BOUT half a century ago, a noted writer of Metaphysical Science stated in her textbook :n5089 ¶1
“That we are Spirit and Spirit is God is undeniably true. . . . The final understanding that we are Spirit must come. ... At present we know not what we are, but this is certain, that we shall be Love, Life and Truth when we understand them.”n5089 ¶2
Has not the belief that we are human beings, subject to errors of the flesh, resulted in the limitation and discord enacted upon the face of the earth today? And will not the understanding that we are Soul, Spirit,—the recognition and acceptance of the actuality of our being—be the Truth that shall set us free from this false belief ?n5089 ¶3
By identifying self as Life, Soul, one automatically rises to new heights.n5089 ¶4
“TI, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me,” spoke Jesus Christ. As peerless Christ Truth is lifted before our vision, recognition and understanding take place and our whole universe reflects this glory.n5089 ¶5
“Ye must be born again” was Jesus’ testimony. The act of yielding up untrue beliefs for true understanding constitutes this rebirth.n5089 ¶6
Was it not because Jesus claimed and acted his deity that he infuriated the Jews? “This man,” thought they, “who wears clothes, who eats and drinks and sleeps exactly the same as we do, claiming that he is God,—claiming that he is different from us. We are human and he is human.”n5089 ¶7
And so they said to Jesus: “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God!’”—(John 10:33).n5089 ¶8
They had insight enough to see that Jesus individualized Almighty power in healing the sick and in raising the dead, but their ignorance and human sense kept them from perceiving that Jesus not only claimed this almighty Authority for himself but that he claimed it for everyone.n5089 ¶9
Jesus was the ideal Self. He was God in the flesh. And whatever is true of Jesus is likewise true of us all. No wonder we love to talk about Jesus. His great love for mankind prompted him to demonstrate to the very end his absolute Understanding of unchangeable life and being,— to portray to the whole universe that he had the keys to heaven.n5089 ¶10
“T love to tell the story Of unseen things above; Of Jesus and his glory, Of Jesus and his love.” Can we perceive that we are Life, Truth and Love except we first perceive that Jesus wasn5089 ¶11
Life, Truth and Love? We cannot.n5089 ¶12
“No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “Other foundation can no man lay than Jesus Christ.” “He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”n5089 ¶13
The study of the life of Jesus touches our hearts, wakens our love, and as we identify Self as Christ, we identify Self as life, truth, glory and power.n5089 ¶14
Whatever Jesus claimed for himself he claimed also for us. Hear his vibrant, startling words: “That they ALL may be one in us... And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given THEM. . . That THEY may be made perfect tn one.”n5089 ¶15
The Christ (true belief) of you says: “I am the Life, I am the Truth, I am the Father, I am God.” The human (untrue sense) says: “I am in limitation, J am in prison, I am in bondage.”n5089 ¶16
Shall we identify ourselves as limited, human being, or shall we identify ourselves as free- flawless, triumphant Christ? Let Absolute Science decide for us. Absolute Science is the Science of high Vision, ascending from glory to glory.n5089 ¶17
A great vision of Reality now sweeps over the world. Soon it will be more universally perceived and accepted that life is not a problem for the individual to solve. Its solution has already been reached. It remains now for the individual to accept the solution and experience the glory.n5089 ¶18
It is not that our health, for instance, is coming to us, but rather is it that our health is HERE. According to individual recognition of this fact does this health appear. It is not that the Kingdom of heaven is coming to us, nor is it that earth is evolving into heaven, but the fact for our attention is that perfection is here—reality ts at hand.n5089 ¶19
How much of heaven are we perceiving? As much as our individual state of consciousness permits.n5089 ¶20
“Agree with thine adversary quickly,” directed Jesus. Reach a positive position of agreement and perception. “Nothing shall by any means hurt you,’ continued he who knew. We do not shoulder a gun and go forth into an external universe to attack our enemy, but right where we are, we stand still and behold our salvation. We acknowledge it. We accept it.n5089 ¶21
