
and their relation to Him.

Jesus Knew

Jesus was keenly conscious of the character of God and His
own relationship to Him. He knew God as unlimited love and
as ever-present, abundant life. He knew God as wisdom and
supply. He knew Him as Father, ever ready and willing to
supply every need of the human heart.

Jesus knew that as Son of God He had access to every
blessing, to all the wisdom, love,

//page 285

and help of the Father-Mind. He did not simply believe that
the words He spoke were true, He knew that they were true.
His words were pregnant with meaning. They were vital,
living words, which carried conviction and which produced
immediate results.

Jesus is the Way-Shower. He came that we might have life
more abundantly. He came to awaken man to the possibilities
of his own nature. He came to bear witness to Truth. He
used the one true way to the realization of eternal life
and the universal consciousness, therefore His influence on
the race cannot be measured. It is infinite and eternal.

Crucifixion

The Jews were under the dominion of an earth-minded
priesthood. They were in a state of ignorance as regards
spiritual things and did no thinking for themselves. They
could not recognize or comprehend the things of which Jesus
spoke to them. They were looking for a temporal king who
would restore to them, by war and conquest, the earthly
glory of Solomon. When Jesus tried to teach them of Spirit,
of a spiritual idea, the Christ within themselves that
would free them from every bondage of mind, body, and
environment, they crucified Him.

Crucifixion is the crossing out in consciousness

//page 286

of errors that have become fixed states of mind. It is the
surrender or death of the whole personality in order that
the Christ Mind may be expressed in all its fullness.

The crucifixion of Jesus represents the wiping of
personality out of consciousness. We deny the human self so
that we may unite with the selfless. We give up the human
so that we may attain the immortal. We dissolve the thought
of the physical body so that we may realize the spiritual
body.

The Cross represents that state of consciousness termed
"mortal mind." The Cross is not a burden as commonly
understood, but a symbol of the forces in man adjusted in
their right relation.

Jesus Christ

Christ is the perfect idea of God for man. Jesus is the
perfect expression of the divine idea Man. Jesus Christ is
a union of the two, the idea and the expression, or in
other words, He is the perfect man demonstrated.

Church of Christ

The true Christ church is not an outer sect or religious
denomination. First of all it is an aggregation of
spiritual ideas in individual consciousness. To establish
the church, or ecclesia,

//page 287

of God in man, a new state of consciousness must be formed.
Man must gain an understanding of God as Spirit, and also
he must understand his own relation to Spirit.

The church of God begins its activity in man as a mental
perception, which must go through certain processes before
it is established in the whole consciousness. Its work is
subjective first.

In its outer sense the church of Christ consists of all
persons in whom the consciousness of Truth has become
firmly established; whether or not they belong to a
denominational church makes no difference. They comprise
that great brotherhood which Jesus Christ established in
Spirit.

The true church is not made of creeds and forms. It is not
contained in walls of wood and stone. The heart of man is
its temple and the Spirit of truth is the one guide into
all Truth. When men learn to turn within to the Spirit of
truth, who is in each one for his light and inspiration,
the differences between the churches of man will be
eliminated, and the one church will be recognized.

When the true church is revealed to man's soul, all
illusion is dissolved. Man finds that the church of Jesus
Christ has to do with the world right here and now. It is
not a religion, as he has been accustomed to regard
religion. It

//page 288

is an organic principle in nature working along definite
lines of growth in the building up of a state of
consciousness for the whole human race.

The church of Jesus Christ is an exact science. It has its
part in the economy of Being, as the organizer of the
unorganized. It does not refer to things abstract, but to
things concrete. Whoever looks upon it as an abstraction
has wholly misconceived it.

The church of Christ covers every department of man's
existence and enters into every fiber of his being. He
carries it with him day and night, seven days of the week.
He lives in it as a fish lives in water. He becomes
conscious of its enveloping presence and is transformed
into a new creature. Life becomes an ecstasy and his cup is
full to overflowing.

The burdens of the human drop out of sight just as fast as
the organic church is constructed. The construction of this
church is orderly, definite, and exact. It is not done in a
moment, but little by little the man is built from the
within to the without, a new creature in consciousness and
in body.

//page 289

//section The Kingdom of Jesus Christ

//text

A KINGDOM is a government with evidence of its power right
among its subjects. Its authority is exercised in the
country in which it is set up. It regulates the public
affairs of the people in its domain, to conform to its
highest ideas of equity, prosperity, and the general
welfare of its subjects.

This was Jesus Christ's idea of a kingdom. His kingdom was
not of this world of sin, sickness, poverty, injustice, and
death, but a kingdom in which righteousness, health, life,
peace,

//page 290

and prosperity are natural to all its people. He proposed
to establish such a kingdom among men, through the
evidences of His power. Thus were the instructions given to
His disciples whom He sent forth as His agents to
inaugurate the new order of things.

Kingdom Likenesses

Had the kingdom to which Jesus so often referred been a
city with golden streets, in the skies, He could easily
have located it. He did not do so. On the contrary, He
again and again gave illustrations to show His listeners
that it was a desirable condition, which would be brought
about among them through the power of Spirit. He did not
say that it could be attained quickly. For instance, He
said: "What is the kingdom of God? And to what shall I
compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man
took and sowed in his own garden; and it grew and became a
tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches."

And again, "It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in
three measures of meal, till it was all leavened."

It is a great mystery how these comparisons of heaven ever
came to be construed as referring in any way to a locality
in the skies. What relation to a city with streets of gold
has a mustard

//page 291

seed, planted in the earth and springing forth into a tree,
or a little cake of yeast fermenting a baking of bread?

A remarkably strange lot of comparisons Jesus used, if He
had in mind a place where the good were to go after death!
He never pretended to convey any such meaning.

Jesus' idea of the kingdom of heaven is a condition to be
brought about in the affairs of men, here on the earth. It
is to grow from small beginnings, like a mustard seed or
the yeast cake. His disciples were sent forth to sow the
seed in a definite way, by carrying into the midst of men
the signs that evidence the power of Spirit, through which
the kingdom of heaven is to be established, right here on
this planet. There is no basis for any other view.

Symbolic Heaven

All the theories about a place called "heaven" are founded
on John's symbolical description of New Jerusalem, which
was pictured, in the imagination, as the fulfillment on
earth of the very movement which Jesus inaugurated and
which He described as having such small beginnings.

This city which John saw is among men. "Behold, the
dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and
they shall be his

//page 292

people, and God himself shall be with them; he will wipe
away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain
any more, for the former things have passed away." All this
describes what is to take place here among us. No reference
is made to its being among angels, or to its being
established at the time that John saw the vision. It is to
be consummated in new conditions on earth.

If the kingdom which Jesus taught is in the skies, why did
He direct His disciples to pray:

"Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven"?

Now that men are opening up the hidden resources of nature,
in earth and in air, possibilities of achievement are
dawning on them, and they see that human endeavor will yet
make the earth a paradise.

No one should be deluded with the vague assumption that
there is a place in the skies, or on some faraway planet,
called "heaven." There is not the shadow of a foundation in
either the Old or the New Testament for such doctrine. On
the contrary, the teaching is clear that all the heaven
which men will ever find will be here. It is here now, and
it will be revealed to everyone who rends the veil of sense.

//page 293

At Hand

The teaching, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," is not
alone indicative of the quick ushering in of a new order of
things. It states a fact of subjective consciousness in
man. Nothing else is so near to man as God and the kingdom
of heaven. They exist eternally in the depths of man's own
unrevealed consciousness. He has them in the hidden
recesses of his mind, exactly as he has the circulation of
the blood in the hidden veins of his body. He is not
conscious of the blood before he looks for it; and he is
not conscious of God and of his own spiritual nature before
he gets into the deeps of his own soul.

It is the subjective or interior consciousness that is to
be made objective or exterior. To the question of His
disciples as to when the kingdom of heaven would come,
Jesus answered, "when the without shall become as the
within" (Apoc. New Testament).

This one passage should forever settle the location of
heaven. It is the within, and it will come to the
consciousness of humanity when it is brought forth to the
without, when the without conforms to its conditions.

It is the within which Jesus set vibrating in the minds of
His disciples when He sent them forth to do the works of
power. He was familiar with the inner realm, and dwelt
there much of

//page 294

the time. This realm exists today, and may be discovered by
whosoever will look for it.

Proclaiming

If the kingdom of heaven exists right here in our midst,
and simply needs to be revealed to our veiled eyes, all we
have to do is to proclaim the presence of the kingdom by
faith and works. The way by which to make it visible will
follow.

