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Dynamics for Living

After three decades of studying his writings, it is my conclusion that Charles Fillmore was the greatest sage who has been embodied in the last five hundred years. His steadfast research into the realms of God Mind opened to him infinite adventures. These revelations he generously shared with all who studied in his classes or pondered over his writings. Prayer opened this man's human consciousness to the dynamics of Spirit. I knew Charles Fillmore as a man with a diamond character. His sparkling humor, his radiant smile, and his luminescent logic quickened the atmosphere of every room he entered. His genuine humility, his simplicity of requirements, and his complete dedication to Truth were always deeply felt by everyone who was in his presence. Prayer and faith caused him and his wife Myrtle to be the responsive instruments for a spiritual movement. What she first perceived, practiced, and proved with the healing laws of God, he examined diligently before complete acceptance. However, when he experienced the full impact of the practicality of spiritual science, the way was opened for the evolvement of the Unity movement. On August 22, 1854, at 4 a.m., Charles Fillmore was born in a log cabin constructed on an Indian reservation near the small community of St. Cloud, Minnesota. There was no thought then, of course, that many people would be transformed by his influential teachings. But the years are proving that his consciousness of universal Truth has established a reliable cornerstone for the spiritual growth of hundreds of thousands of people. What is "new" about this book is the arrangement in which this compilation is offered. Its purpose is to present the basic substance of Charles Fillmore's writings in a manner that will invite an expanded study of what he taught. The sequence employed is a result of Charles Fillmore's own logical thinking trends. The various sections cover particular conceptions. Such were assembled from the various books and articles by Mr. Fillmore so that each unit would be complete in treating a specific subject. It is my prayer that as you unfold your understanding of the truth that is so beautifully and positively stated in the following pages, you will find the same dynamics for living that graced the life of Charles Fillmore. Warren Meyer November 15, 1966 I am now in the presence of pure Being and immersed in the Holy Spirit of life, love, and wisdom. I acknowledge Thy presence and power, O blessed Spirit. In Thy divine wisdom now erase my mortal limitations, and from Thy pure substance of love bring into manifestation my world, according to Thy perfect law. PEOPLE everywhere on earth are now realizing as never before that the well-being of this world rests with its inhabitants. It is no longer a religious dogma or a philosophical theory that the destiny of the race is in the hands of man. Humanity has built age after age only to find that its structures do not endure. They are faulty because the divine plan has not been consulted by the builder. Our Bible plainly teaches that God implanted in man executive ability to carry out all the creative plans of the Great Architect. The great and most important issue before the people today is the development of man's spiritual mind and through it unity with God. The taproot of all confusion is our failure to use our minds intelligently. Religion and all that it implies in prayer and recognition of God in idea and manifestation is the one and only way out of the chaos in which we find ourselves. We must therefore begin at once to develop this unity with the Father mind by incorporating divine ideas into all that we think and speak. People in this atomic age civilization ask why God does not reveal Himself now as He did in Bible days. The fact is that God is talking to people everywhere, but they do not understand the message. We need to divest ourselves of the thought that wise men of the Bible were especially inspired by God, that they were divinely appointed by the Lord to do His work. Everything points to their spiritual insight as the result of work on their part to that end. Thus, practical Christianity is the only system of religions before the people today that, because of its universal appeal to the pure reason in man, can be accepted and applied by everyone and every nation under the sun. Revival Modern metaphysics is merely a revival of the philosophies taught by an almost forgotten past. The principles that underlie existence are being again brought to the attention of men. The race is again entering the cycle of knowledge. We catch once more the light of pure reason and honest logic. Few people have come into the light. Pure reason is almost an unknown quantity. When strict deductive methods are introduced into religion, and logical conclusions are reached from a stated premise, the average believer is at sea. People have been taught that certain relations exist arbitrarily no matter how opposed these relations may be to the logic necessary to cause and effect. In order to arrive at a mutually harmonious and correct conclusion, the result of a logical argument, we must have a premise or point of beginning upon which we can all agree. Logic in its strictest sense is the only accurate method for arriving at truth. That system of philosophy or religious doctrine which does not admit of the rules of perfect logic in reaching its conclucions from a stated premise must be outside the pale of pure reason and in the realm of manmade dogma. To know accurately about the reality of things we must disregard all appearances as indicated by the five senses and go into pure reason--the Spirit from which was created everything that has permanent existence. The Difference Practical Christianity and Truth stand upon the same foundation and are interchangeable terms. Practical Christianity is not a theory having origin in the human mind; nor is it a revelation to humanity from some prophet whose word alone must be taken as unquestionable authority. It is in this respect totally different from the other religious systems of the world because it does not in any respect rest its authority upon revelation. It has no dogmas nor creeds, nor are its students expected to believe anything which they cannot logically demonstrate to be true. It takes as the basis of its doctrine a fundamental truth that is known alike by savage and civilized, and from that truth, by cold, deductive reasoning, arrives at each and every one of the conclusions which are presented. Thus it does not in any manner partake of the popular concept of religion, as a vague something which has to be accepted on faith, and believed regardless of its consistencies. On the contrary, it invites the closest mental scrutiny. The analytical logician will find a new world open to him in following the sequential deductions which this science of pure reasoning evolves. Truth of the Ages This system of deductions from intuitively ascertained facts is not new, nor are its conclusions new, for the historian tells us that similar methods of arriving at the fundamental truth of things were in vogue thousands of years ago. Long before the historical period, legend and tradition report the existence of temples where pure reason was taught. History also tells of similar schools that existed five thousand years before Christ. Faithfulness You will find, if you are faithful in following the line of argument here presented, that a principle will be disclosed to you which will demonstrate itself in an unmistakable manner. The logical deductions from the premise stated may not come to your full comprehension at once because of certain intellectual limitations into which the race has plunged itself. Men have been so long divorced from logic and pure reason that they are confused when a clear-cut proposition is stated and carried to a conclusion along the lines of perfect sequence. Independent Thought To think in an independent, untrammeled way about anything is foreign to the habit of the races of the Occident. Our lines of thought and act are based upon precedent and arbitrary authority. We boast much of our freedom and independence, but the facts are that we defer to custom and tradition. Our whole civilization is based upon manmade opinions. We have never thought for ourselves in religion, consequently we do not know how to think accurately and consecutively upon any proposition. We have not been trained to draw conclusions each for himself from a universal pivotal truth. Consequently, we are not competent to pass judgment upon any statement so predicated. Our manner of deciding whether or not certain statements are true or false is to apply the mental bias with which heredity, religion, or social custom has environed us, or else fly to some manmade record as authority. In the study of practical Christianity all such temporary proofs of Truth are swept aside as chaff. We entertain nothing in our statements of Truth that does not stand the most searching analysis, nothing that cannot be practically demonstrated. Starting Point In order to carry on an intelligent, rational line of argument it is necessary to find a mutual starting point which is universally accepted as true. There may be many pivotal points chosen from an intellectual standpoint that would doubtless be accepted as reasonably true. Upon close analysis they will usually be found resting upon another and anterior so-called truth. For instance, we might agree that ponderable objects always fall toward the earth. Yet, the question quickly arises, "What causes them to fall?" The ready answer is, "Gravity, of course." "But what is gravity?" Thus, we are led back and back until lost in First Cause, or God. In agreement upon a statement as the basis of an argument of universal nature, we must be careful to get one that has no anterior. There can be but one basis of being, and consequently but one basis of being's movements and forms. When we have fully agreed that everything of which we are cognizant can be traced in its last analysis to God, and no further, we have a basis upon which to rest a doctrine that cannot be successfully opposed, if its deductions are logical and can be demonstrated. This is exactly what is claimed for this science of Christ. It is not only a system of philosophy which cannot be disputed by the rational mind, but it also demonstrates in the world of phenomena that its conclusions are true. Primal Cause Having decided upon God, or Primal Cause, as the basis of our system, the next step is to decide upon the nature of this Primal Cause. It is safe to assert that in all the world not a single person of intelligence can be found who would say that God is anything but good. It requires no exhaustive reasoning to arrive at this conclusion, for it is the ready response of the intuitive faculty of all mankind, which it is always safe to count as correct. Having agreed that God, or the Primal Cause of all things, is the only safe basis on which to predicate an argument that deals with life in all its sinuous windings, and that the nature of that First Cause must necessarily be only Good, we can by logical deduction evolve a doctrine that must of necessity be universal in its application. It is sometimes thought by certain people that man should not attempt to find out the nature of God because He is so far above and beyond the comprehension of the finite that such attempts are sacrilegious folly. Yet when carefully analyzed it is found that the one aim and end of man's existence is to find God. The source of life is the great mystery which has commanded the closest attention and study of men in all ages, and as that source must be the Infinite, it is thus ever inviting man to comprehend it. The Bible says, "No man has ever seen God," and our physical scientists all agree that primordial life, or First Cause, is invisible or spiritual, exhibiting itself as an intelligent force. Hence, as corollary to the statement that God, or First Cause, is good, we assert that He is also Spirit. Value to Man Having established a basis grounded in irrefutable truth, from which deductions may be drawn in an infinite number of directions, the next very natural question that presents itself is, "What good can come to man from a study of God?" The facts are that the only good that has come to this world has been through the study of God, notwithstanding that the preponderance of that study has been of a nature to preclude the discovery of God or His mode of manifestation. People have been taught that God is a personal being who rules the universe much after the manner of an arbitrary monarch. This erroneous and contracted teaching has led to a belittlement of God in the concepts of men and they