fear not to fear anything is to believe that you are separate from God you and your father are inseparable your greatest challenge in life is to accept this truth and live it every day know that love and peace are your Birthright when this thought pattern begins to dominate your Consciousness then and only then are you free to experience total peace peace that passes all understanding peace that that is all understanding [Music] these and other concepts are beautifully Illustrated and explained in a book entitled The Sermon on the Mount it continues to be a bestseller since its first publication in 1934 and the author is Dr Emmett Fox this tape is designed to introduce Dr Fox's philosophy of scientific Christianity as he explained it in The Sermon on the Mount to those already familiar with the great works of Emmett Fox this tape will provide another means of enjoying his teachings Dr Fox was born in Ireland July the 30th 1886. although his parents were both Irish he grew up in England where his father was a member of parliament as well as a practicing surgeon as a young boy and it was recognized by his family as one who could cure headaches by The Simple Touch of his small hand as he grew up the seemingly unique ability to heal led him into the study of metaphysics and away from the traditional religion of his parents referred to as a scholar teacher writer healer philosopher and minister he was also an electrical engineer until a few years before he came to America in 1930. Dr Fox's religious teachings were headquartered out of the Church of the healing Christ at Carnegie Hall in New York City for 20 years it is estimated that 5 000 people attended his weekly sermons while on vacation in Paris France Emmett Fox died of a stroke on August 13 1950 he was deeply missed by the thousands of people who attended his church and the hundreds of thousands all over the world who followed his beliefs through his books and articles let's hear more about the philosophy and teachings contained in The Sermon on the Mount foreign the Bible is the most precious possession of the human race it contains the key to life it shows us how to live so that we may have health freedom and prosperity it meets everyone on his own level and brings him to God it has a solution for every problem it is the greatest literary work ever compiled and by far the most interesting of all books we will gain even more by reading it with a spiritual key the key to understanding how to apply the Bible to our daily lives however the real value of the Bible lies in the spiritual interpretation wonderful as the outer Bible is it is far less than one percent of the inner Bible the Bible that is hidden behind the symbols the Bible is not primarily intended to teach history or biography or natural science it is intended to teach psychology and metaphysics it deals basically with states of mind and the laws of mental activity each of the characters in The Bible represent a state of mind that any of us may experience and the events that happen to the various characters illustrate the consequences of entertaining such states of mind either good or bad some of the Bible characters such as Moses Elijah and Paul are historical figures they were real men who lived on [Music] Earth at different levels of growth as their lives unfolded other Bible characters such as Adam and Eve The Prodigal Son the Good Samaritan or the Scarlet woman though never having an actual existence were written to express states of mind and always in a remarkably simple and graphic manner any text in the Bible can be taken in the past present or future because God is outside of time [Music] the Bible teaches that outer conditions and events are not important in themselves but only as far as they necessarily Express the character or consciousness of the subject the Bible is infinitely optimistic it doesn't say that everything will be all right things will not be right unless we make them so by right thinking it teaches that negative thoughts and beliefs especially the sin of limiting God can bring all kinds of trouble and suffering wrong thinking can only bring wrong results wrong thinking can only bring wrong result [Music] this is no get rich quick scheme the Bible teaches that if we have faith in God he will supply our needs bountifully naturally we can't just order up the life we want just by thinking it so as though God must obey our commands simply willing something to be will not make it happen for example metaphysics will not bring money for money's sake since we can only see the part of life we are living involving a short time span our wishes and desires are not always for the best what the Bible does teach is that our lives turn out as a result of the thoughts we think if we have an awareness or consciousness of Love health and prosperity it will show in our words and deeds and actions [Music] it's not mind over matter the Bible teaches that what we see around us our lives is merely the results of our own thoughts and beliefs therefore we really can't dominate something outside of our minds but we can change our minds the Bible doesn't pretend that our troubles are imaginary troubles are there for our experience but the Bible says that experience can be dissolved by realizing the presence of God to realize the presence of God means to affirm God's love God created the universe he only creates Perfection therefore this too shall pass [Music] we can raise our thoughts to see a perfect world a world without the particular problems that we currently face overcoming our problems is not accomplished by faith healing in the sense of fighting an alleged evil with Blind Faith and sheer willpower the Bible teaches an intelligent and understanding faith based on the goodness and all presence of God the truth is that God is the only present and the only Power that he is entirely good