It is not alone a question of perception. The kingdom must
be made manifest. All manifestation arises through action.
You cannot exercise your right to be, without making
manifest some of the potentialities of Being. You must use
your talent. The talent of which man is possessed,
surpassing all else, is that of thinking. To think is to
make manifest the world of forms. Every time you hold a
thought in your mind, you are forming a body for that
thought; and bodies are things. A belief in matter and
limitation forms a body of matter and limitation. If you
want a body of freedom and light, think thoughts having at
their base freedom and light. Man never rises higher in
expression than his thought. His thought never rises higher
than the idea back of it. If you want to rise in the scale
of being, watch your ideas. From them flow your
environment. Your environment is your prison wall when you
are chained to the limitations of sense.

//page 295

Dynamics

In the world of ideas, the metaphysician has discovered
that there is a realm having potentialities, whose depths
he has not sounded. This realm is to him the great
storehouse of wisdom and life, and he finds that his own
center of consciousness is like it. He is essentially one
with it. His thinking faculty represents the mechanical
device through which this All-Principle is made manifest.
His word sets into motion the machinery, and results follow
in the realm of ideas in a manner paralled with those in
the realm of dynamics.

The kingdom is an internal condition first, last, and
always. The internal opening of man's finer faculties
results in an externality corresponding in degree. This
externality is not to be the guage of the existence of the
kingdom of heaven. That it is considered such, is the error
of the sense man. He is cumbered with things, and his cry
always is, "Make me happy in my possessions, and I shall be
satisfied." But this is not the attitude of the spiritual
man. His possessions are of the soul. His pleasures are of
the mind and of the heart. Whoever has these has at least
begun the kingdom.

Larger Purpose

The wise man does not center his attention upon effects.
They are to him as the ashes. The fire of

//page 296

the original Spirit is ever new and fresh. He does not
identify himself with the ashes, consequently he never has
to count himself at the end of existence. Ashes are carried
out, and cast to the four winds, but the fire burns on and
on.

You are here for a purpose. That purpose is never fulfilled
so long as you are dazed by the demands of the senses; nor
are you fulfilling the law of your being by going over, day
after day, the petty round of human existence.

You have been cast in a larger mold than this. God did not
create you to be forever dust and ashes, to be blown about
by the four winds.

Awake! sleeper in the human mind. Rise out of low ideals
into the high. Rouse yourself, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. You are a king! Bestir yourself; the Christ of God
is born in you, and the hour of your reign is truly at hand!

Advanced Soul

Jesus was a very advanced soul, and His radiant body was
developed in larger degree than that of anyone in our race,
but we all have this body, and its development is in
proportion to our spiritual culture. In Jesus this body of
light glowed "as he was praying." Jesus' body did not go
down to corruption, but He, by the intensity of His

//page 297

spiritual devotion, restored every cell to its innate state
of atomic light and power.

Jesus lives today in His body of glorified electricity in a
kingdom that interpenetrates the earth and its
environment--the kingdom of the heavens.

Great teachers and leaders of the race have really
developed and expressed a superconsciousness that is
potential in all persons. When the natural world is
scientifically and universally revealed, a great school of
instruction in soul unfoldment will be established right
here in our midst, and its results will be beyond all our
present imaginings.

The mysteries of supermind have always been considered the
property of certain schools of occultists and mystics who
were cautious about giving their truths to the masses for
fear that in their ignorance these might misuse them. Now
the doors are thrown wide open, and whosoever will may
enter in.

New Dimension

The kingdom of the heavens, the new dimension of mind and
energy, is being unfolded today in spiritual substance. It
is an ideal state in creative mind, ready to be ushered
into the minds of men. Its source is not in outer things.
It comes from sources within men. So we must

//page 298

develop spiritual understanding and spiritual power. Man is
the outpicturing of the infinite and creative Mind, and all
the capacity of that great Mind is his by inheritance.

//page 299

//section The Holy Spirit

//text

THE GOSPEL is now universally identified with Jesus'
mission and the doctrine that has grown out of it. When we
speak of the gospel we refer to that system of religious
beliefs that has centered about the teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth.

As to what that gospel is in detail, there are many
opinions. Many believe that it is the plan of salvation for
men outlined in the dogmas and creeds of the churches. But
those doctrines, creeds, and dogmas were formulated three
hundred years after Jesus taught and demonstrated.

//page 300

There is no authority from Him or from His immediate
disciples attesting the genuineness of many of these later
enunciations interpreting the original teachings. They are
the work of men. These teachings are not the pure
Christianity of Jesus Christ.

It is safe to assert that no one can know the doctrine of
Jesus Christ without going direct to Him for information.
The writings of the New Testament known in the four Gospels
are the most reliable external guide. When these are
studied with unbiased mind, it is perceived that Jesus
delegated no ecclesiastical power to anybody. He did not
formulate His doctrine or authorize any other human being
to do so.

The Counselor

Jesus appointed one teacher: "The Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said to you."

The Holy Spirit is the only authorized interpreter of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. No man can know what His doctrine
is unless he gets it direct from this one and only
custodian. It is not to come secondhand. Each for himself
must receive it from the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the
Father in the name of the Son.

//page 301

Holy Spirit

The question is frequently asked, "Who is the Holy Spirit,
and what relation does He bear to God and to Christ?"

The early disciples knew the Holy Spirit as the third
person in the Trinity. The Father is always first, the Son
second, and the Spirit third. The terms Father and Son
express an eternal, reciprocal relation. The Spirit is the
infinite "breath" of God as the Son is His infinite "Word."

We may understand the relation and office of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit by analyzing our own mind and
its apparent subdivisions during thought action, because
each one of us is a perfect copy in miniature of the great
universal first cause--Being.

The Holy Spirit is the executive power of both Father and
Son, carrying out the creative plan. It is the personality
of Being. It is the personality of God. It is neither the
all of Being nor the fullness of Christ, but is an
emanation, or breath, sent forth to do a definite work.
Thus circumscribed, He may be said to take on, in a sense,
the characteristics of personality, a personality
transcending in its capacity the concept of the
intellectual man.

The Holy Spirit is described in Scripture as personality
and as not always existing for the

//page 302

consciousness of humanity in uniform degree. The mission of
Jesus was to open the way for the Holy Spirit to enter into
the minds of men.

Function

The function of the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of truth,
implies distinct personal subsistence: He speaks, searches,
selects, reveals, reproves, testifies, leads, comforts,
distributes to every man.

The Holy Spirit is the law of God in action; in that action
He appears as having individuality.

The normal condition of man is one of inner communion. It
is the mission of the Holy Spirit to bring all men and all
women into this inner communion. He who is buried in sense
limitations must find the way out of them into the place
where the light shines. It is the mission of the Holy
Spirit to guide man in order that he will not mistake the
way and wander into the darkness of many delusive bypaths.

The Holy Spirit comes to men in this day, as in the past,
and reveals to them in various ways how to overcome the
erroneous states of consciousness that they have evolved,
or in which they are cast through association. A higher and
more farseeing guide than mere intellect is necessary. That
guide has been provided in the Holy Spirit.

//page 303

The Holy Spirit is the one factor that Jesus' disciples and
immediate followers counted absolutely necessary to their
success in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They
looked to Him for power and guidance in all their work.
They announced Him as the special gift promised by Jesus,
an endowment that could be given by them to those who
believed on His name.

By the laying on of hands they transferred Holy Spirit
power to others, who upon receiving it went about
preaching, teaching, prophesying, and healing.

Availability

The Holy Spirit is in the world today with great power and
wisdom, ready to be poured out upon all those who look to
Him for guidance. The Holy Spirit is authority on the
gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only authority ever
recognized by Jesus Christ, and whoever attempts to set
forth the Christ gospel from any other standpoint is in the
letter and not in the Spirit.

Jesus gave His words into the keeping of this universal
receptive agency, the Spirit of truth, whose mission it is
to carry those words directly into the understanding of
everyone who accepts the Christ way into the kingdom of
heaven.

The Holy Spirit gave His words to the

//page 304

writers of the New Testament, and they wrote them out for
the comprehension of the intellectual man. This does not
signify that the mission of the Holy Spirit ended
there--that after giving this message He then withdrew from
the world. On the contrary, it was just the beginning, the
primary step of that larger, more comprehensive teaching
that Spirit is ever ready to impart to every soul.

The soul needs instruction. The Father has provided a
perfect way for us to get it. That way is the Jesus Christ
way. Whoever follows the steps outlined in the gospel, now
brought to each of us by the Holy Spirit, will finally
reach the same place that Jesus reached.