have imaged a man-god, and have also formed a "graven image" of God, who is Spirit. The true concept of God is that He is the Intelligent Principle of the universe, and, like all principles, totally impartial in His expressions. This is the concept of God which has come to us in this awakening age. It is not new. The wise old sages of the Orient tell us that their ancestors thousands of years ago, in secret temples dedicated to the study of God, or the Primal Cause of all, found that in certain stages of high understanding, the result of systematic training, they came into such harmonious relations with this primal principle, or First Cause, that they were endowed with causing power themselves. They did not seek God for the sake of the power over things which might thereby accrue to them, but that they might have wisdom and understanding of the good. They found that by thinking right thoughts and living unselfishly, they awakened new faculties within themselves. They sought the good, or God, and in harmony with that law by which like attracts like, the good, or God, sought them. They found that when they came into right relations with the good, they had apparently supernatural powers. They discovered what Jesus Christ called "the kingdom of God within," and all things were thereby added unto them. They caused, so tradition and certain records say, rain or sunshine, heat or cold, and produced at will all the fruits and flowers of the field. These records state that they could also fly through the air, having acquired an understanding of that which lies back of gravity. They, in short, controlled all the so-called forces of nature by word or thought, and proved conclusively that we become like that which we study. They studied cause and became masters of the world of effects. Transformations They found that by coming into interior relations with the invisible Cause, they were moved by it to give expression both in thought and speech to certain words. When those words were so expressed by them, wonderful transformations took place in their surroundings. The conditions which they had always assumed to be impossible of variation from what are known as the laws of nature, were in the twinkling of an eye set at naught. They had always believed that sickness, decay, and death were part of an immutable law. Yet, they found that certain words, which are in harmony with the pivotal truth that First Cause, or God, is Spirit and All-Good, heal the sick, make happy the sorrowful, and fill the coffers of the poor. They found that this invisible Principle of pure intelligence expresses itself only in the words or thoughts that produce happy results. They also found that the words which work such wonders in transforming their surroundings always represent those qualities which by deductive reasoning they found can originate only with a Being or Principle of goodness. The Real and Unreal They not only knew God as All-Good through the intuitive faculty, but they proved Him so by demonstrating that He responds to those attributes only that are representative of the good. Hence, these words they called words of Truth or reality. On the other hand, they found that certain other words or thoughts that do not correspond to or harmonize with the attributes of a primal cause of good produce conditions of inharmony. Under their expression people become sick, sorrowful, and generally unhappy. Through spiritual illumination, by comparison, logical deduction, and practical demonstration, they definitely arrived at words of Truth and their opposites. They knew that the words of Truth must proceed from the cause to which they correspond and consequently must be the Real. They could find no tenable point of origin for the opposites or words of error. Thus, they necessarily classified them as the unreal, the nothings, the dropping away from the one Principle of the universe. They arranged and classified their words of reality and unreality as the electrician of our day classifies the positive and the negative poles of electrical action. In the realm of mind the effect of the expressed words of Truth is fully as forcible as is the positive power of the battery in the realm of electricity. The effect of words is an exact science. It can be demonstrated as such by all who will study it assiduously. It is the science of life. Upon its understanding hinges the happiness or unhappiness of man's existence. It is not a science whose laws were discovered and arbitrarily classified by those metaphysicians of the past. On the contrary, it is universal in its unfoldment and application. Every man works in its laboratory every day of his life and is using its principles with every thought he thinks and every word he speaks. He uses the law whether he knows it or not. Hence, no one should be ignorant of the effects which the manipulation of these hidden forces produce in the character and surroundings of each child of earth. Pure Christianity Pure Christianity is a spiritual doctrine. It has no opposite whatsoever. In its purity it is one with the underlying cause of all that is. It admits of no differences among those who understand it. The modes of teaching it may vary, as do the characteristics of each teacher; but all its teachers must necessarily present the same Truth, though their words and illustrations may differ. Each individual needs but to be given the key in order to unlock for himself the entire metaphysical plan of the universe. The Principle of Being is not only all good, but it is all intelligent. It is the fount of your intelligence. When you study it you will find yourself becoming one with the principle of all wisdom. To be one with the principle of All Intelligence is to know. When you know you will find yourself so broad in judgment and understanding that you will have charity for all who differ from you in religion, metaphysics, and even politics. This system of metaphysics is but another name for universal Truth. It consequently covers the therapeutic, ethical, and religious departments of life. Therapeutics Metaphysical therapeutics treats of healing by an understanding of the reality of things. It does not in its exact meaning teach how to heal diseases by the power of thought. It teaches how, by the power of thought, false conceptions may be eradicated and the divine Reality brought into manifestation, showing forth in health and harmony. This department attracts the majority of people because of the great need of healing. Ethics Ethics in the curriculum of metaphysics shows the student how the moral world may be reformed. It teaches him how he may be wise and happy by holding in mind certain thoughts that will bring about these conditions. It shows him how he may attain his ideal ends in reforming society. It shows him how a dull, stupid, or ignorant mind may be quickened morally and brightened intellectually by the power of right thinking. Religion The religion of metaphysics includes all these and adds to them a certain and sure knowledge of man's immortality and divine relation. The religion of metaphysics is its crowning principle--it is this department that places it in the category of science. Religion is a science--the science of life. It will so demonstrate itself to the student, both logically and practically. When you understand it in its religious aspect you know your true relation to the Creator, and just what that relation must lead to. You get a revelation of your status as a living soul that is impregnable in its logic, and you are brought into such close relation with the divine Cause that you know intuitively that you are not of the flesh, but of God. Upliftment Nothing is too small or insignificant for God's uplifting presence. God is not a theory of life. He is life itself. He is the harmonious manifestation of life. Those who have honestly studied metaphysics and applied its rules in their daily work will tell you that it has made them over physically, mentally, and morally. They will tell you that they are better men and women; that life has new zest for them, and that they can now do good and help others where before they were helpless. New and Old Some will tell you that they were not able to make this science fit into their old theories and incoherent vagaries in matters religious and ethical. They will tell you that its very simplicity stood in the way of their quick acquirement of its power. They had listened all their lives to learned and ponderous disquisitions of professors upon the body and mind, man's relation to his Maker, etc., and had long ago decided that only the very learned could ever hope to fathom the depths of wisdom necessary to comprehend even a very little of the subject. They will also tell you that from childhood they have listened to flowery sermons by learned ministers about God and man's duty to Him. Yet in all this, the subjects were so encumbered with the ponderous appearance of wisdom that they failed to connect them with simple, everyday life. Here we have a presentation of the deep things of God, so simple and easy that the wise and mighty pass it by as a religious vagary. Problems of Life The problem of life is getting into more and more of a tangle among those who depend upon the material. There is much running to and fro upon the earth by seekers for satisfaction, yet no satisfaction is found. Where will you find a person who will admit that he has peace of mind, health of body, and a knowledge of Truth? The rich admit that their possessions bring increased cares and great mental disquietude. The poor long to be rich, not knowing that happiness cannot be bought with money. The learned are not satisfied with their acquirements because when they just begin to get wisdom their bodies fail them. So it goes among the denizens of this discontented world of matter. Many lose faith in things ever being better. Happiness Here and Now Happiness here and now is the beautiful part of Jesus' teaching. He did not defer health nor salvation to a world to come after death, but taught that it was attainable right here. He taught that the kingdom of heaven is within you. He proved by His works that it could be made to show forth in the bodies and minds of those who follow the way He pointed out. Unprejudiced Mind If you would get Truth in its purity you must listen to its statements with the unprejudiced mind of the child. All about you are potencies and power of which you do not dream. Your philosophy has not grasped the faintest concept of the wonderful, undiscovered country that lies right within your reach, yet unseen and unknown to the mortal senses because of their narrow range. You live, move, and have your being in a realm elysian. Now and then you may catch faint glimpses of its rare beauty in your high moments of spiritual illumination. This realm is not of matter but of Mind. It encompasses you on every side and you contact its invisible glories, but know them not. A false education has shut you away from God's creation. Do you say this is idealism? The illusions of imagination? Here again you betray the mental congealing which hereditary prejudices and race education have produced. Did not that subtle fluid, electricity, exist in the invisible before it was brought into manifestation? Does not the modern analytical chemist tell us that our planetary atmosphere carries in solution all the elements that go to make up this visible world? It is rash for any man to assert that anything is impossible. New Era A new era has dawned. The old is passing away. In the advent of this new dispensation the heavens are rolled up as a scroll, and in that process is revealed the long-hidden realm of causes. Invisible forces are always the most powerful. The dynamics of mind control the universe. In mind originates all that is. By its actions all things are moved. When man understands the laws of mind he has solved the mysteries of the universe. The New Testament is a sealed book to one who has no knowledge of the laws of mind. It is a secret manual. It reads like an ordinary narrative unless one has the key that unlocks its hidden meaning. Practical Christianity gives that key. He who knows all the principles of its philosophy can enter the holy of holies of the Bible. He can penetrate the mysteries of the sacred scriptures of all peoples. There is no limit as to time, place, or personality in Scriptural promises. Study of Truth In the study of Truth you are not under any circumstances to listen to testimony of your external senses. You are placed in the clear light of logic and reason, and are expected to draw all of your conclusions from that standpoint. From the premise of Spirit alone you shall evolve the world of reality in which you live, and you can demonstrate to your full satisfaction that you have been deluded