We believe that because Spirit is all and is infinite that we are this infinity. How could it be otherwise? Since. Reality cannot be separated or divided, we are this Reality. It is easy enough to believe that God-Self cannot lack; God-Self cannot be afraid; God-Self cannot be limited ; God-Self cannot be destroyed.n5089 ¶22
It is said that the one of vision sees nothing but good, just as “to the pure all things are pure.” The one of vision sees goodness, not as the opposite of evil (un-good), but he sees goodness as omnipresence.n5089 ¶23
The same with health. One of vision does not see health as the opposite of sickness, but he sees health as wholeness and as everpresence. One of Insight reports according to the vision ofn5089 ¶24
Preach deliverance to those who are held captive by matter and mind (untrue belief)! As light kindles light so recognition and praise of the Jesus Christ Self bring forth radiance and glory of mind that cannot be deceived: of body that CANNOT be sick; of being which is verilyn5089 ¶25
When thought is raised to the true state of being—the sense of Spirit—it is the mind of Christ.n5089 ¶26
Jesus brought to this world a way out of ignorance. He showed a path which was neither warfare nor separation, but on the contrary, was at-one-ment, oneness and unity. Jesus’ vision was to “agree.” Yea, he, himself was this at-onement or agreement.n5089 ¶27
Had Jesus come into this world clothed in the body of ascension, he would not have been seen here; but “He took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” that he might be visible to those in this state of consciousness. From position of oneness with us he showed us his actual state of being, our actual and perfect state of being.n5089 ¶28
Jesus himself was our Way. He unified, he blessed, he forgave, he fulfilled, he agreed and he redeemed.n5089 ¶29
Did Lazarus come forth as a living being because Jesus called him? No. It was because he was a living being that Jesus called him.n5089 ¶30
Was it because of lack of food that Jesus supplied baskets full of bread and fish? No. It was because of ABUNDANCE of food that Jesus did this very thing.n5089 ¶31
Was it because the man’s arm was withered and lifeless that Jesus told him to stretch it forth? No. It was because his arm was perfect and changeless that Jesus commanded, STRETCH IT FORTH!n5089 ¶32
Was it because Jesus was functioning to opposites that he walked triumphantly upon the waves, passed invisible through the multitude, commanded the sick to be as the well, perceived the “sinning woman” as sinless, and the so-called dead as the living?n5089 ¶33
It was because Jesus functioned in unity, in indivisibility, in oneness, in his Kingdom HERE and on earth now that he enacted this power.n5089 ¶34
Jesus’ advice was to leave the so-called external world alone. 1 walk in it, he said, but I am not of it; I am not affected by it. I eat the food from the table, true, but I have other food as well. I live and eat and walk in your world, apparently, but To mMysELF I am living and eating and walking in a world that you do not, as yet, comprehend. This world is the world I have told you about—The Kingdom of Soul.n5089 ¶35
Jesus did not present any outer way of atonement, but he did show us an inner way, a spiritual recognition that is to take place within individual consciousness.n5089 ¶36
The following steps are to be taken by the individual as he rises from sense to Soul, individually ascending the ladder of life.n5089 ¶37
FIRST: Recognition that the so-called external universe is not external but is picturization, or expression of thought and vision.n5089 ¶38
SECOND: Recognition that the belief in socalled evil indicates a lack of individual consciousness of the understanding of fulness, oneness, completeness and unity.n5089 ¶39
THIRD: The final state is the immersion of individual sense into full, clear vision of Reality. The individual has now accomplished his at-onement and is resurrected into the “new man,” the Christ-Self, the God-being who, ascending above all earthly beliefs, functions inn5089 ¶40
We read in Genesis, “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” The perfect Creator and perfect Creation here mentioned, portrays infinite Spirit and its infinite manifestation as All-in-all. All life is pronounced immortal, changeless, eternal, and all manifestation perfect and good.n5089 ¶41
Now Genesis in continuing, mentions a second creation appearing after the first. What can this second creation be except an untrue interpretation of the first? Or the first perfect and complete Creation seen materially instead of spiritually ; seen imperfectly and incompletely instead of seen perfectly and completely; seen darkly as through a glass instead of seen clearly face to face? .n5089 ¶42