Shortcoming of Language

Everyone has a soul to save, not from the hypothetical hell
after death, but from the sin and the delusions of the
sense consciousness that make hell here and now. There is a
way to bring that salvation about. It is the mission of the
Holy Spirit to reveal that way to every one of us.

The revelation begins the moment we turn from the letter of
the gospel and seek for its spirit. To know that every word
and sentence of Scripture veils a spiritual truth is the
first step in unraveling the gospel. Spiritual truths

//page 305

cannot be expressed in language that will carry correct
concepts to the mind. No attempt to describe the Holy
Spirit is made in Scripture, because language might be
expanded indefinitely, description and illustration fill
volumes. The Holy Spirit would not be compassed or
apprehended on the intellectual plane where human language
passes current. The Holy Spirit is the whole Spirit of God.
He can be known by man only through his spiritual nature.
When he tries to bring Spirit down to the plane of things,
he always falls short.

So those who attempt to learn of the Holy Spirit by reading
about Him, or from the teachings of others, will fail. The
Holy Spirit comes only to those who earnestly seek Him. If
you are depending for spiritual enlightenment on some book
or on church ritual and doctrine or on some teacher or
leader, you need not expect to have the Holy Spirit fall
upon you. It is the prayer of the soul alone in its upper
room that brings the Holy Spirit.

The Interpreter

The doctrine of Jesus Christ is so intimately associated
with the Holy Spirit that they are inseparable. The Holy
Spirit is the interpreter of the Christ, and the Christ is
the thing interpreted. They are omnipresent and cannot be

//page 306

separated in spirit or in works. Hence, to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ is to set forth that the Holy Spirit
of God is ready and willing to bring all men and all women
into the kingdom.

All down the ages it was assumed that the requirements are
met when men have been persuaded to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Savior of their souls, and to keep
believing this until they pass out of their bodies; then,
the teaching runs, believers are received into the arms of
the Lord. But the Holy Spirit does not endorse this
assumption, neither does the letter of the Scriptures.

Open Door

Jesus opened the door of unity with the Father to all who
believe on Him. It is thought by nearly everybody that
Jesus was the only Son of God. Jesus wants companions in
power, dominion, and glory, that it may be demonstrated to
the world, this world, that what He claimed about his
relation to God is true.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is that all men shall become God
incarnate. It is not alone a gospel of right living. It
shows the way into dominion and power equal to and
surpassing that of Jesus of Nazareth. If we have a sense of
inferiority, if we believe that He has greater wisdom, or
power, or love, then we are not fulfilling

//page 307

the requirements. So long as we feel any difference between
ourself in the Father and Jesus in the Father, we have
fallen short of that "mind. . . which you have in Christ
Jesus."

The cry goes up: "This is foolish, sacrilegious, to put man
beside Jesus Christ and claim that they are equals." The
claim is not that humans, in their present consciousness,
are equal with Jesus, but that they must be equal with Him
before they will emerge from the sense of delusion in which
they now wander.

Health Is Normal

We know that health is the normal condition of man and that
it is a condition true to his real being. We claim and
declare this truth right in the face of appearances to the
contrary. We have proved by experience many times repeated
that our words in this way reveal that health is potential
in Being.

If man is the son of God, he must be that son right now.
Sonship must be just as real, just as omnipresent, as the
health that God has revealed through His Word. How shall
man reveal his sonship to himself and to others except by
claiming it? He does so by declaring that he is not a son
of mortality, but a son of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwells in him and is now shining through him.

//page 308

Your word is the power through which you make your belief
manifest. Simple belief in or assent to the truth of a
proposition never gave understanding to anyone. There must
be mental action. Organic changes in the mind are necessary
before the new state of consciousness takes up its abode in
you.

If you can convince yourself that you are a son of God,
your next step is to declare it in word and to carry it out
in the acts of your daily life. After declaring this, if
you fall short in demonstrating yourself to be a son of
God, you are to find out why. You have neglected some of
your spiritual powers. You may be dissipating the energy
given you by the Father.

Mission

Here is the mission of the Holy Spirit. When you ask in the
silence of Spirit to be shown why you do not manifest the
power that Jesus of Nazareth manifested, the Holy Spirit
will in some way reveal to you the lack. How that
revealment will come about no one can tell you. But if you
are patient and trustful you will be guided and directed so
that all the links in the chain of your being will be
brought together and harmoniously joined, and the Son of
God will be revealed in you.

//page 309

//section Baptism

//text

IN THE regeneration two states of mind are constantly at
work. First comes the cleansing or denial state, in which
all the error thoughts are eliminated. This includes
forgiveness for sin committed and a general clearing up of
the whole consciousness. The idea is to get back into the
pure, natural consciousness of Spirit. This state of mind
is typified by John the Baptist, who came out of the
wilderness a child of nature whose mission it was to make
straight the

//page 310

way of One who was to follow. In the first baptism, through
the power of the word, the sense man is erased from
consciousness, and the mind is purged and made ready for
the second baptism.

Second Baptism

Putting away of sin from the consciousness (baptism through
denial, plus forgiveness) is very closely allied to the
deeper work that is to follow; so much so that to the
observer it seems the same. Hence the followers of John,
when they saw the works he did, asked if he was the
Messiah. His answer was that the One who followed him was
to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

In the second baptism, the creative law of divine
affirmation, set into action by Mind, lights its fires at
the center of man's being, and when thus kindled raises
soul and body to a high degree of purity. This process is
known as regeneration.

From this we discern that mental cleansing and the reforms
that put the conscious mind in order are designed to
prepare the way for that larger and more permanent
consciousness which is to follow. This is the denial of
"self" or personality. We are all guilty in a way of undue
devotion to personal aims, which are always narrow and
selfish. So long as these exist and

//page 311

take the place of the rightful One there is no room for the
higher self, the Christ of God.

Holy Spirit

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a quickening of the
spiritual nature that is reflected in mind and body.
Spiritual baptism has power. It is affirmative. It is
positive. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the second
baptism. It is the most precious gift of God and comes to
those who steadfastly seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness.

The recorded "This is the Son of God" is a reference to a
matter of first importance in the regeneration. The
recognition of man as the Son of God and the establishment
in the mind of the new relations between the divine Father
and the Son are essential to the process. If we do not
affirm our sonship, with all its privileges and powers, we
are sure to belittle ourself and make limitations that
prevent us from entering into the fullness of the Godhead.

John the Baptist

Metaphysically interpreted, John the Baptist symbolizes in
each individual the natural man, but with an illumined
intellect. His face is turned toward the light in the
measure that he recognizes and pays homage to the higher
self

//page 312

within the individual. John baptized with water all those
who believed that Jesus was soon to make His appearance.
This is a cleansing, purifying process, preparing the
individual to see spiritually and to discern spiritually.

By cultivation the spiritual mind becomes an active factor
in consciousness. It has to be desired and sought before it
becomes a part of one's conscious life. The natural
conscious mind is expecting, looking for, and earnestly
desiring a greater realization of Spirit. He knows that he
is not fulfilling the Christ ideal of manhood. Willingness
to give up the natural man to the divine is a most
propitious sign in one who is in the regenerative process.
Many persons are ambitious to put on Christ, but are not
willing to give up the present man in order to do so. This
mind has no personal ambition. It is innocent, loving, and
obedient to the call of God.

Zeal

Never neglect your soul. To grow spiritually you should
exercise your zeal in spiritual ways. As children of God
our place is at the right hand of the Father. When man
really realizes this, he calls down upon himself the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. He soon learns that obedience
to Spirit increases his power to control his thoughts and
thus make his world conform to the divine standard.

//page 313

When man is obedient to Spirit he will not suffer burdens.
To trust Spirit he must know of its guidance by experience.
For those who have not learned the guidance of Spirit, that
experience must be acquired. Man is spirit and must find
himself before he can communicate with universal Spirit.

Materiality

We are pressed upon by beliefs in materiality. Thoughts
make things. The material beliefs that are pressing upon us
are just as substantial in the realm of mind as material
things are substantial in the realm of matter. Everything
has origin in thought, and material thoughts will bring
forth material things. So you should baptize and cleanse
yourself totally with your spiritual word. When the
baptizing power of the word is poured out, it cleanses all
material thought. Impotence is vitalized with new life, and
the whole subconsciousness is awakened and quickened.