all these years in believing that which is not true. You shall prove each for himself that all causation is from Spirit, that you can make the world in which you live conform to that which you know by clear reason to be true. The one Life-Intelligence is your life-intelligence. When you let it freely flow into your consciousness, you know that it is all good. As there can be but one Cause for all that is, and as that Cause is All-Good, you have a pivotal center from which you can draw conclusions that will settle definitely all the debatable questions of existence. THE starting point in spiritual realization is a right understanding of God. By describing God with words in our human way we are but stating in the lisping syllables of the child that which in its maturity the mind still only faintly grasps. Words never express that which God is. Language is the limitation of mind. Do not expect the unlimited to leap forth into full expression through the limited. We must drop the complex and find simplicity before we can know God. We must become as a child. Being God's name represents wholeness. He is holy, perfect. God is Being; the Creator; the Infinite; the Eternal; the Ruler of the universe. Being is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient; it is the fullness of God. God is the absolute, incomparable, omnipresent All-Good, the principle of divine benevolence that permeates the universe. Being exists under two phases: invisible and visible, abstract and concrete. The visible comes forth from the invisible, and this coming forth is always according to a universal method of growth. From center to circumference is the plan of procedure throughout the universe. Principle We must relieve our minds of a personal God ruling over us in an arbitrary, manlike manner. God is not person but Principle. By Principle is meant definite, exact, unchangeable. It best describes the unchangeableness that is an inherent law of Being. The fundamental basis of practical Christianity is that God is Principle. Divine Principle is fundamental Truth. God as Principle is the unchangeable life, love, intelligence, and substance of Being. It is the underlying plan by which God moves in expressing Himself. Principle does not occupy space; neither has it any limitations of time or matter, but it eternally exists as the underlying cause out of which come forth all true ideas. Although Principle is formless, it is that by which all form is produced. God immanent in the universe is the great underlying Cause of all manifestation; the Source from which form proceeds. Law God as law is Principle in action. Everything has its foundation in a rule of action, a law. Divine law is the orderly working out of the principles of Being. Divine law cannot be broken. It places first things first. Divine order is the first law of the universe. Indeed, there could be no universe unless its various parts were kept in perfect order. Reality God is the one harmonious Principle underlying all being and the Reality out of which all that is eternal comes. Reality is that which is abiding, eternal, and unchangeable. The basic principles of mathematics and music are real, because they are not subject to change. Spirit God is Spirit, the Principle of creative life, the moving force in the universe, the omnipotent, omnipresent essence from which all things proceed. God is life. God is in the universe as its constant "breath." Life is a principle that is made manifest in living. Spirit is not matter. Spirit is not person. Spirit cannot be analyzed by the senses. It is beyond their grasp. In order to perceive the essence of Being we must drop from mind the belief that God is circumscribed in any way or has any of the limitations usually ascribed to persons, things, or anything having form or shape. As the animating life of all things God is a unit, but as the Mind that drives this life He is diverse. Spiritual-Science The only real science is the science of Spirit. It never changes. By science we mean the systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge. Orderliness is law, and is the test of true science. The facts of Spirit are of a spiritual character and, when understood in their right relation, they are orderly. The lawful truths of Spirit are more scientific than the constantly shifting opinions based on intellectual standards. Mind By the term Mind, we mean God--the universal Principle, which includes all principles. In our talk about Mind we are forced to leave the plane of things formed and enter the realm of pure knowing. God is the original Mind in which all real ideas exist. The Mind of the universe is composed of archetype ideas: life, love, wisdom, substance, truth, power, peace, and so forth. The one original Mind creates by thought. The science of Truth is God thinking out creation. Truth God as Truth is the eternal verity of the universe. He is the underlying, unchangeable Truth. The absolute Truth is that which accords with God as divine Principle; that which is, has been, and ever will be; that which eternally is. The Truth of God is reality. The verities of Being are eternal. Omnipresence God as omnipresence is the only presence in the universe. This refers to the all-pervading presence of God, permeating the universe. God is everywhere present. There is no place where God is not. He is in all, through all, and around all. Omnipotence God is All-Power, all the power there is. God as omnipotence is infinite power, the Almighty. All things are possible with God, because He is infinitely all-mighty, having all power or force to accomplish anything. All the power, all the force, all the might of the universe are God's. He is, in truth, Almighty God. Spiritual power is omnipresent. Omniscience God as omniscience is all-knowing, all knowledge. God is Mind. God is omnipresent Mind enfolding and interpenetrating all things. Mind is common to all, above and below, within and without. God must be in His universe as everywhere-intelligent power; otherwise it would fall to pieces. Substance God is substance. This does not mean matter. Matter is formed while God is the formless. This substance which God is lies back of all matter and all forms. Substance is the divine idea of the underlying reality of all things. Substance is everywhere present, pervades all things. Through substance all the attributes of Being are expressed. It sustains and enriches any idea that is projected into it. Divine substance is supply. It is that which is the basis of all form yet enters not into any form as finality. It cannot be seen, tasted, or touched. Yet, it is the only "substantial" substance in the universe. God as substance is the all-providing law which supplies bountifully out of His own abundance. Ideas The real of the universe is held in the Mind of Being as ideas. The firstborn of everything in the universe is an idea in Divine Mind. In God Mind an idea is the eternal Word or Logos, the original, primary, or unlimited thought of Being. Ideas may be combined in a multitude of ways, producing infinite variety in the realm of forms. There is a right combination which constitutes the divine order. Love Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. Of all the attributes of God, love is undoubtedly the most beautiful. Love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony the universe and everything in it. Divine love is impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving. Love is the great harmonizer. The Key On every hand men are earnestly seeking to know about God, and the origin of both the universe and themselves. They have probed with more or less success nearly every secret of nature, but of the origin of life they know comparatively nothing. A right understanding of Divine Mind is the one and only logical key. When man clearly discerns the science of Mind, he will solve easily all the mysteries of creation. To understand the creation of the universe by God, we must know something of the character of God. Holy Trinity The Holy Trinity is known as the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Metaphysically, we understand the Trinity to refer to mind, idea, and expression, or thinker, thought, and action. These three are one fundamental Mind in its three creative aspects. Father Father is first in the Trinity. Father is Being in the absolute, the unlimited, the unrelated. He is the Source, Origin, Essence, Root, Principle, Law, Spirit, All-Good, Creator of all. Father is the name of the all-encompassing Mind, everywhere present, forever accessible. The universal Principle of Being (Elohim God) designed all creation. Elohim is God in His capacity as creative power. Create means ideate. Elohim creates the spiritual idea which is afterward made manifest. God created not the earth as it appears but that which produced the earth. Son The second in the Trinity is the Son. It is called Jehovah {Lord} in the Old Testament and Christ in the New Testament. The Son of God is the fullness of the perfect-man idea in Divine Mind. He is the man that God created in His image. The Son is Principle revealed in a creative plan. He is that which proceeds from, is begotten of the Father, like Him in nature, and essentially all that the Father is. The Son ever exists in God. Father and Son are one and are omnipresent in the universe. Christ Christ is the one and only complete ideal man in the mind of the everywhere present God, the "only Son" of God. He is the divine-idea man. He is all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and so forth. In the architect's mind there may be one masterpiece, but that masterpiece is the sum of all the beautiful ideas that have come to his mind. Christ is the cosmic or Grand Man of the universe. Christ is the name of the all-loving Mind. The Word The Son is also called the Logos, the Word, the anointed One, and the I AM. He is the living Word. The Logos is the Word of God; the divine archetype ideas that contains all ideas. This supreme idea is the creative power formulated by universal Principle. The law of the Logos is the law of divine creation. It produces the order and harmony of perfect thought. Law puts first things first. It is a rule of action. An understanding of the Logos reveals to us the law under which all things are brought forth, the law of mind action. Divine Mind creates by thought, through ideas. I Am The Son is the I AM identity of Being. I AM is eternal, without beginning or ending: the true spiritual man whom God made. Its home is in the realm of God ideals. Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is just what the name implies, the whole Spirit of God in action. It is God's word in movement: the working, moving, breathing, brooding Spirit. Holy Spirit is the all-active manifestation. It is the executive power of both Father and Son, carrying out the creative plan. The Holy Spirit is the law of God in action; in that action He appears as having individuality. It is the personality of Being. It is neither the all of Being nor the fullness of Christ, but is an emanation, or breath, sent forth to do a definite work. Creation is carried forward through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Creative Process Creation is the original plan of an idea in Divine Mind. In the creative process Divine Mind ideates itself. God creates and moves creation through the power of Mind, through His idea or word, the universal creative vehicle. The vehicles of Mind are thoughts (ideas). God is thinking the universe into manifestation right now. Creation takes place through the operation of the Logos. The creations of the Logos are always spiritual, permanent, and incorruptible. The creative processes of Mind are continuously operative; creation is going on all the time, but the original plan, the design of Divine Mind, is finished. The processes of Mind enter into all creations. God is eternally in His creation and never separate from it. Wherever there is evidence of creative action, there God is. His avenues of expression run in every direction. Creative Law The order of creation is from the formless to the formed, from the invisible to the visible. This goes on perpetually and there is never a beginning or an ending to the process. The law of divine creation is perfect order and harmony. God cannot create without law. God is the Mind force carrying forward creation under law. First is Mind; then the idea Mind; then the materialization of the idea. Apart from Mind nothing can be done. Creative intelligence forever up-builds God's universe. Involution and Evolution All of God's works are created in Mind as perfect ideas. He creates the ideas that form the things. The starting point of every form is an idea. This is involution. Then the ideas are made into form and shape. This is