Bondage or Liberty, Which?

In entering upon this course of instruction, each of you should, so far as possible, lay aside, for the time being, all previous theories and beliefs. By so doing you will be saved the trouble of trying, all the way through the course, to put "new wine into old wineskins" (Lk. 5:37). If there is anything, as we proceed, which you do not understand or agree with, just let it lie passively in your mind until you have read the entire book, for many statements that would at first arouse antagonism and discussion will be clear and easily accepted a little farther on. After the course is completed, if you wish to return to your old beliefs and ways of living, you are at perfect liberty to do so. But, for the time being, be willing to become as a little child; for, said the Master, in spiritual things, "Except ye . . . become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 18:3). If at times there seems to be repetition, please remember that these are lessons, not lectures.
 
"Finally . . be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might" (Eph. 6:10).
 
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8).
 
1. Every man believes himself to be in bondage to the flesh and to the things of the flesh. All suffering is the result of this belief. The history of the coming of the Children of Israel out of their long bondage in Egypt is descriptive of the human mind, or consciousness, growing up out of the animal or sense part of man and into the spiritual part.
 
2. "And Jehovah said [speaking to Moses], I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
 
3. "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:7,8).
4. These words express exactly the attitude of the Creator toward His highest creation, man.
 
5. Today, and all the days, He has been saying to us, His children: "I have surely seen the affliction of you who are in Egypt [darkness of ignorance], and have heard your cry by reason of your taskmasters [sickness, sorrow, and poverty]; and I am [not I will, but I am now] come down to deliver you out of all this suffering, and to bring you up unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with good things" (Ex. 3:7 adapted).
 
6. Sometime, somewhere, every human being must come to himself. Having tired of eating husks, he will "arise and go to my Father" (Lk. 15:18).   

 
7. This does not mean that God is a stern autocrat who by reason of supreme power compels man to bow to Him. It is rather an expression of the order of divine law, the law of all love, all good. Man, who is at first living in the selfish animal part of himself, will grow up through various stages and by various processes to the divine or spiritual understanding wherein he knows that he is one with the Father, and wherein he is free from all suffering, because he has conscious dominion over all things. Somewhere on this journey the human consciousness, or intellect, comes to a place where it gladly bows to its spiritual self and confesses that this spiritual self, its Christ, is highest and is Lord. Here and forever after, not with sense of bondage, but with joyful freedom, the heart cries out: "Jehovah reigneth" (Ps. 93:1). Everyone must sooner or later come to this point of experience.
 
8. You and I, dear reader, have already come to ourselves. Having become conscious of an oppressive bondage, we have arisen and set out on the journey from Egypt to the land of liberty, and now we cannot turn back if we would. Though possibly there will come times to each of us, before we reach the land of milk and honey (the time of full deliverance out of all our sorrows and troubles), when we shall come into a deep wilderness or against a seemingly impassable Red Sea, when our courage will seem to fail. Yet God says to each one of us, as Moses said to the trembling Children of Israel: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will work for you today" (Ex. 14:13).
 
9. Each man must sooner or later learn to stand alone with his God; nothing else avails. Nothing else will ever make you master of your own destiny. There is in your own indwelling Lord all the life and health, all the strength and peace and joy, all the wisdom and support that you can ever need or desire. No one can give to you as can this indwelling Father. He is the spring of all joy and comfort and power.
 
10. Hitherto we have believed that we were helped and comforted by others, that we received joy from outside circumstances and surroundings; but it is not so. All joy and strength and good spring up from a fountain within one's own being; and if we only knew this truth we should know that, because God in us is the fountain out of which springs all our good, nothing that anyone does or says, or fails to do or say, can take away our joy and good.
 
11. Someone has said: "Our liberty comes from an understanding of the mind and the thoughts of God toward us." Does God regard man as His servant, or as His child? Most of us have believed ourselves not only the slaves of circumstances, but also, at the best, the servants of the Most High. Neither belief is true. It is time for us to awake to right thoughts, to know that we are not servants, but children, "and if children, then heirs" (Rom. 8:17). Heirs to what? Why, heirs to all wisdom, so that we need not, through any lack of wisdom, make mistakes; heirs to all love, so that we need know no fear or envy or jealousy; heirs to all strength, all life, all power, all good.
 
 12. The human intelligence is so accustomed to the sound of words heard from childhood that often they convey to it no real meaning. Do you stop to think, really to comprehend, what it means to be "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17)? It means, "Every man is the inlet, and may become the outlet, of all there is in God." It means that all that God is and has is in reality for us, His only heirs, if we only know how to claim our inheritance.
 
13. This claiming of our rightful inheritance, the inheritance that God wants us to have in our daily life, is just what we are learning how to do in these simple talks.
 
14. Paul said truly: "So long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all;
 
15. "But is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father.
 