that evil is a false belief about the truth and that the outer world is the manifestation or result of our own minds the Bible teaches that today's prayer can put everything right if only we won't look back to yesterday remember the story of Lot's wife she turned into a pillar of salt salt is a preservative and in the Bible this symbolizes the human tendency to hold on to the past and remain chained to old ways of thinking the Bible teaches us to go forward with new ideas and new aspirations to new adventures to quote Dr Fox the study of the Bible is not unlike the search for diamonds at first people found a few diamonds in the yellow clay and they were delighted with a good fortune even while they supposed that this was the full extent of their find then upon digging deeper They Came Upon the blue clay into their amazement they then found as many precious stones in a day as they had previously found in a year and what it formally seemed like wealth faded into insignificance beside the new riches in your exploration of Bible truth see to it that you do not rest satisfied in the yellow clay of a few spiritual discoveries but press on to the rich blue clay underneath the Bible however differs from the diamond field in the sublime fact that beneath the blue clay there is a richer strata awaiting the touch of spiritual perception On and On To Infinity as you read the Bible constantly affirm that Divine wisdom is enlightening you that is the way to get direct inspiration [Music] there are many other key phrases and Rich Concepts which form the core to Dr Fox's philosophy foreign scientific prayer also referred to as spiritual treatment is really the lifting of your Consciousness or awareness above the level where you have faced a problem raise your Consciousness above the problem and let God do the rest to raise your Consciousness you must positively withdraw your attention from the problem and concentrate gently upon spiritual truth this can be done by reading the Bible going over a hymn or poem or listening to music that helps you or by using affirmations an affirmation is a positive statement or thought such as God is with me or God loves me it's important when using affirmations not to inject any negative energy or feelings replace your emotions with positive Loving Thoughts it doesn't matter how you rise above the problem but you must remove yourself emotionally and experience the peace of God [Music] foreign true place is a term which means to be with God to be with God is the ideal place for us all however asabel are working towards reaching that level wherever we find ourselves today is our right place where we are at any given time no matter how confused or lost we might feel is the place where we need to be to learn our next lesson spiritual growth cannot be rushed for anyone when we have learned all there is to learn about a given situation then we will move on to learn something new and we will be in our right place once again by keeping this optimistic Outlook we see that there is nothing that we can do that will not be forgiven but we must first learn to forgive ourselves we need simply to affirm and claim our natural Birthright to experience God and keep moving forward oh the secret place of the most high refers to the individual mind in the privacy of our minds we can pray to God on a personal level we can entertain thoughts and ideas that only we and God are aware of we need not be in church or anywhere in particular to pray to God because our thoughts shape Our Lives it is imperative that we guard what we think about if a person lives a prosperous healthy fulfilled life it is obvious that thoughts of prosperity and health are all that are allowed in the secret place of the most high [Music] the golden rule for scientific Christianity says that to do unto others as we would have them do in return to us is only part of the task it is also necessary that we think of others as we would have them think of us again there's so much importance on what takes place in the mind [Music] the law of life as we think and act toward others so shall they respond to us [Music] native means reaping what you sow whenever we begin to pray we can rise above mistakes of the past whenever the Christ meaning the truth about anything is raised up in prayer healing results sickness sin poverty and confusion weakness of character all disappear under the power of the healing Christ is nothing less than the direct action of God himself the self-knowing spirit it overrides all else Prayer Changes Things it Alters our character we are never the same after we have prayed we help all of mankind with our prayers [Music] a strategy for living is The Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer is the most important of all Christian documents this great prayer is a compact formula for the development of the Soul those who use it regularly with understanding will experience a real change of soul and the Bible refers to this change as being born again millions of people repeat this prayer daily without fully comprehending its inner meaning a deeper understanding of the great prayer can literally change one's life as you continue to explore the teachings of Emmett Fox and find that his philosophies help you you may notice positive changes happening to your life this isn't Magic but the result of your own thoughts and prayers there is no external power making things better the magic is your own choice to examine and alter the thoughts that cross your mind and the desire to experience the presence of God throughout his teachings we are reminded not to become overly intrigued by the study of metaphysics that is the study of phenomena which cannot be fully explained or comprehended by the six senses we must live in the world of the present sometimes we use metaphysics as an escape mechanism and avoid solving the problems