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THE SEAMLESS ROBE
Lillian DeWaters
It is never too late! To paraphrase Whittier’s words:
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest of these: It might have been!”
Let us say:
“For of all glad words of tongue or pen,
The gladdest of these: It never has been!”
Separation, affliction, limitation never have been!
Evil of any kind never has been and never shall be in
My Kingdom, for in Me is perpetual Harmony and the
experience of changeless love, understanding, and
glory. Concern yourselves therefore wholly with Me;
with My ideas; and with My universe.
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HO, every one that thirsteth for peace, and yearneth for
understanding. Come ye to the feast; yea, come, eat
and drink without money and without price.
The banquet is prepared; the hour is at hand. We need
look neither in the past nor to the future for we live in
perpetual Good now, and we can experience it now.
“The Seamless Robe,” symbolizing wholeness and
perfection of Being, contains within itself infinite
blessings which are ours to know and ours to
experience in earth as in Heaven.
The Truth is our own Being, and its immortal Good
may be brought right into our daily living. We need
not suffer any sort of limitation. Freedom, peace and
certainty are the natural qualities of Being, awaiting our
recognition and acceptance.
Could the Kingdom of Heaven be within us, as Jesus
said, yet a mist or a wall hide it from us? Could this
world be for us nothing but a course of instruction,
teaching us the good and true only through tests and
trials? Must we have been limited and bound by
sickness and the fear of death, by sin and its penalties,
in order to understand the nature and quality of our
Being? Is there an Understanding which will make
darkness light before us? Let each face and answer
these questions.
“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.”
These “glad tidings” are that we can experience
freedom and harmony NOW, that we can enjoy health
and happiness THIS INSTANT. There is no suffering
body to be healed nor any person or circumstance to
improve in our favour. We need not delay in
accepting the life of perpetual peace and certainty now,
ready and finished in earth as in Heaven.
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Life and its perfect experience are one and identical,
now and here available. Not only shall we understand
that our true Being includes our ever-present and
eternal Health, Harmony and Happiness, but we shall
also understand how to express this Fact in our present
existence. The hour is come for us to understand
perfect Life and what it includes.
The belief that our well-being depends upon certain
conditions, persons or things may be relinquished, for
were this true then living would be at the mercy of
circumstances. Health, Wealth, Harmony and
Happiness are ours not by thoughts or works: they
inhere in our Being and are our very Nature. We need
only know and accept this to be so and conform with
our Being to experience this Reality now and here.
Take health out of thing and thought; out of the power
of person, circumstance, object and thing. Let your
confidence in all these be surrendered to the one
all-transcendent Being.
Ever speaks the living Truth: “I am the one and only
Reality, without dreams or delusions. Omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent. I know all; I am all. Here
in My ever-present world I act without need of any
way, or method, of deliverance. For in My world there
is no evil to be delivered from, inasmuch as the
darkness and the light are both alike to Me. There is
no false world in which I could express Myself. My
world is as real and as perfect as I am. There can be no
denial of the perpetual harmony of My Being. Verily,
verily, thou mayest know the Real and express the fruit
of the Spirit in earth as in Heaven.”
WHEN one supposes that sickness or limitation has
gotten a hold upon either his body or his affairs, he can
stand still, awake and aware in the one Presence,
knowing, “Naught can disturb; God is my peace.”
For peace and the certainty of the Good now and here is
our normal consciousness.
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One keeps himself awake by learning what Truth is, by
practicing it, and being it; by accepting no false gods or
untrue beliefs. The epistle of James states clearly:
“The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without
hypocrisy.” We have nothing to do but to understand
that all is harmony and perfection always.
Life is not limited to person, place, or thing, for Life
includes all, and is Self-existent Spirit. The nature of
Life is to live, consequently there is nothing in it to die,
inasmuch as Life is God everlasting. Moreover, Life
cannot be sick, or injured, or rendered inactive or
over-active, for there is no quality in Life to produce
such phenomena; nor is there any other power which
could change, harm, or interfere with Life’s action,
since it is the action of God and therefore immutable
because it changes not, and inviolable for the reason
that there is nothing to challenge it. So Life is never at
the mercy of personal beliefs, fears, doubts, fancies of
any kind, inasmuch as Life is supreme, all-transcendent
Reality.
Many times we have heard it said that fear and discord
&ring suffering into our lives. Let us lovingly and
gladly accept the larger perception that suffering
should not be accepted as a penalty for fear, for wrong
thought, or for mistakes of any kind.
Since there is no consciousness of imperfection in
Perfection there could be no condemnation for man,
whether for his fears, his ignorance, sins, or any erring
belief. There is no censure in divine Wisdom nor
penalty in divine Love which might be brought to bear
upon him. The sayings that “The wages of sin is
death,” and “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,”
are transcended when a higher understanding of Life is
revealed. Saith the Truth of Being:
“Though your sins be as scarlet (in your eyes), they
shall be as white as snow (in Mine).”
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Divine Intelligence does not include the recognition of
“suffering” of any kind, therefore it is time that we
refuse to be held or bound ‘by any such outgrown
theories, and come to know our perfect Life and its
experience as possible now and here.
Do you hesitate to accept this insight fearing that
thereby appearances of evil might increase, or that one
might become too complacent in self-righteousness?
He who hath ears to hear will hear; he who is thirsty for
the higher righteousness will drink from this living
Fountain, and “it shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting Life.”
Verily the time is here to set aside the supposition that
spiritual growth means the way of the cross, for
suffering need not be the only means of bringing us into
higher understanding. We may “grow in grace” as the
lilies grow.
Old theology taught that through trials and afflictions
we enter the Kingdom: but let us be willing to rise
above theology and accept the clearer illumination that
we live in Heaven now, and Good comes to us because
it is the nature of our Being.
God’s incessant activity is peace, harmony, joy and
blessedness, which is ever full, ever complete, perfect
and present. Man is unfallen, therefore we can
transcend beliefs in his regeneration, restitution and
salvation, and bring about the vision and experience of
perfect Being here and now.
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THERE will be a great world awakening when it is
seen and felt that “suffering” is not evil in itself, ‘but a
signal: a signal for that individual to stand still and
obey the precept “Know thyself,” — become better
acquainted with the meaning of Life and its natural,
peaceful activity. There is no evil in God; there is no
sin, suffering or death in the sight of God. It is
inevitable that Life, or Being, shall be true to Itself,
shall eternally know and experience Itself: so to “know
thyself” means to understand one’s true Self and to
LIVE and EXPRESS it, — for “knowing” includes
living.
Life is Self-governed and Self-expressed. Thus if we
seem to be arrested in our progress and placed in
prisons of various kinds, they are not to be thought of as
evils but as signals that we shall pause and come face to
face with what Life requires of us, and then fulfil it.
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying,
This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right
hand, and when ye turn to the left.” — Isaiah
Today there is a crying out to be delivered from
discords, afflictions and limitations, and as never
before a great effort is being made to rid existence of
these. If attention should be taken from these
conditions and given over wholly to the understanding
of Life and to the knowledge of what It includes, then
“all these (good) things shall be added unto you.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” —
Micah
You see, there is no real affliction or limitation to be
healed, or remedied, or prayed over, or treated, but
there is your Life and Being which is to be known,
understood and expressed.”
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Haven’t we been trying too long to overcome sickness,
sorrow and suffering by various modes of treatment,
instead of letting them go and giving our whole
attention to discovering the Truth of Life and what it
requires of us? Truly, we live only to accept and
express our perfect Being. We should know then that
whatever does not conform to Peace, Love and
Harmony must be given up. Paul had a clear vision of
this when he said:
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterwards it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby.”
People who seem sick wish material or mental help so
as to be well, whereas the point to consider is neither
one of mental nor physical harmony but of spiritual
Wholeness, which includes both mind and body. At
one time when Daniel was troubled with fear he was
comforted by an angel which said to him: “Fear not,
Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine
heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy
God, thy words were heard.”
“Greater WORKS than these shall he do,” need not
mean only greater healing works, nor a larger
proportion of deliverances from limitations, afflictions
and sorrows, but transcending this a wider and deeper
understanding of Life and what it includes, — and
particularly what it requires of us.”
The reference to “greater works” has really not so much
to do with healing, or with the removal of discords from
experience, as with the opening of the perception to the
fuller recognition that one is to conform in his daily
living to the Reality of his Being.
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, and have not a
genuine understanding of Life, so that I LIVE and
EXPRESS my true Being, it availeth me nothing!
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Our daily experience is in Heaven. Our health,
wealth, happiness and harmony ever abide in our own
Being, and are to be realized and expressed in
EVERYDAY LIVING. And truly there is no evil in
all-inclusive Reality, for “The darkness and the light
are both alike to Thee.”
“They all shall know Me, from the least of them unto
the greatest of. them, saith the Lord.” This is not a
theory but a fact. Often what is called “suffering” and
seems an unnecessary experience is only considered so
because of surface judgement; for it may be right at this
point that one is to become better acquainted with his
true Self, and be more willing and ready to LIVE in
harmony with it. The place whereon thou standest is
where thou shalt know thyself, — for God, thy eternal
Good, is omnipresent.
“If I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there; if I make
my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy
right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the
night shall be light about me, Yea, the darkness hideth
not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the
darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.” —
David
When “suffering” brings one into a more sympathetic
understanding of Life, and so enables him to express
Love more tenderly and truly, then the “tribulation” is
not to be remembered as evil, but as “angels entertained
unawares.”
Losses, diseases, limitations, are but names given to
certain times in one’s experience when his own Being
has called a “halt;” where, knowing nothing outside
Itself, it requires a more perfect view of Reality and
footsteps following more closely the One who said,
“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto Life.”
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Let us therefore look away from appearances called
“evil,” and let us examine OURSELVES and see how
closely our daily living is measuring up to the standard
of our perfect Selfhood. Let us see that there is really
no sin, sickness or suffering to be considered, healed,
prayed for, or treated: but Life as it really is, is to be
known and experienced, naturally, simply, trustingly,
in God’s eternal Now.
“WHEREFORE henceforth know we no man after the
flesh,” admonishes the apostle Paul. Let us cease to
think of man as a creature of flesh and let us know him
as spiritual Being. How foolish it is to believe in the
appearances of sinful man, sick man, ignorant man,
poor man, when in Spirit he is not that way at all!
What about the pictures flashed on the screen of the
drama of “material existence?” Many of them depict
depression, fear, loss, lack. What are we to do about
them? Weep and wring our hands, force our way up to
the screen and attempt to stop or change the pictures, —
directing our attention wholly to them? Indeed, No.
