PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION SERIES No.4
Loving Your Problem Problem By LILLIAN DE WATERS
Dear Friend, have you a problem which you would like to see adjusted? Are you seeking an understanding of Life which would help you to harmonize all your affairs with the peace and glory of Heaven? Come then, and with both both heart heart and mind listen closely to the Kingdom message: “Resist not evil. Agree with thine adversary quickly. Love your enemies.” Probably you have often read or heard these divine commands, but perhaps they have never been entirely understood and so you have been, to some extent, unable to intelligently practice and apply them to your everyday experiences. But in them them is voiced voiced your your deliverance. Herein lies the way to your freedom. freedom. Now what is the nature of a problem, or a trial? Of what does it consist? Perhaps you may think that it consists of evil, or of false belief. No. Evil, or or falsity, is not the substance of anything, not even of a problem or a trial. Indeed, you will probably experience a surprise when you learn just what is the real nature of any so-called trial or difficulty in your life. life . Now, here is the answer and let it open for you the way to Freedom and kindle in you “the knowledge of the glory of God.” God .” If God is ALL then even a problem can consist of nothing but God!
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Dear Friend, do you not think of your problems and your trials as of so many enemies? Are you not letting them keep your mind disturbed, your heart disquieted and your thought fearful and tormented? tormented? Well, Jesus’ commandment is to “ Love your enemies” is it not? This command is the Truth of God and is therefore true Substance. You are to love your problem; for the fulfilling of all adjustments, the salvation of all situations, all conditions, is LOVE. “But,” some may ask, “How can I love a problem of pain and disease?” disease? ” or; “How can I love my trial when I am in the midst of poverty and ruin ?” “How can I love my problem when my wife has forsaken me,” Or; “My husband has stopped loving me?” Or; “My children are dishonouring me?” me ?” How can one love such trials as sorrow, sickness, sin, poverty, despair? Only by understanding them, and this understanding will be your release, and your return to that marvellous Kingdom of Love from which, in reality, you have never wandered away. Be assured, first of all, that you would not be reading these lines right now unless you were at that point in your life’s experience where you were able to receive and accept this glorious illumination and deliverance. Be assured also that the writer could not give forth this message, — LOVE YOUR PROBLEMS — unless she felt certain in her heart that they were not her own but God’s Word to us each. Now why is it, do you suppose, that one involuntarily shrinks from a serpent? Is it not not because he he is afraid of it? And why afraid? Because he does not love it. Yet there are some people who love all of Nature’s family so well that they do not hesitate to handle serpents considered by others to be poisonous. Their love for serpents solves for them any problem of an unkindly or fatal attack.
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Now Jesus’ assurance is: “They shall take up serpents.” As long as one fears any thing, any trial or any problem he is not exercising that admonition which would bring him immunity. Jesus instructed his disciples, (and this includes ourselves), that we should handle serpents without harm to us, that we could cast out devils and raise the dead, if we acted in His Name, — Name, — if if we fulfilled his requirements, - LOVE YOUR ENEMIES” … “PUT UP THE SWORD” … “RESIST NOT EVIL.” The Christ in us ever urges: “Believe in Me, and in My Words. Believe that your problems are not such to Me, for I understand the nature of them. I take the the responsibility of the trials and problems of the whole world, for they are as nothing in My vision .” Does not He who conceived the Idea of the drama of true experience know also how to preserve and sustain it harmoniously? Yea, verily. The Christ knows that there is nothing to any (so-called) human being but Himself. The Christ-Self understands understands that “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, or maketh a lie” either in the invisible world of Spirit or in the visible dramatization of that Reality in Earth. Love of the Perfect, both in Heaven and in Earth, liberates the mind from its misunderstanding, its belief of separation, and reveals the ideal state, the totality and omnipresence of uninterrupted Harmony and Glory. Is it to the author of a story any problem to write that story as he wishes wishes it? Have the characters characters any voice in the matter whatsoever? To the mind mind of the reader it may seem a problem, while he is reading the book, to solve its mystery, or to work it out to an interesting and desirable desirable end. But all of that that problem was solved by the author before the reader came upon the scene, was it not?
