Thomas Parker Boyd – The Law and the Testimony, A Book of Daily Meditation

Contents

Foreword

The Silent Places

The Mind of Christ

A Prayer

Daily Meditations for a Week:

Health

Prayer

Good Cheer

Trust

Fear Cure

Comfort

Peace

Daily Meditations for a Month:

Unity of Life

The Ever Present Friend

Help

Peace

The Great Sayings of Jesus

Omnipresence

Omnipotence

Omniscience

Life

Meditation Blessings

Opening and Closing Forms

Sample Affirmations for Speaking the Word

 

 

Foreword

“Thou givest me this day my daily bread.” Shall we eat today? Certainly if we would conserve strength. It is said that once Elijah went on the strength of a meal forty days, but to ordinary mortals under ordinary conditions we can do better with three meals per day at regular hours.

The purpose of this little book is to help the reader to cultivate the habit of regular feeding on the Word of Truth. There are “crumbs” for one in haste, “crackers” for a light repast, “biscuits” for a more leisurely meal, and full “loaves” for those who find time for, and delight in, the sustenance found in the eternal Truth. The Truth is “milk” for babes, “bread” for children, “meat” for strong men and women of mature digestive power, “honey” for those who like sweets, “jewels” for those who love adornment, “treasure” for those who desire riches.

There are single thoughts to be carried through the day as a motto to be repeated mentally and audibly when convenient. Many full meditations will richly repay regular study and practice, for in so doing they will feed and instruct the reader in the right way of meditation. There is something in this little volume that will help you, no matter what your need may be.

The arrangement of these meditations is in line with the title, a quotation from the “Law of the Spirit of Life,” as found in the Scriptures, followed by the testimony of the human heart in all ages. Make the testimony your own by feeding upon it.

“To the Law and to the Testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, surely there is no morning for them.” Isaiah 8:20.

 

The Silent Places

We learn by precept and example. We know things by putting them into practice. A theory remains a theory if no one puts it to the acid test of experience. The things we believe are so many useless pieces of junk. The things we know because we have proved them, are transmuted into the pure gold of experience, the highest standard of value.

We have all wondered at the glorious attainment of illumined souls and wished that we too might know the secret by which they climbed to the heights. For be sure that they climbed. If we knew the silent years, the patient waiting, the misunderstanding of friends, the crushing burdens, the Alpine barriers, they should disillusion us. We thought they had mounted up as the chosen of the gods, having everything in their favor.

Their pathway led far from the valleys of ease. Far from the noise and, strife of the daily turmoil they found the secret of attainment. In the silences! The desert, the mountain, the closet, the inner silence of the soul! These are the birthplaces of power. When some splendid soul begins to write a brilliant path of light on the sky to cheer and help the world, the hidden and silent years of waiting, and temptation, and buffeting come, until they cleansed his soul, toughened his moral muscles, and perfected his spiritual balance for his dizzy careering on the heights.

“Be still and know,” is the formula of old. There is none other. “Enter into thy closet and shut the door, and pray in secret” is the way to find power to achieve openly. It took Moses forty years at the lonesome and onerous task of herding sheep to become still enough to hear what the Lord had been saying to him. Good and gracious God! Has our humanity been making such a racket that we could not hear what our divinity has been saying?! It took forty days in the desert to get ready to meet and vanquish the devil of that time. It took the Mount of Transfiguration to show the secret of mastery over disease. It took a night in Gethsemane to get ready to meet a cross. It took a death and burial to prove that we cannot die!

These are the silent places where we learn the secrets of life. It does not matter so much what our special trials are as does the manner in which we meet them. Nevertheless, we may be sure that we will find the secret of how to meet them in the Silence. The greater the task, the deeper is the need of repose to find and touch the secret of strength. The more life is beset with cares the greater the need to find the “still waters” where the soul’s divine poise is restored.

Every great soul has his or her way of going into the Silence. Sometimes it is in a place apart, and more often it is within. Meditation is carrying your problem into the Silence and holding it in the light of some word of wisdom from the Lord. As your mind atmospheres itself in His word, your problem is dissolved and its dross is melted away in the refinery of the spirit, and the pure gold of truth and right is left in your hand.

Practice entering the Silence until you learn that you carry the Silence with you always, and it is available even when life outwardly is thundering at you like a boiler shop. Have a system for the practice of meditation. At least until you have learned where the secret place of the Lord is. Have a time and place most favorable. Take that position in which your body is most comfortable. Relax both in body and mind. Breathe deeply for a few times. Turn your thoughts to God by thinking some word of His, such as are given in the exercises in the following chapters. Do not try to think of anything, but just hold to the text you have chosen, and soon the Spirit of Truth will begin to make Light and Truth arise within. Sometimes it will be a clear definite statement, and other times it will be a sense of peace or joy or strength. Then take the thought following the text or one that may come to you while in the Silence, and go forth with it as a motto for the day, to which your mind can turn at any moment.

Remember that it is not the act of going into the Silence, nor the form of words you use, nor the motto that you hold, but the state of consciousness attained. Remember that all words and phrases are but symbols, and if we do not get the reality symbolized, the repeating them is no more availing than the “sounding brass.”

Your whole purpose is to touch the spirit of things rather than the things themselves. Prayer is much vain repetition unless the spirit of the prayer rises into communion with God. The cross itself is a fetish unless we perceive and partake of the spirit of service that it symbolizes. The matchless name of Jesus is powerless to help unless we see beyond the name to that which was embodied in Jesus Christ.

You, as a separate and independent life, are helpless, but in the realization that you are one and inseparable with God is the secret of all power. Your ills and evils grow as you notice them, but as you keep your face steadfastly beholding Him, they fade out into nothingness in the presence of His Reality. Heaven, as somewhere to go after you die, is a vain hope unless you have the kingdom of heaven within you. Why put off heaven? It is here and now within you and you within it.

The possession of material things is not wealth. Riches of consciousness are the abiding wealth, and may always be found expressing itself in material symbols. Poverty is a state of consciousness. The result of our wrong thinking. There wasn’t a poorhouse in the universe when God finished making it.

Sickness is the result of a state of consciousness. The real self within you is not sick nor can be. It is spirit, and spirit is never sick. Live in the realization that you are not body and soul, but you are Spirit. Your spirit is in the image of God, and that whatever is in the Divine Original is in the divine image. Get your bearings right as to the nature of your being, and you will shed your sickness and disease.

These meditations are to help you to this realization. Use them and they will help you as they have helped millions of earth’s children. They will disclose to you “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which makes us free from the law of sin and death.” They will help you to live in the daily realization of your oneness with God.

 

 

 

The Mind of Christ

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” This state of consciousness, this realization of truth, the fact that the real mind within, is the same as the Mind of God. To be “like him” is the highest ideal attainment, yet it is steadily held before us as a possible realization. When we shall fully realize him in our consciousness, then we shall be like him. Identity in life and nature with him is set forth in a sevenfold personal symbolism in which the same illustrative names are used.

HE He is the Son of God. (Galatians 4:4) He is the servant of God. (Isaiah 42:1) He is the Witness. (Isaiah 55:4) He is the Light of the world. (John 8:12) He is the High Priest. (Hebrews 3:1) He is the Lamb. (John 1:29) He is the Branch. (Zechariah 6:12)

WE We are the sons of God. (Galatians 4:5) We are the servants of God. (Romans 6:22) We art witnesses. (Acts 1:8) We are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14) We are priests unto God. (Revelation 1:6) We are lambs. (Luke 10:3) We are branches. (John 15:5)

 

In Genesis 1:27 and 5:1 is given the clear statement that we were made in the image and likeness of God. In Genesis 5:3 the same terms are used concerning the generation of human beings as were used concerning the first human. The likeness of a child to its parent depends upon the child bearing certain characteristics of face and form that are found in the parent. If we are made in the image of God, then it follows that whatever is in the divine original is in some degree expressed in the divine image. Whatever God is in Reality, we, His image, are potentially.

Because God is we are. What God is we are. We have our being in God. We live our life in God. We are partakers of the Divine Nature. Because God is Love, the basic impulse in us is love. Because God is Absolute health, our very substance partakes of the health of God. Because God is infinite peace and we live in Him, we dwell in the very midst of perfect peace. Because God is the Universal Abundance, being all that there is, we partake of His abundance and our every need is supplied. To dwell upon these considerations is the best way to enter into the state of consciousness called, “the mind of Christ.”

We have but to meditate on the long years of patient teaching by a devout mother, and the steady practice of the religious exercises of the time, and absorption of truth through familiarity with the Scriptures, and doubtless the habit of prayer and attendance on the public worship of Jehovah for a period of something like thirty years, to understand how such a wondrous spiritual consciousness could be realized.

Even after Christ began his public teaching, a steady evolution of his mind in its perception of the highest truth is apparent, as it applied to the lives of himself and others.

Let this mind then be in you – this steady and regular turning the attention to the higher things of life. Find time in the busiest day to lift your thoughts to the world of Absolute Truth. Turn your face frequently to the sun who rises in your consciousness with healing in his wings.

The presence of the Christ-mind in you will appear when you find yourself loving the things of nature–the birds, the flowers, the fields, the forests, the sea and all the forces about you.

You will know it when you are touched with the feeling of others infirmities, and find yourself trying to help them.

You will know it when you cease to lay emphasis on the sins and mistakes and diseases and sufferings of men, and talk and think and act in the light of God’s goodness and health and happiness in them.

You will know, because when you do the things that go with the Christ-mind, then the powers of the Christ-life will rest upon you. And when you have, within yourself, become like him, then “all power in heaven and earth will be given you” to use for blessing.

Meditation is an investment. The more you put into it the more you will get out of it.

 

Meditation Outline

If possible be in a quiet place.

Assume a position of perfect repose.

Relax in body and mind.

Breathe deeply a few times.

Be still, be still, be still.

Pray by thinking a thought of God.

Use the text and thought for the day.

Ask for illumination, that thoughts may come.

Let your imagination picture scenes, voices, words.

As you grow accustomed to meditation make notes of ideas that rise up in your mind.

Seek understanding–the perception of Reality.

Use your will to awaken hope, gratitude, joy, love.

Then be still, holding the best idea that has come to you.

Then give thanks. Use the gloria in excelsis: “Glory be to God on high, etc.”

“We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory.”

“We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, etc.”

And having been with thy Father who sees in secret, go forth, and thy Father who sees in secret shall demonstrate in thee openly.