“But,” you say, “there is my brother in sickness, in sin,
in lack, what shall I do to save him?” You cannot help
anyone permanently by seeing him “after the flesh.”
Save yourself the reactions of painful sympathy by
turning from the picture. Take care that you do not
just take another seat in the house where you can still
peek around the corner, (so to speak), but leave that
state of consciousness entirely, and face in the right
direction. Turn to God, — perfect Life and its
expression. Here you see that there is no one to be
carried off to prison, to be deprived of friends, or aid, as
it appears; none who are sick or sinful, for Being
includes all individuality, and outlines perpetual and
universal happiness and harmony.
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Eternity is now and here. This very instant is filled
with heavenly Reality. Happy indeed are we when we
apprehend and express this glorious present actuality!
Neither dreams nor thoughts, nor powers, nor plays,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the Reality in which we now “live and move and
have our being.” Perfection is “the same yesterday,
and today, and for ever.” The more we see Perfection
expressed everywhere, — in every blade of grass, in
every beast of field, in every thing of earth — the more
will we be assured of happy experiences.
Did Daniel ask to be delivered from the lions’ den?
Did he upbraid the counsellors and governors for their
drastic actions toward him? Did he plead with the
king to save him from such a cruel fate? Nay, but “he
went into his house, (Understanding), and his windows
being wide open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, (his
soul ready and willing to stand still in Being), he
kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed,
and gave thanks before his God, as he did before time.”
Nevertheless Daniel was cast into the den of lions, a
great stone was laid upon the mouth of the den, and he
was left with his own Being.
The king, worried over the safety of Daniel, came
hastily the next morning to see if haply he might have
been delivered from death. And Daniel, entirely
unharmed, answered him saying: “My God hath sent
his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they
have not hurt me.” And hearken closely to his further
reply: “Forasmuch as before Him innocency was found
in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no
hurt.”
How shall WE fulfil this essential and seemingly
difficult requirement of “innocency?” it may be asked.
Let us “know no man after the flesh.” Know no self,
no man, no thing, no law, no world after appearances,
but “Present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Present every blade of grass, every star of heaven,
every one of earth perfect, as his Being is perfect.
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How should we expect to understand the Christ-Truth
unless we open our vision to receive it, our hearing to
hear it, and our hearts to love it? “Verily,” saith the
Spirit, “all loving to be real at all must be My loving,
and all living and acting to be real at all must be My
living and My acting. The form may be named a bird,
but there am I as life, as joy, as beauty. The form may
be named man, but there am I ever aware of the
greatness and grandeur of Myself as Life, Love, Power,
Truth and Glory.
The form called “man” expresses the fullness of
Myself, the infinity of Being, the immortality of Life,
Truth and Love. Verily I am Life and I am the
experience of living! I am Love and I am the
experience of loving! I am Intelligence and I am the
experience of knowing! Verily Being and experience
are one, not two!
The exalted concept of Heaven as Now and HERE IS
irresistible. It lifts us as with wings to the state of joy
and peace. What darkness can withstand the light?
What dream can persist after our awakening? What
lack can continue when we contact the Wealth of the
one Being? Since divine Truth is omnipresent, then
divine Truth is here and now. Since divine Love is
omnipotent, then divine Love is here and now. Since
divine Life is omniscience, then divine Life is here and
now. Neither time, nor place, nor person, nor thing,
shall be able to separate us from this Truth, this Love,
this Life manifesting in experience as perfect thinking,
hearing, seeing, feeling, understanding, which Christ
Jesus declared “is at hand,” and “within us,” — for you,
for me, for all alike.
Then let us drink from the River of Life. Let us walk
in green pastures, rest beside still waters, and dwell in
the house, (Understanding), of all-blessedness forever.
What if the rains descend, and the floods come, and the
winds blow and beat upon us? That cannot fall, or fail,
which is Life, Truth and Love.
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“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in Heaven is perfect,” instructed Jesus. We should
therefore give up all sense of Self as person, body,
mind, and abide in the consciousness of Self as infinite
impersonal Being.
HAVE we accepted the belief that we govern ourselves
individually through our personal thoughts and
feelings? Then let us recognize and receive the higher
vision, — that of changeless Harmony and Perfection,
wherein all individuality is the one Life, the one Now,
the one Being. The individual is better governed when
he gives up all belief in separate personal thoughts and
feelings, and abides wholly in the consciousness of one
universal Intelligence, Activity and Power.
We may indeed rejoice to give up personal
responsibility when remembering Jesus’ words: “It is
your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom ...
Come unto Me, and I will give you rest ... Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Being is ceaselessly operating, — all-harmoniously it
embodies and includes all action, from the perfect
opening of a rosebud to the perfect thinking, hearing,
seeing, feeling and knowing of individual man. Its
mode of operation is Love, Harmony, Peace and Glory.
There could not enter into Being any thought of lack, or
loss, or doubt, or fear, or ignorance. Life could not
die, be put to sleep, or made to dream falsities; Truth
could not be deceived or confused; Love could not be
converted, regenerated or redeemed.
How then should one look upon discord? Whatever
enables one to understand and to experience his
Perfection more fully is not evil, although on the
surface it may appear so. Said Jesus, “Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every
branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may
bring forth more fruit.”
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That discord is inevitable and universal, as it seems to
be today, is not the correct viewpoint, or proper attitude
of thought. It is impossible that both Good and
non-good could be universal. There is nothing true
but the Truth. Therefore Truth and Heaven are
UNIVERSAL and INFINITE, to be experienced by us
all.
Let the word “Now,” capitalized, transcend all
suggestion of time, and denote the changeless Reality.
When we say or hear the word ordinarily, we think of
the moment correlated with the clock; but when we
think of it as the Now, we feel a new quality, like an
all-pervading Presence. In this Now no “healing” is
necessary or possible for the Now is already perfect and
complete. It INCLUDES an activity which is
perpetual harmony, — a natural and involuntary
wholeness and goodness. The Now is what is really
so, besides which nothing else does or can exist.
All the natural functions of existence here on earth
when more fully revealed will be understood as the
functions of Life, itself, — Life which is indivisible,
supreme, eternal. Our existence in this living Now
may be an experience filled with tenderness, peace,
perfect health and happiness. Nor could we see and
experience our eternal Good without being it.
The Now of Eternity is neither time nor space, yet it
includes all time and fills all space. Eternity is
indivisible time and boundless space, including and
comprising the experience of uninterrupted joy and
harmony.
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SPIRIT is the ever-present and infinite Substance from
which all true form-creation is produced. “Both riches
and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all;
and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine
hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all ...
With God all things are possible,” is the inspired Word.
Therefore we should never try to fill our experience
with satisfaction by appealing to visible form-creation
for it, but obtain all good directly from invisible Mind,
or Spirit.
To obtain our abiding good from invisible Spirit is the
only possible way. How should we hope to
experience joy, satisfaction, and the abundance of
all-good without turning and looking to the Substance
of it? If we wish the sunlight, we place ourselves in
contact with the sun. Similarly if we wish to enjoy the
fruits of the Spirit, we must come in contact with Spirit.
Realizing that eternal Life is not one experience and
our daily existence another, Spirit of one Nature and its
expression another, we see and feel our existence to be
one with all living, and our living to he one with Being,
and this Being and its experience to be ours NOW.
So we find our joy continuous and uninterrupted, not
dependent upon yesterday or tomorrow; but an
experience which depends wholly upon ourselves.
Since the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, as Jesus
affirmed, it is surely always possible for us to
experience its harmonies and blessings.
Theories about God and man will never hold our
attention and devotion for any length of time. We are
so constituted that nothing but the Seamless Robe, or
the Truth of Being, will completely satisfy. All things,
thoughts, times and persons representing the one
Presence are INCLUDED in the one infinite divine
Being. How else could God be All-in-all?
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Of what value is a Heaven to us apart from where we
are now living? Or Wholeness which we cannot
experience this very instant? Or Peace and Happiness
which could at any moment be impaired or terminated?
We must be willing to concede that Heaven Perfection,
to be at all must be NOW and HERE.
Let us look past the report of discord, destruction and
limitation, and grasp the importance of standing firmly
with the Soul-insight which comprehends only
Perfection. Should ears report discord, the eyes
unloveliness, the feeling disturbance, it is possible to
transcend such reports and experience Soul-perception
instead. This will always report truly. Sight, hearing,
thinking, feeling, are really not personal possessions
any more than are the multiplication table, the air, or
the sunlight.
As personalities we possess nothing. As one Being we
are all. The one All includes all. This is why we can
never lose sight, hearing, feeling or knowing. They
are eternally inherent, active and imperishable in one
unchangeable Being. Safe, certain, sure; omnipresent,
incorporeal.
The things we see and handle are not structural as they
seem to be. The chair in your room, the book you are
holding, the house in which you dwell, the tree outside
your window, when viewed correctly are all ideas of
Mind. Infinite Mind includes all natural formations
and such are IDEAS manifested in outline and colour,
— real and tangible.
Solidity is not added to the weightless idea, nor could
there be mortality in Spirit. The universe in which we
live is a universe of spiritual Ideas which are
substantial, immortal and practical, — apprehended
and utilized according to the degree of one’s
illumination. To one the vision is spiritual, while to
another the vision is “material.” As we come to know
that in the one Presence all is Mind and Its ideas,
former views will pass away and the Kingdom of
Reality will become more clearly visible to us.
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“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But
when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away.”
“And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”
Our sleeping dream illustrates, to some extent, how
Being, Mind, and its phenomena may be understood.
In our dream we see, hear, feel and act but without
corporeality. In our waking experience we say we
hear with ears, see with eyes, and walk with feet; but all
the while it is Mind which so functions, — for Mind
includes all natural action, volition and formation.
REJOICE that the time is here to look away from laws
“of matter and thought” unto heavenly Grace. The
word “Grace” means unmerited good; free gift. Such
grace declares: “To him that worketh not, his faith is
counted for righteousness … Not by might, nor by
power, but by My Spirit.”
Grace announces: “For the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ...
Now is the day of salvation … Neither do I condemn
thee ... In an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh.”
When Jesus tabernacled with men he did not teach
bondage but freedom. He did not teach limitation but
abundance. He produced bread without seedling and
harvest, without grinding and baking. He produced
fish, without bait or hook, without water or net. He
produced money, without mine or mint, without labour
or press. He produced raiment, without hands or
machinery. Ever we can hear Being say,
“The place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
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Then why should we wait longer? and for what? Have
we not been under the “law” or “schoolmaster” long
enough, and is it not high time “that we might be
justified by faith?” And further: “Who did hinder you
that ye should not obey the Truth?”