that faces in the world in which we live we should take a growing understanding of the Bible and of God and apply these principles to living joyous successful lives filled with peace and love [Music] we are here on Earth to learn the truth of being we are here to become self-governed entities focal points of divine mind each expressing God in a new way that is the object of our existence and the only way to do this is with more knowledge of God some individuals may seem to progress more rapidly than others but the main body of humanity is always steadily growing in the knowledge of God [Music] another way to express our purpose on Earth is to think of the world as a school and the two great lessons are that God is absolutely everywhere and the power of thought we should not be dependent for happiness or self-respect upon human praise or approval our attitude should be I do my duty and enjoy myself wherever I am I do my job and pass it along to another I'm going to live forever in a thousand years from now I shall still be alive and active somewhere always the best is yet to be always the future will be better than the present or the past because I am ever growing and progressing and I am an immortal soul I am the master of my fate I greet the unknown with the cheer and press forward joyously exalting in the Great Adventure armed with this philosophy and really understanding its power you have nothing to fear in life or death because God is all and God is good the golden keys to successful living [Music] [Applause] Jesus Christ is easily the most important figure that has ever appeared in the history of mankind this is true whether you choose to call him God or man and if man whether you choose to consider him as the world's greatest prophet and teacher or merely as a well-intentioned fanatic who came to grief and failure in ruin after a short and stormy public career however you regard him the fact will remain that the life and death of Jesus and the teachings attributed to him have influenced the course of human history more than any other man who ever lived more than Alexander or Caesar Charlemagne Napoleon or Washington more people's lives are influenced by his doctrines more books are written and read and bought more speeches or sermons are made concerning him then all the other names mentioned put together Jesus has been the religious inspiration of the whole European race throughout the ages the race that has dominated and molded the Destinies of the entire world culturally and socially as well as politically this alone entitles him to his Premier position in World importance therefore there can hardly be a more important undertaking than to inquire into the question of what Jesus really did stand for so what did Jesus teach us what did he really wish us to believe and to do what were the objectives that he really had at heart and how far did he actually succeed in accomplishing these objectives in his life and in his death how far has the religion or movement called Christianity really expressed or represented his ideas how far does the Christianity of today present his message to the world if he came back now what would he say of the self-style Christian nations in general and of the Christian churches in particular are the anglicans the Baptists the Catholics the Greek Orthodox the methodists the Presbyterians the Quakers the salvationists the seven-day Adventists the unitarians and so on what did Jesus teach [Music] this is the question that Emmett Fox proceeds to answer in his book The Sermon on the Mount he proposes to show that the message Jesus brought has a unique value because it is the truth and the perfect statement of the truth of the nature of God and of man of life and the world and of the relationships which exist between them and Far More Than This we find that his teaching is not a mere abstract account of the universe which would be of little more than academic interest but that it constitutes a practical method for the development of the soul and for the shaping of our lives and destinies into the things that we really wish them to be Jesus explains to us what the nature of God is and what our own nature is tells us the meaning of life and of death shows us why we make mistakes why we yield to Temptation why we become sick impoverished and old and how we may bring health happiness and true Prosperity into our lives and into the lives of others the first thing that we have to realize is the fact of fundamental importance because it means breaking away from all the ordinary prepossessions of Orthodox religion the plain fact is that Jesus taught no theology whatsoever his teaching is entirely spiritual or metaphysical historical Christianity unfortunately has largely concerned itself with theological or doctrinal questions which strains to say have no part whatsoever in the gospel teaching it is startling to learn that all the doctrines and theologies of the churches are human inventions built up by the authors out of their own mentalities and claimed upon the Bible from the outside there is absolutely no system of theology or doctrine to be found in the Bible it simply is not there people who feel the need of some intellectual explanation of life and also believe that the Bible is a revelation of God to man draw the natural conclusion that the one must be within the other and then proceeded to manufacture the thing that they wish to find they haven't learned the spiritual or metaphysical key they aren't operating from the spiritual basis and consequently they seek a purely intellectual explanation of life and there can be no such explanation the actual explanation of a man of a man's life [Applause] no intellectually is only a cross-section of the full truth and a cross-section of anything can never furnish even a partial explanation of the whole glimpsing one tiny corner