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Similarly it may seem to you a problem to remove disease from your body, or pain from your mind, or discord from your environment; but it is no problem to that Spirit who is the Author of your book of life. It is not a problem to your Christ, your perfect Self, to know how to keep the sight of your eyes or the hearing of your ears, or to preserve your whole body without spot or blemish. blemish. It is in the nature of your true Being to solve your problems, to transmute your trials. These are but the call to your your greater greater love and understanding of Life. Freedom from your trial does not consist in destroying what appears to you an evil condition, (or even an evil belief), but in the exercise of your realization of the totality of Love and your acceptance of that which is your resurrection and your ascension. Freedom from your problem consists in harmonizing your personal sense of it with its spiritual Reality. The mind must give up its dream of separation and an existence apart from Perfection and Harmony; for how else can this darkened sense be overcome except by opening it more and more to the light of understanding Love? In order to flood the darkness there must must be light, and in order to transcend fear and resistance and resentment there must be loving understanding. If you love your problem you will understand it and if you understand your problem you will transcend it for Love is the invincible solvent. The measure of your love is the measure of your true idea of Being. “Love one another as I have loved you.” “Love never faileth.” “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”
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Ask yourself, Who, or what could have a false belief? We know that God cannot, and that God is ALL. This is how you may see the nothingness of false beliefs and the good in every trial, since it brings your human sense to the understanding understanding of your spiritual perfection. There is no evil in God or to God, and if you can but find God in your your problem you will understand it. If you attack a condition, or a state of mind, you will experience in return that quality which you put into it, for what is placed before the mirror is pictured in the mirror. If one attacks his problem with the notion that its substance is falsity what else can take place, or be out-pictured, but a continuance of inharmony and confusion? In the effort to overcome evil, as though there could be a false substance, the mind is kept in constant confusion and turmoil, but by accepting the Kingdom message, - RESIST NOT EVIL; one’s consciousness becomes yielding and non-resisting. non-resisti ng. Sickness, sorrow, disorders of any kind are not punishments but reminders that one should turn his vision inward, that he should remember his Source, that he should love his seeming enemy. Beloved, our problems and their solution rest in ourselves. “Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing .” The sooner we pay that last “farthing” the sooner we find our immunity from all hallucinations and our identity with the One who is ALL. It may be imagined that one is to pass from one sin to another, from one suffering to another until finally, somehow, he is glad to turn to the Light. Now the “utter most most farthing” is self-surrender, and this need not necessarily be the last effort which one is forced to make, but it may just as well be the first!
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Since the last farthing must be paid, then why not pay this farthing first of all? What do you fear to lose in giving your self-surrender? self-surrend er? It is in the nature of your Christ-Self to solve your problems and to transmute your trials into blessings. A problem is simply a call for more love, more understanding, more renunciation of a sense sense separate from from our perfection. Where there there is light there cannot be darkness, and where there is loving understanding of perfect Being there can be no grievous problem. Certain it is that the appearance of evil will remain with us just so long as we entertain the belief that there is evil. Nothing shall by any means harm us so long as we abide in the consciousness of the totality of the perfection in Earth as in Heaven and in the realization of the oneness of Infinite Being,” “the same yesterday , today and forever.” Your trial will not have been vain if now you will — selfless Love, — if — if now you welcome its solution, — selfless will understand that all the conditions of experience are but the drama of the Great Playwright, hence are harmless and interesting. interestin g. The call of Love is the voice of the Author speaking through His characters. characte rs. The “uttermost farthing” is Loving Agreement, Non Resistance. “Agree with thine adversary quickly.” This is the wise admonition of that Victorious One who was Love personified. Do you ask, How can I agree with sickness, sin, sorrow and separation from my good? Here is the answer.
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When one understands the Truth about a thing one can love that Truth and the Truth is all there is to the problem, which is that it is God knocking at the door of your consciousness wishing to reveal to you more of His Love, His Joy, His Peace and Satisfaction. Satisfact ion. As soon as this agreement, — that Love is the only — reaches your consciousness then the soSubstance, — reaches called trial, or problem, disappears in the consuming fire of loving understanding. understanding . Let it be perceived clearly that the problem (adversary), is not evil, called sickness or lack or loss. The problem, or lesson, consists in understanding that “Love never fail eth.” The only requirement is, How much do we love? If for any reason we withhold love from our world of friends and so-called enemies we may experience a darkened sense called a lack or loss of health or harmony; still the Substance of the problem is Good, since it is our True Self calling us to pay the uttermost farthing, to come to agreement with our so-called adversary, to fulfill the law of living by falling in love with it. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice … that when (Christ’s) glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy .” (1Pet. 4:12). Let those who who are weary and heavy laden, those who are fearful and sorrowful, those who are hardened and resentful drink from this fountain of Irresistible Love. The problem of the serpent appearing in the rope is solved by perceiving it to be be a rope, is it not? So a problem has nothing whatever to do with hallucinations or phantoms but consists in perceiving the Truth of Heaven and the Truth of Earth to be ALL there is. The problem problem of so-called so-call ed evil appearing in our experience is solved by the perception of God as the ONE and the ONLY, the ALL and the TOTALITY of Substance and of Manifestation. Manifestation.