 

A Prayer

“Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace” Job 22:21.

Our Father, we come to Thee, seeking thy peace. We need thee today and every day. Help us to realize that we have thee always. We would acquaint ourselves with thee by becoming conscious always of thine indwelling presence.

We would know thee better by more clearly understanding thy Word. We would know thee better as thou art revealed in Nature. Give us the clearness of vision that sees thy wisdom and majesty in all created things. May the beauty, wonder and mystery be new every morning and fresh at eventide.

We would know thee better by association with those who are nearest to thee. Help us to recognize thee as revealed in every act of love and kindness among thy friends.

We would know thee better when we assemble in thy house to worship. Teach us to perceive the spirit back of the form. Give us the praying heart and the singing soul. Let thy harmony be heaven within us. Let our hearts truly say, “I was glad when they said, we will go into the house of the Lord.”

We would learn some truth each day wherewith to illumine that day’s living. For we realize that to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent is Life Eternal.

O, Thou who art infinite in love, wisdom and power! We thank thee that we have found thee and with thee have found peace. Evermore thou art with us and in us. Amen.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Health

Sunday

“I am the Lord that heals thee” Exodus 15:26.

God is love, power, peace, health, wisdom, plenty, and righteousness. Every mental, material, or spiritual agent is merely a channel through which the divine agency flows for our welfare, or they are byways along which we travel up to the fountain head of all things. There is no place where he is not. We are not to look to him above the heavens for wonder-working power, but look to him within us where he abides with all power. “He works within us both to will and to do,” while we are working out our salvation. Abide in this fact and “ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done.” His divine power waits the action of your will. You may be well if you will. You may be happy and have success if you will. You are at one with him and all that he is and has is at your service. “Be it unto thee as thou wilt.” The first half of all theology is in the sentence, “It shall come to pass.” The second half is in the sentence, “And it came to pass.”

Monday

“He sent His word and healed them” Psalm 107:20.

“But speak the word and my servant shall be healed” Matthew 8:8.

“The tongue of the wise is health” Proverbs 12:28.

“No word of God shall be void of power” Luke 1:37.

Let us learn anew today that “man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. ” Marvelous words spoken through the experiences of his children in all ages and organized into human words. We read it again and again with new meaning and comfort. We hear it spoken in the great within and we are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner soul. In that word sent out from God there is both food and medicine. It is milk for babes, bread for children, meat for those of strong powers of digestion, honey for those who love sweets, jewels for those who care for adornment, treasure for those who desire riches. Feed upon it and thy soul shall be strong to endure, wise to speak the word of health, and pure to reflect the image of the heavenly.

Tuesday

“The power of the Lord worked unto the healing of them” Luke 5:19.

“I have read once, yea twice, that power belongs to God” Psalm 62-11.

All power in heaven and earth is pledged and given for the welfare of His people. Power is the title of the greatest anthem of the universe. Every breeze that blows; every brook that ripples on its way to the sea; every star that burns in the sky; every tide-throb of the ocean’s heart; all these are but strains of the anthem that reaches its climax in the still small voice with which God whispers in the ear of the soul. Over the front door of all there is hung the sign, “power to let.” We have only to furnish it a channel in which to flow, step in and be healed. Maybe we shall find it in the sermon, song, lecture, quiet meditation, or strenuous action, or in the touch of a trained and potent hand, or the word of a master, or the ministry of a sympathetic physician, or a skilled surgeon. These are among the powers ordained of God, and through them the power of the Lord still works to the healing of men.

Wednesday

“Take some food for this is for your health” Acts 27:34.

“The sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings” Malachi 4:2.

“Who is the health of thy countenance and thy God” Psalm 42:11.

Here are three things which add much to health: Food, sunshine, cheerfulness. Proper food, correctly eaten, is essential. A study of dietetics reveals to us the fact that our food contains the very same elements of which our bodies are made. Too much of anyone item of food may destroy the harmony of the body. Bacon and bile are responsible for a lot of the meanness in the world. Study your diet. Eat simpler foods, more fruits and vegetables, less meats. Chew well. Take your time; Think while you eat that you are furnishing materials to make the body strong. Breathe deeply of the air on which the sun is shining. It is antiseptic to all germs, both material and mental. Face the sun. Don’t stand in your own light. Keep the windows open toward Jerusalem. Cultivate a cheerful countenance, Let your face shine. Keep smiling. These three things will end tuberculosis and all other wasting forms of disease. And for the doing of them God will “lift up the light of His countenance and give you peace.”

Thursday

“And be converted and I should heal them” John 12:40.

Health and an uneasy conscience are incompatible. Divine forgiveness and health for the whole person seem to act as cause and effect. “Which is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or Take up thy bed and walk?” Disease is one form in which violation of the law takes expression. Evil of any sort arises from this cause. “Cease to do evil. Learn to do well.” Learn to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and act in harmony with the law that applies to that part of your nature, and “thy peace shall flow as a river,” and “it shall be health to thy navel.”

Friday

“Virtue went out of him and healed them all” Luke 6:10.

Wonderful hands of Jesus in which the power of the eternal Christ wrought to heal all manner of sickness and disease. Hands that touched life at every possible point of expression, and it became luminous with health. Think what it meant to look in his face, to feel the touch of his hands, to hear the music of his voice. and even to “touch the hem of his garment.” And then think that the same eternal Christ that empowered him will so work in any human life that will learn to say, “I live and yet not I but Christ lives in me.” He said, “The work that I do shall ye do, and greater works shall ye do.” You know that such power still dwells with men. Remember the power of a mother’s kiss to heal her child’s hurts. Or the touch of some friend whose virile hand soothes your frazzled nerves, and calms your vexed soul. Let “Christ dwell in you,” and let every contact of your life be with the intention of health and comfort, and the power of the “Christ in you” will go out to heal.

Saturday

“Thy faith hath made thee whole” Mark 10:52.

“All things are possible to him who believes” Mark 10:52.

Faith is the first of the cardinal virtues. To it we are to add power, and to that power, understanding, and to that, self-control. Faith is the bed-rock principle when we start to build a well body, a calm, strong mentality, or a conquering spirit. Faith is just intelligent confidence in something or somebody. It is invincible in connection with action. Without works it is dead. It must believe the God of health, and then do the things that make for health. In this way it faces the impossible and cries, it shall be done, and it is. There are no limitations. All things are possible to this combination. We usually do what we believe we can do. We get what we believe we shall get. We become what we believe we shall become. Cultivate your faith by getting it into action. Believe and keep right on believing and doing, and all things are yours.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Prayer

Sunday

“If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift, go first and be reconciled with thy brother and then come and offer thy gift” Matthew 5:23-4.

As you enter the temple today, be sure to prepare for the service that you are about to offer. It is not that you have something against your brother, but that he has something against you. You are not supposed to hold anything against him if you are going to pray. But he may hold something against you. Go to him first alone, then with another. If you fail you have at least cleared your own mind and heart, and have added strength so that his ill feeling will not harm you. There are some people you can’t get along happily together with, in any relation, and when you can’t you’d better get along happily apart. The only attitude toward some people is, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Monday

“Shall not God avenge His own elect though He bear long with them?” Luke 18:7.

Vindication and not vengeance is the idea here. Wait for God’s vindication though it be long in coming. Importunity does not change God’s purpose, but it strengthens the purpose of God in you until it ceases to be a guess and becomes a certainty. Importunity steadily builds up faith and will-power and concentrates the psychic energies until they attract into the soul the Divine blessing, as the magnet draws iron.

Tuesday

“Lifting up holy hands without wrath, and without doubting” 1 Timothy 2:8.

The attitude of the hands is not enough; they must be hands which have not defrauded a neighbor in goods, or reputation, by word or thought. Wrath has no place in a praying spirit. Doubting binds the wings of inspiration. Love and trust alone can help the soul to an audience with the most High. Clean hands and a pure heart are the passwords at the gateway of prayer.

Wednesday

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” John 1:9.

Confession clears the soul of its fog and miasmas, so that the sunshine of heaven may lighten it. Confession gets the debris out of the channels 0f life so that the tides of health and righteousness may flow in, bringing everlasting peace, and comfort, and content. Confession is the golden stairway at whose every step the soul sheds the garments of gloom, and the leaden weights of misdoing, and opens up an highway along which we may run and not be weary, walk and not faint, and with patience and joy realize the goal.

Thursday

“If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you” John 15:7.

Here is a double abiding. Something of us must abide in God and something of God must abide in us. Abiding in Him is to live in the Spirit of the Christ in whom was no evil, nor was guile found in his mouth; who could challenge his enemies with “which of you convinces me of sin?”; whose life was epitomized in the words of a single sentence, “He went about doing good.” His words all proceed from the one basic truth of the oneness of humanity with God. To so abide in Him and let this truth fully abide in us will enable us to ask according to His will and in His name, and know the answer to prayer.

Friday

“If you believe, all things are possible to him who believes” Mark 9:23.

Why couldn’t the disciples cast out the epileptic devil? They didn’t believe that they could. Why didn’t they remove mountains, etc.? They didn’t believe they could. Why do we ever fail? Because we do not believe that we can do or be the thing we seek. And that lack of faith leaves the boundless forces of God within us unused. Get acquainted with God. Know His boundless resources, His perfect character, His matchless grace, and you can’t help having faith. Then you shall ask what you will and it shall be done.

Saturday

“If two of you shall agree as touching anything it shall be done” Matthew 18:19.

Sometimes the trouble is so real and so firmly planted in our consciousness that we are unable to turn the thoughts away from it to the spiritual fact that God who dwells in us is perfect health. Then the Master said that we might properly call to our aid someone who clearly sees the healing truth, but does not stand in the atmosphere of the trouble, and so is able with undimmed vision to help hold our minds and hearts on the healing truth till we become fully conscious of it, and unconscious of the trouble.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Good Cheer

Sunday

“Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee” Matthew 9:2.

He was not looking for spiritual blessing, but rather for physical health. but he found the two bound up together. It was as easy to say one as the other. The fact that He could say one gave him authority to say the other, and he could not say one without including the other. Get all of your birthright. Claim all that is coming to you as a son of God.

Monday

“Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be as it was told me” Acts 27:25.