16. "So we also, when we were children [in knowledge], were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world:
 
17. "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son . . . And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts [or into our conscious minds], crying Abba, Father.
 
18. "So that thou art no longer a bondservant but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:1-7).
19. It is through Christ, the indwelling Christ, that we are to receive all that God has and is, as much or as little as we can or dare to claim.
 
20. No matter with what object you first started out to seek Truth, it was in reality because it was God's "fulness of the time" (Gal. 4:4) for you to arise and begin to claim your inheritance. You were no longer to be satisfied with or under bondage to the elements of the world. Think of it! God's "fulness of the time" now for you to be free, to have dominion over all things material, to be no longer bond servant, but a son in possession of your inheritance! "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit" (Jn. 15:16).
 
21. We have come to a place now where our search for Truth must no longer be for the rewards; it must no longer be our seeking a creed to follow, but it must be our living a life. In these simple lessons we shall take only the first steps out of the Egyptian bondage of selfishness, lust, and sorrow toward the land of liberty, where perfect love and all good reign.
 
22. Every right thought that we think, our every unselfish word or action, is bound by immutable laws to be fraught with good results. But in our walk we must learn to lose sight of results that are the "loaves and the fishes" (Mt. 15:36). We must rather seek to be the Truth consciously, to be love, to be wisdom, to be life (as we really are unconsciously,) and let results take care of themselves.
 
23. Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it. Practice the presence of God just as you would practice music. No one would ever dream of becoming a master in music except by spending some time daily alone with music. Daily meditation alone with God focuses the divine presence within us and brings it to our consciousness.
 
24. You may be so busy with the doing, the outgoing of love to help others (which is unselfish and Godlike as far as it goes), that you find no time to go apart. But the command, or rather the invitation, is "Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest a while" (Mk. 6:31). And it is the only way in which you will ever gain definite knowledge, true wisdom, newness of experience, steadiness of purpose, or power to meet the unknown, which must come in all daily life. Doing is secondary to being. When we are consciously the Truth, it will radiate from us and accomplish the works without our ever running to and fro. If you have no time for this quiet meditation, make time, take time. Watch carefully, and you will find that there are some things, even in the active unselfish doing, which would better be left undone than that you should neglect regular meditation.

25. You will find that some time is spent every day in idle conversation with people who "just run in for a few moments" to be entertained. If you can help such people, well; if not, gather yourself together and do not waste a moment idly diffusing and dissipating yourself to gratify their idleness. You have no idea what you lose by it.
 
26. When you withdraw from the world for meditation, let it not be to think of yourself or your failures, but invariably to get all your thoughts centered on God and on your relation to the Creator and Upholder of the universe. Let all the little annoying cares and anxieties go for a while, and by effort, if need be, turn your thoughts away from them to some of the simple words of the Nazarene, or of the Psalmist. Think of some Truth statement, be it ever so simple.
 
27. No person, unless he has practiced it, can know how it quiets all physical nervousness, all fear, all oversensitiveness, all the little raspings of everyday life—just this hour of calm, quiet waiting alone with God. Never let it be an hour of bondage, but always one of restfulness.
 
28. Some, having realized the calm and power that come of daily meditation, have made the mistake of drawing themselves from the world, that they may give their entire time to meditation. This is asceticism, which is neither wise nor profitable.
 
29. The Nazarene, who is our noblest type of the perfect life, went daily apart from the world only that He might come again into it with renewed spiritual power. So we go apart into the stillness of divine presence that we may come forth into the world of everyday life with new inspiration and increased courage and power for activity and for overcoming.
 
30. "We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration." We go apart to get still, that new life, new inspiration, new power of thought, new supply from the fountainhead may flow in; and then we come forth to shed it on those around us, that they, too, may be lifted up. Inharmony cannot remain in any home where even one member of the family daily practices this hour of the presence of God, so surely does the renewed infilling of the heart by peace and harmony result in the continual outgoing of peace and harmony into the entire surroundings.
 
31. Again, in this new way that we have undertaken, this living the life of Spirit instead of the old self, we need to seek always to have more and more of the Christ Spirit of meekness and love incorporated into our daily life. Meekness does not mean servility, but it means a spirit that could stand before a Pilate of false accusation and say nothing. No one else is so grand, so godlike as he who, because he knows the Truth of Being, can stand meekly and unperturbed before the false accusations of the human mind. "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (2 Sam. 2:36).
 
32. We must forgive as we would be forgiven. To forgive does not simply mean to arrive at a place of indifference to those who do personal injury to us; it means far more than this. To forgive is to give for—to give some actual, definite good in return for evil given. One may say: "I have no one to forgive; I have not a personal enemy in the world." And yet if, under any circumstances, any kind of a "served-him-right" thought springs up within you over anything that any of God's children may do or suffer, you have not yet learned how to forgive.
 
