THE LAUGHTER OF GOD

by Walter C. Lanyon

Published by Union Life Ministries

1977

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

What we call the Union Life message of Oneness in Christ, Paul called, "the mystery which has been hid­den from the past ages and generations; but now has been manifested to His saints" (Col. 1:26). This mystery, of "Christ in us, our hope of glory", is available to all believers. Men need no longer die in a wilderness of separation, struggle and defeat. There is "a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4:9). Since Pentecost, the reality of full heirship---co-crucifixion, co-resurrection, and co-ascension in Christ-is readily available to all who will acknowledge that the Kingdom of God is within them. "The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:17).

No twentieth century author has proclaimed the truth of Oneness any more clearly and eloquently than Walter C. Lanyon. Yet the bulk of his books are no longer available. Therefore, UNION LIFE MINISTRIES is republishing a few of Lanyon's out­of-print books to make his writings available once again.

   However, a word of explanation is in order. Since Lanyon wrote primarily to mature Christians who have begun to see with a "single eye", he leaves "the elementary teachings about the Christ . . . not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God" (Heb. 6:1). Instead of seeing some as little children and young men, he writes as if all readers are "fathers" (1 John 2:13).

Lanyon's writings make only passing reference to sin, to the Lord Jesus' unique Diety in His in­carnation as "God manifest in the flesh", to our iden­tification with Him in His substitutionary death, and to other such fundamental truths. His limited em­phasis on the foundations of faith in Christ is his way of pressing readers on to further reaches of maturity, not a denial of any foundational truths.

We in UNION LIFE MINISTRIES most certainly believe that, "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father" (1 John 2:23); "and there is salvation in no one else; for there is no name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

But we also agree with Paul (and with Lanyon) when Paul says, "Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer" (2 Cor. 5:16). In maturity, the day finally comes when the substance (the Spirit) swallows up the shadow and the symbol (the historical and the material). As spirit persons, we must not avoid the metaphysical (beyond the physical) dimension, which is the ultimate true reality. "Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow" (Aesop).

Few writers take us into this wonderful dimension of living which Paul labels as "the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3,20). Lanyon is one of the few who writes of life in that dimension, where we "do not judge ac­cording to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24). We need not always be caught up in a two-power conflict, but with a single eye see the One "who works all things (good and evil) after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11).

So do not look for typical, foundational Biblical truths in this book. Lanyon only seeks to be a con­firming witness to ultimate truths, such as total adequacy and complete victory in the Eternal Now of our Oneness with the Father. Be prepared to see with a single eye, and your whole body will be mar­velously flooded with inextinguishable light.

UNION LIFE MINISTRIES

P.O. Box 2877

Glen Ellyn, IL 60138

FOREWORD

He will "fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoicing."

And then one day I heard the Laughter of God in the midst of me and within the world, and all was suddenly changed. Old patterns and ideas were shattered and passed away---a new loveliness of LIFE was exposed to view.

"God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."

Suddenly the leper broke into laughter---the filth of his mind slipped away---the sick, the lame and the halt suddenly laughed the Laughter of God and were healed ---revealed.

And one day you will laugh the Laughter of God, too.

Written in Germany at Shining Lakes

CONTENTS

The Laughter of God

Rejoice, Thou Barren One

Sound of Abundant Rain

Silver and Gold  

No Enchantment

Then Went He in and Shut the Door

Breaking the Bread

Power

Christmas

The Years That the Locust Hath Eaten

The Lord Said Unto My Lord

Living Waters

The New Day

The Letter and the Spirit

Abundance

The Other Disciple

The Mighty Atom

"For God So Loved the World"

Thou Art the Bright Messenger

Trailing Clouds of Glory

Courage

O Colorful One

Prosperity

Art Thou?

Celestial Mechanics

A Mob of Individuals

False Prophets

THE LAUGHTER OF GOD

Chapter One

      "God has made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."

     Deep in my soul I hear the Laughter of God, ringing in silvery cadences through the timbers of my being, breaking the human bonds and limitations as a strong yet gentle wind in the forest sweeps aside the strands of cobweb.  The hard, fast knots that I had tied slipped loose, and the snarls of beliefs broke free.  The river of my human life, frozen by a thousand and one false ideas and teachings, broke joyously into expression and went bounding to the infinite sea of Life, to be lost and found at the same time.  One dark cave of fear after another was illuminated by the light of this laughter, and swampy areas of sick thoughts were dried up instantly.  Parched sands of hopelessness and futile efforts were drenched by the living waters, sucked in --- absorbed instantly like a wave breaking on the sands.  God laughing at me, and my puny efforts to make things happen; to make heaven appear; to attain the Sonship.  Not the laugh of derision, but of infinite compassion, a laughter so deep and sweet, so pure and glorious that everything in the nature of struggle gave way before it.

     And the breath of that glorious laughter blew all the dirty rags of personal teaching and self-aggrandizement away from me, and at first the fierce joy that proceeded from the unheard-heard peals of laughter made me afraid --- afraid that everything worth while was being taken from me, and that I should be naked; but  no sooner had the filthy rags of personality blown free than I was clothed in a panoply of light, and in this glorious raiment of light I saw for the first time the glory of the Spirit made flesh.

     I stood before the infinite peals of laughter, which flowed through all creation like floods of golden mist, filled with speechless wonder at the beauty of the world I had lived in --- which had been invisible because of my separation, because of my personal ideas about attainment.  I was as a child with a small measure at the seaside, trying to carry off a little water when the whole sea was at my disposal, and I understood for the first time the exhaustless sea of substance about me, and that the idea of hoarding was but a childish fear grown into a Goliath by false teaching and beliefs.  I suddenly became aware that the substance was everywhere, in everything, out of everything, and the only place of lack was in the hypnotic state of belief --- and I alone created and moved in this vacuum.

      And the glorious laughter rolled on, searching the very joints and marrow of me --- dislodging every belief in fear, sickness, or age.  And as it swept over me and through me and round about me, I was amazed with the wonder of it --- the fierce, terrible thing which was at the same time so beautiful and free.  The wonder of it kept singing through my soul as veil after veil of belief was rent asunder and new kingdoms stood revealed.  And the whole thing was as if one just saw a little deeper, as one looks through the surface reflection on a river and sees the pebbles and shells below, that was all; only the Laughter made this possible, for it cleared away all the effort and straining which in its attempt to see God had been halted at the reflection on the surface, instead of gazing into the limpid, glorious depth of Infinity.

     The Voice, as its honeyed tones flowed out like a burst of sunshine through storm-clouds, was so unlabored, so untrammeled, and so Divinely indifferent, it seemed to envelop me with an instant realization that all was well.  No matter how many struggles had been made, no matter how many mistakes, how many shortcomings, how many failures, how long the belief, or how short the hate, it was all swept aside as nothing.  The glorious Divine ease with which it was expressed made disease impossible. It was the overturning an overturning that had to take place before He, the Laughing One, could come into expression.  The people of God are a people of joy, and it is not until they hear this God Laughter in their souls that they have attained to their heritage. 

     What of this race that speaks of the Kingdom and doing the Father's work, and uses all the language of the Truth, and at the same time sows seeds of fear and hellish inventions?  What is this race that is always seeking evil to destroy, like a weasel seeks out a rat?  What is the hopelessness they preach --- that on one hand, you are the Sons of God, and on the other, that you must fight against evil of every sort and nature?  "Ah, yes, but, if, and maybe --- they roll these stumbling-blocks under their tongues with a wise twinkle in their eyes, as much as to say, Yes, it is all true, but it comes only with hard labor and long study, and it is not for such as you, sinner and worm of the dust that you are, until you have purified yourself in the fount of my wisdom and paid me personal homage."

