OUTRAGEOUS TRUTH: A MYSTICAL PARADIGM (OT/MP)
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Teach Us To Pray
by Charles Fillmore

Published by the Unity School of Chrisatianity

[Presented here as published except for colorization, type size changes, and notes in brackets,
in order to facilitate the application of Fillmore's ideas to the Mystical Paradigm.]

When Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray He warned them against making a display of their praying in order to be seen of men. They should retire to their "inner chamber" and pray to the Father who sees in secret and rewards openly. Then He said, "After this manner therefore pray." The Lord's Prayer was given as a sample: not to be followed literally. It is a petition according to the American revision; but according to Fenton's translation it is a series of affirmations, as follows:

"Our Father in the Heavens; Your Name must be being hallowed;

"Your kingdom must be being restored;

"Your will must be being done, both in Heaven and upon the Earth.

"Give us to-day our to-morrow's bread;

"And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending us, for You would not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from its evil."

As in all matters where we seek divine help we are free to use any words we choose or no words at all.
 

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed."

Prayer in man is a conscious expression of the upward trend of nature found everywhere. So every impulse or desire of the soul for life, love, light, is a prayer.

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Eliphaz repeated a prayer formula when he said, "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee."

Jesus put the same idea in these words: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do."

All growth and unfoldment from atom to sun is based upon this law of soul urge.

What you earnestly desire and persistently affirm will be yours, if you "faint not."

When we frame our desires in sound words and place them before our indwelling Lord, we are using intelligently the supreme law of God in bringing into manifestation that which He has implanted in us.

A prayer without desire in it, a prayer without sincerity in it, a prayer without soul in it, a prayer without Spirit in it is a fruitless prayer.

But above all practice the presence of God in prayer. Divine Mind has given us all potentialities, in prayer we recognize it as the source of these, and with a right understanding of our relation to it our soul grows great with infinite capacity, all potentiality. "With God all things are possible." "All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine."

We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying beggars. God is Spirit in whom we "live, and move, and have our being." We are the offspring of this Spirit and can make conscious contact with it by turning our attention

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away from material things and thinking about Spirit. As we practice this kind of prayer our innate Spirit showers its life energies into our conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows.

Jesus described this in the following words:

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee."

This "inner chamber" of the soul has been variously named by Scripture writers. It is called the "secret place of the Most High" and the "holy of holies," and Jesus named it "the Father . . . in me" and "the kingdom of God . . . within you." What we need to know above all is that there is a place within our soul where we can consciously meet God and receive a flood of new life into not only our mind but also our body.

This understanding shows us that prayer is more than asking God for help in this physical world; it is in its highest sense the opening up in our soul of an innate spiritual umbilical cord that connects us with the Holy Mother, from whom we can receive a perpetual flow of life. This is the beginning of eternal life for both soul and body, the essential teaching of Jesus, which He demonstrated in overcoming death.

We have earnestly sought to know and tell others how to pray, and this book is our very best exposition of the subject. Language has not yet been invented to tell all the wonders that we have found since we

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began opening our minds to the Spirit in prayer. We have discovered enough to convince us that the body can be so charged with spiritual life through prayer that it will overcome death, as promised by Jesus Christ.

Do not enlarge the defects of this book until they darken its truths, but accept the urge to begin the practice of prayer and through it make contact with the source of your being. Thus you will prove that, as Job wisely taught,

"There is a spirit in man,

And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding."

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Contents

Foreword ... 3

The God to Whom We Pray ... 11

True Prayer ... 16

Intellectual Silence and Spiritual Silence ... 22

Healing through the Prayer of Faith ... 27

Prosperity through Prayer ... 33

Contacting Spiritual Substance ... 38

Joyous Prayer ... 43

How to Handle the Psychic Forces of Consciousness ... 47

Spiritual Unfoldment Makes Man Master ... 55

Fulfillment ... 60

Unfoldment ... 66

Thought Images ... 70

The Spoken Word ... 73

Thou Shalt Decree ... 77

Be Strong in the Lord ... 80

Face to Face with God ... 83

Not Magic but Law ... 86

Spiritual Soul Therapy ... 90

Health and Prosperity ... 93

Thoughts Are Things ... 96

The Supermind ... 100

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Cheerfulness Heals ... 104

Love Harmonizes ... 107

Casting Out Fear ... 112

Spiritual Hearing ... 116

Light of Life ... 119

Thought Substance ... 122

Intensified Zeal ... 126

The Unreality of Error ... 129

Joy Radiates Health ... 132

"Selah!" ... 135

Spiritualizing the Intellect ... 138

The Sevenfold Cleansing ... 148

Prayer and Faith ... 157

The Healing Word ... 164

Six-Day Prayer Treatments ... 175

Questions ... 191

Index ... 201

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The God to Whom We Pray

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

--Elizabeth Browning

OMNIPRESENCE, omniscience, omnipotence are verities of Being and are facts of existence.

The Mind of God, creative Mind, is perpetually moving upon supermind ideas and through them bringing man and the universe into existence.

Creative Mind is everywhere present; yet while it is within the mind of man it lies beyond the consciousness of sense.

Omnipresence is that spiritual realm which can be penetrated only through the most highly accelerated mind action, as in prayer. Thus in unfolding this inner kingdom we are dealing with a reality beyond the ordinary comprehension of man.

To the superbly tuned mind and brain of Jesus Divine Mind was a soil eager with vibrant life and light and substance, which He used to produce the finest of materials for both character and body building.

Spiritual character building is from within outward.

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Spiritual character lives in man; it is what God has engraved on man's soul, ready for development through man's spiritual efforts. It is a reserve force of organized victory over carnality.

Man builds spiritual character by consciously functioning in God-Mind, where, laying hold of spiritual ideas, through Christ he realizes the Truth they contain; and as he thus weaves them into his soul consciousness they become a part of his very nature.

Our most effective prayers are those in which we rise above all consciousness of time and space. In this state of mind we automatically contact the Spirit of God. Indeed when we elevate our consciousness to that of Jesus Christ, the God presence becomes as meaningful to us as it was to Him. It is in this state of at-one-ment that we truly become aware of His sublimity and power.

"I go to prepare a place for you." By getting acquainted with the one Mind as integral substance, we move with it and it moves with us, and thus are established within us new spiritual states of consciousness, a "place" where we are aware of the God presence as reality.

Jesus said: "My Father is the husbandman." "I am the true vine." "Ye are the branches." "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me."

"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit."

In this scripture Jesus is revealing to us that

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through Him we are born anew, born of God, and that through Him we may be consciously attached to God--as the branch is attached to the tree--so that we may not wither and be cast away.

Through Christ we are consciously attached to the parent stem. It behooves us to retain this attachment so that we may go forward in spiritual unfoldment and be crowned with eternal life.

Many good people think that God is a person located in a place in the skies called heaven. They pray to Him for what they want and are satisfied. This is the prayer of the primitive, personal man, and it meets his needs; but this is not direct communion of the Father and the Son, the communion with reference to which Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." We must have this more intimate acquaintanceship or communion with creative Mind if we are in all ways to do His will.

God presence establishes us in ideas of honesty, strength, intelligence, spiritual manhood, perfect womanhood, all needed factors in the unfoldment of the redeemed man, all builders of the indestructible body temple.

Thus we must understand the nature of the God to whom we pray and awaken in ourselves that divine nature through which we effect our union with God.

God is power: man is powerful. God is wisdom: man is wise. God is substance: man is form and shape. God is love: man is loving. God is life: man is the living. God is mind: man is the thinker. God is truth: man is truthful.

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Many people pray to God in the same manner as they talk to some distant friend over the telephone. We talk too much about God, too much as though He were a third person in the God-man relationship instead of the first. It is unthinkable that the Creator should cause to exist a creation so inferior to Himself as to remove it beyond the pale of fellowship with Him. In his saner moments man knows that this is not logical or true. It is man's exalted ideas of God and his disparaging ideas of himself that have built the mental wall that separates them.

In our prayers we must meet God face to face and realize that we are getting that inner assurance which is the real answer to our petitions.

A minister, after twenty years of faith preaching, once was persuaded by a friend to try the Truth way of prayer, the way of scientific silence. Afterwards he confessed that when he touched God and found Him alive he was startled.

To Jesus the God presence was an abiding flame, a flame of life, of life everlasting that He felt in every cell and fiber of His being, making Him more and more alive, cleansing and purifying until He became every whit perfect. During our higher realizations of Truth we are often conscious of this abiding flame working in us and through us.

To Jesus God-Mind was a treasure field within Him in which could be found the fulfillment of every need He could possibly have. The Spirit of God in Him was constantly working, yes, steadily

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and persistently working, to transmute every natural impulse of mind and soul into a spiritual realization of life. To Him the Spirit of God was working to satisfy His inner craving with living substance and intelligence, thus rounding out soul and body consciousness into the perfect expression of Divine Mind itself. What a glorious satisfaction God must feel in His perfect Son Jesus who acknowledged His inner consciousness as one with, and as consciously expressing, God's will and wisdom. God Spirit, God-Mind, is not in any way confined or limited; it is everywhere present. The "ether" of science corresponds to "the kingdom of the heavens" taught by Jesus. Light and other forms of radiant energy, the objective expression of the invisible spiritual forces, compose an omnipresent world more marvelous than the old-time heaven. All the forces of modern scientific discovery are but parts of "the kingdom of the heavens" described in the many parables of Jesus. Science recognizes the physical phases of the kingdom, ignores the mental, and utterly fails to comprehend the spiritual.

The announcement of Jesus to the obtuse Nicodemus, "Ye must be born anew," gives us a clue to the shortsightedness of physicists. They have not developed the faculties of mind necessary to the discernment of the spiritual intelligence that moves the physical universe, consequently they see its material aspects only. A new school of science must be developed in which the mind of the Spirit will be given first place.

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True Prayer
 

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise

From outward things, whate'er you may believe.

There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fulness;

. . . and, to know,

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light

Supposed to be without.

--Robert Browning

ALL DOWN the ages man has been making the spiritual effort to realize conscious union with that innermost center where Truth in all its glory abides eternally. This realization can be accomplished only through true prayer.

The disciples of Jesus earnestly importuned, "Lord, teach us to pray." Today, as disciples of the Master, we are asking of Him to be taught the way of unifying our consciousness with God-Mind. We would find that inner Truth which sets us free.

His instructions to the disciples were "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee." It is difficult to improve upon

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this simple method. Quietly entering the inner chamber within the soul, shutting the door to the external thoughts of daily life, and seeking conscious union with God is the highest form of prayer we know.

The purpose of the silence is to still the activity of the individual thought so that the still small voice of God may be heard. For in the silence Spirit speaks Truth to us and just that Truth of which we stand in need.

Prayer is man's steady effort to know God. There is an intimate connecting spirit that logically unites man and his source. This connecting spirit is the divine Logos, the Word of God, which in truth reveals the logic of Scripture. Because of this fact man instinctively feels and knows whence his help comes.

