"Dynamics For Living" by Charles Fillmore

Foreword

After three decades of studying his writings, it is my conclusion that Charles Fillmore was the greatest sage who has been embodied in the last five hundred years. His steadfast research into the realms of God Mind opened to him infinite adventures. These revelations he generously shared with all who studied in his classes or pondered over his writings. Prayer opened this man's human consciousness to the dynamics of Spirit.

I knew Charles Fillmore as a man with a diamond character. His sparkling humor, his radiant smile, and his luminescent logic quickened the atmosphere of every room he entered. His genuine humility, his simplicity of requirements, and his complete dedication to Truth were always deeply felt by everyone who was in his presence.

Prayer and faith caused him and his wife Myrtle to be the responsive instruments for a spiritual movement. What she first perceived, practiced, and proved with the healing laws of God, he examined diligently before complete acceptance. However, when he experienced the full impact of the practicality of spiritual science, the way was opened for the evolvement of the Unity movement.

On August 22, 1854, at 4 a.m., Charles Fillmore was born in a log cabin constructed on an Indian reservation near the small community of St. Cloud, Minnesota. There was no thought then, of course, that many people would be transformed by his influential teachings. But the years are proving that his consciousness of universal Truth has established a reliable cornerstone for the spiritual growth of hundreds of thousands of people.

What is "new" about this book is the arrangement in which this compilation is offered. Its purpose is to present the basic substance of Charles Fillmore's writings in a manner that will invite an expanded study of what he taught.

The sequence employed is a result of Charles Fillmore's own logical thinking trends. The various sections cover particular conceptions. Such were assembled from the various books and articles by Mr. Fillmore so that each unit would be complete in treating a specific subject.

It is my prayer that as you unfold your understanding of the truth that is so beautifully and positively stated in the following pages, you will find the same dynamics for living that graced the life of Charles Fillmore.

Warren Meyer

November 15, 1966

I am now in the presence of pure Being and immersed in the Holy Spirit of life, love, and wisdom.

I acknowledge Thy presence and power, O blessed Spirit. In Thy divine wisdom now erase my mortal limitations, and from Thy pure substance of love bring into manifestation my world, according to Thy perfect law.


Practical Christianity

PEOPLE everywhere on earth are now realizing as never before that the well-being of this world rests with its inhabitants. It is no longer a religious dogma or a philosophical theory that the destiny of the race is in the hands of man.

Humanity has built age after age only to find that its structures do not endure. They are faulty because the divine plan has not been consulted by the builder. Our Bible plainly teaches that God implanted in man executive ability to carry out all the creative plans of the Great Architect.

The great and most important issue before the people today is the development of man's spiritual mind and through it unity with God. The taproot of all confusion is our failure to use our minds intelligently. Religion and all that it implies in prayer and recognition of God in idea and manifestation is the one and only way out of the chaos in which we find ourselves. We must therefore begin at once to develop this unity with the Father mind by incorporating divine ideas into all that we think and speak.

People in this atomic age civilization ask why God does not reveal Himself now as He did in Bible days. The fact is that God is talking to people everywhere, but they do not understand the message. We need to divest ourselves of the thought that wise men of the Bible were especially inspired by God, that they were divinely appointed by the Lord to do His work. Everything points to their spiritual insight as the result of work on their part to that end.

Thus, practical Christianity is the only system of religions before the people today that, because of its universal appeal to the pure reason in man, can be accepted and applied by everyone and every nation under the sun.

Revival

Modern metaphysics is merely a revival of the philosophies taught by an almost forgotten past. The principles that underlie existence are being again brought to the attention of men. The race is again entering the cycle of knowledge. We catch once more the light of pure reason and honest logic.

Few people have come into the light. Pure reason is almost an unknown quantity. When strict deductive methods are introduced into religion, and logical conclusions are reached from a stated premise, the average believer is at sea. People have been taught that certain relations exist arbitrarily no matter how opposed these relations may be to the logic necessary to cause and effect.

In order to arrive at a mutually harmonious and correct conclusion, the result of a logical argument, we must have a premise or point of beginning upon which we can all agree. Logic in its strictest sense is the only accurate method for arriving at truth. That system of philosophy or religious doctrine which does not admit of the rules of perfect logic in reaching its conclucions from a stated premise must be outside the pale of pure reason and in the realm of manmade dogma.

To know accurately about the reality of things we must disregard all appearances as indicated by the five senses and go into pure reason--the Spirit from which was created everything that has permanent existence.

The Difference

Practical Christianity and Truth stand upon the same foundation and are interchangeable terms. Practical Christianity is not a theory having origin in the human mind; nor is it a revelation to humanity from some prophet whose word alone must be taken as unquestionable authority. It is in this respect totally different from the other religious systems of the world because it does not in any respect rest its authority upon revelation. It has no dogmas nor creeds, nor are its students expected to believe anything which they cannot logically demonstrate to be true.

It takes as the basis of its doctrine a fundamental truth that is known alike by savage and civilized, and from that truth, by cold, deductive reasoning, arrives at each and every one of the conclusions which are presented. Thus it does not in any manner partake of the popular concept of religion, as a vague something which has to be accepted on faith, and believed regardless of its consistencies. On the contrary, it invites the closest mental scrutiny. The analytical logician will find a new world open to him in following the sequential deductions which this science of pure reasoning evolves.

Truth of the Ages

This system of deductions from intuitively ascertained facts is not new, nor are its conclusions new, for the historian tells us that similar methods of arriving at the fundamental truth of things were in vogue thousands of years ago. Long before the historical period, legend and tradition report the existence of temples where pure reason was taught. History also tells of similar schools that existed five thousand years before Christ.

Faithfulness

You will find, if you are faithful in following the line of argument here presented, that a principle will be disclosed to you which will demonstrate itself in an unmistakable manner. The logical deductions from the premise stated may not come to your full comprehension at once because of certain intellectual limitations into which the race has plunged itself. Men have been so long divorced from logic and pure reason that they are confused when a clear-cut proposition is stated and carried to a conclusion along the lines of perfect sequence.

Independent Thought

To think in an independent, untrammeled way about anything is foreign to the habit of the races of the Occident. Our lines of thought and act are based upon precedent and arbitrary authority. We boast much of our freedom and independence, but the facts are that we defer to custom and tradition. Our whole civilization is based upon manmade opinions. We have never thought for ourselves in religion, consequently we do not know how to think accurately and consecutively upon any proposition. We have not been trained to draw conclusions each for himself from a universal pivotal truth. Consequently, we are not competent to pass judgment upon any statement so predicated. Our manner of deciding whether or not certain statements are true or false is to apply the mental bias with which heredity, religion, or social custom has environed us, or else fly to some manmade record as authority.

In the study of practical Christianity all such temporary proofs of Truth are swept aside as chaff. We entertain nothing in our statements of Truth that does not stand the most searching analysis, nothing that cannot be practically demonstrated.

Starting Point

In order to carry on an intelligent, rational line of argument it is necessary to find a mutual starting point which is universally accepted as true. There may be many pivotal points chosen from an intellectual standpoint that would doubtless be accepted as reasonably true. Upon close analysis they will usually be found resting upon another and anterior so-called truth. For instance, we might agree that ponderable objects always fall toward the earth. Yet, the question quickly arises, "What causes them to fall?" The ready answer is, "Gravity, of course." "But what is gravity?" Thus, we are led back and back until lost in First Cause, or God.

In agreement upon a statement as the basis of an argument of universal nature, we must be careful to get one that has no anterior. There can be but one basis of being, and consequently but one basis of being's movements and forms. When we have fully agreed that everything of which we are cognizant can be traced in its last analysis to God, and no further, we have a basis upon which to rest a doctrine that cannot be successfully opposed, if its deductions are logical and can be demonstrated. This is exactly what is claimed for this science of Christ. It is not only a system of philosophy which cannot be disputed by the rational mind, but it also demonstrates in the world of phenomena that its conclusions are true.

Primal Cause

Having decided upon God, or Primal Cause, as the basis of our system, the next step is to decide upon the nature of this Primal Cause. It is safe to assert that in all the world not a single person of intelligence can be found who would say that God is anything but good. It requires no exhaustive reasoning to arrive at this conclusion, for it is the ready response of the intuitive faculty of all mankind, which it is always safe to count as correct.

Having agreed that God, or the Primal Cause of all things, is the only safe basis on which to predicate an argument that deals with life in all its sinuous windings, and that the nature of that First Cause must necessarily be only Good, we can by logical deduction evolve a doctrine that must of necessity be universal in its application.

It is sometimes thought by certain people that man should not attempt to find out the nature of God because He is so far above and beyond the comprehension of the finite that such attempts are sacrilegious folly. Yet when carefully analyzed it is found that the one aim and end of man's existence is to find God. The source of life is the great mystery which has commanded the closest attention and study of men in all ages, and as that source must be the Infinite, it is thus ever inviting man to comprehend it.

The Bible says, "No man has ever seen God," and our physical scientists all agree that primordial life, or First Cause, is invisible or spiritual, exhibiting itself as an intelligent force. Hence, as corollary to the statement that God, or First Cause, is good, we assert that He is also Spirit.

Value to Man

Having established a basis grounded in irrefutable truth, from which deductions may be drawn in an infinite number of directions, the next very natural question that presents itself is, "What good can come to man from a study of God?"

The facts are that the only good that has come to this world has been through the study of God, notwithstanding that the preponderance of that study has been of a nature to preclude the discovery of God or His mode of manifestation. People have been taught that God is a personal being who rules the universe much after the manner of an arbitrary monarch. This erroneous and contracted teaching has led to a belittlement of God in the concepts of men and they have imaged a man-god, and have also formed a "graven image" of God, who is Spirit.