     And it is then that the Magdalene hears the Laughter of God and is clean and free; and in an instant too; and it is when the cripple hears the Laughter of God that he leaps to his feet and runs away praising the Living God.  And it is when you, no matter where you are, or what you are, no matter what you have done or left undone, hear the Laughter of the God within and the God without, that you will crash through the gates of hell and find heaven, no matter what these gates may be --- person, place, or thing.

     One moment's recognition that you are the Son of the Living God, and you have attuned your ear for the Laughter of God which will put to flight all the stupid ideas of mine and thine, and free you into an expression that you have not yet dreamed of.  How can you restrain the joy that fills you when you hear this laughter which, when it is heard, causes the winter of your discontent to break into full fruition, which causes you to see literally that "before they call I will answer," is not a bit of euphonious language, but a positive living, glowing fact.

     "I was afraid," and therefore you were driven out of the Garden of Life.  You have been afraid that God will punish you -- - that it is too good to be true --- that you are not ready --- that it comes by great learning; and so you are still without the portals of your own kingdom, trying every way but the only way to re-enter.  Many there be who try the way of violence, and many who expect to ride in on the skirts of another.  There are some so foolish as to invite this.

     Why do you not stop trying to get things, trying to learn how to get power, place?  Why do you not come away from the man whose breath is in his nostrils? --- You who read this page, and go within and hear the Laughter of God, and know that "it does not matter" --- that the things which gave you great concern are all swept away into the dump heap?  The sooner you learn this the sooner you will see they have no value.  And one time, when you take away their value, they are possible of attainment to you.  You profess to be a follower of the Master.  If you in any way believe this, you will begin to listen for the Laughter of God through your whole being, and will know that the Laughter of God sets you free from the snarling discontent of the Tower of Babel in which you have been living.

     Presently, as you listen for this Laughter, you will hear it, and gradually you will begin laughing --- billows of laughter, silently-audible laughter that will shatter one limitation after another; laughter filled with the Divine Indifference which knows that the Universe if filled with God and only God, and to recognize this will cause this laughter to flow into expression and shatter the belief in sin, sickness, and death.  And when this belief is shattered in you, the pictures of this on your universe are dissipated and are no more, and even the place thereof is no more.  You will know why there can be naught but laughter in the Kingdom of Heaven.  What good of words or arguments?  What in human sense is a lecture worth on the subject of Laughter, as compared to one glorious sudden peal of joy released by a God soul and picked up by all those in hearing distance?

     And gradually, as you learn of the Laughter of God and join in with the Glory of the Sons of the Living God, then you will laugh at yourself.  You will perhaps go back and laugh all the mistakes and faults and limitations out of existence.  You will stand with your glorious feet on the mountain-tops of Self- Revelation, laughing at your universe and with your universe, and laughing in words: "It is wonderful, it is wonderful, it is wonderful."

     "Let the filthy be filthy still."  Some may read into the Laughter of God a belief in carelessness and indifference, and some consecrated souls may rail and tear their hair and say that it is encouraging license and making nothing of sin, in order that one may indulge in sin, and so on; and for them this message is not.

     He that hath ears shall hear what the Scripture saith unto the Churches, and only he that hath a single eye is through with trying to twist meanings to suit personal ends.  But he that hath the consciousness of the Son of the Living God shall not find it strange that "he that is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity" should laugh at the belief in it that has bound men for so long; and this Divine disregard does not in any way encourage license, but gives liberty to the Sons of God.  It breaks up the dank morasses of human belief and reveals itself as heaven, a state of consciousness, which finds not happiness at the disposal of sin, health at the disposal of sickness, and harmony at the disposal of inharmony; but finds these pairs of opposites swept away.  It finds man the individual Son of the Living God, experiencing power and wisdom such as could not be put in human language.

      The impress of the Divine upon the human causes the human to express in what to the unenlightened thought may seem to be a supernatural way.  The how and why and when are all vested in the limited human concept of life.

     When are you going to start laughing the Laughter of God?  When are you going to join in the glorious chorus which is already encircling the globe, and which has for its password "It is wonderful"?  You cannot stop this laughter once it is started; you will shatter the belief in disease in thousands as you go along your way --- not by a poor, half-hearted way of beseeching God, but with the ringing Laughter of God in your Soul which knows no sickness, sin, or disease, and hence cannot look upon it.  And in this very knowledge it will impress the consciousness with the Eternal well-being of the Son of the Living God.  The man, if he hear the Laughter --- that is, if he be willing to hear it, instead of accepting the pinched human concepts of his human reasonings --- shall break the bounds of his limitations; crash through the gates of brass; shake off the shackles of beliefs; burst through the prison bars of his own making, and find himself free, free, free, and find his soul ringing with laughter and with the song, "It is wonderful."

     Whoever you are who reads this page --- you who sit in prison houses of disease, sin and unhappiness --- listen, listen, listen.  I AM the door of attainment.  He will "fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoicing."  I AM the door to this glorious Laughter of God --- I AM the way to the eternal bliss and harmony of the Sons of the Living God.  No matter where this finds you; nothing is hopeless or helpless; this joyous Laughter of the recognition of God, here and now, of the Finished Kingdom --- of the sudden discovery that Jesus was not a liar, but a truth-sayer, a concrete truth-sayer, when He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand --- it is within you" --- will cause this Kingdom to descend out of the clouds of your belief and be real.

     How can you help laughing silently and audibly the Laughter of God, and see its ringing notes shatter the silly arguments about life?  "The wisdom of man is foolish in the eyes of God."  Why try to measure the inspiration of the Almighty against any man-made teaching!  "I will make you fishers of men."  I, the I AM, when once discovered will make the one who discovers it a Fisher of Men.  Who can resist the Laughter of God --- the fearless Laughter of God ringing through the universe, sweeping all the debris of human belief out of the way? --- no matter if it be thousands of years old, and hoary with the respect of mankind.  Not one stone shall remain in place.  The very foundations of the human belief shall be shaken in order that the True Cornerstone, which has been rejected up to now, shall be laid.  Yes, the Stone --- the very Stone that the Master gave to us --- the philosopher's Stone if you will, which we have rejected, because to accept it would have been to have overthrown great temples of human reasoning --- will finally be made the Head Stone of the Temple of Truth.  You are the Temple of the Living God, and from out the inner recesses of your being proceeds the Laughter of God.  "The Sons of God shout for joy."  You will shout for joy, not because of victory over evil, but because you have at last realized that the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place of overcoming evil, but of revelation which is above the belief of a divided universe.  Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.

     And I heard the Laughter of God in the Soul of my very being --- ringing in glorious cadence throughout my universe, causing me suddenly to burst into a glorious laughter which was full of praise, full of wonder --- full of wonder and amazement at that which I had missed through looking through a glass darkly.  "Arise, shine, for thy light has come" --- do you hear?  "It is wonderful!  It is wonderful!  It is wonderful!"  Heaven and earth are full of Thee --- sin, sickness, and death have vanished away. I hear the Laughter of God ringing in the deep recesses of your soul, you who read this page.  I see the moving finger writing across all the worries and fears of a lifetime "It does not matter," and I see this laughter writing the things of beauty over the walls of your temple and casting a glorious glistening white robe --- a seamless robe of attainment --- over you.  And at last I hear you laughing from the mountain-peak as you go on your way, without thought of scrip or purse or robe or ring or upper chamber, and long before you have reached your destination the Laughter of God in your soul has gone ahead and made ready the upper chamber, and the Host has come out to receive you. Do you hear? You who read this page? You?     Under the aegis of Jesus Christ you can "go" with the Laughter of God in your heart.

REJOICE, THOU BARREN ONE

Chapter Two

     "FOR IT IS WRITTEN, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband" (Gal 4:27).

     Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for the Lord Omnipotent reigneth.

