Wentworth Byron Winslow – Let God Do It

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Who is a Christian?

The Christ Mind

The Sanctuary

The Healing Chriat

Not Dead, but Sleepeth

The Book of Life; God’s Autobiography

Human Auxiliaries

On Malpractice

Who Prays?

The Prayer of Acceptance

The Secret of Answered Prayer

The Chamois Strainer

Reflected, not Transmitted

In My Name

God is All*in*all

The Presence of God: The I AM

A Parallel

The Pool of Bethesda

Faith

By Him All Things Consist

The Temple of God

Station K.O.G

Hie Ark

The Ratchet

The Fruit of Righteousness

The Bicycle and the Brick

Talents

The Red String

The Naturalist and the Cricket

The Policeman’s Whistle

The Ambassador

Delirium vs. Reality

A Prophecy

Earth’s Preparatory School

 

 

“Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”

AMEN

 

I AM the Lord, thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Malpractice is a gun which never shoots out of the muzzle, but always shoots out of the butt.

 

Dedicated in deepest gratitude and as a tribute to Mary Baker Eddy who through the revelation of God to her asset forth in her inspired writings, enabled me to find the Kingdom of God, which the great Master truly said was at hand.

 

INTRODUCTION

Paul says: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.”

The contents of this volume are the out-cropping of parables, stories, and interpretations written or related by the author in his daily efforts for over a third of a century, to bring joy to the sor­rowful, surcease to the suffering, healing to the sick, food to the hungry, and life to the dead; in other words to bring to seekers after Truth the vision of the Christ,—the light of Mind, whereby they too might behold the Kingdom of God, even as he himself beholds it Statements incorporated herein may not be viewed eye to eye with the author. Let who reads them, mull them over and accept .or reject them. They are that which has unfolded to the author so far on his journey into the Kingdom. God alone is in­fallible, and just to the measure that he has caught the Word of God, are these writings true. With added spiritual growth and un­derstanding, some things which appear to be true today may give place to a higher vision of the allness of God.

In the spirit of divine Love, following humbly in the footsteps of her upon whom the Holy Ghost descended in this age, and which enabled him to attain this vision of the Christ, this little book goes forth into the world, bearing with it, the hope and trust that through its perusal others may feel this same descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, and so too find that “peace which passeth all under­standing.”

The Author

CARESWELL EIGHTY IBIS STREET FOREST HILLS, LONG ISLAND

 

 

THE CHRIST MIND

“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionally to their occupancy of your thoughts.” (S & H, 261) Wherever S & H appears in this book, it signifies “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy.

How shall this be done? It is certain that the human or mortal mind cannot “hold thought steadfastly” to anything, try as it may. There is no continuity in the human or mortal mind. It is absolutely no good. It cannot be good because it is not of God. It is the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” or better the “tree of right thinking and wrong thinking” and it must be cut down root and branch. It must not be cultivated, but be educated out of itself. It is utterly impossible to teach the human or mortal mind spiritual truths, and if it were possible, that mind would be just as liable to turn around and believe the very opposite, for at best the human mind can never know, but only believes, and belief is changeable. The textbook of Christian Science says on page 250: “Spirit is the Ego . .. which never believes, but knows …” To stuff the human mind with sage truths and expect therewith to heal the sick and raise the dead, is as foolish as it would be to stuff a turkey with sage dressing and expect it to live again and strut about the barnyard. Even Omar Khayyam glimpsed something of this when he sang:

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door as in I went

and so everyone will find out, that so long as he tries to solve the problems of existence by means of the human mind, like the Per­sian poet, he will ever more come out by that same door wherein he went.

Christ Jesus said, “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free,” and the inspired David said, “Be still and know that I am God.” How to do these things was the puzzle. It was evi­dent that the human or mortal mind, that constituent of human con­sciousness which Mrs. Eddy refers to as “the unillumined human mind” (Ibid 573) could no more “know the Truth” than it could “hold thought steadfastly,” and yet there was the command, direct and pointed, “Ye shall know the Truth,” and if one had to do this, how could he do it, when the human mind is incapable of so doing. Apparently this was the only means available to work with! Here “confusion worse confounded” set in, for chaos seemed to reign in the vain endeavor to “know the Truth,” and to “hold thought steadfastly” with the human mind, when at the same time its very incapability to do so was apparent. Nevertheless, the impossible was attempted in the vague hope that perhaps this carnal or mortal mind might in some way change or merge into the divine or Christ-Mind, even as it was hoped that the alchemists’ stone would change the base metal into gold; but when the further admonition, “Be still and know that I am God” was attempted, the utter futility of such endeavor became so evident that it had to be given up in despair, for though it might be possible for the person with the human mind to “Be still,” he could not by the wildest stretch of the imagination “know that I am God” because on the very face of it, that was not the fact.

What could be the solution? Certainly there must be one, for God through his inspired writers and teachers would never require something to be done which was impossible of accomplishment. The solution is simple. It is Christian Science, or the exact knowl­edge of the Christ; meaning by this, not exact knowledge about or concerning the Christ, as coming to a mind heretofore ignorant of the subject, and which mind must attain that knowledge, but rather the arising or coming of the Christ-Mind, or actual presence of God, which always has this knowledge—Christ’s exact knowledge. We have a similar expression in Isaiah eleven, where we find “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” meaning not that those of the earth earthly shall attain knowledge concerning or about God; but that the earth, “the world and they that dwell therein,” shall be filled not with their own knowledge concerning God, but that the actual presence of’ God come to pass with God’s own knowledge—not something that the human mind shall attain. In fact as we shall see, the human mind with its vain struggles to know God will give place to the one Mind, God, with His, God’s knowledge, and thus shall “the earth be full of the knowledge” of God—of God’s knowledge, as com­ing from Himself, and not from the human mind in regard to Him­self.

Christian Science is not a system of right thinking. It is the Science of Mind or Mind Healing. Never does the discoverer of it refer to it as the former, but one hundred and thirty-nine times in her published writing, she speaks of it as the Science of Mind or Mind Healing.

The world for thousands of years has been trying to attain and retain health. To do this it has medicined itself. First it used allop­athy, and in this system, matter alone was used without regard to mind. Then Doctor Hahnemann discovered and introduced homeop­athy, and in this matter was largely discarded and the human mind came into play. Then in due course of progress—at least in this country—one Phineas P. Quimby of Portland, Maine, dis­covered and practiced a system of right thinking, wherein matter was wholly discarded and the human mind was solely relied upon, with its right thinking to overcome wrong thinking or its results which he called disease or other troubles. This man was really a magnetic healer or mesmerist, but he was a good man, never known to use his power injuriously or for aught but healing.

At this point Mary Baker Eddy stepped into the breach. She was very ill. She had attempted to get her healing through allopathy and homeopathy, but without success, so now she went to Portland seeking help from this new system. At first she thought she had re­ceived the healing, and became quite enthusiastic over it, as who would not when the goal of healing had been attained, but she soon found that it too was wanting as were the others, and she was as ill as ever.

Then through her consecrated life, she was able to receive and did receive a revelation direct from God, and gave to a waiting world, through her teaching and her hook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Christian Science or the Science of Mind or Mind Healing. In this not only was matter wholly dis­carded but so also was the human mind in toto, with both its wrong thinking and its right thinking too, and in its stead entire reliance was to be placed upon the divine Mind, the one Mind, or the Christ Mind. (S & H, preface X—3to 9; XI—I to21; 383—6 to 11 to 51—4 to 7 and innumerable other instances.)

There is a vast difference between the Science of Mind (or Mind Healing) and any system of right thinking; even as there is a great gulf fixed between Dives and Lazarus, across which none may pass. Christian Science or the advent of the Christ into consciousness, produces or promotes right thinking (and right doing also); but right thinking never produces or promotes the Christ. In the text­book we find these words on page 410: “The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Truth or Christian Science. If mental practice is abused or is used in any way except to promote right think­ing and doing, the power to heal mentally will diminish, until the practitioner’s healing ability is wholly lost.” Christian Science pro­duces or promotes right thinking in the human race and in the world. It produces right thinking, but right thinking never pro­duces the Christ.

In any system of right thinking the person tries to do some right ‘ thinking in order to counteract some wrong thinking or its results. This is not Christian Science.

In the Science of Mind (or Mind Healing) instead of the person trying to do some right thinking, he tries to get himself out of the way, eliminate self, or as the Master said, “deny himself”; he en­deavors as Jesus also said to “Take no thought”—not take right thought, but to “Take no thought”, he tries to stop his own thinking, to still the human mind, or “silence the material senses” (S & H 15), whereupon just to the measure of his success in so doing, does the Christ arise in him and become his Savior, saving him from whatever he needs to be saved.

Hear what God speaking through that transparency known as Isaiah says: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon; for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,” and if this be so that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and if not now, never will be, and if His thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth, surely, surely, it is high time that we cease our thinking and let God do the thinking for us! Again God says: “Surely as / have thought (not as you think, but as God thinks), “Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as / have purposed so shall it stand;” and again, “I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts ” Do we require further corroboration? But hear what the great Master has to say speaking not of himself, but by “the Father within”: “Take NO thought for your life, take NO thought for what you eat, for what you drink, take no thought for your body, or for what you put on your body, and take no thought for the morrow” (the future). Then he inter­polates and ridicules the efficacy of human thinking by saying, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stat­ure?” and answers it himself in these words, “If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?” and then repeats the same instructions admonishing us that we should rather “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His right­eousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” And still again Jesus says, “The son of man cometh (or the real and har­monious man shall appear) at an hour when ye think not”—=not when ye think, but when ye think not. Is it not wonderful!

Once become aware of this, and all effort on the part of the per­son to save himself by the operation of the human mind ceases. He is aware of what Paul set forth so clearly: “Not that we are suf­ficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our suffi­ciency is of God” (Second Cor. 3-5). No longer of himself does he try to “know the Truth,” to “hold thought steadfastly” or “Be still and know that I am God,” for instead of a vain endeavor to do these things utterly impossible of achievement with the human mind, a righteous endeavor is made to still the human mind, to stop his own thinking, or to “silence the material senses” (Ibid), whereupon, the stone having been rolled away from the door of the tomb in his consciousness wherein the Christ has lain buried or dormant under the debris of human thinking, does the Christ arise, step forth and stretching out His hands bless one and all.

The Christ Mind takes command. Instead of the person trying to “know the Truth,” now does this Christ Mind, “this Mind which was also in Christ Jesus,” the one Mind, know the Truth. No longer does the person try to direct by human thinking, but rather does the Christ, now become his Mind, by its own thinking, direct the per­son, his environment, and associations, with resultant perfect har­mony. This Christ Mind knows the Truth automatically, and says, “Peace be still” to this “unillumined human mind” by its very Christ presence, even as light dispels darkness. “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” This Christ Mind, the actual presence of God, says to the human mind “Be still,” and then this Christ Mind of itself knows “that I am God” and knows it be­cause it is God. No longer rests the responsibility on the person to “know the Truth,” but the entire responsibility is given over where it belongs, to the Christ, “that consciousness which God bestows” (S & H 573), for “unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9-6) and as and when this is done, that which is called healing takes place, or the “Truth makes free.” Furthermore it operates not only to make the particular person free, but it frees anyone who genuinely turns, not to the person, but to the Christ, the uni­versal Father, the “I”,—“I and my Father are one.”

As one stills the human mind by refusing to entertain human thoughts and opinions, the doctrines, theories and fears of men, and all the preconceived imaginations of the human mind and by turning to God in praise, thanksgiving and glorification, one finds that he naturally adopts a listening attitude, in an endeavor to hear what God is saying, rather than have God hear what he himself thinks or says. In the textbook (308) we find: “The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as con­sciously as man talks with man;” and in one of Mrs. Eddy’s hymns, “I will listen for Thy voice, lest my footsteps stray;” and in another, “And o’er earth’s troubled, angry sea I see Christ walk, and come to me, and tenderly, Divinely talk.” As one listens God will speak to him. One must have a care, however, not to let the human mind with its thinking shut out the voice of God. As an old teacher puts it, “How can you expect to hear God speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul, when you are mak­ing so much noise with your rapid reflections? Be silent. God will speak again.”

In the textbook again we find this: “To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.” (S & H 15) Think of it! The human mind must be utterly stilled, consciousness must become a “sanctuary of Spirit,” that man may have audience, not an audition, with God. Yet nearly all of us are constantly trying to have an audition, or have God hear us, rather than listen to Him who says, “Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear,” and “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” and “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.”

To illustrate this: There was a dear old lady, an actress, who had touched the hem of the garment of Christian Science. Her physi­cian, one of no little prominence in New York, had pronounced her “riddled from head to foot with cancer, true carcinoma,” and said that “she could not live beyond a twelve-month.” The practitioner who was called on the case, at that point of his experience, believed that Christian Science was a system of right thinking. When she turned to him for help, and away from the surgeon who had done whatever he could to make her more comfortable, including the cutting away of two external growths, the practitioner in the at­tempt to heal her of this dread disease, proceeded with declara­tions and affirmations of Truth, and contradictions of error, and by truthful arguments of one kind or another, but all predicated on, based on, or instigated by some error to be eradicated. This was without success, for though he strove mightily with right thinking to overcome and counteract the errors of wrong thinking, he inevitably came out by that same door wherein he went, because the human mind only was praying, and not the Christ-Mind. This is evident, for the human mind alone can utter a prayer instigated by a desire to eradicate an evil, inasmuch as the divine Mind, God, “is of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity⁹’ (Hab. 1), and so could have no such desire any more than light could have a desire to eradicate darkness.

Then one night when the nurse in attendance was taking a well- earned rest, the practitioner was left alone with the patient—yet not alone, for God was certainly present—it seemed as though she was passing away.

What should he do?

At this point he dimly perceived the substance of the foregoing and the utter futility of his own right thinking with the human mind, and it dawned upon him that the divine Mind or the Christ Mind could not possibly pray or base its thinking on some error to be eradicated, and that consequently he was only using the human mind. He recollected also this statement in Misc. Writing, page 352: “There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought, to heal the sick or the sinful” and so saw that in some way he must let that Mind be in him which was also in Christ Jesus. Here was one of those instances where the evil cannot be cast out other than by “prayer and fasting.” It was evident to him that if the lady was to be restored to her normal health he must “deny self”, and God must come to her assistance.

So then and there he turned away from the human mind with its thinking, and turned to God.

(On another occasion he had been called in to see a woman, and found her suffering intensely, in extremis, and plainly dying be­fore his very eyes. He was alone with her too. What should he do? He called to God and said, “Oh God, tell me, what shall I do?” and God said, “Son, don’t you do anything. Leave it all to me,” and in a few moments, after praising and glorifying God in song, the claim was broken, and in the morning the woman herself tele­phoned that she was healed of that trouble.)

On this occasion he cried out, “Here am I, Lord, send me,” and “You tell me what to do Father, for I know not what” and “Speak Lord; for Thy servant hearth,” and then waited for a reply. In a few short moments it came clearly and distinctly: “If a man keep My saying he shall never see death,” and there flashed into con­sciousness, “Why of course! And not only shall I not see death in or of myself, but shall not see it anywhere” and the vision of eternal life had appeared to him.

This entirely satisfied him and he laid himself down and slept an unbroken childlike sleep, which he had not done for many days or nights.

Next morning when he awakened he found the patient resting quietly and practically well. In a few days she left for Atlantic City for a well earned rest, and returned to her work on the stage in a few weeks more, well, strong, healthy and happy, and lived for many years afterwards to a more than ripe old age.

It is interesting to note that the same surgeon who had pro­nounced her as being “riddled with cancer” and had foretold her certain death within the year, examined her about a year and a half afterwards and found her to be “as sound as a dollar and without a trace of cancer.”

There is good reason why His name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace!

THE SANCTUARY

Jesus was constantly referring to the Father within. He said: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works”. What did he in­tend to convey?

Jesus was as a character in a book, in the “Book of Life,” the Author of which is God, Spirit, Mind, Principle. So it was the Author speaking in every instance. Like as in the tale of Robinson Crusoe. It was always the author speaking as being Crusoe or Friday. When the dog barked, the parrot squawked, the wind blew, the waves beat upon the shore, the stars twinkled, or whatever hap­pened in the world of Crusoe, it was always the author. Similarly God, Mind, the Author is the only Doer. Whatever goes on in this world that is good, and there is nought else, it is God, the Author speaking and acting as being characters or things; it is Mind ex­pressing itself; but the power never inheres in the created thing, any more than does the power of Crusoe to act or talk inhere in Crusoe. The power inheres in God and in nothing else.

“ ‘When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.’ So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense, but lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa … To enter into the heart of prayer (the very heart, mind you) the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.” (S & H 14 and 15).

Two words therein require the closest attention. They are “Sanc­tuary” and “Audience”.

What is a sanctuary? Generally one would answer, “A place of safety;” and so it is, but this reply shows forth a mere superficial knowledge of the meaning.

In Florida there is a sanctuary for birds. Everything detrimental to bird life is barred from that great acreage devoted to that pur­pose. Guards are thrown all about the place to insure against the entrance of whatever might be harmful to the birds. At the same time whatever is conducive to bird life is there. So it is a sanctuary.

Into this sanctuary come the birds. They do not have to be driven in, for they come of their own accord. Anyone then who may enter this sanctuary will become a recipient of whatever the birds have to give forth, their songs, arias and trills, their beauty, color and form, and the love which is manifested as they bill and coo in the trees.

There is another sanctuary in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A sanctuary of art and treasure. Everything which tends toward the preservation of art and treasure is maintained there, while whatever is harmful is barred out. Guards are here also, hovering about everywhere, watching to prevent the entrance of vandals, thieves, or mischievous persons, or whatever might in any way cause injury to the contents. Thus is constituted a sanc­tuary for art and treasure, and into it flow the great treasures of the world. The owners thereof do not have to be importuned to bring them in, but rather do they seek out this haven of safety for a permanent abode. To whomsoever walks therein is given forth the beauty, color, form, or whatever art and treasure have to give forth.

It is the same in the “sanctuary of Spirit.” Nothing antagonistic to Spirit should be admitted. It is vitally necessary to “Stand porter at the door of thought” (S & H 392) and prevent the entrance of anything inimical to the Christ, the actual presence of God, Spirit; while at the same time whatever is protagonistic should be admitted. Thus is consciousness sanctified. It has become a “sanc­tuary of Spirit.” Having then closed the door to error of every kind and opened it to Truth, Life, and Love, there will enter of its own accord, the very Christ, the Spirit, God; and you have “let this Mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Its entrance is quiet, unlabored, effortless, reminding one of the following:

When would-be conquerors complain In loud, imperious shout,

I think how gently falls the rain That brings the flowers out,

How quietly the deepening dark Bids countless fire-flies light their spark, whereupon if anyone enters that consciousness, this “sanctuary of Spirit,” he will receive the things of Spirit, God. This Christ, this Spirit, this actual presence of God, which has entered conscious­ness, is “the Father within” of which Jesus so constantly spoke. He said,—God speaking as being Jesus—“When ye have lifted up the Son of man, (when you have sanctified consciousness, or made it a “sanctuary of Spirit”) then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things; and He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.” Could it be plainer?

This done, “man may have audience with Spirit.” (Ibid) What is an audience? Generally we have taken it for granted that it means we should make our desires known to God, and this has been for centuries man’s approach to God and method of prayer.

As Christian Scientists, we have long since ceased to pray by supplication, but is it not a fact that we have tried to tell God our wants and desires by contradictions of errors presented and to be gotten rid of, by affirmations and declarations of Truth opposed to and predicated on errors to be eradicated, by arguments, etc. All these indicating that we desire something which we do not really believe we have, in spite of our asseverations to the contrary? This is really an audition. Not an audience. To have an audience with God is to be silent, and listen to what God has to say to us, not to tell Him what we want. There is an homely old saying, “Don’t try to teach your grandmother how to knit,” and it is true. In the other sanctuaries referred to, we listen to the birds sing, we behold the works of the great masters; but we do not try to tell the birds how to sing, nor teach the great masters how to paint; and so in this “sanctuary of Spirit” we should listen to what God has to say to us, rather than attempt the impossible, and try to tell Him our de­sires or inform the infinitely intelligent Mind, for the “intercom­munication is always from God to His idea, man.” (S & H 284) Be alert then to make your consciousness a “sanctuary of Spirit.” Station your guards about so they may intercept any evil suggestions which may attempt to enter. Note that “Lips must be mute and materialism silent,” and so do not talk back to error nor argue with it, etc., for all that the devil wishes you to do is to rec­ognize him, the human or mortal mind, the only devil there is or ever will be; and so surely as you do so, evil suggestions will have passed the portals of your thought. If, however, you are faithful and watchful to make your consciousness a “sanctuary of Spirit,” then as in the other sanctuary you heard the birds singing, so now in that audience with Spirit, will you hear God’s voice ringing forth and saying: “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of’; and “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;” and “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom;” and “Son thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is thine,” so “Be of good cheer;” and “It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to ob­serve and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the na­tions of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord, thy God.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field, blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face; and they shall come up against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways,” and “I will bless thee and keep thee, and I will make My face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee, and I will lift up the light of My countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”

THE HEALING CHRIST

The Spirit of Christ, or the actual presence of God, alone heals. It is not the human argument, contradictions of error, nor affirma­tions of truth based on or predicated upon some error to be eradi­cated, which heal, neither does it require the presence of a physical body in order that the Spirit of Christ may function, for the Christ functions as readily without, as with a body. That is why the patient and practitioner may be at a distance from one another, falsely called “absent treatment” because the Christ is omnipresent and never absent The centurion’s apprehension of this fact drew from Jesus the commendation “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” The old song “John Brown’s body lies a mouldering in the grave, hut his soul goes marching on” illustrates this point The fleshly Jesus has long since disappeared from this mundane sphere, hut surely his Soul, the Spirit of Christ, goes marching on; we have tenderly laid away in the cool sweet earth all that was mortal of the revered Leader Mrs. Eddy, but her Soul, the Spirit of Christ goes marching on.

This Spirit of Christ then heals and saves. When one turns to an­other for assistance in Christian Science, although it may appear otherwise, he is really turning not to the person but to the Christ, the Spirit of God. Each should maintain the presence of the Christ, or keep the light of the Christ ablaze in his consciousness, and as this is done, that presence of God heals and saves whatever may come within its unlimited radius.

The divine Mind, God, being “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity,” cannot argue for or against evil, neither can it contradict error, or affirm truths concerning some error of which it knows nothing, therefore it becomes plain that the human mind alone does these things, and it is well known for a fact that the human mind never did and never can heal or save. In Mis. Writ. page 352, we find the following, “There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful.”

However having made this bald statement of fact, it goes on to say that although this be so, and that it is the divine Mind which heals, nevertheless unless we can rise high enough to attain the Spirit of Christ, or “the spirit of Truth and Love which heals the sick and the sinner” (S & H 455) we had better continue the use of the human mind and do the best we can with it. It reads “Through the Divine energies alone one must either get out of himself and into God so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the Divine, or he must, through argument and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil.” (M. W. 352)

In the chapter on “Fruitage” in S & H, it is to be noted that socalled “treatment” except in a few instances was not used at all, and in the few mentioned where this was done, the treatment sig­nally failed to bring about the desired results, except in two or three cases and in these there is no indication whatever of argu­ment, contradiction, or affirmation as having been used, and it is perfectly evident that in the whole eighty testimonies therein, doubt­less carefully selected by Mrs. Eddy herself from thousands, the healing was brought about by the Spirit of Christ as it marches on in that impersonal book Science and Health with Key to the Scrip­tures.

Following this up in Miscellaneous Writings, we find on pages 420 and 425 certain testimonies chosen also by Mrs. Eddy which read in part “Her demonstrations come through no form of treat­ment, but by letting Spirit bear witness,—by the positive recogni­tion and realization of no reality but ever present good;” and “She did nothing,—no ‘treating’ in the usual sense. There is nothing to do but to understand that all is harmony, always. He (the woman’s husband) felt the Presence that destroys the sense of evil, and next morning,—there was nothing left to recover from; and ‘Through the understanding gained, that god is all, I came to demonstrate with great success, and with but one thought,—for I knew nothing about giving a ‘treatment’; I wish I knew as little now, for I be­lieve that healing in Christian Science is to be done in a moment.”

In S & H, page 411, having set forth healing by argument, as Mrs. Eddy several times refers to it, we find that “because the stu­dent was not perfectly attuned to divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth for reminders” she found it advisable for the novice to use those arguments, contradictions, affirmations, etc., but immediately goes on to say “If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous,”

In one of the earliest editions of her textbook she says, “For my­self I heal without silent argument.” Of course 1 No one in this age. was more self-effacing than she, and this very self-effacement enabled the Spirit of Christ to operate untrammeled by the human mind. Oh, that we might attain that same freedom from self!

Illustrative of this, many years ago a young student of Christian Science received a telephone call from a mother in a nearby city, asking for assistance for her son, George, who, she said appeared to have tonsillitis sore throat. The call came at midnight Work was com­menced at once. The errors which were presented were contradicted, the truth affirmed and declared concerning them, and arguments for truth and against error were used, all of which were provoked by the information given concerning the claims of disease. The work was done as thoroughly as the practitioner knew how to do, and then he retired, satisfied that all that was necessary to be done was done.