A Spiritual, individual being shall “know the Truth,” shall know his power, his might, his dominion, his joy, his peace, his wonder, his eternity, his infinity, his wholeness and his invariableness.n5089 ¶43
Therefore, we behold right here and now the actual truth of Creator and Creation. Moses speaks of the second creation as a (mental) “mist,” and Paul calls it a “riddle,” while St. John (of clearer vision), looked through the superimposition and testified to seeing the finished Kingdom here, at hand. The discerning Jesus continually called attention to the perfect world as now in our midst.n5089 ¶44
Individual consciousness interprets the perfect Creation in degrees, “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little,” and as vision enlarges, one beholds more and more completely the perfection which is prepared.n5089 ¶45
Take, for instance, the material ways of locomotion. Instead of being instantly where one wishes to be, (as Jesus perfectly demonstrated), there came to this world at one time the vision of the stage-coach. Then as clearer spiritual vision followed this was interpreted, or represented variously and successively by the steam engine, the electric engine, the automobile and the aeroplane.n5089 ¶46
Today the aeroplane is man’s exhibit of his highest concept of instantaneity. With a little more clearing of the mist there will come even a fleeter and more easily constructed device, and later man will find something no larger than his own body which will carry him easily and swiftly over land and water. Finally the greater Light will reveal that one can carry his own body triumphantly through space, directed only by his own thought and will.n5089 ¶47
Today rapid progress is seen in all manner of inventions, discoveries, facilities of all kinds and natures, and this progress in material ways is taking place only because of the great advance in spiritual vision. Multitudes all over the world are applying their vision of Reality, of the perfect Creation, of the Jesus Christ presence to the transcendence of all false beliefs, and day by day we are reaching that Vision which seesn5089 ¶48
This spiritual Vision of oneself as free, flawless being blesses the mental plane and mind begins to take on new thought and new ideas. Brotherhood is expressed as never before; a blending of hearts is being observed, not only with individuals but with countries and with nations.n5089 ¶49
Spiritual vision blesses, too, the physical plane of action. Both mental and physical planes are controlled by spiritual understanding. People are eating, dressing differently, appearing differently everywhere; everything, everyone, constantly rising from glory to glory.n5089 ¶50
Said the prophet Isaiah:n5089 ¶51
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness.”n5089 ¶52
Since the world, as far as we are concerned, is our consciousness of it, evil and good are terms which mean to one his concept of them. One who knows in his heart the allness of good (because of the allness of God) undertakes not to expound to a brother, unenlightened by Truth, the nothingness of evil, but he preaches to him Repentance.n5089 ¶53
Repent of what? Those who believe that erring sense is reality and power must repent and forsake this false view, for not until one spiritually perceives the allness and everpresence of good does he claim and comprehend the nothingness, (in itself), of evil.n5089 ¶54
To call evil good and good evil is to be doublevisioned,—is to see both good and evil as power. As one worships and understands Reality, he discards untrue belief and refuses temptation. Spiritual healing is Spirit conscious of Its totality. Any superimposition, any erring condition that one seems to manifest can be dissipated by the living Truth, by Christ consciousness. Spiritual healing is evidence that all discord and limitation are unreal.n5089 ¶55
Jesus cast out false beliefs because of the Truth in himself. When it is stated that the world exists in us, that our world is our consciousness of it, it means that whatever we accept as reality, as power, as presence, constitutes our world at that time.n5089 ¶56
The following is an example. A woman, on a busy street in the city, suddenly noticed a great crowd of people collected, blocking traffic. Moving along until she saw the cause of the commotion, her eyes reported an accident. A horse and automobile had come together and a man lay underneath.n5089 ¶57