God-Mind, composed of radiant ideas, vibrant life, glorious new inspiration, is ours to use. Since we are the I will man in the supreme Godhead, let us through Jesus Christ realize our spiritual importance. Let us think deeply on the divine Logos, the Word of God! In it is the living impetus that is bound to vitalize the soul of man and enable him to develop his latent powers.

When we awaken even a very slight consciousness of this co-operative spirit, we become cocreators with God, and we find we can adjust any condition that comes into our life. Jesus was so completely unified with God-Mind that He could claim the words He spoke to be not His but those of the Father dwelling within Him.

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Through prayer we gain the intimate relationship with God that Jesus must have enjoyed when He said, "I and the Father are one." Jesus Christ is our teacher and helper. In prayer what should be our attitude, our interest, as we approach the divine presence? If we knew that right now we were about to be ushered into the presence of Christ, to what extent would our spiritual expectancy be aroused? No doubt we should be thrilled through and through at the mere thought. Let us feel this same intense interest, this same concern, as we approach the divine presence within ourselves. It will add much to the readiness with which we receive Truth.

ENTERING THE SILENCE

When entering the silence, according to Hosea, the command is "Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah." After many centuries this instruction still stands approved today. To the metaphysician it means to close the eyes and ears to the without, to go within and hold the mind steadily on the word "Jehovah" until that word illumines the whole inner consciousness. Then affirm a prayer such as "Thy vitalizing energy floods my whole consciousness, and I am healed."

Think what the mighty vitalizing energy of God, released through Jesus Christ, really is. Penetrate deeper into God consciousness within you and hold the prayer steadily until you attain spiritual realization and the logic of your own mind is satisfied.

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

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

Through Christ man has the power to realize that as I AM or I AM "vitalizing health" he is the great central magnet functioning in omnipresence, around which all the healing powers of Spirit revolve. He has the power to realize this truth until the most sacred ethers respond, and he beholds himself as powerful, peaceful, perfect: healed through and through. It is after this fashion that we engraft the healing word into our very souls.

When we were in Florida a few years ago a citrus fruit grower told us many interesting things about the growth of his orchards. There are many swamps in Florida. He had instructed his men to go out into these swamps, into the muddy black waters infested with creeping things, there to dig up the wild-lemon saplings with their strong, vigorous roots, to transplant them into well-prepared soil, and then to graft into them buds from his prize domestic fruit trees. Thus new trees laden with golden fruit appeared in due time. The strong, vigorous root of the wild lemon gave the new fruit added flavor and quality.

Metaphysically the law is "If the root is holy, so are the branches." At least the branches are potentially

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holy. We find that the natural man is usually physically strong and vigorous just as the root of the wild-lemon tree is. The natural man also struggles in a murky, negative, swampy atmosphere without power to bring forth spiritually, just as the wild-lemon sapling does.

But the natural man can take a word of Truth and through "one-pointed" mind concentration can penetrate into the invisible, can unite his consciousness with the mind of God, and can hold a realizing prayer until the truth it contains is engrafted into his very soul. Thus just as the citrus fruit is developed through the grafting process, so man, through the engrafted word, becomes a strong, positive spiritual character.

There is only one God, only one ruling power in all the universe; and the highest avenue through which God can express Himself is man. The hungering for God that is felt by man in his soul is really God hungering to express eternal life through man. God is always seeking to awaken man's very soul to His mighty presence. He thus expands the consciousness, offering man an opportunity more fully and more perfectly to express Him.

There is a partial unity with Spirit and there is a complete unity with Spirit. Whenever we wholly merge our mind with creative Mind we meet Christ in our consciousness, and it is when we are in this consciousness that our prayers are fulfilled. The ability to merge our mind into the one Mind makes a great man of us.

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Every person hungers for eternal life, and in his effort to satisfy this hunger every soul makes its own concept of God. The ancients said that an honest man is the noblest work of God. Ingersoll said, "An honest God is the noblest work of man."

In deed and in truth prayer is man's spiritual approach to God, and effective prayer does not agonize. Neither Jesus nor any man who has fused his soul with the soul of God has suffered or agonized. The suffering comes as a result of separation and the effort to return to the consciousness of Omnipresence, "my Father's house."

Carlyle said, "Consider the significance of silence: it is boundless, never by meditating to be exhausted, unspeakably profitable to thee! Cease that chaotic hubbub, wherein thy own soul runs to waste, to confused suicidal dislocation and stupor; out of silence comes thy strength. Speech is silvern, silence is golden; speech is human, silence is divine.

"Fool! thinkest thou that because no one stands near with parchment and black lead to note thy jargon, it therefore dies and is harmless? Nothing dies, nothing can die. No idlest word thou speakest but is a seed cast into Time, and grows through all eternity. The recording angel, consider it well, is no fable, but the truest of truths; the paper tablets thou canst burn; of the 'iron leaf' there is no burning."

Intellectual Silence and Spiritual Silence

IT IS MAN'S concept of God that makes prayer intellectual or spiritual. There is a vast difference between mere intellectual silence and that constructive silence which always gives the victory within the soul. The intellectual silence, which is limited in its power, is the silence where one's whole attention is fixed on the intellect.

Herbert Spencer once said that he would gladly turn his life over to anyone who would live it for him and relieve him of its burdens. This no doubt can be said of hundreds of other weary ones. It reveals however the fact that man lacks the true vision of life and is not living it as God intended. Man should lift his eyes "unto the hills, from whence cometh" his help. He should dwell much on the truths taught by Jesus and make them a part of his very nature.

Jesus ushered into the race consciousness a thought atmosphere that we contact in the silence by just affirming in spirit and in truth the name "Jesus Christ." There is true magic in this name.

When He said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," He was mentally freeing man from his many trials and

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tribulations, and leading him into the broad highway of spiritual freedom, and joy, and abundance. To accept Jesus Christ as Saviour means to take His way of thinking and acting and make it ours.

There is a popular teaching that just accepting Jesus Christ as one's Saviour will set into operation a spiritual magic that will save the soul from all past and future sins. The word "magic" implies accomplishing something with the assistance of the supernatural. We find that in deed and in truth there is magic in adopting the way of life taught by Jesus. But this is not mysterious to those who study the transforming power of thoughts and words. It is all contained in the formula stated by Paul "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Instead of doubting, distrusting, and hating man, which is the fruit of the intellect, Jesus taught us to love man with all our mind, soul, and strength. Instead of fighting life and struggling to compete with millions of others in the same foolish war, as the intellectual man does, Jesus taught man to co-operate. Instead of wasting energy in tearing down, Jesus taught man to conserve his energy in building up. Jesus does not load on man's back all the burdens of humanity; in fact He shows humanity how to love life, how to love the Author of life, and how to love life's activities. In this state of consciousness man automatically drops the burdens of the intellect and enters into the freedom of real living. In the past the intellect has thought its power supreme. But while it is a wonderful faculty, it is in truth the tool of Spirit,

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and as such it needs discipline if it is to be able to perform its perfect work.

The intellect is always busy, jumping from one thing to another, much of the time dwelling on the daily routine of the workaday world or on conditions in the world at large. The first step in scientific silence is simply to still these outer intellectual thoughts so that the consciousness may become subservient to the Spirit within.

In I Peter 2:2 we read, "As newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." Those who are seeking and receiving spiritual understanding are born anew every day, and every day the milk of the spiritual word continues to feed and nourish the soul.

Moses was commanded by Jehovah to make all things after the pattern shown him on the mount. In the heavens of the mind, the spiritual center in the crown of the head, the Lord keeps ever before man life's perfect pattern. But man must have the spiritual ability to discern this pattern if he is to fulfill the requirements of scientific prayer.

By quieting the mental man, by passing through the discipline of intellectual silence, man arrives at the very threshold of God's workshop, the threshold of Being. As he passes into the inner chamber he finds he is entering the holy of holies, where noiselessly, silently a mighty work is always going on but where there is "neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard." God works in the stillness. As man comes into the presence of God with his

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prayer in the form of an affirmation of Truth, holding the prayer steadily in mind and consciously unifying his mind with the mind of God, he is aware only of the soundlessness of God's word as it weaves itself in and out through the whole soul and body consciousness, illumining, redeeming, and restoring him according to his faith and trust, according to his strength and power to receive. This is quite different from mere intellectual silence that does not know the way of spiritual unfoldment. In this spiritual silence man's realization is established in his heart and he has the assurance that his prayer is answered and that the law of demonstration brings forth the fruit.

The realization is not only written in the soul but in the intellect, whose seat of action is in the front forehead. The intellect always perceives what has taken place within and has power to retain its perception and to express itself accordingly. Thus the intellect serves Spirit, and as it unfolds it becomes more and more like Spirit, and it becomes in deed and in truth the instrument of God.

Carlyle must have had an intellectual understanding as well as a spiritual understanding of divine law when he wrote, referring to the kingdom within: "Art not thou the living government of God? O Heaven, is it not in very deed He then that ever speaks through thee--that lives and loves in thee--that lives and loves in me?"

Constructive thought force is a great and mighty power, but when it is realized in the silence it becomes

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the one and only power in all the earth. The understanding of this made Jesus an adept in the domain of scientific prayer.

"The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Jesus was born down among the animals in the manger at Bethlehem. There is a truth symbolized in this; for not only the intellect in man is to be redeemed through prayer but also the body; even every animal propensity must be redeemed and lifted up through Jesus Christ. "In the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and . . . every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

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Healing through the Prayer of Faith

Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.--James

THIS IS A very definite and wonderful promise. According to the record, it was undoubtedly acted upon by the disciples and proved to be very effective for hundreds of years. That this mighty promise still stands is proved by unnumbered thousands of Jesus' followers today. Faith healing through prayer has become a practice founded on principles that never fail when rightly applied. Those who seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness are having all things added, as promised. When we "take with us words" and attempt to go into God's presence, our faith in Him is the power that swings wide open the gate that leads into the inner kingdom.

But in order to keep the gate ajar it is a daily necessity to withdraw into this deep stillness of the soul. Listen first to the innate voice of faith; then

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through the centers within the subconsciousness you can appropriate the life, substance, and intelligence of Being.

Man builds up an enduring state of faith by repeated realizations of Truth. The illumination thus gained comes forth in man as spiritual understanding expressed in sound words.

Faith draws upon substance. Dynamic, creative, transforming power is roused to spiritual action when man affirms his unity with Almightiness and his undaunted faith in its power.

"Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say." "Concerning the works of my hands, command ye me."

Man must not only be submissive and obedient to the divine law; he must also realize that he is the offspring of the ruler of the universe.

When asking the Father for that which belongs to the Son under the divine law, man should assume the power and dignity of the Prince of Peace. He should not crawl and cringe before an imaginary king on a throne but rather feel that he is the image of an invisible being who has created him to represent His mightiness as well as His loving-kindness. We should affirm with conviction those mighty words uttered by Jesus: "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth."