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THE DESTINY OF MAN IS TO ONE DAY KNOW HIMSELF, and the only problem for us each is to understand the sense in which we are Man and the sense in which we are God, and to accept the oneness and totality of God and Man and the Universe, Your answer to every problem is in yourself, and in yourself also is your problem! Man not only shares the supreme power of the spiritual world but he is Lord also of the things in the dream, or drama-world. drama-world. Since he he is an Idea Idea in the Mind of God he must necessarily be God, for God is ALL there is to him, as the characters in the mind of an author are that author and are nothing else. So the Characters, or Ideas, of the Author and Creator of all Being are that Author and nothing less. God is in Man and Man is in God. So God is in you and you you are in God. In the Earth state you are Man, the Character, Characte r, but in the Heavenly state you are God, the Creator . “ I (Man) and my Father, (Self) are one (whole).” Now the problem is not yours as a Character in the Book of Life, but belongs to your own Lord-Self as a problem of God, (since God is ALL there is), but not a problem to God, since He is all Love and Understanding. Of yourself, as a human character, you can do nothing, you cannot wield an iota of power, courage or understanding, but ALL power is given unto him who locates his thought of himself as in the Mind of the Author, to him who spiritually perceives and accepts the trinity trinity of his his Being. Certain it is that Man is compelled to come to himself, like the Prodigal, and this Self-knowledge constitutes his “judgment day,” and his salvation from all dream. dream . The Truth of God does not come to destroy things or conditions for there are none to destroy, but it comes to make Itself known “in Earth as it is in Heaven.”
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Remember it is the “mortal” who is to put on “immortality;” that is, it is the mistaken sense which is to accept the enfranchising Idea that LOVE is the fulfilling of that law which is transcended by true experience. As the mortal (sense) (sense) gives gives the problem to the Christ-Self, the solution, or adjustment, necessary to perfection, harmony and satisfaction takes place place in that sense. sense. This is the act which which is called self-surrender, or renunciation. Thus every trial surmounted and every problem understood transcends sense and raises one to the mountain-top of Self understanding. Nothing in Man’s world exists outside of himself, and it is through conscious understanding that one finds Himself, and consequently corrects the dramatizing dramatizing of sense. By refusing refusing to accept and practice the ChristChristMessage of the Infinite, changeless Love and Perfection as now and here one may stumble in his own-created darkness; yet this darkness is nothing of itself, merely a name given to his reluctance or refusal to live in the consciousness of his Oneness with infinite Perfection. Now, in one sense the substance of seeming false creation, (like the serpent appearing in the rope), is a true substance, (the rope), for it was the true substance, (the rope), which was misinterpreted misinterpreted and called by another name. This illustration shows us plainly that there is really no false creation outside of one’s own erring sense, for the substance of that very thing which is called evil is the one and only Substance, Substance , God or Good. How wonderful then for us to perceive and accept the Truth that the nature and substance of all beings, all things, all trials is God, the Infinite Being, and any State or condition which seems inharmonious and an opposite of Perfection is but merely a picture-form sense-illusion. Your trial, your corresponding corresponding to one’s sense-illusion. problem, is not therefore one of evil, nor of sickness, sin, or lack, but your only problem consists in understanding that God is the Answer to it.