An angel, a messenger of God whose he was and whom he served, had stood by him during the night. So often they are standing by but we are not aware of it. They speak and we do not hear, at least do not heed. There is good cheer in knowing that His messengers are always near to help; there is more cheer in the fact that most of God’s angels are human angels, and that we may stand with them and serve. Believe the messenger and it shall be as it was told you.

Tuesday

“Then were they all of good cheer” Acts 27:36.

Long fasting, arduous toils, and exhausting tasks will drain the most opulent nervous resources. Power goes out at every touch of real helpfulness. Sometimes we find a quiet spot on the mountains, or in the desert. We have the Master’s example for it. We need nourishing food at proper intervals. We must have rest in sleep and change of occupation. The mind must be fed with the truth, and the spirit must be illuminated through prayer, meditation, and praise. Then our blues will vanish, our doubts dissolve, our fears and ghosts of worry will be laid, and we shall be of good cheer.

Wednesday

“He that shows mercy let him do it with cheerfulness” Romans 12:8.

A good Samaritan with a scowling face is hard to conceive. A merciful man with a grouch, or a snarl in his voice, or disposition will be called upon to wonder why people do not understand him. Show mercy with cheerfulness. All such shall obtain mercy. Those who show mercy because it is “good business” or “politics” will find that it isn’t counted in the mercy column.

Thursday

“The Lord loves a hilarious giver” 2 Corinthians 9:7.

In all other service cheerfulness is in the positive degree, but when it comes to giving as the Lord prospers cheerfulness reaches the superlative degree and if he reaches the standard he must be cheerful to the point of being hilarious, for so the text reads. I have always wanted to hear some one shout when the missionary offering was taken, when the subscription was taken for the widow and the fatherless. But such hilarity does not seem to be fashionable. Get the hilarious spirit in your giving.

Friday

“Stephen’s face shone as it had been the face of an angel” Acts 6:15.

Consider my brother, Stephen, whose face shone when he was called on to die for his Lord. How the light within shined out and they beheld the light of heaven on his face. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, and does good like a medicine. Keep cheerful within. Whistle rather than whine. Smile rather than frown. Shorten up your face and widen it out, for there is health in the process.

Saturday

“Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” John 16:33.

It is enough that you be like your Lord, who did not escape the ills that the world could do to him, but who overcame them and so triumphed over them that even his death was regarded a triumph over evil. Paul gloried in tribulations. He found power to serve through the very trials he endured. Cheerfulness puts a glove on the iron hand of trouble.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Trust

Sunday

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved” Psalm 125-1.

Trust puts your feet on the bed rock; rests your life on immovable strength; here you can face any condition and say “I shall not be greatly moved.”

Monday

“Thou art my trust from my youth” Psalm 71:5.

Trust is the habit of life in a normal Christian. His first and last impulse is to trust. He begins by trusting and repetition of the act of trust produces the habit of trust, so that it is the normal state for him to say “I will trust and not be afraid.”

Tuesday

“Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed” Psalm 37:3.

Trust and work go hand in hand. There is a time to be still and hear the word of God, and there is a time to hustle and do the works of God. One without the other is dead, at least ineffective. The law of business prosperity is “Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

Wednesday

“Though he slay me yet will I trust Him” Job 13:15.

Shall we trust only when we receive the good things of life? Trust is adjusted to the ills of life. In fact it does not become real trust until we get where we cannot see the outcome, then trust becomes a triumphant force in our lives. No matter what comes, I will trust that it is the Father’s good purpose to give me the kingdom.

Thursday

“Put not your trust in princes, men, Egypt, riches, yourselves” Psalm 146:3, et al.

How true all this record is. Most of us have proved it. We have trusted in friends – they have failed us. We have trusted in people in position (princes) – they have failed us. We have trusted in money – it has vanished away. There remains God, the same always. All other trust proves vain. He never fails.

Friday

“The bow shall be seen in the cloud” Genesis 9:14.

The rainbow of trust has seven colors; they are defense, deliverance, security, guidance, prosperity, perfect peace, a joyful heart. You will find them in the Bible, and you ought to find them in your own life. The old fable of a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow is fulfilled in this rainbow of trust.

Saturday

“Go, and Jehovah shall be with thee” 1 Samuel 17:37.

Consider David as exemplifying trust. Facing the giant whom no man in Israel dared engage in combat. Declaring that he went forth trusting in the arm of the Lord his God. The giant believed that the Lord was on the side of the strongest man. David said that trust made him the victor. The giant confessed that such a thing never entered his head before. Consider Jehosaphat, and Shadrach, and Joseph, and all those who have trusted in God’s vindication, and you will not be greatly moved.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Fear Cure

Sunday

“Fear not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee” Isaiah 41:10.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear” Psalm 27:1.

God is the remedy for fear. Dwell upon the fact of your oneness with Him. Ascend into the consciousness of a divine life, meditate upon this truth. Affirm it until you pass from objective affirmation into subjective experience, and you will find yourself living above the fogs. Calm and secure from the menace of the specters of fear, safe behind this mighty breakwater, “I-I-I” against which the waves of danger and adversity dash in vain.

Monday

“Fear not Paul, for thou must be brought before Caesar” Acts 27:24.

A person with a destiny has naught to fear. Nothing can thwart God’s far-reaching purpose to manifest Himself in the human life. And He has some good purpose in your life. Find out what it is. Move forward to its accomplishment, and neither perils of land, nor sea, nor false brethren, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate you from His loving purpose.

Tuesday

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Psalm 25:14.

The secret of mathematics is with the mathematician. The secret of wisdom is with the understanding heart. The secret of the Lord is with them that reverently learn of Him. Be still and know Him. Let Him speak, or rather get still enough to hear what He is already saying. Maybe your humanness is making such a racket that you cannot hear the divine voice. Enter the Silence and He will teach thee His own secrets.

Wednesday

“Fear not Joseph – Fear not Mary” Matthew 1-20; Luke 1-30.

Find here the cure for the terrors of maternity. Who knows what manner of child this shall be. Know you not, shrinking one, that all generations may call you blessed; You are to give the world a new incarnation of God’s life. And for this joy you can endure your cross, despise the shame, and reign as a co-worker with God.

Thursday

“The fear of man brings a snare” Proverbs 29:25.

“The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me.” Job 3-25.

Fear paralyzes the nerve center of achievement. Fear gives hostages to the enemy, and opens the gates to the citadel of the soul. It invites all evil to come in, and offers a cup of tea and wafers as a bid to come again. The question of the Old Testament is – “Where art thou?” Fear – hiding from God. The first question of the New Testament is – “Where is He?” Love – returning to God to worship.

Friday

“God so loved the world that He gave” John 3-16.

“How shall He not freely give us all things” Romans 8-32.

“Perfect Love casts out fear” 1 John 4-18.

Every poison has its antidote. Every poisonous moral idea has its antidote. Love is the antidote for fear. Grasp the greatness of a love that includes all things for its object. Get the language of loving which is giving. Think of Infinite love pouring into your life freely of all things needful, and ask yourself where there is room for fear or anxiety as to food, raiment, safety or aught else. Perfect love casts out fear.

Saturday

“Might serve Him without fear” Luke 1:74.

Think of the people who all their lives are in bondage to fear – when the Magna Charta of the Christian faith guarantees the right to live free from fear. One fears for the order of things – God lives. Another fears for the faith – Truth never dies. One fears for the Church – The gates of hell cannot prevail against the real Church of Christ, for He ever lives in it. “Lo, I am with you always” – and that is enough.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Comfort

Sunday

“Thy merciful kindness is for my comfort” Psalm 119-76.

“For as high as the heavens is above the earth. So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.” Psalm 103:11.

Our hope is in His mercy. It is a great hope. And it reaches to that hidden heart of things within the veil where only the eye of the spirit sees. His mercy and kindness are bounded by the heavens above, all depths beneath, and by the East and West on either side. Travel which way you will there are no bounds. Topless, bottomless. boundless is the spiritual geography of God’s mercy and kindness. It cannot fail, and it cannot miss you.

Monday

“The Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort” 2 Corinthians 1:3.

“I, even I, am He that comforts you” Isaiah 51:12.

“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort thee” Isaiah 66:13.

The Comforter Himself, a person with all the insignia of personality, Consciousness, Character and Will. The God of the true faith of all ages. And not a blind, heartless, soulless, purposeless principle. “I, even I.” You have to do with somebody, and he cares, and great is the comfort.

Tuesday

“In the comfort of the Holy Ghost” Acts 9:3.

“He shalt give you another comforter” John 14:16.

“But the Comforter the Holy Ghost” John 14:25.

“When the Comforter is come” John 15:26.

The official comforter. The need of the world is so great that we are given an official manifestation of the person of God whose supreme work is to comfort His people. He does it by guiding us into all truth and the truth makes us free. He takes the things of Jesus and shows them to us, specially revealing our oneness with the Father which guarantees us the inheritance of all things now. The comforter abides with us forever. We read of the wrath of God and of the Lamb, but never of the Comforter. He is never angry. He never fails. His gentleness shall make thee great.

Wednesday

“The comfort of the Scriptures” Romans 15:4.

“Thy rod and staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4.

“Comfort one another with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:15.

“This is my comfort –Thy word” Psalm 119:50.

His word is our comfort. It is the organized experiences of His people. It is the story of His unfolding in the consciousness of the race. And with one voice they bid us hope in Him for comfort. Even the rod of affliction turns out to be the staff of strength. The darkest night rejoices in the outgoings of the morning. Sorrow so deep that it hides between soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow is pierced and illumined by His word of comfort. It is not alone His word to Isaiah or Daniel but His word to thee.

Thursday

“Daughter, be of good comfort, thy Faith hath saved thee” Matthew 9:22.

“And to comfort you concerning your faith” 1 Thessalonians 3:2.

Comfort is according to your faith. Ye believe in God, believe ye also in His indwelling in flesh in you. Repeat the incarnation in yourself. Translate it put of creeds into daily life. Express today something of the love, peace, patience of God. You can do it if you only believe you can, and get busy, and you will find one of the great surprises of life. The language of faith is–”It shall be done;” And your experience shall answer, “It is.”

Friday

“Comfort ye – my people” Isaiah 40:1.

“We were comforted in your comfort” 2 Corinthians 7:13.

The best way to find comfort is to find someone who is in greater need of it than yourself, and comfort them. You can find them, plenty of them in whose presence you will say, “my trouble is nothing compared to this.” And as you speak the comforting word it reacts upon yourself. The heart of the wise person is in the house of mourning. It is a grand central station on the trunk line of comfort.