Now as this woman looked, this panorama of excitement, commotion and accident, was reported to her external world,—her eyes; but she heard a Voice very close at hand, the voice of her inner world and it said: ‘“‘Never mind what these people are seeing, what are you seeing?’n5089 ¶58
“Yes, what am I seeing?” she quickly asked herself. ‘““Why,—why, I am seeing heaven,” she cried joyously, unconsciously moving away. “There are no accidents in my world. In my world there is eternal changeless order and delight.” The incident was wiped absolutely from her mind as happily she continued her way.n5089 ¶59
Several weeks later, she happened to meet a friend who, not knowing she had been near the scene of the disaster, began relating it to her, stating that she had stood in the crowd and had seen “‘the whole thing.” “And the strangest thing of all happened,” she went on. “Suddenly it all seemed to be over. The people seemed to be on their way without any departure; the horse became quiet; the trampled man stood up refusing assistance ; and the havoc and excitement changed to order and normality like a miracle.” But that other, the one who walked in her own world, she knew and understood for in her world she had seen face to face.n5089 ¶60
It is inherent in each individual to know himself, to express himself, to be himself. As individual perception coalesces with true Consciousness, false belief slips from mind as a dream, and manifestation is seen in its true light. Thus, one sees creation according to his individual state of consciousness. One sees the so-called outer world according to his spiritual awakening. |n5089 ¶61
In which world are we living? Are we living in a material world affected by every wind that blows, believing what eyes report, what ears hear and what mind sanctions’n5089 ¶62
Or, are we living in a perfect world, visioning with eyes of Spirit, listening with ears attuned to Truth, functioning with mind which is none other than the mind of Christ?n5089 ¶63
Truly our world is our consciousness of it. It is not a question with us, how much wrong think- ‘ing, wrong living there is in it, rather is it a question with each of us, How much true belief have we accepted into our consciousness ?n5089 ¶64
It has been truly said: ‘Without vision the people perish.” Without vision of the spiritual perfect universe, the Kingdom within the Soul, the people perish. For, visioning outward things, such as purport to be sickness, sin, death, is it any wonder that one should perish by reason of these very things which he visions?n5089 ¶65
Let us bring our light into our world and let it shine. Let us see no separation, destruction or opposition, but only Oneness, Unity, Omnipresence. So shall resurrection take place in you and in me, and as resurrection takes place in us this glory from on high shall illumine our whole universe and all of our affairs.n5089 ¶66
We come not forth to battle with darkness, either with thoughts or weapons. Light eliminates darkness laborlessly. We do not make a wall between light and darkness but bring false beliefs right into the presence of our true Self. “I am the Light’ cried the invincible Jesus. This Light is within you, within me,—the Light that will lighten any darkened sense, for Self is light and to be Self is to be light.n5089 ¶67
Jesus continually turned his vision to the Light, his true perfect Being. This enabled him to transcend and transmute experiences of this world, and led him to resurrection and ascension.n5089 ¶68
Jesus, in the apparent giving up of his sense of life, demonstrated eternality of Consciousness. God could not die, neither could Jesus. He could die to appearance, die to a double-visioned universe, but he could not die to himself.n5089 ¶69
Verily, this was the claim of Jesus: “J am the atonement! I am the resurrection! I am the ascension!n5089 ¶70
We have entered a period of a tremendous awakening. Progress and revelation such as the world has never before known has appeared to human consciousness. This is the day of the emancipation of humanity. As centuries ago the Southern slave found his slavery taken from him, so are human beings today having human limitations taken from them, — limitations of time, age, disease, and discord.n5089 ¶71
These falsities of bondage and _ limitation are being outlawed through perception of one’s spiritual, eternal, irresistible Nature.n5089 ¶72