Man does not exercise the power of his spiritual nature,
because he lacks understanding of its character and of his
relation to the originating Mind in which he exists. From
Divine Mind man inherits power over the forces of his
mind--in truth, power over all ideas. A quickening from on
high must precede man's realization of his innate control
of thought and

//page 314

feeling. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a quickening of
the spiritual nature, which is reflected in intellect and
in body. When one understands the science of Being, one is
prepared to receive this baptism and to utilize it along
deeper lines of thought. Power is essential to the work
that Jesus Christ expects His followers to do in the great
field of humanity. Man should apply the power of the word
to his individual redemption, and he should speak the
redeeming word of Spirit to the multitudinous thought
people of his own soul and body.

Transcendent Wisdom

There is in man a knowing capacity transcending
intellectual knowledge. Nearly everyone has at some time
touched this hidden wisdom and has been more or less
astonished at its revelations. It certainly is a most
startling experience to find ourself giving forth logical
thoughts and words without preparation or forethought,
because we nearly always arrive at our conclusions through
a process of reasoning. However, this reasoning process is
often so swift that we are likely to think that it is true
inspiration, especially when we have received either the
reflected uplift of other wise ones or the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. This quickening of the intellect is
intellectual illumination

//page 315

that precedes the awakening of the ideal, the Christ
understanding. Some Truth students become so enamored of
the revelations they receive through the head that they
fail to go on to the unfoldment of the One who baptizes
"with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Intellectual Understanding

Intellectual understanding of Truth, as given in the first
baptism, is a tremendous step in advance of sense
consciousness. Its possession brings a temptation to use
for selfish ends the wisdom and the power thereby revealed.
When Jesus received this baptism He was "led up by the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil"
(personal ego) before he could take the next degree in
Son-of-God consciousness.

Jesus knew that the illumination of the personal is not the
fulfillment of the law. He rejected every temptation to use
His understanding for selfish ends. Unless the disciple is
very meek he will find the human ego strongly asserting its
arguments for the application of the power of Spirit to
personal needs. The god of mammon is bidding high for men
who have received the baptism of Spirit. Many sell out, but
their end is dust and ashes. No man can serve two masters.

//page 316

Voice of Spirit

When we discover in ourself a flow of thought that seems to
have been evolved independently of the reasoning process,
we are often puzzled about its origin and its safety as a
guide. In its beginnings this seemingly strange source of
knowledge is often turned aside as a daydream. Again it
seems a distant voice, an echo of something that we have
heard and forgotten. One should give attention to this
unusual and usually faint whispering of Spirit in man. It
is not of the intellect and it does not originate in the
skull. It is the development, in man, of a greater capacity
to know himself and to understand the purpose of creation.

Understanding is opened in both head and heart when man
gives himself wholly to the Lord. Both receive the baptism
of Spirit. Man receives first an intellectual understanding
of Truth which he transmits to his heart, where love is
awakened. The Lord reveals to him that love is the greatest
power in man.

If you are living in your thinking faculty intellectually,
if you believe in birth and death, you must come out of
that belief. You are not exercising your rightful dominion,
but are subject to error thought. When the thinking faculty
is obedient and does what it is told, it is always rewarded.

//page 317

Your Place

You are Spirit, the Son of God, and your place is at the
right hand of the Father. To realize this is to call down
upon yourself the baptism of the Holy Spirit, after which
baptism you no longer labor, but begin to gather together
your powers of mind. This gathering together of your powers
is an orderly process.

There is an ever-present, all-knowing One. Put yourself
into conscious unity with this presence through the power
of your thought and your word, and you will gradually
become mentally open to a world of causes of which you
never before dreamed.

//page 318

//section Atonement

//text

WE HAVE been taught that Jesus died for us--as an atonement
for our sins. By human sense this belief has been
materialized into a flesh-and-blood process, in which the
death of the body on the Cross played the important part.
Herein has the sense consciousness led us astray. That
spiritual things must be spiritually discerned seems to
have escaped notice in forming the scheme of atonement. At
the root of the teaching is Truth.

Jesus of Nazareth played an important part in opening the
way for every one of us into the

//page 319

Father's kingdom. However, that way was not through His
death on the Cross, but through His overcoming death.

To comprehend the atonement requires a deeper insight into
creative processes than the average man and the average
woman have attained; not because they lack the ability to
understand, but because they have submerged their thinking
power in a grosser thought stratum. So only those who study
Being from the standpoint of pure mind can ever understand
the atonement and the part that Jesus played in opening the
way for humanity into the glory which was theirs before the
world was formed.

Overcoming

Jesus must have been the product of a former cycle of time,
and He had previously made the perfect union in the
invisible with the Father.

In proportion as people understand and have faith in Jesus
their actual Savior from sin, and in proportion as they are
set free from appetite, passion, jealousy, prejudice, and
all selfishness, they experience wholeness of mind and body
as the result.

The ultimate result of this knowledge and of daily practice
in overcoming will be a new race that will demonstrate
eternal life--the lifting up of the whole man, spirit,
soul, and body--into

//page 320

the Christ consciousness of oneness with the Father. This
is indeed true glorification. By means of the
reconciliation, glorification, and at-one-ment that Jesus
reestablished between God and man we can regain our
original estate as sons of God here upon earth.

Sanctification

When we have found our being in God, we are no longer
identified with the world; our interest is in spiritual
things. Through our intense realization of the eternal good
and our unity with it we become so saturated with the
thought of good that we are impregnable to evil. Thus we
find that the doctrine of sanctification is based on Truth.
It is possible for us to become so good in purpose that
everything we do will turn to good.

We must certainly sanctify ourself in Christ and
persistently send forth the word of purity and
unselfishness to every faculty in order to demonstrate it.

The realization of divine unity is the highest that we can
attain. This is true glory, the blending and merging of the
whole being into Divine Mind.

When a soul makes complete union with God-Mind there is
always an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon it. This is
true glorification, the

//page 321

acknowledgment by the Father that the Son is indeed lifted
up.

Realization means at-one-ment, completion, perfection,
wholeness, repose, resting in God. A realization of health
brings to the consciousness an inner knowing that the
divine law has been fulfilled in thought and act. Then as
man lays hold of the indwelling Christ he is raised out of
the Adam or dark consciousness into the Christ
consciousness. This at-one-ment with God brings a lasting
joy that cannot be taken away.

Christ Consciousness

Jesus was more than a man of Nazareth, more than any other
man who ever lived on the earth. He was more than man, as
we understand the appellation in its everyday use, because
there came into His manhood a factor to which most men are
strangers. This factor was the Christ consciousness.

The unfoldment of this consciousness by Jesus made Him God
incarnate, because Christ is the Mind of God
individualized. Whoever so loses his personality as to be
swallowed up in God become Christ Jesus or God-man.

We cannot separate Jesus Christ from God, or tell where man
leaves off and God begins in Him. To say that Jesus Christ
was a man as we are men is not correct, because He had
dropped

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that personal consciousness by which we separate ourselves
into men and women. He was consciously one with the
absolute principle of Being. He had no consciousness
separate from that Being, hence He was that Being to all
intents and purposes. He attained no more than is expected
of each of us.

It is all accomplished through the externalization of the
Christ consciousness, which is omnipresent and ever ready
to manifest itself through us as it did through Jesus.

Accomplishment

This principle has been perceived by the spiritually wise
of every age. They have not known how to externalize it and
to make it an abiding state of consciousness. Jesus
accomplished this and His method is worthy of our adoption
because, as far as we know, it is the only method that has
been successful. It is set forth in the New Testament.
Whoever adopts the life of purity and love and power
exemplified in the experiences of Jesus of Nazareth will in
due course attain the place that He attained.

The way to do this is the way Jesus did it. He acknowledged
Himself to be the Son of God. The attainment of the Christ
consciousness calls for nothing less on our part than a
definite recognition of ourselves as sons of God

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right here and now, regardless of appearances to the
contrary. We know that we are sons of God--then why not
acknowledge it and proceed to take possession of our God
right? That is what Jesus did in the face of most adverse
conditions. Conditions today are not so stolidly material
as they were in Jesus' time. People now know more about
themselves and their relation to God. They are familiar
with thought processes and how an idea held in mind will
make itself manifest in the body and in affairs; hence they
take up this problem of spiritual realization under most
favorable conditions.

It must work out just as surely as a mathematical problem,
because it is under immutable law. The factors are all in
our possession and the rule that was demonstrated in one
striking instance is before us. By following that rule and
doing, day by day, the work that comes to us, we shall
surely put on Christ as fully and completely as did Jesus
of Nazareth.

Impersonal

Be thankful that God is no respecter of persons, that Truth
cannot be revealed by one mortal to another. God is a
special, personal Father to every one of His children, and
from no other source can they get Truth.