evolution. Evolution is the working out in manifestation of what Mind has involved. Whatever Mind commands to be brought forth will be brought forth by and through the law of evolution inherent in Being. This applies to the great and the small. In Mind there is but one. Ideation God-Mind expresses His ideas perfectly, so that there is no occasion for them to change. He images His ideas definitely and in every detail. Divine idealism is God's standard of perfection. The ideal is continually pouring itself into its creation and lifting it high and yet higher. Divine motherhood is the brooding, nourishing element of Divine Mind in which spiritual ideals are brought to fruition. The idea is the directing and controlling power. It precedes the fulfillment. Ideation Formed Ideas are productive and bring forth after their kind. Every idea has a specific function to perform. Every idea makes a structure after its own image and likeness, and all such ideas and structures are grouped and associated according to their offices. All things rest on ideas. The idea back of the flower is beauty. The idea back of music is harmony. The idea back of day is light or the dispensation of intelligence. MAN IS an idea in Divine Mind. He is the epitome of Being. Man is the apex of God's creation, created in His image-likeness. Ideal man is the perfect man, the Christ, the offspring of Divine Mind. Before there could be a man there must have been an idea of man. God, the Father, Divine Mind, had an idea of man, and this idea is his Son, the perfect-man idea, the offspring of God-Mind. This Son is the Christ, the only begotten of the Father. The Son, being the expressed image-likeness of the Father, is perfect, even as the Father is perfect. All that we find in Divine Mind we find in its offspring. Manifest Man Manifest man should be as the ideal. He will be when the individual identifies himself with the Christ. When he is identified with anything less than perfection he manifests some degree of imperfection. Man makes his world through the activity of ideas in his consciousness. The realm man is the embodiment of God. All the God-substance and the power to make it active is inherent within him. Image-Likeness When we are quickened to spiritual understanding and fully realize the true character of God and our own nature as the image, or idea, of God we will begin to live as Jesus lived in order that we may bring forth the likeness. To perceive the true character of God and His attributes and then to grasp our relationship to Him is to realize that His attributes are our attributes. His power is our power. His character is our character. Man is not limited in life. He has existed with the Father always. At the very beginning of creation he was born into being through the Son, the Christ, the perfect, ideal man. Three Departments of Man Every man asks the question at some time, "What am I?" God answers: "Spiritually you are My idea of Myself as I see Myself in the ideal; physically you are the law of My mind executing that idea." Know yourself as an integral idea in Divine Mind. The mind of God is Spirit, soul, body; that is, mind, idea, expression. The mind of man is Spirit, soul, body--not separate from God-Mind, but existing in it and making it manifest in an identity peculiar to the individual. Every man is building into his consciousness the three departments of God-Mind, and his success in the process is evidenced by the harmony, in his consciousness, of Spirit, soul, and body. If he is all body, he is but one-third expressed. If to body he had added soul, he is two-thirds man. If to these two he is adding Spirit, he is on the way to the perfect manhood that God designed. Man has neither Spirit, soul, nor body of his own--he has identity only. He can say "I." He uses God Spirit, God soul, and God body, as his "I" elects. If he uses them with the idea that they belong to him, he develops selfishness, which limits his capacity and dwarfs his product. In his right relation, man is the inlet and the outlet of an everywhere-present life, substance, and intelligence. It is imperative that the individual understand this relation in order to grow naturally. Conscious identification must prevail in the whole man before he can be in right relation. This involves not only a recognition of the universal intelligence, life, and substance, but also their various combinations in man's consciousness. Spirit-Man Spirit in man is the I AM, the individuality. The individuality is the true self; that which is undivided from God; our spiritual identity; the God part of us. It is that which characterizes one as a distinct entity or particular manifestation of divine Principle. Individuality is eternal. It can never be destroyed. Spirit is the seat of power. Its abode is on the invisible side of man's nature. The I AM is the name of the spiritual self. I AM is man's self-identity, the center around which man's system revolves. It is established in Principle. It is divinely guided in its acts and they are in harmony with divine law. Spirit is the same in character as God. The Spirit is the divine center in man and is always in the Absolute; it does not become involved in effects but stands as the creative Cause of the absolute good. It is the indwelling Christ or spiritual nucleus within each individual. Soul-Man The soul is man's consciousness. It is the underlying idea back of any expression. In man, the soul is the many accumulated ideas of his present expression. In its original and true sense, the soul of man is the expressed idea of man in Divine Mind. It is that which man has apprehended or developed out of Spirit. The soul is not of the realm of God ideas but is the second emanation in the creative law. The soul touches both the inner realm of Spirit, from which it receives direct inspiration, and the external world, from which it receives impressions. Body-Man The body of man is soul expressing. Soul makes the body. It is the outer expression of the soul, or consciousness. The body is the precipitation of the thinking part of man. God created the idea of the body of man as a self-perpetuating, self-renewing organism which man reconstructs into his personal body. God creates the body idea, or divine idea, and man, by his thinking, makes it manifest. All thoughts and ideas embody themselves according to their character. Material thoughts make a material body. Spiritual thoughts make a spiritual body. The body is the outer court of the soul, an exact representative in form of the ideals that are revolving in the inner realms of its domain. CONSCIOUSNESS is the sense of awareness, of knowing. It is our knowing that we know. The ideas that are held in mind are the basis of all consciousness. The nature of the ideas upon which consciousness is formed gives character to it. Consciousness is the knowledge or realization of any idea, object, or condition. It is the sum total of all ideas accumulated in and affecting man's present being. It is the composite of ideas, thoughts, emotions, sensation, and knowledge that makes up the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious phases of mind. It includes all that man is aware of in spirit, soul, and body. The total consciousness of man is the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, phases of mind working as a whole, as a unity. The harmonious working together of these three is necessary to the bringing forth of the latent possibilities of man. Superconsciousness The superconscious mind, Christ consciousness or spiritual consciousness, is a state that is based on true ideas, upon an understanding and realization of spiritual Truth. It is man's only sure guide through the maze of the creative process. By trusting to the infallibility of this guide, man opens himself to the inspiration of the Almighty. This phase of mind is built in accordance with the Christ ideal, or in absolute relationship to the Father. It is the perfect mind. Conscious Mind We are all well acquainted with the conscious mind. Through its use we establish our relations with the outer realm and recognize our individual entities. The conscious mind makes one know of one's mental operations. It is that phase of mind in which one is actively aware of one's thoughts. It is the mind through which man establishes his identity. The conscious mind should look ever to the superconscious for all direction and instruction. The Spirit of wisdom rests in the superconscious. Subconsciousness The subconscious mind, or subjective consciousness, is the sum of all man's past thinking. It may be called memory. The subconscious mind has no power to do original thinking. It acts upon what is given it through the conscious or the superconscious mind. All our involuntary, or automatic, activities are of the subconscious. They are the result of our having trained ourself by the conscious mind to form certain habits and do certain things without having to center our thought upon them consciously. The subconscious is the vast, silent realm that lies back of the conscious mind and between it and the superconscious. It may be called the sensitive place of mind. Its true office is to receive impressions from the superconsciousness and to reproduce them upon the canvas of the conscious mind. Man, however, having lost the consciousness of the indwelling Father as an ever-present reality, has reversed the process and impresses the subconscious from the conscious mind. In this way the former is made to register impressions according to the thought held in conscious mind at the time the impression is made. It is the purpose and the nature of the subconscious mind to reproduce. Twelve Centers Inherent in the Mind of Being are twelve fundamental ideas, which in action appear as primal creative forces. It is possible for man to ally himself with and to use these original forces, and thereby cooperate with the creative law. In order to do this he must detach himself from the outer forces and enter into the consciousness of the idea lying back of them. Man has twelve great centers of consciousness. They are centers of action. Each of these has control of a certain function in mind and body, in soul and body. These twelve powers are all expressed and developed under the guidance of Divine Mind. You must keep the equipoise. You must in all the bringing forth of the twelve realize that they come from God. They are directed by the Word of God. The twelve centers are: faith, strength, judgment, love, power, imagination, understanding, will, order, zeal, renunciation (or elimination), and life. Faith Faith is the perceiving power of the mind linked with the power to shape substance. It is spiritual assurance. It is the power to do the seemingly impossible. It is a magnetic power that draws unto us our heart's desire from the invisible spiritual substance. Faith is a deep inner knowing that that which is sought is already ours for the taking. Faith is the foundation of all that man does. It is closely related to the enduring, firm, unyielding forms of substance. The development of it is a key to spiritual realization. Faith in God is the substance of existence. To have faith in God is to have the faith of God. We must have faith in God as our Father and source of all the good we desire. Faith is more than mere belief. It is the very substance of that which is believed. Faith working in spiritual substance accomplishes all things. This is the faith that cooperates with creative law. When it is exercised deep in spiritual consciousness, it finds its abode. Here it works under divine law, without variation. It brings results that are seemingly miraculous. An understanding faith functions from Principle. It is based on knowledge of Truth. It understands the law of mind action. Therefore, it has great strength. To know that certain causes produce certain results gives a bedrock foundation for faith. The term blind faith is an instinctive trust in a power higher than ourselves. Because blind faith does not understand the principles of Being, it is liable to discouragement and disappointment. Strength Strength is the energy of God. In man it causes freedom from weakness; stability of character; power to withstand temptation; capacity to accomplish. Strength is physical, mental, and spiritual. All strength originates in Spirit. Strength and faith are brothers in the mind. When this bond of unity is established it carries one along, even though one may encounter the most adverse experiences. Judgment Judgment is a faculty of the mind that can be exercised in two ways--from sense perception or spiritual understanding. If its action be based on sense perception its conclusions are fallible and often condemnatory. If based on spiritual understanding, they are safe. Judgment is a mental act of evaluation