33. The very pain that you suffer, the very failure to demonstrate over some matter that touches your own life deeply, may rest upon just this spirit of unforgiveness that you harbor toward the world in general. Put it away with resolution.
 
34. Do not be under bondage to false beliefs about your circumstances or environment. No matter how evil circumstances may appear, or how much it may seem that some other personality is at the foundation of your sorrow or trouble, God, good, good alone, is really there when you call His law into expression.
 
35. If we have the courage to persist in seeing only God in it all, even "the wrath of man" (Ps. 76:10) shall be invariably turned to our advantage. Joseph, in speaking of the action of his brethren in selling him into slavery, said, "As for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). To them that love God, "all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28), or to them who recognize only God. All things! The very circumstances in your life that seem heartbreaking evils will turn to joy before your very eyes if you will steadfastly refuse to see anything but God in them.
 
36. It is perfectly natural for the human mind to seek to escape from its troubles by running away from present environments, or by planning some change on the material plane. Such methods of escape are absolutely vain and foolish.

 
37. There is no permanent or real outward way of escape from miseries or circumstances; all help must come from within.
 
38. The words, "God is my defense and deliverance," held in the silence until they become part of your very being, will deliver you out of the hands and the arguments of the keenest lawyer in the world.
 
39. The real inner consciousness that "the LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps. 23:1 A.V.) will supply all wants more surely and far more liberally than can any human hand.
 
40. The ultimate aim of every man should be to come into the consciousness of an indwelling God, and then in all external matters, to affirm deliverance through and by this divine One. There should not be a running to and fro, making human efforts to aid the Divine, but a calm, restful, unwavering trust in All-Wisdom and All-Power within one as able to accomplish the thing desired.
 
41. Victory must be won in the silence of your own being first, and then you need take no part in the outer demonstration of relief from conditions. The very walls of Jericho that keep you from your desire must fall before you. 

 
42. The Psalmist said:

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains

[or to the highest One]:

From whence shall come my help?

43. "My help cometh from Jehovah,

Who made heaven and earth.

44. "Jehovah [your indwelling Lord] will keep thee from evil . . .

45. "Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in

From this time forth, and for evermore."

THROUGHOUT ALL His teaching Jesus tried to show those who listened to Him, how He was related to the Father, and to teach them that they were related to the same Father in exactly the same way. Over and over again He tried in different ways to explain to them that God lived within them, that He was "not the God of the dead, but of the living." And never once did He assume to do anything as of Himself, always saying: "I can of myself do nothing." "The Father abiding in me doeth his works." But it was very hard then for people to understand, just as it is very hard for us to understand today.
 
There were, in the person of Jesus, two distinct regions. There was the fleshly, mortal part that was Jesus, the son of man; then there was the central, living, real part that was Spirit, the Son of God—that was the Christ, the Anointed. So each one of us has two regions of being—one the fleshly, mortal part, which is always feeling its weakness and insufficiency in all things, always saying, "I can't." Then at the very center of our being there is a something that, in our highest moments, knows itself more than conqueror over all things; it always says, "I can, and I will." It is the Christ child, the Son of God, the Anointed in us. "Call no man your father on the earth," said Jesus, "for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven."
 
He who created us did not make us and set us apart from Himself, as a workman makes a table or a chair and puts it away as something completed and only to be returned to the maker when it needs repairing. Not at all. God not only created us in the beginning, but He is the very fountain of life ever abiding with us. From this fountain constantly springs new life to recreate these mortal bodies. He is the ever abiding intelligence that fills and renews our mind. His creatures would not exist a moment were He to be, or could He be, separated from them. "We are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them."
 
Let us suppose that a beautiful fountain is supplied from some hidden but inexhaustible source. At its center it is full of strong, vigorous life, bubbling up continually with great activity, but at the outer edge the water is so nearly motionless as to have become impure and covered with scum. This exactly represents man. He is composed of a substance infinitely more subtle, more real than water. "We are also His offspring." Man is the offspring or the springing forth into visibility— of God the Father. At the center he is pure Spirit, made in the image and likeness of the Father, substance of the Father, one with the Father, fed and renewed continually from the inexhaustible good, which is the Father. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." At the outer edge, where stagnation has taken place (which is man's body), there is not much that looks Godlike in any way. We get our eyes fixed on the circumference, or external of our being. We lose consciousness of the indwelling, ever active, unchanging God at the center, and we see ourselves sick, weak, and in every way miserable; It is not until we learn to live at the center and to know that we have power to radiate from that center this unceasing, abundant life, that we are well and strong.