     When we begin to see that the great Universal God overshadowing the Universe causes it to bring forth in due season, we begin to understand why it is stated, as quoted above, that "the barren and desolate shall have many children."  We begin to see that, when we contact the Father within, the old order of trying to make things appear from the outside is done away with.  The old order passeth away --- "Behold, I make all things new, saith the Lord of Hosts."

     Thousands of people have tried in every way to bring forth the manifestation of Spirit; to make demonstrations; yea, even to help others in the name of the Lord; and have found themselves and their lives barren as the desert, while others about them seemed to bring forth many children; and they have wondered, and finally fallen under the belief that the manifestation of spirit was not for them, but only for a special few; or that they were not fit avenues, or not yet ready to express the Christ Truth --- hence they bore no children.

     But the old order changeth.  The light is breaking over the dense human consciousness.  Man is awakening to know that contact with the Father within is the propagating influence which will bring forth many more children than "she that hath a husband."   He is beginning to understand that the creative force of the Universe is even at this instant at work within the secret place of his being, and that just as soon as he is ready to "let" (through the process of recognition), "the word will become flesh and dwell among them," and he shall say, "Let the child be born," and the barrenness of a thousand life-times in the flesh shall be swallowed up in the glorious expression of the flowering desert.  "It shall blossom as a rose."  The well-watered garden shall take the place of the barren waste.

     Martha had many cares in preparing to receive the physical Jesus.  Symbolically speaking, the most she got for her work was perhaps a "Thank you," while Mary feasted upon the hidden manna of Spirit.  The human sense would like to condone poor, long-suffering Martha.  A thousand reasons why she acted as she did are offered, but the rather uncompromising fact stands that she was rebuked, and that the blessing was given to Mary.  All this symbology does not mean that the Mary consciousness might not do just as much work with her hands as the Martha, but from a different standpoint.

     When we are on the outside of being, trying to bring forth, we are finally rebuked for our barrenness, even though we have put into expression the best that seemed to be in us.  Likewise the state that dreams of perfection, and dwells in a mental state of rightness and perfection, is also rebuked for vain imaginings.  The Word must become flesh.  "In my flesh shall I see God."  One extreme is as bad as another.  The Word must become flesh, and the flesh must become spiritualized or resurrected, until the two become one.  We then have Jesus the Christ --- instead of Jesus the son of the carpenter and Christ the Son of God dwelling in one body.  The two become one, and the sayings of the Scriptures are made true.  It is then that "death is swallowed up in victory," because death could only come to the one of a divided consciousness.  What is told in secret shall be called from the housetop.  Thus we see that the Christ of God decided to submit to what is known as the crucifixion in order that the world might see the transcending power of spirit over matter, and to know that the law, "I have power to pick it up and lay it down," was true and provable.  To stay on the heights of this law was to escape the seeming ugly reality.  Do you imagine that the Christ who was able to open the eyes of the blind, restore lost substance to the body of Lazarus, and do a thousand other things directly in opposition to the best accepted laws of the physical world of that day and this could not have averted the Crucifixion?  If so, then read Matt. 26:53:

"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

Where is the Father, and how do we pray?  You see, then, that the Christ decreed this to come to pass.  When He descended to the human Jesus state of consciousness, then He asked that the "cup pass from me."  We understand that what He had accepted or decreed in secret should come to pass.  So is it true with you.  You will begin to see that all the unborn children shall be released when the body and soul become one.  To pray then will be to speak forth only that which is about to appear.  Prayer will not be the old idea of wondering whether God wants to do a certain thing; it will be merely an exquisite feeling of gratitude, which says, "Thank you, Father," because it knows that the answer exists before the question.  Do you begin to see why it is that the one who was barren of manifestation will suddenly become fruitful?  The limiting laws of the human concept of creation shall be dropped off, and the recognition of the Father of all shall cause thy barrenness to be a forgotten state.  "The former things shall pass away --- they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more."  Thus the barrenness shall be swallowed up in the abundance.

     From the human standpoint we even admit that we have teachers of Truth or music who cannot demonstrate for themselves, but can give readily to others.  From the Divine elevation this is an utter impossibility.  This state of barrenness which brings forth no manifestation shall be fertilized with the overshadowing influence of the Ever Presence, and what it has so long conceived on the invisible shall come into manifestation.  No more shall the world be filled with barren ones who talk but who do not show forth the works, for they shall have united the body and soul and resurrected the risen Christ, which hath a body and which lives in the world, but is not of the world insofar as coming under the hateful laws of the human mind.  Death is swallowed up in victory, and with it all the things that go to bring about or make death possible.

     "Call no man your father," for "every man is a liar, and the father of it."  We see what lies have been told about us in the name of family, nationality, etc.  We are burdened with hateful lies of every sort, because we have recognized a human parenthood.  We have assigned to ourselves all the limitations of human-kind, and therefore we are full of troubles, and so are our days.  "Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light."

     Do you begin so see, O barren one, that your name shall be changed, and that you shall be as a land flowing with milk and honey?  For the spirit of the Infinite Spirit broods over all, and has broken the hateful bondage and set the prisoners free.  Then is thy house gladsome with the laughter and joy of many children --- your glorious ideas that have so long remained in the silence of your mind come forth with joy and thanksgiving.

     "This is life eternal, to know ME."  Where is this ME, and what will you do with this life eternal?  Do you expect to carry on this limited personality for eternity?  Do you expect to be John Smith for eternity?  Only when Jesus the son of the carpenter became Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, did He ascend above the limiting influences of beliefs that belonged to His family, nationality and time.  When He became Jesus the Christ, and "the Word became flesh," He transcended ont only nationality, but time and space, and was able to set aside any law of the belief-world, just as the intense sunshine sets aside the dark shadows of night.

     All disease and all barrenness out-pictured on your body and affairs are merely the shadows of beliefs cast upon the screen of your life.  When the light has come, the shadows disappear.  It is no good to throw a picture on a cinema screen if that screen is illuminated.  So the shadows of the belief-world, that have been formerly true to the human mind, fail absolutely to record when you have come to the place of letting "the light within so shine before men."  We do not heal the Christ, nor yet prosper Him, nor yet change Him.  We merely recognize Him, and as we do so we bring out that which has been eternally.  Thus healing is swallowed up in victory.  Were anything real to be healed, it would be utterly impossible to accomplish it.  The Christ of God needs no assistance, no help, no healing.  But until the John Smith realizes this Christ within himself, and permits it to come into manifestation, he will merely be working on a plane of imagination.  Nothing concrete nor definite can take place.  So many of us have stood about and seen the demonstrations; yea, we have even partaken of the bread, the fish, and the wine; but we have forgotten to partake of the spirit, so when we had consumed the manifestation we rushed back for more and found ourselves far from the source of substance.  So many people are so engrossed in listening to words that they only bask in the light of another's understanding, and hence miss the glorious possibility of the command, "Go thou and do likewise."  Many are asking for life free which is promised, while still holding a miser's consciousness within themselves.  Do you not know, until you can give yourself to the Universe it cannot give the ever-flowing substance to you, for the simple reason that there is no capacity to receive it?  The mind which is still hoarding cannot have the infinite rivers of abundance poured into it, else it would be destroyed; but the consciousness that has given itself to the Infinite is an open way through which the torrents and floods of substance can flow.  It thereafter does not have to seek --- it receives before it asks, for a infinite stream of substance is constantly pouring through into expression.

     "It is written" --- so full of meaning is this statement, nothing shall retract or rub out a single word until it be fulfilled.  "Not one jot or title shall be removed until the law shall be fulfilled."  It is written that "the barren shall be more fruitful than she that hath a husband."  The law that is so full of promise, and so glorious to all those who have wondered and grieved and tried to bring forth the works of the Master.  "Go thou and do likewise" is a pretty big command, but there it is.  What are you going to do about it?  Talk it over with some wise one who will go into gushing phrases and words, and whose barren life is filled with mute testimony of failure?  Be still; be very still.  Finally you will hear the command, "Go within and shut the door," and you will let the glorious revelation take place within your own consciousness.  "Nothing shall by any means hurt you."  Who are you, and what are you going to do about it?