The book of Genesis informs us of light preceding the
sun, of grass preceding the seed. Jesus tells of “water”
from which if one drinks he “shall never thirst; but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life.” Jesus also
mentions “meat”, nourishing and satisfying, but which
unbelief and misconception “know not of.” We read
of a burning fiery furnace, of a den of lions, of a great
storm of wind powerless to harm, for Man has
dominion over all, — yea he is Lord of Heaven and
earth. “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in
earth.”
VERILY it requires courage, faith and purity to be
willing to exchange our confidence in laborious study
for the free and natural expression of revealed Being.
But when we let go the feverish yearning for spiritual
advancement, give up the mental effort directed toward
persons, places and things, and standing still allow our
real Being to prevail for us, we are blessed with
heavenly experience now and here. Saith this Being:
“There is no God beside Me:
I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me;
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and
from the west,
That there is none beside Me.
I am the Lord, and there is none else.”
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As one begins to feel the involuntary exaltation and
freedom of Spirit he rejoices in true peace and
certainty, — the natural joy and blessedness of Being.
To try to add goodness to oneself, or to assume virtues,
is not the same as to radiate the natural goodness which
springs spontaneously from Being. And trying to
remove discords and limitations from experience is not
the same as involuntarily losing them in the glad
moment of Self-consciousness. Over-arching and
suffusing all labour and achievement is Reality, which
is “the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” Here
Being and experience are identical.
How luminous and exalting to understand that our
Being is Self-sustained and Self-governed! Often,
despite our deep earnestness and eagerness to hold to
the Truth, we feel a separation. O, the peace and rest
when we lay down the burden and responsibility,
realizing that “I of mine own (personal) self can do
nothing!” Then, indeed, it is that the Wisdom, Love
and Power of our real Being becomes ALL to us.
Then it is that we walk in green pastures and rest
besides still waters.
Ever speaks the Christ: “Come unto Me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am
meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is
light ... Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.” This purity is the natural quality of Being.
Verily as “death is swallowed up in victory” so mental
effort is swallowed up in natural, spontaneous
illumination, and the notion of separate personality in
the one Self-existent Being. This revelation is
at-one-ment with the Truth of our Being.
Our own Being impels us to turn naturally to it for help,
for strength, for understanding. And as we do this, —
as we turn from confusion and disturbance to face
Truth in ourselves, lo, the darkness is light before us,
and our world is Heaven.
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One should advance naturally from the “taking
thought” position to the calm and certainty of Life and
Being. Many of us at times find ourselves crying with
David:
“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Why
art Thou so far from helping me, and from the words of
my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou
hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”
As we release ourselves from the struggle with thought
and personality, and from over-anxiety for spiritual
understanding, and in stillness know, Naught can
disturb, God is my peace, we find ourselves free from
fear and turmoil, and altogether sure and calm. Such
certainty makes the moment not time but Eternity, not
place but Heaven, not personality but identity in the
one Being. Such understanding solves the seeming
problem and we find our freedom and wholeness
uninterrupted and at hand. Then with David we
exclaim,
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. I will
dwell in the house (Understanding) of the Lord
forever.”
“The Seamless Robe” is a verbal expression denoting
the indivisible glorious Infinite. “And there shall in no
wise enter into it any thing which defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”
What can prevent us from beholding this Reality, from
experiencing it, from being it? Nothing, when we see
our Peace, our Goodness, our Completeness as our
natural eternal Being.
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EVERYTHING at every moment is exactly the same as
Being conceived it, — “very good.” Have we not had
moments when we were completely filled with joy, rest
and exaltation? Right in the midst of the perplexing
problems we can eat from the “table” which forever
stands spread for us in an ever-present, eternal Now.
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of
mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil; my
cup runneth over.”
No matter how we may try to describe, or analyze, the
Infinite, we know that God is more than anything that
has ever been thought or said, for when we have said
that God is our peace, our happiness, our knowing, our
abundance of all-good, still God is more than all this.
How can the Infinite be explained, or be encompassed
by thoughts or words? It cannot. Infinity must be
LIVED.
Almost all the teachers of other times were influenced
more or less by their belief in the law of “an eye for an
eye.” We find this belief running all through the Old
Testament. This is what makes Jesus so much more
lovely to us. He taught humility, grace and love,
saying, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” So we should all
forget our former trespasses, and keep forgetting them
until they are entirely blotted from memory. Isaiah
tells of such revelation, or Christ-Truth, coming to him
as follows:
“Remember ye not the former things,
Neither consider the things of old.
I, even I, am He that blotteth out
Thy transgressions for Mine own sake,
And will not remember thy sins.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
And the glory of the Lord Is risen upon thee.”
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Nor should we remember the mistakes of others.
When we are still and quiet in the presence of the one
Reality, we can remember perfect Life and its
expression, and forget everything else but this Good
and this Perfection. The always-present Christ assures
us all, “If we know these things, happy are ye if ye do
them.”
DID it ever occur to you that all good belongs to us
because it is our very Being? We have been taught to
call homes, lands, moneys, material things but they are
not. SPIRIT is the substance of all and SPIRIT
includes all.
While the ordinary meaning of the word “thing” is An
object of structure, such as that which has weight and
occupies space, a better definition of it is, An object of
thought, a distinct idea in Mind. When we have this
true concept, then we can understand a “thing”
correctly. We can realize that Creation includes no
structural thing but consists of EXPRESSED IDEAS.
For instance, when we feel that we need money, or
anything natural to our daily living, our first thought
may be of the cost, or of the time it takes to procure, or
that we must deal with certain people and
circumstances in order to obtain it. But we really need
to deal with no one except ourselves. There is no
“outside” to Being. Being is our all, so we do not need
to depend upon persons, places, times, or
circumstances for our help.
“He hangeth the earth on nothing,” visioned Job. Our
world depends upon nothing outside of ourselves. We
should learn how to promote experiences of plenty and
satisfaction from Heaven within rather than attempt to
obtain them from circumstances without. And our
first perception should be that as Spirit is not structural
or material neither can its expression be structural or
material. All Natural things are, primarily, ideas,
without cost and without price; not dependent upon
persons, places or times for their existence but
coexisting with Being.
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Sooner or later we are bound to find out that our own
Being is our Source of all supply. We are brought to
realize that ever-present abundance of all Blessedness
is forever ours to understand and ours to experience in
the Here and Now. This is the fact. No doubt at
times it may seem to us that such could not be, that
people, circumstances and conditions must certainly
govern or control our lives and bring either harmony or
discord. This is not true.
Why should we limit ourselves to the notion that we
have not sufficient understanding to think the right and
enjoy the right in our daily experience? Are we not
that Spirit which is all-Intelligence? Perhaps the
problem does seem difficult and overpowering at times,
but there is that in us which can transcend all
difficulties and walk safely over and through all
obstacles.
Could there be any condition apart from the one
all-inclusive God, Good? Is not this infinite Spirit
Self-sustaining, Self-understanding, Self-supporting?
There is no problem too small or too great to be
understood in its right light and transmuted into
Harmony. There is no reason why any of us should
think he cannot find complete satisfaction in the
ever-revealing Now. The discerning Paul saw this
when he wrote to the Corinthians:
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath
revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”
The fact is that Spirit being infinite, this precludes the
possibility of any “thing” unlike Perfection, Harmony,
Peace and Abundance. No matter what seems to be
contrary, this is the FACT, otherwise God, Good,
would not be ALL.
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When rightly viewed all natural formations from the
sand of the sea to the stars in the heavens are formations
of Mind, or Consciousness. So likewise are all natural
formations from a pencil to a palace. We should not
think of creation as separated into two groups, — one
“spiritual” and the other “material”. All right useful
things representing spiritual Ideas are ever present and
directly at hand.
ALL things are yours” is an inspired statement. Verily
all things are ours because such “things” are not
material or structural, (as believed), but are
thought-form, or the form of pure Consciousness. All
(natural) things are Ideas manifested.
Ideas are not material but spiritual, or the true mental,
so likewise is their expression. Spirit, Mind, is the
only Creator. There is none other; and Creator and
creation are one. Isaiah’s prophesy is for today, and
for Eternity.
“Thy people shall all be righteous:
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting, the work of My hands,
That I may be glorified.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, And as the
garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring
forth;
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to
spring forth before all nations.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, And the lion
shall eat straw like the bullock; They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
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This blessed state of the new Jerusalem, this wealth,
joy, happiness and harmony of the perfect Land, is to
be found in one’s own Soul and is to be experienced in
the Here and Now. Indeed, Jesus’ life shows that
spiritual Reality is to be seen and utilized right in the
midst of human experience. He says: “Your Father
knoweth that ye have need of these things ... All that I
have is thine.” And how could this be? Only by
seeing in the temporal the substance of the Eternal, the
material flooded with the light of the Spiritual.
Spirit — Soul rejoices in its inherent and intrinsic
righteousness, peace, beauty and blessedness which
forever continue to appear from their boundless and
inexhaustible Source. The disclosure and revealment
of infinite Mind in ideas and forms is constant and
perpetual. Such revelation is what has been termed
“states and stages of consciousness.”
Jesus’ concept is, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth, as it is in Heaven.” Well, as this
Kingdom comes to our perception and view then earth
will be Heaven, will it not? For as long as we have
two kingdoms, — one of Heaven and one of earth, we
are proposing two powers and two creations. If we are
to have ONE Creator and ONE creation, — the
seamless Robe — then it is imperative that we let go
beliefs of divisions, boundaries, separations and
limitations, and accept one Universe, — Heaven here
and now.
Thus as we see Heaven expressed in earth, our only
experience is Heaven. As we harmonize spiritual
Ideas with the natural earthly things, our vision is one
of unity, oneness. As we realize that the Eternal is all
that is right and natural, our experience is that of
Reality.
Truly our identity is one with infinite Being, which
cannot be separated or divided, but can efficiently
supply us with all good.
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MANY of us seem slow to reach a satisfactory solution
of our daily problems because we still believe that we
are in a “material” world, subject to “material” laws
governing time, money, weight, place, et cetera. Let
us always bear in mind that all natural things are really
true mental forms, or forms of true thought, occupying
no space, having no weight, coming from Mind, or
Spirit. Spiritual ideas and their corresponding forms
are continually being more fully revealed to us from
our own Nature.