Saturday

“The servants of David came to comfort him” 1 Chronicles 19:2.

“To comfort them concerning their brother” John 11:19.

“His sons rose up to comfort him” Genesis 37:35.

The noblest ministry of this life is to be a comforter. To this are we all called. To speak the helpful word; to press with strength the weak hand; to bear up the faltering step; to sing the inspiring song; to be calm in the presence of trouble; to send out over turbulent wind and wave the thought, “peace, be still.” Do this and you will fulfill the mission of a comforter , and great will be your own comfort.

 

Daily Meditations for a Week: Peace

Sunday

“Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace.” Job 22-21.

Today is a day of peace. The sound of toil is hushed. Business reposes. The Social whirl gives respite. Tired Nature whispers peace. Ten thousand sanctuaries breathe “peace on earth.” Remember the Sanctuary. Turn thither thy footsteps, be glad when they say “Let us enter the house of the Lord.” Or, lacking that, turn thy thought into the temple of the Holy Ghost–thy body. Entering either say, “The Lord is in His Holy temple.” Yes, he is there. “Keep silence before him.” Learn to be still before him, so that you may hear the “still, small voice,” and receive “those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul.” Get acquainted by hearing of Him out of the Bible, the record of his character and resources as unfolded to and through his people. Learn of him by this volume of organized experiences of the race. Catch the spirit of Praise and triumph in the Gloria, the Sanctus, and the Hallelujahs! Count yourself in, and one with them; one with Him. Come forth to walk with Him, and the “Peace of God that passes all understanding” shall go with you and keep you.

Monday

“Great peace have they that love thy Law” Psalm 119:165.

Today the wheels of industry start again. How shall we do the most with the least wear and tear? By respect to the law of cause and effect. Love of His law is the cause. Great peace is the effect. To know his law is to love it and keep it. Know the law for thy body–regular habits religiously followed, plain, wholesome food, pure water, fresh air, vigorous exercise, rest, and sound sleep. Incline thy heart to keep this law, and so shall you “live, move and have your being in Him,” and you will have great peace in your body. Know and keep the law of prosperity, viz: “Be diligent in business, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord,” “for it is the Lord that teaches thee to get money.” “Honor the Lord with thy Substance and so shall thy presses break forth with new wine.” Count thyself the Steward of God’s riches and he shall prosper thee. Keep the law of thy mind, by bringing every thought into subjection unto Christ. Keep thy mind free from hurry by remembering that sufficient unto the day is the task thereof. Do your duties like the clock–a tick at a time. Keep your heart free from worry by knowing that “no man by worrying can add a cubit to his stature.” What have you of duty or possession that is not from him, and will be returned to him when you are done with it. He does not demand success. He only asks faithfulness, and gives the success as effect follows cause.

Tuesday

“Peace I leave with you” John 14:27.

Don’t wait for some rich relative to die! Here is a bequest, the greatest thing in the world. And it is yours. Claim it as yours by right. Make it yours by choice. Claim it in full. Move in and take full possession with all that you are and have. Rise to the height of a great decision. Say with Moses “there shall not be a hoof left behind.” Begin now to think and to act as the heir, the inheritor, the possessor. Do it now.

Wednesday

“My peace I give unto you” John 14:27.

Today a great gift is yours. You don’t have to work for it, nor earn it, nor pay for it, nor persuade the Master to give it. It is already given. It is yours. Receive it and say “thank you.” You always do that don’t you when a gift is bestowed? Begin to enjoy it. “My peace.” What matters now if pharisees deride; if enemies criticize; or even friends find fault? Calmly shall you move through it all, kept in the same peace that kept Him. Friends fail and desert. Critics are harsh and say you are crazy. Religious authorities call you a heretic, earthly tribunals are unjust. He held his peace. And his peace shall hold you.

Thursday

“Peace be multiplied unto you by the knowledge of God” 2 Pet. 1-2.

The mathematics of peace. The size of the product of the two numbers depends on the size of the multiplier and the character depends on the multiplicand. Glorious Beatitude – peace. Tremendous multiplier – the Knowledge of God. Mark you, it is multiplied not by God, but by the knowledge of God – your knowledge of Him. What do you know of Him, His character as read in the experiences of his people? His resources as seen in those who are his? Be still, and let him speak to thee: or rather be still and hear what he has so long been speaking. Hear the whispers of fathomless love; catch the theme of his matchless Grace – feel the uplift of Infinite strength; note the pathos of endless patience; join in the Te Deum of his excellent Glory. The power is within you to know these, and then watch the sum of peace being magnified in your life.

Friday

“Peace, be still” Mark 4-39.

Say you it is the day of trouble? Things go wrong. Nerves are unstrung. Bad day for journeys, business undertakings? All the venerable hoodoos of superstition walk today and make it Black Friday. Nay rather call it Good Friday – a day on which long ago unselfish life was glorified. Meet Friday superstitions, which lash into foam the surface of things and hurl breakers against your frail craft threatening to engulf it, with the mighty, authoritative command of the Christ within you – “Peace” be still” – and there will be a great calm in your tempestuous life and the poise of your soul will be undisturbed.

Saturday

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee” Isaiah 26-3.

Today the tangled ends of the week’s undertakings must be gathered and woven into some permanence. That which is done or undone we must leave under lock and key. Out of it the treasures of other weeks shall grow, with all its good or otherwise. Good Master, I must leave it with thee, trusting that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” My imagination is stayed on perfection. My trust lays hold of the rock of ages and on this tree of trust grows the fruit of peace. Perfect trust brings perfect peace. Trust and keep right on trusting. It is a habit. Get the habit and peace shall clothe thee as a garment. And all life’s Saturdays shall close in peace.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: The Unity of Life

(Begin the day with a silent prayer, and take the verse for the day with the thought for affirmation, and let the mind return to it many times during the day. At night offer a prayer of thanks for the help received.)

1. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” Deuteronomy 6:4.
   My life’s search for life, love, health and peace begin with Him and end with Him.
2. “There is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all” Ephesians 4:6.
   God is without and within us, moving like the pressure of the atmosphere, equally in all directions.
3. “Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God which works in you both to will and to do” Philippians 2:12-13.
   Every impulse and purpose in the right direction is God using you as the instrument of His expression.
4. “We are made partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4.
   Whatever of life, or health, or love, or peace, power there is in God is also in us.
5. “Stir up the gift that is in thee” 2 Timothy 1:6.
   Get your faith into action by believing the truth, and power will rise up within you which you may direct to achieve any desired end.
6. “The mystery hid from ages . . . but now revealed . . . Christ in you, the hope of glory” Colossians 1:6-7.
   Conscious oneness with God is the Christ in you – the divine anointing.
7. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” Philippians 4:13.
   The Christing–the divine anointing, puts the limitless forces of God to work within you.
8. “I live and yet not I, but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20.
   Conscious oneness with God fills the body with health, the mind with peace, and the spirit with love.
9. “That they may be one as we are one” John 17:22.
   The oneness is a fact now. Accept it, realize it, and live in its conscious power.
10. “Concerning the works of my hands command ye me” Isaiah 45:11.
    Accept the fact of your right to command the divine forces, and prison doors will open before you.
11. “All power in heaven and earth is given me” Matthew 28:18.
    Full divine consciousness is followed by the sense of power to master all things.
12. “Ye shall receive power (dynamite) , after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you” Acts 1:8.
    Master spiritual dynamics and you “shall thrash the mountains” of difficulty into nothingness.
13. “These signs shall follow in them that believe” Mark 16:17.
    As surely as we accept the truth as it is shown to us, rather than “the traditions of the elders,” we shall manifest the conquest signs.
14. “If any man wills to do his will he shall know of the doctrine” John 7:17.
    Knowledge of the Mighty God is bedded in the purpose to do what he tells us to do.
15. “I am among you as one who serves” Luke 22:27.
    This is the secret formula of genius. Service is the loyal highway to self-mastery.
16. “The Lord working with them, with signs following” Mark 16:20.
    God works best with a busy person, and gets the best results with trained efficiency.
17. “We are co-workers with God” 1 Corinthians 3:9.
    Trust God to do His part, and see that you do yours.
18. “Come apart and rest awhile” Mark 6:31.
    Power moves inward when we rest and outward when we work. The time relation is as, one to seven.
19. “I will turn aside and see this great sight” Exodus 3:3.
    Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. It is the secret of all charm. Curiosity about anything may lead one to become its devotee.
20. “I will show him how great things he must endure for my name’s sake” Acts 9:16.
    The greatest victory is apt to be near the heaviest firing. Conflict points the way to triumph.
21. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” Romans 5:20.
    There is hope in the worst situation. Get your attention fixed on the loving favor of God. It will react on you and on your problem.
22. “I am the Lord that heals thee” Exodus 15:26.
    Turn your eye to the High and Uplifted One, and unspoilable health will ride back to you over the visional track.
23. “That which may be known of God is seen in us” Romans 1:18.
    A good man or woman is the latest information about God’s character.
24. “The invisible things of God . . . are clearly seen in the created world” Romans 1:19.
    The material world is God’s organism wherein His nature may be read.
25. “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10.
    Relaxation and receptivity have their fruitage in knowledge and power.
26. “I will hear what the. Lord will speak” Numbers 9:8.
    God is always speaking to us if we will but stop talking long enough to hear Him.
27. “I have made thee a prince” 1 Kings 16:12.
    God is the universal Servitor. Give Him a chance at your problems, for they are really His.
28. “Thy gentleness hath made me great” Psalm 18:35.
    If gentleness, or love, or faithfulness are apparent in you, it is God finding expression in you.
29. “Thine eye beheld me and I am nothing” Job 7:8.
    The nihilism of relative, material things is apparent when our eyes steadfastly behold Him, the Absolute reality.
30. “God was not in the earthquake, wind nor fire, but in the still small voice” 1 Kings 19:11-12.
    Noise is not power. The silent forces are the mighty forces. Rely on the still small voice.
31. “Thou hast made him a little less than God” Psalm 8:15.
    I am God-like in my nature and becomes God-like in my character by learning and doing the will of God.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: The Ever Present Friend

(Begin the day with a silent prayer, and take the verse for the day with the thought for affirmation, and let the mind return to it many times during the day. At night offer a prayer of thanks for the help received.)