At six in the morning the telephone rang. The tonsillitis was no better, but a curious thing had taken place. It appeared that George’s hands almost from babyhood had been covered with un­sightly warts, great black things which cracked and bled upon the slightest provocation, and so evident were they at all times that the boys called him “Warty”. As a small child George had not minded that, but now he had reached the age of twelve years and had begun to play about with small girls who likewise called him “Warty”. George did not care about this, but when they added insult to injury by refusing to let him come near them or so much as touch them, he was hurt to the quick. During the period between the two telephone calls, the warts had entirely disappeared, and his hands were as smooth as though they had never been otherwise; nor in some thirty odd years have the warts ever reappeared. The tonsillitis disap­peared in due time after having run its course probably, for the treatment seemed to have no effect upon it

Why did the warts disappear? Why did the tonsillitis not disap­pear? The latter had been faithfully worked over, had been “han­dled” to the best knowledge of the young student, error had been contradicted, truths opposed to error had been affirmed, but noth­ing was done about the warts; yet the warts had disappeared as completely as though they had never been, while the tonsillitis re­mained in evidence. Slowly the solution was arrived at. The human mind which had conducted those contradictions, arguments and affirmations, etc., all predicated upon or instigated by the sugges­tions of evil about tonsillitis, was utterly powerless to heal That which did the healing was the Christ, the actual presence of God. It is that which always heals. The Christ was turned to when the student was called upon for help, and the presence of the Christ which he maintained did the healing, and did so not because of arguments, contradictions, etc., but in spite of such.

This being the fact, why did not the Christ heal the tonsillitis as well as the hands? Because the human mind was in the way. The attempt was made wittingly or unwittingly to heal something, tonsillitis or the belief of tonsillitis, it matters not which. .The Christ never tries to heal. It is simply itself. Like the sun. It simply shines. The sun knows nothing about darkness. How could it know any­thing about its own absence, which would be necessary, for dark­ness is but the absence of light So it concerns itself not at all about darkness. Like the sun, the Christ shines forth without effort As the very presence of light causes darkness to disappear, so the very presence of the Christ causes the darkness of disease to disappear. In the matter of the warts or the belief about the warts, the Christ had full unhindered sway. The human mind was stilled and out of the way. “Be still and know that I AM god” was God’s message to the world through David. This is true prayer. It fulfills Jesus ad­monition “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Listen to what Science and Health (15) says of prayer “To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed, (the human mind stilled) Lips must be mute (words of argument, affirmation, etc., silently or audibly, must be unspoken) and materialism silent, (no word concerning matter either for good or evil be heard) that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.”

In due course another call came in. This time from a woman who raised chickens and owned thousands of them. It appeared that the chickens were dying by the score from some unknown disease. It was epidemic, and all the other chicken raisers in the vicinity were similarly affected. Some years previously the chicken owner’s brother-in-law, a wealthy western man, had been given up by the physicians, and had lain hopelessly ill in a New York hotel. This same practitioner had been called in on the case and the man was perfectly healed. In her predicament the woman recalled this and turned to the same person for help. Really she was turning, not to the person, but to the Christ, the presence and power of God. The student pondered over the problem long and earnestly, not knowing at first just what to do. Physically it was impossible for him to treat over a thousand chickens separately, and even if it were so, he had no means of identifying one from another, nor did he know what was the matter, therefore how contradict, argue, or affirm concern­ing something about which he knew absolutely nothing? Moreover he had argued, contradicted and affirmed truths in regard to the tonsillitis and had failed to bring about a healing. He had done nothing specifically about the warts, yet the boy’s hands had been perfectly healed. By this time he had come to the conclusion that it was no longer necessary to argue, contradict, affirm, etc., for he was beginning to understand that “the letter and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the sin­ner.” (S & H 454). Furthermore it had dawned upon his conscious­ness that it was the Christ which healed, and healed by its very presence and that neither the human mind nor the person nor the human auxiliaries—the letter or the argument—had anything to do with the healing, and it was not because of such that healing came to pass, but rather in spite thereof. So he proceeded to praise and glorify God, by singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody, in his heart, unto the Lord;” by “re­joicing always” and by “being of good cheer” when lo! the Holy Ghost descended upon him, and the very presence of Christ once more dispelled the darkness of error and the whole brood of chick­ens was entirely freed from whatever it was.

As he considered this from every angle, the truth was more clearly borne into consciousness and then came another call, this time a cable from Santos, Brazil, S. A. The cable was unsigned, was addressed to the student’s telephone number, which in those days was most unusual, and contained only three words, “Please six treatments.” The recipient knew no one in Brazil, and had not the slightest knowledge from whom came the cable, nor for whom . or what work was required. He knew not what part of the body was involved, if it was physical, nor if it was financial, or what Mani­festly under those circumstances he could not specifically argue, affirm, contradict or declare concerning something of which he knew nothing. He did know, however, that the boy’s hands, and the chickens had been healed by the presence of the power of God, under somewhat similar conditions, and he naturally concluded that since somewhere someone was reaching out for the ministering Christ, and had in so doing turned to him, it was his business to maintain the presence of the Christ, and let the Christ do the healing.

The student then proceeded to do this as well as he knew how, and did so by living an evangelical life. S & H stresses this on page 254, where it says, “the human self must be evangelized.” The word comes from two Greek words meaning “good” and “mes­senger”, so it was his business to bear a message of good to whom­soever would receive it, and to do so by living it “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven;” “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” saith the Lord, and as Mrs. Eddy writes in First Church and Miscellany, page 160, “To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.” This then he did to the best of his ability.

At the end of the six days came another cable, unsigned as before, addressed as previously, saying only, “Please continue ten more;” but this time it came from another city in Brazil, Sao Paulo, so that now the student did not even know where the patient was. However the same righteous endeavor marked his effort to live an evangelical life, and diligently he strove to do so, knowing that thus the presence of the Christ was assured, and . if this were the case and the patient was sincere as was certainly indicated by the two cables, all was well and the healing would result. Nothing more was heard until over a month afterward, when a letter was received expressing the Brazilian writer’s gratitude, and setting forth that a young woman twenty years of age, who had been insane for six years had been perfectly healed. The letter said that the only reason for sending the second cable was because no one could believe the evidence of his senses. The healing was complete and lasting.

Jesus said, “Of myself, I can do nothing; it is the Father that doeth the work.” Who is so great a God as our God?

NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH

“Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” said Paul I shall tell you of a man who was raised from the dead. Let me first say however that no one was ever raised from the dead. It was not because Jesus said so that Lazarus lived, but it was because Lazarus lived that Jesus said so. The Master said “God is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him,” and he preceded this statement by saying “God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Now these men had been regarded as dead for hundreds of years, there­fore the point made was that if God was not the God of the dead and was in fact the God of these men, then in spite of all human evidence to the contrary, they could not be dead. Again he said, “The maid is not dead, but sleepeth,” whereupon the onlookers “laughed him to scorn,” but he proved the point by presenting the little maid alive to her father and mother. Science and Health (75) says in furtherance of this point: “Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it” which bears out Jesus’ own statement, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” However lest the reader may think that this man of whom I shall write was in some sort of coma or suspended animation and not dead, let me say that this man was just as dead as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, though not for so long a time.

The Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the Life, he that believeth in ME, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whoso­ever liveth and believeth in ME shall never die.” The textbook says on pages 27 and 494: “Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple (body), and in three days I (Spirit or Mind) will raise it up.’” The “I”, Spirit, Mind or God, will raise up the body. On that occasion when the person had become unconscious in what humanity called death, the Spirit of Christ went marching on and raised the body of Jesus to life again. Happily it was true that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. We shall see too how on another modern occasion the Spirit of Christ came marching on and raised a man from the dead also.

The man’s name was Nehemiah Brewster and he lived with his mother and sister in Flushing, Long Island, a few doors off North­ern Boulevard, on Whitestone Road. Today, years afterwards, he is employed by one of the great industries in New York, a perfectly well man and with perfect use of his hand and fingers. One night he was aroused by a noise. He got up and looked out into the hall. Nothing there. He thought he would go into the bathroom, so he walked along the dark hall and stretched out his hand to throw the electric switch, but as he did so, he was seized and grappled with presumably by a burglar, who shoved a gun into his stomach and threatened to shoot if he stopped him from escaping. The young man wrestled with him and refused to let him go, and in the dark both fell downstairs. In the melee, the burglar escaped through the front door but meanwhile the gun exploded and the bullet went through the young fellow Brewster’s forearm, blowing out the ar­teries, sinews and muscles and the blood spurted about like a foun­tain.

His mother and sister, hearing the noise, went to him, carried him bleeding profusely to the bathroom; his mother bound up the gaping wound and staunched the blood as best she could, while the daughter telephoned for the police—who were unable to do any­thing inasmuch as the burglar had escaped—to a surgeon and to a Christian Science practitioner. The surgeon came immediately and finding the wound well taken care of did nothing further and re­turned each day for several days. Meanwhile the practitioner main­tained the light of the Christ as well as he knew how to do. Ap­parently everything was going on all right.

At this time the mother telephoned the practitioner saying the surgeon feared that perhaps some exertion might reopen the ar­teries and endanger the boy’s life, and recommended that he be taken to a hospital and have the ends of the arteries closed, to which the practitioner consented. At the same time he sent this mes­sage to her son, which she delivered and which he carried out,

“Tell your son that when he is about to lose consciousness under the anesthetic to turn to God and do as Jesus did when he was about to lose consciousness on the cross and say to God, ‘Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.’ ”

The young man was carried to the hospital and there laid on the operating table, anaesthetized and the wound was opened prepara­tory to tying the ends of the arteries. At this point the surgeon no­ticed that the blood had stopped circulating and the boy was dead! He had died of a weak heart on the operating table! Quickly they took the ether from the young man and endeavored to revivify him. Every known thing was done to resuscitate him, but to no avail, and finally they pronounced him dead, laid the body away and tele­phoned his mother that the boy had died and to arrange to remove the body.

All material streams had indeed dried, the doctors and nurses had given up, hope was gone, every material remedy and device had failed, and humanity had turned away helpless.

It was then that the Soul, the Spirit of Christ, came marching on and unhelped by human hand or personality, vindicated its claim that “I am the resurrection and the Life” and in the course of an half hour or more, the boy came back to life, his mother arrived and took him home. There he completely recovered. Those arteries were never sewn up or tied, and his hand and fingers which the surgeon said could never be used again due to the destruction of the sinews and muscles, became perfectly normal and strong. The young man was well.

“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

THE BOOK OF LIFE; GOD’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The word “author” is defined as “One who creates, produces, or brings into being. ‘God is the Author of the universe.’ ”

The mind which wrote the tale of Robinson Crusoe, created, pro­duced, or brought into being, the world of Robinson Crusoe. This mind could not have created the world of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” because it was not in that mind. The mind of the author was all there was to the characters and everything else in the story. They had no minds nor motivating power of their own apart from the mind of the author, which was their only ego. It equipped them with whatever they had, and enabled them to do whatever they did. Of themselves they could do nothing. Not a blade of grass grew, not a pebble lay upon the beach, nothing whatsoever came to pass with­out the operation of the mind of the author. The island could not have been equipped with a radio broadcasting station because as is evident, such was not in the author’s mind. The world of Crusoe was but the manifestation of the mind of the story writer, and that which was not in that mind could not be manifested. When anyone saw the world of Crusoe, he perceived only the mind which wrote the book, or that mind manifesting or revealing itself. There was no separate creation apart from that mind. There were not two, the manifestor and the manifestation, but one only, the manifestor in action, or the mind which wrote the book in manifestation or being seen. Even Defoe whom we are accustomed to term the author, was but a character also, even as Crusoe. Defoe was not the author, but the mind which wrote the book was the author, and Defoe was but a character which as an amanuensis wrote into the book that which the author, mind, dictated. True Defoe was not in the story, but had the author wished to have him in it, he could have done so. The mind which wrote the story was not Defoe’s mind only, but this mind which was Defoe’s mind, was likewise the mind of everything else in the tale, and in fact was the mind of many other characters in other books which Defoe wrote at the command of the author.

Everything on the island was in perfect synchronization because everything was controlled by the mind which wrote the story. If Crusoe, Friday or the cannibals had possessed minds of their own, there would not have been that perfect coordination. The cannibals might have landed sooner, or Crusoe might have been too late to rescue Friday and so the tenor of the whole story might have been changed; but because everything was governed by the mind of the author, everything occurred just as designed.

The mind of the author created Crusoe, Friday, their mothers and fathers, and everything else in the tale, but there was never any­thing to Crusoe, or any other character or thing, save only mind, the author. Everything in the book, every character, every action woven into the story, were the manifestation of mind, the author, and only that could be in the story which that mind elected to be in it. Everything depended on that mind. It was the universal mind of everything in the Crusoe world. Crusoe never spoke, the dog never barked, the rifle never cracked, but only mind, the author did these things or anything else that occurred. All was that mind in manifes­tation, and this creation added nothing whatsoever to the mind which wrote the book, for it was nothing but that mind revealed.

The Mind which is God spoke the Word, and so wrote the BOOK OF LIFE. John said “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139/16) This BOOK OF LIFE is Mind made manifest The creation was made by Him, “God is the Author of the universe.” The universe and all it contains is simply Mind revealed, or Mind in manifesta­tion. It is not something apart from Mind, but it is Mind. It is not two, but one. “Principle and its idea is (not are) one.” (S & H 465) “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” (Ibid 468) The creation is Mind revealed, and that which we term creation is really a revelation, or Mind revealing itself. It is God’s autobiography. “Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?” (Ibid 504) is the Word of God broadcast through Mrs. Eddy.

God, Mind, could not make a material universe, for the very same reason that the author of the story of Crusoe could not create the world of Uncle Tom. A material universe is not in the Mind which is God, Spirit, nor was Uncle Tom in the mind which created Robinson Crusoe. God could not equip His creation with poverty, disease, death, or other evils, nor with materiality, because they are not in Mind. God “is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” (Hab 1) This creation of God, the Holy City, is Mind in manifestation, and “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s BOOK OF LIFE.” That which is not in Mind cannot be manifested.

Whence then came matter, sin, disease, death, pain and other evils? It may be said that they never did come, but that the human mind equips the universe with them and that only in belief. The mind of the Crusoe story did not equip Crusoe, the other charac­ters, the island or the things thereon, with matter. It was the reader, the onlooker, or the human mind which did all this; and that not in reality, for when the human mind of the reader clothed the world of Crusoe with materiality, there was no more matter to it than when the mind of the author originally set it forth solely as ideas entirely devoid of matter of any kind whatsoever. The human mind or the onlooker or reader of the BOOK OF LIFE alone clothes the spiritual world, the world of ideas, and the characters thereof, likewise ideas, with materiality and the things which go with it, but inasmuch as the universe is but the manifestation of Mind, there is really no more matter to the real universe than there was matter to the world of Crusoe as a result of the human mind of the reader equipping it with materiality in thought “Mortal mind in­verts the true likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its own misconceptions.” (S & H 512) God or Mind manifests it­self, and this manifestation is creation, a creation of Mind’s ideas, wholly spiritual and of Mind and never material. In fact Mind and its manifestation is but one and not two. It is Mind in manifesta­tion or revealed.

The mind which wrote the Crusoe story controlled the world of Crusoe with all that pertained thereto in perfect coordination be­cause there was no other mind apart from mind, the author, to do anything; and similarly everything in this wonderful world of ours in which “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17) is gov­erned by the one Mind, “the only I, or Us” (S & H 591) the “I am” .. • “the only Ego” (Ibid 588) or God, and is perfectly co­ordinated, and none has any other mind apart from the one Mind. Jesus said “Of myself I can do nothing. It is the Father that doeth the works” and again “My Father worketh hitherto and I work,” and still again “My doctrine (teaching) is not mine but His that sent me. If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” The world and its characters do nothing of themselves. Mind governs and controls all “By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair out­lines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell” (S & H191); “He (Mind) maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He (Mind) leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 23). Creation of itself does nothing, for it is simply Mind made manifest Mind does all, and is all.

There is no other mind to reply to Mind eternally broadcasting “I made you, I create all things. I am omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, the only Life, Love, action, substance, and intelli­gence of the universe.” There is no other mind which can say that man was born of a woman; that he has a mind of his own apart from and independent of the one Mind; that man sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels, acts or is conscious apart from the one Mind. It is as impossible for this to be so, as it would be impossible for Crusoe to aver that he was born of a woman in contradistinction to the fact that he was created by the mind of the author, as were all the other people and things in the tale. Crusoe was never equipped with a mind of his own apart from the mind of the author of the story, and man was never equipped with a mind separate from the one Mind or God.

Mind governs the world, controls it, and does so in perfect har­mony. Mind equips this world with whatever it has, gives it Life, Love, substance, intelligence, and whatsoever it requires in order that it may function properly, but the title never passes from Mind to the universe, nor from God to man: and although “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” the control and ownership forever inheres in Mind the “I am”.

Mind writes into this BOOK OF LIFE whatever is good, and the instant that Mind writes into the book any good thing quite irrespec­tive of what it may be, at that instant it is manifested. It is some­times said “I must not outline.” This is true of course about man, but not about the Ego or “I”, Mind, or God; for the fact is that Mind must outline, but Mind is the “I”, the only “I”. If the mind of the Crusoe story had not outlined it, there would have been no Crusoe world at all. Crusoe himself could not outline anything. “Mind … outlines but is not outlined.” (S & H 591) Mind the “I” outlines or there would be no BOOK OF LIFE, and no world; but man or creation cannot and does not outline. As the mind of the author outlined the whole procedure in the world of Crusoe, so Mind, God, outlines the whole procedure in this world. Otherwise there would be no manifestation, nothing to manifest. If it seemed part of the story to give Crusoe wealth, all that the mind of the author would have to do would be to write into the story that Crusoe finds a great cache of gold. It is just an idea or series of ideas in the mind of the author. There is nothing out of which to make the gold, no matter of any kind—just an idea. The human mind of the reader clothes the idea with matter, gives it ponderosity, dimen­sions and color, but there is no more matter, weight, color or size to it when this is done, than when it was an idea in the mind of the author. Where did the author get it? Where did God get the uni­verse? “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1) God created the sun, moon, stars, earth and all that therein is. Where did He get them? From nowhere, out of nothing other than Mind. They were simply ideas in Mind. There they were and there they remain forever. They were not something apart from Mind. They were Mind,—Mind in manifestation; nothing more than was already there. “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65) They never were material. Job says “He (Mind) stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Yet when one needs something, money perhaps, he feels that he must earn it, get it from somewhere, out of the bank, out of the ground, or in some other way obtain it from some place. How foolish! “He (Mind) hangeth the earth upon nothing!” Surely the one Mind which does this may be trusted to continue the good work at least in-so-far as. the so-called necessities of life are concerned. Mind can write what­ever good it desires into the BOOK OF LIFE and it is instantly manifested.

We would perceive this if we would but let the “I” go unto the Father, Mind, rather than to continue to misplace the “I” elsewhere in creation where it does not belong. To be conscious of the fact that Mind is the only Ego, the I AM, the only Mind, the “only I, or Us” (S & H 591) of all creation, and to give Mind all power, all Love, all intelligence, and to be aware that Mind is the only sub­stance, the only health, peace, supply, the “All-in-all” (S & H 468) is to let the “I” go unto the Father, Mind. This is what Jesus re­ferred to when he said “I and my Father are one.” It is to take the “I” from where we have misplaced it, mistaken it, and return it to the Father, Mind. This misplacement is all there is to sin. The word translated into the English scriptures as “sin” simply means “to miss” or “to miss the mark” to misplace the “I”, to mistake it from God, Mind, and put it into man or created things thus becom­ing a sinner “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and wor­shipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1) To do this, to believe that power, Life, Love, intelligence, sub­stance, health, supply and other truly spiritual things are inherent in or dependent on created things (material or spiritual matters not in the least) is to become a sinner, one who has misplaced the “I”, or “missed the mark,” an onlooker or prodigal, and as such will find himself wandering in a far country, far, far away from the Kingdom of God, and where no man can give unto him, for the simple reason that man has not and never will have anything to give, inasmuch as everything belongs to God, Mind, and there in that far country, the prodigal will feed on the husks of his own making, as a result of letting the “I” go away from the Father, Mind.

The remedy is “I will arise and go to my Father” (unto Mind), to return the “I” unto the Father where it belongs and this is the simple meaning of the Greek word “soteria” translated into the scriptures as “salvation”. It means “a safe return” to the Father and as this is done one no longer beholds from the standpoint of the human mind, but from that of the Author, God, or Mind. Then the Father seeing him afar off, will come to him and greet him with a kiss of welcome, give to him the gold ring of authority and do­minion, the new shoes of spiritual understanding, the best robe of undivided allegiance to the one Mind, kill the fatted calf, indica­tive of unfailing supply at all times of all that is good, and restore him to his rightful place in the Kingdom of God, as Mind in mani­festation.

“Thine, oh 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, oh Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor 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. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name.” (First Chronicles 29/11 to 13)

I, I, I, I, itself, I,

The inside and outside, the what and the why,

The when and the where, the low and the high,

All I, I, I, I itself, I.

HUMAN AUXILIARIES

You do not require arguments any more, neither declarations nor affirmations of truths which are based upon, predicated on, or instigated by some error to be eradicated, nor do you require con­tradictions of presented errors, for such prayers of implication, or other outmoded prayers of supplication, are but the emanations of. the human mind. There are no healing qualities in the human mind.

These human auxiliaries are like the wheels of an aeroplane, useful to take off from the ground into the air, but the moment the earth is left behind those wheels are worthless, and worse than use­less, for they retard your speed, are an extra weight, and prevent your ascension as high as might be done without them. Likewise human auxiliaries as aforesaid are useful only to make your “take off” from the earth earthly, and up into the realm of Spirit; but from the moment that this occurs, those auxiliaries are utterly worthless, and like the aeroplane wheels, are but extra weight, re­tard your speed and prevent your ascent higher into Spirit They in fact exert a downward pull, and should be dropped immediately and so forever done with, for they have served their purpose.

“Ah”, says someone, “but those wheels are necessary when the plane comes to earth.” Quite so, and that is why the wheels on an aeroplane are not dropped after the plane has ascended into the air. Note this however, that unlike the plane, when you have once at­tained your flight into Spirit, there is no return to the earth earthly. It is as utterly impossible to do so, as it would be for the oak tree to return to the acorn, or the butterfly to crawl back into the chrysalis. So the wheels, the arguments, contradictions of error, etc., etc., are never needed again, and should be dropped forever, for they too are but extra weight, retard the speed, and prevent the higher as­cension. Having once attained the realm of Spirit, there is nowhere to go but forward and upward, for progress is the law of God. Have done then with the worse than useless wheels of argument, contradictions of errors, etc., and instead step on the gas of revelation, point your wings for an upward flight, look to God, and rise higher in Spirit

It may be that in your earlier flight into Spirit’s realm you will encounter storms, run into great fog banks, be enveloped in dark­ness, until you feel like Columbus, who, when he started out, didn’t know where he was going, when he got there didn’t know where he was, and when he got back didn’t know where he had been; and so you may think you have lost your way, that you are falling, are about to collide with some error, etc., etc.; but such is not the fact, and even then you require no wheels, nor anything to enable you to land, for you cannot come down; and the way out of your trouble is to step on the gas, point your wings for upward flight, look away from the errors presenting themselves, and look to God, whereupon you will soon find that you have climbed to a higher level and are above the dangers which threatened.

Remember that once having ascended, even but a little way, there is no possible return to a position outgrown. If you will not drop your wheels and have done with them, you will retard your further ascension, and flounder about in sickness, sin, death, and other troubles such as poverty and lacks and limitations; but rest assured of this, you can never return to the earth, earthly. You must go for­ward and upward, therefore make the most of it and praise and glorify, and give thanks to God, be of good cheer, rejoice and be exceeding glad, as Paul says by singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,” and be filled with mirth, joy and laughter, and so doing you will fly on and fly upward—but of this be sure, there’s no way back to earth.

ON MALPRACTICE

You need no more protection against mental malpractice, ani­mal magnetism or any other evil, call it what you will, than a fish needs protection from getting dust in its eyes; and you can no more encounter evils in fact, than can a fish run its nose into a dust bank in the ocean. It is an utter impossibility.

The moment you try to protect yourself against any form of evil, it is evident that you believe that there is something else than God, good, from which you require to be protected, and just so long as you endeavor to protect yourself from that thing whatsoever it may be termed, you continue to believe the thing is there and real. Thus you try to protect yourself against something from which you positively need no protection whatsoever, and for the simplest of all reasons, because there is no such thing and it is not there. At the same time you leave yourself wide open to the only thing you need protection against, namely your own false belief; and moreover just so long as you continue to try to protect yourself against that evil, do you keep the belief alive, for to do so is. prima facie evi­dence that you still: believe in its reality, else why try to protect yourself against it?

No one ever needs to be protected against anything other than his own false beliefs. Note that well. The remedy of course is: don’t believe.