of the universe with only half opened eyes men built up absurd fables about a limited and a man like God who conducted his Universe much as a rather ignorant and Barbara's Prince might conduct the Affairs of a small Kingdom all sorts of human weaknesses such as vanity fickleness and spite were attributed to this being then far-fetched and inconsistent Legends were built up concerning original sin infinite punishment for finite transgressions and a horrible doctrine of predestination to eternal torment and then much later Eternal Bliss was added now no such theory is taught in the Bible if it were the object of the Bible to teach it it would be clearly stated in a straightforward manner in some chapter or other but it isn't The Plan of Salvation which figured so prominently in the Evangelical sermons and Divinity books of a past generation is as completely unknown to the Bible as it is to the Quran the Muslim doctrine of Faith there never was any such arrangement in the universe therefore the Bible doesn't teach it at all what has happened is that certain obscure texts from Genesis a few phrases taken here and there from Paul's letters and one or two isolated verses from other parts of the scriptures have been taken out and pieced together to produce the kind of teaching that seemed proper to be found in the Bible Jesus says none of this he is anything but a Pollyanna as they say or chief optimist he warns us not once but often that obstinacy and sin can bring very severe consequences and that man who parks with the Integrity of his soul even though he gains the whole world is a tragic fool but he teaches that we are only punished for and actually punished by our own mistakes and he teaches that every man and woman no matter how steeped and evil always has a direct access to an all-living all-powerful father God who will forgive us and Supply his own strength to us and enable us to find ourselves again and again Jesus has been sadly misunderstood and misrepresented in other directions for instance there is nothing whatever in his teachings for the setting up of any form of any hierarchy of officials or system of ritual he never proposed any such methods in fact the whole tone of his mentality is definitely anti-ecclesiastical through his public life Jesus was at war with the churchgoers and religious officials of his own country they first hindered then persecuted him and with a perfectly sound Instinct of self-preservation they felt that the truth as he taught it was the beginning of the end for them and they finally had him put to death it seems that human nature is very prone to believe what it wants to believe rather than reading the scriptures with an open mind perfectly sincere men have appointed themselves Christian Leaders with the most imposing and pretentious titles and then clothe themselves in elaborate and gorgeous vestments to impress people in spite of the fact that their master in the plainest language strictly charged his followers that they must do nothing of the kind according to Matthew chapter 23 verse 8 but be not called Rabbi for one is your master even Christ and all ye are brethren and he denounced the Pharisees as Hypocrites because they loved the chief seats and bind heavy burdens Grievous to be born signifying their rules and regulations Jesus made a special point of discouraging any emphasis on outer observances or upon hard and fast rules and regulations of any kind what he taught was a certain spirit in one's conduct and attitude and he was careful to teach principles only knowing that when spirit is Right details will take care of themselves and in fact the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life yet in spite of this the history of Orthodox Christianity is largely made up of attempts to enforce all sorts of external observances on the people the Puritans attempted to enforce the Old Testament Sabbath which was a Hebrew ordinance applied exclusively to the desecration of Saturday Jesus particularly discouraged any Sabbath observance saying that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and made a point of doing anything he wanted on that day he clearly indicates throughout his teaching that the time has come when man must make each and every day a spiritual Sabbath by knowing and doing all things in a spiritual light there are Christians who do realize that there is no system of theology in the Bible unless one likes to put it there deliberately and have practically given up religion altogether but still cling to Christianity because they feel intuitively that it is the truth there is really no logical justification for their attitude since they don't possess the spiritual key which makes the teachings of Jesus intelligible it's most confusing to those who have neither the Blind Faith of Orthodoxy nor the spiritual interpretation of scientific Christianity to support them it's easy to be enthralled by the beauty and mystery of the Gospels but in the absence of the spiritual key common sense and all the scientific knowledge of mankind challenges what these gospels contained Miracles are a good example but if the Miracles didn't really happen then does the rest of the gospel story lose all real significance Jesus believed miracles to be possible and perform them as he believed and taught many things in contradiction to rational philosophy he had no interest in superstitious beliefs because what really interested him was character character includes both an intelligence and vital reaction to life character must include some definite beliefs and convictions concerning things that really matter Jesus himself Justified what people thought to be estranged and wonderful teaching by The Works he was able to do and he went further and said referring to those who study and practice his teachings The Works that I do ye shall do and greater works The Works