Jesus Christ clearly revealed the Father in

//page 324

His consciousness. He points the way. Believe and keep His
sayings, and follow Him. By adopting His methods you will
find the same place in the Father that He found.

//page 325

//section Transfiguration

//text

TRANSFIGURATION is always preceded by a change of mind. Our
beliefs must be lifted from the material, the physical, to
the spiritual. But first we need to realize that it is
possible for us to be transfigured as well as to understand
the law by which transfiguration is brought about.

The meaning of the Transfiguration has never been
understood by those who read the Scriptures as history. The
Transfiguration of Jesus has always been considered a
historical event, and its allegorical meaning overlooked.

//page 326

To get the real meaning of the Transfiguration, we must
regard the experience of Jesus on the Mount as typical of
what often takes place in those who are growing in
spiritual consciousness.

Evidences

We have evidences every day of the power of thought to
transfigure the countenance. We know that it is possible
for a person to be transformed in a degree by the thoughts
that flit through his mind from moment to moment, but we do
not know his capacity for transfiguration, which is
unlimited, nor the part it plays in his attainment of the
Christ consciousness and the Christ body.

The real object of existence is to bring forth the perfect
man and attain eternal life. Eternal life must be earned.
It is usually assumed that man does not die, and this is
true of the I AM; but how about the consciousness, the
soul? "The soul that sins shall die" is the testimony of
the Scriptures. That only lives which conforms to the
principle of eternal life.

Consciousness

Spirit exists eternally in God-Mind, of which we must
become conscious. This consciousness is soul and is the
tangible part of soul. God-Mind gives us the opportunity to
incorporate into our

//page 327

soul or consciousness His attributes. These attributes are
spiritual life, love, wisdom, strength, power, in fact the
essence of all good, which we realize first in the mind,
then in body and affairs. Thus God gives us the spiritual
perfection that we are to manifest and retain eternally in
consciousness. This is His Son or Christ.

Jesus taught that we must attain the consciousness of
eternal life, that we have no life in us until we have
attained this consciousness. Until we demonstrate over
death, the death of the body, we are in a transitory state
of existence.

Realization

The real object of existence is to attain the consciousness
of eternal life and to manifest all that is potentially
involved in us by our Creator. The Spirit--I AM or ego--in
man is eternal, but there must be a consciousness of this
quality of eternity; there must be a consciousness of the
image-and-likeness man.

There must be in every one of us a realization of that
Spirit which has in it--involved in its being--all that
exists in the universal. If we do not realize this, if we
do not make it ours, we must eventually go back to the
universal. Jesus was the great Way-Shower to the attainment
of this realization of Spirit. We shall miss "the

//page 328

prize of the upward call" if we do not enter the path that
He trod and that He pointed out in many parables,
illustrations, and experiences.

The overcoming or lifting up of man is a process through
which we are all passing if we have been converted to the
Christ way of life. Transfiguration plays a part (and an
important part) in this evolution of the soul. When we see
the parallel between our experiences and the
Transfiguration of Jesus we gain confidence to go forward.

Three Virtues

In our study and application of the Christian life we all
have times when we are spiritually uplifted. Such a time is
marked by a form of spiritual enthusiasm, which is brought
about by statements of Truth made by ourself or others
--prayers, words of praise, songs, meditations--any
statement of Truth that exalts the spiritual realms of the
mind. Jesus was lifted up by Peter, James, and John (faith,
judgment, and love). Whenever we dwell upon these virtues
and try to live up to them, they are exalted in
consciousness, and they go up with us to the Mount of
Transfiguration. You may not always realize this. You may
think that the uplifting was just a passing exaltation, but
it stamps itself upon your soul and body and marks the
planting of

//page 329

a new idea in the upward trend of the whole man.

What is your attitude toward these times when you feel the
mighty uplift of Spirit? Do you give them their due
importance; or when you again come down into the valley, do
you groan and question and wonder why you do not abide in
your exaltation, why there seems a falling away of the mind
from it?

Essential Unity

Right here we must be wise and understand the relation of
the higher principles of man and their action in the
redemption of soul and body. Do not lose sight of the fact
that the whole man must be spiritualized. Some people get
into the habit of going up in spirit to the Mount of
Transfiguration, and they find it so enticing that they
refuse to descend to the valley again. Then soul and body
are left to go their own way, and a separation ensues. Such
persons dwell continually on the heights and ignore the
essential unity of spirit, soul, and body. Many delusions
arise among Christians because they lack understanding of
the law of the idea and its manifestations. All things, all
actions, all principles, are working toward the unity of
God, man, and the universe. But there must be a
readjustment and a cleansing of the whole mass.

//page 330

If there are things, whether mental or physical, that are
not up to the high standard of Spirit, they must die. Jesus
on the Mount spoke of His death which was to follow. This
death is of the material perception of substance and life,
which is reflected in man's body of flesh. This must
perish. The limited concept of matter and of a material
body must be transformed so that the true spiritual body
may appear.

Salvation

Some teach the saving of the soul and the perishing of the
body. Jesus taught the saving of both soul and body. It is
true that this mortal body must be transfigured. It is but
a picture or symbol of the real, the spiritual body, which
is the "Lord's body." The "Lord's body" is the body of
Spirit, the divine idea of a perfect human body. When one
realizes this new body, the cells of the present body will
form on new planes of consciousness. They will aggregate
around new centers, and the "Lord's body" will appear.

When the body is devitalized by excessive labor,
dissipation, or any loss of vital force, its aura shrinks
away and a consciousness akin to that of being unclothed is
evident. When the mind is adjusted to the divine law, all
the vital forces flow harmoniously and the aura glows about
the body as a beautiful white light, protecting

//page 331

it from all discord from without and purifying it
continually from within.

True prayer brings about an exalted radiation of energy.
The word of Truth bursts forth in a stream of light that,
when held in mind, illumines, uplifts, and glorifies.

//page 332

//section Fulfillment

//text

JESUS Christ was the product of a cycle of human
development that was before our present cycle of
development. We revel in speculating about the history of
His soul's unfoldment and the true reason why He was so far
in advance of our time.

When the soul of the race became involved in the pleasures
of sensation and sought other guidance than that of Jehovah
God, gradual degeneration of the whole human family began
until men were in a bad way. Something had to be done.
Someway, somehow we had to be lifted

//page 333

out of the murky darkness of sense thought. Jesus Christ
provided and provides today the greatest impetus to the
ongoing of our race.

Scientific understanding of His great truths thrills the
soul with the desire for spiritual attainment, with a
longing for spiritual fulfillment. Many persons proudly
acknowledge Him and claim His promises.

When here on earth, through His mastery of spiritual laws
of which we today have only an inkling, He performed many
seeming miracles. Think of the condition in those times of
a body that had been dead for four days! Imagine Jesus
thanking God that His petition had been heard and then
speaking the word of life to one who had lain in the grave
for this length of time. Then imagine this person instantly
being charged with new life. Imagine great streams of life
flowing through his every cell and fiber until he came
walking out of the tomb, restored to perfect health.
Imagine Jesus in the consciousness of perfect unity with
God speaking the healing word to many "sick unto death" and
each one instantly throwing off the disease and coming
forward sound and well.

Upliftment

To lift the race out of sense thought Jesus was compelled
by the necessity of soul sympathy to become an

//page 334

intimate associate of the people. He sought to help. Hence
He incarnated into the race and was "in every respect
tempted as we are, yet without sinning." He revealed that
we are children of the same Father as He. He is our Elder
Brother, our helper. We are His people, and He is
interested in our progress.

Jesus proclaimed: "I am the light of the world." "You are
the light of the world." When He spoke thus He was speaking
of this inner light which gives life and intelligence to
all creation.

The development of spiritual light is the destiny of us
all. We shall not be satisfied until we "awake in His
likeness." All are radiant in a certain degree with this
spiritual light, but especially those who have an
understanding of Spirit and its universality. We feel the
light and sometimes mentally see it flashing into
expression when we have a spiritual uplift gained from a
new idea of Truth. Some feel its influence and are moved to
higher things by it; or if it is radiating gloomily, they
are moved to depression and discouragement.

Transfusion

Through Jesus' experience on the Cross, where His precious
blood was spilled, through His suffering there He lowered
His consciousness to the consciousness

//page 335

of the race, thereby administering to the whole race a
blood transfusion, imparting to both the soul and the body
of men the properties of Being that will restore man to his
divine estate. Thus, we are on the way to fulfillment and
the Jesus Christ way!