The true Creation is free, “without money and without
price,” and is available now to meet whatever our need
may require. The “Father,” — our own Selfhood —
not only “knoweth what things ye have need of, before
ye ask,” but “rewards us openly;” that is, manifests the
desired thing in the FORM meeting the HUMAN need.
“I will work, and who shall let it?” Can any one or any
thing stop the Truth from being the Truth, — from
operating intelligently and understandingly always?
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who
hath been His counsellor? For of Him, and through
Him, and to Him, are all things.”
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of
man, that he should repent: hath He said, and shall He
not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it
good?
ABOUT a half-century ago, Mary Baker Eddy, a
teacher of great spiritual insight, when pondering this
momentous subject, wrote in her text-book Science and
Health as follows:
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“All must give place to the spiritual fact by the
translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In
proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be
found harmonious and eternal. Thought will finally be
understood and seen in all form, substance, and colour,
but without material accompaniments.” — Pages 209,
310.
“Science, understood, translates matter into Mind.”
— Misc. page 25.
Indeed this is the voice of Truth. Matter must be
translated into Mind, for actually there is no matter: all
is Mind. Paul wrote understandingly: “We understood
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that
things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear.”
How shall we translate “man and the universe back into
Spirit”? By feeling and knowing that Spirit, Mind, is
all. All! By letting our hearts melt into an infinite
tenderness toward the ideas and thoughts which are the
“things of Spirit” now and here before us. For how
could we ever hope to behold the Creation of Spirit at
hand while we fail to recognize it, and instead call it
“materiality,” or “illusion?” The natural things about
us, belonging to our natural living, are not finite, or
material, as supposed, but are of Mind, Spirit,
cognizable according to our comprehension and
understanding of Being.
Calling things by their rightful names will aid us in
viewing them in their rightful light. “But,” one asks,
“will they not age, deteriorate and appear to die just the
same?” Does it trouble us what seems to be taking
place about us when we KNOW that it isn’t so in
Truth? And shall we not now and here begin to know
the Truth about “things?”
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“FOR they shall all know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest of them,” visioned the prophet Jeremiah.
As we hold in our hearts the spiritual realities of Being,
we are bound to see them expressed everywhere.
The FORMS of Spirit such as rocks, trees, grass, sky,
animals, man, are not “matter,” but Mind expressed.
“The living God made heaven and earth and the sea,
and all things that are therein.” Like reflects like.
Spirit reflects Spirit. These spiritual forms are both
tangible and substantial to Spirit. Let us be ready and
willing to see them this way.
“The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water. No lion shall be there,
nor any ravenous beast. Instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree.
The sun shall be no more thy light by day: but the Lord
shall be unto thee an everlasting Light, and thy God thy
glory.”
Such is Self-creating, Self-sustaining, Self-governing
and Infinite Being! We see that there is no distinction
between Spirit and Nature. And this teaching is not
pantheism as there is no “in” or “out,” and no “finity”
to Spirit which is ALL.
Spirit cannot be deranged, impaired, or discordant, for
Spirit is the infallible and immutable Infinite. Spirit
expresses itself in sight, hearing, feeling, knowing, and
likewise in all forms, colours, beauty and loveliness.
Moreover, Spirit includes infinite individuality: yet
Spirit is one Whole, one Unit, one Mind, one Being,
one Experience.
The teaching of Jesus forever admonishes us: Come
forth from misconceptions. Stand upright on the
Truth of Being. Arise! Open your eyes and ears and
learn that you are free Spirit, — flawless, triumphant
Being. “And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.”
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All natural activity, such as hearing, seeing, thinking,
feeling, resting, eating, walking, is of the one Spirit,
God. All natural beauty, glory, grandeur, is of the one
Spirit, God. All natural joy, peace, love, gladness, is
of the one Spirit, God. How could any other statement
be true when Spirit, God, is infinite, universal and
all-inclusive? “In my Father’s house, (infinite Being),
are many mansions, (continuous revelations of
Perfection).
There could be no beginning or end to that which is one
all. There could be no within or without, no division
into times, places, persons or things, to that which is a
Unit, a Whole. Verily, verily, Life and Life’s
expression are the same One.
YOU may ask: Is there such a thing as spiritual form?
Most certainly. Why should it seem impossible for
you to consider the natural world and the things
belonging to your normal consciousness as in and of
Spirit, therefore forms of Spirit? The one Mind, or
Spirit, is infinite and so includes all in one. The things
pertaining to, and essential to your normal state of
living, are not structural or solid as they seem to be, for
rightly viewed there is no matter, — ALL IS MIND!
There can be nothing outside of the all-inclusive One.
This is our platform of Truth. What is termed solidity,
or what is called a material object, merely denotes a
state of consciousness, for in our present state of
spiritual comprehension we may be seeing, “as through
a glass darkly.” It might be said that in our present
“mansion,” or state of spiritual revelation, we are not
viewing “things” and “forms” as we will view them
when we open our perception wider and LIVE Reality
more abundantly. Jesus speaks plainly:
“I am come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly.”
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Spiritual objects are forms of spiritual thought and they
will “finally be understood and seen in all form,
substance and colour, but without material
accompaniments.” As we experience perfect Life
“more abundantly,” we begin to view everything about
us in a more perfect way, and the “material
accompaniments,” such as weight, solidity,
impermanence, time and place, vanish from our
consciousness.
NOT a single blade of grass, a leaf, or a flower is
“material,” but of Spirit and therefore SPIRITUAL. It
is Mind which conceives, outlines and forms Ideas
which “multiply and replenish the earth.”
Jesus’ declaration that “your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things,” unquestionably
assures us that whatever we need in wholesome,
normal experience, our very Being can and will supply.
Let us forever remember that God-Being is supreme.
There is none else. Let us always be glad to let go of
partial childish thoughts for the fuller Insight. All that
we declare to be the expression of God must be
INCLUDED in God-Being. The Unexpressed and the
Expressed, — visible Creation and in-visible Spirit —
all is one Presence, one Eternity, one Infinity, one All.
CERTAINLY we can be freed from limitations and
discords as we comprehend more clearly Life and its
meaning, — remembering that nothing has power or
presence but the one infinite Being and its one
ever-harmonious expression.
Does any of us seem to be placing power in time,
person or condition? In that hour when we turn from
such speculations and understand where Power is, and
understand where Substance is, and understand where
Activity is — right in one’s perfect Being — then shall
we know that it is possible to experience in our daily
living the joy, happiness and harmony of Heaven.
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The events which are called separation, loss, lack and
inharmony are not so considered by divine Intelligence.
The Truth says, Do not I fill Heaven and earth? Am I
not then expressed in earth as in Heaven? Is not
visible Mind-expression and invisible creative Power
one and the same?
We do believe in a Presence, a Power, which is
All-in-all and besides which there is none else. We do
accept this God-Presence, this God-Power to be perfect
and complete now and here. Then how could there
really be a world of rulers and subjects, judges and
criminals, healers and patients as it appears? A world
of sins, punishments, deaths? Face these questions
squarely.
Is there, or is there not, any other Power or Presence
than one universal Being and its one universal
expression? One perfect finished Kingdom at hand
now and here, ready this very instant to be seen, felt
and appropriated?
Verily, verily, universal Being is immaculate Life
which cannot vary, or alter, or misunderstand. That
Life which is seen in bird, beast, man, is not a separate,
personal life but is divine Life, seen in the eternal
continuity in Nature. So mighty, pure, radiant,
irresistible, spontaneous, ideal, nothing can interfere
with it or mar it, for it is infinite Being, without
beginning or end. Says the inspired Word:
“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power, and the
glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in
the Heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the
Kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above
all.
The heavens are Thine, and the earth also is Thine; as
for the world and the fullness thereof, Thou hast
founded them.
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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Who
created Heaven, and the things that therein are, and the
earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and
the things that are therein. Look unto Me and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there
is none else.”
Eternally saith the one Presence: I am that Life which
expresses Itself in all forms of Nature which are
beautiful, radiant, true. My Life is My Love in all,
over all and All. I recognize no personal body, no
personal virtues or ambitions. There is none but Me,
— Self-existent Being! Therefore what can disturb?
This understanding is everlasting health, sweet
interchange of confidence and love, and perpetual
wealth of all good in earth.
LET those who “sleep,” awaken and look up, and let
those who feel chained by false beliefs, break loose.
“Return every man to his house (perfect
Understanding).” Our only Being is Spirit, our only
home is the Realm of divine peace, everlasting love,
and the abundance of perfect good “at hand.”
In the effulgence of this realization we cannot conceive
of “treatments,” or prayers, as being necessary; we
cannot remember sickness, separation, loss or
depression. Here is this Kingdom of supernal
loveliness and well-being we have no memory of, or
belief in, limitation, finity, or impermanence of any
kind. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor
come into mind.”
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Our “treatment” is the understanding that nothing is to
be changed, nothing is to be added nor subtracted. We
speak Truth for the glory of God, — it is our very
Nature expressing itself. We speak Truth not because
we lack but because we HAVE; not because we expect
but because we HAVE RECEIVED. We do not speak
to heal the sick nor to enlighten the ignorant, but that
immortals may drink of the living water, — the River of
the water of Life!
With derision the Jews said of Jesus, “He maketh
himself as God.” But Jesus, understanding the “I” and
the “Father” as One, could truly say, “He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father.” In proportion as we, too,
understand that the “Father” is our own Being, and so
let the individual “I” be one with it, are we aware of our
own true Self-hood. Then indeed have we let the “I”
go unto the Father.
We forget short-comings and misunderstandings when
we turn from them to real Being. The man on the bed,
asleep, need do nothing in order to lose the dream than
awake. This will automatically take care of all the
dream situations, no matter how difficult or how
distressing they seem. He has not actually departed
from his daily living and well-being for he is in his
room safe, well and happy. Similarly, our
misunderstandings of Life and their consequent
discords and limitations will disappear as we are
wakeful and mindful of Perfection and live in accord
with it.
“Is there a God besides Me? Yea, there is no God; I
know not any.” Then do we need to worry over past,
present or future conditions? Can anything stop or
change Life in its perpetual and ever-intelligent
government? Do we need to concern ourselves with
laws dealing with sin and punishment, ignorance and
penalties? Not if our hearts are aflame with the
gracious word of Jesus Christ: “For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved.”