     "And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts."  Ye, the newborn, the resurrected one.  In the silence, in the tomb, in the aloneness, shall ye know the things which ordinarily are not written nor spoken of --- things which are neither seen nor heard by the noisy ones who are clamoring for place and power.  "Behold, I make all things new."  Do you see?  You who read.  "All the nations shall call thee blessed," for they will recognize the Christ within you; the same glorious Christ that functioned in the man Jesus and enabled Him to go against the laws of the human mind and set them aside as non-existent.

     "None of them is lost but the son of perdition."  The only thing that is lost is the memory of the human personality --- the subconscious mind --- the storehouse of all evil.  The god that was.  The god of the kingdom of WAS is lost, forgotten, wiped out, and the place thereof is no more.  The Holy Presence of

Christ in the eternal NOW is here.  "Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light."  The desolate barren land shall blossom as a rose.

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich."

     It seems a strange thing to say, Buy gold in order that you may be rich.  It would seem that if you had money with which to buy gold you would already be rich.  But the secret doctrine causes the light to break over this symbology and to reveal that the complete giving up of the symbol is the buying of the gold which will make you rich.  "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor" is merely another way of stating that man is to take his attention away from the worship of symbols and place his allegiance on the Power.  Awake, thou that sleepest.

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see" (Rev 3:18).

     Do you begin to see the treasures incorruptible that lie within the consciousness of Christ, awaiting the coming of the Master?  Awaiting the coming of that one who will take his Divine Heritage and assume the proportions of the Son of the Living God.  The barren one who will suddenly realize that the Father --- Infinite-Omnipotent --- overbrooding all, has suddenly brought into manifestation the unborn children of desire.  It is wonderful!

     "Who is my father, mother, sister, or brother?" is the question you will answer with deep joy.  Not to become a "holier than thou," but because you are ready to partake of the infinite nature of your Divine Fathership.  The wonder of the invisible shall be made manifest to you.  You shall begin to partake of the qualities of Spirit.  As ye have borne the earthly image, so shall ye bear the heavenly.  Do you hear?  "Yet in my flesh shall I see God."  It is wonderful!

     "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches."  When you hear what it is saying to you (for you are the Church of the Living God --- the center from which pours this glorious white light of revelation), then you will fold your tent and steal silently away into the new place of expression.  And this shall be a natural event, not some human concept of moving out of evil conditions, but a showing forth of the God-power into expression.  Do you see why "He that travels alone travels far"?  And why the command, "Salute no man as thou passest along the highway," is not unfriendliness, but the essence of wisdom?  "Behold, I make all (not some) things new."  Do you believe that?  Where is the I?  What about it --- you who read these lines?  Are you going to run to someone and ask him to explain this to you or are you going to be still and let ME explain, and thereby turn your barrenness to fruitfulness and make you a gladsome land?

     Just so soon as you begin to see the futility of opinions and beliefs regarding life and the Truth, just so soon will you go within and lave in the living waters, and partake of the hidden manna and "buy gold that has been tried by fire."

     "The old order passeth away" --- the old order is the order of your human personality and its destiny; the old law of cause and effect, of karma --- the endless karma that you have been making and passing through.  The Spirit of Life has suddenly thrown you off the wheel, and you are freed into expression as the Son of the Living God.  Do you suppose that the Son of the Living God has anything to do with the son of the carpenter?  He has only this much to do: to absorb the personal idea into the glorious impersonal nature of God, and thereby free him of the limitations and narrow confines, yea, the barrenness of the human concept of existence.

     Hear ye, you who read this page: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God."  Do you hear?  Do you see?  When will you take your Divine Heritage?  When will you appropriate the gifts of the Spirit?  Not until you can go within and shut the door, and listen not to the noisy man whose breath is in his nostrils.

     "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."  So the unborn ideas that you have been holding in your mind, and wishing for all these many years, suddenly come into expression, for the Christ and Jesus are one.  "Whatsoever things ye ask in my name, that give I unto thee."  It is well.

"For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband."

     Do you believe this?  If so, you are at this very instant rejoicing.  The rejoicing is a command and a statement of a fact at the same instant.  You are automatically rejoicing because you have suddenly discovered that the barren years and efforts have been turned to good account, and the glorious ideas have all been freed into expression.

     When you come to the place of belief you have come to the place of acceptance.  You have come to the place where you have accepted the Reality of Being, and you are therefore not surprised nor are you dismayed at the appearance of the Power of Spirit which instantly neutralizes the beliefs of the flesh.  "Let the dead bury their dead" --- so the old conditions and beliefs and acts all fall from the cliff of oblivion and you stand on the heights, rejoicing in the name of the Living God which is written on your forehead.  You stand on the heights, not as one balanced for the space of few joyous moments, to be dashed again into the valley of despond, but you stand there and rest in the new understanding which has shifted the weight of the human mind and beliefs and has freed itself from the law of human gravitation.  "If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law."  You are in the Spirit when you recognize the Christ within and act in accordance therewith.

     The whole proposition is put to the one who seeks the light.  When he has come to the place that he seeks not another's opinions and beliefs, then he has arrived at the point of:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life."

     Here is a simple statement of a fact.  "Believest thou this?"  If so, you are beginning to experience a new life, a life that is everlasting, right here in the flesh, and the life which is now coming into manifestation cannot come under the condemnation of the former self.  You are freed from the condemnation of the John Smith against which you fought so long.  You are now passed from the death of these things --- these beliefs and difficulties --- into Life.  Finally man is unveiled to himself.  When agreement is made --- conception takes place.  The new idea or concept gathers quickly a body --- and the child is born.

SOUND OF ABUNDANT RAIN

Chapter Three

     "GET THEE UP and eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundant rain."

     Thus spoke the prophet to Ahab.  No one could believe such words; they were too good to be true.  Three years had the scorching sun parched the ground, and the wells were dry and the river‑beds dusty highways.  The brazen sky gave no evidence of it, and yet the prophet said, "There is sound of abundant rain."

     Ahab, running back and forth, looking for a sign and finding none, is representative of the person who is looking outside for signs and wonders.  When the prophet makes a statement of a fact, it is in face of the direct opposite, as far as the testimony of the human sense is concerned.  That is the reason for the insistence of "Be absent from the body," "Judge not from appearances," etc.  There is sound of abundant rain, the drenching downpour of spirit on to the parched and dried life of any man.  The more real the famine has been, the more drenching the rain will appear, but what good is it to tell a person "There is sound of abundant rain" when their cistern is dry and they are subsisting on a few cups of water?  No good, because they can show you the reverse, and not only can they show you the contrary, but they can bring a thousand individuals who will verify every word they say.  Further than this, they can even bring you men of learning who will prove by many arguments that it cannot possibly rain.  And yet in the face of this the prophet says, "There is a sound of abundant rain."

     Finally, on the horizon of that brazen sky of despair appeared a tiny cloud, as small as a man's hand.  The prophet had spoken truly.  "Faith is the substance (the very substance) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  It is the evidence of the unseen, the unheard thing that is about to be released into expression.  "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."  Unless you have faith in the principles of harmony your will never become a musician, and you will never produce melody.  Unless you have Faith, which in the truest sense of the word is Understanding, Recognition, and Acceptance of the unseen, you cannot bring into manifestation these things.  What is the good of saying, "There is a sound of abundant rain," if you only hope there is?  What is the good of prayer that only hopes it will be answered?  No more than applying the principles of mathematics in the same manner.  "Before they call, I will answer" is more than a pretty phrase.  It is a statement of a fact to those who have ears and eyes ‑‑‑ a statement that what they ask for already exists, and is ready to come into manifestation, in spite of the hateful appearances to the contrary.  Yea, though they be piled to the very heavens, and be as adamant as the rock of Gibraltar.  Asking, then, becomes a process of speaking the decreeing word.  "Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass."  Asking, then, takes on the nature of calling forth that which is.