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Dare we command the waves to be still; the dead to be raised? If we we dare dare not, not, where where is our vision? Are we conscious of the one one changeless changeles s Being? Do we look with Love on our daily experiences as did Jesus Christ? Can we stand with the poise of Jesus Christ and know that God is where we are looking and in that which we face God is facing facing us? In this this state of exalted consciousness we may indeed “stand still” visioning the perfect Being as experiencing health, happiness, happiness, success and infinite abundance of all-good, and knowing no sin, no discord, no sickness, age or death. Infinite Power has already prepared in the glory of your irresistible Being that which is only waiting your call of faith to set you free from illusion and fantasy. It is unbelief which causes all the phantoms of the mind and Man’s redemption consist in knowing Himself, - knowing that he is a tri-unity - the Author of the Book of Life; the Character in the Book; and the Drama of True Experience. There is no destruction to take place, either in the real world or in the drama-experience. drama-experience. The lack, the sickness, the disorder which one senses in his mental darkness are not actual conditions but states of mind in which one has turned away from paying that last farthing, — from accepting LOVE as the only Substance, and from the active perception and belief that there is no evil. Dear Friend, have you not until now believed that there was a difference as of two entities, between good and evil? But how can there there be the concept of difference or separation in the Idea of the All? Is there any difference between the rope which you actually see and the serpent which you believe you see in its its place? place? Is not not the the rope rope ALL there is present? In reality that which you see, (the rope), is the substance of that which you think you see, and which you may call a serpent. So, likewise, the substance back of all which you call trials and problems is the Good, for this is the only Substance there ever is, or ever can be. 10
Have you a dislike for many things, or do you dread some special condition, or fear some possible separation? Then are you not resisting or resenting or fearing your problem (enemy) when you are divinely counseled to “LOVE “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES?” ENEMIES?” “Then shalt thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.” Within yourself is a Presence that can solve your every problem. This Presence is the One who understands that problem. Many who read these lines, feeling burdened and heavy-laden will admit that they are resisting their enemies instead of loving them. Now to love your enemy (problem) is to transmute it. Such an awakening takes away all sense of opposites and unifies one with the Totality of All-Good. Although as characters we may act in the drama of Life; still we are not in the drama anymore than the actor is the person of his role, or than we are in a dream while sleeping in bed. bed. The dream and the drama are nothing for the Reality of Life is ALL. Hence accepting the Author’s perfection and in learning to love that one Substance AS ALL, we cease to fear. Love of the Perfect casteth out out fear, the fear which signifies that we need to gain a larger and fuller realization of perfect Love as the Deliverer from all sense of inharmony of every kind.
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It is the realization of our actual parallel life in the spiritual world of Heaven which gives us our freedom from fear and our harmony in this drama-world. drama-wor ld. We can see that in Heaven there are no trials, nor problems, but until we completely understand that we are spiritual beings living in a world of uninterrupted Harmony and perpetual Peace and Glory we will (seemingly) have problems to overcome in this world. By letting go the false belief that this world exists separate and apart from that real world, and by realizing that the Kingdom of Heaven must also be in Earth, because of the Totality of the One Life, we may lay claim to our perfection as NOW and HERE. The joy of living consists in understanding that this world is but the “play” of Life, Life , but as such may be as harmonious and satisfying as is Life, Itself. Learn to meditate upon this most essential fact of your Being, that although you are one of the Characters in the drama of Life, and as a Character you are nothing, nothing, still as the Author, or Creator of that Character you are ALL. A mother recently asked treatment for her baby, reporting that his skin was covered with a tormenting rash, so that it was almost impossible for him to sleep either by day or night. Treatment was taken up in this way: This baby is an Idea in the Mind of God. As a character in a book is not actually in the book, but exists WHOLLY in the mind of the author, so this divine Idea called a baby, does not live in this world, this drama of Life, at all, but lives in the Mind of God, and is God, the Creator. There is no Idea of “rash,” or “irritation,” or anything evil in the Mind of God, hence there can be no such expression as this appearance in God’s Idea or Character. In His His Mind is Peace, Rest, Love, Harmony, Satisfaction, hence this is ALL that He can supply to His Characters. Characters . God is ALL, — ALL, — the the Author, the Character, and the Play of Life.
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Now, the Mother was taught that she must love her problem. Her problem was not the “rash, or irritation,” nor need she love love this. Her problem was to stop resisting and resenting spectrality and to LOVE TO GLORIFY GOD AS THE ONLY BEING IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. She was told to love the Fact that GOD IS ALL and GOD IS LOVE. In a short time the report came from the mother that all was well. Now a problem is not an evil spell but a signal to the individual that he needs “Be still and know! Be still and trust! Be still and love! How many of us would feel as far along this seeming journey from sense to Soul were it not for the problems or lessons which we have faced and transcended? Looking back can we not feel that these were revelations to us; were really blessings? blessings? Even the smallest seed when placed in the ground is obedient to that urge of Life within itself. It makes the journey from the darkness to the light through faith and love so that it can bloom and radiate life in its incomparable charm and simplicity. Now what is the significance of this journey from a seedling to a flower? Simply this: By the the process of the journey from the soil, (darkness), to the surface, (light), it finds its own wonderful self. Through faith and love its transmutation (problem) fulfills its nature and purpose. Similarly, our human problems when rightly viewed and lovingly understood are a means of restitution, and lessons of revelation, whereby we try our strength, and prove our power, and glorify our Creator in Earth as in Heaven.