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Before his reconciliation with Esau, Jacob turned his
attention within, and here it was revealed to him by his
own Being that the power of divine Love transcends all
sense of resentment and misunderstanding, and reigns
supreme in earth as in Heaven. It was then that he
looked, and, behold, he saw his brother’s face as
though he had seen the face of God. “I have seen thy
face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou
wast pleased with me,” were his gracious words to
Esau.
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed?” asks Isaiah. To them who are
ready and willing to accept the revelation that Good
cannot be evil. That Life cannot be death. That Spirit
cannot be matter. That Love cannot be hate. That
Intelligence cannot be ignorance. That Perfection
cannot be imperfection. Yea, that one infinite Life,
Spirit, Love, Intelligence, Perfection, is immutable,
Unchangeable NOW AND ALWAYS.
“GOD is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” We
are all to discover, even as Jesus exemplified, that we
need take no anxious thought for our health, wealth,
happiness or pleasure, for we are now in the finished
Kingdom where all such blessings are the natural and
simple expressions of living.
“How then,” it is asked, “shall I gain the understanding
equal to the transcending of my problems?” By lifting
attention from them to that “secret place of the most
High” where an understanding of yourself and of your
problems will ‘be revealed to you. It is a fact that your
being is whole and complete NOW; you need not
continually affirm wholeness, deny self, nor contradict
unpleasant conditions, but you can catch a clearer
glimpse of Reality and understand and embody the
spiritual qualities your real Being includes. This
illumination is your AWAKENING to that Truth which
“shall make (and keep) you free.”
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For instance, have you allowed your heart to become as
adamant? O, be willing to welcome a change of heart.
“And a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit
will I put within you; and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh.” God alone is your ability to know what is real
and right and true always, and God is the ineffable
tenderness of irresistible divine Love over-brooding
all. Said Paul,
“Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your
hearts.”
Turn from the selfish, hardened sense and enter your
inner sanctuary, rejoicing to allow the ever-presence of
the Kingdom of heavenly Love to shine in your heart
now and here. For listen further to Paul’s astonishing
words:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, and have not love,
it profiteth me nothing.”
What kind of a God are you accepting? A God who
sends or sanctions sorrow, separation and disease? A
God who can not, or will not, deliver you now and here
from misunderstanding, fear and despair? A God who
permits corruptions, tribulations and afflictions?
Listen to the Psalmist: “In Thy Presence is fullness of
joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore.” And Job discerned: “If they obey and
serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasures.”
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Why should any one ask God to help him bear burdens
so terrible as grief, pain, worry or fear? How could
any one ever persuade himself to believe in a God who
requires man to suffer that he may be strong, to pray
that he may be redeemed, or to die that he may enter
Heaven?
Beloved, now is the accepted time. Now is the instant
to understand your own Being and gain a wholesome
perception of its requirements. Acquaint now yourself
with your real Being and you will find peace.
Understand that the natural and intrinsic qualities of the
Self are love, faith, purity, goodness, kindness,
understanding, trust and tenderness. When we are
holding to bitterness, hardness of heart, fear, sorrow
and despair, we are ‘turning from our Perfection and
holding to a “sleep” from which we can awaken. As
Paul continues:
“Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
“Behold, now is the day of salvation.” Now is the
instant to take your thought away from your problem,
as such, and face God in yourself. Now is the instant
to know perfection, harmony, holiness, — your true
God-being, and all that it includes. The Christ-Truth
is ever saying, Come into the understanding of your
Nature, your real Selfhood which is spotless,
boundless, free. Your real Selfhood is Understanding,
Power, Love, Goodness, yea, all that “I AM” includes.
When will error be dissolved and entirely fade from
sight? it is asked. When we cease to recognize two
powers, two creations. When we see our being as the
Divine, Heaven in earth, and this moment as the eternal
Now. “I am the Way”, said Jesus. Is our Nature
different from that of Jesus Christ? Not at all.
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“I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness,”
was the vision of David. To “awake” with His
likeness is to UNDERSTAND and EMBODY our true
state of Being, our true Self which knows only peace,
bliss and harmony. And this native estate is already
prepared to be experienced every moment. “And thine
ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the
way, walk ye in it.” This way is the “awakening,” the
coming face to face with our Reality which ever
strengthens,. guides and directs us in paths of joy,
peace and glory.
Let us eat from the Table which is prepared for us in the
very presence of our problems. This Table is the
ever-presence of the Heaven of true spiritual Ideas
which, as we assimilate, deliver us from all evil. What
are some of these spiritual Ideas? That Perfection is
boundless, limitless, ever-available, and at hand. That
the all-Good is changeless love, perfect understanding,
complete joy, power, peace and harmony for each and
all.
LET us take an inventory of our Self and discover just
what is our intrinsic Nature, — what are our God-given
qualities and abilities.
It has been quite generally accepted that the body
follows the mind, or that thought governs and controls
the body. But suppose the thoughts are unruly when
we want calm, fearful when we want confidence,
ignorant when we want understanding, are we not then
limited and condemned by our own thinking? And if
we could not control our thoughts we would seem in a
helpless state, would we not?
There is something, however, which over-arches and
transcends thought. It is Being, — our own
transcendent Being. So as we place our faith and
vision here, and are willing and receptive to the Truth
of our Being, our thoughts are good naturally, and our
bodies are healthy naturally.
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“If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light.” When a discordant condition, which
we have been educated to call by some particular name,
seems to be present, we can practice introspection.
Certainly nothing is out of order in the Kingdom of
Heaven within, and so a contradiction could not be
present before us. Our struggle ceases as the temporal
and the Eternal become ONE to us, and as we conform
our living with our Being. Our realization of the
eternal Now, and so of changeless and universal Love,
Kindness, Purity and Goodness, constitutes our Light
‘and Door, our Way and Resurrection.
“Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar
off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall
not see him? Do not I fill Heaven and earth? saith the
Lord.” — Jeremiah
“I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for
ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from
it. That which hath been is now; and that which is to
be hath already been.” — Solomon
The experience of the enlightened is harmony, peace,
rest and understanding. Each and all of us has the
“quickening Spirit,” the “Mind which was also in Jesus
Christ.” This Christ-Mind is the real Self which never
sleeps nor dreams, which never fears nor worries, but is
all-hearing, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-acting,
all-wise, — all-sufficient always, with no labour or
effort of any kind; with no striving or yearning, with no
doubt or uncertainty.
“Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you.” He who
would SEE should be willing to look with honesty,
tenderness and understanding Love. He who would
HEAR should quietly listen to the call of his own
Being. He who would KNOW should have his soul
attuned to the eternal Now.
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“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour,
and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all
malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another. For our
conversation is in Heaven. Let your speech be always
with grace. That ye may stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God.”— Paul
“A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand,”
confided the Psalmist. When we let our problems
serve as stepping stones instead of obstacles, we sooner
transcend them and realize “a day in Thy courts.” We
may see a chaotic appearance of discord and misfortune
instead of the true happiness and harmony of Life, but
by letting go the responsibility for both misfortune and
happiness we are bound to perceive that the natural
good of Being is expressed everywhere, and is always
at hand to be appropriated.
A “day” means a state of consciousness, the
illumination of spiritual understanding. There are no
measurements of Eternity. There is no past nor future;
everything is Now. All takes place in an indivisible,
continuous revelation and activity of Life.
Thus the more we close our minds to thoughts of
trouble, and open them to the perception of “Heaven at
hand,” and “Christ in you,” the sooner are we lifted
over the hard places of the problem into the bliss of
Reality. Since we are in God’s perfect world and are
entitled to joy, sweet companionship and all delights,
let us understand such blessedness as our
ever-available and eternal birthright, including
dominion (through enlightenment) over all which
would seem to contradict it.
Teachers may come and go, theories rise and fall, but
the great truth that Spirit is all, and that all is Spirit will
be increasingly Understood, until the beliefs of
“matter,” and of “mental cause and effect,” are
forgotten, and the heavenly Kingdom of Mind and
Spirit is felt to be ALL.
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WHAT is “repentance” but the surrender of the
personal ego, — personal will, responsibility, fear,
pride, labour and strife? True humility is not
weakness but is spiritual recognition of the Immortal,
the Eternal, the Incorruptible in earth as in Heaven.
Self-harmony is true humility. It is confidence, rest,
quietness. Self-harmony does not reap its peace from
the without but from the within. It is to be naturally
honest, fearless, joyous, generous, considerate, loving
and kind. Self-harmony is a calmness of thought and
action based upon spiritual conviction that there is no
one or no thing to come or go in the Substance which is
forever complete, perfect, finished and at hand.
“When this (im)mortal shall have put on, (accepted),
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Why need one be continually adjusting, transposing
and equipping his thoughts, body and affairs? Why
should he not accept the finished Kingdom now, walk
by still waters, and rest in green pastures?
Moreover, how could one expect to experience habitual
harmony of mind and body if he speaks one language
and lives another? For these must be harmonized,
must be brought into unity which is the only true
atonement. To speak words of Truth, no matter how
glowing, is not equivalent to a life of pure thinking and
right acting. One may speak of Truth fluently and
glowingly yet live as though unacquainted with it: but
to LIVE Truth truly requires that complete surrender of
the “personal” which automatically discloses the divine
Nature, — infinite tenderness, thoughtfulness,
goodness, love and mercy toward everything and
everyone.
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How beautiful and satisfying is the charm and radiance
of a life that is lived and expressed naturally! And this
experience may be for each of us as we give up the
responsibility of trying to do the work for ourselves, or
for others, which is already perfect, and has been
completely finished since the day “when the morning
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy.” Indeed, this glory should shine from us as
naturally as fragrance exhales from the rose.
It is sad that we have not always known this, but have
so long believed that we should assume a personal
responsibility for our virtues, or that we should study
ourselves into the Kingdom of Heaven, devoting some
of our time to spiritual things held distinct and separate
from the pleasures and duties of daily home-and-family
living.
“Verily the time cometh, AND NOW IS, when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in
Truth.” We should express the real Self right in our
daily living and not wait for certain times, places,
persons or things. What freedom, what liberation, to
see that our Being requires nothing from us except that
it may be all! The enslavement of man, whether to
appetites of the so-called material senses, or of the
so-called higher sense, may be renounced as the
maturing child relinquishes first his rattle and later on
his electric train.
Human responsibility has no place in the already
finished creation of Being. The incessant and intense
desires to get spiritual understanding is quite as
intoxicating and enslaving as are the more fleshly
appetites. Isaiah perceived: “They are drunken, but
not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.”
Many have brought division into their homes, and sad
experiences into their lives through harbouring this
false responsibility. Here is the song of Moses: “My
speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the
tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” Such
is the natural loveliness of Being.