     "Let the dry land appear" is asking for something to appear which already exists in the unseen.  But there is no doubt about its appearing; there is no looking for it to appear ‑‑‑ there is the pure faith, or acceptance that it is so.

     We are only beginning to recognize what exists in the unseen and unheard world about us.  The radio gives us ample proof of certain things which would have been emphatically denied by our forebears.  That bacteria are being destroyed by the use of vibration would have utterly amazed our grandparents, as well as the fact that sound can be photographed, reproduced, and recognized as the voice of a certain individual.  A piece of vulcanized rubber and a bit of steel can reproduce the voice of one long since passed from the mortal picture.  While all these human devices are but playthings to the giant power of which we have heard so much through the man Jesus.  We are only beginning to understand that "Judge not from appearances" is more than a religious adage.

     "If ye have faith ye shall say to yon mountain, 'Be ye removed and be ye cast into the sea.'"  But if you have not faith, or recognition of the principle of God everywhere present, then your saying is but idle words that are clouds without rain. But if you have faith, "ye shall say" and "it shall be so."  Do you hear?  You who read this page?  You?

     Do you see why it is necessary to "go apart" ‑‑‑ to bide your own counsel?  These things are not to be chattered about in the market‑place.  They are reserved for the "Upper Room" of consciousness.  If you desire them, the noisy voice must be silenced, and the asinine habit of setting the other fellow right, while you are full of obvious evils yourself, must stop.  "I AM the way; walk thou in it."

     When you recognize that the substance you are asking for already exists, then you too will be able to say to a barren earth, parched for many years with the scorching sun of failure and lack, "There is a sound of abundant rain," and believe it.  What you discover in the invisible ‑‑‑ what you recognize as true of God ‑‑‑ will become true of the outer manifestation.  "That which is told in secret shall be called from the housetops."  Yea, "in my flesh shall I see God."  But in order to see the manifestation of the rain, it must first be recognized in the invisible.  "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things that are prepared for them that love the Lord."  "The things that are prepared."  When we recognize a thing from the spiritual standpoint of life, we will see it manifested in the visible world.

     You are fed with the hidden manna that your fathers knew not of ‑‑‑ your fathers, representing the old order of thinking, the old forms of metaphysics which are dead and which you are told to let alone.  "Let the dead bury their dead."  You have manna that they knew not of, for they had to see it with their eyes, and handle it with their hands, and they received no blessing.  "Blessed are you because you have not needed a sign."  You are blessed because you recognize that the Presence is everywhere, just as much in one place as another ‑‑‑ everything in every place at the same time.  "Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light."

     You are feeding upon the heavenly manna, and when you do this in silence you will find that your material body is perfectly fed and cared for, and when you realize that you are clothed in the garments of praise and light you will find the body clothed in perfect raiment.  No wonder, then, you are invited not to consider the robes of the rich Solomon, but the ways of a lily; there is something most interesting in this.  It is the manner in which the lily appears.  Out of the unseen.  Out of the invisible.  Out of the very substance which is about you now.

     No one thinks it strange when he plants a lily‑bulb that a lily should appear in due season.  Why should it be strange, then, that prayer is actually answered?

     The prayer is a thousand times surer of results than the lily‑bulb, when the prayer is one of recognition, instead of one of begging and beseeching.  Why should you think it strange that the much‑needed rain should come to the desert?  From the human standpoint I know there are a thousand reasons why it should not come, and the testimony of the eye is anything but encouraging.  It searches the dome of heaven and sees not a cloud, not a possibility of anything happening, and that is why you are told to "look not to appearances" as one of the first laws of bringing out the answer to true prayer.

     When the acceptance is made in the invisible, there comes a joyous abandon.  Not a careless abandon, or indifference, but a joyous abandon, for it has been decreed.  The dark cloud as big as a man's hand that appears in the skies is enough to produce floods of rain, and so there is a joyous abandon.  Hence the command to the poor tired servant‑body, "Get thee up, eat and drink" ‑‑‑ in other words, rejoice and be happy, for everything is all right, and there is a sound of abundant rain.  There is a glorious feeling of letting down, or resting and relaxing, when we have thrown the weight of our lives over on to the shoulders of the prophet ‑‑‑ the Christ within.

     Within the domain of everybody there is that something which is symbolized by "the little cloud as large as a man's hand."  You who read this page, you who have felt the hot, dry winds of futility and lost hope, ‑‑‑ in your life that something is sufficient to produce it all, and it within you now, awaiting recognition.

     But the little cloud that is finally to produce the abundant rain has to be let alone, or else it will turn out to be a cloud without rain.  Many a person has become anxious that God could not or would not do His work in the right manner, and has turned back the abundant rain.  Your anxiety for another, or for yourself, will only cause the famine to endure, for "I have a way ye know not of" ‑‑‑ the I AM has a way that you cannot possibly feel or express.  "My ways are not your ways ‑‑‑ My ways are as high above your ways as the heaven is high above the earth."

     "My ways are past finding out."  Can you see, you who read this page?  You?

     "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed."  You see then that the "little cloud" does exist in your life.  Even the tiny little faith that caused you to venture to read this book is all that is necessary to flood your desert with the abundant rain of Spirit.

     "Be not afraid; it is I" ‑‑‑ the I of Spirit is always with you, no matter where you go or what you do.  It is at the hell of your own making, awaiting recognition and it is at the uttermost parts or ends of the earth.

     Note the word "abundant" in the first‑mentioned idea.  The expression of spirit is always abundant ‑‑‑ it is always full, pressed down and running over.  It is lavish in the superabundance of its expression.  It is wonderful!  The poor little measures that you have held to the universe are as nothing ‑‑‑ they cannot hold the abundance of spirit that is to be released by recognition.

     Do you begin to see the Abundance of Spirit?  You are a spiritual being in a universe of spirit.  The flesh becomes spiritual by recognizing your true self, and you are actually fed and sustained by the hidden manna.  Just as soon as you know you are fed by the hidden manna you will see the wholesome food manifested.  For "what is told in secret is called from the housetops."  Do you see?  Do you hear?  What, then, are you telling yourself?  What you are telling yourself is what the world is re‑telling you, and many times that is what you are fighting.

     You are fighting the echo of your own voice, your silent voice which calls so loudly to the universe that people do not hear what you are saying with your lips.  You argue with your own voice returned to you from the loud speaker of the universe.  You hear your own secrets broadcast in the universe.  You fight against the injustice of your own secret findings.  It is almost ghastly to contemplate, and yet it is glorious to know that it is so, for it immediately brings with it an opportunity of releasement.

     "What ye tell yourself in secret shall be called from the housetops."  You are only telling yourself what you find to be true, and most of this you have found from judging from the appearance of things.  Hence when you begin to take your attention away from things and to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord," then will you begin to follow the commands of the Spirit, "Be still and know that I AM God."  And when you are still, the still small Voice is telling you things in secret that shall be proclaimed from the housetops ‑‑‑ things which will make you thrill with joy; things which will bring out glorious new states of expression.  So, little by little, we are finding that the way of attainment is not by struggling and torture, but by peace and contemplation of the Realities, and the Recognition of the All‑present God of Love.