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So the purpose of a problem is that in that place you shall see shining the Glory of the Son of God. If one pays no heed to the still small Voice eventually it must needs speak in the form of a seeming problem; but this is not an evil thing but a good thing inasmuch as the Author wishes His Book of Life to fulfill Himself, — to express a Love which never faileth, and words “which are light unto them that find the m and health to all their flesh .” Insight does not concern itself with the destruction or abolition of evil for it knows that its very non-existen non-existence ce is its its abolition. abolition. Let Man feel the grandeur of this outlook, the infinite capacity of his being, and let him look upon his daily experiences, (his world), world), as did did Jesus Christ. Christ. It is in this state of consciousness that we may hear; “Set yourselves, stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you.” A body humanly perceived as structural and subject to limitation, change and final annihilation, is entirely a mental reflex, or out-picturing of ignorant and mistaken thoughts and beliefs, and as a mental phenomenon has no Life, Substance nor Reality; no existence apart from the mind which evolves it. As the appearance called the physical body originates wholly in ignorance and mental mistification so also a world in which there appears birth, accident, sickness, and death has no more actual Substance or Reality, than has the picture-creation picture-c reation of a dream. Although such a world is described as consisting of matter and physical forces; when correctly interpreted both this mind and all of its phantasmagoria of sin, sickness, disease and death are entirely mythical, changeable, temporal and unsubstantial.
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Any discordant appearance of the body is but the mirrored reflection of ignorance and fear, and the reluctance to surrender oneself to at-one-ment, and resurrection, and ascension. The mistaken belief that the body is structural, that it is subject to sickness, pain and death reflects a corresponding discordant state, which of itself cannot be healed, or saved, or redeemed either directly or indirectly, either objectively or subjectively, but which disappears from view in proportion as one lovingly understands and accepts the nature and purpose of Life, Truth, and Love. Since all is God, and God is Love the time is at hand when such understanding should take place in the experience of each individual claiming a place in the Kingdom. The true world, so misunderstood by erring thought, has been called a world of trouble and tribulation. Moreover, that immortal Image of his Creator, - Man, misinterpreted for so long through mental obscuration, has been called a material body, clothing a personal mind. Instead of recognizing recognizing Entities Entities and Ideas which which are lovely, perfect, unlimited and imperishable human sense has perceived a creation subject to the tragedy of limitation, change and certain end.
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Turning away from Love as the ONLY Reality the mind casts a shadow of its erring sense, and it is this shadow which has been considered a problem. The darkened mentality, not knowing from whence come the false pictures called sickness, sin, and death, mistakenly looks upon them as actualities; hence it can be clearly seen that it is the mentality which needs enlightening, and not its out-pictured shadows. The mists of materialism evaporate and disappear in proportion as one gains a knowledge of infinite Love and Its operation, in contrast with the human mind and its counterfeit operations; until the fictitious phenomena of a world of limitation and conflict entirely disappear from mental view, and perfect forms identical with Spirit, the Self, are recognized and understood to be NOW and HERE. “Looking up we perceive that nothing was impossible with Jesus, that nothing is impossible with us. Exalted vision discloses that there is no departure nor lapse from perfection and no return to perfection; but always, everywhere, there is one entity and one expression. As in the night one sees glowing Stars, so right now, no matter how dark may seem your pathway, look up and behold this golden Light before you. Accept your real identity and love this identity. Your triumph and your redemption are here, already established, waiting your acceptance.” acceptance .” (Science of Ascension)
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The Truth about anything is all there ever can be to that thing, and the Truth about everything is always good, for the Truth is that which is so about God and God is All. All. So also the Truth Truth about about this world is all there is to this world; and the Truth about Man is all there is to Man; and the Truth about a so-called problem is all there is to that problem. problem. Since, as Jesus promised “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free,” we are compelled by this Truth to fully understand what is so about about all things. things. Now the Truth about Man is that as an Idea of God he is God, and as God he is inevitably Power, Love, and the totality of Understanding. Understanding . Further: The Truth about Man is that as he continually exists in the Mind of God as Idea, and so is God, he must also exist always in Heaven, for God and Heaven are one; and the Presence of God and of Heaven is the Presence of Love and the totality of Understanding. Now the dream-man, or the creation of false sense wandering in a dream, may not understand the solution to the dream-problem, but has not the man on the bed, the dreamer, complete sovereignty over it? The dangers, the ferocious animals, or any of the antagonistic circumstances appearing in his dream are really no problem whatsoever to the man asleep on the bed. He has has but but to open his eyes and lo! the whole whole dream-creation of water and land, people and circumstances instantly vanishes, is non-existent. Even so let man in this world, wandering in his dream and troubled by its discordant conditions and problems awaken to his Christ-Self, his God-Being, and let him believe that this Self understands the solution of every problem, for It is infinite Love and infinite Intelligence.