Jesus kept His eyes away from the external altogether, and kept His thoughts at the central part of His being, which was the Christ. "Judge not according to appearance," He said, that is, according to the external, "but judge righteous judgment," according to the real truth, or judge from Spirit. In Jesus, the Christ, or the central spark that was God, the same that lives in each of us today, was drawn forth to show itself perfectly, over and above the body, or fleshly man. He did all His mighty works, not because He was given some greater or different power from that which God has given us—but just because He was in some different way a Son of God and we only children of God—but just because this same Divine Spark, which the Father has implanted   in every child born, had been fanned into a bright flame by His prenatal influences, early surroundings, and by His own later efforts in holding Himself in constant, conscious communion with the Father, the Source of all love, life, and power.
 
To be tempted does not mean to have things come to you which, however much they may affect others, do not at all affect you, because of some superiority in you. It means to be tried, to suffer and to have to make effort to resist. Hebrews speaks of Jesus as "one that hath been in all points like as we are." And Jesus Himself confessed to having been tempted when He said to His disciples: "Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations." The humanity of the Nazarene "suffered being tempted," or tried, just as much as you and I suffer today because of temptations and trials, and in exactly the same way.
 
We know that during His public ministry Jesus spent hours of every day alone with God, and none of us knows what He went through in all the years of His early manhood—just as you and I are doing today—in overcoming the mortal, His fleshly desires, His doubts and fears, until He came into the perfect recognition of this indwelling Presence, this "Father in me," to whom He ascribed the credit for all His wonderful works. He had to learn as we are having to learn; He had to hold fast as we are having today to hold fast; He had to try over and over again to overcome, as we are doing, or else He was not "in all points tempted like as we are."
 
We all must recognize, I think, that it was the Christ within that made Jesus what He was; and our power now to help ourselves and to help others, lies in our comprehending the truth—for it is a truth, whether we realize it or not—that this same Christ that lived in Jesus lives within us. It is the part of Himself that God has put within us, which ever lives there with an inexpressible love and desire to spring to the circumference of our being, or to our consciousness, as our sufficiency in all things. "Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save [or He wills to save]; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing." Christ within us is the "beloved Son," the same as it was in Jesus. It is the "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected" of which Jesus spoke.
 
In all this explanation we would detract nothing from Jesus. He is still our Saviour, in that He went through suffering unutterable, through the perfect crucifixion of self, that He might lead us to God; that He might show us the way out of our sin, sickness, and trouble; that He might manifest the Father to us and teach us how this same Father loves us and lives in us. We love Jesus and must ever love Him with a love that is greater than all others, and to prove our love, we would follow His teachings and His life closely. In no way can we do this perfectly, except by trying to get at the real meaning of all that He said, and letting the Father work through us as He did through Him, our perfect Elder Brother and Saviour.
 
Jesus sometimes spoke from the mortal part of Himself, but He lived so almost wholly in the Christ part of Himself, so consciously in the center of His being, where the very essence of the Father was bubbling up in ceaseless activity, that He usually spoke from that part.
 
When He said, "Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest," He could not have meant to invite mankind to come unto His personal, mortal self, for He knew of the millions of men and women who could never reach Him. He was then speaking from the Christ-self of Him, meaning not "Come unto me, Jesus," but "come unto the Christ"; nor did He mean, "Come unto the Christ living in me," for comparatively few could ever do that. But He said, "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works." Then it was the Father saying not "Come unto Jesus," but "Come unto me"; that is, "Come up out of the mortal part of you where all is sickness and sorrow and trouble, into the Christ Part where I dwell, and I will give you rest. Come up into the realization that you are one with the Father, that you are surrounded and filled with divine love, that there is nothing in the universe that is real but the good, and that all good is yours, and it will give you rest."
 
"No one cometh unto the Father, but by me" does not mean that God is a stern Father whom we must coax and conciliate by going to Him through Jesus, His kinder, more easily entreated Son. Did not Jesus say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," or in other words, "As I am in love and gentleness and accessibility, so is the Father"? These words mean that no man can come to the Father except through the Christ part of himself. You cannot come around through some other person or by any outside way. Another may teach you how to come, and assure you of all that is yours if you do come, but you must retire within your own soul, find the Christ there, and look to the father through the Son, for whatever good thing you may need.

Jesus was always trying to get the minds of the people away from His personality, and to fix them on the Father in Him as the source of all His power. And when toward the last, they were clinging to His mortal self, because their eyes had not yet been opened to understand about the Christ within their own souls, He said, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come"; that is, if He remained where they could keep looking to His personality all the time, they would never know that the same Spirit of truth and power lived within themselves.
 