that I do you shall do and greater works now what after all is a miracle those who deny the possibility of miracles on the grounds that the universe is a perfect system of Law and Order and to the operation of which there can be no exceptions are perfectly correct but the explanation is that the world of which we are normally aware and with whose worldly laws alone most of us are acquainted is only a fragment of the whole universe as it really is and there is no such thing as appealing from a lower to a higher law from a lesser to a greater expression for all things are possible in the consciousness of an unlimited universe so in the sense that all the ordinary rules and limitations of the physical plane can be set aside or overridden by an understanding of the nature of God then miracles in the colloquial sense of the word can and do happen let us suppose for the sake of example that on a certain Monday your Affairs are in such a condition that humanly speaking unpleasant consequences are sure to follow by the end of that week this could even be a lawsuit or a medical diagnosis of a very serious nature if you can raise your Consciousness above the limitations of the physical plane in connection with this matter the lawsuit or the health problem can melt away to raise our Consciousness above the limitations of the physical plane is the scientific description of what is commonly called prayer if we pray successfully then the condition on that plane will change and in some utterly unforeseen and normally impossible manner the problems in our lives Melt Away to the advantage of all concerned in other words miracles in the popular sense of the word can and do happen as a result of Prayer prayer does change things prayer does cause things to happen differently than they would have happened had the prayer not been made it makes no difference at all what sort of difficulty we are in it doesn't matter what the causes may have been that led up to it enough prayer will get us out of our difficulty if we are only persistent enough in raising our Consciousness to a high level another way to think of it is to raise your awareness level so that you see the world as perfect see life without the problem prayer is both a science and an art and it was to the teaching of this science and art that Jesus devoted the greater part of his ministry the gospel Miracles happened because Jesus had the spiritual understanding that gave him the greatest power in prayer it is the spiritual key that unlocks The Mystery of the Bible teaching in general and of the gospels in particular it is the spiritual key that explains the Miracles were performed in order to prove to us that we too can perform Miracles and overcome sin sickness and limitation with this key we can afford to discard verbal inspiration and all superstitious literalism and understand the Bible in its most precious and most authentic interpretation externally the Bible is a collection of inspired documents written by men of all kinds in all sorts of circumstances and over hundreds of years of time the documents as we have them are seldom original but compilations of older fragments and the names of the actual writers are seldom known this however doesn't affect the spiritual purpose of the Bible in the slightest degree it is in fact quite immaterial the book as we have it is an inexhaustible reservoir of spiritual truth compiled under divine inspiration and the actual root by which it reached its present form doesn't matter Divine wisdom is the author and that is all that concerns us history biography lyrical and other poetic forms are various mediums through which the spiritual message is expressed in the Bible and above all the parable is used to convey spiritual and metaphysical truth in some cases what was never intended to be more than a parable was taken for literal statement of fact and this often made the Bible seem to teach things that were opposed to Common Sense the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a case in point rightly understood this is perhaps the most wonderful parable of all Adam represents the physical and Eve the soul or mind together they create the whole being it was never intended by its author to be taken for history but literal-minded people did so with all sorts of absurd consequences the spiritual key to the Bible rescues us from all these difficulties dilemmas and seeming inconsistencies it saves us from the false positions of ritualism and fanaticism because it gives us the truth undeniable fact that the whole Outer World whether it be the physical body the common things in life the winds and the rain or the Earth itself is directly related to man's thought and that we have dominion over thought when we know it the outer World far from being the prison of circumstances that it is commonly supposed to be as actually no character whatsoever of its own either good or bad it has only the character that we give to it by our own thinking it is naturally plastic to our thoughts and this is so whether we know it or not and whether we wish it or not all day long the thoughts that occupy your mind or your secret place as Jesus calls it are molding your destiny for good or evil in fact the truth is that the whole of your life's experience is but the outer expression of inner thought now we can choose the sort of thoughts that we think about and it's difficult to break a habit of bad thoughts but it can be done since we choose how we think we always do choose our lives are just the result of the kinds of thoughts we have chosen to hold they are of our own ordering and therefore there is perfect Justice in the universe no suffering for other man's original sin but the reaping of a harvest that we ourselves have sown we have free will but our Free Will lies in our choice of thought Free Will lies in our choice of thought this is in