So far as you are concerned there is only one malpractitioner on earth and you are that one. Look out for him that he does not do it That is the only way to get rid of the malpractitioner. Don’t do it If you believe that somebody is malpracticing on or directing evil thoughts against you, or anyone else, or that someone is doing evil, then you yourself have become a malpractitioner, for you are be­lieving that somewhere there is a mind other than the one Mind, the Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus,” and of course that is not the truth. If you do this however, then you are liable to reap the results of, not your own malpractice, but your belief in malpractice, which belief is evidenced by the fact that you are doing it As has been said, the remedy is simplicity itself: don’t do it Stop it Do as the Great Master said, “Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment” or, as the Word of God re­layed to us by Isaiah “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge.

What the other fellow thinks or does is none of your business, but it is very much your business what you think the other fellow thinks or does, for if you think that he is thinking or doing wrong, then you yourself are thinking wrong or have become a malpractitioner, for you are believing that somewhere is a mind other than the one Mind, or another power than God,—which is sheerest folly, for God is Mind and Mind is all.

No matter what seems to be, no matter if with your physical senses you actually perceive the evil action, no matter what that action may be, nevertheless if you believe someone is doing that evil act, or that there is such evil action, you are caught in the maelstrom of malpractice, and unless you cease so doing, you will suffer, not for the malpractice, as has been said, but because of your belief in malpractice; not from anything the other fellow may have done or may be doing, but from your own belief that he is doing it

The instant remedy is always the same, stop it. Stop what? The other fellow’s malpractice? Not at all. Never mind him. Let him do as he will Stop your own false believing. How? By refusing to entertain evil suggestions, and as you do this, the Christ will arise in you, and become your Savior, and save you from those false beliefs, for you will with this Christ Mind behold the Kingdom of God and the things therein. “Real consciousness is cognizant only of \ the things of God” (S&H 276)

Hear what Mrs. Eddy says corroborating the above (Manual p. 84) “Defence against malpractice. Teachers shall instruct their pupils how to defend themselves against mental malpractice, never to return evil for evil, but to know the truth that makes free, and thus be a law, not unto ethers, but to themselves Perfectly dear, isn’t it?

“Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental mal­practice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake” (S & H 442); and if it cannot harm you either when you are awake or when you are asleep, I ask you when can it harm you? Could one have a better law?

WHO PRAYS?

“Shall the day say to him that fashioneth it, ‘What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?’ ” (Isaiah 45/9)

Who prays? Man, the reflection? Does the reflection originate prayer? Can a reflection originate anything? No. God originates, creates, for He is the only Creator. Even if the image, reflection, man, does pray, he can only pray by reflection, and God, the Cre­ator, the Originator, must do the praying in order that the reflec­tion, man, can do so.

Thus and thus only can Jesus’ instructions in regard to prayer be carried out: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, be­lieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Man never prays for something which he believes he has, but always—how­ever he prays—for that which he believes he has not. Else why pray? Actually this is preying, not praying.

God however prays from the standpoint of having. As for in­stance the author sees that he (the author) will be glorified to a greater extent, if he furnishes Crusoe with an axe, so he, the author, not Crusoe, says or prays, “I perceive that my beloved son or char­acter requires an axe. Well, I’ll give him an axe, yes, 1’ll give him fifty axes, yes, I’ll give him a whole chest of tools.” And so he does. Out of his abundance. The desire comes from the author, not Crusoe. So with the Author, God, and His Crusoe, or man.

Where is this God? What is He? How do you contact Him? In order that He may pray for you? Or for us?

God is the “I”, the Ego, Soul, Spirit, Mind, Principle. “You say, I dreamed last night.” What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit” (S & H 249) and “Jesus said: ‘Destroy this temple (body), and in three days I (Spirit) (Mind) will raise it up”’ (Ibid 27 & 494). That is the “I” referred to.

The human being is limited to the boundaries of his own con­sciousness, whatever that may be. If we started in slime and dark­ness, as some say we did, and it depended on ourselves to get us out of that condition, we would still be slithering about in slime and darkness, because we would not know anything other than slime and darkness.

But we had an ego, this “I”, which is God, Soul, Spirit, infinite intelligence, and this “I” said “Let there be light” and there was light We ourselves could not have prayed for nor declared “Let there be light,” because we knew nought about light However, God, infinite intelligence, knew, this “I” knew, and so we had light; and then after a little, God, this “1”, said further, “Let the dry land .appear” and so it did, and consciousness was enlarged just that, much. So it has gone on, until now we find ourselves in this magnif­icent world, which God, the “I”, has revealed to us—and there is more to come. However, the human being knows nought about what is in the offing, but the “I” knows and will reveal this also to us.

God says: “/ am the Lord; that is My name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do / declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth…”

As Paul says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 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, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God,” and again, “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.”

THE PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE

When one prays a prayer of supplication, it must be evident that he does not believe he has that for which he prays. Similarly is it when he prays a prayer of declarations and affirmations of Truth as opposed to some error which is to be eradicated, for to do so is prima facie evidence that he believes the error to be true. Else why pray over it? There can be no doubt that so long as he thus prays, he believes in the existence of the error; and in fact he is actually keeping the belief in the error alive, by so doing. It is likewise so when one prays by contradicting the error or “denying” it, other­wise he would not do so. Moreover, when the error disappears, he no longer continues those prayers of whatever kind, but instead he gives thanks, praises, and glorifies God, he rejoices and is exceed­ing glad, and is of good cheer.

What then is the manner of scientific prayer which heals the sick, raises the dead, makes the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and feeds, clothes and cares for whomsoever is in need of those things?                           .

It is the prayer of faith or acceptance. James said “The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” and John said “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” The Word of God (S & H 368) further says: “When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.”

It is related in Second Chronicles 7 “When Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (consciousness), and when all the Children of Israel saw… they “worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, Tor He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” Solomon accepted it to be a fact that God would answer his prayer favorably. Therefore, he stopped that prayer, and prayed the prayer of acceptance, and so rejoiced and became exceeding glad, gave thanks, praised, and glorified God, and was of good cheer. Then things came to pass. The fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices, those old forms of prayer which he had been using, affirmations and declarations of Truth, “denials” or contradictions of error, arguments, etc., all were consumed or swallowed up in the prayer of acceptance, whereupon the glory of the Lord filled the house or consciousness. It filled too the consciousness of the Chil­dren of Israel—those who willingly accepted the promise or Word of God that He would care for them individually and collectively, and similarly it will fill our consciousness as we have faith and ac­cept the Word of God. “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. (To others whose consciousness was not filled with the glory of God as was his) In this perfect man the Savior saw God’s own like­ness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” (S & H 476).

The Lord’s prayer, the prayer of Soul, or God’s prayer, is essen­tially the prayer of acceptance, and is the acme of prayer. Jesus gave it into the world in the Aramaic language, and years after­wards Mrs. Eddy gave us the true English translation and interpre­tation of it, as revealed to her. It follows after the translation as given in the King James version: (S & H16)

“Our Father which art in heaven,

Our Father—Mother God, all-harmonious,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Adorable One.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipo­tent, supreme.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And Love is reflected in love;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and AD.”

Immediately prior to having given this prayer of acceptance to the world and to us, Jesus said “When ye pray use not vain repeti­tions as the heathen do; for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him” (Matt. 6) evidently considering the prayer of asking to be wholly superflu­ous, for why should we ask the Father for that which He already knows we have need of? And of course when the prayer is the old and outmoded supplication, or even the more modem way of af­firmations or declarations of truth, or contradictions of error, argu­ment, etc., the prayer of implication, it is evident that he who prays is in want of something which he does not believe he has, be it health, life, love, peace, plenty, supply or what not These prayers are not then in accord with the plain instruction of the Master Him­self, who said “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.” The only prayer which measures up to these plain instructions is the prayer of ac­ceptance or faith. Mrs. Eddy asks this pertinent question: “and instead step on the gas more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept?” (S & H 2)

The Word comes to us “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Gould one have a more comprehensive promise? It covers every human need. Hav­ing so said Jesus counselled watchfulness, not to take thought for life, for what is eaten, or drunk, for the body, or for what is put on the body, and not to take thought for the morrow—the future; but rather to step out on the promises of God, accepting the assur­ance that “All these things (whatever is needful) shall be added unto you.” Again the Word comes through him “At an hour when ye think not”—not when ye think, but when ye think not, shall the reality of being appear. In other words we are to accept without reservation the promises of God in their entirety and wait and watch for them to appear at the appointed hour, and meanwhile as did the Children of Israel, give praise, give thanks, glorify, and sing “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.” This is the prayer of acceptance.

A short time ago the President was given the promise of the peo­ple that he should succeed himself as President of the U.S.A. Doubtless prior to that time he had prayed earnestly that this award might come to him; but so soon as the promise of the people was given, he ceased thus to pray, and instead prayed the prayer of faith and acceptance. He believed the people would fulfill their promise, he had faith that the promise would be performed, so he rejoiced and became exceeding glad, was of good cheer, gave thanks and glorified God.

However, the office was not yet his, nor would it be until January twentieth, and ^“Vox populi, vox Dei” is not always the fact. He whom the people glorify today, may be crucified tomorrow. Never­theless the President had faith that at the appointed hour he would be inducted into office. Habakkuk says “For the vision has its own appointed hour. It is ripening. It will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it is sure, and it will not be late.”

Even so the promise of the Father that He will give us the king­dom, may not have appeared in its fullness; in fact to most of us, the vision of the kingdom of God is more or less dim, but the prom­ise is sure, certain, and absolutely reliable. It will surely appear at the appointed hour. ‘‘There hath not failed one word of all His good promise.” (First Kings 8) It too is ripening. It too will flower. If it seem long, then wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. Step out on this promise, and rejoice and be exceeding glad, be of good cheer, praise, glorify, and give thanks, and God will “pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Malachi 3/10)

To do otherwise would be to doubt the promises. “Ye ask and re­ceive not, because ye ask amiss.” (James) The prayer of accept­ance precludes doubt on the very face of it. We must have faith, we must believe, we must accept the promises of God, and so glo­rify and praise Him. We must “sing unto the Lord a new song.”

This song is the prayer of acceptance, the very highest form of prayer, the only true prayer. This prayer “instantaneously heals the sick.” (S&H16)

If we really have this faith to accept God’s promises we shall dance and sing, give praise, glorify God, he filled with joy, mirth and laughter, he filled with happiness and fairly bubble over with merriment. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Prov 17) .

THE SECRET OF ANSWERED PRAYER

As one ponders over the multitudes of unanswered prayers, and the words of James “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss” together with the definite promise of the Master, “If ye ask any­thing in My name I will do it” (John 14/14) one wonders wherein does he “ask amiss” in that he does not receive those good things for which he asks in prayer and which seem necessary for his hap­piness and welfare.

Let us assume that one is handicapped by the lack of some good thing which seems necessary. That which he does first if he is un­instructed in the teachings of Christian Science is to ask of God through a prayer of supplication for the particular desirable thing whatever it may be, be it health, peace, life, love, money, clothing, etc. To another familiar with the teachings of Christian Science, the foregoing manner of prayer is outmoded, and instead he may send up a prayer which consists of contradictions of the particular error which is presented to him, and declare or affirm certain truths to the effect that he is at that very moment, and in spite of the con­trary testimony of the physical senses, the actual recipient of what­ever it may be that he seems to lack.

There is valid objection to both of these prayers, both induced as they are, by a belief in the lack of certain desirable things. To the first method whatever may be the form of prayer in the manner of supplication, there is objection, because the very prayer itself is predicated on the lack of the good thing required and desired, which lack is manifested in sickness, sin, death, poverty, or other trouble, and so is nothing more than the mental gymnastics of the human mind, for the divine Mind being “of purer eyes than to be­hold evil and canst not look upon iniquity” could never father such. Moreover the mere supplication or asking for something indicates the belief that one has not that for which he asks (else why ask?) and so is not in accord with the instructions of Jesus who said (Mark 11/24): “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, be­lieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

The Christian Scientist has long since ceased to pray after this fashion, but nevertheless misinterpreting the plain instructions of Christian Science as set forth in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” and that of Jesus and the prophets, he too may “jump from the frying pan into the fire” for his prayer oftentimes called “treatment” may be predicated on his belief that he or an­other lacks some good thing, which lack may be called sickness, sin, death, poverty or other trouble, and so Ids prayer too for the same reason as the other is likewise but the mental gyrations of the same human mind, which of course is utterly powerless for good or evil, or to heal or save. He tries to declare himself into another state of mind (which is still the human mind, for the di­vine Mind changes not from good to evil or evil to good), or he tries to acquire something which he believes he has not in spite of his asseverations to the contrary, and which he desires; whereas he should “silence the material senses” (S & H 15) or “Take no thought” as Jesus said (Matthew 6/24 to 34), or stop his own thinking, or still the human mind, and so let the Christ, the actual presence of God, the one Mind, arise in him, for it is never “the human understanding of the divine healing Principle” (S & H 12/11 & 12) which does the work, but the divine Principle itself. “1 am the Lord thy God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Holy One of Israel thy Savior.”

This is not done by affirming or declaring certain truths in op­position to some presented error, or by contradicting it, for this only changes one human thought for another, and which can be nothing but the same human mind again, because that Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2/5) is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb 13/8) and so cannot possibly change from good to evil or vice versa, but is always good—God.

Much as one may assure himself that he has that which he de­clares himself to possess, nevertheless the actual fact is that he does not really believe he has that desirable thing which he claims to have, and the best proof of this is that the very reason he is making these protestations or affirmations of present possession is because in spite of his averments he is actually believing he is without that thing. Furthermore, so long as he persists in so doing, it is prima facie evidence that he continues to believe he is lacking in those very desirable things, otherwise he would not waste his valuable time in so doing; moreover the mere fact that he is trying to con­vince himself that something is true which he believes is not true, further evidences his anomalous position. As set forth this manner of prayer could not emanate from the divine Mind or God, but is wholly of the human mind and so utterly powerless for either good or evil.

What then shall be the manner of prayer in order that it may be answered? We shall praise and give thanks and glorify God for those things which we have and those things which God has prom­ised to us, and do this quite irrespective of whatever is at the mo­ment lacking in belief. Of course many and probably all of those affirmations and declarations, etc^ previously referred to are per­fectly true, and no doubt down deep in the bottom of the heart we feel them to be so, even as probably everyone has an underlying consciousness that there is immortal life, but at the time when faced with some seemingly real opposite error, we believe in the reality of the error, and so the underlying truth appears somewhat nebu­lous, theoretical and evanescent However, it is a background in the picture of the Kingdom of Heaven, painted in when we grasped the fundamentals of Christian Science, so let it remain as a back­ground, and indeed no matter how real the error may seem to be, this background will remain anyway. Have done however with those affirmations and protestations, for the continuance of them simply indicates that one continues to believe in the reality of the presented errors, which in fact are the very instigators of those con­trary truths, and instead give thanks to God for blessings to come and for those already received and known to us so well that nothing could possibly make us believe otherwise. Thus doing we set up as it were, an increased contact with the universal Mind substance, or God, “the open fount which is pouring forth more than we accept” (S & H 2) and always in unlimited supply of whatever may be re­quired of good.

A simple illustration of what is meant is as though we had a cot­ton mill and some of the spindles are not functioning. The spindles and machinery are in perfect condition, and all that is needed is more power. So we throw the switch and make the contact Immedi­ately the power is delivered, and those spindles which have not been functioning, commence to spin and do the work expected of them and so do all the little feeders and parts which go to make up the machines. So if we find there is lacking some good and desir­able thing, if the heart is not functioning properly, if some other organ has stopped its normal action, if supply does not flow as it should, if someone is hateful, angry, dishonest, ill-natured, or otherwise seems not to be functioning as the son of God, there is nothing really the matter, but all that is required is more of the power of God and if this is supplied everything will perform its work satisfactorily. In the cotton mill when the spindles do not function, we simply recognize a negative condition, but in ourselves when something is not functioning as it should, instead of regard­ing it as a negative condition we are liable to view it as a positive condition and name it heart disease, ill-temper, fear, death, pov­erty or other evil. Nevertheless it is only negative, not a something, but nothing, and so soon as the contact is made those different things under the now delivered power of God will begin to function properly and we shall know and say that all is well.

In the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England is to be found a most wonderful paean of praise “Oh all ye fishes of the sea, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him forever; oh ye birds of the air, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him forever; oh ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him forever”, and so on interminably if we wish, praising and glorifying and giving thanks to God for any and all such evi­dent things as are our common possession and which everyone knows to be the fact We too should similarly bless, praise, glorify, magnify and give thanks for whatever we actually have and are well aware that we possess at that very moment and which we have had in the past Thank Him for being alive, for sight, for hearing, having food, clothes, home, lodgings, or whatever it may be; thank   /

the Father for every little thing as well as for the great things, all of which we are too prone to take for granted. This thanking God should be made a habit, a continual practice, a constant recognition of the presence of God, who is the Giver of all good things, for “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” (James 1/17) {Thus we form the con­tact referred to with Omnipotence, the source of all good, and it will be found that the supply of whatever is needed will never cease to flow generously and abundantly to him who prays by giving .thanks. Moreover those who turn to that one will be similarly blessed and will receive abundantly just to the exact measure of the sincerity with which they turn to the I AM or God.\

In the sixth chapter of John, verses 11 to 23, it will be noted that before Jesus gave to the multitudes, he gave thanks, not alone for the great supply of food necessary to feed in excess of 5,000 peo­ple, but for the five loaves and two fishes which he well knew to be available, whereupon he evidently made the contact with that uni­versal Mind substance, and the flood gates of divine Love were opened and there poured forth whatever was necessary to supply everyone and leave over much to be gathered up. This point of giv­ing thanks was so marked that when referring to the occurrence, it was referred to as having taken place not where the multitudes were fed, but where the Lord had given thanks.

Your Father knoweth all things, and so knows your need before you ask Him, and since it is His good pleasure to give you the king­dom, He may be counted upon to supply you with whatever you may require for your happiness and well being, whereupon those things having been so received, they in turn must be added to those for which you have already given thanks, and then more and greater things will be added to you and poured forth upon you with great abundance—to you who are unceasingly praying by praising and glorifying and giving thanks to Him for His friendly aid, and freely given good.

Something like buying on the installment plan. Pay the installments and the seller will furnish you with more and better goods; but fail in the installments and the seller will take back that which he has already furnished to you and refuse to supply you with more. This accords with Jesus’ statement “Unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

‘ Note what the textbook has to say on this most important point “Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.” (S & H 3) How very simple and plain it is! Thank God constantly for the good already received and “take no thought for the morrow, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” and when the next problem presents itself, there will be forthcoming abundant understanding to meet it, “the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” (Matt 6/34)

THE CHAMOIS STRAINER

Jesus said “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray.” When the door is closed, not before it is closed, not while it remains open, but after the door is closed, then and then only is the time to pray.

Most of us have been trying to pray with the door open, gen­erally wide open, with consciousness largely filled with error or evil. This prayer is inefficacious, for the door must be closed. Curi­ously enough when this door is closed to evil, it is open to Truth, Spirit. Really it is an open door.

In the early days of motoring, the car owner was considered fair game for the cunning garage man. Among other schemes he would dilute the gasoline with water. One would drive up to the gas sta­tion, have his tank filled, drive away, and in a short period of time, his carburetor would begin to sputter, the engine would falter, come to a stop, and the car would be at a standstill. So the car owner had a chamois strainer placed over the intake to the tank, and when the gasoline was poured into it, the pure gasoline filtered through the chamois strainer into the tank, while the water was rejected. From this pure gas came the power to drive the engine.

Similarly we find the devil or the human mind is trying at all times to swindle us. It would dilute the Spirit. It tries to fill con­sciousness or the “think-tank” with evil suggestions, with the human mind, rather than the pure Spirit.

When Jesus said, “enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door”, he doubtless made his point perfectly dear, but it was lost to the world until Mrs. Eddy received her revelation from God, and explained it. She says:—“The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa … To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be dosed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error” (S & H 15). In other words the closet is con­sciousness, and the door is the intake thereto, whence enters Truth or error, good or evil, Spirit or matter. When this door is closed to error it is open to Truth, closed to matter it is open to Spirit, closed to evil it is open to good. Like the chamois strainer which rejected the water or other impurities and let in the pure gasoline.

We must “stand porter at the door of thought” (S & H 392) and refuse to admit error or evil into consciousness, while good, God or Spirit not only passes the porter but is welcomed in. Jesus said this in his inimitable way:—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber—the human mind or evil which cannot pass the porter at the door, and if it gets in it must sneak in some other way—through a hole punched in the strainer—for it cannot go through the strainer—he goes on:—but He (the Christ or divine Mind or Spirit) that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep—the only thing that can go through the strainer is pure Spirit—To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out; and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers;”

It is well to recollect that all error operates the same way. No matter what may be the form of error or evil, its approach is never but this one way. Which is why in Deuteronomy 28 we find this statement:—“The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways”. For many years the world failed to understand what was meant when it said ‘‘they shall come up against thee one way” for surely it seemed as though evil came up against us in thousands of ways. Science and Health on page 252 says “A knowledge of error and of its opera­tions must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error”. Surely if this be true, we should know this one way by which error operates in order to be freed from evil. We are gen­erally aware of evil after it has us in its toils; but few are aware just how the evil approaches us. Once however this is perceived, it is easy to handle evil, and the way to do so is obvious. It is not then lack of understanding, but unwillingness, which prevents one from successfully coping with evil suggestions. ‘The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Error operates invariably as suggestion. Never any other way. If you refuse to accept the suggestions of evil, evil dies. Suppose error says, “Get drunk”, or mayhap more subtly “Let us have a drink, it will brace us up, and cool us off.” These are suggestions. If you refuse to take either of them in, those evil suggestions die then and there, so far as you are concerned. If you accept the sug­gestion or take it in, you may get drunk, but not otherwise. Every other kind of evil operates the same way, as suggestion. It matters not in the least what the evil may be. If you refuse to accept the suggestion of evil, whatever it may be, whether sin, disease, deaths poverty, or other trouble, that evil dies, or falls by its own weight. Most of us not only open the door and let in the suggestions, but try to pray with the door wide open and consciousness generously filled with them. How often have we all tried to pray to God with our consciousness fairly reeking with error, filled to the limit with the knowledge of evil doing whatever it may have been, vainly ex­pecting or anyway hoping for relief? when the obvious thing to do was to dose the door against the evil presenting itself through sug­gestions, whereupon the Spirit which automatically entered, would make intercession for us, as Paul says.

Jesus was a past master in standing at the door of thought to prevent the inflow of evil suggestions. Finally he came to the place where he could say “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” In other words he refused to let in evil suggestions, whereupon so far as he was concerned, evil died. To dose the door or intake into conscious­ness, to use this chamois strainer, as it were, and so refuse to let evil suggestions enter, is our work. Whereupon evil will die to whoever does this. Then will it be that “the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.”

Evil cannot operate without a body or organs. In fact evil is nobody, nobody; nothing, no-thing. It has no body to act with, no ears to hear with, no eyes to see with, no legs to walk with, no mouth to speak with, etc. You have the privilege to refuse it a body, or to furnish it with one. “Evil comes to you for life; and you give it all the life it has,” says the Word of God revealed through Mrs. Eddy. Evil cannot live without a body. If you do not furnish this body to evil, do not give it eyes; ears, feet, mouth, etc. whereby it may act, then evil simply dies, disappears. Evil is nothing at all. No body. It therefore cannot supply itself with a body, or organs of a body to act with. Nothing cannot produce something; no-body cannot produce a body. If however you let in the evil suggestions, if you supply ears to hear evil, eyes to see evil, a body to act evil, then you are in trouble. Refuse a body however to evil, then to you evil or error dies, and you find yourself well. ‘

Why is this? Because God or Spirit has to have a body to live or express Himself or Itself. Everything has to be expressed, and if it is not expressed, it has no existence. You would be an odd sort if you had no body, were not expressed, would you not? You wouldn’t know that you existed, nor would anyone else know it, nor in fact would you be existent. If you were not expressed, then you simply wouldn’t be. Neither would God, Spirit, be, unless He were ex­pressed. Moreover if you refuse to express evil, refuse it a body, then the body which God made will appear. Why so? Because God, Spirit, Mind, is and always has been in expression, and this ex­pression or body or creation is no longer materially camouflaged, and error, evil, disease, or whatever it may be is no longer super­imposed upon God’s creation. Jesus saw the perfect man, who ap­peared to him where sinning mortal man appeared to mortals. Sin­ning mortal man appeared to the other fellow, because the other’s consciousness was filled with evil suggestions, while Jesus’ door of consciousness was barred securely against such, and open to Truth, or Spirit; whereupon this Spirit, or the Father within, functioning for Jesus, enabled him to see the perfect man, or perfect creation, in spite of the camouflage. Spirit, God “is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity”. The other had pro­vided a body for evil, and so he gave it all the life it had, and to him it appeared to live. This hid from him or camouflaged the real man, who was there all the while, but unseen to him who beheld the evil man or sick man. Not so however to Jesus, whose con­sciousness was filled with Spirit only, which revealed realities all about him.

Jesus said “The son of man cometh, (or the real man will ap­pear) at an hour, when ye think not.” Not when ye think, but when ye think not. For when you still the human mind, “silence the ma­terial senses” (S & H15), or refuse to think, then does this Christ-Mind arise in you, or the Spirit rests upon you; whereupon does this Christ-Mind or Father within, or the Spirit, which never be­lieves but knows, beholds the perfect man, or “the son of man cometh”.