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The divine life is expressed in home, person, thing, —
all human existence, even as the Master said, — “Thy
will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.” The home of
sweet companionships and unselfish delights, the circle
of wise tenderness and holy loveliness is the tabernacle
of God. It could not be otherwise. Let us rejoice to
know that Heaven reveals Itself to us quite as much in
the warmth and glow of happy family communion, in
the touch of friendly hands, and in the pure pleasures of
daily living, as in the solitude of the retreat, or the
shrine. We need not divorce ourselves from the
natural joy of living in order to have His name written
in our foreheads. Intense thinking and studying, as
well as laborious striving for spiritual understanding,
are really unnecessary, pitifully unnecessary.
Thousands of years ago Solomon wisely said:
“Of making books there is no end; and much study is a
weariness of the flesh.”
As we stand STILL in Being we find peace; we find
rest; we find health and happiness. These are ours
wholly apart from anything we might think, or say, or
do. We have only to lay claim to them. Every true
thought, word and act expresses our divine Being.
STANDING still” might be said to be the receiving of
Spirit, because Spirit seems to come to us. Yet again,
it might be said to be the welling up of the fountain of
Spirit, because it is happening within oneSelf. Such
experience is of course not distinct from oneself but in
fact is one’s very Self. Standing still does not signify
inactivity.
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It is difficult to explain in words how God may be seen
in perpetual action and yet be known as stillness, for
this understanding must be spiritually discerned.
Intellect reads, studies, describes and explains; but
Intelligence stands still in understanding, simply Being.
Even in the midst of fear and trembling the loving
receptive heart may find this resting place, knowing
that God is always to be heard and felt, for God is
EVER present.
This Self-existent Life, this knowing one’s Self, does
not imply inertia, but is Peace and Certainty in action.
It is Fullness, Perfection, Blessedness at hand,
Infallible Self-existent Life means, “I AM THAT I
AM,” — “the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.”
“Which thing is true in Him and in you, because the
darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.”
WE see Jesus expressing his view of Perfection as
STILLNESS, COMMAND, FAITH, and THE
LAYING ON OF HANDS. St. Matthew reports:
“And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side,
when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried, saying,
Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And
Jesus stood still and called unto them, and had
compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and
immediately their eyes received sight, and they
followed him.”
St. Luke reports: “Now when the sun was set, all they
that had any sick with divers diseases brought them
unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them,
and healed them. And they were amazed, and spoke
among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for
with authority and power he commandeth the unclean
spirits, and they come out.”
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We also find Jesus tenderly wooing their FAITH in
him, in God, and in themselves, — for he understood
the oneness of Being. “And when he was come, into
the house, the blind men came unto him, and he saith
unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They
said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes,
saying, According to your faith be it unto you.” And
to the “woman which was a sinner,” he said: “Thy sins
are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
Jesus sometimes expressed a REBUKE to the erring
belief: “And he rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
Peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a
great calm.”... “And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken
with a great fever. And he (Jesus) stood over her and
rebuked the fever and it left her; and immediately she
arose and ministered unto them.”
At one time Jesus WITHDREW himself bodily from
those who sought to kill him:
“And they took up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid
himself, and went out of the temple, going through the
midst of them, and so passed by.”
It is clearly seen that whether Jesus rebuked,
commanded, stood still, requested faith, or expressed
any other ways of healing, nevertheless to the
discerning eye it is all the SAME way. Jesus was the
way unto himself. He was true to himself, —
Self-knowing, Self-acting Being. What did it matter
whether he spat on the ground, and made clay of the
spittle and anointed the eyes of the blind, or whether he
cried, Be open! or whether he stood still in the midst of
them, or what the mode his inspiration took? He was
the way, he was the Harmony, he was the
understanding, he was the Kingdom in earth as in
Heaven.
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Wholeness, Harmony, Peace and Perfection were
brought to sight and sense not because of Jesus’ mode
of speech, or his mode of action, but because he acted
spontaneously and in harmony with Self-knowledge.
He acted in illumination, and whatever he saith came to
pass because of himself, — his pure, perfect Being.
Jesus understood the Now, he knew heavenly
wholeness, abundance, peace and joy to be within each
and all alike. Jesus knew BEING to be true, perfect,
whole always, and he accepted no lesser vision. Jesus
LIVED and EXPRESSED the Truth and Perfection
which was his very Being. And to us all he says: “At
that day (of your illumination) ye shall know that I am
in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you … I and my
Father are one ... I have yet many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now.”
We may repeat Jesus’ words and actions and still reap
no “healing” results; but let us understand Jesus in
Spirit and in Truth and we shall come face to face with
wholeness, harmony and abundance. Healing is not a
question of statements, of what to think, or how to do,
but is a state of Being.
Being is its own Way, and whatsoever Being includes
will express Itself, and its finished perfection. Many
of us have discovered that our words and acts of
“healing” will not bear repetition. That is, we may
think a certain way today, or speak certain words today,
and lo, we experience the Answer. To-morrow we
may wish to see harmony expressed in other situations
and we use again the thoughts and words of yesterday
only to find there is no response. Why is this? To
show us that we should not depend upon ways, or
methods, or thoughts, or actions, but know ourSelf to
be perfect and eternal always.
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We always have ourSelf at hand, and our-Self
INCLUDES right thinking, right knowing and right
acting. Thoughts, words, books, teachers may all fail
us, but as we know “I AM THE WAY” and just
naturally express this Truth of Being, we lose sight of
person, of thinking, of studying and learning, and come
naturally into the understanding of harmonious Being
which automatically expresses itself. Understanding
and expression is one and the same. Spiritual
consciousness is conscious only of Perfection.
PROBABLY we all labour with things and thoughts
until we accept true Being and its expression to be one,
and to be present at the very place where we stand: then
“separation” is swallowed up in Unity; we see that
there were never “two;” there has been, and is, ONE
only “God, (the one only Being), is Light, and in Him
(in Being) is no darkness at all.”
In giving up the personal sense, in finding all to be each
and each to be all, we do not lose ourselves, for we are
the One and the One is us. It is not a question of
getting, or of taking, but it is a state of being and
expressing.
We are told by Jesus that a house, (consciousness),
divided against itself, (double-minded), cannot stand.
We have all felt two-natured at times, as though we
were living first with one side and then with the other,
and these natures have seemed contradictory.
However with divine Insight and Revelation “earth” is
converted into Heaven, “Time” into Eternity, “place”
into Infinity, and the “mortal” into Immortal Being.
St. John writes:
“The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms
of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for
ever and ever.”
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Too many times we hold fast to that which we should
relinquish. When we are willing to say and to live
“Thy will be done,” and just remain quiet and
receptive, our own Being reveals to us the necessary
understanding.
Instead of “attaining perfection” or “stopping the action
of the human mind,” we are to let the Spirit bear
witness, — by the positive recognition and realization
of eternal Perfection now, and of no reality but
ever-present good. Job, in a moment of such
illumination said: “I have heard of Thee with the
hearing of mine ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.”
This “eye” sees only ineffable tenderness present
everywhere, and an all-pervading Love, mindful of all.
They who have been quickened by the Spirit realize
that only from the “heart” or Soul, proceed the natural
and involuntary warmth, tenderness and illumination,
— the innocence and purity of Being — for without
this quickening there seems labour, strife, and struggle.
Yes, the daily experience is in Eternity. All our health,
wealth, happiness and harmony abide, forever finished
and perfect, in our Being, and can be brought right into
our daily living. When we see that we are really living
in the great Now, and in the present Eternity, then we
are recognizing the reign of universal Harmony. The
seamless Robe is this finished Perfection. This “robe
of righteousness,” (which Isaiah mentions), typifies
THE TRUTH OF BEING which Jesus presents as
immaculate, perfect, one. The Truth of Being, — “I
and my Father are one” — is not like putting a piece of
new cloth to an old garment, for it transcends “healing”
by lifting the consciousness into a fuller
comprehension of the oneness and allness of perfect
Life and its expression. The Truth of Being is divine
Nature, — a completely perfect Whole without spot of
blemish. The seamless coat which Jesus wore typifies
his understanding and teaching to be whole, perfect,
and indivisible, — “Now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout.”
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In divine Nature every thing is known as it is; that is, —
harmonious, complete, perfect and good. To see this,
even in a degree, helps one to experience natural Being,
for no separation of life, or love, has ever taken place in
Spirit; no cessation of peace, harmony or happiness
could ever come to pass in the one universal Presence.
Being is perpetually expressing its own glorious quality
from its own glorious Nature. Being is “the seed
within itself,” — the ever-flowing Fountain of eternal
Life, Truth and Love. It is neither Lo here! or, lo
there! but is the Kingdom of Heaven within us.
When one realizes this Kingdom, he understands that
Self-revelation is natural and is “the bread which
cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die.” For him the eternal Promise is fulfilled,
— “And they shall teach no more every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them
unto the greatest of them.”
INDEED it is wonderful and glorious to study the life
of Jesus and also to read such books as are helpful and
enlightening to us in our daily experience, but nothing
can supplant the eternal fact that “I AM THE WAY.”
Each individual discovers for himself that whatever
Truth he has found in books he finds in his own Being.
Truth eternally embodies Itself in individual thinking,
knowing, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling and
acting, for Truth is individually all and universally one.
Truth is final in the sense that it is all, but how could the
final word of Truth ever be spoken when Truth is
infinite and is forever Self-revealing?
This does not mean that we should discontinue reading
the printed page, but that we read with newness and
freshness of vision, — for joy and delight in greeting
that which already we have discovered for ourselves,
and in our own Being.
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When we vision Jesus’ life on earth bow incomparable,
exalted and consistent it was! And he said, “My peace
I give unto you.”
How can this peace of Life, Truth and Love, be given
unto us? It cannot, unless we desire, recognize and
willingly accept it.
The Christ transcends the laws applying to “fallen”
man, and presents Man as immaculate Innocence,
spotless Purity, and natural Good without addition or
subtraction of thing or thought. The Christ says, “The
Kingdom of God is within you … Thou art whole ...
Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” How many
of us are accepting the presence of Jesus Christ only in
our midst? “And when they had lifted up their eyes
they saw no man, save Jesus only.”
The Christ transcends the shalt not’s of Moses, and the
shalt be’s of Isaiah and speaks to us of Reality in the
PRESENT tense, — of Immortality, Purity, Goodness
here and now. Such at-one-ment is pristine glory, —
“I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfect in
one.”