The true concept of God is that He is the Intelligent Principle of the universe, and, like all principles, totally impartial in His expressions. This is the concept of God which has come to us in this awakening age. It is not new. The wise old sages of the Orient tell us that their ancestors thousands of years ago, in secret temples dedicated to the study of God, or the Primal Cause of all, found that in certain stages of high understanding, the result of systematic training, they came into such harmonious relations with this primal principle, or First Cause, that they were endowed with causing power themselves.

They did not seek God for the sake of the power over things which might thereby accrue to them, but that they might have wisdom and understanding of the good. They found that by thinking right thoughts and living unselfishly, they awakened new faculties within themselves. They sought the good, or God, and in harmony with that law by which like attracts like, the good, or God, sought them. They found that when they came into right relations with the good, they had apparently supernatural powers.

They discovered what Jesus Christ called "the kingdom of God within," and all things were thereby added unto them. They caused, so tradition and certain records say, rain or sunshine, heat or cold, and produced at will all the fruits and flowers of the field. These records state that they could also fly through the air, having acquired an understanding of that which lies back of gravity. They, in short, controlled all the so-called forces of nature by word or thought, and proved conclusively that we become like that which we study. They studied cause and became masters of the world of effects.

Transformations

They found that by coming into interior relations with the invisible Cause, they were moved by it to give expression both in thought and speech to certain words. When those words were so expressed by them, wonderful transformations took place in their surroundings. The conditions which they had always assumed to be impossible of variation from what are known as the laws of nature, were in the twinkling of an eye set at naught. They had always believed that sickness, decay, and death were part of an immutable law. Yet, they found that certain words, which are in harmony with the pivotal truth that First Cause, or God, is Spirit and All-Good, heal the sick, make happy the sorrowful, and fill the coffers of the poor.

They found that this invisible Principle of pure intelligence expresses itself only in the words or thoughts that produce happy results. They also found that the words which work such wonders in transforming their surroundings always represent those qualities which by deductive reasoning they found can originate only with a Being or Principle of goodness.

The Real and Unreal

They not only knew God as All-Good through the intuitive faculty, but they proved Him so by demonstrating that He responds to those attributes only that are representative of the good. Hence, these words they called words of Truth or reality.

On the other hand, they found that certain other words or thoughts that do not correspond to or harmonize with the attributes of a primal cause of good produce conditions of inharmony. Under their expression people become sick, sorrowful, and generally unhappy.

Through spiritual illumination, by comparison, logical deduction, and practical demonstration, they definitely arrived at words of Truth and their opposites. They knew that the words of Truth must proceed from the cause to which they correspond and consequently must be the Real. They could find no tenable point of origin for the opposites or words of error. Thus, they necessarily classified them as the unreal, the nothings, the dropping away from the one Principle of the universe.

They arranged and classified their words of reality and unreality as the electrician of our day classifies the positive and the negative poles of electrical action. In the realm of mind the effect of the expressed words of Truth is fully as forcible as is the positive power of the battery in the realm of electricity.

The effect of words is an exact science. It can be demonstrated as such by all who will study it assiduously. It is the science of life. Upon its understanding hinges the happiness or unhappiness of man's existence. It is not a science whose laws were discovered and arbitrarily classified by those metaphysicians of the past. On the contrary, it is universal in its unfoldment and application. Every man works in its laboratory every day of his life and is using its principles with every thought he thinks and every word he speaks. He uses the law whether he knows it or not. Hence, no one should be ignorant of the effects which the manipulation of these hidden forces produce in the character and surroundings of each child of earth.

Pure Christianity

Pure Christianity is a spiritual doctrine. It has no opposite whatsoever. In its purity it is one with the underlying cause of all that is. It admits of no differences among those who understand it. The modes of teaching it may vary, as do the characteristics of each teacher; but all its teachers must necessarily present the same Truth, though their words and illustrations may differ. Each individual needs but to be given the key in order to unlock for himself the entire metaphysical plan of the universe.

The Principle of Being is not only all good, but it is all intelligent. It is the fount of your intelligence. When you study it you will find yourself becoming one with the principle of all wisdom. To be one with the principle of All Intelligence is to know. When you know you will find yourself so broad in judgment and understanding that you will have charity for all who differ from you in religion, metaphysics, and even politics.

This system of metaphysics is but another name for universal Truth. It consequently covers the therapeutic, ethical, and religious departments of life.

Therapeutics

Metaphysical therapeutics treats of healing by an understanding of the reality of things. It does not in its exact meaning teach how to heal diseases by the power of thought. It teaches how, by the power of thought, false conceptions may be eradicated and the divine Reality brought into manifestation, showing forth in health and harmony. This department attracts the majority of people because of the great need of healing.

Ethics

Ethics in the curriculum of metaphysics shows the student how the moral world may be reformed. It teaches him how he may be wise and happy by holding in mind certain thoughts that will bring about these conditions. It shows him how he may attain his ideal ends in reforming society. It shows him how a dull, stupid, or ignorant mind may be quickened morally and brightened intellectually by the power of right thinking.

Religion

The religion of metaphysics includes all these and adds to them a certain and sure knowledge of man's immortality and divine relation. The religion of metaphysics is its crowning principle--it is this department that places it in the category of science. Religion is a science--the science of life. It will so demonstrate itself to the student, both logically and practically.

When you understand it in its religious aspect you know your true relation to the Creator, and just what that relation must lead to. You get a revelation of your status as a living soul that is impregnable in its logic, and you are brought into such close relation with the divine Cause that you know intuitively that you are not of the flesh, but of God.

Upliftment

Nothing is too small or insignificant for God's uplifting presence. God is not a theory of life. He is life itself. He is the harmonious manifestation of life.

Those who have honestly studied metaphysics and applied its rules in their daily work will tell you that it has made them over physically, mentally, and morally. They will tell you that they are better men and women; that life has new zest for them, and that they can now do good and help others where before they were helpless.

New and Old

Some will tell you that they were not able to make this science fit into their old theories and incoherent vagaries in matters religious and ethical. They will tell you that its very simplicity stood in the way of their quick acquirement of its power. They had listened all their lives to learned and ponderous disquisitions of professors upon the body and mind, man's relation to his Maker, etc., and had long ago decided that only the very learned could ever hope to fathom the depths of wisdom necessary to comprehend even a very little of the subject. They will also tell you that from childhood they have listened to flowery sermons by learned ministers about God and man's duty to Him. Yet in all this, the subjects were so encumbered with the ponderous appearance of wisdom that they failed to connect them with simple, everyday life.

Here we have a presentation of the deep things of God, so simple and easy that the wise and mighty pass it by as a religious vagary.

Problems of Life

The problem of life is getting into more and more of a tangle among those who depend upon the material. There is much running to and fro upon the earth by seekers for satisfaction, yet no satisfaction is found.

Where will you find a person who will admit that he has peace of mind, health of body, and a knowledge of Truth? The rich admit that their possessions bring increased cares and great mental disquietude. The poor long to be rich, not knowing that happiness cannot be bought with money. The learned are not satisfied with their acquirements because when they just begin to get wisdom their bodies fail them. So it goes among the denizens of this discontented world of matter. Many lose faith in things ever being better.

Happiness Here and Now

Happiness here and now is the beautiful part of Jesus' teaching. He did not defer health nor salvation to a world to come after death, but taught that it was attainable right here. He taught that the kingdom of heaven is within you. He proved by His works that it could be made to show forth in the bodies and minds of those who follow the way He pointed out.

Unprejudiced Mind

If you would get Truth in its purity you must listen to its statements with the unprejudiced mind of the child. All about you are potencies and power of which you do not dream. Your philosophy has not grasped the faintest concept of the wonderful, undiscovered country that lies right within your reach, yet unseen and unknown to the mortal senses because of their narrow range.

You live, move, and have your being in a realm elysian. Now and then you may catch faint glimpses of its rare beauty in your high moments of spiritual illumination. This realm is not of matter but of Mind. It encompasses you on every side and you contact its invisible glories, but know them not. A false education has shut you away from God's creation. Do you say this is idealism? The illusions of imagination?

Here again you betray the mental congealing which hereditary prejudices and race education have produced. Did not that subtle fluid, electricity, exist in the invisible before it was brought into manifestation? Does not the modern analytical chemist tell us that our planetary atmosphere carries in solution all the elements that go to make up this visible world? It is rash for any man to assert that anything is impossible.

New Era

A new era has dawned. The old is passing away. In the advent of this new dispensation the heavens are rolled up as a scroll, and in that process is revealed the long-hidden realm of causes. Invisible forces are always the most powerful. The dynamics of mind control the universe. In mind originates all that is. By its actions all things are moved. When man understands the laws of mind he has solved the mysteries of the universe.

The New Testament is a sealed book to one who has no knowledge of the laws of mind. It is a secret manual. It reads like an ordinary narrative unless one has the key that unlocks its hidden meaning.

Practical Christianity gives that key. He who knows all the principles of its philosophy can enter the holy of holies of the Bible. He can penetrate the mysteries of the sacred scriptures of all peoples. There is no limit as to time, place, or personality in Scriptural promises.

Study of Truth

In the study of Truth you are not under any circumstances to listen to testimony of your external senses. You are placed in the clear light of logic and reason, and are expected to draw all of your conclusions from that standpoint. From the premise of Spirit alone you shall evolve the world of reality in which you live, and you can demonstrate to your full satisfaction that you have been deluded all these years in believing that which is not true. You shall prove each for himself that all causation is from Spirit, that you can make the world in which you live conform to that which you know by clear reason to be true.