Day

1. “And Enoch walked with God” Genesis 5:24.
   To walk with God we must “keep step” with God. This means to do his will as he shows it to us, which is the kingdom of heaven within us.
2. “And I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord” Zechariah 2:10.
   He is the unseen guest ever with me to give strength and comfort.
3. “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done” John 15:7.
   This is a double abiding for which we are responsible, and conditioned upon which we may exercise unlimited authority.

4.“The Lord is in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil any more” Zephaniah 3:15.
The sense of the living presence banishes all sense of evil.

5. “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him” John 14:23.
   I do the will of God because I love Him, and do not fear Him, and I am filled with the Consciousness that He is ever near.
6. “The Temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” 1 Corinthians 3:17.
   Keep your body filled with the health of God by remembering that he dwells in you, and He is health.
7. “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” Revelation 21:3.
   God has come down out of the skies where the thought of men had enthroned him, and makes his home with us.
8. “I in them and thou in me” John 17:21.
   Oneness with him is an eternal fact. The Christing, or anointing is the becoming conscious of the fact.
9. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ” 1 John 1:3.
   Christian fellowship is a sharing or participation in the activities of our God. I have a vital interest in all that transpires in the Divine consciousness.
10. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20.
    He is always with every believer, but the sense of his presence is magnified by the multiplication of believers. It is good both to be alone, and to go up to the house of the Lord.
11. “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me and I in you” John 14:20.
    Here is a triple indwelling which makes us a part of His life as our finger is part of the hand.
12. “Christ in you, the hope of Glory” Colossians 1:27.
    This is the mystery hidden from ages, and now made known to us as the consciousness of oneness with God.
13. “Not live, but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20.
    The identification of my life with him makes me partaker of the nature, the life, the health, and the abundance of God.
14. “We are made partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4.
    The gift of his life makes us to participate in the nature and character of God, for peace, and love, and health, and goodness.
15. “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” Galatians 5:25.
    If we dwell in the peace of God, then we shall manifest the peace of God. What we are inwardly, we naturally express outwardly.
16. “In him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28.
    We live in him; He does not live apart from us. Whatever is found in him we expect to find in us.
17. “And hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” Ephesians 1:3.
    All the abundance of God is now yours, not to be asked for, but received and appropriated to your use.
18. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.
    The great spiritual bank note. It is payable over and over day after day.
19. “Whatsoever things are good, true, pure, of good report, think on these things” Philippians 4:8.
    Paul was a charter member of the New Thoughters. This sort of thinking brings the peace of God to the thinker.
20. “Rejoice in the Lord always” Philippians 4:4.
    The joy of the Lord is your strength. Rejoice in tribulation, in trial, in sorrow or whatsoever state, for God shall turn your rejoicing to strength.
21. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” Philippians 2:5.
    The full consciousness of God makes its possessor humbly offer it to the service of humanity. “I am among you as one who serves.”
22. “This one thing I do” Philippians 3:13.
    Concentration on one thing is the sure way to success.
23. “I am become all things to all men” 1 Corinthians 9:22.
    Variety and diversion keep the soul fresh and sweet.
24. “There is spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding” Job. 32:8.
    This is a personal message to me. He giveth me understanding for every undertaking. He goes before me making smooth my path.
25. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me.” Luke 4:18.
    The spirit of knowledge, and of wisdom and of a sound mind is upon me because of the anointing–the Christing.
26. “He shall take the things of mine and show them unto you” John 16:14.
    I listen while the Spirit shows me how the Spirit who dwelled in Jesus of Nazareth dwells in everyone, and will lead us to the consciousness that we are children of God.
27. “He will guide you into all truth” John 16:13.
    He leads me step at a time, giving light on the pathway just ahead, and like a headlight moves forward as I follow.
28. “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day” Revelation 1:10.
    The only way we shall be able to see or hear the Lord speak is to find times to be in the spirit.
29. “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10.
    He is always speaking, but I must still the humanity of me, so that I may hear the Divinity speak within me.
30. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak” Psalm 85:8.
    I see what I will to see and hear what I will to hear, and I receive the message of truth that I may pass it on to others.
31. “The voice of one calling in the wilderness.” John 1:23.
    I am the voice of the Divine Harmonies, the agent of the Divine Love, the vibration of the Divine Life. I go out freely to all of God’s world.

Daily Meditation for a Month: Help

1. “My help comes from the Lord which made heaven and earth” Psalm 121:2.
   Look thou my soul, not to earthy hills or shrines, but with uplifted vision behold Him who is thy Salvation.
2. “Our sufficiency is of God” 2 Corinthians 3:5.
   In His unwasting fulness is all abundance for my every need, which He now supplies.
3. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning” James 1:17.
   It comes down! In some deeply mystical sense God is from above. He has never spoken the last word, nor made the final gift. He is always coming down.
4. “If God be for us, who can be against us” Romans 8:31.
   God who is all power, all wisdom, all knowledge, is on my side. Therefore all I have in hand shall succeed.
5. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” Philippians 2:13.
   I am identified with God in all my undertakings, therefore I am satisfied with all my hands find to do.
6. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork” Psalm 19:1.
   God’s glory and His handiwork find their end and completeness in me, for I bear His image.
7. “All things were made by Him” John 1:3.
   God is the Omni–the All. There is none beside Him. All creative sustaining power is in Him.
8. “That which was made was life in Him” John 1:3-4 (Greek Text).
   He is the Absolute reality-the fundamental substance, out of which I have come.
9. “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” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
   Having come from Him, I am returning to Him, plus a character achieved in the flesh.
10. “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” 1 Corinthians 2:10.
    I am not left in doubt as to the future, for I shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness, having all or more than I hoped or claimed.
11. “He that hath this hope in him purifies himself as He is pure” 1 John 3:3.
    Keeping the uplifted vision fixed on Him, all my dark unlikeness to Him, drops away.
12. “And God saw everything that He had made and beheld it was very good” Genesis 1:31.
    Goodness is fundamental and eternal; badness is superficial and temporal. Everything is essentially good, for God pronounced it good before badness arose out of misuse.
13. “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about His people forever” Psalm 125:2.
    More real and certain than the everlasting hills, is the protecting presence.
14. “He that keeps Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep” Psalm 121:3.
    I must work and rest, waken and sleep, but His keeping care is over me every moment.
15. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” Psalm 23:1.
    He is the unwasting abundance in whom I find work, rest, good, guidance, love and health.
16. “There is no God like Thee” 1 Kings 8:23.
    I am His servant, therefore His covenant stands fast, and His mercy is everlasting, while I walk before Him with all my heart.
17. “Fear not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will keep thee, yea I will uphold thee” Isaiah 41:10.
    I-I-I. These three I’s stand as a mighty breakwater against which the waves of adversity break before they can reach me.
18. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” Isaiah 40:3.
    I am to bear witness always to others of His goodness, so that when He comes to them and speaks, they will hear and welcome Him.
19. “He makes my way perfect” 2 Samuel 22:23.
    He makes every rough way smooth, every crooked way straight, every dark way light, so I walk with all certainty.
20. “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness” John 1:23.
    I am a voice – a chariot of vibration in which His truth rides forth triumphantly. It is He who sings, speaks, works and loves in me.
21. “Enoch walked with God” Genesis 5:24.
    With greater light, I walk with Him, having divine companionship, divine guidance, and divine protection.
22. “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3.
    I walk with Him, keep step with Him. He accommodates His step to mine. I learn to walk with Him by trying to walk.
23. “They that be for us, are more than all they that be against us” 2 Kings 6:16.
    Keep Thou my vision opened to always see Thee and Thine unnumbered hosts round about me.
24. “The Angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them” Psalm 34:7.
    His messenger is ever near to open prison doors, lock the lions’ mouths, smooth the stormy waves, and show me the way out of danger.
25. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” Philippians 4:13.
    My strength, multiplied by His, will help me solve every problem of today, and every day.
26. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures” Psalm 23:2.
    Green is the restful color and His presence clothes the desert places with living green, so that r find perfect rest in Him.
27. “Come apart, and rest awhile” Mark 6:31.
    Learn thou my soul a lesson from my heart which rests as it works. Find the moments to look upward and inward, apart from the things of thy life.
28. “Give ye them to eat” Mark 6:37.
    Share your little and find abundance. Speak your word or sing your song, and it will refresh others and bless you.
29. “Six days shalt thou labor and do ail thy work” Exodus 20:9.
    Every moment of mine is thine O Lord, but one seventh of it is thine for rest and worship and service, in keeping which law I have great success.
30. “Wist ye not I would be in my Father’s house” Luke 2:49.
    I delight in the Lord’s house and in His Service, and expect my friends to look for me there.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: Peace