     "There is a sound of abundant rain" ‑‑‑ this has come to you for a purpose.  It has come to you to make you know the glorious revelation that is even at this moment being made manifest to you, the abundant rain of substance into your life.  If the desert be one of sickness and lack of strength, then the abundant rains bring, even at this instant, the flood of health, vitality and power.  If the desert be one of loneliness and futility, then the abundant rains bring floods of job, thanksgiving, and attainment.  Heavenly new fields of expression open before you.  The veil drops from your eyes, and you see the reason for many things; the blinding sense of futility has passed away.  If it be the desert of financial lack or limitation, then the flooding rains will be in terms of substance suitable to meet all the needs.  "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make ye free."  It will make you free from the beliefs of the human sense, free from your own limitations; different for each man in accordance with his present need.

     It is glorious, thrilling.  Listen, listen, listen, you who read this page.  Listen, listen, listen: "There is a sound of abundant rain."  There is a sound of abundant rain ‑‑‑ the downpour of spiritual substance in any form that is necessary to neutralize the desert of your belief.  Glorious ‑‑‑ glorious truth.  It is well with thee.  You are in the floods of Light and Life.  On the invisible you are feeding on the manna that is hidden, at this very instant you are clothed in the garments of light and thanksgiving.  It is wonderful.  It is glorious.  You are in the flood of Spirit, of Light, of Attainment.  "Heaven and earth are full of thee ‑‑‑ from glory to glory"; you go on into more wonderful fields of realization.

    One moment of recognition, one grain of faith as big as a mustard seed, and you have brought in the harvest of substance.  If it be to that place filled with inharmony, you will see the floods of harmony and understanding descending.  If it be to the place of pain, then the healthful power of life shall quicken the body.  It is wonderful.

     Listen, listen, listen.  "There is a sound of abundant rain."  Even as I write, and you read, there is a sound of abundant rain in the form that you can best appreciate and understand it.  "There is a sound of abundant rain," and the desert that is loaded with seed is to blossom as a rose, is to run a riot of glorious colors and perfumes, where once the wind tumbled the dry sage‑bush over burning sands.  Yes, it is all there; "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."  The sound of abundant rain is at this instant audible to your inner ear.  Fear not.  Be not anxious.  It is well ‑‑‑ the downpour of Spirit is at this instant upon you.

     You listen, this time to the Silent Voice, within.  You begin to hear, to act, to "go," having heard "I go before you."  It is wonderful when you listen.

SILVER AND GOLD

Chapter Four

     "SILVER AND GOLD have I none, but such as I have give I thee.  Rise up and walk."

     A beggar sitting 40 years at the Temple Beautiful asking for silver and gold.  What for?  To consume, and then ask for more. The endless getting, and using, and being obliged to get more. The endless making of demonstrations.  The endless asking for the loaf of bread which is consumed immediately.  The endless looking for symbols, instead of getting back of them.  Why didn't he go into the Temple Beautiful?

     Picture the cripple at the temple gate.  For years he has been there.  He has long since accepted his infirmity as his natural heritage, so he begs for a bit of silver.  Picture the disciples knowing that if they threw him a handful of gold or silver they were only doing what hundreds of others had done in a more or less degree, that in reality they would not help him.  At best, it would only be a temporary relief.

     "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto you"; and then followed the gift of healing.  How much silver and gold would it have taken to have bought that healing in the marts of the world?  More than likely, from worldly standards, it was beyond price.  More than likely the body of that cripple was in such an emaciated state that if the healing were possible, it would have taken years to have brought the cripple back to normal.  Back to normal by the knife, by food diet, exercise, and long, long months of convalescing. 

  "Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have give I thee, Arise!‑‑‑"

     The bestowal of the gift instantly rehabilitated the disease‑laden body.  Instantly the cripple accepted the priceless gift, leaped up and ran rejoicing and singing.  Picture the same cripple with a handful of gold.  His joy might be increased for a moment, but he would soon return to his former limitation.

     Note that the gift was instantly accepted ‑‑‑ and what was the gift?  It was the full recognition of the presence of the Power of God in the midst of him.  Every man has the gift.  He learns that the gift is beyond the price of fine gold or rubies. Silver and gold and fine rubies become as worthless chattels in

face of the priceless gift that every man has to give to the world ‑‑‑ yea, to give to himself.  Arise!

     Yet the world is full of cripples who sit at the gates of their own temple and beg for silver and gold.  The world passes by and throws them a copper or two; but sooner or later one comes by and says, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee," and it is at that moment that the beggar has within his grasp complete freedom from the beggardom he has so long accepted.  Arise! ‑‑‑

     Unless, however, he accepts his gift, he will remain at the gates of his own temple begging the crowd of human thoughts that go by for enough to live on.

     Always seeking the symbol instead of what is back of it, always looking for the loaves and fishes, makes the eyes more blind and the ears more deaf.

     Looking to outside conditions for help will result in defeat.  After you have consumed the loaf of bread you are hungry again and must get another, and thus goes the game of life; devoid of charm, as crude and misshapen as a statue hacked from a block of wood with a clumsy garden axe.  Hypnotized to the human thinking, man has accepted his state as one which cannot be helped.  He blames his heredity, pre‑natal influence, environment, accident, or disease.  But all or any of these might have entered into the case of the aforementioned cripple, and still they did not act as a wall against the showing forth of the priceless gift of Spirit.  No law that man has made is a law to Spirit, and as soon as man looks away from the symbols he will receive the gift of Spirit and will understand why the priceless gift is not in dollars and cents, but in the substance which lies behind them.

     "When the Son of Man shall come shall he find faith on the earth?"  When the inspiration of the Almighty speaks to you and gives you the priceless gift, can you take it?  Can you take your good in the same degree that the cripple at the temple gate accepted that which was given him?  It was a tremendous gift that he took, from the standpoint of his bodily condition.  It meant that a great physical change had to be made instantly.  It meant that the well‑nigh impossible had to happen.  It meant that he had to let go of a lifetime of hypnotism of human thought.  It meant that it was opposed to every single human law, and was placed in the category of the impossible.  It meant that it was sweeping aside like so many cobwebs laws that were hoary with age and concreted with millions of proofs.  Yes, it meant all these. And it means that the condition that you may be under can be no more difficult than this single instance that is given you, and it also means that the change which is necessary to bring you from the darkness into the light will be no greater, no more difficult or impossible of attainment, than that performed on the cripple at the temple gate.  Arise!

     Even at this instant, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock" ‑‑‑ the very "I" that spoke through the disciples and said, "Silver and gold have I none" ‑‑‑ the very revelation of your perfect health and freedom stands offering you the gift of life and happiness, offering you freedom from the human bondage, no matter how long it has been with you.  "Is anything hard to Me?"  Is there anything that is difficult for the power of the All‑God within you to bring forth into manifestation?  Arise!

     What is this seeming opposition that seems so much more powerful than God?  Awake, awake, awake!  Arise and shine!  The thought that has been trailing its wings in the mud of human existence will scale the heights of interstellar space.

     You will note in the case of the beggar, and in the case of may others instantaneously healed by the Master and His disciples, that the healing took place almost before they had time to think.  A gift is accepted at the instant it is presented.

     When we stop for a moment to reason, "Could this happen to me?" we are lost.  God has power sufficient to instantly off‑set the oldest and most terrible human concept of law.  "Fear not; it is I."  Arise!   

     Silver and gold have I none" does not in any sense of the word imply poverty or lack on the part of the disciples.  They might have added, "Silver and gold I have none ‑‑‑ for thee" ‑‑‑ knowing that it would not in any way help.  "When they ask for bread, I will not give a stone."  The glorious help which enables a man to see his true self is more precious than a handful of gold or a world of human sympathy.  Arise!

     Most people are beggars in life.  Not all of them sit at the temple gates asking for gold, but they are begging for other gifts, or the symbols of other gifts, and missing the glorious gifts of Spirit which are poured out upon them.  So hypnotized to the outside manifestation are they that they fail to see or hear the gift that is bestowed upon them.  Symbols, always symbols, until they learn that a symbol without something back of it to animate it is nothing but a puppet, and has no power nor life nor expression.