through comparison or contrast. Spiritual discernment is the inner voice through whose expression we come into a larger realization of ourselves. We also call this faculty discrimination. It is that quality in us which carefully weighs a question and draws a conclusion. The prevailing tendency of judgment is toward caution, fearfulness, criticism, and condemnation, when it draws its conclusions from the effect side of existence. We should therefore faithfully seek the spiritual aspect of this faculty, the guidance and good judgment of spiritual light and understanding. Wisdom, justice, judgment are grouped under one head in spiritual consciousness. Intuition, judgment, wisdom, justice, discernment, pure knowing, and profound understanding are natural to man. All these qualities, and many more, belong to every one of us by and through his divine sonship. Love Love is an inner quality that sees good everywhere and in everybody. It insists that all is good, and by refusing to see anything but good it causes that quality finally to appear uppermost in itself, and in all things. Divine love will bring your own to you, adjust all misunderstandings, and make your life and affairs healthy, happy, harmonious, and free. Like the sun, its joy is in the shining forth of its nature. Love is a divine attribute. It is an idea in the one Mind, a quality in Being. The difference between divine love and human love is that divine love is broad and unlimited, a universal and harmonizing power. Human love is based on personality. When man expresses divine love in limited ways he makes a separation in consciousness and his expression of love is personal instead of universal. When love is established in the consciousness it will draw to us all that we require to make us happy and contented, all that really belongs to us. Unselfish love is fearless, because of its forgetfulness of self. A sense of oneness is a natural product of love. It is accompanied by a consciousness of security. Power Man is the power of God in action. The mind and the body of man have power to transform energy from one plane of consciousness to another. This is the power and dominion implanted in man from the beginning. It is man's control over his thoughts and feelings. A quickening from on high must precede his realization of dominion. Power is increased through exalted ideas. The power of the voice controls all the vibratory energies of the organism. It is the open door between the formless and the formed worlds of vibrations pertaining to expression. Every word that goes forth receives its specific character from the power faculty. Imagination Every form and shape originated in the imagination. It is through the imagination that the formless takes form. Man is continually making and sending forth into his mind, his body, and the world about him living thought forms embodied and endued with his whole character. These images are formed in the imaging faculty. In the realm of the real, the imaging power of the mind is innocent of error images. It is open and receptive to the beauty and perfection of Being. This faculty makes the great, when the soul is lifted up with spiritual fervor. Exercised without the Christ understanding, it is personal credulity. It is not in itself error, but may be used in erroneous ways. In the communication of God with man this faculty plays an important part. Understanding That in man which comprehends is understanding. It comprehends and knows in wisdom. Its comparisons are not made in the realm of form, but in the realm of ideas. It knows how to accomplish things. Spiritual discernment reveals that knowledge and intelligence are auxiliary to understanding. There are two ways of getting understanding. One is by following the guidance of Spirit that dwells within, and the other is to go blindly ahead and learn through hard experience. Intellectual understanding of Truth is a tremendous step in advance of sense consciousness, and its possession brings a temptation to use for selfish ends the wisdom and power thereby revealed. Spiritual understanding is the quickening of the Spirit within. Spiritual understanding is the ability of the mind to apprehend and realize the laws of thought and the relation of ideas one to another. Will The will is the executive faculty of the mind and carries out the edicts of the I AM. All thoughts that go in and out of man's consciousness pass the gate at which sits the will. If the will understands its office, the character and value of every thought are inquired into and a certain tribute is exacted for the benefit of the whole man. When the will of man adheres to wisdom faithfully and carries out in its work the plans that are idealized in wisdom, it creates in man a consciousness of harmony and peace. The will may be said to be the man, because it is the directive power that determines character formation. When man wills to do the will of God, he exercises his individual will in wisdom, love, and spiritual understanding. He builds spiritual character. What man wills or decrees comes to pass in his experience. The will is the center in mind and body around which revolve all the activities that constitute consciousness. It is the avenue through which the I AM expresses its potentiality. Order The inner spirit of order is the spiritual way of life. The divine idea of order is the idea of adjustment. As this is established in man's thought, his mind and affairs will be at one with the universal harmony. The faculty of order in the mind holds every thought and act strictly to the Truth of Being, regardless of circumstances or environment. The development of man is under law. Man can never exercise dominion until he knows who and what he is and, knowing, brings forth that knowledge into the external by exercising it in divine order. Zeal Zeal is intensity, ardor, enthusiasm; the inward fire of the soul that urges man onward regardless of caution. It is the affirmative impulse of existence. Its command is "Go forward!" When zeal and judgment work together great things can be accomplished. To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living. Zeal and enthusiasm incite to glorious achievement in every aim and ideal that the mind conceives. Energy is zeal in motion. Energy is the forerunner of every effect. Never repress the impulse, the force, the zeal welling up within you. Praise it for its great energy and efficiency in action. Let your zeal be tempered with wisdom. Do not let your zeal run away with judgment. Man is a dynamo of pent-up power, but he needs judgment in its use. Always exercise zeal in spiritual ways. Extraordinary zeal in the accomplishment of some ideal develops what is called genius. Genius is the accumulated zeal of the individual in some chosen field of life action. Genius is the breaking forth of the accumulated achievements of a man in that field of activity for which he has been very zealous. Renunciation Renunciation is a letting go of old thoughts in order that new thoughts may find a place in consciousness. A healthy state of mind is attained when the thinker willingly lets go the old thoughts and takes on the new. This is illustrated by the inlet and outlet of a pool of water. Renunciation, sometimes called elimination, carries forward the work of elimination of error thoughts from the mind and waste from the body. It is just as necessary that one should learn to let go of thoughts, conditions, and substances in consciousness, body, and affairs, when they have served their purpose and one no longer needs them, as it is that one should lay hold of new ideas and new substances to meet one's daily requirements. Therefore it is very necessary that the eliminative faculty be quickened in one, and a right balance between receiving and giving, laying hold and letting go, be established. Life In the phenomenal world, life is the energy that propels all forms of action. The life ego is the most subtle and most variable of all the powers of man. It presides over the life of the body. The pure life of God flows into man's consciousness through the spiritual body idea. Only those who have come into consciousness of the spiritual body idea can feel this holy stream of life. Its nature is to vivify with perpetual life all that it touches. It knows only to give, give unceasingly and eternally, without restraint. To desire to be instructed by God is the first step in exalting the inner life force. Life is divine, spiritual. Its source is Spirit. The river of life is within man in his spiritual consciousness. He comes into consciousness of the river of life through the quickening of Spirit. He can be truly quickened with new life and vitalized in mind and body only by consciously contacting Spirit. TO MAN is given the highest power in the universe, the conscious power of thought. There is a universal, creative force that urges man forward to the recognition of the creative power of his individual thought. This thought is elemental, and all its attributes come under the dominion of man. When he cooperates with Principle, man sits on the throne of his authority and the elemental force is subject to him. Thinking is the formulating process of mind. The thinking faculty is the inlet and the outlet of all your ideas. It is active, zealous, impulsive, but not always wise. Its nature is to think, and think it will. The thinking faculty in you makes you a free agent, because it is your creative center. In and through this one power you establish your consciousness--you build your world. Thought Thought is a product of thinking. It is a mental vibration or impulse. Each thought is an identity that has a central ego around which all its elements revolve. Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves. Every thought clothes itself in a life form according to the character given it by the thinker. The form is simply the conclusion of the thought. The mind of man marshals its faculties and literally makes into living entities the thoughts that it entertains. Energies (thought vibrations) are sent out by the force and power of thought. Thought power is the moving force within an idea that gives it expression. All structures are built by thought power. This power is transmitted from mind to mind and from mind to body in all living forms. The omnipresent, invisible substance (thought-stuff) is ever ready to take form in accordance with one's mental pattern. The thought-stuff of the universe is more sensitive than a phonograph record. It transcribes not only all sounds, but even the slightest vibration of thought. Thought Aggregation Like attracts like. A thought will take up its abode in our consciousness with thoughts of like character. This law of attraction continues until combined thoughts make a colony. This colony of thoughts expresses itself in the cells of the body--for good or ill. This collection or aggregation of ideas in the mind is a thought center. They build organs through which they manifest. The surrounding mental climate or thought atmosphere is created by each person in accordance with the character of his thinking. Thoughts of negation build a discordant atmosphere. Thoughts of love, prosperity, health, and faith create a harmonious mental atmosphere. Thought Control Thought is controlled by the right use of affirmation and denial--by the power of the mind to accept and reject. This power of the mind is the I AM, and it is through the avenue of I AM expression that thought control, dominion, and mastery are obtained. Thoughts are controlled by the mind through its power to say "yes" or "no." To "hold a thought" is to affirm or deny a certain proposition both mentally and audibly until the logic of the mind is satisfied and spiritual realization is attained. Denial Human consciousness is made up of a multitude of false personal and race beliefs. Denial is the mental process of erasing from consciousness the false beliefs. It clears away belief in evil as reality and thus makes room for the establishing of Truth. Through it we get rid of the shadows. We cleanse the mind. A denial is a relinquishment and should not be made with vehemence. Make denials as though you were gently sweeping away cobwebs. Affirmation When we poise ourselves in Divine Mind our denials and affirmations will be made in right relation. We will know just when to let go of a thought and when to lay hold of another. The purpose of affirmation is to establish in consciousness a broad understanding of the divine principles on which all life and existence depend. By affirming Truth we are lifted out of false thinking into the consciousness of Spirit. An affirmation is a positive statement of Truth. By the use of it one claims and appropriates that which is his in Truth. It is the mental movement that asserts confidently and persistently the Truth of Being in the face of all appearances to the contrary. The sum total of thought in all its positive aspects composes the affirmations that bring ideas into form. They do not have to be made in set terms, words, or statements. Affirmations of words of Truth realized in consciousness bring the mind into just the right attitude to receive light, power, and guidance from Spirit. Words are the vehicles through which ideas make themselves manifest. Words that have in them the realization of perfect, everywhere-present, always-present divine life, and our oneness with this life, are dominant in the restoration of life and health. When spiritual words abide in man's consciousness, the word or thought formed in the human mind must give way to the higher principles of Being. The Decree To decree is to command or to ordain. To decree with assurance is to establish and to fix an ideal in substance. The force behind the decree is invisible. It binds with invisible power the one who makes it. We have only a slight conception of the strength of the intangible. Affirmations are far stronger than the strongest visible thing in the world. Words charged with power and intelligence increase with use. Thought and Word Man cannot know how the thought or word work except through his own consciousness. He must understand, control, and put in order his own thought and word. Our most important study is our own consciousness. By a right understanding, and by using right thoughts and words, man will experience the kingdom within him. Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves. They think. Man thinks. He thinks into his thoughts all that he is. There is a difference between the original thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating center in Spirit; the other, in thought. One is Son of God; the other is son of man. If man conformed to the divine creative law, his word would make things instantly. Every word has its effect, though unseen and unrecognized. What we think, we usually express in words. Our words bring about in our life and affairs whatever we put into them. A weak thought is followed by words of weakness. Through the law of expression and form, words of weakness change to weakness the character of everything that receives them. Talk about nervousness and weakness produces corresponding conditions. Sending forth the word of strength and affirming poise will bring about the desired strength and poise. Every time we speak we cause the atoms of the body to tremble and change their places. Not only do we cause the atoms of our own body to change their position, but we raise or lower the rate of vibration and otherwise affect the bodies of others with whom we come in contact. Thus, every word brings forth after its kind. Directive Word Power The spoken word carries vibrations through the universe and moves the intelligence inherent in every form, animate or inanimate. Man, the highest emanation of Divine Mind, has great directive power and is really cooperator with God in forming the universe. We should be speaking words of Truth to everything. There are no secrets and no concealments. The power of the word is given man to use. The better he understands the character of God and his own relation to humanity, the more unselfishly will he exercise this power. Some are using this power in selfish ways. This should not deter others who have a better understanding of the law from using it in right ways. When we need things necessary to our happiness, it is not sacrilegious to set in action this higher law in attaining them. The word of one in authority carries weight and produces far-reaching effects. If your word is selfish, that which will come to you through its use will be unsatisfactory. Learn to speak right words only. It is your duty as expresser of the divine law to speak forth the Logos, the very Word of God, to manifest for you and in you its innate perfection. Thought and Act Every act of man has its origin in thought, which is expressed into the phenomenal world from a mental center that is but a point of radiation for an energy that lies back of it. That point of radiation is the conscious I, which in its correct relation is one with Cause, and has at its command all the power potential in Cause. The conscious I can look in two directions--to the outer world where the thoughts that rise within it give sensation and feeling, which ultimate in a moving panorama of visibility; or to the world within, whence all its life, power, and intelligence are derived. When the I looks wholly within, it loses all sense of the external. When it looks wholly without, upon sensation and feeling, it loses its bearings in the maze of its own thought creations. Then it builds up a belief of separateness from, and independence of, a causing power. Man sees only form and makes his God a personal being located in a city of dimensions. This belief of separateness leads to ignorance. When the soul thinks itself something alone, it cuts itself off in consciousness from the fount of inspiration. Believing himself separate from his source, man loses sight of the divine harmony. The only walls of separation are those built by consciousness of separation. Thought Forms Many factors enter into the process of thinking. The capacity of the thinker to form thoughts, to give them substance and force, is the great factor. The understanding of right and wrong, truth and error, substance and shadow, is important. Many significant conditions enter into that mental process loosely termed thinking. Every mental process is generative. From thinking is evolved what is called living. Thinking is formative. Thought clothes itself in a life form according to the character given it by the thinker. Every thought produces a living organism. Thought is creative and covers every phase of life. Every life expression originated in some thought. All of the detestable thoughts that mankind harbors, produce living organisms after their kind. Error Thoughts Error thoughts represent belief in thoughts and beliefs not of God. They are untrue. They have no foundation in Truth. Error thought is a product of the fallen human consciousness. It is negation or evil. Evil is a parasite. It has no permanent life of itself. Its whole existence depends on the life it borrows from its parent. When its connection with the parent is severed, nothing remains. In Divine Mind there are no evil conditions. Such conditions have no basis of reality. They are conjurations of a false consciousness. Apparent evil is the result of ignorance. When Truth is presented, the error disappears. Man has the privilege and freedom of using God-power as he will. When he misuses it he brings about inharmonious conditions. These are called evil. Evil appears in the world because man is not in spiritual understanding. He can do away with evil by learning rightly to use the one Power. If there were a power of evil, it could not be changed. Experimentation Man is a free agent. He can open his mind to divine wisdom and know creative law, or he can work out his unfoldment through experimentation. Our human race is in the experimental stage. In our ignorance we transgress the law to the very limit, and then a great reaction sets in, a general condition that is negative to the point of dissolution. Then that in us which always looks obediently to God in an extremity is awakened, and we seek divine guidance. The human race has formed laws of physical birth and death, laws of sickness and inability, laws that recognize no other source of existence except the physical. The sum total of these laws forms a race consciousness separate from and independent of creative Mind. When creative Mind seeks to help men spiritually, the human mind opposes it and makes every effort to solve its problems in its own way. The great need of the human family is mind control. Mastery is attained through realization of the power of Spirit. IN PURE metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of God. This is the original creative Word, or thought, of Being. In the original it includes wisdom, judgment, power, and all the inherent potentialities of Being. Divine Mind creates under law; that is, mental law. First is mind, then the idea in mind of what the act shall be, then the act itself. In Divine Mind the idea is referred to as the Word. Man is the consummation of the Word. The perfect Word of God is Spiritual Man. It is through Spiritual Man that all things are made. There is but one idea of man in Divine Mind. That idea is the perfect pattern of man's character. As an imitator of Divine Mind, man has power to form and make manifest whatsoever he idealizes. Unless his thoughts are unified with Divine Mind and guided in their operations by infinite wisdom, his thought forms are perishable. Surroundings and Thought Vibrations The self of man is spiritual. When it is in direct conscious unity with the Father-Mind it has permanent formative power. Even in his ignorant use of thought, man's mind is forming conditions, even to the changing of the face of nature itself. Every thought that goes forth from the brain sends vibrations into the surrounding atmosphere and moves the realm of things to action. The effect is in proportion to the ability of the thinker to concentrate his mental forces. The average thought vibration produces but temporary results. Under intense mind activity, conditions more or less permanent are impressed upon the sensitive plate of the universal. Through this activity they are brought into physical manifestation. Spoken Word Every idea originating in Divine Mind is expressed in the mind of man. Through the thought of man the Divine Mind idea is brought to the outer plane of consciousness. Through movement on what is termed the conscious, or most outer, plane of action, the thought takes expression as the spoken word. There is in the formed conscious man, or body, a point of concentration for this word. Through this point the word is expressed in invisible vibrations. Following the creative law in its operation from the formless to the formed, we can see how an idea fundamental in Divine is grasped by the man ego, how it takes form in his thought, and how it is later expressed through the spoken word. If man conformed to the divine law, his word would make things instantly. He has lost, in a measure, knowledge of the steps in the creative process from the within to the without. The mental emanation and the creative word are the forces that stimulate the receptive intelligence of nature. When we believe what we hear, there is formed in us the substance of the word. Words and Zeal Words of Truth from a zealous man possess dynamic power to heal and bless because the spiritual man enters into them. This is why they move multitudes and are not stayed by conditions of time. When the zone of Spirit, from which healing words emanate, is unobstructed, they feed the souls of men and are creative as well as re-creative. This is why the sayings of the prophets and mystics have such enduring qualities. They are attached by invisible currents of life to the one Great Spirit. They have within them the germ of perfect wholeness that keeps them perpetually increasing. The true prophet of God does not even have to write his words down. He may speak them and through their own inherent power of perpetuation and growth they will find their way into the minds of men to uplift and heal. Jesus did not write a line except in the sand, yet His words are treasured today as the most precious that we have. Living Words The word of Truth has life in it. It has power to restore and make whole. It cannot perish or grow less with the changes that come with the fleeting years. The more spiritual the individual is who gives forth the words the more enduring they are, and the more powerfully the words move men the more surely they awaken them to their divine nature. The words of Jesus were given to common people--according to the world's standard--by a carpenter in a remote corner of the earth. Yet these words have moved men for more than nineteen hundred years to realize, to dare, and to do as no other words that were ever uttered. The Inner Word Jesus spoke in terms of that inner Word which creates all things. He knew that His words were vivified with a life essence and a moving power that would demonstrate the truth of His statement. These words have rung through the souls of men and set them afire with God's Spirit throughout the ages. This is because they are spiritual words, words that have within them the seeds of a divine life, of a perfect wholeness. They grow in the minds of all who give them place. ALL SANE persons acknowledge the necessity of observing law in their daily living. The great majority have a human standard. Now