There is a great difference between a Christian life and a Christ life. To live a Christian life is to follow the teachings of Jesus, with the thought that God and Christ are wholly outside of man, to be called on but not always to answer. To live a Christ life is to follow Jesus' teachings in the knowledge that God's indwelling presence, which is always life, love, and power within us, is now ready and waiting to flow forth abundantly, aye, lavishly into our consciousness and through us to others, the moment we open ourselves to it and trustfully expect it. One is a following after Christ, which is beautiful and good so far is it goes, but is always very imperfect; the other is a letting Christ, the Perfect Son of God, be manifested through us. One is an expecting to be saved sometime from sin, sickness, and trouble; the other is a knowing that we are, in reality, saved now from all these errors by the indwelling Christ, and by faith affirming it until the evidence is manifested in our body.
 
Simply believing that Jesus died on the Cross to appease God's wrath never saved and never can save anyone from present sin, sickness, or want, and was not what Jesus taught. "The demons also believe and shudder," we are told, but they are not saved thereby. There must be something more than this, a living touch of some kind, a sort of intersphering of our own soul with the divine Source of all good and giving. We are to have faith in the Christ, believe that the Christ lives in us, and is God's Son in us; that this indwelling One has power to save and make us whole; aye, more, that He has made us whole already. For did not the Master say, "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
 
If, then, you are manifesting sickness, you are to ignore the seeming—which is the external, or circumference of the pool where the water is stagnant and the scum has risen—and, speaking from the center of your being, say: "This body is the temple of the living God; the Lord is now in His holy temple; Christ in me is my life; Christ is my health; Christ is my strength; Christ is perfect. Therefore, I am now perfect, because He dwelleth in me as perfect life, health, strength." Say these words with all earnestness, trying to realize what you are saying, and almost immediately the perennial fountain of life at the center of your being will begin to bubble up and continue with rapidly increasing activity, until new life will radiate through pain, sickness, sores, all diseases, to the surface, and your body will show forth the perfect life of Christ.
 
Suppose it is money that you need. Take the thought, "Christ is my abundant supply. He is here within me now, and greatly desires to manifest Himself as my supply. His desires are fulfilled now." Do not let your thoughts run off into how He is going to do it, but just hold steadily to the thought of the supply here and now, taking your eyes off all other sources, and He will surely honor your faith by manifesting Himself as your supply a hundredfold more abundantly than you have asked or thought. So also with "Whatsoever things ye pray and ask for." But remember the earnest words of James the apostle: "He that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."
 
Nowhere in the New Testament is the thought conveyed that Jesus came that there might be, after death, a remission of the penalty for sin. That belief is a pure fiction of man's ignorant, carnal mind of later date. In many places in the Bible reference is made to "remission of sins''; and Jesus Himself, according to Luke, said that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations." "Sins, In the original text, does not mean crime deserving punishment. It means any mistake or failure that brings suffering. Jesus came that there might be remission or cessation of sins, of wrongs, of mistakes, which were inevitably followed by suffering. He came to bring "good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people." Tidings of what? Tidings of salvation. When? Where? Not salvation from punishment after death, but salvation from mistakes and failures here and now. He came to show us that God, our Creator and Father, longs with yearnings unutterable to be to us, through the Christ, the abundance of all things that we need or desire. But our part is to choose to have Him and then follow His admonition to "hold fast till I come"—not till He comes after death, but just to hold steadily to our faith until He manifests Himself. For instance, in thus looking to Him for health, when by an act of your will you stop looking to any material source (and this is not always easy to do) and declare the Christ in you to be the only life of the body and always perfect life, it needs but that you hold steadfastly, without wavering, to the thought, in order to become well.
 
When once you have put any matter into the hands of the indwelling, ever-present Christ, in whom there is at all times an irrepressible desire to spring to our rescue and to do all things for us, do not dare to take it back into your mortal hands again to work out for yourself, for by so doing you simply put off the time of His bringing it to pass. All you have to do in the matter is to hold to the thought: "It is done. It is manifest now." This divine Presence is our sufficiency in all things, and will materialize itself as such in whatever we need or desire, if we but trustfully expect it.
 
This matter of trusting the Christ within to do all things for us—realizing that we are one with Him and that to Him is given all power—is not something that comes to any of us spontaneously. It comes by persistent effort on our part. We begin by determining that we will trust Him as our present deliverance, as our health, our riches, our wisdom, our all, and we keep on by a labored effort, until we form a kind of spiritual habit. No habit bursts full-grown into our life, but every one comes from a succession of little acts. When you see anyone doing the works of Christ, healing the sick, loosing the bound, and so forth, by the word of Truth spoken in faith, you may be sure that this faith did not jump to him from some outside source all at once. If you knew the facts, you would probably know of days and nights when with clenched fists and set teeth he held fast to the Christ within, "trusting where they could not trace," until he found himself possessing the very "faith of Jesus."
 