     Beggar of life, when will you begin to accept the gifts of the Father?  When will you accept your Divine Heritage, and rise from the degrading position and let the light of revelation pour over you in flooding streams?  Arise!

     When will you come out of the old Pauline doctrine of "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" and accept the glorious gift of God, "Fear not . . . it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom of Heaven"?  A gift ‑‑‑ yea, even a gift as large as the Kingdom of Heaven ‑‑‑ must be accepted.  Think of it, beloved ‑‑‑ the trembling and fear, the working out of your own salvation, is suddenly all set aside by the acceptance of the gift of God, i.e., the Kingdom of Heaven. And, just as the cripple at the temple gates ran and leaped for joy into his new state of expression, leaped out of years of belief of sickness, ugliness, and filth, leaped into freedom and left behind him all the things that were true of the crippled beggar, so you, son of the Living God, will make the transformation from the present state of sickness, poverty, and unhappiness, into the perfect heaven of harmony and bliss.  When will you accept your gift?  When will you arise?

     "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." Where is your Father?  What did Jesus the Master say of this?  "My Father within me, He doeth the works."  The Father‑ consciousness within you is that which will give you, the human body manifestation, the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.  Do you see that it is not something afar off that is going to grant this favor to you?  "Yet in my flesh shall I see God" ‑‑‑ yet in the present body shall you see the glorious revelation, because soul and body have become one, and "whom the Lord hath joined together let no man put asunder."

"Stir up the gift of God which is within thee." ‑‑‑ "Arise."

     In the midst of your chaotic world is the gift of God ‑‑‑ the gift of Life Eternal, the gift of the Infinite Riches of the Kingdom, the gift of increasing the manifestation.  "Stir up the gift of God which is within thee."  It is already there ‑‑‑ the gift of beautiful life, glorious life, radiant life.

     And in turn the beggar goes his way rejoicing, and giving in turn the gift.  We are afraid of the gift; we make a sickly attempt at speaking the word.  We wonder if God would want us to assume such authority and such proportions, and at the same time we acknowledge, "I am the son of the Living God."

"When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

     This is addressed directly to you ‑‑‑ you who read this page; if the prayer that you asked this morning suddenly came bounding out into expression, would you be ready and willing to accept it?  If the piece of gold that you had asked for could actually come into manifestation, would you be able to accept it, or would you have to look to see whether it had a serial number, or whether it were in accord with the human intellect?  If you were suddenly to have the gift you were asking for made manifest, could you have faith enough to accept it?  Until the perfect acceptance can come, and the curiosity has been absorbed in the absolute faith that "all things are possible to God," these things cannot be, no matter what a thousand voices may say pro or con on the subject.  Arise!

     If you should tear the hide from a living body to see how the life was produced underneath, you have no life.  The killing of the goose that laid the golden egg is the result of curiosity. If you are secretly cherishing in your mind such ideas, you will see nothing, for nothing shall be there.  The soul is not of curious, it knows.  "I have a way that you know not of."  The I AM has its way that no human intellect can see, understand, or believe.  Arise! ‑‑‑

     The whole glorious proposition lies within yourself.  It is asked of you, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth (your consciousness)?"  You have to answer that for yourself.  It does not make any difference what the answer be so far as the outside world is concerned; it is, however, tremendously important to you.  What would you think?  If the prayer you have just asked were at this instant to be fulfilled, could you ‑‑‑ you, who read this, accept it?  "Be still and know that I AM God."

NO ENCHANTMENT

Chapter Five

     "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel" (Num. 23:23)

"I shall overturn and overturn until he comes whose place it is to rule."

     This is the day when much is said about enchantment and divination --- sometimes openly under these names, but more often referred to only, or spoken of by a new modern name.  The mad enchantment of a bird and a serpent is only equalled by the enchantment that exists between man and the serpent of human thinking.  The only way for the bird to break the spell is to takes its eyes away from the fearsome thing upon which it is gazing, and the only way for man to break the spell of disease, hate, fear, sin, and lack is to take his attention away from appearances, "Being absent from the body and present with the Lord" and "Judging not from appearances, but judging righteous judgment" --- the scriptural means of breaking the enchantment.  But few people want to follow these commands.  They way their problem clearly stated and set forth, and then they want the remedy.  They want to attack the evil and destroy it --- and so they are destroyed by the very thing they desire to destroy.

     "But," says one, "that is the very reason I took up the study of Truth --- I want to destroy the evil in my life."  "There is nothing in My Kingdom that can or shall be destroyed," and the appearance you are attempting to destroy is the out-picturing of your own belief.  You are attempting to destroy it while you are constantly creating it by gazing at and handling it, and examining the nature of it.  Many people who are seeking God are turned awry over the appearances of a few leaves in a teacup or a few lines on the hand or other outside things.  They will ask anyone to forecast the future, and are much more willing to believe those prognostications than to accept the fact that "God is in His Heaven (state of consciousness), all is well with the world."

     In spite of the statement, "No man knoweth what a day brings forth," in spite of all the eloquent declarations that God is the only power, just let the idea of "fortune" be mentioned and they are all ears --- being much more willing to take the word of a person who is prostituting the sacred gifts of Life than to have the revelation of their inner soul made manifest to them.  "The way is broad that leadeth to destruction."  The flower-strewn way of hearing good things that are about to happen by chance leads them on; they wade knee-deep in glorious flower-covered fields, snatching a posy here and there, thinking how wonderful it is that their "fortune" is so fine, perfectly unaware of the poisonous serpent that suddenly makes itself manifest in the form of a horrid prediction.  Then they want to escape it all and fly back into the idea of Truth, and loudly proclaim that "God is All"; but the enchantment has done its work.

     The flowers of the spurious joy of delving into the future have withered in their hands or turned to thistles.  They shriek, "Save me."  The terror of seeking those things which are an abomination to the Lord is their portion, yet even in this time of terror, even in this time of desolation, there is always the way of escape.

     Why it is that people who profess God as the only power wish to hear of other forces which they seem to think are actually more powerful than God?  What is the insane curiosity of looking ahead, and trying to see if something good is going to happen, but the hypnotism of the human mind, and the failure to awaken to the glorious NOW of life?  Anyone who has awakened to the Christ-consciousness is not looking for the good that is to come; he is revelling in the glorious present of the NOW, and he does not doubt the future.  He is not wondering if things will be taken care of.  He knows that as long as he stays at the point of the NOW of God, he will not need to prepare to destroy the Devil.

     If you are looking for good to come in the future, you are still where you were before you heard the Truth; do not the Gentiles do that?  What difference if you have let go of the old idea of heaven, with angels, if you still hold on to the false idea of evil being more powerful than God?  What is this belief of a power opposed to God?  Why is it that, because someone has prophesied truly for then thousand people who were under the enchantment of human doctrine, you, the son of the Living God, newly awakened to the powers and the gifts of the Spirit, should come under the sway of this lie?  Did not the magicians, soothsayers, and wise men produce a serpent after the prophet had produced it as a sign, and did not the appearances show clearly that the power used by the magicians was the same as that used by the Man of God?  Yea, it was terrific proof, enough to make the stoutest heart faint for fear of the power of evil, but did not the serpent of the Man of God suddenly devour all the serpents of the magicians, and is there not hidden in this glorious proof that God is supreme to the belief of any man or any teaching or any idea, however hoary with age and respect they may be?  "There is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel."

     "Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light."  Awake from the hypnotism of human belief, and break the spell it has cast over you.  Realize once for all time that "He watching over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps"; that the I AM consciousness watching over you neither slumbers nor sleeps, and you are eternally in His care.  You are the son of the Living God, and this glorious recognition causes the laws of the human belief, however powerful they may have seemed, to give way before the new dawn.  Awake, awake, awake.  It is well with you!