It must be dear that when you yourself think, you must use the human mind, for it is the only thing you have at your disposal to think with; yet this human mind is nothing, or evil, coming to you to give it life; and if you yourself commence to think, you then provide a body (brains) for evil to function with, and which is the very thing you ought not to do. This is why Jesus said “Take NO thought”, and why Mrs. Eddy said to “silence the material senses”. The Spirit or Christ-Mind is not for your use, you do not direct it, but when you have this Mind in you which was also in Christ-Jesus, then this Christ-Mind directs you. Solomon said “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (Do not rely on your own thinking which is done with the human mind) In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” The Christ said: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will (not to follow the dictates of the human mind) but the will of Him that sent me.” Your thinking with the human mind is nought but a lot of suggestions, fruits of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”, or of right thinking and wrong thinking, and this tree must be cut down root and branch. This is done when and as you still the human mind, or stop your own thinking, whereupon does this Christ-Mind arise in you or the Spirit rests upon you, and guides you into harmony.

Because God is something,—not nothing like error,—God, Spirit, makes His own body, His creation, or expresses Himself. If evil is expressed you or another must express it, or furnish it a body, for evil cannot express itself. Therefore as previously stated when you refuse to express it, evil dies or disappears to you. God however expresses Himself, therefore if you refuse to let in sug­gestions of evil, there will appear to you God’s man, and which was there all the while, and when anyone turns to you or enters your consciousness, that one will see God’s man also.

Let us go back to the car again. The gas tank is now filled with pure gasoline, and this is the power which drives the engine and the car. Similarly your “think-tank” or consciousness is filled with pure Spirit; and this is the power which makes things go, you and everything in your consciousness. “ ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit’, saith the Lord”. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth (does things) the flesh profiteth nothing (the fleshly body or fleshly mind does nothing); the words I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life”.

In the tank is pure gas, all water or other impurities have been excluded, and now the gas acts. It explodes and generates the power which is delivered to the engine. It cannot generate steam, for there is no longer any water in the tank. Previously when water was there, it may have generated steam power, but being a gas engine steam power was of no use. Now however the gas according to law explodes and delivers the power.

Likewise in your consciousness there is now nought but the pure Spirit No evil is there. This Spirit, functioning under law, acts, explodes, or blesses all, delivers this power of God, Spirit, and so everything goes along harmoniously. It cannot generate evil power, for there is no evil in consciousness, and if it did so the body would not act properly with evil power any more than a gas engine with steam power. It however operates perfectly under the power of God, which the Spirit delivers and all is well

REFLECTED, NOT TRANSMITTED

“His (God’s) personality can only be reflected, not transmitted.” (S&H 517-17)

From these words it becomes evident that man does nothing of himself. God’s power is not transmitted to man, neither is God’s life, His health, His supply, His substance, His love or anything else that is His. God transmits nothing to man. Man simply reflects from God whatever he has, or is, or does; but the power, life, ac­tion, health, or whatever it may be, always inheres in God, never in man. (S&H 124/25 to 31) It is God that does everything. Man simply reflects. Man is in fact reflection—reflection of God, or God reflected. That is why Jesus, speaking from the standpoint of the man Jesus, said, “I can of myself do nothing, it is the Father that doeth the works” and ‘The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”

If you stand before the mirror and put on your hat, the mirrored reflection also puts on its hat, but it does not do so of itself, nor by its own power. The power and action are yours. You do not transmit anything to the reflection, but everything is reflected from you. This being so the reflection cannot take off its hat unless you do so, nor can it keep it on should you take it off your head; for the reflection can do nothing of itself. So long as you keep your hat on, the re­flection must do likewise. Nor does the hat on its head belong to the reflection. The hat belongs to you.

Inasmuch as man has no life of his own, no action of his own, no health, substance, or being of his own, but has these things only by reflection from God, and they are not transmitted to man, it is utterly impossible for man to manipulate these things by himself, utterly impossible for man to throw his life away, cease his normal action, or to act independently of God in any way whatsoever, to grow old, become decrepit or to die. If the things of God were trans­mitted to man, such might be possible, for the power would be in man; but this power was never transmitted to man, and ever re­mained in God, God never transmitted His power, His life, His action, His sight, hearing, speech, His health, substance, or any­thing else to man. Man has these things only by reflection; and un­less God gives up His own life, His own action, His own being, whatever it may be, neither can man do so. That God should sur­render His own life, His own love, substance or being, is prepos­terous—absolutely unthinkable.

“For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself’—in God (John 5/26).

IN MY NAME

“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works⁹ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will 1 do, that the Father may be glori­fied in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14/10 to 14).

It is evident that those words are not Jesus’ own, for he himself plainly says they are not, but they are the veritable words of the Father,—the Word of God. God is speaking through Jesus, who has dialed in to station K.O.G. (Kingdom of God) and picked up the actual Word of God, Himself, the Great Announcer, broad­casting over His universal network, operating on its own peculiar wave length, and which can be dialed into only by an instrument equipped with the Christ. Jesus was such an instrument, equipped without measure, and having dialed in, as it were, he simply re­layed the Word of God, over his loud speaker, into the ears of a listening world. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

This being the fact, “My name” is the name of God, or God’s name, Emmanuel, or God with us, and the promise reads, “If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it,” and this is so “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

How shall we ask in the name of God? It seems simple enough. The “I” is God. Your “I”, my “I”, everybody’s and everything’s “I”. Mrs. Eddy says (S & H 250), “Man is the likeness of this Ego. He is not God, the Ego,” and in the same paragraph is found “Spirit is the Ego,” and in the margin it reads “Spirit the one Ego,” and on the previous page it states “The I is Spirit,” whereas our tendency is to believe and constantly aver, that the “I” is man or the person, which Mrs. Eddy distinctly sets forth is not the fact, and repudiates the dream of mortal existence which saith “It is I” (Ibid) and on page 478/23 there is a tremendous statement which utterly denies that the “I” is man, for it reads “Error says, “1 am man,” but this belief is mortal and far from actual.” Could any­thing be plainer? Error says “I am man,” but Truth says “I am God,” “I am Spirit” In Unity of Good, page 48, we find “His creation is not the Ego, but the reflection of the Ego. The Ego is God Himself, the infinite Soul,” and in S & H (588 and 591) it says God is “the only I, or Us,” so ask “In My name,” in the name of God, Spirit, Soul, Mind, Principle, in the name of “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matt I).

If you were visibly ill-clad and poor, one noting it might say, “Go to the store and in my name ask for whatever you need, and it shall be given unto you,” and if obedient, the result is sure. God is all, has all, does all, owns all. He is the Great I AM; therefore ask in His name, “that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” and this prayer is automatically answered, and the request granted whatever it may be.

If then the “I” be God, Spirit, and this “I” asks for what it will, of whom does the Ego or “I” ask, or pray to? The “I” prays to or asks of Itself, Mind, God, or draws from its own Mind whatever it wills. To illustrate: The author of the world of Crusoe was the mind of him whom we know to be Daniel Defoe. Everything in the world of Crusoe was simply the manifest mind of the author, or was that mind made visible. All one ever saw as he read or pictured forth the tale of Crusoe was that mind which was the author and creator of the Crusoe world. That mind was the motivating power of every­thing in and of that world. Not a blade of grass grew, not a pebble lay upon the beach, not a wave broke upon the shore, the dog never barked, the rifle never cracked, the parrot never squawked, Crusoe never spoke,—nothing whatsoever happened except in the mind which was the author. This mind might have taken to itself a quo­tation often used by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health: (from an anonymous writer) …

1,1,1,1 itself, I,
The inside and outside, the what and the why,
The when and the where, the low and the high,
ALL I, I, I, I itself, I.
for never was the world of Crusoe other than the mind of the au­thor, and this mind the “I” or ego of the entire Crusoe universe.

There came a time in the history of Crusoe when he required an axe. Not that Crusoe knew it, hut the mind which was the author knew it. Crusoe could not have prayed nor asked for something he knew nothing about, but the mind of the author said “I perceive that my beloved character or son Robinson Crusoe will glorify me more if he has an axe. 1’ll give him an axe, yes I’ll give him fifty or a hundred axes, yes, I’ll give him a whole chest of tools,” and he no sooner arrived at that point than he wrote it into the book, and the thing was an accomplished fact. Where did the author get the tools from, to whom did he apply, or draw upon or pray to or ask? .To himself, to mind, the author or creator of the world of Crusoe. From mind, the author, he obtained the tools, and every­thing else. He could not, however, give to Crusoe or show forth in Crusoe’s world anything not in that mind, for after all the whole thing was only the mind of the author expressed or shown forth.

This “I” which is God, Spirit, Mind, Principle, does the same. It wrote the Book of Life, God’s autobiography, and so created the universe. “The earth is Mine and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein,” “The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine” and “The cattle upon a thousand hills are Mine.” As we read it and it is constantly before our vision, we are seeing God, Spirit, Mind, Principle,—we are looking into the Mind which is the Creator, God, the Author. It is simply God in manifestation, Mind expressed. “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” (S & H 468) This Mind draws from itself everything that is for God’s glory, and bestows it where it will. “I am the Lord, that is My name, and My glory will I not give to an­other, neither My praise to graven images; behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare, before they spring forth I tell you of them,” and “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light”. And so it has gone on, God drawing from Mind, from Himself, the Author, and bestowing same on His creation, son or man, for His (God’s) glory, “that the Father might be glorified in the Son,” until now we find ourselves in this most wonderful world—“the former things are come to pass,” but there . is much more to follow, for “new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

God says “I perceive that My beloved children will glorify Me more if I give to them health, peace, life, love, abundance, strength, beauty, color, form, etc., whatever is good, harmonious, perfect; therefore I will bestow all these things and more upon them; what­ever it may be that will bring greater glory upon Me through My creation”, and so it is. Where does God get these wonderful things from? Whom does He ask? Himself, the Author, He turns to Mind, the one Mind, the “I” or Ego, and the present is not a circumstance to what shall be. God, Mind, however, could never bestow upon His creation sickness, sin, death, war, pestilence, or other evils, be­cause they are not in His Mind. “God saw everything that He had made and behold it was very good.” (Gen I).

So we see that this “1″ or Ego prays to Itself or draws upon Itself, God, universal Mind, and it is simply manifesting Itself. “The only intelligence or substance of a thought, a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it” (S & H 508) It prays or asks out of its abundance which is the way Jesus said we should pray, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mind knows that it has available what­ever it asks for, whereas if man had a mind of his own he would be praying out of his lack for something he does not believe he has. Else why pray? Mind, God, however, asks out of His abundance and for His own glory, drawing from Mind itself and bestowing whatever it may be upon His son. “If ye ask anything in My name, I will do it”

Let us assume that we are gazing at a “movie” of the world of Crusoe. You exclaim “Crusoe has a radio!” I promptly answer “Impossible.” You dispute this and say “It must be there, I see it, hear it, recognize it. I see the wiring, the dials, the loud speaker, I even hear the announcer speaking. It is there.” “No,” I answer, “the world of Crusoe which you see is simply the mind of the au­thor disclosing itself, manifesting itself, and you are looking into the mind of the author. There is positively no radio there for it is not in that mind, so it is impossible for you to see one.” Partly con­vinced you ask “What then do I see? And why?” The truth comes, “You are only seeing the mind of the author and why you appear to see and hear the radio is because you have a self complex and you are looking through yourself, through your human mind, through your own mentality, rather than from the author’s view­point Get rid of self, or self knowledge, still the human mind, ‘silence the material senses’ (S&H 15) and you will see what is really there—the mind of the author.”

Similarly we are looking at the universe created by Mind, God. What is it? Is it something outside of God, Mind? Not at all. It is Mind revealing itself, manifesting itself, showing itself forth, and what is seen is simply Mind, God, Spirit, Soul, Principle, mani­festing itself, and we are simply looking into the Mind, God, the Author.

You may aver however “I see sickness, sin, death, evils of all sorts, war, pestilence, want, woe, etc. I feel them, taste them, smell them, hear them; my body is racked with pain, I am weak, hungry, sick, poor.” Truth answers “It is not so, there are no such things. It is utterly impossible that such be so. The universe is not some­thing apart from God, made by Him and set apart, into which the devil or anything else might surreptitiously or otherwise introduce evils. Not at all. The universe is not something apart from God, but it is God revealing Himself. ‘Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?’ (S&H 504). You are not seeing something separate from God, but are looking right into the Mind which is God, the Revelator, Creator, Author, and in that Mind there are no such things. You are claiming an impossible situation.”

“What then are they? Why do I cognize them or believe I do so?” comes back the cry. The answer comes “They are sheer illusion and have no more existence than have radios in the world of Cru­soe. They do not exist in the Mind which is God, the Author. Recollect that you are looking into the Mind of God, the Author, which is revealing itself, and because those things are not in Mind, God, you cannot possibly see such things. The reason why they appear to you, is because you have permitted yourself, your human mind, or selfishness to enter, and through that self you are peering into Mind, as Paul says ‘for now we see through a glass, darkly;’ you have therefore conjured up those imaginary evils. ‘Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Truth or Christian Science’ (S & H 410) however, and when this self or human mind is stilled the Christ will arise in you and you will see aright, or ‘face to face’, and so behold nothing but good, God. The divine Mind ‘uncontaminated by human hypotheses’ (Quarterly) will then be your viewpoint, and you will see the Mind of God, the Author, manifested, without the camouflage of materiality and human self.” “God saw every­thing that he had made and behold it was very good.” It is eternally so.

GOD IS ALL-IN-ALL

Definition of ‘‘Manifest.” To make plain to sight or understand­ing; reveal.

Definition of “Manifestation.” The act of manifesting, or mak­ing plain; a revelation.

“Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?” (S & H 504) Infinite Mind is God and there is nothing else, absolutely noth­ing else. “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am god, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 46/22) “All is in­finite Mind and its infinite manifestation (or act of manifesting or making plain to sight or understanding, or its revelation), for God is All-in-all.” —the manifestation is not so much a thing as it is an action. God is seen, beheld, or is manifest; but when God is so seen, beheld or manifest, there is no more to God, Mind, than were He not manifest. God and His manifestation must not be regarded as two, but one. Mrs. Eddy makes this so very plain, and refuses even to refer to God and His manifestation in the plural, but says “Principle and its idea is (not are) one.” (S & H 465)

To illustrate: Suppose you come into my presence. Previously you were not manifest to me. Now you are manifest, which simply means that you are cognizable, or are revealed. However now that you are in manifestation, there is no more to you than before you were manifest. When you thus appeared to me, there were not two, you and your manifestation, but one only. The manifestation was not something apart from you, not some sort of an image and like­ness which accompanied you, but it was you—in manifestation or revealed. Manifestation simply means that you are apparent or are revealed.

So it is with God. God is manifest. Were God not manifest there would be no God. But God and His manifestation have no separate being. God is, and He is manifest, or is in manifestation. He is revealed. He has always been in manifestation, and always will be. To paraphrase Mrs. Eddy “His manifestation is ever appearing and will ever continue to appear, from the nature of its inexhausti­ble source.” (S & H 507) When you appeared to me, I did not see a manifestation apart from you, but I saw you. Only one, not two. When God is seen or manifests Himself, the manifestation is not seen apart from God, but it is God—God seen, cognized or re­vealed. God says “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not; I said, Behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name.” (Isaiah 65/1) We must behold me, the I am, or God, and we must behold Him every­where. as everything, always and under whatsoever circumstances. The creation, revelation, man, whatever it is, is simply God in manifestation, but if you call it by some other name than God, it is because you do not believe that that which you behold is God, but think it to be something else, a manifestation apart from God.

If another person who knew you not were present when you ap­peared to me, he might have mistaken you to be an infamous rogue, and fearing for his safety, might have fled from your presence, thereby missing the beneficent purpose for which you came. This however would not be your fault, but solely due to his own false belief. Nevertheless although he so believed, he would have beheld you as certainly as did I. So although God is manifesting Himself at all times and under all circumstances, there are many who do not “see Him as He is” (First John 3/2) but believe they see some­thing else, something quite apart from God, good, and so miss the very benefits which are theirs for the simple asking and accepting. Nevertheless they too behold God, for there is nothing else to be­hold, though they know Him not, or as the Master put it, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him” (John 14) and if instead of asking in the name of something else, asking in the name of matter, looking for and asking in the name of manifestation, they would but ask in the name of God, the “All-in-all”, then surely God would give to them whatever might be asked of Him and without limitation of any kind. Jesus pointed this out to Philip plainly when he said “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the son; following it with, “If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it”

In the same chapter it is related that Jesus expressed the utmost surprise at Philip’s inability to behold God everywhere. Philip said “Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth us,” to which Jesus made reply “Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then ‘Shew us the Father’?” Of course when Philip saw Jesus he saw God. What else is there to see? Jesus was God manifest; everything is God manifest,—“all is in reality the mani­festation of Mind” (S&H 275) “If Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind” (Ibid, 257), and when one sees anybody or anything, he must necessarily behold God, for there is nothing else, nor ever will be. God is always manifest, always in manifesta­tion, and beside Him “there is no God” (Isaiah 44/6), “I am that I am”

THE PRESENCE OF GOD: THE I AM

A little plant was placed in the cellar for protection against the cold blasts of winter. The cellar was closed and there was little air, so the plant drooped, its leaves withered and turned brown, and it nearly died. Then spring came and it was taken from the cellar out into the abundant air, whereupon it immediately revived, and in­stead of dying, became a strong, hardy and flowering plant

We have deprived ourselves in some measure at least, for we can never do so wholly, of the presence of God. We have turned to other gods, feared or worshipped them, turned to other shrines, and glorified sickness, sin, death, and other troubles by believing in them; and by taking for granted many of the good things of the earth earthly, our “too, too solid flesh,” our straight backs, our straight legs and arms, our good eyesight, and hearing, and like and similar things, and we have failed to give God the glory and praise to which He is entitled. Thus have we turned from God and deprived ourselves of the fullness of the presence of God, with the result that like the plant, we began after a while to droop, get old, lose our natural beauty, color, form, and some of us have become invalids, and some others have even died, just as the little plant would have done if it had continued to be deprived of the necessary air.

When however, the plant turned to the good pure air of spring­tide, with its constituents of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon-dioxide, ni­tric acid, aqueous vapor, nitrogen, ozone, etc., etc., then the air bestowed all those several things upon it, and it speedily revived, put off the old withered leaves, etc., and put on the new, and very soon by its newly appearing sprouts showed signs of good health, strength, and hardiness.

Similarly when one turns to God, to the “I” or Ego, not to any person, but to the “I” which is God, Spirit, the Ego, or lets the “I” go unto the Father, he begins to put off the old man and to put on the new; and is renewed in every way, and speedily shows forth newly acquired strength, activity, health, peace, life, love, and abundance of whatever is good, which is of course the normal con­dition.

Jesus maintained this presence of God, as everyone ought to do, with the result that when anyone turned to him, they actually turned not to the personal Jesus, but to the Christ, or the actual presence of God, Spirit, which was his true “I” or Ego, and so the applicants actually were in the very presence of God, and instantaneously began to build up the drooping forms, the weakened systems, and frail bodies, etc., and so were healed. With the air, the element of. time enters into the revivification of the plant, but it is not so with the Presence of God, and the healing may be and in fact should be instantaneous. The only reason why this is not invariably so, is ow­ing to the non-maintenance of the fullness of God’s presence.

Could the air speak it might say “I am oxygen, I am hydrogen, I am nitric acid, I am aqueous vapor, I am nitrogen, and I am ozone, etc. etc., I am that I am, and I give all these things to the plant”

God speaks and says, and we must recollect that the “I” or Ego of everything and everybody, is God, and speaks through all: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the bread of life; I am the water of life; I am substance; I am faith; I am supply; I am love; I am peace; I am joy; I am mirth; I am laughter; I am health; I am beauty; I am color; I am form; I am action; I am sight; I am hearing; I am Spirit; I am Mind; I am all there is or ever will be; for I AM that I am; and it is My good pleasure to give all these things to man and the uni­verse.”

The air is everywhere, omnipresent, and you do not have to go afar to breathe it or accept it You breathe it wherever you may be. In fact you cannot breathe it where you are not, nor can anyone else breathe it for you. You must breathe the air yourself. So it is with God, omnipresent good. You do not have to go afar to receive good, but you take it wherever you are; you cannot take it where you are not; nor can another take it for you. All good is bestowed upon man and the universe individually and collectively—universally.

It may be said of the air you breathe, that it is your own air, and so is it with everybody and everything, yet it is all one omnipresent air. It may be said too of God, Spirit, that each and everything has its own God, its very own “I” or Ego, for God is entirely impartial in His bestowals to His creation; and to each and everyone and everything, God, the “I” or Ego, is present at all times and under all circumstances. “Behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” You do not go about trying to breathe the air of someone else, you do not attempt to breathe the air which is in the street outside; but you breathe the air wherever you may be. Never do you try to breathe the air of someone else, you always breathe your own. Of course air is everywhere and wherever you may be, and everyone has of it abundantly, but each breathes his own.

Similarly worship God. Do not try to worship another’s God. Worship your own. None can enter the Kingdom of God vicari­ously. Do not be someone else. Be your own self. God is your true selfhood, your own, your very own Ego. True He is everybody’s Ego, for He is universal as well as individual. If you behold an­other breathing dear air, you know perfectly well that it is avail­able to you also. If Jesus, Enoch, Elijah, and maybe John, attained the Kingdom of God without passing through the experience of death, so may we, so may anyone, but none may do it vicariously. Each must take the position of the “I”. Not that the person is God, not at all, but the “I” Is God, and this “I” or Ego is present at all times and under all circumstances. “Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” “I will never leave thee and I will never forsake thee.” You breathe your own air and not another’s, nor can anyone else breathe for you; yet we all breathe the one air, and we all worship the one infinite God. Worship then your own God, and not another’s, nor expect another to worship for you. Nor do you have to go elsewhere to worship God, for He is “nearer than hands or feet” “This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It Is not In heaven that thou shouldest say, ^“Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it?’ neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may bear it, and do it?’ but the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it”

All that is good constitutes God. Faith is a constituent of God, so is understanding, so are love, life, health, peace, substance, intelligence, supply, action, sight, hearing, beauty, color, form, etc., etc. They constitute God just as nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, nitric acid, aqueous vapor, ozone, etc., constitute air, or H2O constitute water. As the air gives freely of all the things of which it is constituted to the plant, to the world and all that is therein, and withholds noth­ing, so God, the “1″ or Ego in which all things ‘live and move and have their being” gives to man whatever God has to give and with­holds nothing.

Sometimes we hear it said “I am unable to receive the things of God. This is an utterly absurd statement One cannot avoid re­ceiving the good of God any more than the little plant can fail to receive the ingredients of the air, for they are both constituted to receive each its own. The little plant was not changed that it might receive the air and its constituents. It was simply its very own self. It was made to receive the air. When therefore it was placed in the air, immediately it began to function as was intended, and as we come into the presence of God, we too begin to function as is nat­ural, and to take in the constituents of God.

A little boy was ill. His mother telephoned for assistance. The one applied to said “You have not turned to this personality, for he of himself can do nothing, but you have turned to God, and so you are in the very presence of God. Your boy is like the little plant, and as the plant revived in the air, became strong, hardy, and flowered, so your boy in the presence of God will become well, strong, hardy and blossom forth into health and strength.” Next morning the mother telephoned that the boy was all right but she added she had kept him from school. Why? was asked. She replied “I kept him home to read, study the lesson, and work and pray. The other answered “Did the little plant have to do so? Study, work, read? Or was its fervent prayer, just being its own self, or living the Truth? Very well then let the boy be just himself and go to school where he belongs—let him live the Truth. Such is true prayer.”

Does this mean that like the plant we shall not read, study or pray? Not at all. The plant is always just itself, whereas unfortu­nately we have been educated to be other than just ourselves. So we read, study, and pray in order that we may understand how to conduct ourselves properly, or that we may lead evangelical lives, for “the human self must be evangelized” (S&H 254) and as this is done, we are just ourselves, and to be just oneself or to live the life of the Christ as exemplified by Jesus, is true living and true living is prayer—constant prayer.

The plant does not get the air from the other plants. It takes the air and its constituents directly from the air itself. So man receives everything directly from God. We perceive this readily enough with life, health, etc., but when it comes to supply, or love, curi­ously enough we look to people and things and away from God ex­pecting to receive elsewhere than from God. Thus doing we become limited and dependent; but if we look to God directly for our sup­ply and love, our supply of both will be unlimited, and we shall be independent of others, and since God is infinite substance and supply, and infinite Love, we shall receive naturally sufficient for all our requirements and happiness.

A PARALLEL

“Hello there! A penny for your thoughts. Why the merriment? What’s puzzling you?” With these words a friendly slap on the hack. I look up quickly and say “Oh it is you, is it? You startled me. I was thinking. I had a queer thing happen to me a few mo­ments ago and I was puzzling over it. I went into the offices of our mutual friend Jones and found him crouched under his desk, in a most uncomfortable cramped position and evidently greatly dis­turbed about something, so I said to him ‘Jones, what in the world are you doing there?’ He replied ‘Oh I’m in great trouble. The law of gravitation has ceased to operate for me, and I am in immediate danger of flying up into space.’