Jesus Christ broadcast the electrons of His blood into the
race thought atmosphere and they may be apprehended by all
who believe in Him. These electrons become centers of
energy and life in those who appropriate them. Thus, men
gradually transform and regenerate their blood and their
body. This is the real spiritual meaning of being saved by
Jesus Christ. The blood is the life. Jesus really came to
bring to the whole human family a larger consciousness of
life.

Life is a universal energy that moves even the corpuscles
of the blood. Therefore life is more powerful than the
blood. Consequently we believe that it was through the
"shedding," the getting rid, of the idea of flesh and blood
that Jesus accomplished His great works. He tapped the
great reservoir of divine life and raised His consciousness
of life to that of the Father.

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper is God's covenant with

//page 336

mankind, through His perfect idea, Christ Jesus. This
compact was completed through Jesus' breaking the bread and
blessing the cup. The bread symbolizes spiritual substance,
or the body, and we drink His blood by affirming and
realizing our oneness with the one divine, omnipresent life
of Spirit.

Through Jesus Christ we all have access to this perpetual
life stream. We must really eat of His substance, as He
taught us; that is, we must appropriate it as spiritually
ours. We must drink of His blood: let His life stream flow
through our mind and body, healing, cleansing, and
purifying us in every way. This is the grand at-one-ment of
man's life and with the life of God through Jesus Christ.
This is the way to perfect fulfillment.

Now

The man who wants the inner life to spring forth must
believe in the reality of the omnipresent spiritual life
and must exercise his faith by invoking in prayer the
presence of the invisible but omnipresent God. This reveals
to consciousness the glory of Spirit, and the soul has
witness of itself of a power that it knew not.

In Spirit all things are fulfilled now. The moment a
concept enters the mind, the thing conceived is consummated
through the law that

//page 337

governs the action of ideas. The spiritual-minded take
advantage of this law and affirm the completeness of this
ideal, regardless of outer appearances. This stimulates the
energy in the thought process and gives it power beyond
estimate.

I AM Action

The soul in conscious touch with the Father-Mind and
striving to fulfill the divine law brings the power of true
words to bear in the purifying cleansing of its faculties.
The necessity of abiding in the I AM in order to bear much
fruit is affirmed. When our faith attaches itself to outer
things, instead of the spiritual I AM, it ceases to draw
vitality from the one and only source of life, divine
Principle.

The only door to this life is the I AM. This abiding is a
conscious centering of the mind in the depths within us by
means of repeated affirmations of our faith and trust in
it. This day-by-day repeating of affirmations finally opens
a channel of intelligent communication with the silent
forces at the depths of Being; thoughts and words flow
forth from there, and an entirely new source of power is
developed in the man.

When the thought or "word" of Truth from the supreme I AM
of consciousness becomes an

//page 338

abiding fact in our mind, we need no longer strive in
external ways. We have but to express a deep desire in the
soul and it is fulfilled.

Sabbath

The consciousness that we have fulfilled the divine law in
both thought and act is the Sabbath. It has nothing to do
with any day of the week. God did not make days and weeks,
nor has He darkened His clear concepts of Truth by the
element of time. Time is an invention of the human.

The true Sabbath is that state of mind in which we rest
from outer thought and doings, and give ourselves up to
meditation or to the study of things spiritual. It is when
we enter into the stillness of our inner consciousness,
think about God and His law, and commune with Him. It is a
state of mind that man enters or acquires when he goes into
the silence of his own soul, into the realm of Spirit.
There he finds true rest and peace, a perfect stage of
one's spiritual unfoldment.

//page 339

//section Reincarnation

//text

THE Western world in general looks upon reembodiment, or
reincarnation, as a heathen doctrine. Many people close the
door of their minds upon it, without waiting to find out
what message it brings when interpreted in the light of
Truth. It is the object of this presentation to set forth
the Unity teaching concerning reincarnation; to show why we
consider it reasonable, and to explain its relation to, and
its place in, the Christ doctrine.

Jesus Christ Teaching

The teaching of Jesus Christ is that all men shall, through
Him, be made free

//page 340

from sin and be saved to the uttermost--spirit, soul, body.
Until this salvation is attained, there is death. To give
men opportunity to get the full benefit of salvation, life
is necessary. A body through which to express is also
necessary. When man loses his body by death, the law of
expression works within him for reembodiment. He takes
advantage of the Adam method of generation to regain a
body. Divine mercy permits this process in order that man
may have further opportunity to demonstrate Christ life.

Regeneration

Generation and death must give place to regeneration and
eternal life. The necessity of rebirth must therefore pass
away with all other make-shifts of the mortal man. It will
have no place when men take advantage of the redeeming,
regenerating life of Jesus Christ and quit dying.

Reembodiment should not be given undue importance. It is
merely a temporary remedy to be followed by the real, which
is resurrection. The whole man--spirit, soul, and
body--must be lifted up into the Christ consciousness of
life and perfection.

Heathen Thought

Whenever there has been a nation of thinkers who were not
bound in materialism, those

//page 341

thinkers have accepted reembodiment as a fact. It is
rejected only where the craze for wealth and for fame and
for the things of the world has darkened the mind with
materiality.

The heathen who have not received Truth as revealed by
Jesus Christ do not know where and how reembodiment fits
into the race redemption. To them it is a fixed,
unalterable law.

They believe in karma, the accumulated effects of the sins
of past lives. The burden of karma they have carried for
ages, and they expect to carry it for ages more until they
have worked out of it. This makes them victims of a blind
fatalism, weary treadmill travelers from birth to death,
and from death to birth.

There is no such hopeless note in the doctrine of Jesus
Christ. He came to bring a full consciousness of abundant
life, complete forgiveness and redemption from all sin,
victory over death and the grave, so delivering man from
any occasion for reembodiment and from all beliefs of karma.

The heathen hold that reincarnation is one of the natural
evolutionary steps of man's development. We teach, and our
doctrine is sustained by the teachings of Jesus, that
rebirth is the unifying force of nature at work in its
effect to restore man to his original deathless estate.
Man, through his disregard of the law

//page 342

of life, brought death upon soul and body. A single span of
life, from the birth of an infant to the death of an old
man, does not constitute all man's opportunity for life.

Continuity

Life is continuous and in harmony with the wholeness of
Being only when it is expressed in a perfect body; hence
man must have a body in order to gain an abiding
consciousness of life. Through repeated trials at living,
man is finding out that he must learn to control the issues
of life. The divine law, as taught by Jesus Christ, must be
understood and applied in all life's details, and when this
is done the Eden state will be restored.

The objections that the natural man raises to reembodiment
arise largely from the fact that he lives in the personal
consciousness and cannot see things in the universal. He
thinks that by reembodiment he loses his identity. But
identity endures. Personal consciousness does not endure.
The personal man is not immortal and he dies. This is clear
to anyone who is willing to give up his belief in the
reality and importance of the personal consciousness.

Release

All the personal man--his limitations, his relations--must
give

//page 343

way to the universal, the Christ. The privilege is ours to
give up or forsake everything--father, mother, wife,
children, houses, lands--for Christ's sake, and so enter
into the consciousness of the absolute. By doing this we
come into the realization of eternal life and receive a
hundredfold more than we have forsaken.

If we refuse and cling to the old family relationships,
there is nothing for it but to meet the result of our
choice, and to give all those relations up by death. It is
just a question of giving up a little for the all and of
gaining eternal life. So if reembodiment frees one from the
old personal relationships, it is not such a dreadful thing
after all. It cannot give anything more than new personal
relations. Rising out of these into the universal is a work
that everyone must do willingly for himself. Death and
reembodiment do not give redemption. Reincarnation serves
only as a further opportunity to lay hold of redemption.

Union

The pure, incorruptible substance of Spirit, built by the
transforming power of the Christ into the organism through
true, pure, spiritual thought and word, makes the body
incorruptible and eternal. As the mind changes from error
to Truth, corresponding changes take place in the body, and
the ultimate

//page 344

of these changes is perfection and wholeness in every part.
Therefore those who are trying to lay hold of eternal life
have ground for their faith in the promise that they will
be saved from the grave.

Knowing that spirit, soul, and body are all necessary to
man and that he cannot truly be said to live except in
their conscious union and expression, the error of
believing that death is the open door to a higher life, the
gateway to heaven, is easily seen. There is no progress in
death. Death is negation. The demonstration of eternal life
can be made only in life--soul and body together working
out the problem and together being lifted up.