The one Life-Intelligence is your life-intelligence. When you let it freely flow into your consciousness, you know that it is all good. As there can be but one Cause for all that is, and as that Cause is All-Good, you have a pivotal center from which you can draw conclusions that will settle definitely all the debatable questions of existence.


God

THE starting point in spiritual realization is a right understanding of God. By describing God with words in our human way we are but stating in the lisping syllables of the child that which in its maturity the mind still only faintly grasps. Words never express that which God is. Language is the limitation of mind. Do not expect the unlimited to leap forth into full expression through the limited. We must drop the complex and find simplicity before we can know God. We must become as a child.

Being

God's name represents wholeness. He is holy, perfect. God is Being; the Creator; the Infinite; the Eternal; the Ruler of the universe. Being is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient; it is the fullness of God. God is the absolute, incomparable, omnipresent All-Good, the principle of divine benevolence that permeates the universe. Being exists under two phases: invisible and visible, abstract and concrete. The visible comes forth from the invisible, and this coming forth is always according to a universal method of growth. From center to circumference is the plan of procedure throughout the universe.

Principle

We must relieve our minds of a personal God ruling over us in an arbitrary, manlike manner. God is not person but Principle. By Principle is meant definite, exact, unchangeable. It best describes the unchangeableness that is an inherent law of Being. The fundamental basis of practical Christianity is that God is Principle.

Divine Principle is fundamental Truth. God as Principle is the unchangeable life, love, intelligence, and substance of Being. It is the underlying plan by which God moves in expressing Himself. Principle does not occupy space; neither has it any limitations of time or matter, but it eternally exists as the underlying cause out of which come forth all true ideas. Although Principle is formless, it is that by which all form is produced. God immanent in the universe is the great underlying Cause of all manifestation; the Source from which form proceeds.

Law

God as law is Principle in action. Everything has its foundation in a rule of action, a law. Divine law is the orderly working out of the principles of Being. Divine law cannot be broken. It places first things first. Divine order is the first law of the universe. Indeed, there could be no universe unless its various parts were kept in perfect order.

Reality

God is the one harmonious Principle underlying all being and the Reality out of which all that is eternal comes. Reality is that which is abiding, eternal, and unchangeable. The basic principles of mathematics and music are real, because they are not subject to change.

Spirit

God is Spirit, the Principle of creative life, the moving force in the universe, the omnipotent, omnipresent essence from which all things proceed. God is life. God is in the universe as its constant "breath." Life is a principle that is made manifest in living. Spirit is not matter. Spirit is not person. Spirit cannot be analyzed by the senses. It is beyond their grasp. In order to perceive the essence of Being we must drop from mind the belief that God is circumscribed in any way or has any of the limitations usually ascribed to persons, things, or anything having form or shape. As the animating life of all things God is a unit, but as the Mind that drives this life He is diverse.

Spiritual-Science

The only real science is the science of Spirit. It never changes. By science we mean the systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge. Orderliness is law, and is the test of true science. The facts of Spirit are of a spiritual character and, when understood in their right relation, they are orderly. The lawful truths of Spirit are more scientific than the constantly shifting opinions based on intellectual standards.

Mind

By the term Mind, we mean God--the universal Principle, which includes all principles. In our talk about Mind we are forced to leave the plane of things formed and enter the realm of pure knowing. God is the original Mind in which all real ideas exist. The Mind of the universe is composed of archetype ideas: life, love, wisdom, substance, truth, power, peace, and so forth. The one original Mind creates by thought. The science of Truth is God thinking out creation.

Truth

God as Truth is the eternal verity of the universe. He is the underlying, unchangeable Truth. The absolute Truth is that which accords with God as divine Principle; that which is, has been, and ever will be; that which eternally is. The Truth of God is reality. The verities of Being are eternal.

Omnipresence

God as omnipresence is the only presence in the universe. This refers to the all-pervading presence of God, permeating the universe. God is everywhere present. There is no place where God is not. He is in all, through all, and around all.

Omnipotence

God is All-Power, all the power there is. God as omnipotence is infinite power, the Almighty. All things are possible with God, because He is infinitely all-mighty, having all power or force to accomplish anything. All the power, all the force, all the might of the universe are God's. He is, in truth, Almighty God. Spiritual power is omnipresent.

Omniscience

God as omniscience is all-knowing, all knowledge. God is Mind. God is omnipresent Mind enfolding and interpenetrating all things. Mind is common to all, above and below, within and without. God must be in His universe as everywhere-intelligent power; otherwise it would fall to pieces.

Substance

God is substance. This does not mean matter. Matter is formed while God is the formless. This substance which God is lies back of all matter and all forms. Substance is the divine idea of the underlying reality of all things. Substance is everywhere present, pervades all things. Through substance all the attributes of Being are expressed. It sustains and enriches any idea that is projected into it. Divine substance is supply. It is that which is the basis of all form yet enters not into any form as finality. It cannot be seen, tasted, or touched. Yet, it is the only "substantial" substance in the universe. God as substance is the all-providing law which supplies bountifully out of His own abundance.

Ideas

The real of the universe is held in the Mind of Being as ideas. The firstborn of everything in the universe is an idea in Divine Mind. In God Mind an idea is the eternal Word or Logos, the original, primary, or unlimited thought of Being. Ideas may be combined in a multitude of ways, producing infinite variety in the realm of forms. There is a right combination which constitutes the divine order.

Love

Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. Of all the attributes of God, love is undoubtedly the most beautiful. Love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony the universe and everything in it. Divine love is impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving. Love is the great harmonizer.


"Dynamics For Living" by Charles Fillmore

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Feed Shark

Prosperity: God's Way by Charles Fillmore

Description

Find out why it is a sin to be poor and how to reverse the poverty mindset. The only way to test the truths of this book is to buy it and apply the truths in your own life. "It is your birthright to be prosperous, regardless of who you are or where you may be." In these twelve lessons, the author has attempted to explain man's lawful appropriation of the supplies spiritually and electrically provided by God. When we understand and adjust our mind to the realm or kingdom where these rich ideas and their electrical thought forms exist, we shall experience in our temporal affairs what is called prosperity.

Spiritual Substance, the Fundamental Basis of the Universe

DIVINE MIND is the one and only reality. When we incorporate the ideas that form this Mind into our mind and persevere in those ideas, a mighty strength wells up within us. Then we have a foundation for the spiritual body, the body not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When the spiritual body is established in consciousness, its strength and power is transmitted to the visible body and to all the things that we touch in the world about us.

Spiritual discernment reveals that we are now in the dawn of a new era, that the old methods of supply and support are fast passing away, and that new methods are waiting to be brought forth. In the coming commerce man will not be a slave to money. Humanity's daily needs will be met in ways that are not now thought practical. We shall serve for the joy of serving, and prosperity will flow to us and through us in streams of plenty. The supply and support that love and zeal will set in motion are not as yet largely used by man, but those who have tested their providing power are loud in their praise.

The dynamic power of the supermind in man has been sporadically displayed by men and women of every nation. It is usually connected with some religious rite in which mystery and priestly authority prevail. The so-called "common herd" are kept in darkness with respect to the source of the superhuman power of occult adepts and holy men. But we have seen a "great light" in the discovery by physical scientists that the atom conceals electronic energies whose mathematical arrangement determines the character of all the fundamental elements of nature. This discovery has disrupted the science based on the old mechanical atomic theory, but has also given Christian metaphysicians a new understanding of the dynamics back of Spirit.

Science now postulates space rather than matter as the source of life. It says that the very air is alive with dynamic forces that await man's grasp and utilization and that these invisible, omnipresent energies possess potentialities far beyond our most exalted conception. What we have been taught about the glories of heaven pales into insignificance compared with the glories of the radiant rays--popularly referred to as the "ether." We are told by science that we have utilized very meagerly this mighty ocean of ether in producing from it the light and power of electricity. The seemingly tremendous force generated by the whirl of our dynamos is but a weak dribble from a universe of energy. The invisible waves that carry radio programs everywhere are but a mere hint of an intelligent power that penetrates and permeates every germ of life, visible and invisible. Scientific minds the world over have been tremendously moved by these revolutionary discoveries, and they have not found language adequate to explain their magnitude. Although a number of books have been written by scentists, setting forth guardedly the far-reaching effects that will inevitably follow man's appropriation of the easily accessible ether, none has dared to tell the whole story. The fact is that the greatest discovery of all ages is that of physical science that all things apparently have their source in the invisible, intangible ether. What Jesus taught so profoundly in symbols about the riches of the kingdom of the heavens has now been proved true.

According to the Greek, the language in which the New Testament has come down to us, Jesus did not use the word heaven but the word heavens in His teaching. He was not telling us of the glories of some faraway place called "heaven" but was revealing the properties of the "heavens" all around us, called both "space" and "ether" by physicists. He taught not only its dynamic but also its intelligent character, and said that the entity that rules it is within man: "The kingdom of God is within you." He not only described this kingdom of the heavens in numerous parables but made its attainment by man the greatest object of human existence. He not only set this as man's goal but attained it Himself, thereby demonstrating that His teaching is practical as well as true.

The scientists tell us that the ether is charged with electricity, magnetism, light rays, X rays, cosmic rays, and other dynamic radiations; that it is the source of all life, light, heat, energy, gravitation, attraction, repulsion; in short, that it is the interpenetrating essence of everything that exists on the earth. In other words, science gives to the ether all the attractions of heaven without directly saying so. Jesus epitomized the subject when He told His followers that it was the kingdom from which God clothed and fed all His children. "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Science says that the electrical particles that break into light in our earth's atmosphere are also a source of all substance and matter. Jesus said that He was the substance and bread that came from the heavens. When will our civilization begin really to appropriate and use this mighty ocean of substance and life spiritually as well as physically?