“To this I answered ‘Why, Jones, that’s sheer nonsense. Here, give me your hand and let me help you out’, at the same time stretching out my hand toward him.

“Jones said ‘Don’t touch me. I know what I am talking about. The law of gravitation has departed from me and I am in the greatest danger. Were it not for this friendly desk of mine I already would be floating about in space.’

“I protested ‘What nonsense you are talking. Gravitation could no more cease to operate for you, than the sun could cease to shine. Come out’, and with that I took him by the wrist and with a strong pull on his resisting body, I had him out and standing on his feet again. Of course he didn’t fly off into space and instantly found the law of gravitation was working for him as for all of us, whereupon he went back to his work and was perfectly normal.

“As for me, I went on my way, puzzling over the oddity of the thing, and wondering how a man could have such queer notions, and I was in fact so oblivious of anything else that I didn’t even see or hear you until you slapped me on the back.”

Then you lock arms and go your way to a common destination, chatting over the queerness of the incident.

Let us go back now to Capernaum, some nineteen hundred years ago. Down the street strides one who is a man in every sense of the word. He is bronzed, bearded, burned by the sun and the wind; he is tall and broad shouldered, blue eyed and fair withal; dean cut and looks as though lie could swing an axe, cast a net, or run, jump or ride with the best. His dress, well, it doesn’t matter, for his in­conspicuous garments cannot conceal his innate distinction,—it is Jesus the Nazarene. Around his lips plays a curious little puzzled smile as though he were trying to fathom something which so far has evidently eluded him. He is so engrossed that he is startled by a hand on his shoulder and a voice which says “A penny for your thoughts? What is puzzling you? You seemed amused.”

At this point he looks up, then laughs quietly and says “Oh Phil! It’s you. A queer thing happened just now and I was pondering over it”

Philip answered “Yes, what was it Jesus? Tell me about it” Jesus went on, “Well, I was walking along at a good pace in­tending to meet you and the others, when as I approached Jairus” place, I heard sounds of grief and crying coming evidently from within. You know where Jairus lives of course, Philip? Everyone about here knows the place. The house, standing back from the roadway, surrounded by the iron fence with the great bronze gates which permit the passerby to look within at the broad lawns, with its statuary and flowers—you know it I am sure—well as I ap­proached I heard people weeping and wailing as though something terrible had happened. When I came to the gates themselves I stopped, looked through and called out ‘What’s the matter?’ At that there was a stillness for a moment and then a voice answered and said ‘Oh sir a terrible thing has happened. The law of God, the law of Life, has departed from our master’s little daughter, and she lies within, dead.’

Philip interjected “What did you say to that?” Philip knew the Master so well through daily association with him that he sensed something wonderful had occurred, and was impatient to get to it, whatever it might be.

Jesus replied “Oh, I said to the man who had spoken, ‘Why that’s impossible. The law of God or the law of Life could no more depart from your master’s daughter or from anyone else, than could a stone thrown into the air fail to return to earth. That is quite im­possible. The maid is not dead but sleeps.’ ”

Philip said, “What then, Master?”

Jesus went on again, “Well Philip that is one of the odd things about it all. They simply jeered at that statement, laughed me to scorn. What I had said was to them evidently ridiculous. In spite of their evident grief they simply laughed at me.”

“Then”, said Philip, breathlessly, “what then?”

Jesus said, “Then I went in through the gates. You know I know Jairus quite well, so I pushed the gates open, walked through the’ group of servants gathered about, went into the patio, and sure enough there was Jairus, sitting with his wife, on a great stone bench—his arm about her shoulders, supporting her. She was cry­ing softly and Jairus’ eyes too were filled with tears. They both looked up as they heard my footfall, and I asked ‘What’s the mat­ter, Jairus? Why are you so sorrowful?’

“Jairus answered me, ‘Oh, Jesus, a fearful thing has happened. My little girl. The law of God, the law of Life has departed from her, and she lies there in the next room dead!’

“I said in reply, ‘Why, Jairus, that is utterly impossible. The laws of God, the laws of Life could no more depart from your little daughter, than could a stone thrown into the air fail to return to the ground. It is impossible, I tell you. Your little daughter is not dead at all, she is only sleeping.’

“Philip,” Jesus went on, “if you had seen Jairus’ face when I said that to him, you hardly would have known what to say or think. Such crass ignorance of spiritual law from one who seemed to be so learned! And on top of it all, he gave me a sort of com­miserating wan smile as much as to say ‘Why man, don’t you think that I know when a person is dead rather than asleep,’ but at the same time he said aloud, ‘Man, if you can do anything to help us, do it, but see for yourself, there in the room to the left, lies my little daughter, dead.’ And he turned to his wife and held her a little closer than before.”

By this time Philip was in a tense sort of excitement and said to Jesus “Oh Master, you are so deliberate. What happened then?”

Jesus went on, “Well, then I went into the room to which he re­ferred and sure. enough there was the little girl stretched upon a marble couch, a wonderful piece of doth of gold over her, hiding her face, and one little white hand sticking outside the rich brocade covering. I pulled down the cloth from her face and looked at her. Sweet little thing, a little girl about twelve years of age, cold and still, stark and white, like marble.’ Evidently she too believed that the laws of Life had departed from her. Poor little child It seemed so strange that anyone could thus foolishly believe.”

Philip interjected here again, “What then? What then?”

Jesus replied, “Then I began to talk to her. Told her that the de­parture of the laws of God or the laws of Life was utterly impos­sible, not only in regard to herself but for anyone. I told her that God was her life, that her life depended on God and not on matter at all, or on her heart or her heart action; in fact I told her that her heart and her heart action depended on her life, which was God. I said everything that came to me to waken her, but it was no use, there she lay, motionless, cold, white and stark—apparently dead.” “And then ?” questioned Philip.

“Well, seeing that it was impossible to make her hear, and that she paid not the slightest attention to what I was saying, I took hold of her hand and pulling her into a sitting position, supporting her at the same time with my arm about her shoulders, said ‘Now my young lady, get up’ or ‘Damsel, I say unto thee arise’ or something like that, and then of course she opened her eyes, sat up alone, saw me, (I know her, you know) smiled a little, and pulling the clothes about her modestly, she slid off the couch and stood erect. I sup­ported her a little for a moment, then led her out to her father and mother and said to them ‘She’ll be all right now. Give her some­thing to eat,’ and handed her into her mother’s arms. Philip! You should have seen her father and mother! You would have laughed if it hadn’t been something you just couldn’t associate with merri­ment They acted any way but such as you might expect of the dignified Jairus and his more dignified and stately wife. She actually tried to embrace me, and so did Jairus. They discarded all thoughts of stateliness and dignity. They were just Jairus and his wife, a father and mother. He stood there holding my hands as though loath to let me go, and dear knows what they would have done had they not been primarily interested in their little daughter, now standing there with her color back and looking the picture of health and strength. Finally I managed to break away and went out into the grounds—and then my troubles really began. The servants who knew of it almost instantly of course, threw flowers in my pathway, bowed down to me as though I were God Himself, kissed the hem of my clothes, began to sing hosannas, praise the Lord, and then tried to lift me up on their shoulders, but finally I got away from them and started down the street to keep my appointment with you. When you met me I was so preoccupied thinking over what had happened and how odd it is that people can bring themselves to think that the laws of God could depart from them even for a mo­ment, that I didn’t see you at all, until you tapped me on the shoulder.”

So then Jesus and Philip strode together arm in arm down the street, talking over the strangeness of it all, that people could get so far away from the truth of God as ever to believe that the law of Life, the law of God, could depart from this world or even for an instant cease to be law.

THE POOL OF BETHESDA

‘There is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, ‘Wilt thou be made whole?’ The impotent man answered him ‘Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool; but while I am coming another steppeth down before me.’ Jesus saith unto him ‘Rise, take up thy bed and walk.’ And immedi­ately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked.”

From the words of the Bible as related above it might well ap­pear that this remarkable healing took place at the Pool of Beth­esda and possibly it did so, but wherever this healing occurred, the writer is convinced that this story is garbled in the translation, or by reason of it having been passed for many years from one to another by word of mouth the true import of the tale is hidden, until now when through the study of the Bible under the light of Christian Science the true version of what happened on that occa­sion shows forth.

After some thirty odd years of dose study by the writer it ap­pears to him that Jesus was using the Pool of Bethesda as an illus­tration to make plain to the afflicted man who evidently needed the healing so sorely, that his troubles were wholly mental, false be­liefs manifested on the body.

To glimpse just what Jesus intended to be brought out in his con­versation and in his illustration, let the reader transplant himself to Jerusalem, and become an interested onlooker of this Christ healing which is about to occur, and listen carefully to what is being said. Jesus is speaking to the impotent man. He has been telling him that disease is not physical but mental, a false belief superimposed on the body, but evidently has not been able to make the point dear to him. So he turns to an illustration to make it so. Jesus as we all know was an adept in the use of parables and illus­trations, in fact he taught by this means almost exclusively, and when understood they become priceless.

The following is the substance of Jesus’ teaching on that mem­orable occasion:

Jesus said, You know the Pool of Bethesda, do you not?”

The man answered: “Yes indeed. I’ve lived all my life up to this time here in Jerusalem. I remember when I was a boy I used to play about this pool and swim in it. In those days the pool was dean and sweet, but now since they put the sheep market along­side it, the water isn’t fit for anything.”

Jesus said, “You have answered me just as I would have had you answer me. I couldn’t have done it better if I had put the very words into your mouth. That pool is just like your own conscious­ness. As the pool was sweet and clean in your young days before the town spread itself out and the sheep market was established be­side it, causing it to become contaminated with all sorts of uncleanness, so your consciousness was sweet and dean in your young days, until through evil associates and by reason of partaking of the common things of the world, it too became unclean, befouled with many evils, and ultimately with sickness, poverty and perhaps other troubles.”

Jesus continued: “You will recollect that the pool has five porches. So also this mentality of yours has five physical senses. Due to the spillway being in the middle of those five porches there was naturally a slight current there which drew all the unclean mat­ter into the midst of those five porches; and so similarly into these five senses are drawn all disease, sin, death, poverty, and other troubles, and they are to be found nowhere else. To make it plainer —sin, disease, death and other evils have no existence whatsoever save only in those five physical senses wherein they lodge, for noth­ing else has cognizance of them.”

Jesus followed this with: “Once in so often there came a heavy rain or the spring freshet, and when this occurred the water came bubbling into the pool from the springs beneath, and caused it to overflow its banks. Then the water rushed through the five porches and over the spillway carrying out the refuse and accumulated dirt which had collected within those five porches and finally the pool became sweet and dean and pure as in its pristine days. So, my son, the Christ comes into your consciousness and when it does so it dispels the false beliefs, or evil thoughts, with their accompany­ing evils of sin, sickness, death, poverty, and such like, and they are carried away, leaving your consciousness dean and pure as it should be.” During this conversation the man himself is listening, straining every nerve, as it were, to grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words, praying with mingled doubt and hope that a healing might be brought about even though for thirty-eight years he had failed to improve. Jesus went on: “This is the way in which the pool is cleansed and when this is accomplished anyone may bathe or swim in its waters, and would be cleansed of no matter what kind of. grime or dirt might have accumulated on the body, and in the same manner when consciousness is cleansed of human thinking, and spiritual consciousness obtains, then anyone coming into that spirit­ual consciousness will be healed of whatsoever disease he may have, or whatsoever trouble may be his. Surely, he went on, it must be plain to you, that just as in the pool when the water becomes dean and purified anyone may bathe therein and be made dean of no matter what may have been the contaminating agent, so when the pure water of the river of Life, or spiritual consciousness has taken the place of the foul waters of mortal mind, one who steps therein will certainly be cleansed of whatsoever disease or other trouble he may have had.”

When Jesus had finished using this illustration it became evident to him that the man had grasped the point and saw at least to some degree what he was trying to set forth, and acting on this assump­tion he said to him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Even though the man apparently saw what Jesus meant, nevertheless his hopelessness shows forth, as evidenced by his reply, and in marked con­trast we see the glory of God as shewn forth through Jesus. The man answered “Sir I have no man—no spiritual or true sense of man as he really is, spiritual, perfect, whole, harmonious in every way, as the son of God—when the water is troubled—when my con­sciousness is in a state of trouble and confusion—to put me into the pool—to lift me into that spiritual consciousness of which you have spoken and made so dear to me—but while I am coming—while I am endeavoring to get that vision of the real and true man as harmonious and perfect—another steppeth down before me—this false sense of man as a mere mortal, sick, sinning, dying, impotent and utterly helpless, steps into the pool, or enters my consciousness and leaves me quite helpless.”

Jesus said in effect, “Well my son, because I have that Mind which was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and because therefore no false sense of man can obtain in that Mind, I say, and when I say “I” I mean it is God, Spirit, the only “I” which is speaking, for Mind alone speaks and acts,— therefore I, Mind, say “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.”

And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked.

FAITH

“When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no ma­terial suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and de­stroying error.” (S&H 368)

This faith however has nothing to do with the so-called faith of the human mind. Paul says, “Ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves (not of the human mind), it is the gift of God.” It is the faith referred to in Hebrews 11, thus: “Faith is the sub­stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” and “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Think of it! Faith —the actual substance of the thing as yet only hoped for, the actual evidence of the thing as yet unseen. Is it not wonderful! For ages we have believed faith to be anything but substance, for we have believed substance to be something ponderous, having length, breadth, and thickness, such as gold, silver, and other matter; whereas matter is not substance at all. “Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay.” (S&H 468) and matter does not fulfill those conditions; while faith which is of God does so; but we have divorced faith from substance as a result of our false belief as set forth. As a matter of fact the actual substance of the thing which we behold as matter by way of our limited sense is just as much Mind, Spirit, God, as is faith which is truly sub­stance. Substance is God. If therefore God is substance, and faith is substance, then faith is God.

The so-called faith of the human mind is evanescent, “here to­day and gone tomorrow,” but faith which is of God is “the same yes- day, and today, and forever.” True faith is a constituent of God, just as H2O are constituents of water, indeed they are water. All the constituents of God constitute God, and without any one of those constituents there would be no God, even as if one part of hydro­gen were abstracted from water, there would be no water.

The Wright brothers had faith, but not the so-called faith of the human mind. Had their faith been that of the human mind it could not have stood up against the onslaughts made upon them, the ridi­cule heaped upon them, the foolishness and impossibility of attain­ing the goal, etc., but they had the true faith which is of God. Paul speaks of it as “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” which is the same to which Jesus referred when he said to the woman who had suffered with hemorrhages for twelve years, and was now healed, ‘Thy faith hath made thee whole.” This kind of faith cannot he overthrown. It is the actual substance of the thing hoped for, and which we perceive today as an airship, and throughout its entire development and evolution. It is the actual evidence of the thing not yet seen. David sang of it thus: “Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonder­fully made; marvelous are Thy works; and that my Soul (the actual presence of God) knoweth right well My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were writ­ten, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139) So with the airship. It was their faith-substance coming into visibility; it was the embodiment of “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

These brothers lived this faith. They loved it, worshipped it, glorified it, and it dominated their whole existence. It was their God. Thus .they fulfilled the decree laid down by Moses: ^<<Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.” Thus did their faith grow, and as a consequence the airship began to take form, becoming visible to the world,—“the Word was made flesh”—and soon there was more than a mere hope,—an airship that could be flown! True at its trial at Kitty Hawk, it flew only a few feet, but it flew, and there it was, a flying machine, indicating that man has dominion in the air.

The same faith was the substance of the formed airship, even as it was the substance of the mere hope before it was formed. It con­tinued to evolve, and became more serviceable and practical. This faith which was substance was coming into visibility, or was being substantiated. The Father which seeth in secret was rewarding them openly. This faith substantiated itself. As when one enters a pool of water he becomes saturated, or partakes of H2O. The water sub­stantiates itself, or wets him. The person does not do it So when one comes into the presence of God, including faith, he becomes healed, just as in water he becomes wet; and as water cleanses, cools, and sweetens the body, so this presence of God makes him well, strong, healthy, alive, happy, and so forth. It is however the presence of God which heals, and never the person.

So people began to fly in the airships, at first timorously, then fearlessly, then with no thought of danger; the insurance companies regarded them as ordinary risks, and so on until today we have the wonderful airships which are so familiar to us all; and the day is not far off when any person of ordinary intelligence will be able to manage them, take off, fly or land. Moreover the substance of the thing itself has never changed nor ever will, for the substance of it is faith, a constituent of God, and so unchangeable; it is the “sub­stance of the thing hoped for,”—the airship in all its evolutions from the mere hope to the primitive machine, and thence to its present achievement

How does one attain this faith? By letting that Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” be in him; by letting go and letting God. One makes of his consciousness a “sanctuary of Spirit” (S & H 15) by closing the door of his consciousness against all human thoughts and opinions and fears, the doctrines and theories of men, and all the preconceived imaginations of the human mind, including so-called faith. This door being closed to evils, it is open to the things of God, and so into this consciousness enters the Christ or the actual presence of God, and takes up its abode therein, and with it comes true faith. It comes not with the struggles and strivings of the human mind, hut by “the unlabored motion of the divine energy” (S&H 445), and when this faith is come, it remains forever, never leaving us nor forsaking us, and constantly shows itself forth in infinite blessings, or this faith substantiates itself. “Whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (First John 5/4)

The faith which can conceive a thing is proof or evidence that the fulfillment of the thing conceived is possible of achievement, yea, it is a foregone conclusion. “The devotion of thought to an .honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith” (S&H 199).

“BY HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST

God is the Creator of the universe, the Author of the Book of Life. Whatsoever there is of this world and all that dwells therein, whatsoever is described or set forth in this hook, is but the Mind, God, the Author expressing or manifesting Himself. He who reads this Book of Life is simply looking into the Mind which wrote the book. It is God’s autobiography. We are reading it every moment and every day turns a page.

Without Mind, the Author, nothing happens, nothing is, for Mind is all. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” said the Christ “By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell.” (S & H 191) Whatever goes on, it is always the Author, Mind, doing it God is not the “I have that I have;” God is the “I AM that I AM.” To have, is to possess. If one possesses something it is conceivable that he might be dispossessed of it To “am” is to be,—to be oneself, and it is inconceivable that one could be dispossessed or separated from himself.

Water is H2O. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. It does not have H2O, it is H2O. Your finger is a finger. It does not have a finger. If water possessed hydrogen and oxygen, it is conceivable that it might lose H2O, but it is H2O, therefore, H2O or any part thereof cannot be taken from water, for were this done there would be no water.

God too is constituted of whatever it may be, or as Paul says “by Him all things consist” He is constituted of Life, Love, Truth, sub­stance, intelligence, peace, harmony, health, sight, hearing, action, etc., etc., so they exist and coexist with God and are inseparable from Him, because they are His very being, and God cannot be separated from Himself. If this were done, if any of these con­stituents were separated from God, there would be no God.

So God is the 1 am that I am, the 1 am of everything that is, and all is good and is Spirit, and eternally so. Always it is God acting. God speaking or acting through or as being His characters, and things. God was speaking as being Jesus when he said “Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world” and again when he said “I will come and heal him.” Moreover Jesus said so him­self: “I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak,” and “When ye have lifted up the son of man (that is when you have sanctified your consciousness to Spirit, or made of your consciousness a sanctuary of Spirit) then shall ye know that I am. he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things,” and “My doctrine (or teaching) is not mine but His that sent me. H any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine (teaching), whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.” It was God, the Author, speaking as being Jesus.

As in the tale of Robinson Crusoe. Whatever went on in the world of Crusoe, it was always the author, the mind which wrote the tale, doing whatever it might be. Always the author which spoke, or acted. It was the author which said as being Crusoe “1 shall rescue Friday from the cannibals.” It was the author acting as the cannibals whatever they did, it was the author as being Friday who kneeled in gratitude to Crusoe; if the dog barked, the parrot squawked, the stars twinkled, the sun shone, the waves beat upon the shore, whatever it was that went on in that world of Crusoe it was always the author doing it, or expressing himself, or acting through, of by means of, or as being the ideas in and of the mind which wrote the book. All was the author, mind, and never anything else.

When one read the book or viewed the filmed product, that one was always looking into the mind which wrote the book. That mind was the “I am that I am” of the entire Crusoe world. “I am Crusoe, I am the dog, I am the twinkling of the stars, the shining of the sun, I am whatever there is or goes on, I am that I am.” That mind, the author, did not have those things, those things were the very mind, or the author. Those very ideas constituted the mind which wrote the book, and they can never be separated from the author.

Likewise God expresses Himself through or by means of and as being His ideas. He is the “I am that I am,” the I am of everything in the world. I am Life, I am Love, I am Truth, I am intelligence, I am beauty, color, form, I am the trees, the flowers, the grass, the wheat, the barley, I am the water, the mountains, the valleys and hills, I am man and beast,—S & H says “the serpent of God’s creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charm­ing in its adroitness, for Love’s ideas are subject to the Mind which forms them …” (page 515)—I am the stars and their twinkling, I am the moon and the sun, I am sight, I am hearing; I am action, I am eternality, I am joy, I am mirth, I AM laughter, I AM supply, I AM everything no matter what, I AM Spirit, I AM Mind, I AM Prin­ciple, I AM THAT I AM.”

To the one who reads the book of Life, because he looks through his mentality befouled with matter beliefs, he may see “as through a glass, darkly” and perceive these spiritual ideas of God, Spirit, Mind, as material, sick, sinning, and dying, but this does not make them so, for never are they aught but the I am, the Author, Mind, and since we are peering into this Mind, which is of “purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look upon iniquity,” right there where the evil appears to be, there is Mind expressing itself through its perfect ideas.

Jesus knew this. “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals (not to him, but to the other with the befouled mentality). In this per­fect man the Savior saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” (S&H 476) He knew the person didn’t do things of himself. He knew that God spoke and acted through His ideas. He knew that the Author, God, spoke and acted through him, or as being Jesus, just as the author of the Crusoe world spoke as being Crusoe, Friday, or the cannibals.

Jesus came to tell us this very thing. To show the “I am that I am.” He saw as Moses before him saw “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” and even as Moses to whom the “I am that I am” was revealed, tried to point this out to the world, so Jesus did the same. It was as though Crusoe’s author beheld Crusoe strutting about in the Crusoe world, as Cowper said:

I am monarch of all I survey My right there is none to dispute From the centre right down to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Oh Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? rd rather dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place…

and the author said to himself that he must correct Crusoe’s vivid imagination in thus thinking that he operated independently of the author, so we shall say he introduces into the story a character, a servant who appears on the island and tells Crusoe the facts, that he is but an idea or character in a book called Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe refuses to so believe and disposes of the servant after cruelly ill treating him. Then the author sends his son and heir, be­lieving that Crusoe will honor him, but no, him they kill and de­stroy. Then the author says “I will go myself, and show Crusoe the truth,” and so one day Daniel Defoe steps onto the island and meeting Crusoe, the following imaginary conversation takes place. Crusoe says:

“Why where did you come from?”

Defoe says: “Oh I just put myself into the story.”

Crusoe replies: “Who are you, anyway?”

Defoe answers: “Oh, I’m the one who made you and everything else around here. I am all there is. I am you, I am Friday, the cannibals, everything. I killed the cannibals and rescued Friday from them, I am the creator of whatever is in your world.” Crusoe says: “Ridiculous! So you made me, did you? I suppose I wasn’t born in England where my parents live now. Don’t be a fool!”

Defoe says: “I am not. I made you, made your father and mother too, I made you all, you were never born of a woman, and no one or anything in this world acts without me to make them do so, in fact when they act or do anything, it is I the author who is doing it all through them, my ideas.”

Now this is the very thing which happened in this world of ours. You will find it so recorded in the Bible in Luke 20, verses nine to eighteen. God having discerned the folly of mankind as set forth as quoted from Genesis by Moses, first sent His prophets to tell us that God is the “I am that I am.” Moses caught the Word directly from God, Himself, and he relayed the Word to the world, but exceedingly few caught it Then came the prophets, but very few believed them although we have the record of their endeavor. From time to time through past ages He sent others, but with little favor­able result, for they stoned them, killed them and rejected them. Then did God send His only begotten son, the heir, and him we crucified, killed and rejected also. Then God said, “What shall I do now? I know what I shall do, I will come Myself,” and so He has. The I AM that I am is here, speaking as being His characters at times, other times speaking directly into consciousness. He came directly to Mrs. Eddy, and she gave the message to the world. God is speaking now and says “I am that I am.”

As Jesus knew that it was God speaking and acting through His ideas, and as he spoke and acted knowing that it was “the Father within” as he called Him, so today there are many who are recognizing this to be the fact and are living an evangelical life and let­ting “the Father within,” the very Christ, speak and act as being him or her. Truly “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the comer.”

“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”

I Cor. 15:47.

THE TEMPLE OF GOD

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (First Cor 3/16); and “Ye are the tem­ple of the living God; as God hath said ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’ ” (Second Cor 6/16); and “What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (First Cor 6/19).

Study your Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scrip­tures regularly and constantly. They certify to your entrance into the Kingdom of God, for they are the guide books, compiled by those who have been there .before you, and who have placed on record the things of the Kingdom of God as they have observed them and experienced them. Then when you, travelling the road which they have already traversed, are aware of the fact that they have seen and experienced the very things which you are now be­holding and experiencing, it will be evident to you that you too have attained the Kingdom of God, for you are actually seeing and experiencing the things which serve to identify the Kingdom of God.