Mortal Mind

The idea of progress in death has its origin in the mortal
mind, which reasons from its own limitations instead of
from absolute Truth. The mortal mind desires to preserve
eternally the personal consciousness and all personal
relations. Man therefore attempts to make and to people a
heaven, or spirit world, where all the old family relations
are as he knows them in his present life. He clings to this
belief with a tenacity worthy of a better object, and it is
usually only after hard experience that he is willing to
drop the personal. Eternal life cannot be

//page 345

demonstrated in personal consciousness. The great family of
Jesus Christ, the redeemed Adam race, are all one, and the
little selfish relationships of the Adam man have no place
in the new order.

Illogical Beliefs

Another illogical belief about the destiny of man is that
the patriarchs and the prophets, and all others who have
lived, have been lying in their graves, some of them for
thousands of years, having no place in the onward movement
of the race.

Another teaching, unfounded in Scripture or in reason,
holds that they who formerly lived are now either in a
realm of eternal bliss or in a state of unending torment.
It is far more logical to believe that the race is a unit
and that all its members grow and develop together as well
as individually. Thus we find it only reasonable to think
of every man and every woman as coming onto the stage
repeatedly, keeping up connection with the race and its
experiences.

Growth

Mortal consciousness has no power to lift itself out of
ignorance and sin, so the mere matter of repeated births
has not taken the race forward. It is the descent of Spirit
from time to time, as the people have

//page 346

been able to receive it, that has made all progress. As
man's growth has made it possible, new truths have been
discerned and new dispensations have come. When the time
was ripe, Jesus came and brought the good news of salvation
from death. His words had to work in the race consciousness
for nearly two thousand years before anyone was
sufficiently awakened and quickened to believe in a
complete redemption and to strive to lay hold of it. The
promise is that the leaven of the Word will finally leaven
the whole of the human family and that all will come into
the light of life.

From the standpoint of the universal it is plain that
reembodiment serves a purpose in affording opportunities
for spiritual development. All that is gained in spiritual
growth in one life experience becomes part of man's real
identity. If he is faithful, he will finally gather such a
store of spiritual power and wisdom that he can demonstrate
salvation of his body through Christ. But reincarnation is
only an opportunity.

Resurrection

If generation and reincarnation are not the means of
restoring to their place in the race those who have died,
what is the means that accords with the divine law?
Resurrection.

Whether they still walk the earth, or have

//page 347

ceased to breathe and have been buried from sight, all are
in a dead state, and all must be raised from the grave of
ignorance and sin. Right now the resurrection work is going
on. Men and women are awakening to a new consciousness of
life, of understanding, and of bodily perfection. This
resurrection work must extend to every member of the Adam
race, whether he is what we call alive or whether he, as
Jesus said of the dead, sleeps. All must be awakened and be
unified in soul and body.

Many of the present-day beliefs about resurrection have
come down from past centuries of ignorance, and have been
accepted without question. They seem to be a literal
interpretation of certain Bible texts. In these, as in all
Scripture, we must get back of the letter and see the
spiritual meaning of the parables and the symbols used to
teach the truth about the raising of the dead. As we do
this we find going on in ourself the very awakening and
resurrection that we once supposed would come in a single
day to buried people. When this raising up, redeeming
process has gone far enough in us, we shall probably be the
means of awakening and raising other buried ones.

Phases

Everyone begins where he left off. When reembodied, he has
opportunity

//page 348

to come up into Jesus Christ, identify himself with the
Jesus Christ race, and demonstrate through Him the
deathless life. We must remember that there are steps and
phases in this great process. When we understand them, we
shall see that men will be raised to their place in the
Adam race, then raised out of Adam into Christ.

Everyone who would demonstrate that he is risen with Christ
must first lay hold of life by faith and affirm, without
wavering, that he is raised out of sin and condemnation and
death into life eternal. Then the word of life carries on,
day by day, the resurrecting, redemptive work in the mind
and in the body. Every day some old limitation or error
loses its hold and passes away, and the imperishable,
incorruptible substance of Truth becomes a little more
firmly established in consciousness. In this way the body
is transformed and raised up in honor, incorruptible,
immortal.

It is not profitable to allow our mind to dwell upon mortal
questionings about how the work of Spirit is to be done in
and through us. It is our place to hold ourself in a
positive life thought, realizing always the omnipresence
and perfection of life in God, thus bringing perfect life
more and more into manifestation in ourself and in others.
When we realize how much

//page 349

our faithfulness means to the race, we shall rejoice in
being true to the great truths that will bring to pass the
time when death and the grave will be no more.

Memory

That you do not remember your past lives proves nothing.
Neither do you remember the day on which you were born, but
you do not on that account question the fact of your birth.
Comparatively little of your present life is remembered.
But that does not alter the fact that you have lived.
Memory, to the natural man, is a matter of physical brain
records, photographic or phonographic in character. The
memories of experiences in past lives are not clearly
recorded in the new brain structure of the infant. Such
memories are usually in the nature of vague impressions.
The sense of identity is blurred.

In the book of life, the great Mind of the universe, all
identity is sharply marked. As the individual becomes
quickened and raised out of personal consciousness into the
universal, he will be able to bridge over the breaks in
personal experience. He will come to himself. Realizing his
spiritual identity as the son of God, he will not entangle
himself with either present or past personality, but will
claim and demonstrate his divine sonship. He will no longer
limit himself

//page 350

in a brief span of life, beginning with birth and ending
with death, but will live in the consciousness of eternal
life, which has neither end nor beginning.

//page 351

//section Treatments for Self-Development

//text

Treatment to Realize God

There is one Presence, one Intelligence, one Substance, one
Life: the good omnipotent. God is the name of the
everywhere present Principle.

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

Treatment to Realize Spiritual Sonship

I am the son of God, and the Spirit of the Most High dwells
in me. I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of
the Father. I am the Christ of God. I am the beloved son in

//page 352

whom the Father is well pleased. He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father. I and my Father are one. I am the image
and likeness of God, in whom is my perfection. All that the
Father has is mine.

Thou art always with me as indwelling wisdom and love. Thy
law is now the standard of my life, and I am at peace. Thou
art never absent from me. I dwell in Thee and share Thine
omnipotence. In Thee is my perfection.

Treatment to Know the Truth

God is Truth. The Truth is: God is Principle, Law, Being,
Mind, Spirit, All-Good, omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent, unchangeable, Creator, Father, Cause, and
Source of all that is. 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. Mind has ideas and
ideas have expression. All manifestation in our world is
the result of the ideas that we are holding in mind and are
expressing. To bring forth or to manifest the harmony of
Divine Mind, or the "kingdom of heaven," all our beliefs
must be one with divine ideas, and must be expressed in the
divine order of Divine Mind.

//page 353

Treatment to Realize the Spiritual Ideal

My highest ideal is a perfect man. My next highest ideal is
that I am that perfect man. I am identity demonstrated. My
perfection is now established in Divine Mind. I am one with
Almightiness. Through Christ I have dominion over my every
thought and word. Of a truth I am the son of God.

Treatment to Realize Perfect Manifestation

My "life is hid with Christ in God." I am the substance of
Being made manifest. I am formed in the perfection of the
divine-idea man, Christ Jesus. My body is the temple of the
living God, and the glory of the Lord fills the temple. My
body is not material; it is spiritual and perfect in all
its being. By seeing perfection in all things, I help to
make it manifest. I see in mind that perfect character
which I desire to be.

//page 354

Treatment to Realize Light

The glory of the Lord is risen upon me, and I walk in the
light of life. 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. My understanding is illumined
by Spirit.

Treatment to Develop One's Viewpoint

The Christ of God is born in my consciousness, and I am
glorified in my understanding. My understanding is
established in Divine Mind. My spirit is quickened in
Christ. I know the reality back of the shadows. I see the
light of the Christ consciousness always. I see perfection
in all forms and shapes.

//page 355

Treatment for Right Thinking

With my mind's eye I see more and more the reality of the
true ideas ever existing in divine principle. I firmly
believe in the guiding Intelligence that directs all my
thoughts. I am in authority, I say to this thought, "'Go,'
and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes." Where
my thoughts are gathered together in my Christ name, there
I am in the midst of them.

I will think no evil, for Thou art always with me. I think
Thy thoughts after Thee.

Treatment to Realize Freedom

God is good, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe
in the reality of evil in any of its forms. God is life,
and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in the
reality of loss of life, or death. God is power and
strength, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in
inefficiency and weakness. God is wisdom, and God is all;
therefore I refuse to believe in ignorance. God is
spiritual substance, and God is all; therefore there is no
reality in the limitations of matter. God is inexhaustible
resource, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in
the reality of lack or poverty. God is love, and God is
all; therefore I refuse to believe in hate or revenge.