This inexhaustible mind substance is available at all times and in all places to those who have learned to lay hold of it in consciousness. The simplest, shortest, and most direct way of doing this was explained when Jesus said, "Whosoever ... shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass, he shall have it." When we know that certain potent ideas exist in the invisible mind expressions, named by science both "ether" and "space" and that we have been provided with the mind to lay hold of them, it is easy to put the law into action through thought and word and deed.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," said Shakespeare. That flood tide awaits us in the cosmic spaces, the paradise of God.

The spiritual substance from which comes all visible wealth is never depleted. It is right with you all the time and responds to your faith in it and your demands on it. It is not affected by our ignorant talk of hard times, though we are affected because our thoughts and words govern our demonstration. The unfailing resource is always ready to give. It has no choice in the matter; it must give, for that is its nature. Pour your living words of faith into the omnipresent substance, and you will be prospered though all the banks in the world close their doors. Turn the great energy of your thinking toward "plenty" ideas, and you will have plenty regardless of what men about you are saying or doing.

God is substance, but if by this statement we mean that God is matter, a thing of time or condition, then we should say that God is substanceless. God is not confined to that form of substance which we term matter. God is the intangible essence of that which man has formed into and named matter. Matter is a mental limitation of that divine substance whose vital and inherent character is manifest in all life expression.

God substance may be conceived as God energy, or Spirit light, and "God said, let there be light, and there was light." This is in harmony with the conclusions of some of the most advanced physicists. Sir James Jeans says, in "The Mysterious Universe," "The tendency of modern physics is to resolve the whole material universe into waves, and nothing but waves. These waves are of two kinds: bottled-up waves, which we call matter, and unbottled waves, which we call radiation, or light. The process of annihilation of matter is merely unbottling imprisoned wave energy, and setting it free to travel through space."

Spirit is not matter. Spirit is not person. In order to perceive the essence of Being we must drop from our mind all thought that God is in any way circumscribed or has any of the limitations that we associate with things or persons having form or shape. "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath."

God is substance, not matter, because matter is formed, while God is the formless. God substance lies back of matter and form. It is the basis of all form yet does not enter into any form as a finality. Substance cannot be seen, touched, tasted, or smelled, yet it is more substantial than matter, for it is the only substantiality in the universe. Its nature is to "sub-stand" or "stand under" or behind matter as its support and only reality.

Job says, "The Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver." This refers to universal substance, for silver and gold are manifestations of an everywhere present substance and are used as symbols for it. Lew Wallace, in "Ben-Hur," refers to the kingdom as "beaten gold." You have doubtless in your own experience caught sight of this everywhere present substance in your silence, when it seemed like golden snowflakes falling all about you. This was the first manifestation from the overflow of the universal substance in your consciousness.

Substance is first given form in the mind, and as it becomes manifest it goes through a threefold activity. In laying hold of substance in the mind and bringing it into manifestation, we play a most important part. We do it according to our decree. "Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee." We are always decreeing, sometimes consciously, often unconsciously, and with every thought and word we are increasing or diminishing the threefold activity of substance. The resulting manifestation conforms to our thought, "As he thinketh within himself, so is he."

There is no scarcity of the air you breathe. There is plenty of air, all you will ever need, but if you close your lungs and refuse to breathe, you will not get it and may suffocate for lack of air. When you recognize the presence of abundance of air and open your lungs to breathe it deeply, you get a larger inspiration. This is exactly what you should do with your mind in regard to substance. There is an all-sufficiency of all things, just as there is an all-sufficiency of air. The only lack is our own lack of appropriation. We must seek the kingdom of God and appropriate it aright before things will be added to us in fullness.

There is a kingdom of abundance of all things, and it may be found by those who seek it and are willing to comply with its laws. Jesus said that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. This does not mean that it is hard because of his wealth, for the poor man gets in no faster and no easier. It is not money but the thoughts men hold about money, its source, its ownership, and its use, that keep them out of the kingdom. Men's thoughts about money are like their thoughts about all possessions; they believe that things coming out of the earth are theirs to claim and control as individual property, and may be hoarded away and depended on, regardless of how much other men may be in need of them. The same belief is prevalent among both rich and poor, and even if the two classes were suddenly to change places, the inequalities of wealth would not be remedied. Only a fundamental change in the thoughts of wealth could do that.

Before there is any fundamental social or economic change men must begin to understand their relationship to God and to one another as common heirs to the universal resource that is sufficient for all. They must give up some of their erroneous ideas about their "rights." They must learn that they cannot possess and lock up that which belongs to God without themselves suffering the effects of that sequestration. The poor man is not the greatest sufferer in this concentration of wealth, for he has not concentrated his faith in material things and chained his soul to them. Those who are rich in the things of this world are by their dependence on those things binding themselves to material things and are in material darkness.

Every thought of personal possession must be dropped out of mind before men can come into the realization of the invisible supply. They cannot possess money, houses, or land selfishly, because they cannot possess the universal ideas for which these symbols stand. No man can possess any idea as his own permanently. He may possess its material symbol for a little time on the plane of phenomena, but it is such riches that "moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal."

Men possess as valuables their education, trade, ability, or intellectual talent. Ministers of the gospel possess scholarship or eloquence, and take pride in these spiritual possessions. Yet even these are burdens that must be unloaded before they may enter the kingdom of the heavens. The saint who is puffed up with his saintly goodness must unload his vanity before he gets in. Whoever is ambitious to do good, to excel his fellow men in righteousness, must lose his ambition and desire before he beholds the face of the all-providing Father.

The realm of causes may be compared to steam in a glass boiler. If the glass is clear one may look right at it and see nothing at all. Yet when an escape valve is touched the steam rushes out, condenses and becomes visible. But in this process it has also lost its power. Substance exists in a realm of ideas and is powerful when handled by one who is familiar with its characteristics. The ignorant open the valves of the mind and let ideas flow out into a realm with which they have nothing in common. The powerful ideas of substance are condensed into thoughts of time and space, which ignorance conceives as being necessary to their fruition. Thus their power is lost, and a weary round of seedtime and harvest is inaugurated to fulfill the demands of the world.

It is the mind that believes in personal possessions that limits the full idea. God's world is a world of results that sequentially follow demands. It is in this kingdom that man finds his true home. Labor has ceased for him who has found this inner kingdom. Divine supply is brought forth without laborious struggle: to desire is to have fulfillment.

This is the second step in demonstration for the one who has fully dedicated himself to the divine guidance. He immediately enters into easier experiences and more happiness than the world affords, when he covenants to follow only the good. There is an advanced degree along the same line of initiation into the mysteries of the divine. Before this step may be taken, a deeper and more thorough mental cleansing must be undergone. A higher set of faculties is then awakened within the body, and new avenues of expression are opened for the powers of the Spirit, not only in the body but also in the affairs of the individual. As he proceeds to exercise these faculties he may find some of them clogged by the crystals of dead thought that some selfish ideas have deposited, which makes him go through a fresh cleansing. If he is obedient to the Spirit and willing to follow without cavil or protest, the way is easy for him. If however he questions and argues, as did Job, he will meet many obstructions and his journey will be long and tedious.

Again, he who seeks the kingdom of substance for the sake of the loaves and fishes he may get out of it will surely be disappointed in the end. He may get the loaves and fishes, that is quite possible; but if there remains in his soul any desire to use them for selfish ends, the ultimate result will be disastrous.

Many people are seeking the aid of Spirit to heal them of their physical ills. They have no desire for the higher life, but having found their lusts and passions curtailed by physical infirmities, they want these erased in order that they may continue in their fleshly way. It is the experience of all who have dealt with Spirit that it is a vigorous bodily stimulant. It restores the vitality of the body until it is even more sensitive to pleasure or pain than it was before the spiritual quickening. This supersensitiveness makes it more susceptible and liable to more rapid waste if further indulgence is gratified. That is why those who receive spiritual treatment should be fully instructed in the Truth of Being. They should be shown that the indulgence of bodily passions is a sin against their success in every walk of life and especially in the way of finances and prosperity. If substance is dissipated, every kind of lack begins to be felt. Retribution always follows the indulgence of appetite and passion for mere sensation. Both sinners and saints suffer in this valley of folly. The alternative is to dedicate yourself to the Father's business. Make a definite and detailed covenant with the Father, lay your desires, appetites, and passions at His feet and agree to use all your substance in the most exalted way. Then you are seeking the kingdom, and all things else shall be added unto you.

We want to make this substance that faith has brought to our mind enduring and abiding, so that we do not lose it when banks fail or men talk of "hard times." We must have in our finances a consciousness of the permanency of the omnipresent substance as it abides in us. Some wealthy families succeed in holding their wealth while others dissipate it in one generation because they do not have the consciousness of abiding substance. For many of us there is either a feast or a famine in the matter of money and we need the abiding consciousness. There is no reason why we should not have a continuous even flow of substance both in income and outgo. If we have freely received we must also freely give and keep substance going, confident in our understanding that our supply is unlimited and that it is always right at hand in the omnipresent Mind of God.