1. “Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace” Job 22:21.
   In the Silence with Him, I learn the law of peace.
2. “Great peace have they that love thy law” Psalm 119:165.
   Thy law, O God, is sweeter than honeycomb, for in keeping it, I have great peace.
3. “Peace I leave with you” John 14:27.
   I am the heir to the peace which passes understanding, and I receive now my heritage and dwell in it.
4. “My peace I give unto you” John 14:27.
   I am kept calm and poised in the likeness of Him Who is the Prince of Peace.
5. “Peace be multiplied unto you by the knowledge of God” 2 Peter 1:2.
   Teach me that Thy way is my way; that Thy peace may be magnified in me.
6. “Peace, be still” Mark 4:39.
   In the hour of trouble, in the day of grief, in the presence of all adversity, I will be still and hear Him speak from the great central throne within – “peace, be still!”
7. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee” Isaiah 26:3. When nerves are jangled, and worries have come, I fix my steadfast trust on Thee, and keep right on trusting, and am kept in perfect peace.
8. “I came, not to send peace, but a sword” Matthew 10:34.
   I will be valiant to fight against wrong, that it may be conquered, and righteous peace ensue.
9. “The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” Romans 16:20.
   Be strong my soul, to follow the God of battle until everlasting peace be established.
10. “If it be possible, live peaceably with all men” Romans 12:18.
    I will live peaceably with all men and under all conditions, so long as I can obey the still, small voice of right within me.
11. “Blessed are the peace makers” Matthew 5:9.
    Crown with Thy beatitude every soldier, sailor, aviator, gun and sword, which thou hast ordained to establish the kingdom of peace.
12. “To guide our feet into the way of peace” Luke 1:79.
    Though I be led through hunger and trial and the storm of battle, surely Thou wilt keep my feet in the way of peace, and eventually establish peace on the earth.
13. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them that publish peace” Isaiah 52:7.
    Be not disturbed, my soul, thy God reigns, and thy sons shall return to thee, bringing peace with them.
14. “The Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end” Isaiah 9:6-7.
    Hasten the day Thou Mighty Man of War, until Thy democracy shall fill the earth with a divinely wrought peace.
15. “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved” Psalm 125:1.
    I rest my feet on the bedrock of Being, the source of immovable strength, and I shall not be greatly moved.
16. “Thou are my trust from my youth” Psalm 71:5.
    Trust is the habit of my life, and no matter what comes, I am kept safely.
17. “Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed” Psalm 37:3.
    I will trust with my heart and work with my hands. I will hear the words of God and do the works of God, and so shall all abundance be mine.
18. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” Job 13:15.
    My trust gives me adjustment to every experience of life, and becomes a triumphant force in me.
19. “Put not your trust in princes-men-Egypt- riches-yourselves.” (Various texts.)
    All these fail me, but Thou remain the same in Thy good purpose to give me the kingdom.
20. “I do set my bow in the cloud” Genesis 9:13.
    The rainbow of trust with its seven colors of defense, deliverance, security, guidance, prosperity, perfect peace and a joyful heart, holds me securely in Thy unfailing goodness.
21. “Under His wing shalt thou trust” Psalm 91:4.
    Lift up thine inward vision, my soul, to discern His protecting presence.
22. “The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1.
    Day by day I keep my eyes fixed, not on human weakness, but on Almighty strength.
23. “Thou hast girded me with strength unto battle” Psalm 18:39.
    Forget not, my soul, that underneath and around about me are the everlasting arms, to make me triumph in the battle against weakness, pain, and sin.
24. “They go from strength to strength” Psalm 84:7.
    The secret of continued strength, is to appear before Thee day by day in the courts of Thy sanctuary.
25. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble” Psalm 46:1.
    Wherever I shall be this day, I shall remember that my life is hid with Christ in Thee.
26. “Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord Thy God is with thee, wherever thou go” Joshua 1:9.
    The secret of my strength and courage is, that Thy never failing presence goes with me.
27. “They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength” Isaiah 40:31.
    In my leisure, and activity, and aspiration, my inner vision shall steadfastly behold Thee, and so shall my strength be renewed.
28. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” Nehemiah 8:10.
    The secret of my joy is in knowing that Thy matchless grace supplies my every need, and I will rejoice therein and be strong.
29. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” Philippians 4:13.
    I realize my oneness with Thee and the source of all strength is within me.
30. “That He would grant you to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” Ephesians 3:16.
    Because Thy divine anointing is upon me, Thou come out of the everywhere into the here, and make me partaker of unfailing strength.

Daily Meditation for a Month: The Great Sayings of Jesus

1. “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” Matthew 9:13.
   I hear the great call to change my mind: To think Good rather than evil, Health rather than disease, Love rather than fear, Plenty rather than want. My imagination is stayed on perfection.
2. “Before Abraham was, I am” John 8:58.
   I AM because God is. I did not begin and cannot end. I am permanent among changing things.
3. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” John 14:9.
   As the oak is potentially in the acorn, so is the life of the Father potentially in me waiting to be vitalized by the sunshine of love and watered by joyful service to others.
4. “I and the Father are one” John 10:30.
   There is one Life in which I am held safely forever. This is the source of my health, happiness and prosperity. He abides in me and I in Him. This double abiding is the assurance of an inseparable unity.
5. “Blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” Matthew 5:3.
   Humbleness of spirit and greatness of consciousness and life are related as cause and effect. Oh, Divine Master, help me to serve in humility, knowing the greatness of the power that works in me.
6. “Lazarus, come forth” John 11:43.
   No walls of earth can hold in bondage my living spirit. Lions mouths are locked at thy spoken word. The sharpness of sword and fierceness of flame are quenched at thy mandate. Thou didst speak and it was done. So I will learn to speak thy word with authority.
7. “Suffer it to be so now” Matthew 3:15.
   Whatever of service or sacrifice thou sendest me, I accept. My joys are sent by thee. I accept. In my troubles thou dost hide a secret meaning for me to learn. I accept.
8. “I will make you fishers of men” Matthew 4:19.
   As I grow into new consciousness, I need the power of adaptation that I may use my new opportunity of service. Thy commission to serve is also the promise of power to perform.
9. “Feed my sheep” John 21:16.
   Keep my vision clear this day to discover the hungry soul who shall come to me in thy name. In serving him I shall serve thee.
10. “Woman, behold thy son” John 19:26.
    My true relationships are born not of blood nor the will of men, but of thy living spirit. In his wisdom all these that live and move are my brethren and command my love.
11. “This is my blood of the New Testament!” Mark 14:24.
    Help me to catch the secret symbolism of all material forms. Let me see their true meaning, and be strengthened by their sacramental content. That my body is the reflection of Thy ideas. That all acts and things have significance reaching into the spiritual and eternal.
12. “Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you” John 6:53.
    Unless this truth which was made flesh and blood in him, be made flesh and blood in me I have no abiding life. This truth is that all life is divine, that I am one with God, and have life abundant in him.
13. “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites” Luke 11:44.
    Let me be a lover of Reality rather than appearance, of Spirit rather than form, of Possession rather than profession, of Apostolic Success rather than Apostolic Succession, the Inner rather than the outer. So shall I be the son/daughter of God.
14. “Oh, Jerusalem, slayer of the prophets” Matthew 23:37.
    Defend me from the danger of localizing Thee. Keep me in the truth that thou are not found in the holy places of earth, but in the still small voice that speaks within.
15. “I, if I be lifted up” John 12:32.
    Help me day by day to behold Thee, not crucified and suffering, but glorified and reigning. Help me to lift Thee up in every thought and imagination of my heart, that I may see Thee only.
16. “Give ye them to eat” Mark 6:37.
    Give me wisdom to build a guest chamber in my heart, that shall see thee in every child of humanity, that I may minister to them, and so serve thee.
17. “Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father” Matthew 10:29.
    Thou carest for the sparrow, the ravens, the grass – nothing is too small to miss thy care. And thou carest for me! Come what may, as long as one who understands carest, I am content and can walk in peace.
18. “Why callest thou me good?” Matthew 19:17.
    Oh, humblest of men, thou are the divinest of friends! Thou dost not desire the worship that belongs only unto God. Thou are goodness embodied, the pride of my small attainment is rebuked.
19. “Which of you convinces me of sin” John 8:46.
    Help me to catch the same vision of the Father ever with me that whatever my acts may appear to be, there shall be no sin in my soul. That there may rise up, always the sense of thy perfect wholeness within me!
20. “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee” Matthew 16:17.
    The same power that illumined Peter shines in me, and the power within Peter to perceive and confess thy divinity is also in me. Some silent voice within proclaims” thou art the Son of God.
21. “She hath done a good work” Matthew 26:10.
    Mary’s anointing was a work of love and overtopped all that even the greatest of his disciples could do. Little did she dream that her humble service of love would win so great approval. Let me see that every service I render has consequences, reaching into eternity.
22. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10.
    Thy will is forever done, for there is no will but thine. All that is good is by thy will. Let my every act and thought and desire be for good, and so shall it be that my will is thy will.
23. “Mine hour is not yet come” John 2:4.
    Blessed Master, thy humanity speaks to me in these words, as I too, often shrink from the duty that I must eventually do. I shrink at the step that shall place me in the whirlpool of criticism, and opposition, yet when the hour comes to act, let me act as thou didst.
24. “Unto this end was I born” John 18:37.
    In some wide sense let me also feel that thy great plan included me, and that I came to do a specific work, which however small I may fulfill with joy.
25. “Suffer little children to come unto me” Mark 10:14.
    When I look to the mighty let me remember that thy standard is seen in the little child at my side. When I aspire, to greatness, let me find the child’s spirit and I shall be safe.
26. “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:36.
    Against that hour when the senses shall be overwhelmed with pain and my body sink in weakness, keep my vision clear that thou art near to uphold me.
27. “It is finished” John 19:30.
    No shame so great as the unfinished task. No glory like having carried out the divinely appointed work. All difficulty, and all sorrow and loss are crowned with joy in fulfilling thy work. Help, me to finish my course with joy.
28. “Surely I come quickly” Revelation 22:20.
    Surely thou hast come and art ever coming. I hear the whisperings of thy Spirit in the night seasons. I hear thy call again at the morning and evening and at noonday, when thy children of need and suffering seek for thy help. On the mountain and in the valley, in dark hours and glorious illumination, something within cries it is the Lord, and thou hast come again.

Daily Meditation for a Month: Omnipresence

Rev. Joseph H. Darling

“Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” Matthew 1:23.

Realize: Omnipresence.

For each text, in the Silence ask: What do these words mean? What is their message to me? What do they prompt me to do, for Thee, and for Thine?