The prayer of faith is not supplication, a begging God to give things to man. Prayer at its highest is the entry of the ego through faith into a realm of

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mind forces that when rightly contacted change the character of every cell in brain and body. One who has mastered even the primary technique of prayer has made contact with the spiritual ethers that connect all minds, high and low, and by means of which great reforms for the good of man can be projected into the world's thought ether.

When Jesus prayed, sometimes the whole night long, He did not plead with God over and over to do what He asked. Through positive faith Jesus was laying hold of new ideas, which through His spiritual understanding He incorporated into His consciousness, which included both soul and body. Through this mental process He became a living demonstration of spiritual man.

Today Jesus Christ is our helper and teacher. Every man when he prays should recognize and take advantage of this truth. He can profit much by realizing that the same Spirit is in him that was in Jesus, who became the Christ. Paul wrote, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Jesus is teaching us today that to pray effectively we must believe and know that there is a dispenser of the thing asked for and that by reaching out in prayer we can receive it from the one great source. This is truly the prayer of faith. "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

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Faith, the conviction of a higher providing source, is based upon spiritual logic or innate reason and on the certainty that an all-wise and all-powerful Creator's plan includes necessary provision for His offspring. Among even the primitive forms of nature this providing law is active. The insect stores food in the egg for the sustenance of its progeny. When man emerges from his animal consciousness and feels within him the stirring of Spirit, he finds that it is supremely logical and true that Spirit has provided for his supply and support.

When we have achieved spiritual realization of our prayer and our innermost soul is satisfied, we have the assurance that the thing is accomplished in Spirit and must become manifest.

We may continue in our realization of faith until the whole consciousness responds and the instantaneous demonstration takes place.

Spiritual Truth, psychology, and science tell us that visible things come from the invisible and are dependent upon the unseen for their existence. The sense mind cannot conceive of this.
 
 

"But there is a spirit in man,

And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding."

Before man can fully appreciate and work the spiritual law, he must cultivate a consciousness of reality. When he does this, he finds he is automatically working with God, through Christ, and that he can say with Jesus, "My Father worketh even

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until now, and I work."

Prayer is impotent and unfruitful when the one who prays is without the firm belief that his petitions are answered. When man turns wholeheartedly to God, the prayer of faith brings forth abundantly. Healing currents of life are freed and flow into and through soul and body, healing, redeeming, uplifting the whole man. Since the prayer of faith is the activity of divine love, let us pray without ceasing, knowing that God hears and grants our petitions.

Truly the Lord is in the midst of us. When we turn toward the omnipresent light of Spirit in faith, our eyes are opened to the astonishing fact that this seemingly material body and these temporal surroundings conceal the immanent God. We come to understand what Jacob meant when he said, "How dreadul is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

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

In concentration the Holy Spirit works through the divine mother substance to bring forth the fruits of Divine Mind. The Holy Spirit is the teacher. The teacher and the student use the same principles;

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but the teacher arouses and inspires the student to greater achievement. The Holy Spirit today is urging us to greater spiritual effort.

When we direct the mental powers upon a definite idea, faith plays its part; it is involved in concentration. As we give attention to the idea through one-pointed mind concentration, we break into a realm of finer mind activity, called faith or the fire of Spirit. Thus faith opens the door into an inner consciousness, where we hold the word steadily in mind until the spiritual ethers respond to our word. Earnest, steady, and continued attention along this line is bound to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in abundant measure. A steady, unwavering devotion of heart and principle to Spirit develops in us supermind qualities.
 

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Prosperity through Prayer

"NOW THERE cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear Jehovah: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me; what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thy handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And thou shalt go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons; they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons of the rest."

The story of Elisha and the little pot of oil that at his command and with her co-operation filled all

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the vessels in her house and also those of all her neighbors so that she had enough oil to pay all her debts, free her children from bondage, and provide a living for herself and her sons, reveals the working of a mighty law.

Metaphysically the meaning of the name Elisha is "God is a saviour; God of deliverance; to whom God gives victory; God is rich." The widow typifies a belief in lack, a thought or a line of thought in consciousness that has fallen away from that inner union with the divine source (husband) and as a result is suffering from lack of supply.

Elisha (meaning also "God is rich") showed this woman how to shut the door and realize that her supply came from within. Then he revealed to her how to pour out the oil (love) of plenty, and how it would prove a permanent supply. Any thought is a prayer in which we realize that our desires, God directed, are answered the very moment they are expressed.

Christian metaphysicians find that words that express thanks, gratitude, and praise, release energies of mind and spirit, and their use is usually followed by effects so pronounced that they are quickly identified with the originating words, effect being merged in cause.

Let your words of praise and blessing be to Spirit and the increase will be even greater than it is when they are addressed to man. The resources of Spirit are beyond our highest flights of imagination. You can praise a weak body into strength; a fearful

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heart into peace and trust; shattered nerves into poise and power; a failing business into prosperity and success; want and insufficiency into supply and support.

Do not beg in your prayers, but praise and give thanks for the new self-manifesting God of abundance fulfilling every desire of your heart.

Make a "date" daily with God and keep it. He will never fail you. Some persons are overtimid about their religion. They fear ridicule and misunderstanding. A certain banker had established a certain time each day for going into the silence to pray. His bank, which was located in a country town, needed to borrow what it considered a large sum of money, and he was in New York City negotiating for the loan, but without apparent success. However he was strong in the silence and trusted God regardless of appearances. While he was talking the matter of the loan over with the New York City banker his "silence hour" approached, and our country banker was puzzled what to do. He finally decided to be honest with God, and in the midst of the apparently unfavorable discussion in regard to the loan, he quietly announced that he always devoted a few moments to prayer at that hour and begged to be excused.

The face of the city banker at once lighted up. He instantly recognized that this country friend had something that he did not have: he was poised, peaceful, trustful in the face of defeat. So the city banker hesitatingly replied that he also was in the

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habit of observing a daily moment of prayer and that he would gladly join him. Then and there they entered the silence together and had a high realization of God's power to supply and to bless. At the conclusion of their prayer session the city banker informed the country banker that he was satisfied that his securities were good and that the loan would be made without delay.

Emerson's inspiration or comment on prayer was "Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. Prayer is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the Spirit of God pronouncing His works good. But prayer as a means of effecting a private end is theft and meanness. It presupposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as a man is at one with God he does not beg. He then sees prayer in all action."

Father Almighty! We bow before Thine infinite goodness, and invoke in prayer Thine all-merciful presence of love.

We ask, and as we ask we give thanks that Thy power and presence are here in love and that we are tightly held in Thine all-embracing arms, where our every need is supplied and where we shall ever rest secure from all the buffets of the world.

Open to us the inner chambers of peace and harmony, which divinely belong to us as Thy children.

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We come as little children into the sacred and trustful presence of Thy love, knowing full well that only love can draw and hold us in peace and harmony and prosperity.

Every fear falls away as we enter into Thee and Thy glory of love and as we bask in the sunshine of love, Thy love, Thy never-failing love!

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Prosperity through Prayer

MAN MUST build a perfect soul structure with faculties capable of always producing abundantly for both his spiritual and his material welfare.

In order to accomplish this man must become familiar with what the metaphysician terms omnipresent Spirit substance, which is visible only to mind and the nature of which is to sustain and enrich whatever idea is projected into it.

This Spirit substance stands back of and gives support to man's every thought and word. It is ready to provide food for all living creatures everywhere.

Today man is learning consciously to make union with this invisible spiritual thought stuff and appropriate and manifest it. Our supply and support is governed by our familiarity with substance and by our mental hold upon it.

Spiritual substance is the source of all material wealth and cannot suffer loss or destruction by human thought. It is always with us, ready to be used and to make potent and fertile both the soul and the body consciousness. In this connection Jesus said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not."

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Just as God has been from the beginning so Spirit substance has been from the beginning. This substance is in fact the Mother side of God, the feminine element in God's nature. It is the universal medium in which we plant all ideas of supply and support.

Just as the earth is the universal matrix in which all vegetation develops so this invisible Spirit substance is the universal matrix in which ideas of prosperity germinate and grow and bring forth according to our faith and trust. The "dust of the ground" spoken of in Genesis represents the radiant substance, the fruit of the initial thought in the expression of the substance idea. Under the influence of man's mind radiant Spirit substance continues to be manifested in form and shape. For example, the sunshine is incorporated in the products of the vegetable world; these being appropriated by man through mastication, digestion, and assimilation, it becomes part of his body. Light and electricity are forms of radiant substance.

Someone has said,
 
 

"The hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world."

In this same way the Mother side of God may be said to cradle our good, nurturing it into manifestation and producing the influences that hover over and enrich our life. We should always bear in mind that if we are to demonstrate we must pay strict attention to the conservation of the spiritual

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thought stuff. If we are to go forward spiritually, we must not waste our thought stuff in idle thoughts, in thinking thoughts of poverty, discontent, jealousy. We should positively weed out of consciousness all thoughts of poverty and failure, and in thinking or speaking of our affairs we should use the very highest and best language at our command.

Whatever the seed word is that is implanted in omnipresent Spirit substance, this seed word will germinate and grow and bring forth fruit "after its kind." Just as the farmer therefore selects the very best seed corn for planting, so we must choose the words that will bring forth the rich harvest of plenty.

We should bear in mind that God is our silent partner and that His wisdom and strength, His energy and skill are ours to use. We should realize that in every soul there is undoubtedly present (as a result of former effort) a great reservoir of radiant Spirit substance, which is ready and eager to be tapped and freed so that it can supply our every need.

To gain control of Spirit substance we grasp it with our mind; that is, lay hold of the idea back of it. Right thinking is necessary in using the mind constructively to bring about right results.

The Father-Mother God has provided abundantly for all. In truth, when a babe is born into the world it brings with it faculties that, once set to work consciously functioning in the omnipresent etheric substance, open up channels through which unfailing supply and support come to this one. The divine-life idea in the awakened soul is implanted in divine

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substance and brings forth a new being, the Son of God.

The realization of the following prayer will awaken man to the consciousness of his divine supply and support:
 
 

The idea of the one reality is quickened in me, and I am alive and athrill with the one radiant substance of Spirit.

Sometimes in demonstrating prosperity God's mill seemingly grinds slow. The reason is, first, that man's consciousness is functioning in such a thick envelope of materiality that it is hard to get action. And secondly, man has not yet unfolded the working power of the word.

To overcome this condition man must enter the silence and realize a prayer like this:
 
 

I am free from the clutches of inert matter.

The working power of the word is quickened in me, and I understand the law governing God's abundance.

Then it is well to clinch the matter with this realization:
 
 

Divine substance flows in all its fullness into my consciousness and through me as prosperity into all my affairs.

God made us, and there is a vital connection between

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us and God. Keeping this truth in mind makes demonstration easy and enjoyable.
 
 

Be ye builders, vital, doing,

Architects of life and fate,

Ever striving and preparing

For a higher, nobler state,

Not in sighing, aging, dying,

Is the measure of the man,

But in growing, building, living

Life fulfills the Master plan.