If we want the Father within, which is the Christ, to manifest Himself as all things through us, we must learn to keep the mortal of us still, to still all its doubts and fears and false beliefs, and to hold rigidly to the "Christ only." In His name we may speak the words of healing, of peace, and of deliverance to others, but as Jesus said of Himself, so we must also say of ourselves: "I can of myself do nothing." "The Father abiding in me doeth his works." He is the ever-present power to overcome all errors, sickness, weakness, ignorance, or whatever they may be. We claim this power, or bring it into our consciousness where it is of practical use, by declaring over and over again that it is ours already. Saying and trying to realize, "Christ is my wisdom, hence I know Truth," will in a short time make us understand spiritual things better than months of study will do. Our saying, "Christ is my strength, I cannot be weak or frail," will make us strong enough to meet any emergency, with calm assurance.
 
Remember, we do not begin by feeling these things at first, but by earnestly and faithfully saying them, and acting as though they were true—and this is the faith that brings the power into manifestation.
 
The Christ lives in us always. God, the creative energy, sent His Son first, even before the body was formed, and He ever abides within, "the first born of all creation." But it is with us as it was with the ship on the tempestuous sea after the storm arose: Jesus' being in the vessel did not keep it from rocking, or the angry waves from beating against it; for He was asleep. It was only after He was awakened and brought out to manifest His power that the sea became still and the danger was over.
 
The Christ in us has been there all the time, but we have not known it, and so our little ships have been tossed about by sickness and poverty and distrust until we have seemed almost lost. I, the true spiritual self of me, am one with the Christ. You, the true spiritual self of you, are one with the Christ. The true self of every person is the child of God, made in His image. "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him." Now, already, we are sons. When He shall appear—not when, sometime after the transition called death, He, some great, glorious Being, shall burst on our view, but when we have learned to still the mortal of us, and let the Father manifest Himself at our surface, through the indwelling Christ—then we shall be like Him, for He only will be visible through us.
 
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God." We are not simply reflections or images of God, but expressions (from ex, out of, and premere, to press or force), hence a forcing out of God, the All-Good, the all-perfect. We are projections of the invisible presence into visibility. God made man one with the Father, even as Jesus was, and just in proportion as we recognize this fact and claim our birthright, the Father in us will be manifested to the world.
 
Most of us have an innate shrinking from saying, "Thy will be done." Because of false teaching, and from associations, we have believed that this prayer, if answered, would take away from us all that gives us joy or happiness. Surely nothing could be farther from the truth. Oh, how we have tried to crowd the broad love of God into the narrow limits of man's mind! The grandest, most generous, loving father that ever lived is but the least bit of God's fatherhood manifested through the flesh. God's will for us means more love, more purity, more power, more joy in life, every day.
 
No study of spiritual or material things, no effort, though it be superhuman on our part, could ever be as effectual in making grand, godlike creatures, showing forth the same limitless soul that Jesus showed, as just praying continually the one prayer, "Thy will be done"; for the Father's will is to manifest His perfect Being through us. "Among the creatures, one is better than another, according as the Eternal Good manifesteth itself and worketh more in one than in another. Now that creature in which Eternal Good most manifesteth itself, shineth forth, worketh, is most known and loved, is the best; and that wherein the Eternal Good is least manifested, is least of all creatures" ("Theologia Germanica"). "For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him the Christ should all the fulness dwell"—fullness of love, fullness of life, fullness of joy, of power, of All-Good. "And in him ye are made full." Christ is in us, one with us, so we may boldly and with confidence say, "in Christ all things are mine." declaring it will make it manifest.
 
Above all things else, learn to keep to the Christ within yourself, not that within somebody else. Let the Father manifest through you in His own way, though His manifestation differ from that in His other children. Heretofore even the most spiritually enlightened of us have been mere pygmies, because we have, by the action of our conscious thought, limited the divine manifestation to make it conform to the manifestation through someone else. God will make of us spiritual giants if we will but take away all limits and give Him opportunity.
 
"Although it be good and profitable that we should learn and know what great and good men have wrought and suffered, and how God hath dealt with them, and wrought in them and through them, yet it were a thousand times better that we should in ourselves learn and perceive and understand who we are, how and what our own life is, what God is doing in us, and what He will have us do" ("Theologia Germanica").
 
All the blessings promised in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy are to those who "hearken diligently unto the voice of Jehovah," those who seek the inner voice in their own souls and learn to listen to and obey what it says to them individually, regardless of what it says to any other person, no matter how far he or she may be advanced in spiritual understanding. This voice will not lead you exactly as it leads any other in all the wide world, but, in the infinite variety, there will be perfect harmony, for there is but "one God and Father of all, who ls over all, and through all, and in all."
 
Emerson says: "Every soul is not only the inlet, but may become the outlet of all there is in God." We can- only be this by keeping ourselves consciously in open communication with God without the intervention of any other person between Him and us. "The anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that anyone teach you.'' "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come."
 