In this understanding we can stand "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," depressions, losses, and financial failures and still see God as abundant substance waiting to come into manifestation. That is what Paul meant by taking up "the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day." The substance that has in the past been manifest in our affairs is still here. It is the same substance and it cannot be taken away. Even though there seems to be material lack, there is plenty of substance for all. We are standing in the very midst of it. Like the fish we might ask, "Where is the water," when we live and move and have our being in it. It is in the water, in the air everywhere, abounding, glorious spiritual substance. Take that thought and hold it. Refuse to be shaken from your spiritual stand in the very midst of God's prosperity and plenty, and supply will begin to come forth from the ether and plenty will become more and more manifest in your affairs.

Jesus was so charged with spiritual substance that when the woman touched His garment the healing virtue went out from it and she was healed. There were thousands of people in the crowd, but only the woman who had faith in that substance got it. It was already established in her consciousness, and she knew that her needs would be met if she could make the contact. In this there is a lesson for us. We know that strength is manifest everywhere, for we see it in the mechanical world. A great locomotive starts from the depot, moving slowly at first, but when it gains momentum it speeds down the track like a streak. Thus it is with spiritual strength. Beginning sometimes with a very small thought, it takes on momentum and eventually becomes a powerful idea. Every one of us can strengthen his hold on the thought of divine substance until it becomes a powerful idea, filling the consciousness and manifesting itself as plenty in all our affairs.

As you lay hold of substance with your mind, make it permanent and enduring. Realize your oneness with it. You are unified with the one living substance, which is God, your all-sufficiency. From this substance you were created; in it you live and move and have your being; by it you are fed and prospered.

The spiritual substance is steadfast and immovable, enduring. It does not fluctuate with market reports. It does not decrease in "hard times" nor increase in "good times." It cannot be hoarded away to cause a deficiency in supply and a higher price. It cannot be exhausted in doles to meet the needs of privation. It is ever the same, constant, abundant, freely circulating and available.

The spiritual substance is a living thing, not an inanimate accumulation of bread that does not satisfy hunger nor water that fails to quench thirst. It is living bread and living water, and he that feeds on God's substance shall never hunger and never thirst. The substance is an abiding thing, not a bank deposit that can be withdrawn nor a fortune that can be lost. It is an unfailing principle that is as sure in its workings as the laws of mathematics. Man can no more be separated from his supply of substance than life can be separated from its source. As God permeates the universe and life permeates every cell of the body, so does substance flow freely through man, free from all limit or qualification.

In the new era that is even now at its dawn we shall have a spirit of prosperity. This principle of the universal substance will be known and acted on, and there will be no place for lack. Supply will be more equalized. There will not be millions of bushels of wheat stored in musty warehouses while people go hungry. There will be no overproduction or underconsumption or other inequalities of supply, for God's substance will be recognized and used by all people. Men will not pile up fortunes one day and lose them the next, for they will no longer fear the integrity of their neighbors nor try to keep their neighbor's share from him.

Is this an impractical utopia? The answer depends on you. Just as soon as you individually recognize the omnipresent substance and put your faith in it, you can look for others around you to do the same. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," and even one life that bears witness to the truth of the prosperity law will quicken the consciousness of the whole community.

Whoever you are and whatever your immediate need, you can demonstrate the law. If your thoughts are confused, become still and know. Be still and know that you are one with the substance and with the law of its manifestation. Say with conviction:

I am strong, immovable Spirit substance.

This will open the door of your mind to an inflow of substance-filled ideas. As they come, use them freely. Do not hesitate or doubt that they will bring results. They are God's ideas given to you in answer to your prayer and in order to supply your needs. They are substance, intelligent, loving, eager to manifest themselves to meet your need.

God is the source of a mighty stream of substance, and you are a tributary of that stream, a channel of expression. Blessing the substance increases its flow. If your money supply is low or your purse seems empty, take it in your hands and bless it. See it filled with the living substance ready to become manifest. As you prepare your meals bless the food with the thought of spiritual substance. When you dress, bless your garments and realize that you are being constantly clothed with God's substance. Do not center your thought on yourself, your interests, your gains or losses, but realize the universal nature of substance. The more conscious you become of the presence of the living substance the more it will manifest itself for you and the richer will be the common good of all.

Do not take anyone's word for it, but try the law for yourself. The other fellow's realization of substance will not guarantee your supply. You must become conscious of it for yourself. Identify yourself with substance until you make it yours; it will change your finances, destroy your fears, stop your worries, and you will soon begin to rejoice in the ever-present bounty of God.

Be still and turn within to the great source. See with the eye of faith that the whole world is filled with substance. See it falling all about you as snowflakes of gold and silver and affirm with assurance:

Jesus Christ is now here raising me to His consciousness of the omnipresent, all-providing God substance, and my prosperity is assured.

I have unbounded faith in the all-present spiritual substance increasing and multiplying at my word.

Spiritual Mind, the Omnipresent Directive Principle of Prosperity

EVERYTHING that appears in the universe had its origin in mind. Mind evolves ideas, and ideas express themselves through thoughts and words. Understanding that ideas have a permanent existence and that they evolve thoughts and words, we see how futile is any attempted reform that does not take them into consideration. This is why legislation and external rules of action are so weak and transient as reforms.

Ideas generate thought currents, as a fire under a boiler generates steam. The idea is the most important factor in every act and must be given first place in our attention if we would bring about any results of a permanent character. Men formulate thoughts and thoughts move the world.

Ideas are centers of consciousness. They have a positive and a negative pole and generate thoughts of every conceivable kind. Hence a man's body, health, intelligence, finances, in fact everything about him, are derived from the ideas to which he gives his attention.

Man has never had a desire that could not somewhere, in the providence of God, be fulfilled. If this were not true, the universe would be weak at its most vital point. Desire is the onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul. It builds from within outward and carries its fulfillment with it as a necessary corollary.

All is mind. Then the things that appear must be expressions of mind. Thus mind is reality, and it also appears as phenomena. The is-ness of mind is but one side of it. Being is not limited to the level of is-ness; it has all possibilities, including that of breaking forth from its inherencies into the realm of appearances. Mind has these two sides, being and appearance, the visible and the invisible. To say that mind is all and yet deny that things do appear to have any place in the allness is to state but half the truth.

An idea is capable of statement as a proposition. The statement is made in response to a desire to know experimentally whether the proposition is capable of proof. A number of elements are involved in the statement of a proposition that are not integral parts of the proposition itself but necessary to its working out. In the simplest mathematical problem processes are used that are not preserved after the problem is solved yet that are necessary to its solution. The figures by the use of which we arrived at the solution are immediately forgotten, but they could not be dispensed with and it is to them we owe the outcome. The exact outcome of each step in the solution is a matter of experiment. The intermediate steps may be changed or retracted many times, but ultimately the problem is solved and the fulfillment of the desired result attained. If this is true of the simplest problem in arithmetic it is equally true of the creation of the universe. "As above, so below." Here is where many who have caught sight of the perfection and wholeness of the ideal fail to demonstrate. They deny the appearance because it does not express perfection in its wholeness.

The student in the depths of a mathematical problem who should judge thus would erase all his figures because the answer was not at once apparent, though he may have already completed a good part of the process leading up to the desired answer. We would not say that a farmer is wise who cuts down his corn in the tassel because it does not show the ripened ears. Do not jump to conclusions. Study a situation carefully in its various aspects before you decide. Consider both sides, the visible and the invisible, the within and the without.

The very fact that you have an ideal condition or world in your mind carries with it the possibility of its fulfillment in expression. Being cannot shirk expression. To think is to express yourself, and you are constantly thinking. You may deny that the things of the outer world have existence, yet as long as you live in contact with them you are recognizing them. When you affirm being and deny the expression of being, you are a "house divided against itself."

We have all wondered why we do not understand more truth than we do or why it is necessary to understand at all, since God is all-wise and all-present. Understanding is one of the essential parts of your I AM identity. Man is a focal point in God consciousness and expresses God. Therefore he must understand the processes that bring about that expression. Infinite Mind is here with all its ideas as a resource for man, and what we are or become is the result of our efforts to accumulate in our own consciousness all the attributes of infinite Mind. We have learned that we can accumulate ideas of power, strength, life, love, and plenty. How should we use these ideas or bring them into outer expression without understanding? Where shall we get this understanding save from the source of all ideas, the one Mind? "But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

In following the principles of mathematics we use rules. There is a rule of addition that we must observe when we add; other rules that must be followed when we subtract or multiply. The ideas of Divine Mind can only be expressed when we follow the rules or laws of mind, and these rules require understanding if we would follow them intelligently and achieve results. Man is given all power and authority over all the ideas of infinite Mind, and the idea of wisdom is one of them.

Closely associated with the idea of wisdom in Divine Mind is the idea of love. These ideas are the positive and the negative pole of the creative Principle. "Male and female created he them." The ideas of God-Mind are expressed through the conjunction of wisdom and love. God commanded that these two ideas should be fruitful and multiply and replenish the whole earth with thoughts in expression.

We have access to the divine realm from which all thoughts are projected into the world. We are constantly taking ideas from the spiritual world and forming them into our own conception of the things we desire. Sometimes the finished product does not satisfy or please us. That is because we have taken the idea away from its true parents, wisdom and love, and let it grow to maturity in an atmosphere of error and ignorance.

In the matter of money or riches we have taken the idea of pure substance from the spiritual realm, then have forgotten the substance idea and tried to work it out in a material atmosphere of thought. It was a wonderful idea, but when we took it away from its spiritual parents wisdom and love, it became an unruly and disappointing child. Even if without love and understanding of substance you accumulate gold and silver, your store will not be stable or permanent. It will fluctuate and cause you worry and grief. There are many people who "don't know the value of a dollar," with whom money comes and goes, who are rich today and poor tomorrow. They have no understanding of the substance that is the underlying reality of all wealth.