Spiritual at-one-ment means nothing less than God and
man as one Being, one Nature, one Life, one Truth, one
Love, one Expression. Jesus Christ is the immaculate
conception of Reality, Self-knowledge, — “I am the
Way, the Light, the Resurrection.” Truth can express
only Truth. There is no difference between Truth and
its expression. They are one. The idea, or
expression, of Truth is Truth. Expression does not
mean a lifeless activity, but means God-Life in action,
— as loving, living, seeing, hearing, knowing, feeling.
Expression means Spirit, Life, a tangible, visible,
active Reality and Presence.
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“God is not man that he should lie,” — that His
expression should be other than Perfection. Here
again we merge in consciousness symbols with Reality,
— eating, drinking, acting, resting in earth with eating,
drinking, acting, resting in Heaven. We see one true
Being always and only, inclusive of true experience.
Here is the inspired Word:
“Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to
the glory of God. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be
satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God.
And Jesus said unto them, and I appoint unto you a
Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye
may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. Behold the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them, and be their God.
“This is the way, walk ye in it. They that wait on the
Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary,
and they shall walk ‘and not faint. And My people
shall dwell in peaceable habitations, and in sure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places. My Presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
Ho, everyone! Life is individually all and universally
one. The one God, the one Being, imparts perfection,
and in this God-Being the entire universe is permanent,
harmonious and eternal. “Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with
them, and be their God.” Behold, there is no labour,
neither adjusting nor changing in Perfection, for God
— Perfection — is the same yesterday, and today, and
for ever.
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Let us have faith in God, faith in Perfection, faith in the
permanent, never-changing Truth of our Being. Let us
also have faith in the Fact that Being includes action,
includes expression. Truly Life and its expression is
ONE, — indivisible and inseparable. How could
perfect Life express imperfect action? It could not and
does not. We cannot be content with just right
statements of Truth, nor even with right vision.
Nothing but the EXPERIENCE of Perfection will
completely satisfy us.
HOW beautifully Jesus speaks of the experience of
peace when he says: “They shall come from the east,
and from the west, and from the north, and from the
south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God.”
Individually we come. For where else is our
happiness found except in the Kingdom of God within
us, — in our consciousness of Reality as present,
complete, all-inclusive here and now? This is where
we can be sure of finding peace, rest, and
all-sufficiency; for when we look outside — to any
person, place or thing, what awaits us but pain and
disappointment? Lo, all that we desire, — joy,
happiness, companionship, wealth and all good, we
find as we “sit down,” or willingly accept, the
all-supplying, Self-existent Being.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” it is
commanded. Who is this “Me” if not the one perfect
Being? Thou shalt not place thy happiness in the
power of any person, place or thing, but in Me, Spirit.
I am all. I include all. This Me is the I AM of every
individual. This command does not mean that we
shall separate ourselves from persons or things but that
we shall have the correct view of them. As we have
this correct view, that is, as we see all within the One
and the One in all, we find that we have never been
separated from Good. God, Good, and its expression
is one.
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FROM the great Within, the Kingdom of all-Good, we
pour out, or express, love which is more than emotion
or sentiment: it is that “Charity,” which Paul says is a
living experience, without which, we are “as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
This loving is an expression of our true Nature, an
outpouring of the qualities of our real Being, such as:
kindness, gentleness, consideration, patience,
understanding, thoughtfulness, graciousness, affection,
faithfulness and truth. Our expressions and actions
should be one with our vision and profession. Think
how gentle and understanding were Jesus’ actions, and
how loving and tender were his words as he imparted
Knowledge to his listeners. “And they wondered at
the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.”
At that moment when we discover Reality within us we
have no longer any consciousness of “two.” To us
there is now but one, and this, — Being, Omnipotence,
Omniscience and Omnipresence! Such consciousness
is incomparable, marvellous.
To anyone who feels that he has not yet reached this
state of consciousness, yet desires it, — he may press
on. It is natural to express your Being, is it not?
Always, the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. To anyone who feels he has had some
experience of Perfection, yet somehow it has ceased to
be, or has become only a memory, — we say, Look up!
Turn more completely from appearances to Reality,
and “sit down in the Kingdom of God.” Be ever of
good cheer. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee.”
Now is the day to find access to the Real, — the true
and the changeless harmonies of our Being. As we
reach peace and stillness within, this Reality becomes
accessible. Then we see and know the true Self and
manifest the true Nature, having the perfect experience
of Heaven.
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GOD has prepared for us a “Table”, laden with genuine
Substance, even in the “wilderness,” or seeming dark
places; for every spot is the same holy ground, — the
same place of completeness in Infinite Wisdom and
Love. So that we can all say when confronted by a
“wilderness,” Now is the time, Here is the place, and I
am the one to know that Perfection, Peace, Health and
Harmony are always omnipresent, always in earth as in
Heaven.
Jesus was in himself the great “reconciliation” between
Eternity and time, Heaven and earth, spiritual Reality
and person, place or thing. He said plainly, “The
works that I do, (through the consciousness that I am)
shall ye do, also, (for we are all the same Being).”
“Behold,” says this Truth, “I make all things new.”
We begin to view all persons, places, things, in a new
light. We begin to see them in the natural, right way.
No one, nor any thing, really needs to be changed.
Nothing is new to Spirit, but new only to the ascending
consciousness.
“He hath sent His angel, and shut the lions’ mouths,”
was Daniel’s vision. Looking out, it may appear that
the lions’ mouths are open all about us, that is,
conditions which seem frightening and bewildering
may appear before us, but Lo, an angel, — a pure
thought, or idea, straight from our own Being — “shuts
the lions’ mouths.”
As we turn to the Self, sit down in the Kingdom of
Heaven and eat from the table of everlasting Substance,
we find all fears dispelled, for the darkness has become
light before us.
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On his lonely journey, his head pillowed on a stone,
Jacob was brought to recognize the oneness of Heaven
and earth. “He dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on
the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven: and
behold the angels of God ascending and descending on
it. The “ladder” bridges the imaginary distance
between Heaven and earth, and they are discovered to
be one and the same.
The narrative mentions first the angels ascending on
this “ladder.” As this spiritual concept of oneness,
symbolized by the “ladder,” is formed in
Consciousness these spiritual thoughts and feelings of
our true Being ascend, or are expressed from us, to
bless the world about us. These lovely, tender and true
thoughts ascend and descend in the boundless,
immeasurable nature of Self-existent Being.
TODAY we see the vast throngs of humanity rushing
hither and yon in search of ‘that which will supply their
insatiable hunger for peace, rest and satisfaction.
They indulge in all sorts of diversions and escapes
through the pleasures of sense, travel and occupations
of mind and body, but the hunger persists. There are
others who bring their cravings to the various schools
of thought, to the churches and seminaries, but, alas,
they do not find their hunger thus appeased for it is still
present with ‘them; their desires are even more
persistent.
They should be still and look within. “The hour
cometh and now is” when we find the Kingdom of
heavenly joy and peace, and we find it where the master
said — “within you.”
“This is that bread which came down from Heaven: he
that eateth of this bread shall live forever.” This
luminous Understanding and its consequent experience
quenches all restless desire. We no longer hunger and
thirst for person, place or thing, for we have all in
pristine glory within us.
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Our identity in the one Being is our Kingdom of Glory.
This identity is the object of our search, — is our Way,
our Truth and our Life; our Resurrection and the Light
of our world.
Many who are praying, seeking and striving for light
and understanding would find their earth converted into
Heaven if they would but cease for a while from their
restless effort, and have the courage and conviction to
stand still in what they claim to know is the Truth.
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
“Ye are all children of light and the children of the day.
We are not the children of the night, nor of darkness.”
Jesus gives us the perfect vision, as St. Luke reports:
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the
Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and
said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with
observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo
there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”
Let us pause and see clearly that the Kingdom of
Heaven is not a question of time or labour; of learning
or practicing. LET US SEE THAT HEAVEN IS ONE
PERFECTION, ONE WHOLE, ONE Now, ONE
GOD, ONE EXPERIENCE. Listen more closely now
to Jesus’ parable of Heaven and ‘the labourers in the
vineyard:
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is
an householder, which went out early in the morning to
hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had
agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent
them into his vineyard.
He saith unto them, Go ye into the vineyard; and
whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when
even was come the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his
steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire,
beginning from the last unto the first.
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And when they came that were hired about the eleventh
hour, they received every man a penny. But when the
first came, they supposed that they should have
received more; and they likewise received every man a
penny. So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
SHOULD we each assume the responsibility of
overcoming the universal belief in evil? it is asked.
The answer is: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his
parents.” “Besides Me there is none else.” It really
is not a question of overcoming evil, as it would seem,
but rather of understanding perfect Being and what it
includes. “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the
darkness.”
“I will make darkness light before them and crooked
things straight.
When thou passest through the waters I will be with
thee;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee;
When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be
burned:
Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Yea, before the day was, I am He;
And there is none that can deliver out of My hand.”
Are we afraid to accept God as all, — all? Are we
afraid to renounce the age-long belief in redemption,
restitution, mental responsibility, labour and
overcoming? Are we afraid to accept man in the very
likeness of God, verily Life, Truth and Love here and
now? Are we afraid to ignore a world of personality,
time, place, sin, sorrow, limitation, and death, and turn
our attention wholly to understanding Jesus’ assertion
that God’s universal Heaven is at hand today?
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit time Kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
This invitation is forever active, forever operative,
forever standing one with our Being.
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DO we speak words of Truth with a motive and for a
purpose? Or, do we accept the divine invitation and
think and speak the good and the true as freely and
naturally as a bird sings, or a flower blooms? Why
should we need to consider our thinking any more than
we do our walking, or breathing? It is Life, or Mind,
which moves, sees and hears, likewise it is Life, or
Mind, which thinks, or is conscious of Being. Such
thinking is not primarily a mental process, as it would
seem, but is a natural function of Mind, a natural
knowing. Therefore, we can be assured of a natural
thinking, — a thinking which causes us no concern at
all.
To be continually directing one’s thoughts is
unnecessary. Thoughts will be harmonious without
effort as one leaves them quite alone, and inundates
himself in the all-pervading element of his true Being.
It is like swimming in salt water. One is invigorated
and refreshed without taking any thought of it
whatsoever. It is natural.
So as we abide in our God-convictions, resting quietly
in the knowledge of eternal Oneness and Perfection
Here and Now, we are well, we are strong and happy
naturally, with no need of any change in our state, in
our Self-existent, Self-sustained Being.