It needs but the one other little word now, firmly and persistently held in the mind, to bring into manifestation through us the highest ideal that we are capable of forming; aye, far higher, for does it not say, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts"? This manifestation through us will be the fulfillment of God's ideal, instead of our limited, mortal ideal, when we learn to let Spirit lead and to hold our conscious mind to the now.

You want to manifest the perfect Christ. Affirm with all your heart and soul and strength that you do so manifest now, that you manifest health and strength and love and Truth and power. Let go of the notion of being or doing anything in the future. God knows no time but the eternal now. You can never know any other time, for there is no other. You cannot live an hour or ten minutes in the future. You cannot live it until you reach it, and then it becomes the now. Saying or believing salvation and deliverance are to be, will forever, and through all the eternal ages, keep them, like a will-o'-the-wisp, just a little ahead of you, always to be reached but never quite realized.
 
"Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation," said Paul. He said nothing about our being saved from our distresses after death, but always taught a present salvation. God's work is finished in us now. All the fullness abides in the indwelling Christ now. Whatever we persistently declare is done now, is manifested now, we shall see fulfilled.

Suppose some dear, lifelong friend in whose ability, resources, and faithfulness you have the utmost confidence should come to you today and say: "Friend, rejoice; I have brought you some good news, almost too good to seem true, but true nevertheless. From this day all things in your life may be changed. You have inherited a large fortune. In fact I have come to bring it to you, together with a message of love and goodwill. Everything that money can buy is now yours for the taking."

What do you think would be the effect of such news upon you?

At first the glad tidings might seem too good to believe; but if this friend reiterated his statement, giving not only verbal assurances but tangible evidence of its truth, do you think you would hesitate, and question, and quibble about taking the proffered gift? I think not. Instead your heart would leap within you with great and inexpressible joy as you began to realize all that this good news meant, if true. It would mean relief from pressing care, cessation of the gnawing anxiety about making ends meet, ability to gratify your lifelong craving for the beautiful in art and literature, time to read, think, travel, live; and above all else, it would mean the ability to help hundreds of others who are struggling with the problems of sickness, poverty, and discouragement.

Then suppose that before you had mentally quite taken in the new situation this messenger of good news should say: "Friend, in addition to this I have found a physician who has never failed to cure every kind of bodily disease from which you are suffering, and if you will come with me to him, he assures me that he can cure you.'' How long would a person stand undecided about accepting these two gifts? How long would anyone hesitate while he argued with the messenger about his doubts and fears, his unworthiness, or his lack of ability to use these gifts properly?

Yet this is exactly what we as Christians do with God our Father. A messenger has been sent with a definite, positive message: ". . . good news of a great joy which will come to all the people." (Luke 2:10) The good news is this: ". . . the kingdom of heaven is at hand, "(Matt. 3:2) here, now. We have read and heard the story since childhood, with varying emotions. At first with a child's understanding and simple trust we imagined that it meant just what it said. But as we went on in the Christian life we found ourselves losing the child's idea and coming to believe that the message does not mean at all what it says. The very simplicity of it made our older, wiser minds recoil from taking it as it reads, and this in spite of the truth uttered by Jesus: ". . . unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3)

Jesus' first sermon of which we have any record was preached in Nazareth:

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'

"And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' " (Luke 4:16-21)

In other words, the Lord God hath sent Me, Jesus Christ, and I am now this day here present with you to comfort all who mourn, to deliver the captives from prison, to give sight to the blind, to heal the sick, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. (Isa. 61:2, 3) This is the good news I have come to bring to you from God your Father.

As time went on Jesus sent out twelve men whom He chose to spread this good news, giving to each the same power and the same commission, that is, the power to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and so forth, and to preach this practical gospel:

"And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." (Matt. 10:7, 8)

When John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He really was the Christ or if they should look for another, He said, as evidence that He really was the messenger sent from God:

"Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." (Matt. 11:4, 5)

After Jesus had risen and as He was about to part from His disciples He told them that their future mission in this world was to be exactly what He had been: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21)

In other words, as the Father sent Him to preach the good news that the kingdom of heaven is here now, that the sick can be healed now, that the blind can receive sight at once, that the brokenhearted can be made to rejoice, that all this spirit of mourning and sorrow and heaviness can be changed into joy and praise, so send I you into the world to preach the same glad tidings to them that sit in darkness and discouragement to tell all people that God is their Savior, their genuine right-at-hand-this-moment deliverance.

As Jesus continued in the ministry of such a gospel, His heart was wrought upon as He saw how ignorant the people were of the real truth of God's desire toward them, and we read:

After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them . . . "heal the sick . . . and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' "

The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them ". . . Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:1, 2, 9, 17-30)

In other words, rejoice not so much because you are able to make these marvelous demonstrations of power as because your spiritual eyes have been opened to the real relations between God your Father and yourself.