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Joyous Prayer

THERE are vibrations in space that our men of science have not yet discerned or measured. These undiscovered quantities are related to the Mind of Being and must be apprehended through the unfolding in man of supermind faculties. When the trained Christian metaphysician prays he can, with a disciplined consciousness, make contact with these forces in the ether and through them gain a certain unity with the Mind of Being. The consciousness thus attained is usually designated as the Christ consciousness or the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the union is attained an increase in spiritual power is felt and one has the assurance of the activity of spiritual principles within of which one has had hitherto no awareness.

But no man yet knows all of life's joys, nor will he until he has come into the full understanding of spiritual communion with God. No man knows the fullness of life, nor its joys, until he has prayed in meekness and thanksgiving and has received the sweet, pure realizations of Jesus Christ. True and lasting joy arises from within. The nature of the deep inner life is revealed only to those who spiritually penetrate into its source.

Would you feed the soul on the joys of the scientific

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

Man must know spiritual harmony, and therein is the source of a great secret. Musical geniuses say that they first hear their compositions before they are given outer form. Poets clothe in words and give local habitation and a name to what to the practical mind seems airy nothings.

Pythagoras, the ancient philosopher, wrote that God was singing the universe into expression and that the suns and planets were the musical notes on a grand universal staff. Shakespeare in "The Merchant of Venice" had one of his characters say:
 
 

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;

Such harmony is in immortal souls;
 

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But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

The realization of God as a great wooing, all-knowing presence, an everywhere present sustaining strength, wherein each man functions and works out his own salvation is to be established in a mighty stronghold that fortifies us against all adverse beliefs.

It is said that on the ocean of life a joyful man makes a good sailor. This is true. The strong, joyful nature will make its way where others fall by the wayside. Joy, spiritual joy, is ours by divine right, and buoys us up and urges us onward to accomplishment.

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

And when we pray, let us pray with a purpose. Purpose gives life a real meaning. Purpose gives joy and zest to living. When our eye is on the goal we are not so easily perturbed. Purpose awakens new trains of thought; purpose directs these trains of thought into new fields of achievement. Really to succeed we must have some great purpose in mind, some goal toward which we are to work. But

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above all, we must always purpose in our heart to achieve spiritually.

As we study the one great Presence and Power, we come to know that there is no chapter in our life that is such a failure but has back of it a grand purpose, which purpose must eventually somewhere, somehow work itself out in a most ennobling manner, well pleasing in the sight of God.

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How to Handle the Psychic Forces of Consciousness

THE FIRST step of a Truth student in handling the psychic forces of consciousness is the same as that in handling any other, and that is to realize that God is the one and only power; to declare with Byron: "There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!"

The name psyche, which figures in Greek mythology, means breath, life. Psyche is represented as one of the three daughters of a king. These three "daughters" are spirit, soul, and body. Psyche is the soul in its many earthly experiences, in its failures and its successes.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His law is for the use of all alike. Man interprets His law and operates in accord with it to the best of his ability in his endeavor to grow and prove his mastery over the many events that take place in his life.

If man would become expert in handling scientifically the psychical forces, he should first get a thorough understanding of just what these forces are, and above all he should know that like other forces they are subservient to God's law. The psychic

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or soul realm includes the sum total of consciousness, all that the individual has experienced.

In analyzing the soul realm we have first the animal soul. The animal soul comprises all sensations and all thoughts that we entertain with reference to animal life. Through man's thought the animal soul forms the animal man.

The second element in the soul realm, the human soul, is one step higher than the animal, and comprises all the thoughts and emotions we entertain on the human plane of consciousness: thoughts of family, of friends, of business associates, or personal possessions.

The third and highest element of soul is the spiritual. This phase of the soul is the depository of all thoughts and aspirations we have ever had about God and things spiritual. Here also we find a consciousness that relates us to God and forms the connecting link between the human and the divine. When through prayers, meditations, and good works man has built spiritual qualities into his soul to the point of dominance over the animal and human natures, he is ready for the regeneration with Jesus Christ.

It is true that through the animal and human departments of the soul we are in sympathy with all nature, which includes the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, and as these are all ensouled, their reactions affect us when there is no higher power in evidence. But there is a higher power in us every one: Spirit. In Genesis it is stated that spiritual

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man, the image-and-likeness man, was given dominion over all creation. As Shakespeare aptly says,
 
 

"The fault is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

In our ongoing we endeavor always to bear in mind that God is the one and only power. We must know and realize that the great intelligence of God works in every conceivable way to lead us into the light, thus aiding us in avoiding error conditions. The indwelling Christ will "neither slumber nor sleep"; with the Holy Spirit it is teaching us the great truth that we are "Gods in the making" and that as such we have dominion over every thought and condition.

When Jesus was born in the manger in Bethlehem the star appeared in the east and pointed the way for the Wise Men to the spot where the young child lay. A mighty soul had been incarnated and had come to do a mighty work on the earth. So great was the occasion that the whole heavenly universe sang with joy. This to the individual means that a speck of light shone in the east, the within, revealing to the illumined soul what was taking place. The star is a symbol of potentiality; it represents expanding possibilities. The saving I AM had at last made its spiritual power manifest in the earth. But was the star seen by those who were not spiritually illumined? No. They had eyes but saw not. Only the illumined, the awakened, could perceive

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the star of Bethlehem. So the spiritual I AM is often doing a great work in a man, and the man knows it not. This scripture also reveals the way in which Spirit often uses the so-called psychic to do its bidding, to reveal its power.

Today men are breaking into the psychic realm as never before and, not being consciously unified with Spirit, are becoming entangled in their own mentality, in addition to the psychic vibrations of the whole race. Often this leads to very unpleasant experiences.

In fact all people are being quickened, and in the absence of an understanding of Truth erratic states of mind are formed that cause fantastic notions about many things. Persons in this condition often become supersensitive and imagine that they are being criticized, that others are talking about them, and a thousand and one other things. Very often this condition is the result of trying to communicate with the dead through mediums and spiritualistic seances.

There is a realm in which the souls that have left the body are functioning feebly. Spiritualists call it "spirit land" or "the home of the soul." The early Christians taught that those who had passed away were asleep. This is not true of all persons, but those who have lived a long, strenuous life and are weary want rest and fall asleep. Paul said, "Because you have not discerned the Lord's body you have fallen asleep." Others who have lost their body early in life are ready for immediate action

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in reincarnation and do not find sleep necessary.

Eventually all souls reincarnate on the earth as babes and in due time take up their problems where they left off at death. But before they do reincarnate they sometimes try to communicate with their loved ones here on earth. This is never satisfactory and leads nowhere. Persons who sit in seances are taking a great risk. Instead of really getting in touch with their loved ones they are apt to make contact with psychic forces of a low order that tend to weaken their faith in God.

Paul said, "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

When a person is established in the Christ power and dominion, he finds that Spirit often uses the mental realm to reveal to him some message that is of vital importance to him. Such messages are imparted through dreams and visions. When the soul is still, as in sleep, the Spirit of truth throws the message on the screen of the mind in the form of thought pictures. One only has to read the symbols in order to receive the message. If the message is constructive, it is well to praise God and give thanks. If it is of a destructive nature, take the message into the silence and place it before God. Hold the thought for light until you have the realization that the illumination of Spirit permeates and penetrates the whole condition. Spiritual light transforms, reconstructs,

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and makes beautiful. Joseph, the son of Jacob, was an expert at interpreting dreams and visions. However many of the patriarchs of old were well versed in the art of deciphering the visions of the night.

Again the psychic realm is the realm in which primitive man (Adam and Eve) first functioned. Instead of listening to the Lord they listened to the serpent (the sense man) and learned to indulge in sensation until it depleted divine substance. Disintegration of the body followed. This is physical death. For this cause the human family lost their original estate in the ethereal or heavenly kingdom and descended into earthly fleshly consciousness.

We are now, through Christ, listening to Jehovah God, through whom we are learning the law of life, and we are being restored to the understanding that all the factors that enter into life are here all the time and are ours to use. Through Christ man has dominion. Through Christ it is possible for us to make the perfect union between soul and body, and enter into the consciousness of Almightiness, thus being restored to the paradise of God from which we originally came forth.

We should not think of the psychic realm as evil or be afraid of it. Through Christ we possess mastery and dominion over all realms. Through our own Christ dominion we develop spiritual powers to handle the psychic realm to great advantage. And that this is a realm in which tremendous forces are present is being discovered by the investigations of

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physical science. Jesus often referred to the "kingdom of the heavens" or the kingdom of God, which He said was very nigh unto us and even within us. This kingdom is above the psychic, awaiting our appropriation of it through prayer. Jesus told His followers that after His ascension they were to go into the upper room in Jerusalem (a high, peaceful state of consciousness), where the Holy Spirit would come upon them with power. Science says the ether possesses dynamic power beyond anything we can imagine. Sir Oliver Lodge is quoted as saying that there is energy enough in one cubic inch of ether to run a forty-horsepower engine for forty millions of years. This is beyond all human conception; but many of the stories that science is telling us about the power of the ether are fully equal to this, and if they were in the Bible skeptics would point to them as examples of the credulity of the Christians.

Jesus says that all power should be given to us, which carries with it the idea of unlimited capacity.

For mastery and dominion over all conditions affirm:

I AM THAT I AM.

Through Jesus Christ I am the master of every realm of consciousness in my being.

Through Jesus Christ I enter into a full and complete understanding of how to handle all states of consciousness to the glory of God.

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I am illumined with the light of Spirit, and I bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

I commit all my works unto Jehovah, and my purposes are established.

Every plane of consciousness in me is transformed by the renewing of the mind.

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Spiritual Unfoldment Makes Man Master

ACCORDING to Genesis, Elohim God planned that man, created in His image and likeness, should have all the qualities of his Maker. At first glance this man created in the beginning seems the equal of God man or God son.

Further insight into the creative process however reveals that man has a work to do in developing his innate abilities, the "image" and "likeness." Following the paragraph "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" we read: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds . . . and over every living thing."

In modern language we would say that God imaged a man like Himself who would fulfill the law of his being when he had gained the mastery

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over certain forces in his field of activity. These forces are symbolically described as "birds," "fish," "cattle," and "creeping things," through which man replenishes the earth.

The whole Bible tells of man's experience in striving for the mastery. In addition to the Bible, all the history of man is a record of how the human family has struggled to fulfill the creative ideas implanted in it from the beginning. The "birds of the heavens" are their high ideals, the "cattle" or "beasts of the field" are of a low order, the "fish of the sea" are their generated or accumulated impulses, and the "creeping things" represent the micro-organisms of modern science that are claimed to be the cause of most diseases. It has been assumed that man's dominion was to be exercised through aggression, through physical mastery. This idea has instigated man to wage war and rule by tyranny, all of which his higher thoughts tell him is in direct violation of divine law.

Our higher reason, backed by experience, forces us to look to another source than the physical for a solution of the problem of "dominion."