“And he saith unto me Write; for these words are true
and faithful:
Behold the tabernacle of God is with men,
And He will dwell with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying,
Neither shall there be any more pain;
For the former things are passed away.”
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“THE Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound; to appoint unto them
that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might
be glorified.”
“The Lord on High is mightier than the noise of many
waters; yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” The
positive and active sense of Being dissipates dis-order
and dis-ease. As thought is aflame with this true
KNOWING and FEELING — the male and female
qualities of Being — one expresses power and
dominion naturally. To be imbued with the perfect
sense of Truth and Love dispels all fear. “I will fear
no evil, for Thou art with me.”
“The tree of Life” ever blossoms into “life more
abundantly;” and “the leaves of the tree, (the spiritual
revelations of Being), were for the healing of the
nations.” By virtue of the Fact that God, Good, is
ALL, we understand discordant sense and condition to
be nothing, or unreal. God being INFINITE and
UNIVERSAL there is no room for finity,
impermanence or imperfection. So, to let go thoughts
which are disturbing our peace and harmony of Mind is
to transcend the discordant sense and feeling.
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“Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord which he will show to you today.” Look through
and beyond circumstances and conditions. Spiritually
discern that universal good is already manifested in the
sight of God. Understand that “None of these
(seeming) things move Me.” Illumined understanding
furnishes the key to the Kingdom. Ask yourself:
“How am I using this key to contact the treasures
within? How am I utilizing the supreme knowledge
that all is Consciousness and that I, Mind, cannot be
separated from My ideas and their corresponding
identities?”
Recognize Self as the first and the last always. Let
heart be aflame with inspiration, love, light. Let
action express conviction, poise, faith. Look deeply to
see if you are accepting the true Self as the only Me.
Ever calls the God-Self, — Behold Me, Behold Me.
In First Samuel, eighth chapter, seventh verse, we read
these astounding words:
“And the Lord said unto Samuel: Hearken unto the
voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for
they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me,
that I should not reign over them.”
Such language is plain enough for us all to
comprehend, and surely we must admit that if we are
remembering separations, discords and sufferings, we
are dealing with persons, times and conditions as
outside the Self, and are therefore rejecting Me, — the I
AM. But it is never too late! To paraphrase
Whittier’s words, “For of all sad words of tongue or
pen, The saddest of these: It might have been!” Let us
say, “For of all glad words of tongue or pen, The
gladdest of these: It never has been!” Separation,
affliction, limitation never have been! Evil of any
kind never has been and never shall be in My Kingdom,
for in Me is perpetual Harmony and the experience of
changeless love, understanding, and glory. Concern
yourselves therefore wholly with Me; with My ideas;
and with My universe.
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Listen again to the word as written by St. Paul in his
first letter to the Thessalonians, fourth chapter, eighth
verse: “He therefore that rejecteth, rejecteth not man,
but God.” If anyone sees man or world as imperfect
he is not rejecting man or world but GOD. If anyone
accepts sin, sickness or death as realities, he is not
rejecting man, but JESUS CHRIST, — the Saviour of
the world, the perfect expression of Me. Do not
separate, but behold and accept Father and Son, God
and man, Heaven and earth one — ONE AND THE
SAME.
Learn of Me and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
The real splendour of My Glory is in My true and
natural state of Being. Therefore cease pondering
over any one or any thing. Universal Harmony is
found in Me, — in Life ever-lasting, in Love
ever-expressing, in Understanding ever-knowing
Reality and Perfection to be infinite and omnipresent.
Whosoever or whatsoever contacts Me automatically
partakes of good, of health, of joy, peace, inspiration
and understanding, for these are included in Me and are
the natural qualities of My Being. Therefore do not
enthrone person but Principle as the only Power in
Heaven and in earth.
Hold vision steadfastly to the illumined Word: “Fear
God, and give glory to Him. Hold fast that which thou
hast, that no man take thy crown. Who is he that saith
and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it
not? I am the first, and I am the last; and besides Me
there is no God. Without Me ye can do nothing. He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
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How can we practice Truth except to believe Truth, live
Truth, be Truth? Therefore, Be perfect. Be healed of
being “you” and be Me! Look to Principle instead of
person; look for quality of the Word instead of
quantity. And above all, let us all feel that Jesus’
precious Message — THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
IS WITHIN YOU — is the most marvellous and
glorious word we have ever known. With sweet
innocence of Mind let us bask in confidence and
assurance that God hath commandeth our light to shine,
and therefore nothing can stop its action in the free,
almighty Now.
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling,
And to present you faultless before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory, majesty
and power,
Both now and ever. Amen.”
“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of
God.” Rest and Peace are one with Understanding.
Be assured that “all is well,” — perfect unchangeable
Good.
Perfection cannot be altered. Perfection takes no
concern as to our thought, uses no prayer and no
treatment for our well-being, but simply is. Resting
and abiding in God, — the perfection and permanence
of Strength, Well-Being and Harmony — we
experience the eternal Now, the prepared Sabbath day
of rest, — a present possibility here on earth.
“And my people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation,
and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,” saith
the Lord. This quietness and peace is the “ladder,” or
understanding, unifying Heaven and earth. Here
angels ascend and descend upon us, expressing
assurance and certainty, serenity, confidence and calm.
It is this state of Being which St. John viewed as “a new
heaven and a new earth,” — our divine Nature, our
seamless Robe.
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In this eternal Now and Here, naught can disturb. This
is the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God.” We are now living in this “city” in
which there is no separation from Good, no departure
from Reality, no interval, no contingency, no lapse
from the eternal Sabbath-day of rest. Right in our
daily living and its affairs we experience this one
eternal Reality, this one Now and Here. We willingly
let every day be a Sabbath-day of Peace and Certainty
to us.
SAID Christ Jesus, “It is I; be not afraid.” The “I” of
every individual is Truth. This “I” ascends unto the
Father, for it ‘is already one with the Father. Being
and its infinite individuality is one. The “I” is the
Father-Life and Mother-Love, expressing conscious
understanding and loving tenderness, always and ever,
throughout Eternity, — the one God whom to know
aright is life eternal.
After we have studied as faithfully as we know how,
and have thought as deeply as we can penetrate, we
may stand still with the one word “God.” It is God
that is our Life and our living, our Mind and our
knowing, our Power and our expressing.
God is always perfect, always complete, always ready,
always active, always here, always now. God is one,
is all, is in Heaven, is in earth. God fills all space, is
the Father, is the Son, is the Holy Ghost. God smiles
in the flower, shines in the star, paints the sky blue and
the verdure green. God is the seamless Robe, the
Kingdom at hand, the Christ within. God whispers in
every living heart, Be still. Be strong. Peace. I AM.
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God is our UNDERSTANDING: “I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” God is
our PERFECTION: “The Kingdom of God is within
you.” God is our WEALTH: “I will cause those that
love (understand) me to inherit substance; and I will fill
their treasures.” God is our HEALTH “I shall yet
praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and
my God.” God is our SUFFICIENCY: “They that
seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” God is
our very BEING: “I and my Father are one. In God we
live, and move and have our being.”
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. All
the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord: and all kindreds of the nations shall worship
before Thee. Thy Kingdom is an everlasting
Kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all
generations.”
“And there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. All
shall know Me from the least to the greatest. Ye shall
go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you
into singing, and all the trees of the fields shall clap
their hands. Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,
and her people a joy.”
“For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the
garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring
forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and
praise to spring forth before all nations. For as the
new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall
remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed
and your name remain. Be ye glad and rejoice
forever.”
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There is but one MIND. This Mind is God Almighty.
This Mind does not and cannot think evil, lack,
imperfection, disease or limitation. This Mind thinks
and knows WHOLENESS, HARMONY,
PERFECTION, PEACE, JOY always and continually.
This Mind never varies, never slumbers, never fears.
This Mind is unchangeable, — the same yesterday, and
today, and for ever.
There is but one LIFE. This Life is always living,
always acting, always expressing Itself more
abundantly. Nothing can stop or change Life; nothing
can interfere or interrupt its all-harmonious action.
Life cannot die, become dormant, sick or impaired.
Life is God Almighty, the same yesterday and today,
and for ever. There is no other Life but this Life, —
PERFECT, FREE, CHANGELESS GOD-LIFE,
HERE AND NOW.
There is but one LOVE. This Love is always ALIVE,
always ACTIVE, always the SAME, — constant,
changeless, tender, indestructible. This Love is God
Almighty, and there is no other Love at all.
There is but one MANIFESTATION. This is the
manifestation of God, or God in action. What is there
to be manifested but God since God is ALL? Can
there be more than ALL? Can anything but the one
Mind, the one Life, the one Love be expressed in the
heavenly Kingdom at hand? Here, everything that is
manifested is good, is pure, is perfect, is lovely, for,
“Besides Me there is none else.” All manifestation
therefore is of the ONE Mind, the ONE Life, the ONE
Love, and there is no other manifestation at all.
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There is but the one BEING, and this one Being
includes its manifestation. There is none to see, or
hear, or speak, or move, or be, but this one God-Being.
“BESIDES ME THERE IS NONE ELSE.” Truly,
there is none to feel imperfection, or see it, or hear it, or
think it, or believe it, or fear it, for the One is all and all
is the One. This one Being knows Perfection always.
There is always faith, understanding, perception and
activity in this one Mind-Life-Love-Being. There is
none to think evil or to believe in lack or loss, for every
one is seeing and thinking and feeling Perfection
inasmuch as God is all-inclusive. God is universally
one and individually all. God thinks no evil, feels no
evil, hears no evil, fears no evil. “Besides Me there is
none else!” God knows only God!
“And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the
former things are passed away.”
When, if not now? Let us cease to view this
blessedness as a future state and let us perceive that
Now is Truth’s eternal Day, — Now is the instant for us
to stand on the mount of transfiguration and let “the
former things” pass away. “Come up hither,” ever
calls our true Being. This fuller insight into Reality
does not imply that we cease to help one another, but on
the contrary we are better able to help ourselves and
others.
Freedom from labour to become holy, (whole), is yours
and mine. As we accept Wholeness for ourselves, and
likewise for others, and rest in the everlasting Arms, —
the ever-present Realm of finished Perfection — we
find peace.
“Brethren, Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one
mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall
be with you.”
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This is the natural goodness, the natural experience of
Perfection which is not to be had either through a
putting-on or a putting-off process of thought or action,
but is Purity and Innocence, — one’s real Nature; one’s
seamless Robe.