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Then, if he wishes to apply the Truth of God to healing, to adjusting a problem or gaining some high purpose purpose how shall shall he proceed? proceed? We will suppose that he is ready and glad to turn completely from the notion of repairing his dream with such dream-stuff as drugs, or other systems of physical or mental cure; that he wishes to look directly and wholly to the Mind of the Author; he wishes to understand his problems and to apply to them the only solution there is, — the Power of loving Understanding. He is now willing to pay that “uttermost farthing;” he perceives that he cannot expect the Truth of God to bring about any change in Heaven, or to alter, in any fashion, the Principle of perfect Being in order that he may obtain a physical healing, a mental uplift, or a material supply. How then can the problem of pain, or failure, or sorrow in the dream-experience be solved, and the Wholeness and Glory of Heaven be realized in Earth? The answer is this: By understanding that the problems themselves need no change, for all there is to them is the Truth of them, their Substance, and the Substance of EVERYTHING is God, for God is all there is. Therefore, as the student student perceives perceives that God, God, the Self of Infinite Being, is the only Substance, only Actor and only Author, he ceases to resist, or to resent, his problem; ceases to try to mend it, or to bear it, for now he turns from it to the Mind of the Creator and he sees that in that Mind no no change change is necessary. necessary. It is now revealed to him that the Ideas of this Creator are infinitely Good, are unchangeable Perfection, complete Satisfaction, inevitable Peace and Harmony. Further: He perceives that since he is nothing of himself, but is wholly, and completely, and inevitably but the Mind of the Creator, then he has no problem; and this joyous understanding of the non-existence of the problem problem constitutes constitutes his freedom. freedom. He ceases to be troubled, to be anxious, to be concerned, for what difference does it make to him now how the problem is solved, since it is quite apart from himself, since he is ever abiding in the perfect, changeless state of God in Heaven?
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Perhaps the best thing which ever comes to any of us is a (so-called) trial, or trouble, because it turns our minds to our Author and compels us to KNOW OURSELVES. Let us then accept accept the Truth Truth about our problems and see that as problems they are nothing; that since there can be no departure from the Mind of the Author there is no actual return to that Consciousness, and the only problem ever presented to Man in his dream life is to understand I AM THAT I AM. As our consciousness draws nearer and nearer to the inevitableness of our perfect state as the Truth of our Being, we experience now and here, to human sense and sight, in Earth as it is in Heaven, the Harmony of the Whole. Then we can forget our pains and heartaches; we become indifferent to the opinions of the mind of the dream-world, for we are living in the Super-world, in the Mind of changeless Reality; we understand that as we love our problems as we love God they melt together; and as we love Earth, and as we love Heaven, they become one; and as we love Man, and as we love God; behold, they, too are the same. Thus the understanding understanding Self proclaims throughout Eternity the Kingdom Message. “Love never faileth. faileth. Ye shall not not need to to fight fight in this this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, for I will be with you. I am the the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me? Though your sins be as scarlet, they they shall be white as snow. Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions; and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means means harm you. Because he hath set his love love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. Love is the fulfilling fulfilling of the law. Are not all our troubles to be traced to a sense of fear or separation which clouds our vision that God is all? Just as the sun is behind the cloud, ever shining, so God is behind the problem, problem, ever present. Our trials trials never leave us where they found us, for after we have made the demonstration we see that the finished Kingdom is always right here at hand, and God is always ever present. 19
Now the appearance of disease does not mean less of Health but it signifies the need of a fuller understanding of Life and its manifestation. Separation from any good thing does not mean an actual loss, or lack, of that good, but it is a reminder that one is not fully conscious of Totality as Love. What could seeming tribulation be but the needed lesson that there is really nothing to us of ourselves, but that we are wholly and completely the Character in the Mind of the Author? Or, if we would only see through our problems, and then love them for the blessing which they left for us, how quickly they would dissolve and disappear from our Vision! God is the solution or answer to the problem, problem, for besides God there is nothing nothing else. But our trials may he stepping-stones, leading to the understanding that as surely as Heaven is our Home so certain it is that through overcoming our problems with Love we attain to the consciousness that there is no evil! There is, really, no personal love, and no person to love. In plain words, when you love some one because of a personal relationship you really do not do this at all, for such a thing is impossible. As human beings we cannot love anyone because it is the Substance of us, GOD, which does the loving, and when we think that we are loving another, it is really God, Himself, Himself, seeing Himself in His Characters. Characters. God is the only Lover; the only Beloved, — Beloved, — Himself Himself ALLIN-ALL. Then well might we cry, “Nothing can daunt me! Nothing can oppose me! Nothing can overpower me! There is no resentment, nor resistance, nor fear in me, for behold, Thou art ALL!” This is your Life, your Joy, your Glory which is complete, finished, and at hand. The prayer which one prays is answered in Himself.