As the great example of one who became a master through spiritual unfoldment we point to Jesus, who became the Master of all masters. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh.

Today Jesus Christ is the realized, ideal Master. He is the full, perfect expression of the superman. In Him "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." To Jesus Christ God was a being of infinite

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goodness that He was to realize and express. So today through Jesus Christ God is a being of infinite goodness that we are to realize and express. Today the name Jesus Christ is called "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Jesus Christ is the Master, majestic yet simple. His relation to man makes His tenderness toward humanity exquisitely touching. When we think of the mighty revolution that has taken place in the consciousness of the race through His teaching, we realize at least to a degree what He has done for the race.
 
 

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;

And he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city."

Jesus ruled His own spirit. Through Christ we are learning to rule our own spirits, to gain the mastery over every word and thought, yes, over every impulse of the whole being, not only on the soul plane but on the physical plane as well. His presence right in our midst is teaching us control. His presence right in our midst inspires us with new ideas, incites us to go forward to achieve.

In the world of affairs a master is one who can enforce obedience, but the Master of masters did not "enforce." Through His spiritual ability He inspired obedience.

Jesus attained mastery over sin, sickness, death. He attained a permanent state of consciousness where mortal weakness cannot enter. Emerson says

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that the measure of a master is his ability to bring all men around to his opinion within twenty years. Today, as never before, two thousand years after Jesus closed His ministry here on earth, He is bringing men around to His opinion or rather to His truths as never before.

But Christ is also a servant. We follow Him because He serves best; because He bears with us as we strive to overcome our sins--He bears our sins with gentleness and patience. As we work in prayer with Him, He leads us into a high state of spiritual consciousness where we realize the allness of God and His laws.

When Jesus was asked by a crafty lawyer to name the greatest commandment He quickly answered that all the Law and the Prophets could be summarized thus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets." This is a test, a challenge, to all those who would unfold spiritually. This attitude of mind brings us in tune with Divine Mind so that we are prepared to receive its blessings. When our thoughts are established in love, a divine synchronization takes place. Divine Mind has a fixed rate of vibration to which, through Christ, the mind of man is synchronized, just as a radio receiving set is synchronized to the frequency of a broadcasting station. In order to

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tap Divine Mind we must bring the rate of vibration of our mind up to the standard, for it is only when our mind is vibrating at its most accelerated rate that God can make Himself known to us. The efficiency of the radio receiving set depends upon the number of its tubes and their adjustment to the electromagnetic field in which its kilocycles function. By this same law the perfect man must have his twelve great powers developed, operating in perfect tune with Divine Mind, in order to bring forth the image and likeness man.

In the silence when his mind is fixed steadily on God and is functioning in the consciousness of infinite love, the activities of man's brain cells synchronize with those of the very brain cells of the Master. Even the intelligent principle of the love center responds, and thus man becomes a spiritual radio with power to receive radiations from Divine Mind as well as power to broadcast them throughout his whole organism. He even is able to broadcast them throughout his environment near and far, an ability that is limited only by the spiritual power he has developed.

Humanity must bear in mind that it is traveling the road of spiritual unfoldment and hold its eye on the goal. Right here in our midst, in the mind realm as well as in the manifest world, will be developed a mighty neutralizing power that will render all destructive powers null and void, that will dissolve disease, and resurrect the consciousness of peace, health, and abundance.

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Fulfillment

"AND GOD created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them." "And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made."

Science tells us that all living forms are made up of aggregations of cells, that all cells are made up of molecules and atoms, and that atoms have within them electrons and protons, the soul of light and energy, the source of everything the atom and its aggregations manifest. So we are safe in asserting that the atom at its core is Spirit and that Bible characters had this primal source of light in mind when they spoke of the light of the Spirit. Jesus proclaimed: "I am the light of the world." "Ye are the light of the world." When He spoke thus He was speaking of this inner light which gives life and intelligence to all creation. When the apostle James wrote, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights," he was corroborating the Gospel of

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John, which in the very first chapter says: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world."

These light and energy units radiate light and generate light, of which an incandescent electrical bulb is an example. From this we get a clue as to the status of man and his body as a light center with an aggregation of billions and trillions of cells, every one of them flashing light of varying color and brilliancy and forming about the body an aura of splendor. As stated in John, this aura shines in the darkness and the darkness apprehends it not. The mind must be illumined by Christ before it can behold the light radiating from every soul. When that light is developed it is visible to those who know how to still the outer mind and enter into the silence. In the 1st chapter of Revelation John says: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. . . . I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow;

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and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. . . . and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

Here John, resting at the light center of his soul, saw the resurrected Master.

The development of this spiritual light is the destiny of us all; and we shall not be satisfied until we "awake in his likeness." All are radiant in a certain degree with this spiritual light, but especially those who have an understanding of Spirit and its universality. We feel the light and sometimes mentally see it flashing into expression when we have a spiritual uplift gained from a new idea of Truth. Others feel its influence and are moved to higher things by it; or if it is radiating gloomily, they are moved to depression and discouragement.

The scientific understanding of the great Bible truths thrills the soul with the desire for spiritual attainment, with a longing for spiritual fulfillment. Today many enlightened persons are proudly acknowledging Jesus Christ as the grand and perfect fulfillment, as perceived by John in Revelation, and they are claiming His promises: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will,

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and it shall be done unto you." "If a man keep my word, he shall never see death."

We revel in just concentrating upon the name Jesus Christ and in speculating about the history of His soul's unfoldment. We take delight in speculating about the true reason why He is so far in advance of our time. Surely Jesus Christ was the product of a cycle of human development that was before our present cycle of development. When here on earth, through the mastery of spiritual laws of which we today have only an inkling, He performed many seeming miracles. Think of the condition in those times of a body that had been dead for four days. Imagine Jesus thanking God that His petition had been heard and then speaking the word of life to one who had lain in the grave for this length of time. Then imagine this person instantly being charged with new life; imagine great streams of life flowing through his every cell and fiber until he came walking out of the tomb, restored to perfect health. Imagine Jesus in the consciousness of perfect unity with God speaking the healing word to many "sick unto death" and each one instantly throwing off the disease and coming forward sound and well.

Jesus taught us how to pray. He taught us that prayer is not only the spiritual approach to the Father but that through prayer and realization we attain the interpenetrating consciousness of God's perfect life and love and power. Jesus revealed to us that we are the sheep of His pasture; that is,

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that we are children of the same Father as He. He is our Elder Brother, our helper. We are His people, and He is interested in our progress.

Jesus Christ has provided and provides today the greatest impetus to the ongoing of our race. When the soul of the race (symbolized by Eve) became involved in the pleasures of sensation (symbolized by the serpent) and sought other guidance than that of Jehovah God, gradual degeneration of the whole human family began until men were in a bad way. Something had to be done. Someway, somehow we had to be lifted out of the murky darkness of sense thought.

To lift the race out of sense thought Jesus was compelled by the necessity of soul sympathy to become an intimate associate of the people He sought to help. Hence He incarnated into the race and was "tempted in all points as we are, but without sin."

Through His experience on the cross, where His precious blood was spilled, through His suffering there Jesus lowered His consciousness to the consciousness of the race, thereby administering to the whole race a blood transfusion, imparting to both the soul and the body of men the properties of Being that will restore man to his divine estate.

With their blood transfusions the medical men of today are copying this grand transfusion of life. We are on the way to fulfillment and the Jesus Christ way!

Jesus Christ broadcast the electrons of His blood into the race thought atmosphere, and they may be

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apprehended by all who believe in Him. These electrons become centers of energy and life in those who appropriate them, and thus men gradually transform and regenerate their blood and their body. This is the real spiritual meaning of being saved by Jesus Christ.

The blood is the life. Jesus really came to bring to the whole human family a larger consciousness of life. He said, "I came that ye may have life, and may have it more abundantly."

Life is a universal energy that moves even the corpuscles of the blood. Therefore life is more powerful than the blood. Consequently we believe that it was through the "shedding," the getting rid, of the idea of flesh and blood that Jesus accomplished His great works. He tapped the great reservoir of divine life and raised His consciousness of life to that of the Father. Through Him we all have access to this perpetual life stream. We must really eat of His substance, as He taught us; that is, we must appropriate it as spiritually ours. We must drink of His blood: let His life stream flow through our mind and body, healing, cleansing, and purifying us in every way. This is the grand at-one-ment (atonement) of man's life with the life of God through Jesus Christ. This is the way to perfect fulfillment.

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Unfoldment

God's pure life and substance are constantly renewing and rebuilding His holy temple, my body.

New and rich ideas arise in my mind, and I demonstrate prosperity.

"UNITY claims that the Bible teaches evolution; just where is the evolution of Jesus taught?"

The evolution of Jesus was a combination of mind and body unfoldment.

The body of Jesus developed from germs planted in Mary, His mother. Science says that all stages of unfoldment from the most primitive animal to man are illustrated in the development of the human organism. So we must conclude that the body of Jesus was an unfoldment from sense to Spirit.

However Unity teaches the evolution of both soul and body; an evolution summarized in the 1st chapter of John under the head of the unfoldment of the Word. Bible authorities say that "Word" is a poor translation of the Greek word Logos. Logos

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conveys the idea of implanted God--Mind in man--from which the perfect man logically evolves.

God is Spirit. In creation Spirit takes the form of mind, implanting itself in substance and becoming manifest as perfect man. Here is condensed in a few words what would take volumes to describe. Here are epitomized all books on physiology and evolution, mental science and psychology, religion and spiritual philosophy.

In the rocks beneath our feet are preserved the bones of mammoth creatures that have been succeeded by finer types of animal life. Here is evidence of evolution from lower to higher types of life. Anthropology teaches that the earth has been inhabited by man for at least half a million years. Many hold that the present body of man has within it natural forces that would transform it if they were released. Those who read between the lines have discovered that the Bible veils evolution in rites, ceremonies, and acts of personalities.

As all words in every language have their root in the thoughts and acts of man, so all the rites and ceremonies of religion represent man's relation to his source, God, and the development of his soul.

The two baptisms, that of John and Jesus, represent the two common steps in the growth of the soul, denial and affirmation, the dropping of the old and the laying hold of the new. This is evolution.

In totality John the Baptist represents the perfected natural man who recognizes his finality and his willingness to surrender his personality so that

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the superman Christ may supplant him, thus symbolizing the evolution of the soul from the personal to the spiritual.

It is essential that a clear understanding be had of the principles involved in the transition from the natural to the spiritual, otherwise the way will be difficult.

Jesus praised John as the most perfect of those born of women--that is, of the Adam or natural man--but He explained that John even in his perfection was not to be compared with the spiritual man. He also commented on the futile efforts of those on the natural plane who attempt by will force (violence) to attain the spiritual ("kingdom of heaven").