essence what Jesus taught it is as we shall see the underlying message of the whole Bible but it's not expressed with equal clearness throughout in the earlier portion of the book it shines through dimly as the light from a heavily shrouded lamp But as time goes on Veil after Veil is removed and the light shines ever stronger and stronger until in the teaching of Jesus Christ it pours forth clear and unimpeded truth never changes but what we have to deal with on this plane is man's fear of the truth and throughout historical time this has been steadily and continuously improving in fact what we call progress is merely the outer expression corresponding to Mankind's improved awareness of God Jesus Christ summed up this truth taught it completely and thoroughly and above all demonstrated it in his own person most of us can Glimpse intellectually the idea of what that must mean in its fullness and what must inevitably follow from a competent understanding of it but what we can actually demonstrate or experience in our lives is a very different matter to accept the truth is the great first step but not until we have proved it in doing it is it ours Jesus proved everything that he taught even overcoming death in what we call the resurrection every time you overcome a difficulty by prayer you help the whole of the human race past present and future in a general way and you help it to overcome that special kind of difficulty in particular Jesus by surmounting every sort of limitation to which mankind is subject in particular by overcoming death performed a work of unique and immeasurable value for us all forever and is therefore justly entitled the savior of the world and what he deemed an opportune moment in his public Ministry Jesus decided to sum up his whole teaching in a series of lectures extending probably over several days and speaking probably two or three times a day he took this opportunity to summarize the message to dot the eyes and cross the D's so to speak a number of those present naturally took notes and later on these notes were edited into what we know as The Sermon on the Mount the authors of the four gospels each selected the material in accordance with their own purpose and it is Matthew who gives us the most complete and carefully arranged version of this address it covers all the essentials it is practical and personal it is definite specific and widely Illuminating once the true meaning of the instructions has been grasped it is then only necessary to put them Faithfully into practice in order to get immediate results this concludes the golden keys to successful living [Music] and seeing the multitudes he went up into America and when he was set his disciples came unto him opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for Bears is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God [Music] blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you The Sermon on the Mount opens with the oath beatitude one of the best known sections of the Bible even people whose knowledge of the scriptures is limited have heard of these Beatitudes however they hardly ever understand them and as a rule regard them as a council of perfection without any real application but this is only because they lack the spiritual key which is the knowledge of how to apply the scriptures from the spiritual level to Everyday Life the Beatitudes are actually a prose poem in eight verses which is complete in itself and constitutes a general summary of the whole Christian teaching it is a spiritual more than a literary synopsis summarizing the spirit of the teaching rather than in literal words this General summing up is highly characteristic of the ancient Oriental approach to religious and philosophical teaching and naturally recalls the Eightfold Path of Buddhism the Ten Commandments of Moses and other concise groups of ideas Jesus concerned himself exclusively with the teaching of general principles and these general principles always had to do with mental States for he knew that if one's mental states are right everything else must be right also yet if these are wrong nothing else can be right unlike other great religious teachers he gives us no detailed instructions about what we are to do or not to do he does not tell us either to eat or to drink or to refrain from eating or drinking during specific times or certain Seasons the whole point of his teaching is anti-ritualistic a conscientious Pharisee of those days and most of them were extremely conscientious had approximately 600 outer detailed observances or rituals to attend every day before he could feel that he had satisfied the requirements of God as it is obvious that no human being could actually carry out this sort of thing in practice the natural result would be that the victim conscious of falling far short of the accomplishments of his duties must necessarily labor under a chronic sense of guilt or sin now to believe yourself to be sinful is for all practical purposes to be sinful with all the consequences that follow the policy of Jesus is to wean the heart from relying upon outer things at all either for pleasurable gratification or for Spiritual salvation and to incorporate a new attitude of Mind altogether and this policy is graphically set forth in the Beatitudes Jesus also made us aware that how we worship God has nothing to do with physically Where We Are the hour cometh when we shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father the hour coming and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in truth for the father seeketh such to worship Him God is the spirit and are they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth your church your temple your place of worship your secret place of most high is with you at all times now let's examine and reacquaint ourselves with the simple and profound statements known