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Beloved, do you wonder why your healing is still delayed, or why some (so-called) trouble returns to try you? As a reminder that there is a confession and a surrender for you yet to make; that as a “character” you have not yielded yourself wholly and completely to your Author. “God so loved the world.” How much are you loving the world? Dear Seeker, you are not to love the world because of itself but because your all is God, and God is Love. When Love constitutes our world then we are the Mind of the Author, and Heaven is our Home. There is no division nor separation between Spirit and a Problem; between Heaven and Earth; between God and Man. Now in the illustration of mistaking the rope for a serpent the rope is the only substance which is present; likewise in seeing, or feeling, a problem in experience, Spirit is the only Substance! Heaven is always Presence! Presence ! God is ever ALL! No problem exists for you, therefore, outside of your concept of it, and hence it is your mental concept alone which constitutes your problem. Moreover, if you allow understanding Love to fill your consciousness you will then realize that God is the ONLY Substance, the ONLY Power, the ONLY ALL there is, and that you are forced, because of this established Fact of Being to be this Substance. Substance . In this understanding Love of the all-inclusive God, your vision will be luminous, the power of your word irresistible, and you will experience here and now, the ever-presence of Heaven.
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Actually, and in Reality, there is no mind to think, or to believe, or to experience falsity, for there is no falsity in God and God is the All-Mind. Moreover, there is no Life which can be sick, or poor, or dying, for God is the ONLY Life, and ALL Life is God. Neither is there any Love which can cease, or resist, for God is Love and Love is God! Since your mind is the Mind of God, your life the Life of God, your love the Love of God, therefore IN YOU there is no concept, nor belief, of division, separation, or duality, for “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” being .” For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you .” “His Name shall be in their foreheads.” foreheads .” Shall we now take up some (so-called) problems and see the way of their solution, and understand how the Word is made flesh? To illustrate: In great distress of mind a lady interviewed a practitioner as follows: “I have placed my son in one of the largest University hospitals in the country, after treatment in the best local hospitals, but the physicians in all give the same report: that there is no hope for him, that his trouble is incurable, that he must die. Can your treatment save him? Will you try?” try?” The case was taken up at once, with the gratifying result that within a week the young man was back at his business office, completely restored to health and harmony. Now, Dear Reader, can you guess the cause of this wonderful demonstration? It was Love. The practitioner, with that same sense of loving compassion which Jesus had, cast out of his own mind all belief in fear, resentment, or seeming resistance. The patient too was simply carried away from these on the wings of Love to where the sunlight of God’s Truth filled his consciousness. consciousness . Such is the swift healing-power of Love, ready to do the same for every one who will let it.