Continue to praise and glorify God, and to cultivate the giving of thanks to the Father at all times, until it becomes a habit, and thus you will find that your body is the temple of the living God, and He will speak in you, walk in you, and act in you, and “the Spirit of God dwell in you.” .

Your body is the temple of the English language, and of the principle of mathematics, consequently you are a linguist and a mathematician. When the writer was a young man he was known to his friends as “the personification of ‘hope springs eternal in the human breast/ ” Why? Because he expressed hope, lived hope, talked hope, was ever hopeful—he embodied hope, or his body was the temple of hope. Likewise do you embody or personify mathe­matics and language. You may not be an Einstein nor a Shakespeare, but you are nevertheless a linguist and a mathematician; and so is anyone who has grasped the fundamentals of language and mathematics. This however does not prohibit others from being the same, nor limit the unlimited mathematics or language, neither does it put the unlimited into the limited. Not at all. Anyone may be a temple of mathematics or of language, and have as much of each as he will, while there remains abundance for others.

You are the temple of the living God. You embody God. You personify God. Everyone and everything does so in some measure. Jesus embodied God without measure. You may not be Jesus, but because Jesus did so and without measure, it is evident that it is possible for anyone to do so, and so he said.

How is this accomplished?

How did you become a linguist or a mathematician? How did you embody or personify those things? How did your body become the temple of language or mathematics? By constantly turning to them, by living them, working in them, playing in them, by con­stant iteration and reiteration and re-reiteration of them. Then after a while you knew the fundamentals “by heart” as we say, a something deeper and more lasting than mere memory. You knew them unthoughtfully, without taking thought Jesus said, Take no thought… for your body.”

If you are a good linguist or a good mathematician the words and figures and combinations of words and figures flow easily and unthinkingly, automatically fitting themselves or being fitted into the frame-work of the subject matter whatever it may be, or into the problem of mathematics whatever it is. You have become the temple of mathematics or of language; you are personifying them, embodying them, they have actually become a part of your being, and are as readily available to you as other parts of your body, your fingers and toes, your legs and arms, and other members and organs. You do not think consciously about how to use your legs and arms when you walk or run; and if one does so, one soon finds that he loses the perfect synchronization which he ought to have. It is the same with other organs of the body, they act unthinkingly and normally, and if one thinks about them, they act abnormally, and trouble ensues. All the members and organs of the body perform their different functions unthoughtfully and in perfect co­ordination, and do whatever they have to do in order to carry out the purpose to which end they were set in motion.

This being so, become the temple of the living God similarly. Turn constantly to God, thank Him, love Him, glorify Him, obey Him, talk Him, eat Him, drink Him, etc., etc. Said the Christ “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” (John 6/56). “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel… ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.’ ” (Jeremiah 7) and in Deuter­onomy 6 Moses decreed “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart (know them by heart) and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates,” and then even as your body has become the temple of mathematics and of the English language, or as you have personified those things, so shall your body become the temple of the Holy Ghost, the temple of the living God, and you will personify those just as did Jesus, the Great Master, and God will walk in you, talk in you, and “The Spirit of God dwell in you.”

STATION K.O.G.

In the very place where we are at this moment, are voices, music, and other sounds. This is common knowledge ever since the radio has come into such general use. If, however, we would know what they are, and listen to what is going on, we must dial in to them. We are perfectly well aware of these mundane things, but how many of us are willing to believe that the Word of God is here too, and may be heard as plainly as that of the earth earthly, but it is just as necessary that it be dialed into. “The Soul-inspired patri­archs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.” (S&H 308)

The great radio experts have told us many times that since the beginning of the world, every sound uttered is travelling along some wave length, and will continue to do so as long as the world persists; and they have also told us that if we should dial into the particular wave lengths on which these sounds are travelling, we could hear them as uttered. We could hear Moses, Isaiah, the prophets, and we could hear Jesus, and we would hear them just as we hear the announcers over the air today, their actual words.

Now Jesus said, “I have not spoken of myself, but my Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak”; again he said, “The words I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” Plainly then it was God speaking as being Jesus. Just as it was the author of the book speaking as being Robinson Crusoe. If therefore we should dial into that wave length over which Jesus was broadcasting, it must be evident that we should be listening to “the Father within,” or to God Himself, even as those who were within earshot, just as when we read something that Crusoe says, are we hearing the author speak. ,

We have no trouble dialing into the mundane stations, but few even try to dial in to the spiritual station, K.O.G. the Kingdom of God. This station is on the air all the time, and the Great An­nouncer, God Himself, is broadcasting His Word. Station K.O.G. operates on its own peculiar wave length, but may be dialed into by any person or instrument which is equipped with the Christ, and it may be said that everybody is so equipped, for this is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The trouble lies in that few use the Christ equipment with which they may dial in. It is as though one had one of those newer instruments sold everywhere now. They are equipped to operate on either a short or a long wave. The long wave dials us into the stations with which we are quite familiar, while the short waves dial us into far distant stations, England, Germany, Russia, Java, Australia, etc., but so long as we stay dialed into the long waves we are not able to dial those stations operating on the short waves. To dial into the short waves, we must first dial out of the long wave range. This done we automatically find ourselves dialed into the short waves. We cannot possibly dial into the short waves, so long as we keep dialed into the long waves; cannot be dialed into stations in and around New York, and at the same time hear Java, or Australia. Neither can we dial into the mundane stations and even expect to hear station K.O.G. at the same time. We must constantly turn away from the material and turn to the spiritual.

Jesus and the old prophets were instruments equipped with the Christ, and they constantly dialed in to Station K.O.G., and they said so over and over again with their “The Word of the Lord came unto me, saying •..” and “Thus saith the Lord.” They never claimed that what they said emanated from themselves or out of their human mind or intellect. Neither did Mrs. Eddy so claim, but constantly deplored any such in unmeasured terms; while Jesus specifically time after time said he spoke not of himself, but that the Words he uttered were of the Father, God; he said “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” All these turned away from the material and turned to God, dialed out of the earth earthly, and dialed into the spiritual. We can all do the same, and we must do so.

Isaiah was an instrument equipped with the Christ. He was a good radio. He dialed into station K.O.G. and picked up the broadcast of God, Himself, relaying it over his loud speaker thus: ‘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 brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap­tives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year, of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn, 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.”

Had Isaiah said these words out of his human mind, beautiful and euphonious as they are, they would have had no healing quality whatsoever; not any more than the words of Macaulay; but they were really and truly the veritable Word of God, broadcast from station K.O.G., and dialed into by Isaiah, picked up by him and relayed over his loud speaker into the world; they carried the power of God with them, for “the Word of God is quick and power­ful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4/12) Therefore the healing went on.

Years afterwards Jesus used the same words. Meanwhile they had been bandied about by priest and rabbi, and others, with rarely any effect, because they had not dialed in, but had merely memo­rized them, or read them from the scriptures. When however Jesus “stood up for to read,” in the synagogue and uttered those words, they were not mere words which he had read or memorized, else would they have been as void of power to heal or save, as when the scribes and Pharisees spoke them; but Jesus had dialed in to the same old wave length into which Isaiah had dialed before him, and they were the actual Word of God, which he was relaying into the world over his loud speaker, and so again they carried with them the omnipotence of God, and he was able to say ^4<This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears,” and again the healing went on.

This was in fact why the scribes and Pharisees were so bitter against him and sought his destruction. He healed, for the Word which he spoke carried the power of God. The words had of them­selves no efficacy or power to heal or save, but Jesus had dialed in and so they were the actual Word of God, and he was simply relay­ing them over his loud speaker, for he himself had no more to do with the words he uttered, than has a radio to do with the words or music which is relayed over its loud-speaker. Moreover he said so over and over again. The scribes and Pharisees could not or would not dial in, and therefore their words were simply words, mere words voiced by them, perhaps from memory, or read from the scriptures. They were the same as an “electrical transcription,’⁹ and so were powerless, just as the “electrical transcription” is not the actual voice of whatever is relayed into the world. Consequently the word spoken by these people had no power, whereas the very same words, relayed by Jesus over his loud speaker, were the veritable Word of God, hence the healing and salvation resulting therefrom. No wonder they were angered at Jesus.

Years went by, the words were used time and time again, in prayer, declamations, in every way that could be thought of, ex­cept that the speakers were not dialed in, and were, as it were, mere “electrical transcriptions.” Honest men, holy men, priests, minis­ters, and rabbis, said the words, but the healing was never in the words themselves. They must be dialed into. So the tragedy of it all was that after a while the teachers, those in authority, taught the world, seekers after Truth, that the healing power of God as mani­fested through Jesus the Christ ended with his dispensation, and was only for that period, until eventually hardly anyone believed that it was for this day and age and for all time.

Then came Mrs. Eddy. She was another instrument well equipped with the Christ. She dialed in again, used those very same words in part as did Isaiah and Jesus, and you will find them in the very pref­ace of Science and Health, so once again the healing went on. Dialed into, those words carried the very power of God. If they and her other writings had been the emanations of Mrs. Eddy’s own men­tality, they would have been as powerless to heal or save as the words of Shakespeare; beautiful they might be, and even this has been disputed by the scribes and Pharisees of today, but had they been simply the product of the human mind, they would have been utterly worthless so far as healing is concerned. They were not her words however, and she never claimed them to be so, but she had dialed into station K.O.G., picked up the wave length peculiar to that station, and once again was relaying over her loud speaker, the actual Word of God. In fact Mrs. Eddy says this over and over again. She took no credit to herself as the author of the textbook, but says that she was but a scribe under orders who wrote down that which God dictated to her, that they were not of her human mind at all, and that no human mind or pen ever wrote them. She simply claimed that she received them by revelation from God, and for this reason that she did so, and for no other, does the healing go on.

Thousands of others have tried to heal by repeating the words in Mrs. Eddy’s writings, just as others have tried the same by repeat­ing the words of the Bible; they have said over “the scientific state­ment of being,” or other statements of Truth, but unless they have dialed in they might as well say “Eenie, meeny, miney, mo” and expect to heal. Dial in however to that same old wave length into which Isaiah, the prophets, and Jesus and Mrs. Eddy dialed, and self being out of the way, for self turns the Word instantly into an “electrical transcription,” the Word of God will be picked up and may be relayed over your loud speaker, and that Word will carry the power of God, and healing and salvation will be the result

The writer has dialed in many times, and one of his experiences follows as an instance of the practicality of Christian Science. He was sent to China in 1903 to be Assistant Manager of the Interna­tional Banking Corporation at Shanghai. He was appointed by the N. Y. Directors. At the same time the General Manager, an English­man, thoroughly equipped with the knowledge of eastern banking and exchange methods, had appointed another, an Englishman, named Tweed, to the same post. Tweed was thoroughly versed in buying and selling foreign exchange in the east The writer was considered rather a promising young banker in the U.S.A., and was a fairly good exchange man, but he was a mere babe in the hands of the eastern exchange men. He had been accustomed to deal in quarters, eighths, and sixteenths, but these men worked in thirty-seconds, sixty-fourths, and even in one hundred and twenty-eighths, and in large transactions might even split that So the writer sat on one side of a great table, while Tweed sat on the other and did practically all the work. It was a most uncomfortable posi­tion. Moreover the General Manager, named Lee, saw to it that the staff knew the writer’s knowledge of eastern exchange methods was practically nil.

One day the writer was called into Lee’s private office and told to make a transfer of taels from Shanghai into lakhs of rupees in Singapore, let him know the cost in dollars (Mexican dollars are used in China for currency) and what was the best rate to be given. The writer reached out for the tables of exchange, but the G. M. said “Oh no! Do it yourself. Every man dealing in exchange can do that” So the Writer went to his desk and attempted to carry out instructions. He was never much of a mathematician, bankers sel­dom are, but he tackled the job. Shortly afterwards he took an an­swer into the General Manager, who looked at it, smiled knowingly, and threw it into the waste basket, remarking simply that it was wrong. Several times this was done, but with the same response, to the amusement of the entire staff, which evidently knew all about it.

Finally they all went out together to the Shanghai Club and to tiffin, leaving the writer alone in the offices, save only for the Chi­nese clerks. Then as he sat at his desk, he turned to God and said, “Father show me how to do this thing. I have intelligence, for the great I AM is my intelligence, and I have no other. This Mind is the only Mind. Tell me therefore, Father, how to work this thing out” Then he waited patiently and expectantly and God spoke to him and spoke to him in the most extraordinary manner in effect as follows, utterly beyond the possibility of the human mind: “Write”. So the writer took up pencil and paper, and the voice went on, “Put down the transportation charges from Shanghai to Singapore, interest during transit, compradore charges, tellers charges, cost of boxes, cost of boxing, coolies charges to ship and from ship, etc., etc.” and similar charges at the other end, and gave the amounts of each—a most necessary thing for the writer certainly knew none of them—and when he had written these all down whatever they were, he added them up, made the necessary calculations, simple enough now, and laid the answer on the G. M.’s desk. Then he too went to tiffin.

When he returned the entire staff was gathered about Lee’s desk, and a great pow-wow was going on, but when they saw him come in, they all went to their several desks looking rather puzzled. The answer was correct, but the writer always felt that he was suspected of having used the exchange table while they were at tiffin.

God is Love. This love is shewn to the human race in that there is given to us a way out of every difficulty or trouble which may seem to beset us, and the way out is by taking refuge within the ark of spiritual consciousness, that place of safety which God first shewed to Noah, whereupon he builded the ark and sought for and found safety therein for himself and all those who would enter therein with him.

Although from an historical standpoint doubtless Noah builded an ark of gopher wood, the story is symbolical of the building of the ark of spiritual consciousness which each must do for himself, and in it find perfect safety under any and all circumstances.

The manner of building this ark is set forth quite plainly in the chapters of Genesis which deal with Noah’s ark. Under the light of Christian Science we are able to construct the true ark of spiritual consciousness. First there is to be laid the keel of purity, (S & H 241) “the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity;” then there must be builded in the great ribs of gentleness, tenderness, kindness, politeness, courtesy, good nature, good temper, good sense, good humor, good taste, good cheer, joy, mirth, laughter, gratitude, generosity, patience, contentment, constancy, affection, faithfulness, consideration, tolerance, love and such like, and then we must sheathe it with the great timbers of courage. These things done, we must “pitch it within and without” or (Ibid 392) “Stand porter at the door of thought” so that no error of any kind may enter into this ark of spiritual consciousness. There must necessar­ily be a window in the ark through which we may always have an uninterrupted view upwards, and a door through which we may enter in, to close out the undesirable and let in the desirable.

Having thus builded the ark, we must seek shelter within against coming storms, and invite all those who will to come in with us, or as the story relates, we must bring all the animals into the ark. It must be evident to the veriest novice in Christian Science that one cannot bring animal qualities and characteristics and attributes into spiritual consciousness, therefore this means that we must re­fuse to permit the entrance into this ark of the animal qualities, etc., which present themselves to us in the personality of those who enter our consciousness, and bring them in as spiritual ideas. For instance if there appears to us an enemy sinuous, mean, venomous, one whose forked tongue stings and bites at the slightest provoca­tion, a veritable snake, we must replace that seeming with a “wise idea, charming in its adroitness” (Ibid 515) or as Jesus did “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sin­ning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Savior saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” (Ibid 476) So when we bring the animals into our ark of spiritual consciousness, we must bring them in as spiritual ideas, and leave without the ark all the evil and animal qualities, charac­teristics and attributes which have seemed to be a part of them.

Then we are all in perfect safety within the ark and though the 6torm without rages, the winds blow and the rains fall, the waters of mortal mind grow deeper and deeper, the waves beat against the ark, and we are threatened with the danger of being engulfed, we shall safely ride out the storm and finally the waters will sub­side, the rain cease to fall, the winds and waves become calm again, and we shall hear the grinding of the keel on Mount Ararat, which is the highest point in the Kingdom of God which we have as yet attained.

At this point of our experience we open the window, and im­mediately there flies out that old croaker, the raven, that bird of ill omen of which Poe sang “Quoth the raven, nevermore!”, that black bird which has been sitting on our shoulder and whispering in our ear, that there is no hope, our case is hopeless, we can never be healed, and such like; this tempter flies out of the window and away and is never more seen. Then we send forth the dove which flies forth looking for universal peace, the ground on which to set its foot, but the waters have not sufficiently subsided, and so it re­turns to us. Then later on we send it forth again, and though it re­turns again, indicating that it has not yet found a resting place, yet it bears in its beak an olive leaf which denotes that it has found signs of the coming of that universal peace which is so much to be desired. Then after a further period of time we send forth the dove again, and this time she never returns, which makes plain to us that she has finally found this resting place of universal peace and har­mony, whereupon we open the door of the ark and go out into all the world and preach the gospel and heal the sick, and become fruitful and multiply the earth with spiritual ideas.

Many years ago, over thirty, the writer was one of those animals wandering about in a material universe sick, dying, and dissipated. He sought the assistance of an old gentleman who had builded his ark of spiritual consciousness, and he invited him into it. He re­fused however to have anything whatsoever to do with those bits of evil baggage with which the writer was then burdened. The invited guest staggered up the steep gang-plank burdened with those things, only to be met with the request to leave them behind or throw them overboard or do with them whatever he would, save only one thing, he might not bring them with him into the ark of spiritual con­sciousness, the door of which stood open for him to enter if he would. So after a struggle he threw them overboard and they must have floated off into the sea, for having entered this ark, the writer never saw them again. He was perfectly healed. It is true that it took some several months from the time he stepped on the gang-plank with his worse than useless baggage, before he was wholly freed from its burden, but first the desire for strong drink went by the board, this however instantly, smoking went next, and then the pain and suffering and finally the claim of disease itself; but surely and certainly as he entered the portals of that ark of spiritual conscious­ness, he found himself alive, well, dean, and healed.

Since then he has been busy building his own ark of spiritual consciousness. Many times he has slipped and fallen, many times he has hammered his thumbs and fingers when in a slipshod way he has undertaken to install a new-old rib, but never has he lost the courage with which to sheathe the outside, and today he is con­scious of the fact that, as far as he has gone, he has builded well, and though at times the storm beats hard against the sides of the ark, he and those with him are safe.

A ratchet is an attachment to a machine, a jack, we shall say, whereby when the handle of the jack is moved in a certain way, it just goes, click, click, click, and nothing happens; hut move the handle the other way, and the cog of the ratchet takes hold, and as the handle is moved, the jack lifts the car or does whatever is re­quired of it.

Christian Science is like that ratchet. It is effectual when prop­erly applied, but if improperly, it simply goes click, click, click and nothing is accomplished other than the result of human faith or blind belief. Properly applied however, the power which is God’s, is irresistible. “He uttered His voice and the earth melted.” Nothing can stand against it. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures states on pages 410/23 “The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no misuse.”

The next sentence is as follows: “Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Truth or Christian Science.” When self or selfish­ness does appear in the practice of Truth or C. S., the ratchet is being used the wrong way, and so it just goes click, click, click, with no result whatsoever; but get self out of it so that selfishness does not appear, and the power of God itself is present with its positive efficiency to bless, heal, and save, and nothing can with­stand this power of God, even if it be necessary in the course of fulfillment to make the sun stand still, as in Joshua’s time, or as in Moses’ time, to cause the Red Sea to part and save the Children of Israel, while conversely by the return of the waters to their natural state, the Egyptians were destroyed.

Self enters or appears whenever you yourself try to do something —when you yourself try to realize or “know the Truth,” try to “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true” (S & H 261) or to do other similar things. To this challenge some­one says “Surely the Bible and textbook tell us to do those very things?” They do indeed, but these things are not to be done by the human self, by the person, hut rather are done for the person. When you yourself try to realize or “know the Truth” or make the attempt yourself to “Hold thought steadfastly, etc.,” you are en­deavoring to accomplish the impossible, for you are using the hu­man mind in your attempt to do so. The human mind and its think­ing is the only thing which you or any other person can work with to do anything. The moment a person tries to “know the Truth,” “Hold thought steadfastly” or other like things, he uses the human mind, for were it the Christ Mind, the one Mind, that Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus,” it would use or direct the person, rather than the person do the directing; but whenever the person endeavors to do whatever it may be, he uses the human mind. It is impossible for him to do otherwise. Thus has self or selfishness appeared, and so this attempt to heal, or save, results simply in click, click, click, and nothing happens. The human mind cannot “Hold thought steadfastly” to anything, much less spiritual things, it cannot “know the Truth” or realize it, for even if it does seem to do so for a time, yet the next moment it is just as liable to reverse itself and do just the opposite and believe the error or “Hold thought stead­fastly” to something utterly opposed to “the enduring, the good, and the true.” We have all experienced this trait of the human mind, and should know there is no continuity whatsoever in the human mind, indeed if there were, it would be the true Mind, and not the human.

The fundamental of Jesus’ teachings was the allness of God, and as a necessary consequence the very basis of his work was “deny yourself.” So instead of trying with the human mind to “know the Truth,” etc., which is an utter impossibility, we must let this mind fall into innocuous desuetude—harmless disuse,— we must “si­lence the material senses” (S & H 15), still the human mind, or as Jesus said “Take no thought” (not take right thought, for that in­stantly injects the human mind again) we must stop trying of our­selves to do something of ourselves, or as the Master said “deny self,” for surely if Jesus said “Of myself I can do nothing” (mean­ing by “self” the person, with the human mind) it must be evident that neither we nor another person can assist God, for he said “the Father within, he doeth the work.” Then just to the degree that one is able to accomplish the stilling of the human mind or “silence the material senses,” he has rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb in his consciousness wherein the Christ, the actual presence of God, has lain dormant or buried deep beneath the debris of human mind thinking, and then does the Christ, the actual presence of God, arise and bless him, and this Mind which was the Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus,” becomes his Mind. Then this Mind “knows the Truth,” realizes it, “Hold(s) thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true,” but this Mind does these things for the person, for it is done by the volition of the Christ Mind and not by the person himself with the human mind. Indeed this Mind, the one Mind, could not do anything else, for thus does it function according to Principle.

Self is eliminated. No longer do we ourselves strive interminably to direct things by human mind endeavor, but instead “the unlabored motion of the divine energy” (S&H 445) operates for him who really does “let go and let God.” The definition of “right” in any dictionary is “in opposition to wrong” or “opposed to wrong,” so it at once becomes evident that God, the one Mind, or the Christ Mind cannot think right, for it can never think in opposition to wrong, because it has no conscious­ness of an opposite, for “God is All-in-all” (S & H 468). God’s thoughts are not right, they are perfect. Right thinking is always done by a person and with the human mind; indeed the only devil there is, is this human mind; it is “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” or better translated “the mind of right and wrong think­ing” and therefore it must be cut down root and branch. Right thinking will never produce or promote the Christ, but the advent of the Christ into consciousness or Christian Science will promote or produce right thinking in the human race and in the world itself, and right doing also. Right thinking is where self enters or appears, and so the ratchet simply goes click, click, click, with no result; but the advent of the Christ into consciousness which is true Chris­tian Science, produces or promotes right thinking and right action. —which is healing and salvation. This is corroborated by the next sentence of the previous quotation on page 410, “If mental prac­tice is abused or is used in any way except to promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal mentally will diminish, un­til the practioner’s healing ability is wholly lost.”

To grow seedless oranges the parent tree is bent over to the ground and the top is bedded in the earth. In due course it takes root, and then the newly rooted and growing top is disconnected from the parent tree by cutting it off. From this new tree comes the seedless orange.

If we would cease to produce the seeds of fear, anxiety, worry, sickness, sin, death, poverty, old age, lack, accidents and other evils, we too must disconnect ourselves from the parent tree of be­lieving that we are born of human parents.

When we first learned the fundamentals of Christian Science, or gleaned some exact knowledge of the Christ, for that is precisely what Christian Science means—exact knowledge of the Christ—we discovered that we were born, not of woman, but of God, that God was our Father-Mother, and so we did not have a human parentage. Thus were we rooted in the soil of God and not of the earth earthly; furthermore we then commenced to grow just the opposite way from which we had been growing, and brought forth spiritual fruit With­out the seeds of earthly error, instead of growing from the material, and continuing down the line of ancestry bearing the seeds of dis­cord of every kind.