     Are you true to your own word?  Then the whole world (your Universe) will be true to its word.  "My words are Spirit and they are Truth, and they shall not (positively not) return unto me void, but shall accomplish whereunto they are sent."

     You may be under the enchantment of money.  "How hardly can a rich man enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  Not that money is bad; it is the love of money that is spoken of as the root of all (not some) evil.  It is the enchantment again of looking upon the outside and imagining that there is power there.  There is no buying-power in the symbol of money; it is what is back of it, for, even while you hold the symbol in your hand, it may decrease in value to a point where it is not worth the paper it is printed upon.  The enchantment of money is due to the fact that we have placed power in the symbol instead of placing it where it belongs.  And hence the saying, "Money is power" --- but what of a dying man who has exhausted the finest arts and crafts that money can buy?  What about friendship?  What about love?  What about anything that really matters in life?  Looking on the symbol, people become enchanted by it, then think to possess it, but end by being possessed by it; they are destroyed by the serpent just as surely as the bird is.

     Trying to demonstrate symbols of money has not proven successful.  Perhaps in a few remote cases it has been done; a handful of gold has been forthcoming, and then the terrible lapse that has followed and the wonder how it happened, and why it does not happen again.  Keeping your attention fixed on things will keep them from you.  As you pursue them, they flee before you as the mirage in the desert that seems so real and true.

     Power is not in the symbol, the substance of money is not in the dollar bill.  The golden idol with feet of clay will crash upon your own head.  The worship of the golden calf seems to be in accord with the masses of humanity, but it brings the sharp rebuke, "Thou shalt have no (not any) other gods before Me."  Where is this Me, and what is the Me that comes before all else, except the I AM consciousness within you, which is your point of contact with the Universal Whole?

     "To him that hath shall be given" does not seem fair, and is not fair from the human standard of things, but it is true.  To him that hath the consciousness shall be added symbols of that consciousness, not because he needs them, nor because he is receiving a special favor, but because he is automatically functioning a law of God.  "With all thy getting, get understanding."  But most people say, "With all thy getting, get gold, then you will be able to go into the world and take possession."

     "There is no enchantment against Jacob."  There is no law of poverty that is fixed over you, through which you are obliged to function.  No, not if ten thousand wise men say as much.  You are the son of the Living God --- the All Power --- and when you recognize this then will you understand how there can be no enchantment against Jacob.

     "If ye seek me after the loaves and fishes ye shall not find me" is recorded as the saying of the Master.  If you are seeking the things, then you will come under the enchantment of things, and you will reap the result of this divided allegiance.

     "Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?"  You may answer the question yourself --- and look over that which follows, and perhaps through the crannies you will see the light, and hear the command, "consider the lilies and the ravens and the sparrows," and many more things, and see that you, as the Son of the Living God, are not dependent upon the divination of the human mind.

     Neither shall you be under the enchantment of disease, for the Son of the Living God is a being of pure Spirit, and is made of the substance which comes under the direct control of God, who is of "too pure eyes to behold iniquity."  Pause a moment and ask yourself whether there possibly could be an actual law of sickness and misery, and, if so, why have you, of all people, been singled out to manifest it?  You can only answer that it is because of your acceptance of this law as a power beside which God Himself is powerless.  The more you look at the loathsome manifestation the more real it becomes, and the more you realize the utter impossibility of escaping it.  Who can gaze at disease in its various forms and even imagine how it could be relieved?  Yet in turning away from the appearance lies a sudden and sure escape --- just as you know that the bird and two strong wings has an instantaneous means of escape from the serpent, yet so long as it stands gazing at the object of its fear, just so long will it be in the grip of that thing.  Take your attention away from the appearance and place it on the All God and you will find wings to escape any difficulty to which your human thinking has brought you.  Awake, thou that sleepest --- Christ is risen.  The Christ-consciousness within you has risen out of the tomb of your own making, and he come with all power.  Turn your attention away from appearances and the enchantment will be broken.

   "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel."

Either God is all-powerful, and able to do all things, or else our teaching is in vain.

     "There is NOW, therefore, no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus."  When we begin to read the words of light and see the inner meaning, we see that the enchantment of the human mind is broken and that the condemnation of the evil of our beliefs is cancelled, and we are freed into the Spirit of the sons of the Living God.  When we forsake the evil in our consciousness, then it is forgiven and released; the condemnation goes with it, and we are freed.  Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.

     Are you looking for a lucky charm, a sign, or a miracle?  Miracles happen only to the human belief.  The operation of the Divine Mind, producing health where the human mind sees sickness, and prosperity where the human mind sees poverty, is a natural process.  It is only unnatural to the relative world.  The statement, "Signs shall follow, they shall not precede," does not mean anything to the person who is always looking for things.  He wonders why, after years and years of serving God, he has never experienced a miracle or a revelation.  Awake, thou that sleepest; the signs follow, they do not precede.  Do not seek me after the loaves and fishes, because as soon as the loaves and fishes are consumed you will be without them, and be the creature of chance again.  There can be no chance in the law of God, else the very harmony of the Universe would be destroyed.  "There is no power opposed to God."

     In Nigeria, all sorts of black magic is practiced, with the most terrible results.  But in every instance the person who is to receive the baneful effects of this so-called power must be informed that it is being used against him, and this alone tells the tale.  "Not that which goeth into a man defileth him, but that which cometh out."  It is not what you take in that counts, but that which comes out.  If you hear evil and accept it, it comes out in the form of evil in your universe; therefore, it is that which defileth you.  If disease is real, then it must come into manifestation.

   "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel."

     The only enchantment in any of the evil lies in the fact that your attention is fixed upon it, and so it becomes real to you; but as soon as you take your attention away from it, and place your consciousness on God, the enchantment is broken.

     We look out upon a universe of our own making.  "To the pure all things are pure" --- "Let the filthy be filthy still" --- "What thou be'st, that thou seest."  The one who is perpetually looking for the clay feet of others stands on crumpling feet, and falls in his own dust.  "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves" --- "Occupy till I come."  "I come quickly" --- it is well.  A newer courage suddenly comes into being, a fearless Believing, a Divine indifference.

THEN WENT HE IN AND SHUT THE DOOR

Chapter Six

     "THEN WENT HE IN and shut the door." What goes on behind the closed doors is go­ing to be of tremendous interest to the outside world. "That which is told in secret is called from the housetops." When you think of the word "se­cret" you think of the "closed door"----you think of the "Secret place of the Most High"----in fact, you think of the center of Being. Until a man learns the law of silence he cannot leave his burning desert of human experience.

      "He that travels alone shall travel far"; "He that holdeth his tongue shall take a city [a new state of consciousness]", and so he who learns to "come apart from among them and be separate" is getting his feet firmly placed on the ladder that leads safely to heaven-realization.

      Power is noiseless; its manifestation may make a terrific tumult, but power of itself is noiseless. "Be still and know that I Am God" has been a command which has been as little heeded as the one "Before they ask I will answer"----but that also bespeaks si­lence accomplishing something that noise could not. The burning coal which is placed on the lips seals them forever, and it is to such an one that power is given-given because he has discovered something in the silence that he can never discover anywhere else. He has found certain secret springs which, when released, will cause the whole face of his uni­verse to change, and people will say, "It is a mir­acle," but he will know differently.

      Until man learns the law of silence, he will travel on in the heat of the burning desert of experience, comparing notes with others; discussing and argu­ing about the vital truths which never seem to work, and yet seem so plausible and real.

     "I do not see why it is that I cannot make more progress." "I have been faithful----I have helped many----I have heard hundreds of lectures----I have read hundreds of books----I have given of my sub­