the whole race is awakening to the knowledge of a higher source of existence. More people every day are giving attention to the law of Spirit in their life. We find in the Scriptures constant reference, in symbols and also in direct language, to order as a fundamental law of the universe and of man. All peoples have observed this, and especially the people of God. Paul said, "All things should be done decently and in order." Remedy Suggestion is systematically used in the business world, and unless you are strong in your own convictions as to what your needs are, you will be loaded up with many things for which you have no use. The remedy is to establish yourself in the spiritual law. You will come under one or the other of these laws, the manmade or the spiritual, and it is for you to choose which is best. Whatever there is in mind, body, or affairs that is out of harmony is easily adjusted when you open the way in your mind for the manifestation of divine order. Jesus' Birth The birth of Jesus was foretold and arranged beforehand. It was not left to chance. His mother "magnified" the Lord before He was born. This illustrates the truth that it is necessary to have order from the very beginning. The bringing forth of John the Baptist is an example of the coming of another state of consciousness and of the necessity of law and order in prenatal culture. The same law holds good in our body and our affairs. The power of the word should be expressed in our homes. We should surround ourselves with words suggestive of spiritual things. If words count, and we know they do, we should be careful of every belief taken into consciousness through the eye as well as through the ear. Suggestion From their inception to their expression, words are important. The law is fulfilled not only in mind but in manifestation also. Every suggestion that enters the mind brings forth like expression in act. The time is coming when it will be unlawful to print in the daily papers any record of crime or of anything that will bring discord into the minds of readers. Once I read of a man who committed a crime, and in his pocket was found a newspaper clipping describing almost identically the same criminal act. His crime was the fruit of suggestion. How many such suggestions does one large daily paper carry to its thousands of readers in its recital of the daily horrors that make up the news? As the world comes more and more under the spiritual law editors and publishers will not ask their readers what they want, but will give them what they should have for mental food. And as the people are raised to higher planes of consciousness they will demand reading of an uplifting character. They will be just as careful as regards what they read as they are now beginning to be in reference to food. There will be the same demand for pure reading as for pure food. If it is against the law of the land to adulterate food, how much more is it against the law of right thinking to adulterate the truth! We can see the necessity of order and law according to Spirit. If we would demonstrate health, every deleterious thought should be kept out of our mental atmosphere even more carefully than harmful elements are kept out of our material food. Food and Clothing This spiritual law is operative in food and clothing. If we think about order and harmony our taste in material things will change. We shall desire the purest foods, and there will be more harmony in the colors we choose to wear. Man stands above all creation. He has power to clothe himself in the richness and glory of Spirit. Out of the air we may manufacture the things we eat and wear. This is not a flight of fancy. It is not an assumption of theoretical metaphysics that we may be able to make our food and clothing from the air, but a logical conclusion that follows the understanding of God as the omnipresent source of all that appears. If you are disorderly and indefinite along any line, put yourself at once under the order of Divine Mind by affirming daily that the same law that swings the stars is operative in and through your life and your affairs. One Law All people who have studied metaphysics and understand somewhat the action of the mind recognize that there is one underlying law and that through this law all things come into expression; also that there is one universal Mind, the source and sole origin of all real intelligence. First is mind, then mind expresses itself in ideas, then the ideas make themselves manifest. This is a metaphysical statement of the divine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity Mind, the expression of Mind, and the manifestations of Mind are found in simple numbers and complex combinations everywhere. I Am In the King James Bible the Hebrew "Jehovah" has been translated "Lord." Lord means an external ruler. Bible students say that Jehovah means the self-existent One, the I AM. Then instead of reading "Lord" we should read "I AM." It makes a great difference whether we think of I AM, self-existence within, or "Lord," master without. All Scripture shows that Jehovah means just what God told Moses it meant: I AM. So instead of "Lord" say "I AM" whenever you read it and you will get a clearer understanding and realization of what Jehovah is. God was known to the Israelites as Jehovah-shalom: "I am peace." You can demonstrate peace of mind by holding the words "I am peace." If we start any such demonstration and try to apply the I AM to personality, we fall short. This is frequently the cause of lack of results in carrying out the laws that all metaphysicians recognize as fundamentally true. The mind does not always comprehend the I AM in its highest, neither does it discern that the all-knowing, omnipotent One is within man. This recognition must be cultivated, and everyone should become conscious of the I AM presence. This consciousness will come through prayer and meditation upon Truth. In Truth there is but one I AM, Jehovah, the omnipotent I AM that is eternally whole and perfect. If you take Jehovah-shalom into your mind and hold it with the thought of a mighty peace, you will feel a consciousness, a harmonizing stillness, that no man can understand. This consciousness is healing in itself. It must be felt, realized, and acknowledged by your individual I AM before the supreme I AM can pour out its power. Then you will know that you have touched something; but you cannot explain to another just what it is, because you have gone beyond the realm of words and made union with the divine cause. It is the quickening of your divinity through the power of the word. This divine nature is in us all, waiting to be brought into expression through our recognition of the power and might of the I AM; to Jehovah-rapha, which is "I am he that healeth thee." Inner and Outer We should not fail to think always of the spiritual law under which the I AM moves. It is possible for man to take I AM power and apply it in external ways and leave out the true spiritual law. We are proclaiming that man can use I AM power to restore health and bring increased happiness; in fact, that through righteous, lawful use of the I AM he can have everything that he desires. But some people are using this power in a material way, neglecting soul culture, building up the external without taking the intermediate step between the supreme Mind and its manifestation in the outer. We should remember that the soul must grow as well as the body. For example, a man was overtaken with physical disability and loss of eyesight some years ago. In his extremity he turned to the spiritual law for help and was very faithful in its mental application. Time passed before I saw him again; his physical condition was unchanged, but there was a great change in his mind. He had found the light and he was filled with inward rejoicing. He had become blind that he might see. However his family thought all his dependence upon Truth had been a failure because his physical sight had not been restored. During all these years he managed his business, and it prospered, and his family was well provided for. He was himself for a time disappointed and rebellious because his eyes were not healed. Then he became glad, because through the prayers and meditations he found the inner light. His physical sight will be restored when he has made the complete connection between mind and body. If you find yourself disappointed because you do not at once demonstrate health or success, be at peace and know that your earnest prayers and meditations are working out in you a soul growth that will yet become manifest beyond your greatest hopes. It is easier to seek the Truth willingly and be watchful and obedient than it is to be forced by some severe experience. Hard experiences are not necessary if we are obedient to the Truth that saves us from them. Time should be given to prayer and meditation daily. We cannot grow without them, and no man who neglects them will successfully develop his spiritual powers. Unification Before you can realize the mighty power of ideas you must unify them. All must pull together. Get your ideas in divine order, and a mighty mind force will begin to work for you right away. This divine order is necessary to the upbuilding of both mind and body. This divine order is the "kingdom of heaven" so often referred to by Jesus. To attain this unity and harmony of mind it is necessary to have perfect statements of Truth and to adhere to them in thought and word. Ideas change the race thought atmosphere. Jesus had a grasp of divine ideas. If we believe in and follow Him we shall come into the Christ state of mind. We become like-minded by entering into the absolute Mind. In the absolute Mind there is only harmony. As man unifies his own mind forces in the one Mind his body is lifted up into a new state of harmony. If he is not demonstrating this principle, it is because he is not unified with the one great harmonious Mind. He is not expressing this Mind as he should because he is not realizing his oneness with it. Resolve to become one with God through Christ. Harmonize yourself with Him and all your world will be in harmony. Be on the alert to see harmony everywhere. Do not magnify seeming differences. Do not keep up any petty divisions but continually declare the one universal harmony. This will insure perfect order and wholeness. The Christ Mind is here as the unifying principle of this race. We must believe in this mind working in us and through us and know that through it we are joined to the Father-Mind. In the consciousness of the Father-Mind the unity of God and man is demonstrated. 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 wise moments man knows that this is not logical or true. It is man's exalted concepts of God and his disparaging beliefs about himself that have built the mental wall that separates them. Thus man must understand the nature of God and awaken in himself that divine nature through which to effect his conscious union with Him. God is Spirit. We are the offspring of this Spirit. God is Mind: man is the thinker. God is Life: man is the living. God is Substance: man is form and shape. God is Power: man is powerful. God is Wisdom: man is wise. God is Love: man is loving. God is Truth: man is truthful. God-Mind is a treasure field of all potentialities within man in which is found the fulfillment of every need one can possibly have. What we need to know above all is that there is this 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. With a right understanding of man's relation to his potentialities his soul grows with infinite capacity. Intimate Spirit The intimate connecting spirit that unites man and his source is the divine Logos. It is in the highest sense an innate spiritual umbilical cord that connects us with the Holy Mother from whom we can receive a perpetual flow of life. Because of this man instinctively feels and knows from whence his help comes. In the divine Logos is the living impetus that vitalizes the soul of man and enables him to develop his latent powers. The highest avenue through which God can express Himself is man. All growth and unfoldment from atom to sun is based upon the law of soul urge. The hungering for God that is felt by man in his soul is really God hungering to express through man. The Spirit of God in man is constantly working, yes, steadily and persistently working, to transmute every natural impulse of mind and soul into a spiritual realization of life. God is always seeking to awaken man's whole soul to His mighty presence. He is working to satisfy man's inner craving with living substance and intelligence, thus expanding and rounding his soul and body consciousness, offering him opportunity to express Divine Mind itself more fully and more perfectly. Desire Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is the onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul. It builds from within outward and carries its fulfillment with it as a necessary corollary. Man has never had a desire that could not somewhere, in the providence of God, be fulfilled. If this were not true, the universe would be weak at its most vital point. Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Every impulse or desire of the soul for life, love, light, is a prayer. It is a conscious expression of an upward. trend of nature found everywhere. Earnest, intense desire draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient joys into the power to appreciate and receive real spiritual blessings. Prayer without desire in it, prayer without sincerity in it, prayer without soul in it, prayer without Spirit in it is fruitless prayer. So, when you frame your desires in sound words and place them before your indwelling Lord, you are using intelligently the supreme law of God in bringing into manifestation that which He has implanted in you. Spiritual Character We find prayer to be many-sided; it is not only asking but receiving, also. We must pray believing that we shall receive. Prayer is both invocation and affirmation. Meditation, concentration, denial, and affirmation in the silence are all forms of what is loosely termed prayer. Through prayer we develop the highest phase of character. Spiritual character building is from within outward. 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 human thought. Man builds spiritual character by consciously functioning in God-Mind where, laying hold of spiritual ideas, he realizes the Truth they contain. He thus weaves them into his soul consciousness and they become a part of his very nature. Conscious Union 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. Actually, prayer is man's steady effort to know God. He can make conscious contact with Spirit by turning his attention away from material things and thinking about Spirit. Through prayer he gains an intimate relationship with God. The ability to merge our mind into the one Mind makes a great man of us. When man awakens even a slight consciousness of the cooperative Spirit, he becomes a co-creator with God. There is a partial conscious unity with Spirit and there is a complete conscious unity with Spirit; however, whenever man wholly merges his mind with the creative Mind he is in the consciousness in which his prayers are fulfilled. He finds that he can adjust any condition that comes into his life. Everyone should pray. Prayer does not change God! It changes us! Effective prayer does not agonize. No 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. Accept the urge to begin the practice of prayer. Through it make contact with the Source of your being. In prayer you are able to recognize the Source. As you practice prayer your innate Spirit showers its life energies into your conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows. In your prayers you must meet God face to face and realize that you are getting that inner assurance which is the real answer. Your most effective prayers are those in which you rise above all consciousness of time and space. In this state of mind you automatically contact the Spirit of God. When you elevate your consciousness to Spirit, the God presence becomes meaningful to you. The God presence is an abiding flame, a flame of life, of life everlasting in every cell and fiber of being making you more alive, cleansing and purifying until you become every whit perfect. During high realizations of Truth you are conscious of this abiding flame that works in and through you. In this state of at-one-ment you truly become aware of sublimity and power. The God presence establishes you in spiritual ideas which are needed factors in the unfoldment of the whole man. Interest 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 Jesus, 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 ourself. It will add much to the readiness with which we receive Truth. Asking Understanding shows that prayer is more than asking God for help in this physical world. Actually, we have become a human race of praying beggars. Prayer is not supplication or begging. It is more than supplication. Supplication is impotent. Do not supplicate or beg God to give you what you need. Prayer is a simple asking for that which we know is waiting for us at the hands of our Father and an affirmation of its existence. When Jesus advised asking for what we want, He was instructing us to be persistent in our demands. People ignorant of the relation in which man stands to God wonder why we should ask and even importune a Father who has provided all things for us. This is explained when we perceive that God is a great mind reservoir that has to be tapped by man's mind and poured into visibility through his thought and word. If the mind of man is clogged with doubt, lethargy, or fear, he must open the way by persistent knocking and asking. Acquire in prayer a facility in asking equal to the mathematician's expertness in handling numbers and you will get responses in proportion. Undoubtedly the one thing that stands out prominently in the teaching of Jesus is the necessity of prayer. He prayed on the slightest pretext, or in some such manner invoked the presence of God. He prayed over situations that most men would deal with without the intervention of God. If He were verily God incarnate, the skeptic often asks, why did He so often appeal to an apparently higher God? To answer this doubt intelligently and truly one must understand the constitution of man. There are always two men in each individual. The man without is the picture that the man within paints with his mind. This mind is the open door to the unlimited principle of Being. When Jesus prayed He was setting into action the various powers of His individuality in order to bring about certain results. Within His identity was of God; without He was human personality. Prayer with a Purpose 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. To succeed we must have some great purpose in mind, some goal toward which we are to work. 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. Communion with God Prayer is communion between God and man. This communion takes place in the innermost part of man's being. It is the only way to cleanse and perfect the consciousness. Prayer is the most highly accelerated mind action known. It steps up mental action until man's consciousness synchronizes with the Christ Mind. It is the language of spirituality. When developed, prayer makes man master in the realm of creative ideas. As in all matters where we seek divine help we are free to use any words we choose or no words at all. However, to a person in the understanding of Truth, prayer should be an affirmation of that which is in Being. What is the necessity of the prayer of affirmation if Being already is? In order that the creative law of the Word may be fulfilled. What you earnestly desire and persistently affirm will be yours. The Silence The highest form of prayer we know is quietly entering the inner chamber within the soul, shutting the door to the external thoughts of daily life, and seeking conscious union with God. Prayer is man's steady effort to know God. Through prayer we gain an intimate relationship with God. The purpose of the silence is to still the activity of the personal 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. When entering the silence, close the eyes and ears to the without. Go to God within and hold the mind steadily on the word until that word illumines the whole inner consciousness. Think what the mighty vitalizing energy of God releases. Penetrate deep into God consciousness within yourself and hold your prayer word steadily until you attain spiritual realization and the logic of your own mind is satisfied. 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. Intellectual 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 power, is the silence where one's whole attention is fixed on the intellect. The intellect has thought its power supreme. While it is a wonderful faculty, it is in truth the tool of Spirit. 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 it dwells 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. The operation of prayer saves the soul from all past and future mistakes. In prayer we are led not to doubt, distrust, or hate man but to love him with all our mind, soul, and strength. Instead of fighting life and struggling to compete with millions of others in the same foolish war, we cooperate. Instead of wasting energy in tearing down, we conserve in building up. Prayer 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. Man must have the spiritual ability to discern life's perfect 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. God works in the stillness. As man comes into the presence of God with his 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. Meditation Persistent meditation on the Truth contained in the Word of God opens the mind to a greater inflow of Spirit. When we let our meditations fall on the knowing part of ourself, we go into a higher mental state or an exalted condition of mind, wherein we receive a higher and clearer conception of things spiritual. Every student of Truth builds the Christ body as he constantly abides in the Christ mind through daily meditation upon words of Truth. Then all words become quickening life and nourishing substance in both mind and body. Attention and Concentration In prayer attention is the concentration of the mind upon a statement of Truth. Man can take a word of Truth and through "one-pointed" mind concentration unite his consciousness with the Mind of God. He can hold a realizing prayer until the truth it contains is engrafted into the very soul. Through the engrafted word, he becomes a strong, positive spiritual character. 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--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, but the teacher arouses and inspires the student to greater achievement. The Holy Spirit urges us to great 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. Realization In 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 written not only in the soul but in the intellect. 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. It becomes in deed and in truth the instrument of God. Realization is the deep inner conviction and assurance of the fulfillment of an ideal. It means at-one-ment, completion, perfection, wholeness, repose, resting in God. It is the dawning of Truth in the consciousness. When realization takes place, one abides in the light of God-Mind. It is the inner conviction that prayer has been answered, although there is as yet no outer manifestation. The supreme realization is unity with God-Mind. Constructive thought force is a great and mighty power. When it is realized in the silence it becomes the one and only power in all the earth. The understanding of this makes one an adept in the domain of scientific prayer. Prayer and Faith It is necessary to pray believing that we have received because God is all that we desire. The good always exists in Divine Mind as ideas. We bring it into manifestation through the prayer of faith, affirmation, praise, and acknowledgment. Within the deep stillness of the soul, listen first to the innate voice of faith. 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. Man must not only be submissive and obedient to the divine law, but 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. Instead he should feel that he is the image of an invisible Being who has created him to represent His mightiness as well as His lovingkindness. The prayer of faith is not supplication, a begging God to give things to man. Prayer at its highest is the entry through faith into a realm of mind forces that when rightly contacted change the character of every cell in brain and body. 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. When man emerges from the limitations of human 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. Prayer is impotent and unfruitful when the one who prays is without the firm belief that his prayers are answered. When man turns wholeheartedly to God, the prayer of faith brings forth abundantly. Since the prayer of faith is the activity of divine love, let us pray without ceasing, knowing that God hears and grants our petitions. Faith is the fire of Spirit. Faith opens the door into an inner consciousness, where we hold the word steadily in mind until the spiritual substance responds to our word. Earnest, steady, and continued attention along this line is bound to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in abundant measure.