However the great majority of us, although we have become rooted in the consciousness of the Christ, have generally failed to disconnect ourselves from the old parent vine by cutting ourselves wholly away from it, and continue to claim our ancestral rights and privileges, ancestral lands, national traits, long pedigrees, titles, honors of our forebears, and what is called “the glorious past,” all of which is of course exceedingly pleasant; but unfortunately— or perhaps fortunately—when we thus claim that glorious heritage, we find that we must produce the seeds of sin, disease, death, pov­erty, pain, suffering and other evils; and we shall continue to do this until the time comes when we are willing to wholly disconnect ourselves by cutting ourselves off from human parentage, and assume our rightful heritage as the sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

According to Biblical records when someone and another be­came rooted in the Christ consciousness and so perceived they were the sons of God, having “neither birth nor death” (S & H 244), they did a very practical thing in order to cut themselves off from their belief of human parentage, and forthwith forsook their par­ental name and adopted a new name, signifying in some measure their newly awakened consciousness. “To him that overcometh,) will I give to eat of the hidden manna (life, health, peace, love, abundance, happiness, etc.) and will give him a white stone (the white Christ. M. W. 124) and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Rev. 2/17). Abram became Abraham; Sarai, Sarah; Jacob, Israel; and Saul, Paul; while “Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer af­fliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season;” and the son of Zacharias instead of being called after his father as was the natural custom, was given the then unusual name of John. Jesus gave to James and John, the name Boanerges, meaning sons of thunder, and to Simon the name Peter, meaning a rock, while to himself was given the name Jesus, meaning Savior, instead of as would have been customary, a family name. If further evidence of this were required, his reply to those who told him of the presence of his mother and brothers without, would be of itself sufficient. Jesus said “Who is my mother? and who are my breth­ren?” and stretching out his hand toward his disciples, continued, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

It may not be practical in this day and age to make a change of name in the endeavor to cut ourselves off from the seed-producing human father-hood and mother-hood. Probably it is quite unneces­sary to do so, but certainly it is necessary for us to do so mentally, and to claim our rights and press our claim that man is the son of God, governed by the one Mind, and drawing from that one Mind whatever is righteous and good, which is the product of the Kingdom of God, wherein “we live, and move, and have our being,” and in the soil of which we are firmly rooted. Moreover we must act accordingly or live it Thus we too shall be “priests of the Most High God,.. • Kings of righteousness and peace, without father, without mother, with­out descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God… a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb 7).

Do you recollect the first time you ever tried to ride a bicycle? And what happened? When you saw an obstacle, we shall term it a brick, you wobbled right into it and tumbled. Afterwards however having learned meanwhile how to ride, if you saw a brick in the road, you passed by it safely and arrived at your destination with­out mishap. In all probability though, you are quite unaware that both of these experiences were in obedience to a spiritual law which all obey. This is the law: “we go where we watch.” Spiritual law operates everywhere, in both the spiritual and material realms; whereas, material laws operate only in the material realm, and are ever subservient to spiritual laws. In the first instance when you sighted the brick, because you were afraid of it, or for some other reason, you watched the brick, and in absolute obedience to this simple spiritual law, you rode straight into it and so tumbled. Afterwards having mastered the art of riding a wheel, when you saw the brick, instead of watching it, you watched the good road alongside of the brick, and so because “we go where we watch,” you followed the good road and passed the obstacle without trouble.

No matter what one does, he obeys this unvarying law. Drive a car, walk, sail or row a boat, plough a field, do what you will— you must watch the goal, or you will never attain it except by the merest chance, and everyone knows that in golf, if one would hit the ball, he must follow the first instruction, “Keep your eye on the ball.”

Jesus of Nazareth certainly knew all about this spiritual law for he told us about it Knowing well that “we go where we watch” he said “What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.” Then having thus broadly told us to watch, he proceeded in unmistakable lan­guage to tell us just what not to watch and what to watch. He warned us against the bricks in the road which we would see as we travelled through life’s experiences, and pointed out the good road to be followed.

Warning us against the bricks to be avoided he said “Take no thought for your life” … or to return to the vernacular, he said: “Don’t watch your life, don’t watch what you eat, don’t watch what you drink, don’t watch your body, nor what you put on your body, and do not watch tomorrow”—the future, for well he knew that if we did so, we would render ourselves liable to run into those bricks and so fall into difficulties called sickness, sin, death, poverty and other troubles.

Having thus made it so plain what we should avoid watching, he pointed out in equally unmistakable language the good road which we should watch and so follow. Said he: ‘This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” It must be perfectly apparent to anyone, that it is not living when one is sick, poor, wretched, unhappy, half dead, homeless and weak. To be thus situated is to eke out a mere exist­ence. To live, one must be well, strong, healthy, prosperous, and happy. Jesus of course knew this as certainly as we do, so when he said those words he meant to set forth:—“If you wish to be well, strong, healthy, prosperous and happy,—if you would really live and keep right on living eternally, then watch God or good, and Christ or the real man” and he might have added for it is true, that if anyone does this, according to this spiritual law “we go where we watch,” he will run into those things and surely bring them into his experience, here and now.

Prove this for yourself. Look on the positive side, not on the negative; on the good side, not on the evil; on the healthy side, not on the sickly; on the side of abundance, not on the side of lack; on the side of joy, mirth and laughter, not on the side of sorrow, gloom and seriousness; on peace, not pain; on love, not hate; on the spirit­ual and not on the material, and so sure as the heavens are above the earth, you will lose sight of the bricks in the road, and pass along the good road of the Kingdom of Heaven—the evils will surely disappear, and you will behold the good coming into your experience and will really live.

(S & H 264):

“Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk •. •” Could aught be plainer?

Illustrative of this. A man named H. S. Whitehair of Kew Gar­dens, New York, a big chap standing well over six feet, was crippled as the result of an accident, his spine dislocated or broken, necessitating the wearing of a thirty pound steel and leather belt or casing, and had been wearing it for some four or five years. He was incapacitated more or less, couldn’t play golf, had to be assisted into cars, etc.

This man had been watching the bricks—his body, the surgeons and doctors of every possible cult helping him, spending great sums of money also. Finally hopeless and supposedly incurable, some several years ago, he drifted into the offices of a practitioner of Christian Science and started to tell his tale of woe to him. The practitioner after a very little of it, said that he didn’t care to hear about his troubles, that ‘‘he didn’t want to know what was the mat­ter, but he did want to know what was the Spirit” and that if he did this, he, Whitehair would be healed. He then talked with him, pointed out the foregoing in effect, and dismissed him. This was in June, 1932. That night or the next day the belt was discarded, and since that time, he has been perfectly healed. About a year after this he had occasion to go to Philadelphia to look over the roof on the new post office. He with others of his associates went over on a Sunday, and the building not being finished, was without elevator service. This required that they walk up and down twelve stories. Whitehair did this without any difficulty whatsoever, a feat which indicates his perfect healing. And so now, about five years after­wards, his healing is evidently permanent

TALENTS

There was a man trudging along a road in the country. It was a cold morning, he had come a long way and he was tired. He was hungry and thought he would like some soup. He had nothing to make soup with and no money to buy any. Most people would have told an hard luck story, begged, borrowed or stolen, but this man had been taught to use his talents. So he began to take stock, saying “What have I in my house?” He had nothing except a tin bucket in one hand and a kit in the other. As he thus surmised he noticed a brook, and said “Ah there’s some nice cool water, I’ll fill the bucket. And there beside the stream is plenty of small wood, and I have some matches, so I’ll make a fire and hang the pot over it, and start the soup anyway.” No sooner said than done. Then from the kit he produced pepper and salt, and shaking some into the pot he sat down by the fire and started to stir the contents with a long spoon from the kit.

A man seeing the fire and being attracted to it because of the chill morning stopped his cart and came over, and warming his hands before the flame, passed the time of day and looking into the pot said, “What are you making there?” The other answered, “Why I’m making some soup.” The newcomer laughed and said, “You can’t make soup that way.” “No”, came the reply good-naturedly, “I thought soup couldn’t be made any other way.” The new arrival said, ‘That’s right too. I didn’t mean exactly that. I meant that you need soup bones and vegetables to make soup with.” The soup-maker replied, “Yes, I knew that, but you see I had no soup bones and no vegetables to make the soup with, neither had I the money to buy them, so since I am one who believes in using his talents, I looked about to see what I had to start with. I had my bucket, then I saw the brook with the nice clear water, and filled the bucket Then I saw the small wood, and I had the matches, so I made the fire, slung the bucket over it, got some pepper and salt from my kit, and—well here we are.”

The man laughed and said, “That’s a new one on me, and sounds all right I’ve just returned from market and happen to have in my cart a lot of soup bones and I’ll be glad to get at least sufficient to make a bucket of soup,” and so he returned to his cart, and in a few moments the soup bones were in the pot The two sat down and chatted. Just then another man attracted by the fire, stopped his wagon and came over, and warming his hands, looked into the pot and said after wishing them the top o’ the morning, “What are you doing there?” The man of talents said, “Why, we are making soup.” The new arrival said, “You can’t make soup without vegetables.” “No”, said the other, “I know that, but I had no vegetables nor soup bones either a moment ago, but having been trained to use my talents, I started the soup with what I had, namely the tin bucket, water from the stream, and some small wood for the fire, then this chap came along and supplied the bones, and that’s as far as we have gotten.” The last arrival said, That’s pretty good. Well, I’ll supply the vegetables. I’ve just started on my way to market with a load of them, and enough to make a pail of soup will never be missed.” So he trotted back to his wagon and in a moment reappeared with onions, beets, beans, car­rots, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., and in another moment they were simmering in the pot.

As the soup-maker stirred, others came by, and seeing the fire, stopped and sat about and chatted until finally when the soup, a fine savory mess, was ready, there were forty odd sitting about the fire and everyone had a large bowl of soup.

Now the whole point of this story is that as a result of the man using his talents, over forty were well and bountifully fed, includ­ing the talent man himself, whereas if he had been like the great majority of people in a similar situation, he would have begged, borrowed, told an hard luck story or maybe stolen, in order to get something to eat, and probably fared badly into the bargain, but as it was, he was not only able to have a full meal for himself but was able to feed many more.

Jesus told a story about this very business of using the talents, the point of which, simple though it is, is generally lost It appears that an householder called his three servants and entrusting them with certain talents, to one five, to another two, and to another one, required them to put those talents to use and in time he would re­turn and demand an accounting. In due course he did so and the first said that he had doubled his and now where he had but five he had ten, to which the master replied, “Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” To the next who similarly reported that the two talents entrusted to him had been used and had been doubled, the master replied to him exactly as to the other with ten talents. Then came the one entrusted with one talent who said in effect that he knew his master to be an hard man, and so fearing he might lose the one talent he had wrapped it in a napkin and buried it in the ground for safe keeping, and now he had it to return to him. To this the master said, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents, for unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

And so it is.

Angels are not human beings with feathered wings. They are messages from God. One of these messages was delivered to the Children of Israel by Moses (Deut. 6:4 to 9) as follows: “Hear Oh Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy chil­dren, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.

Moses knew whereof he spake. He well knew the difficulties ex­perienced in remembering to “love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might,” so he did the very practical thing—told them to have reminders of one kind or another which should serve to turn their thoughts to God. When we desire to recollect something it is a common thing to place in the mirror a card with that which we wish to remember written thereon, that we may see it the first thing upon arising. We know too how prone we are to become accustomed to that memorandum and fail to observe it if it is left there indefinitely. Moses knew this also, and he told the Children of Israel to do several things so that if one failed to produce the desired result another might do it. To this . end he instructed them to write the foregoing commands on the doorposts of their houses, and on their gates, so that they might see them when they passed in or out. Then knowing that these re­minders would be passed by mechanically after a while, he sug­gested other ways to remind them, and said, teach them diligently to thy children; talk of them in thine house; when thou walkest by the way; and when thou risest up, and when thou sittest down; wear them as frontlets before thine eyes—phylacteries, they were called—and then having done all these things faithfully, he said as a grand finale, bind them about thine hand, by which no doubt he meant that the Children of Israel should use that age-old custom of tying a string around the finger, for people did that as a re­minder in those days just as we do it today.

Who has not in childhood’s days heard mother say: “When you come home after school be sure and bring home a pound of tea.” Then after a short pause she would add, “Wait a moment. Give me your finger.” Then she tied a red string about the finger, remark­ing as she packed us off to school, “Now you won’t forget”

A curious thing then occurred. Every time you caught sight of the red string, instead of thinking about the string, its color, its material, texture, etc., you thought of a pound of tea. On the way to school when one of the boys caught sight of it and said, “What’s the red string for?” you replied, “Oh, mother told me to bring home a pound of tea,” whereupon he and all the other children who heard the reply, whenever they caught sight of the red string on your finger, would think, not of the string, but of a pound of tea. It was the same with the teacher. When she caught sight of the string, though maybe in the middle of some important teaching, she stopped abruptly and asked, “What is the string for?” And having received the stereotyped reply, she too immediately thought not of the string but of the pound of tea. Even today in this world of commercialism, if you were negotiating a loan of untold amount and were sitting about the board table of the greatest financial in­stitution in the world, with all the directors present and vitally in­terested, and with the chairman speaking oracularly about the busi­ness in hand, if he should suddenly catch sight of the red string tied about your finger, he would pause in his speech and say, “What’s the string for?” And when he had been informed that it was to remind you to take home a pound of tea, he and his con­ferees would smile and then each one of them, as and when he saw the red string from time to time, would not think at all about the string itself, but would instantly think about a pound of tea. As one ponders over this homely incident, it certainly seems an odd thing that one should look at one thing and think of another quite unlike it.

So Moses, fully aware of what has been set forth, commanded the Children of Israel to tie a string about the finger which should serve to act as a reminder to turn their thoughts to God, or, as the very words of Moses expressed it, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might”

It is to be noted that when we returned home with the pound of tea, mother took from the finger the red string as being of no fur­ther use, for its mission had been fulfilled, and) likewise when we have turned our thoughts to God, the red string which we shall speak of directly will be taken from us as having fulfilled its pur­pose.

Each one of us today, when faced with a problem, be it sickness, sin, death, poverty or what not, has no need of a red string to be tied about our finger to remind us of God, for the problem itself is the red string, or the reminder. It has appeared for the sole purpose of turning thought to God. It is a reminder and nothing else. It is presented to consciousness solely because we have permitted our­selves to forget to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and might We have turned from Spirit, Mind, God, wherein we ‘‘live and move and have our being” and entertained the belief that we live and move and have our being in matter, and so must reap the consequences of the false belief so long as we continue to entertain it

The tendency is to dwell on the trouble whatever it may appear to be, and which is the red string, and examine it, forgetting the pound of tea altogether—forgetting to love the Lord thy God with all the heart and soul and might If, however, instead of examining the problem, we regard this trouble of whatever nature it may be, as a red string, a simple reminder to turn to God, thus dwelling on the true, spiritual and real, it will not be long before the trouble will betake itself off and disappear just as the red string was taken off when its mission had been fulfilled.

Years ago the writer had a number of red strings about his finger in the form of troubles of one kind or another. He was dissipated to a degree, sick in body and soul, and given up by his physicians to die. He smoked, also to great excess. He spent a large time watching his troubles, the red strings. So did his doctors, but with no beneficial results. Instead of growing better he grew worse. Finally he went to a true follower of the Christ, and obedient to the instructions given, he ceased dwelling on his troubles, began to take no thought for his body, and simply used those troubles or red strings as reminders to turn his thoughts to God.

As he did this he became better and better until finally he was wholly healed in every way, and since that time, thirty odd years ago, he has been in the main, healthy, happy, strong and prosper­ous.

There was a great naturalist, who had lived most of his life in the quietness and fastnesses of the forests, amid streams and rivers, trees, brush, mountains, valleys, and their inhabitants the birds, fishes and animals. In course of time certain affairs brought him to New York, and while there, a number of his admirers seized upon the opportunity to show their appreciation of his work by tendering him a dinner which was served in one of the great dining rooms of New York’s greatest hostelry. The dinner, from a culinary viewpoint, was a work of art, and from any standpoint was a great success, but it was quite easily noticed that the guest of honor was not at ease amid the music, the noise inside and outside of the hotel, the hustle and bustle of the waiters as they moved about, and the rattle of dishes, for it was a far cry from the stillness of the forest home which he loved so much. Then suddenly his face brightened, and amid all this noisy noise, drawing to him the attention of every­one at the table, he said, “Oh listen to the cricket?” For a moment his hosts sat quite silent, for none of them believed that the chirp of a cricket could be heard where there was so much noise, even if such a thing as a cricket might be present They uttered mild pro­tests, then laughed a bit and told him he was “seeing things.” How­ever, the guest insisted that what he said was true and after a mo­ment more of good natured banter he excused himself for a moment, left the table, walked over to the other side of the room, located the cricket in the wainscoting by the window, and taking out a pocket knife, pried the boards slightly apart and produced the cricket which he bore back to the table with evident delight In the face of this proof there was nothing more to be said, and now instead of making fun of him as before, they waxed fulsome in praise of him who had been able to do that which to them seemed to be quite a marvelous thing.

This very modest man, after enduring the praise for some time and deploring it, said, “Why that is nothing. You see I have been living in the midst of these little fellows and other denizens of the woods, and have become so accustomed to their voices and sounds that I can detect them where perhaps others cannot, but because I have thus cultivated my senses it doesn’t follow that yours have not been equally cultivated though doubtless not in exactly the same way, and I shall prove this to you. I have cultivated my senses in one way, all of you in another way, but both equally so though along different lines,—mine along the lines of such as you have seen and yours along commercial lines. Now watch me.” At this point he took from his pocket a silver quarter and spinning it in the air let it fall upon the marble floor and at the ring of the metal nearly all in the room turned their heads to see who had dropped the coin. He had proved his point. As the naturalist had trained his senses so that he was able to hear the cricket, so the others had trained theirs so they readily detected the ring of the coin.

Taking this incident as an example, it may be seen readily that we must train our senses spiritually if we would glimpse the things of Spirit and the spiritual kingdom, and this may be done even though the distractions of the material world are pestering us and disturbing us more or less constantly.

David sang, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.” Job said, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth Thee.” Jesus was aware of the sweet aroma of Spirit. He felt the presence of God. He heard the voice of God saying, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Paul too heard the word, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” The Bible records many instances of the voice of God to the prophets who said “Thus saith the Lord …” or “The word of the Lord came unto me say­ing . . .” so and so. David sang, “He (God) restoreth my soul” (spiritual sense), and when God or Mind restores our spiritual sense, we hear, feel, taste, see, smell, and are conscious of the King­dom of God and the things therein.

This cultivating of the spiritual senses was stressed by Jesus in no mincing words, for he referred to it as “the one thing needful.” The occasion was when he was visiting at the home of his friend Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha, it is related, was “dull of hearing,” while Mary was open minded. The latter was sitting at the feet of her friend and counsellor, Jesus, listening to him as he spoke of the Kingdom of God and the things thereof. Mary was not only cultivating her spiritual sense of hearing as she listened intently to what he said, but without any doubt of success­ful contradiction she was trying to feel the presence of God, fairly tasting of His goodness, and endeavoring to see through spiritual sense those things of the spiritual kingdom of which the Master was talking so convincingly. At this point Martha broke in and said, “Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” Whereupon Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” This then would seem to be conclusive evidence that the cultivation of the spiritual senses was the “one thing needful,” for surely that was what Mary was doing and this occurrence can lend itself to no other interpreta­tion.

Preeminently this is what Jesus had marked ability to do. He cultivated his spiritual senses. He cultivated them at the expense of what we are pleased to call the material senses, which in fact are not senses at all, but non-senses, and just to the degree that the spiritual senses govern, they replace the so-called material senses. As he perceived the things of the spiritual universe the material sense of things disappeared. Jesus acted from the standpoint of the spiritual, or viewed things from the standpoint of God, Mind. He taught that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him.” So from that viewpoint of God, or Spirit, there were no dead, no sick, no storm, no want, no trouble. This was Jesus’ viewpoint and where others believed they saw death stalking about, Jesus saw life. Where those who failed to use their spiritual senses saw a storm, Jesus with his spiritual senses saw peace. He saw health where others believed sickness was present, and where the others saw hunger facing them, Jesus saw a great abundance of what was needed, and so he was able to say, “Peace be still,” “Sit down and be fed” (to thousands), “Take up thy bed and walk,” and “Lazarus come forth,” and all these things were seen to come to pass—not of course was it because he said so that these things were so, but it was because these things were so that he was able to say so, for they were the truth of the Kingdom of God perceived by him with his spiritual senses, which others not having cultivated were unable to behold, just as the others about the room of the hotel were unable to hear the voice of the cricket easily perceived by the naturalist who had cultivated those senses which enabled him to do so.

This then is our task, the “one thing needful,”—to cultivate our spiritual senses. To do this we must go about it in the very simplest manner imaginable by using these spiritual senses to perceive first the lesser things of the Kingdom of God, and growing gradually to perceive the greater things of that Kingdom. Just as one cultivates his musical senses by learning the notes first, which are the primi­tive or simple things of the kingdom of music; then practicing and practicing and practicing until slowly but surely one perceives the great themes, symphonies, motifs and chords, and is able to play a Beethoven sonata or a Bach fugue, so one must cultivate the spiritual senses and do so by practicing the primitive things or sim­ple things of the Kingdom of God, the notes, as it were, and grad­ually after constant practice of these lesser things of the Kingdom of Spirit will the greater things of that Kingdom duly appear. Did not Jesus himself say, “If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?”.

“If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, and they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”

We are all journeying through the wilderness of materiality into the golden fields of spirituality, from Egypt into Canaan, or from bondage into freedom. As we advance we meet with difficulties which have to be overcome and these can be mastered or destroyed provided we patiently wait for the voice of Truth to direct our way, and show us exactly what to do. Then obstacles which may have seemed to be insurmountable will be overcome safely.

If one were hurrying up Fifth Avenue he might find as he ap­proached Forty-second Street that the traffic was against him run­ning east and west, which would naturally prevent his progress northward. So one would of necessity stop and stand at the curb quietly waiting for the policeman’s whistle. Meanwhile the roar of the city and its traffic at this point would be terrific, alarming in fact to anyone who was not accustomed to it. The grinding of the wheels of the trolleys and the clanging of their bells as they crawl to and fro, the rattle and bang and thunderous clamor of the great trucks loaded down to the last ounce with great iron trusses and beams, the unending riveting with electric hammers which is going on in the new building on the comer, the raucous noise of the klaxon horns, the incoherent shouts of the drivers and men occupied with other business—all this and more makes it a veritable bedlam. Yet quite regardless of this terrible noise, and listening over it, as it were, one hears after a while the dear shrill penetrating sound of the policeman’s whistle. Another moment and the traffic stops, a way is made, one steps forth and crosses safely and soon is on his way uptown.

There is a Bible story similar to this. Moses was leading the Children of Israel out of bondage into freedom, from materiality into spirituality, from Egypt into the freedom of Canaan, and as he did so he came to his Forty-second Street and found the traffic running against him. The Red Sea was before him apparently im­passable, on either side of him the hills occupied by part of the pur­suing army only waiting for the command to roll great stones down upon the Israelites, and behind them Pharaoh with his voracious army keyed up to destroy the fleeing hordes of people, in number some three millions. The situation seemed impossible—hopeless. In this extremity Moses turned unreservedly to God—listened for the voice of Truth which would if heard and followed lead him out of the difficulty. He prayed and listened—listened for the police­man’s whistle, for God to speak.

Then came “the still small voice” to him and said, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will shew to you today: for the Egyptians (the evils) whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the Children of Israel, that they go forward.” It was the voice of God—the policeman’s whistle, and instantly the traffic stopped—the sea rolled back resolving itself into great walls on either side, and the Children of Israel passed through dry shod in safety. But Pharaoh, untrained spiritually and so listening to the roar of the carnal mind rather than for the voice of God, could not hear the policeman’s whistle when it sounded again and the traffic began to run against him or the sea returned to its normal state. Pursuing the Children of Israel, his heart filled with rage, he and his army entered where the Israelites had but a moment ago passed through on dry land, and as he did so the sea closed again, the chariot wheels began to drag and come off, panic struck them, they were overthrown by onrushing waves, and Pharaoh’s army was a thing of the past.

So it is with us. We too have our obstacles to meet and overcome. We too come to our Forty-second Street, the Red Sea of difficulties, and sometimes to advance seems to be impossible. We find our­selves in a cul de sac with the Red Sea in front of us and seemingly impassable, the surroundings manned with error which would de­stroy us, and the army of error behind us threatening our immedi­ate overthrow.

Then we too pray and wait on God, listening for His voice. As we do so the roar of the carnal mind would terrify us. Evil shouts its battle cry of boastfulness asserting its power, claiming its relentlessness and sure destruction, threatening death, poverty, sickness, and such like. The din is terrific. But all the while we stand quietly and calmly waiting for the Voice of God, listening for the message— for the policeman’s whistle,—not listening to the roar of the carnal mind but listening over it, as it were, and by and bye clearly and distinctly comes the message: “Fear not, stand still and see the sal­vation of the Lord.”

And as we do so, in spite of the formidableness of what is to be encountered, Truth opens wide a safe passage for us to go on in perfect safety, while the error itself emulating our advance, is de­stroyed.

Paul says “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (Second Corinthians 5/20).

The king acts and speaks for the Empire. The ambassador speaks and acts for the king. He represents the king personally. As does the king act for the Empire, so does the ambassador; as though he were the very person of the king; in fact the ambassador is the king —by proxy. The Empire cannot speak or act for itself. It must have a body, a voice, a proxy, through which the “I” may speak or act When the king speaks, the Empire has spoken. The ambas­sador likewise. When he speaks it is the Empire speaking. He does not speak for himself, nor does the king. It is the spirit of the Em­pire speaking through the king or ambassador, or proxy. When the king says “My people” it is manifestly absurd in this day and age of freedom and liberty, to even think that the people belong to the king personally. He speaks for the Empire, and “My people” are the people of the Empire.