In the process of developing out of the natural into the spiritual not only the mind but the body also is affected. The energy locked up in the cells of the physical are released and the body of flesh is transformed into a radiant body of light. This is a day-by-day transformation of the cells until the whole body is "electrified" and passes over into the fourth dimension or kingdom of the heavens. Jesus accomplished this transformation of His body and it became an electrical dynamo broadcasting life germs through our race consciousness. We are to follow Him in this transformation.

These life germs of Jesus' body form the nucleus of a new race organism for all people. All persons everywhere may partake of (eat) the radiant body (bread) of Jesus by exercising faith in Him as the

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great source of pure Spirit substance, sown as soul seed for the saving of humanity from sense consciousness.

Not only may one eat of this superbody substance but one may also drink through faith of His transcendent life. Such eating of His body and drinking of His life or blood is the "Holy Communion" of which sincere Christians partake daily.

The understanding that this very intimate relation exists between Jesus and His true followers is transforming the body of thousands of Christians who formerly labored under the thought that the new body in Christ was to be attained after death.

"I am the resurrection, and the life." "If a man keep my word, he shall never see death."

When man understands that he is always right in the presence of a supermind force that is perpetually pushing him into higher states of consciousness and finer physical radiations, he cannot help co-operating with it in the divine urge toward higher things.

No man can retard this universal upward sweep of the whole creation, but in the exercise of his inherent free will man can insulate his soul and body, separate himself from it, and thus become lost in the delusions of sense. To join the Holy Spirit in its efforts to gain the attention and co-operation of all men we make it a practice to join with people of like mind in every walk of life in affirming words that bind us to the mighty moving Spirit of Jesus Christ.

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Thought Images
 

I see myself as God sees me, perfect in mind and body.

What I image in mind is molded in omnipresent substance, and I behold plenty for everybody.

EVERY TIME we go to a movie we are witnessing a likeness of what is constantly taking place in our mind. A likeness is an imitation or repetition of a thing. The projection into visible action of a series of small images by a motion-picture machine is the copy of a process that we all use, the picture-making ability of our mind. However the picture-making ability of our mind is a far more substantial thing than the weak imitations of the movie camera. We clothe our mental pictures with flesh and blood, while the movie is merely shimmering shadows.

It is true that persons who are shallow in their grasp of the deep things of life image weakly, and the projections of their mind are transitory. But those who have meditated seriously upon the source

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of existence and stirred up the inner substance and life make very substantial pictures in the universal ether or "kingdom of the heavens." An image projected from the head alone, which has not made union with soul substance, is a mere flickering will-o'-the-wisp that shimmers for a short moment in the mental marshes and then fades away.

There is a vast difference between the thought images of an intellectual thinker and those of one who has got access to the spiritual substance and life within. One may make brilliant pictures in the ether, but they are without the substance and life that is so essential to the structure of things eternal. Jesus illustrated this in His comparison of the man who builds upon rock with the man who builds upon sand. The house built upon sand soon falls, but the one built on rock (substance) endures when the winds and floods descend upon it.

Spiritual insight or discernment shows us that Divine Mind, which created in the beginning, must still be carrying forward the universe and the man that it originally conceived. It also shows us that by projecting the perfect picture of ourselves that God projected we shall behold its perfect manifestation.

Paul says that we shall attain the glory of the Lord by degrees: "from glory to glory." Jesus said, "In your patience ye shall win your souls." So many of us have visions of the perfect man, as had John on Patmos, and we are so eager to be like him that we get impatient and eagerly grasp at the many

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"promising" short cuts into the kingdom.

But we should be constantly reminded that there are no shorter cuts than those taught by Jesus. He said that the kingdom of heaven suffered violence under John the Baptist and the other prophets up to the time of John and that the violent took it by force. Then He called attention to John the Baptist as the reincarnation of Elijah. Of all the old prophets Elijah was the most violent and destructive. He at one time called down the fire of Jehovah and destroyed four hundred of the prophets of Baal. This violent and destructive rise of the power of the word finally reacted upon the cells of Elijah's body and burned them up, and he was taken up into the heavens in a chariot of fire.

It is popularly taught that Elijah is a saint in heaven, but this cannot be true because, as Jesus plainly taught in Matthew 11:14, he appeared again in the earth as John the Baptist. Neither did John get into heaven. He expressed the Elijah spirit by condemning Herod and then having his head cut off by way of reaction to his destructive thought. All this instructs us in the power of our mind to bring peace, harmony, and health into our life by right thinking. All that Jesus taught about man and his mighty mental capacity is being confirmed by modern psychology and by the discoveries of science in the realms invisible. For us it is not only a privilege but an absolute necessity to bring forth that perfection of character and form which was originally imaged in our soul by God-Mind.

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The Spoken Word

Spirit life quickens mind and body, and I am whole.

Spirit substance fills my mind and floods my affairs.

WE UNDERSTAND that the worlds were framed by the word of God spoken in faith. This in substance is the comment of the author of Hebrews. If God created by the power of His word it is fair to assume that He gave like power to man, who has in miniature all the abilities of His Father. Jesus confirmed this power of man's word when He said that we should be held accountable for our lightest word and that our words would both justify and condemn us.

Our words are so interwoven with our thoughts and acts that we do not discern the relation between cause and effect, in fact we do not as a rule see any connection between them. We are so concerned with effects that we have no consciousness of causes. So in explaining the law by which man builds his

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character, body, and environment, we must repeatedly call attention to the source of these things, Spirit and its outlet in man, the word. Thought and word are so intimately allied that we usually count them as one. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Get a deep conviction of the truth of your cause; then speak it forth in strong words, and it will surely come to pass.

The process through which the idea--conceived in mind, formed in thought, and made manifest in body and affairs--passes in its various stages is not always clear, and we are not usually concerned about the manner in which the end is accomplished. The fulfillment of our objective is the principal thing.

However it is within the province of man to understand and witness the whole process of creative thought in his own organism. It requires soul culture of an advanced order to do this, and but few persons are willing to undertake the necessary study and discipline. It is not taught in any of the metaphysical schools, because the instructions cannot be put in words. No words have yet been invented to express the attitudes of mind and body required to raise the cell life in man's body to the required potency. The spiritual ether in which we float has a rate of vibration millions of times greater than matter. This is the kingdom of Spirit life, which Jesus brought to our attention and of which we must lay hold if we would attain eternal or continuous life. The individuality or I AM must give concentrated attention to this inner life energy and

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introduce it into mind and body continually until the whole nervous system is aflame with Spirit life. We may not be conscious of it, but we are all seeking this inner life flame, because its energy is the only source upon which we can draw to raise our atomic vibration to the point where it will overcome the slow disintegrating flow of human nature.

There are souls in the heavens who have accomplished this and so attuned their bodies to the spiritual life that they are no longer subject to death. Jesus of Nazareth is the illumined soul appointed to save our race from the disintegrating effects of broken law, and through Him we are dynamically infused with life.

Every time we listen to a radio program we have in the diffusion of intelligence an illustration of what Jesus accomplished in the diffusion of life. In the 1st chapter of John we read, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

Here light (intelligence) and life are treated as one. Like all the attributes of Spirit, intelligence or the knowing quality is united with the active quality, life. There is a spiritual ether corresponding to the radio ether, into which Jesus merged His soul and body at His disappearance in the heavens (hoi ouranoi). Here awaiting our appropriation is a radiant intelligence and life. When we turn our attention within and give ourselves up wholly to Spirit, we are quickened with a life and intelligence of superexcellence.

When the blood stream becomes depleted our

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physicians hasten to make a blood transfusion, overlooking the fact that Jesus made it possible for all of us to receive from Him a life transfusion that not only revives us in temporal ills but, above all, begins in our body a purifying and energizing process that will finally save us from death.

When we strive to be like Jesus in thought and word we are quickened by Him and are lifted up. This results in healing; but far more important, we are inoculated with the germs of soul and body cleansing.

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Thou Shalt Decree

In the presence and power of the Christ in me I decree the manifestation of perfect health.

In the presence and power of the living Christ substance I claim the riches of God.

GOD MADE man by the power of His word: "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." By virtue of his spiritual origin and the power vested in him man forms by his word the world in which he lives. Jehovah said to Eliphaz, "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee."

Every word man utters energizes the ether with a creative impulse that in due season brings forth its image and likeness.

The formative power of man's thought and word is governed by his faith in himself and the vehemence with which he thinks and speaks.

Jesus expected great things of His followers because He knew what is in man. He knew that man has laid hold of the power of God, as stated in Genesis 3:22, "Behold, the man is become as one

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of us." Jesus recognized this when He said, "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?"

We have not brought forth in the majesty of the sons of God because of our self-depreciation and our ignorance of the creative law implanted in us. Job had the inferiority complex of personality. He whined:
 

"Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? . . .

Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

Gird up thy lions now like a man:

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me . . .

Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity;

And array thyself with honor and majesty."

Isaiah said, "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees." Our woes can be traced right back to some unrighteous decree. We have decreed a thousand things that we did not want to come to pass, but that have come to pass, and we are suffering the woeful consequences.

Our body is weak or strong, according to what we have decreed for it. Every organ is functioning as we have decreed. If we have said, "My stomach is weak,'" the obedient life and substance have found this kind of stomach for us. If we have declared strength and vigor for our stomach, this organ will at once begin to carry out our decree. "Say the word, and my servant shall be healed."

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So every organ and member of the body responds to our decree.

Man is the anointed son of God called Christ. When we know the truth about ourselves we are freed from the bondage of the foolish decrees of personality. Do not exalt personality in your decrees for yourself. Exalt Christ by making your decrees in His name. "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The vital energy of eternal life exists in every cell of our body. Science proclaims that its experiments with animal tissues prove that man's body would live forever if it were not for his brain. In a recent interview Doctor Carrel says that "the only thing that keeps men from living forever is the possession of a brain and nervous system."

Metaphysicians know that the brain and nervous system are the organ of the mind, and that man dies because he is not wise in his directive power.
 
 

"And the Almighty will be thy treasure,

And precious silver unto thee"

was the prosperity proclamation of our wise old friend Job.

A "depression" took everything he owned, even his sons and daughters. But he was not defeated, he claimed his own and it was restored to him:
 
 

"Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak;

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me . . .

And Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before."

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Be Strong in the Lord

I praise and give thanks that I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

I praise and give thanks for the plenty, visible and invisible, that I feel and see everywhere.

TO BE "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might" means that we are seeking strength and power from sources other than the physical. Food and exercises are the usual sources of bodily vigor. We are not discussing mental vigor, which is gained by combining diet, discipline, and idealism.

A study of Truth reveals that words based upon the authority of Spirit develop dynamic force. The difference between the force of a word based in physical things and one based in spiritual things is the difference between the effect one gets from contact with a wire carrying a light and a wire carrying a heavy voltage.

The time will come when scientific metaphysics will measure mathematically the currents of energy

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emanating from a brain charged with material ideas and one charged with spiritual ideas. At present the science of mind is quite primitive. We are, like Franklin, flying a few kites and making cursory excursions into a field of energy the control of which will eventually change our whole world.