//page 356

Treatment to Realize Substance

I believe in the presence and power of the one Mind, and it
is to me substantial intelligence. Holding continuously to
the reality of things spiritual establishes them in
mind--they become mental substance. My mind is opened anew
to the splendor of God's kingdom, and a flood of rich
substance now pours itself into my affairs.

Treatment to Develop Faith

The understanding of Spirit clarifies my faith. My faith is
of God and in God. 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. My doubts and fears are dissolved and
dissipated; in confidence and peace I rest in God's
unchangeable law. My faith comprehends the beauty of
wholeness. I am persuaded that God is able, that He is
willing, that He is eager to give me whatsoever I ask.

//page 357

Treatment to Develop the Body

My body does not starve for my love and appreciation of it.
I recognize it, honor it, and love it as the body temple of
the living God. I have now the only body I ever had. Though
I were reincarnated a thousand times, yet is my body the
same. It is I. Its appearance depends upon my beliefs and
thoughts and changes accordingly, but it is always the same
body, even as my soul and spirit are always the same. My
body is as much a part of my individuality as my soul. It
is eternal, like any other part of my I. It is I, even as
my soul is I. My body came from no one but God. It came
from Him with my spirit and soul and has ever coexisted
with them. These three are one, inseparable. I do not own
my body: I am body. I do not own my soul: I am soul. I do
not own my spirit: I am spirit. These three are one. I am.
I am in every cell of my body. I am every cell of my body.
I do not disown my body. I do not withdraw my I, but I take
possession--full possession--of every part in the name of
the Lord. My body is life, purity, wholeness, sinlessness.
In my flesh I see God. What I see, what I behold, becomes
manifest.

//page 358

Denial Treatment for Well-Being

I deny that I inherit any belief that in any way limits me
in health, virtue, intelligence, or power to do good. Those
with whom I associate can no longer make me believe that I
am a poor worm of the dust. The race belief that "nature
dominates man" no longer holds me in bondage, and I am now
free from every belief that might in any way interfere with
my perfect expression of health, wealth, peace, prosperity,
and perfect satisfaction in every department of life. By my
all-powerful word, in the sign and presence of Almighty
God, I now unformulate and destroy every foolish and
ignorant assumption that might impede my march to
perfection. My word is the measure of my power. I have
spoken, and it shall be so.

//page 359

Affirmation Treatment for Well-Being

I am unlimited in my power, and I have increasing health,
strength, life, love, wisdom, boldness, freedom, charity,
and meekness, now and forever. I am now in harmony with the
Father, and stronger than any mortal law. I know my
birthright in pure Being, and I boldly assert my perfect
freedom. In this knowledge I am enduring, pure, peaceful,
and happy. I am dignified and definite, yet meek and lowly,
in all that I think and do. I am one with and I now fully
manifest vigorous life, wisdom, and spiritual
understanding. I am one with and I now fully manifest love,
charity, justice, kindness, and generosity. I am one with
and I now fully manifest infinite goodness and mercy. Peace
floweth like a river through my mind, and I thank Thee, O
God, that I am one with Thee!

//page 360

The Sevenfold Cleansing of the Temple

The eye represents the discerning capacity of the mind.

My eyes are no longer darkened by thought of deception,
concealment, or lust. The cleansing life and light of
Spirit make pure and clean these eyes, and through
all-seeing Mind I have spiritual vision.

The ear represents the receptive capacity of the mind.

My ears are no longer stopped by the sensitiveness and
willfullness of the little self. I am no longer bound by
personality. I now bathe in the great ocean of life, and I
am free in boundless Spirit. I hear the voice of Truth only
and rejoice.

The nose represents the initiative capacity of the mind.

The cleansing life of Spirit frees my mind of all thoughts
of fear, timidity, and incapacity. I am bold, free,
courageous Spirit, and I can do all things through Christ.

The tongue represents the judging capacity of the mind.

Sense appetite no longer clogs the clear discernment

//page 361

of my spiritual judgment. The cleansing life of Spirit
quickens and cleanses my taste, and I eat and drink only
what my body requires under divine law.

Feeling represents the loving capacity of the mind.

I am no longer in bondage to the thought that sensation is
in matter. The cleansing life of Spirit dissolves all
fleshly lust for sense pleasure. I am Spirit, and I desire
the clean, pure currents of life to flow through every part
of my body, so that all may be made clean.

Intuition is the natural knowing capacity of the mind.

The cleansing life of Spirit purifies my heart, and I trust
the "still small voice" within my soul.

Telepathy is thought interchange.

The cleansing life of Spirit clears my mind of ignorance
and materiality, and I see the activity of ideas and
understand their import independently of human language. As
God gave Daniel "learning and skill in all letters and
wisdom, and . . . understanding in all visions and dreams,"
so He gives me and all His children the original ideas of
His great mind to use as we will.

//page 362

Treatment to Develop Prosperity

Infinite wisdom guides me, divine love prospers me, and I
am successful in everything I undertake. In quietness and
confidence I affirm the drawing power of divine love as my
magnet of constantly increasing supply. I have unbounded
faith in the omnipresent substance increasing and
multiplying at my word of plenty, plenty, plenty. I trust
the universal Spirit of prosperity in all my affairs. I
come to God because I believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of them that seek after Him. I give freely and
fearlessly, fulfilling the law of giving and receiving.
Divine love, through me, blesses and multiplies this
offering.

Father, I thank Thee for unlimited increase in mind, money,
and affairs.

//page 363

//section Golden Snowflakes

//text

Behold, what God hath wrought!

An ideal man, a mighty man--

A man supreme, who thought by thought

Must demonstrate what God hath wrought.

Hard experiences come into our life because we do not know
the law of harmonious thinking.

All economic, social, and personal trouble can be traced
back to selfishness.

//page 364

One who tries to establish self-control through will power
and suppression never accomplishes permanent results.

Time is the measure that man gives to passing events.

There is but one way to establish harmony in the home, and
that is to establish it first in the individual.

No one has the right to dictate what another shall do.

The cause of all accidents lies in sense consciousness. To
be free from all accidents, we must raise our
consciousness, so that it is spiritually positive and
Christlike. Then we shall attract only good.

The greatest disintegrating element in human consciousness
is resistance.

Instead of giving up to circumstances and outer events we
should remember that we are all very close to a kingdom of
mind that would make us always happy and successful if we
would cultivate it and make it and its laws a vital part of
our life.

//page 365

Man is a duality in seeming only. He is a unit when he
knows himself.

The belief that God makes men do certain things cannot be
true in a single instance, because, if it were, man would
not be a free agent.

God has chosen each of us as a medium for the expression of
Himself.

There are times when it is to our own spiritual benefit and
to God's glory to keep things concealed and, like Mary, to
ponder them in our heart until due time for expression.

Christianity is the science of eternal life.

The great object of man's existence in planetary
consciousness is to build a body after the ideals given by
the Lord.

Our consciousness is our real environment.

God is not jealous as men count jealousy, but He is jealous
of principle, from which no lapses are tolerated.

It is the law of Spirit that we must be that which we would
draw to us.

Spiritual beauty is the loveliness of God beheld in His
creations by the eye of man.

//page 366

Cause and effect are the balance wheel of the universe.

Marriage should be a perpetual feast of love, and so it
would be if the laws of love were observed.

No one ever attained spiritual consciousness without
striving for it.

One must give up personal attachments before one can
receive the universal.

A wish is a superficial expression of desire, and is only
fleeting.

Instead of fighting modern science the new Christianity
welcomes its discoveries as proofs of the veritable
existence of the kingdom of the heavens that Jesus taught
so persistently.

Any system that suppresses the will is radically wrong.

The soul is progressive. It must go forward. It must meet
and overcome its limitations.

The buoyancy and joy of youth should be cultivated
enthusiastically as the years advance.

//page 367

All food is primarily mental, and in the process of
digestion and assimiliation it becomes part of the body
structure, making cells like itself in character.

Seeming failure is often a steppingstone to something
higher.

Restlessness cannot be satisfied by change of climate or
environment or by travel or by any other outward change.
Only by man's finding his center in God can restlessness
and discontent be satisfied.

In order to realize Truth and to demonstrate it you must
live it.

Every adverse situation can be used as a spur to urge one
to greater exertion and the ultimate attainment of some
ideal that has lain dormant in the subconsciousness.

Every man who accomplishes things sees first in his mind
what he wishes to do.

What you now comprehend is not the ultimate of your ability
in any direction.