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Another time the practitioner was called to the phone to receive this this message: “Mother is critically ill and suffering greatly. Can you come at once?” once ?” The speaker was assured that this would not be necessary, for help would be given at once; he was told to report shortly. shortly. This he he did saying that his mother was instantly helped, had walked down stairs and eaten her dinner. Now what had happened? Nothing. The practitioner saw the the mother mother perfect, perfect, as needing needing no change. change. To understanding Love only a perfect condition was present. Another similar instance was that of a young woman whom the physician had said could expect to live but a few days days longer. longer. Her condition condition seemed deplorable. The practitioner went to see this case and found that she could neither speak, nor hear what was said to her. The nurse had no hope that she would recover; her parents and all about her were afraid that they would lose her; but the practitioner saw that the problem was not to be feared but to be loved, for “Perfect Love .” casteth out fear .” Shortly after the practitioner again visited the young lady and this time her face was beaming with smiles. Within a few days she was about the house as usual, and has enjoyed good health ever since.
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A lady asked help for her husband, reporting that because he was scarcely ever sober, it was almost impossible to live with him. When the practitioner asked her if she loved her husband, she replied, “Why certainly, but it seems as though I must lose my love for him if he continues this debasing habit much longer.” She was then asked, “Do you suppose that if Jesus were here he would accuse your husband of being a drunkard?” “Why no,” she replied. “Well, although you claim to love your husband you still see him in your own mind as an odious drunkard,” her friend explained, “is this the love which Jesus taught and practiced?” The wife’s heart softened, the Truth of God flooded her consciousness, and a great load seemed lifted from it. She went away with the proper vision. In a few weeks word of her freedom and mighty deliverance from her problem was sent in. Truly the Kingdom message is this: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased .” Now when we have this vision for our friends, and for our (socalled) enemies, for all things and all conditions; then are we proving the power of our faith and our love: then are we judging “righteous judgment” according to the Truth of all existence and the Truth of all things. When we can see that the universe and every living thing in it comes from Love; that every problem is filled with Love; this is the vision of The Word which is made flesh; this is the Love which fills full all desires. It has been said that Love is the greatest thing in all the world. Yes. Because through Love the world was formed; through Love Jesus came on earth; through Love you and I are here. Through Love we experience the Divine Health, Harmony, Happiness, Abundance of All-Good, in fact, the Kingdom of Love, Itself. Your power to live, to think, to act, to feel; is the Power of Love. The trees, the flowers, the birds, the animals; all bring to those who can understand it their own language of Love. In the light of His Truth, in the consciousness of His Love, what else can there be but that God is All? 24
It matters not what our problem may be, we will never understand it until we love it, for to fear it, to resist or resent it, is to be ignorant of what it really is. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Now, this Christ is our Very Own Self, and understanding this we love this perfect Self in ourselves, and in every one else. To love this Christ Christ is to have an understanding heart, and this is the reason why we can clearly see the non-existence of all problems problems in Him. If mankind but knew that that all share the Love which pervades the universe there would be no unhappy dream experiences such as sin, sickness, or trouble of any kind. A practitioner received word one morning from a student of Truth that his neighbour was in great pain and that because of his extreme suffering two men were needed to hold him him in bed. The wife had already sent for medical aid but afterward changed her mind and now wished for spiritual spiritual treatment. The practitioner answered that help would be given at once, and asked for a report within a short time. And now Dear Reader, what do you think that practitioner held in mind? Simply this: That consciousness that Love is ever-present, and that there could be no failure in Love to manifest its own Presence. The neighbour was seen to be the very embodiment embodiment of that Love. Within twenty minutes word came that the “patient” was asleep asleep and resting easily. When the physician physician arrived he found that his services were not required, for Love had proven the “fulfilling of the law;” in that perfect Love all function, all feeling and form were harmonious.
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If one has life he is in the presence of God, for Life is God. And if one is in in the presence of of God he is in the presence of Heaven, for God and Heaven are one! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life .” Beloved, how much do YOU love YOUR world? How much much do YOU love everybody, every thing? How much Love are YOU giving this (so-called) human experience? experience ? Surely we are all born of God, for God is ALL, and it must theref ore ore be that as we ‘learn to love, then are we in a position to understand all things. Now the only real Love there is, is the Love which is God, this Love is the Consciousness of the Christ within us, and in this Love-Vision there is no evil, no problem, problem, in experience experience to destroy. destroy. There is a perfect Universe to love, there is a perfect Man to understand, there is a perfect Heaven to experience. To repeat. God is Love, because because God is ALL The The Word is made flesh and All things are our through Love. Through Love the finished Kingdom is at hand, the Christ lives within and the signs follow in His Name. We practice the Presence of the One through Love, and it is through Love that we understand the Science of Ascension. This is the wonderful story of Love, the fulfilling of all desires, the solution to all problems , — ever-present, ineffable, irresistible Love!
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