We have found however that very definite changes occur in our mind and body when we practice concentration in the silence. This means that when we want to gain spiritual power we get still mentally and physically and turn our attention within. On our first entering this "silence" we close our eyes and ears, and with our concentrated attention fixed on an imaginary point within, we repeat silently any set of words that carry a spiritual idea. With practice we can make the inner connection without closing the eyes.

In His directions for effective prayer Jesus told His disciples to go into the secret place and close the door, there to pray to the Father in secret, and the response would appear outwardly. Jesus sometimes prayed all night. He taught persistence in prayer. We find that contact with the supermind--which Jesus named the Father--is sometimes quickly made in concentrated prayer; then again our mind is slow to see the inner light. The relation of our mind to creative Mind may be compared to the relation of a radio receiving set to a broadcasting station. As we must tune our radio set so that it will pick up waves from the proper station, so we have to acquire the ability to attune our mind to Divine

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Mind, so we may learn by spiritual understanding the true ideas that exist eternally in Divine Mind.

Every word has a quality that sympathetically relates it to an idea innate in the mind of man, and when the word is released it radiates an energy that contracts or expands the body cells and through them external nature. For example, words of praise, gratitude, or thanksgiving expand, set free, and in every way radiate energy. Words of failure or impotence congest energy and cause the cells to crowd together, making nerves trembly and bones brittle.

When the thoughts are lifted up to the contemplation of our all-pervading and all-powerful Spirit Father and our voices ring out in words of praise and thanksgiving, the withered hands and shackled feet are freed, the walls of negation are shattered, and we step forth into a new consciousness of life.

To those in the clutches of adverse words it seems a travesty to praise and give thanks to the God of strength and power, but thousands of those who have endured poverty and sickness for years find that their prison doors open when they praise and give thanks, like Paul and Silas, as related in the 16th chapter of Acts. They were praying and singing hymns to God when suddenly there was a great earthquake, all the prisoners' chains were loosened, and Paul and Silas stepped forth free men.

So you will find that you can be freed from all the prison cells of mind's blind thinking by lifting up your voice and heart in songs of praise and thanksgiving to the God of freedom, light, and life.

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Face to Face with God

Thy Spirit strengthens both my soul and my body, and I rest in the peace of wholeness and health.

Every anxious thought is stilled. Thy mighty confidence and Thy peace infold me. Omnipresent Spirit substance fills my mind, and abundance is everywhere manifest.

MANY CHRISTIAN metaphysicians who are quite familiar with the idea of the omnipresence of God address Him in terms that imply His absence. Instead of talking direct to God, who is always right in our midst, we talk about Him. We are apt to say, "God strengthens both my soul and my body" instead of "Thy Spirit strengthens both my soul and my body."

Our words betray our dominant state of mind, although the logic of Truth may belie this. We see logically that there cannot be any separation in spirit between the Creator and the created, but the created has the power to think of itself as separate from its source, and this thought makes a mental vacuum in which there is a total absence of spiritual

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attributes. The human family on this planet has set up this sort of a mental void, and unless we train our mind to think the truth, we find ourselves talking to God as if He were in the next room or in some faraway heaven in the skies.

We in our day and age are not alone in making God the third person in our conversation. Bible authors did the same. We should remember that the people who live today are the same people who lived in the past, in other words, we are people who thought ourselves separate from God life and thereby killed our body. We also are like some of the people who acted the part of the prodigal son, desiring to be again united with the Father.

However we should not forget that although the Father was "moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him," the prodigal was yet "afar off." No one save Jesus has fully bridged this gulf of separation, and we are excusable if we at times lapse into the old consciousness of absence from the Father. Jesus gives us the right cue when He affirms, "It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life."

"For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself."

We find that we must train our mind in trust, look persistently and continuously to God for all things, and rest in the assurance that what we ask and affirm in Spirit will surely come to pass. Jesus had such supreme confidence and faith in the Father

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as the source of health and prosperity that His name has become the synonym and open door for the manifestation of those things. He said that whatever we asked of the Father in His name would be granted. Many persons get a very definite mental uplift and consciousness of Spirit by repeating audibly and silently the name of Jesus Christ. But the name does not represent the real character of the person unless it is known to us through our acquaintance with the person himself. Unless you have read about Jesus and tried to realize His love, wisdom, and supermind power, you have no conception of the meaning of His name. Paul urged that we let Christ be formed in us. That means that through the study of the life of Jesus and the discipline He gave His mind we shall put into our mind the same ideas that He had. These ideas will form in our mind a new kind of man, which is God's man.

When you turn your attention to Spirit your mind makes contact with a realm of ideas very much above the level of your common thinking; and when you strike this mental stratosphere you are tremendously lifted up. Then you make your statements of Truth and whatever you decree comes to pass. Job's friend Eliphaz said to him:
 
 

"Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace:

Thereby good shall come unto thee . . . .

Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee;

And light shall shine upon thy ways"

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Not Magic but Law

I see myself as God sees me, strong, robust, healthy.

The Spirit of industry, energy, and honesty now stirs me to action, and I am truly prosperous.

THERE IS AN idea quite prevalent in the public mind that we teach a system of thought and word juggling; that anyone anywhere can have any and every thing by merely repeating over and over certain magic words. It is true that words have magic in them and very often the result of the mental imagery evoked by them is so startling as to suggest Aladdin and his lamp. However a comprehension of the whole philosophy reveals a well-balanced set of principles upon which it rests. By being determined one can project an isolated idea and gets results without conforming to the accepted laws of human relationships. No one can use the dynamic power of thought and word in unbalanced ways without suffering undesirable reactions. To avoid this we keep before our mind's eye the dominant existence of a divine order and law to which

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we must conform if we are to attain enduring success. Jesus taught that He was the executive of a spiritual principle that was the source, the wisdom, and the power of everything He did. He urged His followers to look to the same inner power. "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

We who are striving to acquire an understanding of the divine law and to apply it in our life as Jesus did in His should set up the same intimate relation with the Father that He did. "For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth." We are all the offspring of God and come into sonship when we acquaint ourselves with His mind.

In the beginning of our existence as free, thinking entities we had a certain consciousness of the Father-Mind, but continued thinking of ourselves as independent of this Mind has formed a gulf of apartness. We are prodigals in the far country of sense life. Those of us who are beginning to see how poor and bare this material life is have turned our faces to the Father's house and are mentally journeying home. It is not a question of geographical locality but of mental recognition. "The kingdom of God is within you," said Jesus. Seeking God within changes our whole mental viewpoint. We find ourselves right in the presence of creative Mind, and seeking to co-operate with this Mind, we receive spiritual inspiration and are guided in even the most minute details of life.

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In the early stages of our spiritual awakening we realize our dependence upon God for all that we are, and our attitude is that of the humble, obedient child. Then gradually there arises within us the consciousness of sonship, the consciousness that God is the parent Mind and that we inherit all the ideas constituting this mind. If we inherit these creative ideas it logically follows that we are to use them. This is where, as Jesus explained, the son becomes the co-operator with the Father in creation. "For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man." The claim that Jesus was the exclusive and only Son of God is here refuted: "because he is a son of man." By divine right man is the executive power of God-Mind, and he will never fulfill the law of his being before he enters into the realization of his dominion and authority in the realms of mind and matter.

Thus we see that we are warranted in affirming our unity with God and expecting the attributes of the perfect man to appear. "Judge not according to appearance." Right in the face of adverse appearances enter into God-Mind and see yourself as He sees you, strong, robust, healthy. Jesus said, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." All those who believe in the inevitable conquest of death are already in mental tombs, but when they realize that Jesus walked out of the tomb

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and said, "Follow me," they are lifted into the heavens of eternal life. Do not be afraid to go all the way with Jesus.

When the prodigal son returned, the father ran to meet him, ordered the best robe to be put upon him, shoes on his feet, a ring on his hands; and he provided a feast, with merriment. Here is parabled the prosperity that ensues when man returns to the consciousness of God as his resource. In the world of affairs, industry, energy, and honesty are expected of those who would succeed. These qualities have a divine source and can be quickened and intensely energized by attaching them to the dynamic mind of God. "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee."

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Spiritual Soul Therapy

I praise Thee and bless Thee for the consciousness of health and wholeness through Christ.

With all Thy pople I praise and bless Thy Spirit of plenty now manifest everywhere.

PSYCHOANALYSIS is growing more popular every day because it measures the capacity of the soul. We are all interested in our soul and how to save it. Those who follow Jesus go one step further in soul therapy than the average psychoanalyst; they incorporate Spirit with soul and make it the primal source and sustainer of both soul and body. "It is the spirit that quickeneth."

We make our soul out of the thoughts and words we entertain. Consequently we should be very careful in choosing our words, because they are the means by which we convey Spirit to character and its structure. So instead of psychoanalysis let us say we have Spirit psychoanalysis.

Every word has its root in an idea, whether this idea is reflected from within or not. When we wish

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to approve, extol, applaud, or commend we praise and bless. Words of this kind and the mental attitudes that they set up stimulate, quicken, whirl into action, and finally establish in character the ideals of which they are the vehicle. So let us remember that we use words as instruments of ideas and that it is the idea that we are seeking to enlarge and establish by our words of praise and blessing.

So "praise" and "bless" are words freely used by those who love spiritual values, because these words are heavily charged with capacity to express creative Mind. In themselves alone the words "praise" and "bless" are potent for good because they are associated with ideas that eulogize the good. These words are not found in the vocabulary of the pessimist or atheist. From various sources we learn that scientists are experimenting with instruments like the lie tester that register mind emotions. These instruments measure the force of fear and courage, sorrow and joy; in fact every emotion and mental attitude is coming under scientific observation, and it will not be long before we can produce graphs of the power of every thought as it registers on the nerve and brain cells of the body. When these brain testers definitely prove that certain emotions not only stimulate but permanently enlarge brain areas the cultivation of constructive states of mind will become part of our common-school curriculums.

Metaphysicians find that words that express thanks, gratitude, and praise release latent energies of mind and spirit; and the effects of their use follow

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so quickly that they can almost be identified with the originating words.

Let your words of praise and blessing be to Spirit and the increase will be even greater than it has been when addressed to man. The resource of Spirit are beyond our highest flights of imagination. You can praise a weak body into strength, a fearful heart into peace and trust; shattered nerves into poise and power; a failing business into prosperity and success; want and insufficiency into supply and support.

The healing and prosperity thougths in this chapter are a guide for those who are trying to demonstrate the power of words to regulate health and finances. If you are in need of health use the statement as printed, putting special emphasis on the words "strength" and "power." When using these health-producing words, direct your attention to Spirit as if it were an interpenetrating presence, which it is. Try to feel the quickening spiritual harmony and health, which will be manifested at once or later, depending on your attitude toward the time element. If you join in thought with Silent Unity every night from nine to ten o'clock you will get a powerful uplift. In demonstrating prosperity you should praise and bless even minor evidences of financial improvement.

Remember what Jesus said about your mental attitude in demonstrating spiritually: "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"; which may be rephrased thus: Pray, believing that you have received, and you shall receive.