To have adequate supply at all times, an even flow that is never enough to become a burden yet always enough to meet every demand, we must make union with the Spirit that knows how to handle ideas as substance. Men have the idea that material substance is limited, and they engage in competition trying to grab one another's money. Divine Mind has ideas of substance as unlimited and everywhere present, equally available to all. Since man's work is to express substance ideas in material form, we must find a way to connect ideas of substance with ideas of material expression, to adjust the ideas of man's mind with the ideas of Divine Mind. This is accomplished by faith through prayer.

That part of the Lord's Prayer which reads, "Give us this day our daily bread," is more correctly translated, "Give us today the substance of tomorrow's bread." By prayer we accumulate in our mind ideas of God as the substance of our supply and support. There is no lack of this substance in infinite Mind. Regardless of how much God gives, there is always an abundance left. God does not give us material things, but Mind substance--not money but ideas--ideas that set spiritual forces in motion so that things begin to come to us by the application of the law.

It may be that you solve your financial problem in your dreams. Men often think over their problems just before going to sleep and get a solution in their dreams or immediately upon awakening. This is because their minds were so active on the intellectual plane that they could not make contact with the silent inner plane where ideas work. When the conscious mind is stilled and one makes contact with the superconsciousness, it begins to show us how our affairs will work out or how we can help to bring about the desired prosperity.

This is the law of mind. The principle is within each one of us, but we must be spiritually quickened in life and in understanding before we can successfully work in accord with it. However we must not discount the understanding of the natural man. The mind in us that reasons and looks to the physical side of things has also the ability to look within. It is the door through which divine ideas must come. Jesus, the Son of man, called Himself "the door" and "the way." It is the divine plan that all expression or demonstration shall come through this gateway of man's mind. But above all this are the ideas that exist in the primal state of Being, and this is the truth of which we must become conscious. We must become aware of the source of our substance. Then we can diminish or increase the appearance of our supply or our finances, for their appearance depends entirely on our understanding and handling of the ideas of substance.

The time is coming when we shall not have to work for things, for our physical needs in the way of food and clothing, because they will come to us through the accumulation of the right ideas in our mind. We will begin to understand that clothing represents one idea of substance, food another, and that every manifest thing is representative of an idea.

In the 2d chapter of Genesis this living substance is called "dust of the ground" in the Hebrew, and Adam was formed from it. We find that the elemental substance is in our body. The kingdom of the heavens or the kingdom of God is within man. It is a kingdom of substance and of Mind. This Mind interpenetrates our mind and our mind interpenetrates and pervades our body. Its substance pervades every atom of our body. Are you giving it your attention, or do you still look to outer sources for supply? Are you meditating and praying for an understanding of this omnipresent substance? If you are, it will come, and it will demonstrate prosperity for you. When it does, you are secure, for nothing can take that true prosperity from you. It is the law that does not and cannot fail to operate when once set in operation in the right way.

This law of prosperity has been proved time and time again. All men who have prospered have used the law, for there is no other way. Perhaps they were not conscious of following definite spiritual methods, yet they have in some way set the law in operation and reaped the benefit of its unfailing action. Others have had to struggle to accomplish the same things. Remember that Elijah had to keep praying and affirming for a long time before he demonstrated the rain. He sent his servant out the first time, and there was no sign of a cloud. He prayed and sent him out again and again with the same result, but at last, after repeated efforts, the servant said he saw a little cloud. Then Elijah told them to prepare for rain, and the rain came. This shows a continuity of effort that is sometimes necessary. If your prosperity does not become manifest as soon as you pray and affirm God as your substance, your supply, and your support, refuse to give up. Show your faith by keeping up the work. You have plenty of Scripture to back you up. Jesus taught it from the beginning to the end of His ministry and demonstrated it on many occasions. Many have done the same thing in His name.

Jesus called the attention of His followers to the inner realm of mind, the kingdom of God substance. He pointed out that the lilies of the field were gloriously clothed, even finer than Solomon in all his glory. We do not have to work laboriously in the outer to accomplish what the lily does so silently and beautifully. Most of us rush around trying to work out our problems for ourselves and in our own way, with one idea, one vision: the material thing we seek. We need to devote more time to silent meditation and like the lilies of the field simply be patient and grow into our demonstrations. We should remember always that these substance ideas with which we are working are eternal ideas that have always existed and will continue to exist, the same ideas that formed this planet in the first place and that sustain it now.

A great German astronomer had worked the greater part of his life with a desire to know more about the stars. One night, quite suddenly and strangely enough--for he had given but little thought to the spiritual side of things--he broke right out into a prayer of thanksgiving because of the perfect order and harmony of the heavens. His prayer was "O God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee." The soul of this man had at that moment made the contact and union with infinite Mind. But though this contact seemed to be made suddenly, it was the result of long study and the preparation of his mind and thought. Jesus expressed the same at-one-ment with God at the moment of His supreme miracle, the raising of Lazarus. His words were "Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. And I knew that thou hearest me always."

This gives us another side of the prosperity law. We open the way for great demonstrations by recognizing the Presence and praising it, by thanking the Father for Spiritual quickening. We quicken our life by affirming that we are alive with the life of Spirit; our intelligence by affirming our oneness with divine intelligence; and we quicken the indwelling, interpenetrating substance by recognizing and claiming it as our own. We should meditate in this understanding and give sincere thanks to the God of this omnipresent realm of ideas because we can think His thoughts after Him. We can thank the Father that His thoughts are our thoughts and that our natural mind is illumined by Spirit. We can illumine our mind any time by affirming this thought:

I thank Thee, Father, that I think Thy thoughts after Thee and that my understanding is illumined by Spirit.

Spiritual thoughts are infinite in their potentiality, each one being measured by the life, intelligence, and substance with which it is expressed. The thought is brought into expression and activity by the word. Every word is a thought in activity, and when spoken it goes out as a vibratory force that is registered in the all-providing substance.

The mightiest vibration is set up by speaking the name Jesus Christ. This is the name that is named "far above all rule, and authority," the name above all names, holding in itself all power in heaven and in earth. It is the name that has power to mold the universal substance. It is at one with the Father-Mother substance, and when spoken it sets forces into activity that bring results. "Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you." "If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do." There could be nothing simpler, easier, or freer from conditions in demonstrating supply. "Hitherto [before the name Jesus Christ was given to the world] have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full."

The sayings of Jesus were of tremendous power because of His consciousness of God. They raised the God ideal far above what had ever before been conceived. These ideas so far transcended the thought plane of the people that even some of the disciples of Jesus would not accept them, and they "walked no more with him." Until fairly recent times most men have failed to grasp the lesson of the power of the spoken word expressing spiritual ideas. Jesus has never been taken literally, else men would have sought to overcome death by keeping His sayings. Few have taken His words in full faith, not only believing them but so saturating their minds with them that they become flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone, being incarnated in their very bodies, as Jesus intended.

The secret of demonstration is to conceive what is true in Being and to carry out the concept in thought, word, and act. If I can conceive a truth, there must be a way by which I can make that truth apparent. If I can conceive of an inexhaustible supply existing in the omnipresent ethers, then there is a way by which I can make that supply manifest. Once your mind accepts this as an axiomatic truth it has arrived at the place where the question of processes begins to be considered.

No one ever fully sees the steps that he must take in reaching a certain end. He may see in a general way that he must proceed from one point to another, but all the details are not definite unless he has gone over the same ground before. So in the demonstration of spiritual powers as they are expressed through man, we must be willing to follow the directions of someone who has proved his understanding of the law by his demonstrations.

We all know intuitively that there is something wrong in a world where poverty prevails and we would not knowingly create a world in which a condition of poverty exists. Lack of any kind is not possible in all God's universe. So when there is an appearance of poverty anywhere, it is our duty to deny it. Sorrow and suffering accompany poverty, and we wish to see them all blotted out. This desire is an index pointing the way to their disappearance. As the consciousness of the kingdom of heaven with its abundant life and substance becomes more and more common among men, these negative conditions will fade out of seeming existence.

Jesus said that all things should be added to those who seek the kingdom of heaven. We do not have to wait until we have fully entered the kingdom or attained a complete understanding of Spirit before prosperity begins to be manifest, but we do have to seek, to turn the attention in that direction. Then things begin to be added unto us. Thousands of people are proving the law in this age. They accept the promise of the Scriptures and are looking to God to supply their every need. In the beginning of their seeking they may have little to encourage them to believe that they will be provided for or helped along any particular line. But they carry out the command to seek and in faith act just as though they were receiving, and gradually there opens up to them new ways of making a living. Sometimes avenues are opened to them to which they are strangers, but they find pleasant experience and are encouraged to continue seeking the kingdom of God and rejoicing in its ever increasing bounty.

Many such people today are wisely using their one talent. They may not have seen the holy of holies in the inner sanctuary, but they are getting closer to it. This is the step we must all take: begin to seek this kingdom of God's substance. Trust in the promise and see the result in the mental currents that are set in motion all about us. You may not be able to see at just what point success began, or what separate word of allegiance to the Father first took effect, but as the weeks or months go by you will observe many changes taking place in your mind, your body, and your affairs. You will find that your ideas have broadened immensely, that your little limited world has been transformed into a big world. You will find your mind more alert and you will see clearly where you were in doubt before, because you have begun thinking about realities instead of appearances. The consciousness of an omnipotent hand guiding all your affairs will establish you in confidence and security, which will extend to the body welfare and surroundings. There will be a lessening or entire absence of prejudice and faultfinding in you. You will be more forgiving and more generous and will not judge harshly. Other people will feel that there has been a change in you and will appreciate you more, showing it in many ways. Things will be coming your way, being added unto you indeed according to the promise.