Day

1. “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” Exodus 33:14.
   God is with me always. He is my rest.
2. “Glory and honor are in his presence; strength and gladness are in His place” 1 Chronicles 16:27.
   His presence is everywhere. His place is here. Glory, honor, strength and gladness are mine with Him.
3. “Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength” 1 Chronicles 16:28.
   I am called to work with Him, and for His own people.
4. “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein” 1 Chronicles 16:32.
   All nature joins with me in the great song of life.
5. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever” 1 Chronicles 16:34.
   In thanking Him I appropriate His goodness. In praising Him I am made worthy 0f His loving ministrations.
6. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord” 1 Chronicles 16:36.
   His name should be hallowed upon earth as it is in heaven, and will be.
7. “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” Hebrews 9:24.
   The high priest once a year presenting himself before God in the holy of holies in behalf of the people, but faintly prefigured this great act for us. Let us praise Him and magnify Him forever.
8. “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” Psalm 16:11.
   To follow the path of life with Him is joy now and forever more.
9. “Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men; Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence” Psalm 31:19-20.
   There, I am secure from all strife and controversy.
10. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence” Psalm 51:10-11.
    He creates and renews, now and forever. In Him, I create and renew.
11. “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory” Psalm 97:5-6.He is everywhere present, all people see His glory.
12. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: and come before His presence with singing” Psalm 100:1-2.
    We are always in His presence; in His presence is great joy.
13. “Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” Psalm 100:3.
    This is the knowledge that transcends all knowledge.
14. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name” Psalm 11:4.
    Only, with praise and thanksgiving can I realize His presence.
15. “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations” Psalm 100:5.
    The goodness of God, and His mercy, and His truth, are ours now and forever.
16. “That no flesh should glory in His presence” 1 Corinthians 1:29.
    God’s call is only to the spirit, but, its effect is everywhere, and in all things.
17. “Punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” 2 Thessalonians 1:9.
    The only punishment is not to realize His presence.
18. “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet” Nahum 1:3.
    All things show forth His power.
19. “He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers . . . The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein” Nahum 1:4-5.
    This is all for our good, that we may be awakened unto a consciousness of His presence.
20. “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble, and he knows them that trust in Him” Nahum 1:7.
    His power is shown only for the good of humanity.
21. “His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hand; and there was the hiding of His power” Habbakuk 3:3-4.
    His power is ours, if we look unto Him always.
22. “Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet” Habbakuk 3:5.
    In His presence all discords are harmonized.
23. “He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did bow; His ways are everlasting” Habbakuk 3:6.
    His power must be acknowledged in all the earth, for the good of all.
24. “The mountains saw Thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high” Habbakuk 3:10.
    All nature joins with me in the praise of God.
25. “The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of Thine arrows they went, and at the shining of Thy glittering spear” Habbakuk 3:11.
    The whole universe acknowledges Him and His Truth.
26. “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” Habbakuk 3:18.
    He is my joy and my salvation.
27. “The Lord is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places” Habbakuk 3:19.
    His strength is mine, while I look unto Him.
28. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” Isaiah 61:10.
    In Him I have the fullness of joy.
29. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” 2 Corinthians 3:17.
    I am free in Him. Freedom is only in His presence.
30. “I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord” Matthew 25:23.
    In the joy of the Lord I rule many things. In His joy is all power.
31. “Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace!” Nahum 1:15.
    Good tidings for us. His peace is ours. He is everywhere present.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: Omnipotence

Rev. Joseph H. Darling

“God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect” 2 Samuel 22:33.

Realize: Omnipotence.

For each text, in Silence ask: What do these words mean? What is their message to, me? What do they prompt me to do, for Thee, and for Thine?

Day

1. “He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength” Isaiah 40:29.
   When despondent turn unto Him, He is our power, He is our strength.
2. “Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles” Acts 6:8.
   Grace, God’s loving help is ours, if we have faith. By the power of God we can do great wonders and miracles.
3. “The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” Romans 15:13.
   In the power of the Holy Spirit is our hope, and joy and peace in believing.
4. “Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy” Exodus 15:6.
   Thy right hand is power and protection unto us.
5. “God hath power to help” 2 Chronicles 25:8.
   If we go with Him, His power is ours.
6. “He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice, He will not afflict” Job 37:23.
   If we are afflicted, we afflict ourselves. He is love.
7. “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongs to God” Psalm 62:11.
   All power is in Him, in Him I am power.
8. “Which by His strength sets fast the mountains; being girded with power” Psalm 65:6.
   All power is His. Nature manifests His power in its changing beauty.
9. “He rules by His power forever: His eyes behold the nations” Psalm 66:7.
   His power and glory are forever and ever. Amen. For all, for me: mine.
10. “They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power” Psalm 145:11.
    Thy saints shall bless thee forever: Thy works shall bless thee forever. Let us join in this song of life, of eternal praise.
11. “Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” Ecclesiastes 8:4.
    The word of the king is audible here. Here is power.
12. “He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion” Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15.
    All things reflect His power, wisdom, and goodness.
13. “Truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord” Micah 3:8.
    By the spirit of the Lord only, have we power.
14. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” Zechariah 4:6.
    In the spirit of the Lord we can accomplish all things.
15. “They were astonished at His doctrine: for His word was with power” Luke 4:32.
    His doctrine is incomprehensible to all that do not know Him. Know Him, and He is yours, you are His.

16.“As He was teaching . . . there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them” Luke 5:17.
His power is present to heal all, the just and the unjust: that all may be one in Him.

17. “They were all amazed at the mighty power of God” Luke 9:43.
    All may well be amazed at His Power. All can receive of His power.
18. “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye . . . until ye be endued with power from on high” Luke 24:49.
    This promise was to the Apostles, who were to tarry at Jerusalem. It is also to us, and we are to tarry here. Power will come of the Holy Spirit.
19. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” John 1:12.
    If we receive Him, we become true sons of God, and fu1ly conscious of the divine relationship.
20. “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” 1 Corinthians 4:20.
    The kingdom of God is within us. I am power within myself.
21. “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” 1 Corinthians 15:43.
    The resurrection life is mine, with all its power and glory.
22. “What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” Ephesians 1:19.
    Know “what” this greatness of His power is, and it works within us, and for us.
23. “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection” Philippians 3:10.
    Surely, that is life eternal, to know Him and the power of His resurrection.
24. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a strong mind” 2 Timothy 1:7.
    The spirit of power, and of love, and of strength, is given to us all, by God Himself.
25. “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” Hebrews 1:3.
    He hath ascended, that we may ascend, and sit down with the Majesty on high.
26. “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” Hebrews 4:12.
    All power is Thine. As Thine, all power is mine.
27. “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty” Psalm 29:4.
    The Lord speaks. I listen, and receive power.
28. “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?” Job 9:4.
    There is no prosperity, except in doing His will.
29. “Lo, He doth send out His voice, and that a mighty voice” Psalm 68:33.
    I ascribe strength unto God, and I partake of His strength.
30. “Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory” Psalm 24:10.
    “The stars and the holy angels form the host of heaven, we are of the host here upon earth. His glory is ours.
31. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created” Revelation 4:11.
    Because of Thy will” we have all things. In the mind of the Lord all things have existed from all eternity. Eternity for us may be now.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: Omniscience

Rev. Joseph H. Darling

“Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart . . . And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing” 1 Kings 3:9-10.

Realize: Omniscience

For each text, in Silence ask: What do these words mean? What is their message to me? What do they prompt me to do, for Thee, and for Thine?

Day

1. “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He sees all his goings” Job 34:21.
   In Him is all wisdom, yet, He is with me in all my ways.
2. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory” Psalm 73:24.
   Divine guidance means progress from glory unto glory.
3. “Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed Thy commandments” Psalm 119:66.
   Faith in God means knowledge, power, and judgment. “Lord I believe.”
4. “O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me” Psalm 139:1.
   As I am known of Thee, so do I know Thee. I am wisdom.
5. “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understand my thought afar off” Psalm 139:2.
   Divine wisdom surrounds us all, everywhere and always. Be still! Know!
6. “Thou encompass my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” Psalm 139:3.
   All that is divine within us is always in operation. When we rest, we rest in Thee.
7. “There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether” Psalm 139:4.
   Surely, my words must be as light and truth upon the very path of life.
8. “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou are there” Psalm 139:8.
   God is everywhere present, heaven is everywhere: realize that fact. We punish ourselves by refusing to see Him. Be still and acquire vision.
9. “If I . . . dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me” Psalm 139:9-10.
   God is wisdom. He is everywhere present, with us all always.
10. “Yea, the darkness hides not from Thee; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee” Psalm 139:12.
    God is light. In his presence there is peace and joy forevermore.
11. “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knows right well” Psalm 139:14.
    If we know Him we will praise Him, and realize His power, even appropriate it.
12. “Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance” Psalm 139:16.
    In the mind of God we are perfect. To live is to bring forth perfection itself.
13. “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” Psalm 139:1.
    We live to make our thoughts precious unto God, and to realize the sum of His thoughts.
14. “If I should count (Thy thoughts), they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with Thee” Psalm 139:18.
    A wake or asleep I am with God Himself. His thoughts are all mine.
15. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts” Psalm 139:23.
    Search me, try me, that I may understand. Thou knowest all things.
16. “See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139:24.
    God alone leads me into the way everlasting. Thy way is perfect, O Lord!
17. “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels” Proverbs 1:5.
    If we are wise we will hear, We will know. Listen, God speaks.
18. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” Proverbs 1:7.
    In Him is all knowledge. True reverence begets knowledge.
19. “Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets” Proverbs 1:20.
    Wisdom cries unto us always, everywhere, even from within our very selves.
20. “Behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you” Proverbs 1:23.
    The more we receive of the wisdom of God, the more does He give unto us.
21. “For the Lord gives wisdom; out of His mouth comes knowledge and: understanding” Proverbs 2:6.
    The closer we are to God the greater our knowledge and understanding.
22. “He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly” Proverbs 2:7.
    Only as we are righteous may we hope to be wise.
23. “Hear ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding” Proverbs 4:1.
    God is our loving Father. To obey Him is to realize Omniscience.
24. “When wisdom enters into thine heart . . . discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee” Proverbs 2:10-11.
    Through the wisdom of God all things are ours.
25. “Whom the Lord loves He corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights” Proverbs 3:12.
    The apparent tribulations of the present are to perfect us in knowledge and in power.
26. “Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding” Proverbs 3:13.
    Lack of knowledge produces in harmony. Peace, power, and plenty come with knowledge.
27. “Thus saith the Lord . . . I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God” Isaiah 44:6.
    In His presence, and there only, is knowledge and power. He is all, and all in all.
28. “Jesus knew their thoughts” Matthew 12:25.
    He thinks with us when we really think. Our true thoughts are His; His thoughts may be ours.
29. “Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knows all men” John 2:24.
    He commits Himself unto us according to our willingness to receive Him.
30. “Wisdom gives life to them that have it” Ecclesiastes 7:12.
    Our one endeavor should be to get wisdom, to realize Omniscience, and to manifest the gifts accompanying it, life, love, peace and power.

Daily Meditation for a Month: Life

Rev. Joseph H. Darling

“I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20.

Realize: Life.

For each text, in Silence ask: What do these words mean? What is their message to me? What do they prompt me to do, for Thee, and for Thine?