Jesus Christ did many marvelous works in the material world; and in thus appointing others to help Him in His work among men—in increasing members as the work enlarged—and giving to them the power to manifest the same mastery over untoward material conditions, He showed conclusively that at least part of the gospel deals directly with God's deliverance of His children from sickness, poverty, and all manner of human suffering. The early Christians for three hundred years following the resurrection of Jesus believed this and did the mighty works that He said should be done in His name. Then they lapsed into worldliness and the power was lost.

Every Christian recognizes today that the work of Jesus in the world was to establish a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and love; to teach us a higher law than the one we had known, that of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But many entirely overlook the fact that in addition to teaching us a higher way of living, Jesus proved to us by daily ministering among the sorrowing and sick, and by giving the same power and commission to those whom He sent out to continue the work in His name and stead, that God is in His world to do both; that is, to help His children live a better life, and also to be to them life, health, comfort, all material things needed.

There is no record that Jesus ever said to the sick who came to Him that continued suffering would develop in them greater spiritual virtues. He did not say to the leper: "Your disease is the result of sensuality. I will not heal you, because if I do you will continue in the same way of sin." He only said: "Do you want to be healed?" . . . "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." (John 5:6, 8)

He did not say to anyone who came for healing or for any other deliverance, "Yes, I will heal you, but the healing will not become manifest for several months—just to test your faith." Nor did He say to anyone who came, "I heal many; but it is not God's will for you to be healed, and you must be submissive to His will." Oh, the deadening effect of this kind of submission! Who but knows it!

He did not let the people go hungry, saying it was their own carelessness not to have provided bread and they must not expect a miracle to be wrought to encourage such carelessness. He first fed them with spiritual food, to be sure; but immediately following that He ministered with equal ease and alacrity to their physical hunger, even though the lack may have been their own fault. When the widow of Nain, with heartbreak such as only a mother can know, followed the bier upon which lay dead her soul's pride, her beautiful and only son, Jesus did not simply comfort her with platitudes or even by bringing some superhuman joy in the place of sorrow. She wanted her boy back; and He gave her what she wanted.

Peter lacked money for the tax gatherer. Did Jesus say: "Peter, the gift of God is spiritual riches. Do not ask for worldly money, for God has nothing to do with that. If you have no money for taxes be patient and work it out some way"; and then did He leave Peter to anxiety and care? Not at all. He instantly supplied the thing that was needed.

Jesus Christ came to show us the Father, to reveal to us the will of the Father toward us. Did He not say: "He who has seen me has seen the Father . . . The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works"? (John 14:9, 10) Then how can we in our minds separate God from His world as we do? Most of us confine Him to His spiritual kingdom alone. We know that He wants to give us purity and spiritual grace. Every Christian believes this. But do we know or believe that He wants us to have the other desires of our heart as well? Do we believe He wants to heal our bodies, provide our taxes, feed our hunger? Do we believe that Jesus Christ really is the same yesterday and today and forever? Do we believe that he is not God of the dead, but of the living; that the kingdom of heaven is here at hand this moment, only that our eyes are so held by sense conditions we do not see it?

He said: ". . . You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. " (John 8:32) Then if we are not free we do not yet know the Truth but are believing in a lie, or in the lack of Truth at least. Is this not so?

Is dumb, hopeless submission to suffering a spiritual grace? I do not believe it is. Jesus never taught that it is. He taught us nonresistance to evil; that is, not to fight evil as an entity. But He also taught us how to obtain absolute victory over and deliverance from evil of whatever form by coming into living and vital touch with Christ. This He declared to be God's will toward us; and He demonstrated it continually by delivering all who were bound in any manner by sin, sickness, suffering, or sorrow.

An earnest Christian mother related to me a few years ago a story of her little boy, who had the whooping cough. The mother had taught the boy to pray; and whenever he felt one of the dreaded coughing spells approaching he instantly ran and fell on his knees, exclaiming, "Oh, Mamma, let me pray, let me pray quickly so God will keep this cough away!" The mother told of the difficulty she had had in explaining to the child that while it was good to pray, yet he must not expect God to stop the cough, because when one has the whooping cough it is natural to cough! Now, according to Jesus' teachings and His dealings with people here on Earth, is this not just what the boy might and ought to have expected God to do? ". . . Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. "(Matt. 18:3)

. . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you . . . . (Psalms 50:15)

This is the gospel, the "good news of a great joy which will come to all the people." This is something of what He meant when He said: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Surely He meant more than we can ask or think when He said: "Come to me."

Order the complete book in Adobe eBook format for $8.95

 

or click here to order in printed form from Amazon.com for $10.91