All this is true not only of your own affairs. The effects extend also to those with whom you come in contact. They will also become more prosperous and happy. They may not in any way connect their improvement with you or your thoughts, but that does not affect the truth about it. All causes are essentially mental, and whoever comes into daily contact with a high order of thinking must take on some of it. Ideas are catching, and no one can live in an atmosphere of true thinking, where high ideas are held, without becoming more or less inoculated with them.

Do not expect miracles to be performed for you, but do expect the law with which you have identified yourself to work out your problem by means of the latent possibilities in and around you. Above all, be yourself. Let the God within you express Himself through you in the world without.

"Ye are gods,

And all of you sons of the Most High."

The idea of God covers a multitude of creative forces. In this case you are working to bring prosperity into your affairs. Hence you should fill your mind with images and thoughts of an all-providing all-supplying Father. The ancient Hebrews understood this. They had seven sacred names for Jehovah, each one of which represented some specific idea of God. They used the name Jehovah-jireh when they wished to concentrate on the aspect of substance. It means "Jehovah will provide," the mighty One whose presence and power provides, regardless of any opposing circumstance. To quicken the consciousness of the presence of God the Hebrews used the name Jehovah-shammah which means "Jehovah is there," "the Lord is present." Realize the Lord present as creative mind, throbbing in the ether as living productiveness.

Charge your mind with statements that express plenty. No particular affirmation will raise anyone from poverty to affluence, yet all affirmations that carry ideas of abundance will lead one into the consciousness that fulfills the law. Deny that lack has any place or reality in your thought or your affairs and affirm plenty as the only appearance. Praise what you have, be it ever so little, and insist that it is constantly growing larger.

Daily concentration of mind on Spirit and its attributes will reveal that the elemental forces that make all material things are here in the ether awaiting our recognition and appropriation. It is not necessary to know all the details of the scientific law in order to demonstrate prosperity. Go into the silence daily at a stated time and concentrate on the substance of Spirit prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This opens up a current of thought that will bring prosperity into your affairs. A good thought to hold in this meditation is this:

The invisible substance is plastic to my abundant thought, and I am rich in mind and in manifestation.

Prosperity
by Charles Fillmore


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Atom-Smashing Power of Mind by Charles Fillmore

Foreword

A great many passages in this book testify to Charles Fillmore's persistent interest in what is popularly called atomic energy and the promise held out by its development of a better world for mankind. As he rejoiced in the scientific achievement of its discovery so he tirelessly devoted his thought to its guidance into the channels of peaceful use. On every occasion he urged those having to do with its development to make sure that this unique form of energy, this great gift of the Father, would not be used to worsen life and destroy mankind.

From another standpoint Charles Fillmore's mind was simply fascinated by the idea of the atom, this infinitesimal particle of substance, and the enormous energy locked up in it. At times he thought of it as the most perfect representation in the manifest world of that divine mental or spiritual energy which pervades all things and which, when properly expressed through the minds of His children, serves so greatly to glorify God. At other times he thought of it as the very essence of this mental or spiritual energy, Spirit-mind itself! The reader will find each one of these standpoints set forth over and over--perhaps vaguely and mystically at times--but ever testifying to the alertness and vitality of Charles Fillmore's mind and his unflagging interest in everything in his world.

As will be readily recognized by Unity readers, the articles appearing as chapters in this book, were originally published in Unity magazine over a period of half a century, one of them going back as far as the year 1898.

In the last paragraph of Chapter VIII the author gives his readers a clear formula for dealing with the problem of the atom:

"The great and most important issue before the people today is the development of man's spiritual mind and through it unity with God. . . . The taproot of all our confusion is our failure to use our mind intelligently. We can only think as God would have us think by adjusting our thoughts to divine ideas. Religion and all that it implies in prayer and recognition of God in idea and manifestation is the one and only way out of the chaos in which we find ourselves. We must therefore begin at once to develop this unity with the Father-Mind by incorporating divine ideas into all that we think and speak."

Chapter I
The Atomic Age

THE MAJORITY of people have crude or distorted ideas about the character and the location of Spirit. They think that Spirit plays no part in mundane affairs and can be known by a person only after his death.

"But Jesus said, 'God is Spirit'; He also said, 'The kingdom of God is within you.' Science tells us that there is a universal life that animates and sustains all the forms and shapes of the universe. Science has broken into the atom and revealed it to be charged with tremendous energy that may be released and be made to give the inhabitants of the earth powers beyond expression, when its law of expression is discovered.

"Jesus evidently knew about this hidden energy in matter and used His knowledge to perform so-called miracles.

"Our modern scientists say that a single drop of water contains enough latent energy to blow up a ten-story building. This energy, existence of which has been discovered by modern scientists, is the same kind of spiritual energy that was known to Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus, and used by them to perform miracles.

"By the power of his thought Elijah penetrated the atoms and precipitated an abundance of rain. By the same law he increased the widow's oil and meal. This was not a miracle--that is, it was not a divine intervention supplanting natural law--but the exploitation of a law not ordinarily understood. Jesus used the same dynamic power of thought to break the bonds of the atoms composing the few loaves and fishes of a little lad's lunch--and five thousand people were fed.

"Science is discovering the miracle-working dynamics of religion, but science has not yet comprehended the dynamic directive power of man's thought. All so-called miracle workers claim that they do not of themselves produce the marvelous results; that they are only the instruments of a superior entity. It is written in I Kings, 'The jar of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by Elijah.' Jesus called Jehovah Father. He said, 'The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me.'

"Jesus did not claim to have the exclusive supernatural power that is usually credited to Him. He had explored the ether energy, which He called the 'kingdom of the heavens'; His understanding was beyond that of the average man, but He knew that other men could do what He did if they would only try. He encouraged His followers to take Him as a center of faith and use the power of thought and word. 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.'

"The great modern revival of divine healing is due to the application of the same law that Jesus used. He demanded faith on the part of those whom He healed, and with that faith as the point of mental and spiritual contact He released the latent energy in the atomic structure of His patients and they were restored to life and health.

"Have faith in the power of your mind to penetrate and release the energy that is pent up in the atoms of your body, and you will be astounded at the response. Paralyzed functions anywhere in the body can be restored to action by one's speaking to the spiritual intelligence and life within them. Jesus raised His dead bodies in this way, and Paul says that we can raise our body in the same manner if we have the same spiritual contact.

"What have thought concentration and discovery of the dynamic character of the atom to do with prayer? They have everything to do with prayer, because prayer is the opening of communication between the mind of man and the mind of God. Prayer is the exercise of faith in the presence and power of the unseen God. Supplication, faith, meditation, silence, concentration, are mental attitudes that enter into and form part of prayer. When one understands the spiritual character of God and adjusts himself mentally to the omnipresent God-Mind, he has begun to pray aright.

"Audible prayers are often answered but the most potent are silently uttered in the secret recesses of the soul. Jesus warned against wordy prayers--prayer uttered to be heard of men. He told His disciples not to be like those who pray on the housetop. 'When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.'

"The times are ripe for great changes in our estimate of the abiding place and the character of God. The six-day creation of the universe (including man) is described in Genesis is a symbolic story of the work of the higher realms of mind under divine law. It is the privilege of everyone to use his mind abilities in the superrealms, and thereby carry out the prayer formula of Jesus: 'Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'"

The foregoing extract is from the "Health and Prosperity" column in Unity for May, 1927. These comments are peculiarly applicable to the present and also to a subject that has been agitating the public mind for some time, the atomic bomb.

Of all the comments on or discussions of the indescribable power of the invisible force released by the atomic bomb none that we have seen mentions its spiritual or mental character. All commentators have written about it as a force external to man to be controlled by mechanical means, with no hint that it is the primal life that animates and interrelates man's mind and body.

The next great achievement of science will be the understanding of the mental and spiritual abilities latent in man through which to develop and release these tremendous electrons, protons, and neutrons secreted in the trillions of cells in the physical organism. Here is involved the secret, as Paul says, "hid for ages and generations . . . which is Christ [superman] in you, the hope of glory." It is through release of these hidden life forces in his organism that man is to achieve immortal life, and in no other way. When we finally understand the facts of life and rid our minds of the delusion that we shall find immortal life after we die, then we shall seek more diligently to awaken the spiritual man within us and strengthen and build up the spiritual domain of our being until, like Jesus, we shall be able to control the atomic energy in our bodies and perform so-called miracles.

The fact is that all life is based upon the interaction between the various electrical units of the universe. Science tells us about these activities in terms of matter and no one understands them, because they are spiritual entities and their realities can only be understood and used wisely by the spiritually developed man. Electricians do not know what electricity is, although they use it constantly. The Christian uses faith and gets marvelous results, the electrician uses electricity and also gets marvelous results, and neither of them knows the real nature of the agent he uses so freely.

The man who called electricity faith doubtless thought that he was making a striking comparison when in fact he was telling a truth, that faith is of the mind and it is the match that starts the fire in the electrons and protons of innate Spirit forces. Faith has its degrees of voltage; the faith of the child and the faith of the most powerful spiritual adept are far apart in their intensity and results. When the trillions of cells in one's body are roused to expectancy by spiritual faith, a positive spiritual contact results and marvelous transformations take place. When Jesus asked His patients, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" He was making such a contact. Also when He told those to whom He ministered, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," He used the same law. When He turned water into wine and fed five thousand by multiplying a few loaves and fishes, He performed in a masterly and beneficial way what our scientists made possible in a destructive way by releasing through the atomic bomb the pent-up forces of Spirit.