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Health and Prosperity

My health is in Thee, and I affirm Thee and Thy life as the one and only source of my healing.

Thou art my resource, and in Thee I am bountifully supplied with all things.

GOD IS SPIRIT, and Spirit is located and appears wherever it is recognized by an intelligent entity. It thus follows that whoever gives his attention to Spirit and seals his identification with it by his word, starts a flow of Spirit life and all the attributes of Spirit in and through his consciousness. To the extent that he practices identifying himself with the one and only source of existence he becomes Spirit, until finally the union attains a perfection in which he can say with Jesus, "I and the Father are one."

Many persons who have been taught that God exists in a realm separate from His creations and that He has parts and passions like man discount the claim that He is the essence of man's body. But that Spirit is the essence of all things is good logic,

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and those who have made the contact with Spirit life testify that it has revealed itself to them as the very source of their existence; that is, as creative Mind, God.

Jesus was undoubtedly the most radical of all the thousands who have claimed that God revealed Himself to them right out of omnipresence.

The same thought stuff that God used to create man is accessible to man at all times and in all places. In fact we are using this all-potential thought stuff with every mental concept. Thus we plant ideas in the same soil in which God-Mind plants its ideas, and the offspring or fruit is of the same kind. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Following the creative law that works constantly in Spirit substance and life, we find that we are creating permanent thought forms when our ideals are in harmony with divine law. We thus see that our immortal body is formed when our thoughts harmonize with what we intuitively know to be God thoughts, and the perishable body is formed when we think and speak words that are out of line with Truth as established in divine principle.

God is Spirit. God is the source of all that we are, hence the source of life, substance, and intelligence. The one and only substance out of which all things are formed is right here at all times, awaiting our recognition of it in its spiritual freedom. When we do recognize it in the simple faith that it will carry out our demands, we are doing just what Jesus did.

In like manner the divine substance, out of which

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all things are formed, in its spiritual freedom is here in our midst waiting for us to form it into whatever we may decree. Thus it follows that God has actually planted man in a garden or paradise of potential substance (mental soil), out of which he can grow his prosperity.

Thousands are testifying in this day that a greater work is being done in His name than was done in Palestine.

Your health and prosperity will surely be demonstrated if you are faithful in your open-mindedness; in holding fast to healing and prosperity thoughts.
 
 

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Thoughts Are Things

I am no longer like Lot's wife, preserving evil in mind and body by remembering it. I relax and willingly let go of all effete substance, that the new, pure radiance of God may be made manifest in me.

My mind no longer clings to the complexity of mortal finances. I am open to the splendor of the kingdom of God within, and a flood of plenty follows.

ONE OF the axiomatic truths of metaphysics is that "thoughts are things." That the mind of man marshals its faculties and literally makes into living entities the ideas that it entertains is also a foregone conclusion.

The word "things" expresses poorly the active and very vital character of the thoughts to which the mind gives life, substance, and intelligence.

We see so many inanimate "things" around us in the material world, and we compare our creative thoughts with them and thereby get a very inferior

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conception of the marvelous ability of our mind in its creative capacity.

Shakespeare says, "The poet's pen . . . gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." At the same time the poet's mind forms in the ether a replica of his idea, and that replica takes up its habitation in his thought atmosphere and henceforth injects into it a tincture of the sentiments that the poets originally had.

This ability of the Adamic man to "name" or give character, form, and shape to ideas is symbolically described in the 2d chapter of Genesis, where Jehovah God brought before Adam the elemental ideas or "beasts" of the Garden of Eden (called by metaphysicians the "ether"). "And whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof."

We often refer in Unity literature to the discoveries by modern science of the ether and its stupendous properties as confirming in scientific terms what Jesus taught in symbols concerning the properties of the ether, which He named the kingdom of the heavens. The Garden of Eden is a symbolic description of that elemental realm which modern science has named the ether. Science says that this ether fills all space, is not molecular, and possesses an amount of energy beyond comparison with anything material; that all the complex phenomena of nature may be reduced to different kinds of waves of energy in the ether. Professor James Jeans says, "We live in a universe of waves, and

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nothing but waves." He also says that it may be that our mind lays hold of the atoms of our body and so forms the world about us.

Here we see how very near to the teaching of religion scientific minds are approaching. They are virtually proclaiming the one life as the source of everything. Their next great proclamation will be that one directive intelligence is an essential cause of the harmonious universe.

Every experienced metaphysician knows that man's mind molds from an omnipresent element whatever takes form, shape, and intelligence and becomes part of his thought world. That science in a measure confirms this is a source of gratification and a stabilizer of faith. Knowing that our world is composed of what we have idealized should make us more watchful of the activities of our mind. Are we still harboring thought forms that are impeding our soul's progress? Are we preserving our evil thoughts by thinking about them with fear in our mind? Or it may be that we yearn for the pleasures of the past and like Lot's wife look back, thereby subjecting ourselves to the things of the past or with the salt of the mind preserving them. There are always better things just ahead for those who build in mind the living thought entities that go before and open the way.

Man lives in two worlds, the world of cause and the world of effect. The world of effect is at present in a complex tangle. Panaceas without number are offered. There is but one panacea and that is the installation of an economic system in which human greed will be eliminated. To institute such a system will require men and women who have overcome greed in themselves.

If you would help the world, and incidentally yourself, to better economic conditions, begin to deny your selfishness and greed and affirm,

"I am open to the splendor of the kingdom of God within, and a flood of plenty follows."

The Supermind

I join with all the hosts of heaven in declaring that only the good is true, and that good health everywhere is made manifest.

The rich substance of the kingdom of God is pouring its plenty perpetually into my mind and affairs, and I am in all ways prospered.

THAT MAN in his spiritual nature is leagued with supermind realms is taught freely in the Scriptures and can be proved to the satisfaction of anyone who will submit to the required mental discipline. That these supermind forces are not always used to bring about good is no argument against their existence. Anyone who develops spiritually in any way breaks into realms of thought energy superior to the intellectual and can incite to action subtle causes that mystify the average on-looker. For this reason every Christian metaphysician should acquaintance with these facts about the supermind, which occupies so great a place in Truth demonstrations.

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The question is often asked if the Indian medicine man or the African witch doctor uses the same force that the Christian healer does. The answer is yes. There is but one primal life in which we all exist and which we use as we will. The way in which we project this force determines whether we are Christian or pagan. If our thought is to destroy, we are pagan. If our thought is for peace, we are Christian. This law is operative not only in the nations but in every individual. As we are taught in our Bible, God originally guided man to think good only; but man was tempted and chose to be free and think for himself. This freedom threw the whole race into a mental vortex of "good" and "evil," hate and love, war and peace. Christ is the Prince of Peace and Satan is the devil of destruction.

These good and evil states of consciousness form the heavens and the hells of the race, and we go in mind to heaven or hell every time we mentally project the thoughts that "chord" with that particular state. Only a supermastermind can overcome this law of mental affinity and set up in our earthly discordant thought atmosphere a consciousness of peace and love. Jesus was able to do this, and when we think of Him, the Christ in us "tunes in" to the Christ in Him and we are saved from the destructive forces that tear soul and body asunder.

The mental harmony of Jesus not only radiates throughout the earth but reaches into the heavens, where it taps the glory of the Son of God. When we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or

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decree His presence and power in our spiritual work, we effect a reunion with His supermind and its tremendous ramifications in heaven and earth, and our own meager spiritual ability is augmented a thousandfold. Jesus understood and used this law of thought affinity when He claimed that the works He did were not His but the Father's within Him. It was in this consciousness that He proclaimed, "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." He also affirmed a like spiritual unity for His disciples and for all those who proclaim Him as their spiritual leader. His last promise was "And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." This is found in the 16th chapter of Mark, where it is also written, "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed."

Peter and John developed marvelous healing power when they spoke the magic words to the lame man at the gate Beautiful: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." "And immediately his feet and his ankle-bones received strength. And leaping up, he stood, and began to walk."

For two thousand years those who have had faith in Jesus and proclaimed their faith in His name have had proof that He is present as a dynamic

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life-giving force. Men and women with no previous healing power have suddenly become healers of marvelous ability. They do not claim to understand how the healing is done. They know only that through the exercise of faith and their word the spiritual quality in them is fused into unity with the power of Christ and the work is marvelously accomplished.

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Cheerfulness Heals

The joy of health and happiness in Christ fills my body with new life, and I am made whole.

The love of the cheerful giver is expressed in me, and I feel Spirit pouring out its plenty into all my affairs.

EVERYBODY advocates cheerfulness as an aid to healing, but how few practice it as a vital part of the restorative principle? The large majority of sick persons are pessimists. They think they are much worse off than they are. They retard the healing efforts of nature and nature's God by repeated shocks of mental depression and fear of the serious character of some physical shadow as transient as "ships that pass in the night."

Some of our best doctors say that eighty per cent of humanity's ills would heal of themselves if left alone. In a book called "Let's Operate," by Dr. Roy H. McKay and Norman Beasley, we find this in italics:

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"What people don't know, or won't believe, is that in eighty per cent of the cases they would get better without the ministrations of a physician, if they would merely go to bed and follow a proper diet."

To this the writers add:

"This applies to operations too. Every day a distressing number of unnecessary ones are being performed."

The authors of this book are not metaphysicians. Doctor McKay is an eminent surgeon. He says in his preface, "This book was written with great reluctance."

So we find that good doctors, who have the welfare of humanity at heart, are advising that we do not race to the operating table at the first sign of pain.

"Be of good cheer." The intelligence that created your body knows how to repair it. Get still, relax, turn your attention to the sustaining life forces within your organism. Say to yourself,

I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.

Don't eat unless you are hungry. Many of our ills are caused by a greedy appetite that, in being satiated, clogs the body with surplus fuel. Jesus told His disciples that a certain type of devil (error) could be eradicated only by fasting and prayer. Then rejoice and be glad when you begin to feel the healing peace of Spirit creeping over you.

As we find cheerfulness conducive to health we

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also find it paving the way for prosperity. Paul wrote, "God loveth a cheerful giver." If the Lord loves a cheerful giver, it must follow that He takes a more intimate interest in the finances of a happy person than in those of one who handles his money in a stingy fashion.

Make it a practice to put love and good cheer into all your finances, and you will open up sources of income that have stagnated because you have not given their mind substance an opportunity to flow into your affairs.

You have doubtless met commercial Jonahs--sunk in the waters of their own negative statements. Avoid their pessimistic thoughts and words. Bless what you receive; bless what you send out. God's plenteous substance moves in and through our mind constantly like a light shining in the darkness, but we do not comprehend it.

Cultivate the bountiful, cheerful spirit in every thought and act. Then your finances will flow harmoniously, and you will never lack any good thing.

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Love Harmonizes

Thine harmonizing love is mine, and I am restored to peace and health.

Divine love, like a magnet, charges my mind and prospers my affairs.

AMONG PEOP