Great inspiration and illumination are coming rapidly over the whole world. This is the age of surprises, of visions, of unexpected discoveries. Day by day, hour by hour, heaven comes closer to the race consciousness. The signs of the times can now be read quite easily by one of insight. Music, for instance, is rapidly assuming wider and wider proportions until soon music will be recognized as fourth dimensional. No longer do we find music confined to four walls, but now we hear it in the streets, in the market places, in the automobiles and even up over our heads in the sky. We can scarcely find a place where the burst of a song or a melody does not come upon our ears.n5089 ¶73
Often too it is reported that one hears tones other than those from the radio; he hears the music from the super-world. Such melody is undimensional, unlimited, unconfined. It is to be expected that in this Era of Insight, or Era of spiritual Light, many wonderful things unheard of heretofore shall come to pass. Great changes are noticed taking place in governments, racial beliefs, creeds and rituals.n5089 ¶74
As we contact the true idea of a thing the false idea drops away automatically. As we lift our vision to the Self-existent Heights we surely find the reality of health, joy and glory irresistibly entering our lives and radiating through all our experience.n5089 ¶75
There is no limitation, no spot or blemish upon the face of the whole Creation. The limitation imposed by one’s false belief is illusion only. Jesus reported no evil. He said that nothing shall by any means hurt us; he promised that one could handle serpents quite harmlessly; that, should one swallow poison, he need not be at all affected by the world’s belief of such a procedure.n5089 ¶76
Let us acknowledge Jesus’ promises to be true TODAY. Let us declare: I do believe in the word of the living Christ. I worship the One. I identify myself with Him who said that we all may be one, that the works that he did we shall do also. I have almighty and implicit faith in the spirit of Truth, in the unity of Being, in the glory of Soul.n5089 ¶77
There is one Substance in this world which is fixed, permanent, sounding down through the ages. My words shall not pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Word shall never lose its power, never fail to fulfill.n5089 ¶78
To perceive unity, we function from a place above reason, above the relative mentality.n5089 ¶79
Truth is above comparison! Truth is incomparable. It is not how much greater Truth is than something else, or how much greater one belief is than another belief. We do away with comparisons. We see that truth 1s. When we measure our vision by this standard we find that our Kingdom is here “on earth as it is in heaven.”n5089 ¶80
Let us tell ourself continually that the universe is within us, that we see without according to what we are perceiving within. We see in the mirror what is standing before the mirror. How can we expect to vision the One without, if we are not entertaining the one within? ‘How can we perceive unity in the universe if we have not unity 1m our consciousness?n5089 ¶81
Yea, is it not the Christ im you who is your hope of glory? How should we hope to see the Christ without, if we have not yet found the Christ within? How many of us have failed to recognize Christ at our door, because we were not feeling Christ in our hearts?n5089 ¶82
Is not clear Insight Lord of the dark as well as of the day? Was not Jesus, Lord of earth as well as Lord of Heaven,—“Lord of heaven and earth.”? Lift the veil from your eyes and behold the oneness of life, the umty of being, and see no separation, division or comparison.n5089 ¶83
Truth is totality! Truth is therefore the only substance that is ever present.n5089 ¶84
One need put forth no vision to see light where light is present, but who is seeing the light which shineth in darkness?n5089 ¶85
It is easy enough to behold the Christ in the smiling countenance, the radiant Soul, but who is visioning the Christ in the darkened and unillumined mentality? It is simple to see health where health is visibly present, but who is seeing health where health is not visibly present?n5089 ¶86
It would have been easy for great multitudes to have accepted Jesus as the Christ had he been born in a palace, but how few accepted him who was born in a manger!n5089 ¶87
It is easy for one to be brave and strong in the midst of harmony and peace, but how many of us are brave and strong in the midst of mighty trials, temptations and dangers?n5089 ¶88
Who comes forth from the fiery flames with no smell of smoke upon his clothing? Who feels the everlasting arms underneath while falling into an abyss of darkness? Who hears the angel’s voice in the midst of his soul's darkest moment? Who sees dry land in the midst of the Red Sea?n5089 ¶89
He who has vision! He who has faith! He who has trust! He who has love! He who is visioning face to face.n5089 ¶90