Scientists have invented a machine that records the forces of thought. Every thought expressed by the mind radiates an energy as it passes through the brain cells, and this machine measures the force of these radiations. Sir James Jeans, the eminent British scientist, gives a prophecy of this in one of his books. He says in substance that it may be that the gods determining our fate are our own minds working on our brain cells and through them on the world about us. This will eventually be found to be true, and the discovery of the law of release of the electronic vitality wrapped up in matter will be the greatest revelation of all time.

When we awake to the fact that every breath we draw is releasing this all-potent electronic energy and it is shaping our lives for good or ill, according to our faith, then we shall begin to search for the law that will guide us aright in the use of power.

People the world over were amazed and terrified when they read of the destruction wrought on the cities and people of Japan by two atomic bombs. But do we realize that millions of people are killed every year by atomic force? Doctors tell us that it is the toxin generated in our own bodies that kills us. What produces this destructive force? It must be our own minds, and the remedy must also be in a change in mind. Paul expressed this when he said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

All persons who have dismissed the idea of miracle in the marvelous works of Jesus and His followers, have looked forward to a time when the law they used would be explained, but nearly all expected it to come through spiritual means. But now science has opened up a kingdom having all the possibilities of the kingdom of heaven taught by Jesus. However Jesus said this kingdom is within us and would be exercised constructively through our minds under divine law. The latest discovery of science shows that through the development of the atom a power will be cast right into our midst that will in its physical aspect make the earth equal to our wildest dreams of heaven. Broadcasting stations sending out on the ether light, heat, power, will be established the world over, and every householder will have receiving sets which he can turn on or off at will. The cost will be negligible. Lighter-than-air forms of building material will be discovered and our dwellings will float in the air and be transported from place to place like airplanes. Even the climate of the whole planet may be transformed, destructive forces no longer possible, and peace reign forever. Labor as we now have it will disappear, production will become so easy that a man will in a week raise enough food to last him a year. Everybody will produce abundantly. Everybody will have everything he wants, and no one will slave for wages. Art, science, religion, music, and the finer things of life will be for all the people and those who do not expand their minds to enjoy the finer things of life will be out of step with the times.

Our men of science have found the key that unlocks the door to the physical realm in the kingdom of the heavens, but the spiritual domains are yet to be found and their doors unlocked by the multitude.

There must be a change of mind by the people of the earth before the tremendous uplift to be wrought by atomic energy can become beneficial and permanent. Greed and selfishness will find a way to exploit it to boost their ambition unless they are taught the truth. We should therefore redouble our efforts to show man that the power that rules the world is within him. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."


Chapter II
The Restorative Power of the Spirit

NOT ONLY our Bible but the scriptures of all the nations of the world testify to the existence of an invisible force moving men and nature in their various activities. Not all agree as to the character of this omnipresent force, universal Spirit, but it serves the purpose of being their god under whatever name it may appear. Different nations ostensibly believe in the same scriptures, but they have various concepts of the universal Spirit; some conceive it to be nature and others God. Robert Browning says, "What I call God . . . fools call Nature."

Our Bible plainly teaches that God implanted in man His perfect image and likeness, with executive ability to carry out all the creative plans of the Great Architect. When man arrives at a certain point in spiritual understanding it is his office to co-operate with the God principle in creation. Jesus had reached this point, and He said, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work."

It is possible for man to form states of consciousness that are out of harmony with the God principle, but these do not endure, and through experience man learns to adjust his thought to that of God. "I will be what I will to be" is basic in all creation and it proves itself in the face of human reason and logic. God is free to do as He wills, and He has implanted that same freedom in man. When we understand this ego-forming capacity of man and even of nature, we have the key that unlocks the many mysteries and contradictions that appear in every walk of life.

As the animating life of all things God is a unit, but as the mind that drives this life He is diverse. Every man is king in his own mental domain, and his subjects are his thoughts. When the king of Babylon called Daniel to interpret his dream of the image with the head of gold and feet of clay, the prophet prefaced his interpretation with these words, which contain in essence the kingly authority of every man:

"Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory; and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all: thou art the head of gold."

"Thou art the head of gold" is true of every man, but in his ignorance man thinks he is the feet of clay. This thought of his own inefficiency darkens his mentality, and when the Lord attempts to communicate with him in symbols he has to call upon external sources to explain them.

People in this atomic age civilization ask why God does not reveal Himself now as He did in Bible days. The fact is that God is talking to people everywhere, but they do not understand the message and brush it aside as an idle dream. We need to divest ourselves of the thought that Daniel and Joseph, in fact all the unusually wise men of the Bible, were especially inspired by God, that they were divinely appointed by the Lord to do His work. Everything points to their spiritual insight as the result of work on their part to that end. Daniel as a youth had been taught to worship Jehovah, the one and only God. He restrained the gross appetites of the flesh and thereby made himself receptive to Spirit. "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank." He begged that he and his companion be allowed to eat herbs and drink water, which was granted; and the record says that at the end of even a ten-day test they were in better condition physically than all the youths that ate of the king's dainties, that God gave them knowledge and skill, and that Daniel had "understanding in all visions and dreams."

The body is the instrument of the mind, and the mind looks to the Spirit for its inspiration. A very little observation shows that the purer the mind the greater its capacity to receive and interpret the ideas imparted to it by the Spirit. It does not require a doctor's diagnosis to prove that alcohol confuses the mind and injures the body. The daily toll of automobile accidents proves that drivers with alcohol in their stomachs are trifling with death. Although Paul advises that we eat what is set before us, asking no questions, experience proves that the advice of Daniel leads to better health and clearer thinking. Paul is credited with a giant intellect, but when he advised Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake, we know that he was not inspired by the Spirit of wisdom.

Not only the Scriptures that we look to for authority in our daily living but also the experience of ourselves and our neighbors proves that those who cultivate communion with the Father within become conscious of a guiding light, call it what you will.

Those who scoff at this and say that it is all the work of the imagination are deluding themselves and ignoring a source of instruction and progress that they need above all things. If this sense world were the only world we shall ever know, the attainment of its ambitions might be sufficient for a man of meager outlook and small capacity, but the majority of us see ourselves and the world about us in a process of transformation that will ultimate in conditions here on the earth far superior to those we have imagined for heaven.

"Great is the mystery of godliness," and still greater is the capacity for godliness. When Spirit responds to the seeking mind and begins to reveal the magnitude of that undiscovered country within us, we long for a new language with words describing glories beyond all human comparison. Even our so-called physical body reveals a radiant body (which Jesus referred to as sitting on the throne of His glory) that interlaces the trillions of cells of the organism and burns as brightly as an electric light. Jesus gave His apostles a glimpse of this radiant body when He was transformed before them. "And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling." Jesus was very advanced, and His radiant body was developed in larger degree than that of anyone in our race, but we all have this body, and its development is in proportion to our spiritual culture. In Jesus this body of light glowed "as he was praying." Jesus' body did not go down to corruption, but He, by the intensity of His spiritual devotion, restored every cell to its innate state of atomic light and power. When John was in the state of spiritual devotion Jesus appeared to him, "and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto burnished brass." Jesus lives today in that body of glorified electricity in a kingdom that interpenetrates the earth and its environment. He called it the kingdom of the heavens.

We do not have to look to the many experiences recorded in the Bible of the spiritually illumined to prove the existence of the spiritual supersubstance. People everywhere are discovering it, as they always have in every age and clime. Unless it is put under control of the Christ Mind it takes on psychic and "spooky" expressions, which distort the soul instead of unfolding it under divine law, and drive its victims into our psychopathic sanatoria. However, men will continue to pray, and prayer releases the innate glory of God-Mind, so we must be taught how to establish our identity with the Christ and through it to gain the mastery of the stored-up riches of the man invisible.

The metaphysical literature of our day is very rich with the experiences of those who have found through various channels the existence of the radiant body. One example is Angela Morgan's book "Behold the Angel!" Miss Morgan's writing in this book is a radical departure from her well-known poetical vein. She is specific and to the point in announcing her revelations. She says in the foreword:

This is a book about the radiant body, the living self of every human being; the immortal structure which is the real self even now in this moment of time. The author, through intense conviction and the validity of recent experience, writes in concrete terms of what to her is as real as flesh, bones, blood, and muscle. There is, behind this "veil of flesh," an actual flamelike structure invisible to our everyday, limited perception. When I say it is "radiant," I mean it literally. . . . It is vividly alive, glorious as the sunrise.

She tells of numerous instances in which she saw hands and feet and other parts of her body lighted or really transformed by the flame invisible.

This convincing confession of Miss Morgan prompts me to tell of my development of the radiant body, during half a century's experience. It began when I was mentally affirming statements of Truth. Just between my eyes, but above, I felt a "thrill" that lasted a few moments, then passed away. I found I could repeat this experience with affirmations. As time went on I could set up this "thrill" at other points in my body and finally it became a continuous current throughout my nervous system. I called it "the Spirit" and found that it was connected with a universal life force whose source was the Christ. As taught in the Bible, we have through wrong thinking and living lost contact with the parent life. Jesus Christ incarnated in the flesh and thereby introduced us by His Word into the original Father life. He said, "If a man keep my word, he shall never taste of death." I have believed that and affirmed His words until they have become organized in my body. Sometimes when I make this claim of Christ life in the body I am asked if I expect to live always in this flesh. My answer is that I realize that the flesh is being broken down every day and its cells transformed into energy and life, and a new body is being formed of a very superior quality. That new body in Christ will be my future habitation.

I have found that the kingdom of God is within man and that we are wasting our time and defeating the work of the Spirit if we look for it anywhere else.


"Atom-Smashing Power of Mind" by Charles Fillmore


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