The writer is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. So are you. So is everybody. He speaks for the Kingdom of God. If he speaks for himself, it is only the human mind speaking and at best uttering but platitudes, and so largely worthless; but if it be the Spirit speaking, then it is priceless. Jesus said “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say, that He is your God”. The Kingdom of God cannot speak for itself, any more than could the earthly kingdom or Empire speak for it­self. It too must have a proxy, a body, and a voice to express itself. He who is ambassador or king of the Kingdom of God expresses God’s kingdom, or lets the Spirit speak through him. It is the voice of the Kingdom of God and not the voice of a person. Self must be out of the way. “The Principle of man, and not a person, produces all good” says Mrs. Eddy the revelator of the Kingdom of God to this age, in her earliest edition, the original revelation. One must cease to express what he himself thinks, or get rid of personal sense, for this is always the human mind, and instead he must let the Spirit speak through him. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord”, and “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” and yet again, “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord, ‘My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever more’.” Always does the Spirit, this “I” or Ego, which is God or the Kingdom of God, speak through its proxy, its body, manifes­tation, king or ambassador. This Spirit of God’s kingdom rests upon you, or the Christ arises in you, just to the exact degree that you drop self and act as ambassador or king, or let the “I” speak through you.

An ambassador has been known to imbibe too freely of “the cup that cheers”, and so become intoxicated. Then “when the wine is in the wit is out” and he may forget his ambassadorial responsibilities and speak from the standpoint of self, uttering his own opinions, rather than the word of the country from which he is accredited, and when he does so he is liable to lose his office. Indeed the very moment he does this, he ceases to be ambassador. He must always be ambassador, and no longer his personal self. He forsakes self when he accepts the ambassadorship.

It is the same with the writer or whoever accepts the ambassador­ship or kingship of the Kingdom of God. We are all made “kings and priests unto God” (Rev 1/6). It means the utter denial of self, and letting the Spirit speak or be expressed. Personal sense must be wholly denied, wholly repudiated, and only the viewpoint of the Kingdom of God be manifested. If the writer becomes intoxi­cated by imbibing the human mind by his own thinking, and so lets self come in, expressing his own opinions, rather than the Word of God, he too loses his office as ambassador or king, and thus automatically dethrones himself. Isaiah says “They are drunken but not with wine, they stagger but not with strong drink.”, so we be­come drunken with the human mind by thinking, just as another gets drunk with liquor by drinking, and then self or personal sense wrecks our career, even as the bestiality of him drunken with liquor wrecks his career.

Technically the ambassador is never out of his own kingdom or Empire which he represents, even if he be travelling. Himself, his family, his guests, his staff, and his property are all under the laws and protection of the Empire which he represents. He is not under the laws of the country to which he is accredited, and either he or those in or of his legation may break any or all the laws of the country in which he is stationed, and moreover may break them with utter impunity.

We too are never outside the Kingdom of God. This fact was revealed to Moses centuries ago when the Spirit of the Kingdom of God uttered itself in his consciousness and said “The place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground”. Wherever he might be, he was in the Kingdom of God. We who are ambassadors or kings of the Kingdom of God, are never out of that Kingdom, for the place whereon we too stand is Holy Ground. With impunity we may break any or all of the laws of the mundane sphere or kingdom in which we appear to be now, even as the ambassador may break the laws of the country to which he is accredited, for we are not under the laws of matter, but in our own kingdom, the Kingdom of God, and subject only to the laws of the Kingdom of God.

Whoever may come into your consciousness, or into the King­dom of God, for “the Kingdom of God is within you,” is under the laws of the Kingdom of God, and is immune from any or all the laws of the material kingdom. This is ‘treatment”, and the “treatment” is really set up by him who enters. No one bearing arms or carrying anything to be used against the Empire may enter therein until he be stripped of those evils, and similarly no evils may enter into the Kingdom of God, and whosoever enters therein is instantly under the protection of the Kingdom of God and free; but he must leave his diseases and other evils without, and so will find himself healthy, happy, and well. This is the healing.

Another fact is this. The ambassador or king is supplied with everything necessary to the fulfilling of the official position which he holds. He does not have to worry or take thought for, or pray about means to carry on. That is not his affair at all. It is the busi­ness of the Empire to furnish him liberally with funds and what­ever else is necessary for him to function properly. He does not have to pray for supply, ask for it, or importune his country, or John Bull or Uncle Sam, for it, because he is liberally supplied by the Empire or country which he represents.

So in the Kingdom of God. Its ambassador or king is liberally supplied with whatever he may require to function properly. He does not have to pray for supply, ask for it, or importune the Kingdom of God for such. The Kingdom of God furnishes it all and abundantly. This is the business of the Kingdom of God, and not at all that of the ambassador or king. The ambassador or king goes about his business whatever it may be, and the Kingdom of God sees to it that everything necessary is bountifully supplied. He does his work, and if anything appears to him to go wrong, he simply claims his rights and presses his claim.

Be then an ambassador for Christ, and let nought but God or the Spirit speak through you, and so “be ye reconciled to God”, or let the “1” go unto the Father. Be king in the Kingdom of God —represent, speak for, act for, be proxy for, the Kingdom of God.

You will then find out what was meant when the seventh seal of error was opened, and “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour’⁹ (Rev 8/1), and why Jesus king of the Kingdom of God, said, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world (the human mind, the only devil there is or ever will be) cometh, and hath nothing in me.” You will find that you too will not have much to say, for God Himself will speak through you, “as God hath said ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Where­fore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing’

Try being an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. It is not so difficult, but it means a complete denial of self. And the reward is wonderful. It is eternal life and happiness, and you become immune from all the laws of the mundane kingdom to which you are at present accredited, laws of diet, laws of limitation, laws of materia medica, laws of space and time, laws of heredity, laws of contagion—from all material laws of every sort or kind, and are governed by and only by the laws of Spirit, the laws of the King­dom of God.

DELIRIUM VS. REALITY

“They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger but not with strong drink”. (Isaiah 29/9).

With what then are they drunken, if not with strong drink or wine? They are, and the whole world is drunken with the human mind, by reason of the constant endeavor by human thinking to find peace, health, life, success, and a way out of troubles.

A human being becomes drunken with wine by himself drinking. Another becomes drunken with the human mind by himself think­ing.

In the first instance he loses consciousness (human conscious­ness) and knows nothing of his human existence as it is supposed to be normally. He loses consciousness of home, mother, father, wife, children; he loses all moral sense, loses his sense of financial responsibilities, loses control of his body, his organs and speech; and if he persists in thus staying drunk he may even see pink elephants, red beetles and green monkeys. He has conjured up a delirium tremens world.

In the second instance, when a person becomes drunken with the human mind by himself thinking, he too loses consciousness, but in this instance it is true consciousness or the Christ-consciousness. Then he loses consciousness of the Kingdom of God and the things therein, and in which kingdom he really “lives and moves and has his being”. He loses consciousness of the presence of good, of Spirit, of plenty, of joy, merriment, of laughter, of peace, of life, and the other things of the Kingdom of God. And if he thus persists he will conjure up a delirium world and see sickness, sin, poverty, limitation, and other evils and finally death, and wherein he too loses control of his body, his limbs, his speech, hearing, sight, etc.

What do we do for the man drunken with wine, to help him out of his difficulties? The first thing to do is to stop his drinking. The first thing to do for him who is drunken with the human mind, is to stop his thinking. Jesus said ‘Take NO thought” for your life, for what you drink, for what you eat, “take NO thought” for your body, for what you put on your body, and “take NO thought” for the future. On another occasion he stressed the same point saying “At an hour when ye think not”—not when ye think, but when ye think not—will the reality of man appear. In other words he advocated that we stop our own thinking. So did other prophets, and in this day and age one of the cardinal points in the Word of God as revealed to and by Mrs. Eddy, was this very thing as fol­lows:— “Silence the material senses.” (S & H 15), and “the Christian Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves it most out of his thought” (Ibid 383).

When he who is drunken with liquor stops his drinking, a most strange thing happens to him. This strange thing comes to him easily and without effort, in fact nothing can prevent this happen­ing. He becomes conscious, or consciousness returns to him. (Human consciousness it is called, although it is really uncon­sciousness—but as Kipling said, “That’s another story”.) There are people in this world who would gladly retain that state of un­consciousness and which is produced by liquor, morphine or otherwise similarly, but it is impossible to so remain. When this consciousness (human) returns to him, there disappears the delirium world with its pink elephants, its green monkeys and red beetles, and which seemed so real to him, while at the same time he beholds his home, his wife and family, he becomes aware of his financial responsibilities, recovers his moral sense and decency, and once again is able to control his body, his organs, his speech, and action.

When the man drunken with the human mind stops his own thinking a stranger and more wonderful thing happens to him, for consciousness returns to him also, but it is the Christ-consciousness, and which is called “The Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”, or the Spirit rests upon him, guides him and governs him. Then he loses sight of sickness, sin, poverty, death, and other discords, while simul­taneously he beholds the Kingdom of God with its abundance of life, health, love, beauty, color, form, peace, substance and every­thing that is good.

Did he have to get rid of his sickness etc, called by whatever name? whether chronic or acute, of short or long duration, and whether called incurable or not? Not at all The whole thing was but the fevered imagination or delirium of the human mind, just \j as the pink elephants, green monkeys and red beetles, were but the fevered imagination or delirium of the drunken man. When the fumes of liquor disappeared, there disappeared also the in­flamed condition which rendered him unconscious, and with which he conjured up the delirium world, but when consciousness re­turned he beheld that which was to have been seen all the while, and the delirium tremens world of nothingness disappeared. So when the fumes of the thinking of the human mind disappear, there also disappears the inflamed sense condition or unconsciousness by which he beheld evil, disease, poverty, death etc., even as the man with the delirium tremens beheld green monkeys etc.; while at the same time there arises in him the Christ-Mind, or the Christ-consciousness, whereupon does he perceive the Kingdom of God, and the things therein, which were there always, though un­perceived by him. Moreover this Kingdom of God was visible to others who had attained this spiritual consciousness, as were the so-called normal things of this mundane sphere visible to those who stood at the side of the man drunken with liquor, even while he himself was quite unconscious of what those others beheld.

Did the sickness, sin, pain, death, poverty, or other troubles have to be healed or destroyed? Not at all. Did the green monkeys, the pink elephants, or red beetles have to be destroyed or healed? Not at all. The former were as unreal and insubstantial as the lat­ter. None had any existence. They were all illusions pure and simple. No more, no less. There is no more substance to a material world than there is substance to the delirium tremens world. Is there a world? Yes, but not a material world. Are there elephants? Yes, but not pink elephants. Are there red beetles? No, but there are beetles. Are there monkeys? Yes, but not green monkeys. Are there things? Yes, but not material things. All is spiritual, and not material. Is there a kingdom? Yes, but not a material kingdom. The only kingdom is God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God Is here, and is here now. It has always been here and always will be here. It is spiritual and perfect If we have believed in a material king­dom with its sickness, sin, death, poverty and other evils, it is only because we have been drunken with our thinking with the human mind, and have conjured up a delirium world wherein there ap­peared those material things with their accompanying evils, even as there appeared to him drunken with liquor those pink elephants, green monkeys and red beetles in a delirium world. When the lat­ter became conscious he saw what was to have been seen all the while, and which others looking on at the time beheld; and likewise when the Christ consciousness returns or the Spirit rests upon us, we too will behold that which has been there all the while, the real spiritual and only universe, the Kingdom of God, and which others who have attained this spiritual or Christ-consciousness could see and did see even at the time when we conjured up and believed we saw a material kingdom with material laws and evil. “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals” (S & H 4?6)—to those drunken with the human mind.

If he did it, we too may do it He said so himself. Why not then make the attempt You cannot lose. The goal is wonderful and worthwhile, and can be won.

A PROPHECY

Many years ago there was a prophecy. It ran thus: “When the sweet waters of the Nile flow into Jerusalem, the rule of the Turk shall cease.”

Centuries rolled by, America was discovered, the United States of America came into being, Ohio appeared as a state, and therein sprang up a little town called Steubenville. Years passed by and there was established an iron foundry which manufactured cast-iron pipes. In Palestine oil was discovered, and the Standard Oil Company acquired the rights to drill. Oil was produced in sufficient quantities to be commercially exploited, and a? is the custom of that company, it was proposed to pipe the oil To this end a great quantity of pipe was ordered to be shipped from the Steubenville foundry, and in due course this was done, and the pipes landed on the banks of the Nile.

At this time the great world war broke out, and the time was con­sidered unpropitious for laying the pipes, so they were stacked up and covered to await a more convenient season.

Later on General Allenby was directed to set forth from Eng­land and capture Jerusalem. An army was furnished him, and in a great fleet they sailed first to Marseilles, thence to Alexandria, thence again to Cairo, and from that point to a little place called Kantara which was to be the main base of supply. Kantara lies in a westerly direction from Jerusalem, and between these points lies the great Syrian desert, a dreary, sandy, arid waste of something over a hundred miles in width and almost impassable.

It is an old saying that “an army travels on its stomach,” which simply means that it can only go as fast as it is provisioned with food and water. Allenby had an abundance of food, but where to get the water to supply his army was the great problem. About this time it was told him of the great quantities of pipe which lay on the banks of the Nile and the idea came to Allenby that he should pipe the waters of the Nile across the desert and into Jerusalem. The pipes were immediately commandeered and the task of laying them through the arid desert was begun, thus en­abling the army as it advanced to have an unlimited supply of fresh water.

General Allenby knew nothing whatsoever about the prophecy, and in fact it had been well-nigh forgotten, only to be recalled as it was fulfilled.

Laying pipes is a slow procedure even though one has at his com­mand a great army to do the work, and the Allies through the British Government began to send frantic cables to Allenby urging him to speed up the work and take Jerusalem immediately, for its capture was considered essential to their plans, but there was noth­ing to be done which was not already being done, and each day marked a shortening of the distance between the army and Jeru­salem.

As the pipes were laid and “the sweet waters of the Nile” flowed through them irrigating the desert as the army advanced, that which we read of in Isaiah was fulfilled literally, and the wilderness blos­somed as the rose; until finally the army stood at the gates of Jeru­salem, and lo, when this came to pass, instead of finding an armed force ready to attack, a cordial welcome was extended and the gates of Jerusalem found wide open inviting their entrance. Jeru­salem had been captured. The prophecy was fulfilled. The bril­liancy of the crescent had fallen before the glory of the cross. Allenby—Allah Nebi—the prophet of God had come!

In the sixth chapter of Joshua there is a story similar to this one. Instead of General Allenby we have the great leader Joshua—the name means savior. Instead of Jerusalem we have Jericho. Instead of the gates of Jerusalem barring the entrance to the city, we have the walls of Jericho preventing an entrance. Instead of piping the waters of the Nile through the desert, we have the march around the walls of Jericho, both indicating the measure of preparation necessary.

Joshua and his followers marched around the walls of Jericho day after day for six days, the days of preparation. On the seventh day, the day of completeness, he marched around seven times, and at the end of the seventh circuit, when his whole army praised the Lord with unified shout and blare of trumpets, the walls of Jericho fell. Jericho was captured. As Allenby entered Jerusalem without meeting an attacking force, so now Joshua similarly captured Jericho.

These two cities in these tales symbolize the Kingdom of God, and the gates on the one hand and walls on the other signify the problem which is confronting us and apparently prevents our en­trance into that wonderful Kingdom of God and becoming the recipients of the things of that Kingdom to which we as the sons of God are rightfully entitled. The march around Jericho, and the piping of the “sweet waters of the Nile” through the desert, cor­respond with bringing into consciousness spiritual ideas or the advent of the Christ, so spiritualizing that dry and arid wilderness of materiality through which we all travel on our road from bond­age to freedom. As those spiritual ideas flow into that wilderness of materiality, they irrigate it, and cause it to blossom as the rose, or in other words, sin, sickness, troubles of all kinds and even death itself give place to health, life, love, peace, purity, prosperity and freedom from all discord. We do not have to wait until the city is captured—do not have to wait until the problem is wholly solved and ultimate freedom from all evil is attained, but we find that the journey itself through the wilderness of human beliefs is happified and made better, while the surroundings themselves take on more of joy, peace, harmony and good until finally we stand clothed and in our right Mind in the Holy City wherein there can nothing enter which defileth or worketh abomination or maketh a lie.

Instead of going through the preparatory steps, the tendency of the follower of the Christ is to try and make an immediate capture of the City. He tries to perform the greater works which even the Master himself did only in the latter part of his career, when he ought to be quietly familiarizing himself with the primitive things of the Kingdom of God. Did not Jesus say, “If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?”

As Allenby piped the “sweet waters of the Nile” into the side of the desert farthest from Jerusalem and gradually worked his way through it, and up to the very gates of Jerusalem itself, so Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature,” which undoubtedly means that he grew in spiritual wisdom and spiritual stature, and as he grew thus he was able to do the greater works which are related of him. That he practiced the primitive things of the Kingdom of God such as gentleness, tenderness, politeness, courtesy, etc., is evidenced by the record in the Bible which says of him that they “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,” and even were it not so stated, experience indicates that this must be the fact. Because, therefore, of the tendency of the beginner to follow the Christ in the greater works rather than to act and live the simple preparatory things of the Kingdom of Heaven, he fails and be­comes discouraged, and perhaps lapses into a state of mind from which he can be rescued only by starting out again and doing the lesser things of the Kingdom of God. The preparatory work is al­ways necessary.

As Allenby piped the waters of the Nile slowly through the desert not attempting to capture Jerusalem until after the first task was accomplished, so we must bring the spiritual ideas into con­sciousness, by first overcoming the little and everyday problems of human existence through the power of God, ever going forward until at last we shall find ourselves at the very gates of Jerusalem, or facing the problem which loomed so large, and when this time comes we shall find that the error has already been destroyed, the gates are wide open, and there is nothing to prevent our entrance into the Kingdom, the Holy City where we shall enjoy the fruition of the work we have done.

Let us then stop trying to attack the gates of Jerusalem, the big problem which seems so important and which perhaps is screaming at the top of its voice importuning us for immediate attention, and instead quietly bring the sweet waters of spirituality or spiritual ideas into consciousness, into that wilderness of material beliefs, through which we are marching on our journey from material sense into spiritual consciousness, from bondage to freedom, for unless we do this we are trying to do that which is impossible—take the Kingdom of God by violence.

Had Allenby attempted to attack the gates of Jerusalem before bringing the waters of the Nile into the desert, he and his army would probably have perished. Even if by some means he and his army had survived the journey through the wilderness and suc­ceeded in reaching the gates of Jerusalem, he would have found the enemy armed cap & pie and fighting, whereas by using the preparatory method, he caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and in due time he found the gates wide open and a welcome awaiting him.

This wilderness through which we have been traveling has not always been a happy experience for us in one way or another, not many roses blooming, but the sharp and thorny cactuses of fear, worry, anxiety and other troubles have abounded, while the sand­storms of discouragement have but too frequently swirled relent­lessly about us as we made our advance or pitched our tents by the roadside.

Let us then instead of forcing our way into the Kingdom by at­tacking the great problem which presents itself to us, rather direct our efforts toward piping the sweet spiritual ideas into the wilder­ness of human consciousness, overcome the little things of everyday life which so frequently beset us, and so first grow a few blossoms on the westerly side of the desert. Do not try to grow the blossoms on the easterly side of the desert before we have piped the waters through to that point. Let us use what we have in the house (II Kings 4:1 to 7); let us use our talents (Matthew 25:14 to 30), that which is right at hand, and having been faithful over a few things, we shall be made rulers over many things.

Damp down the dry and arid wilderness of materiality with the sweet waters of spirituality which will end the simoon of discour­agement, and with the two-edged sword of Truth lop off from the cactuses the thorns and prickles of fear, worry and anxiety, etc., and in their stead the roses of health, life, love, peace, abundance, happiness, and plenty and the things which go with them will begin to bloom as the advance is made.

Finally when the gates of Jerusalem are reached—when the big problem which has loomed so large is reached, the gates of the City, the New Jerusalem will be found wide open, a welcome ex­tended and the problem will have disappeared .

EARTH’S PREPARATORY SCHOOL 

At first they called Lindbergh the “flying fool,” but after a while they learned he was anything but that,’ for he had calculated every possibility, foreseen every contingency, and prepared himself for every emergency, so far as human ingenuity could do so. When he had thus prepared himself he made the “hop” from New York to Paris.

Under his eagle eye the “Spirit of St. Louis” was constructed. To all intents and purposes he built it himself. Every little gadget, every wire and spark-plug, every strut, every piece that went into the machine was meticulously examined before it was used. Then after this most careful preparation he made the celebrated flight, but really the flight itself was, though most spectacular, the least of the accomplishments of this Sir Galahad of the air. The prepara­tion was the great thing. Having thoroughly prepared himself, and under his careful supervision completed the “Spirit of St. Louis” down to the minutest detail, all that remained was for him to board the machine, step on the gas, and with intelligence, embracing in­domitable courage and other Christlike qualities and attributes which were so markedly evident in this young man, the thing was done.

With Byrd it was the same. After not merely years of prepara­tion, but a lifetime, he was equipped for the great “hop” to the South Pole. If you will read his account of the adventure in the National Geographic Magazine, you will find it is the preparation which he stresses, and without which there could have been noth­ing but failure. The preparation was the keynote of the whole thing. The actual flight, like Lindbergh’s, only took a moment as compared to the protracted preparation. A few hours were all that either required to complete the flight.

We have a similar instance related in the Bible. It is to be found in Joshua six, where Jericho was captured by the renowned leader Joshua. Instead of making a direct attack upon the city, there was a great preparation made. Six days he marched around the walls of Jericho, praising and glorifying God. The seventh day, the day of completion, he marched about the walls of Jericho seven times, then sounded the trumpet, which typified the voice of the Christ, gave a great shout of victory, and lo! the walls fell down flat. A moment more and Joshua and his armies had advanced into and captured the city. The great thing in this instance also, was the preparation.

Jesus also prepared for his great accomplishment of victory over the grave and death, and the attainment of eternal life. For some thirty years he made the most meticulous preparation and finally was ready to make the hop, as it were. Just as Lindbergh crawled into the cockpit of the “Spirit of St. Louis” and trusting himself to it overcame the great ocean expanse and so flew to Paris, so Jesus quietly resting in the cockpit of the grave, entrusting himself to the Spirit of Christ, finally made the greatest hop ever known, that of overcoming death, by letting Mind, the one divine Mind, carry him into the Kingdom of God.

Moses referred years ago to the preparatory work. “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidserv­ant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

Jesus obeyed this mandate of God—Mind. For thirty years he labored and prepared to build up, as it were, his great ship or con­sciousness; not the “Spirit of St. Louis,” but the Spirit of Christ. With greatest care he put into this consciousness all the wonderful things and realities of Spirit. He put in the spark plugs of gentle­ness, tenderness, kindness, politeness, courtesy and consideration; he put in the great crankshaft of divine Love, the timer of patience, the great pistons of good nature, good sense, good temper, good taste, good cheer, and good humor; the great spreading white wings of peace, the struts of firmness and courage, the rudder of joy, to keep him from tailspins of despondency, and the other small and great gadgets of generosity, gratitude, constancy, mirth, happi­ness, laughter, tolerance, affection and such like. Then having sub­jected himself to a thorough self-examination for any traces of the carbon of fear, worry, anxiety, or other foreign substance of the human mind which would work for evil, and having poured in the oil of consecration and inspiration and gladness—a blend of oil which has never been equaled by aught else, and having thus pre­pared himself, Jesus too stepped on the gas, the power of God, and God, Mind did the rest Do not then try to make your hop over some difficulty before you are ready to do so, by rushing to overcome it immediately, lest you be like those “flying fools,” as they have been called, who tried to hop from the Coast of Newfoundland to Europe without sufficient preparedness, and so fell into the ocean and were lost; but quietly make ready, prepare and build up the Spirit of Christ in yourself, and in due course you will find that the hop is the very easiest thing to be accomplished, in fact so easy that the problem will be found to be already solved, for Mind will have done it

Go about your business of assembling the machine and its com­ponent parts with the most careful preparation; quietly and care­fully see that everything is of the very best and measures up to every God-like requirement; see to it that the sparkplugs are not befouled with the carbon of evil of any kind, for should one spark­plug fail to do its work one cannot make the hop but will find him­self a “flying fool” because he has attempted to overcome that which in his unprepared condition he is unable to accomplish.

The world is filled with preachers telling us to “prepare to meet thy God.” Supposedly they are addressing those who believe they must eventually die, but the actual meaning is that we should be preparing ourselves to meet God by living and not by dying. Yet how few there are who are thus prepared! Under the false preach­ing of the reality and inevitableness of death, the world prepares for it by making wills, by striving to accumulate for old age and such like. In thus doing we are utterly unprepared for the over­coming of sickness or poverty and other similar discords which seem to be the lot of human kind, and least of all are prepared to make the great hop over the chasm of death into eternal life, and so like those “flying fools’⁹ who fall into the ocean do we fall into the pit which we have set for ourselves.

Hezekiah wisely stated, “For the grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate (glorify) Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee as I do this day.”

Let us then prepare to meet God, not by dying but by living. Let us start now to build up this wonderful carrier, the Spirit of Christ, and then when occasion demands of us to overcome something, or to make a certain hop, be it the overcoming of sin, sickness, death, or other trouble, no matter what it may be termed, we shall be ready, fully prepared, and all we shall have to do will be to step on the gas, and Mind will do the rest. LET GOD DO IT.

 

“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent (change His Mind): hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”

AMEN

So he it.