Day

1. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” Genesis 2:7.
   Material humanity is formed of the dust of the ground. The real soul of man is of God, and lives in Him. There is one life.
2. “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst , of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” Genesis 2:9.
   God is our supply. He wills that we have life in its fulness and power, and that we know the good always.
3. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. . . . I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, that thou mayest live” Deuteronomy 30:15-16.
   God appeals to us to choose the way of obedience and life.
4. “(The Lord) in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” Job 12:10.
   All life is in God. He is, life in me, in Him I am life.
5. “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” Psalm 16:11.
   God is the light upon my path. In his presence is joy, and pleasures for ever more.
6. “With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light” Psalm 36:9.
   Our fellowship with God is realized in life, light and joy.
7. “O bless our God . . . which holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved” Psalm 66:8-9.
   As long as we praise God, we will be firm and faithful and grow in our understanding.
8. “He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . . With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation” Psalm 91:1 and 16.
   In the shelter of our God there can come no harm, no discordant note can be sounded, but there is joy for evermore.
9. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! . . . for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever more” Psalm 133:1 and 3.
   In the sight of Zion peacefulness reigns, and life’s blessings are being revealed, even multiplied.
10. “Keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul” Proverbs 3:21-22.
    Affirm wisdom always and thus realize life.
11. “Whoso finds me finds life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord” Proverbs 8:35.
    This is the voice of wisdom. “He who misses wisdom wrongs himself.”
12. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life” Proverbs 14:27.Surely, reverence begets true wisdom and gains for us life itself.
13. “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Matthew 6:25.
    Meditate upon the greater things, and the lesser “shall be added.”
14. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” John 1:4.
    Jesus Christ, the Word is the Creator and the Life of the world. In Him we may create, and have life.
15. “The light shines in the darkness: and the darkness comprehended it not” John 1:5.
    To live is to see God. To live is to reflect the light, and cause all darkness to vanish.
16. “As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” John 5:26.
    If we follow our great Elder Brother we have life in ourselves.
17. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” John 5:40.
    Realization and true satisfaction come only through accepting the ministrations of Jesus the Christ.
18. “Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for the meat which endures unto everlasting life” John 6:27.
    The real gifts of God last all through eternity. Accept Him now!
19. “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: He that comes to me shall never hunger: and he that believes on me shall never thirst” John 6:35.
    Our life is hid in Christ. According to our faith is our realization.
20. “Then spake Jesus unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life” John 8:12.
    Christ as the Light of the world dissipates the darkness of ignorance and sin, for us and within us.
21. “Jesus said . . . I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” John 11:25.
    The resurrection life itself is ours through our faith.
22. “Jesus saith . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me” John 14:6.
    Stupendous as this seems, it is the way of attainment. Realize it.
23. “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” John 20:31.
    Our faith gives us life in and through His name.
24. “Neither is worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything. Seeing He gives to all life, and breath, and all things” Acts 17:25.
    We are not concerned with symbols, but with that which is symbolized: Life.
25. “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” Romans 8:6.
    With the mind centered in the spirit all is bright and joyous.
26. “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” 1 Corinthians 3:22-23.
    In God through Christ all things are ours. We are spirit.
27. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” Colossians 3:3.
    In our divine heritage there is no place for the things that are of the world worldly. Surely: “To live is Christ.”
28. “Bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” 1 Timothy 4:8.
    The true life is one of great profit, the real life is eternal.
29. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” 1 John 5:12.
    To accept Christ in the true sense of the word is ro gain an things in heaven and upon the earth.

 

Daily Meditation for a Month: The Blessings of Meditation

Rev. Joseph H. Darling

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” Psalm 19:14.

Realize: The blessings of meditation.

For each text, in the Silence ask: What do these words mean? What is their message to me? What do they prompt me to do, for Thee, and for Thine?

Day

1. “Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide” Genesis 24:63.
   To meditate thus, may we realize peace and joy.
2. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” Joshua 1:8.
   Thus, may all have success and prosperity. So, let us pray.
3. “When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?” Job 34:29.
   There is no trouble for us, if we will but listen to Him. “Be still!”
4. “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law cloth he meditate day and night” Psalm 1:1-2.
   There never will be, there never can be, elsewhere, such delight.
5. “Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still” Psalm 4:4.
   The entrance to the land of slumber is through the very recesses of being, at night, “upon your bed . . . be still,” Yet, at all times, commune.
6. “Give ear to my words, O Lord consider my meditation” Psalm 5:1.
   A mother hears her child ere he speaks, yet, the child says: “Listen!” In prayer we thus speak to the Heavenly Father.
7. “When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches” Psalm 63:6.
   Surely, then may I be far away from all that disturbs, and with Thee, and all that makes harmony, peace and joy.
8. “I will meditate also on all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings” Psalm 77:12.
   Surely, thus may our lives be filled with power, and we will express the very fulness of joy.
9. “My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord” Psalm 104:34.
   True meditation is sweeter than anything else, in it is real gladness.
10. “I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways” Psalm 119:15.
    Thy ways are holy, and Thy precepts are true. We may realize all this.
11. “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” Psalm 119:97.
    Thus may our days be filled with gladness, and our lives express true joy.
12. “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation” Psalm 119:99.
    Thou, O God! art the one teacher. In Thee we have all knowledge.
13. “Mine eyes anticipated the night watches, that I might meditate on Thy word” Psalm 119:148.
    Anticipate the night watches, when the known and the unknown are brought together. Then, may we reach the inner recesses of our being.
14. “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of Thy hands” Psalm 143:5.
    The mind is a storehouse of memories. May we fill it with thoughts of Thee, and of that which is Thine, with the real, not with the apparent.
15. “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established” Proverbs 4:26.
    There is a light upon the path; see that light, follow it, thus will all our ways be established.
16. “My son, attend unto My wisdom, and bow thine ear to My understanding” Proverbs 5:1.
    Thus, God speaks to us everywhere and always. He is our wisdom; and our understanding.
17. “Keep My words, and lay up My commandments with thee. Keep My commandments, and live; and My law as the apple of thine eye” Proverbs 7:1-2.
    Keep His words, and His commandments, for so do we live. Surely, His teaching is as precious as sight itself, even more precious.
18. “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility” Proverbs 15:33.
    True reverence is the foundation of wisdom. Honor always goes with real humility.
19. “The plans of the heart belong to man; but the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah” Proverbs16:1.
    Love that which is good, listen to God, that we may speak His words.
20. “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established” Proverbs 16:3.
    If, in all our works we express our best thoughts, then, in our very character our “thoughts shall be established,” every purpose brings a good result.
21. “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of feasting with strife” Proverbs 17:1.
    Cultivate quietness, and life and joy will abound.
22. “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted” Isaiah 7:4.
    As God spoke unto Ahaz, so does he tell us to be quiet, brave, and strong.
23. “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord” Lamentations 3:25-26.
    In our meditation do we realize His goodness, seek and gain His salvation, which is health of soul and of body.
24. “Jesus . . . departed thence by ship into a desert place apart” Matthew 14:13.
    In the crises of life, we may meditate with him, even Christ himself.
25. “When he had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone” Matthew 14:23.
    In our battles, we are never alone. He is with us always.
26. “What think ye of Christ?” Matthew 22:42.
    This is the object of all our meditation: to think of Christ, that we may think with Christ, and realize that He thinks with us.
27. “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” John 6:15.
    When the glamour of the world would overcome, then should we depart, alone, and meditate.
28. “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” Acts 3:19.
    In repentance, and through turning unto Him, are we refreshed and strengthened.
29. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” Philippians 4:8.
    Take account of such things, always and everywhere, that our lives may “be filled with all the fulness of God.”
30. “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” 1 Timothy 4:15.
    Thus alone may we make true progress, even gain prosperity.
31. “O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still” Jeremiah 47:6.
    To the peoples of the world at strife, let this be our thoughts, our prayer: “Be still and know.” “The Lord is God.”

Opening and Closing Forms

(An Opening and Closing form for the day or for any meeting or undertaking, as used by Dr. Thomas Parker Boyd in all his meetings. )

Opening (Repeat audibly)

There is Spirit in me, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives me understanding, that I may have clearness of vision, steadfastness of thought and trueness of speech.

(Hold a few moments’ Silence then repeat this amplified form.)

There is Spirit – the very life of the ever-living God, in me, and the inspiration – the in breathing, the illumination of that light in whom is no darkness at all, the inspiration of the Almighty – the All-Wise, the All-Loving and the All-Good, gives me understanding – the spiritual perception of Reality, the discernment that the thing I hope for is now real; that I may have clearness of vision –to see the truth and to endure and achieve as seeing Him who is invisible; steadfastness of thought – to hold to the truth, and trueness of speech – to speak the truth.

So it shall be and so it is.

Closing

The Spirit of the Lord goes before me,

Making easy my way

Easy to speak some helpful word,

Easy to do some kindly deed,

Easy to manifest the Spirit of the Christ,

He makes easy my way.

My words are Spirit and they are Life.

They shall prosper in the thing that I please, and shall accomplish that whereunto they are sent.

So it shall be and so it is.

 

Sample Affirmations for “Speaking the Word”

The energizing power of the holy Spirit radiates throughout my body, filling me with all power in heaven and earth.

The healing power of Christ circulates through every artery of my system, filling me with divine saving health.

God of whom my life is part as my finger is part of my hand, fills every a venue of my being with his perfect health.

The holy spirit of harmony which fills and enfolds me fills me with inner harmony and surrounds me with heaven.

The absolute abundance of God who is my unfailing supply, supplies my every need and fills me with abundance.

The eternal God is my refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.

I believe in love almighty maker of heaven on earth.

The lord my God in the midst of me heals me.

I clothe myself round with infinite love and wisdom.

I am the same yesterday, today and forever.

I am from everlasting to everlasting.

My imagination is stayed on perfection.

All power in heaven and earth is given me.

Be still–and know–that I am–God.

Because God is I am.

I and the Father are one.

I speak and it is done, I command and it stands fast.

I say to the blind eyes–”be opened”–and they are.

I touch the deaf ears and speak the word and they are opened.

I touch the dumb tongue and it is loosed.

I speak to the troubled nerves–”be still”–and they are.

My word is forever settled in heaven.

Thine is the kingdom and the power forever.

Thy kingdom is come.

Thy will is done as in heaven so in earth.

I am kept in perfect peace because my mind is stayed on thee.

Thy sins are forgiven thee, rise up and walk.

The Christ within makes me perfectly whole.

The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes me free from the law of sin and death.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

All things work together for good to me because I love God.

He gives me this day my daily bread, clothing, work, rest, true communion, sleep, refreshment, etc.

I shall be satisfied when I attain to thy likeness.

Perfect love casts out fear.

 

Originally published in San Francisco, California, 1923