as the Beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven in order to understand what Jesus meant by poor in spirit we have to take into account a point of great practical importance in the study of the Bible it is written in a peculiar language of its own in the terms and expressions and sometimes actual words are used in the Bible in the sense that is distinctly different from that of everyday usage the Bible is really a textbook of metaphysics a manual for the growth of the soul and it looks at all questions from this point of view remember in every sense of the word it takes the broadest view of every subject it sees all things in their relationship to the human cell and it uses many common terms in a far broader sense than their everyday meanings for example the word bread in the Bible means not merely any kind of physical food but all things that man requires or physical things such as clothing shelter money education companionship and so forth and in relationship to the soul it stands for Spiritual perception spiritual understanding and ultimately spiritual realization give us this day our daily bread I am the bread of life unless you eat this bread these are examples of the many uses of just one word another example is the word prosperity in a scriptural sense posterity and prosper mean a great deal more than the acquisition of material possessions Prosperity means success in prayer from the point of view of the sorrow success in prayer is the only kind of prosperity worth having and if our prayers are successful we shall naturally have all the material things that we need a certain quantity of material Goods is essential on this plane of course that material wealth by itself is really the least important thing in life and this the Bible implies by giving the word prosperous its true meaning success in prayer blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so to be poor in spirit does not in the least mean the thing we call Poor spirit in today to be poor in spirit means who have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will and who have renounced all preconceived opinions in the wholehearted search of God it means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought your present views and prejudices your present way of life if necessary to eliminate in fact anything and everything that can stand in the way of finding God we can reject the guidance that Jesus offers us reject our chance of finding God because we are bound by our possessions and even those who have no material wealth are bound by their own set of great possessions in the way of preconceived ideas such as self-satisfaction or Reliance upon the way that is familiar or easy or great possessions of spiritual Pride born of intellectual distinction we even have sentimental or material attachments to institutions organizations and relationships and habits of life that we have no desire to renounce when the image of ourselves is measured by the world of possessions and detachments we will always be grounded and seemingly apart from God wealth in itself is neither good nor bad but love of money the Bible tells us is the root of all evil to be taller in spirit means we can all be multi-millionaires in silver and gold we can have possessions of learning possessions of public honor and importance but as long as our hearts are not set upon having these things we are as free of material attachments as the poorest beggar to enter the kingdom of heaven the poor in spirit have overcome the love of money and property the fear of public opinion and the disapproval of relatives and Friends they are no longer over awed by human authority they are no longer self-satisfied on their own opinions they have come to see that their most cherished beliefs may have been and probably were mistaken and that all their ideas and views of life may be false and indeed need changing the poor in spirit are ready to continuously re-examine their lives and learn to live in the Kingdom of Heaven every day foreign [Music] blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted mourning or sorrow is not in itself a good thing for the will of God is that everyone should experience happiness and joyous success Jesus says I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly nevertheless trouble and suffering are often extremely useful because many people will not bother to learn the truth until driven to do so by sorrow and failure sorrow then becomes a relatively good thing sooner or later every human being will discover the truth about God and make their contact with him at first hand sooner or later we will all have to acquire the understanding of Truth which will set us free once and for all from our three-dimensional limitations and their end results sin sickness and death but most people won't undertake the search for God wholeheartedly unless driven there by trouble of some kind there is really no need to have trouble if we only seek God first seek ye first the kingdom of heaven then the trouble need never come we always have the choice of learning by spiritual unfoldment or of learning by painful experience as a rule it's only when health is broken down and ordinary medical means have failed to afford relief that people seriously said about gaining that spiritual understanding of their body as the true embodiment of Divine Life and this is our only guarantee of overcoming sickness and ultimately death if we could turn to God for this understanding while our health is still good we need never be sick at all again it's usually only when people are feeling the pinch of poverty that is when ordinary material sources of Supply have dried up that they turn to God as a last resort and learn the lesson that the divine power really is the source of man's Supply and all material agents are merely the channels now this is the lesson to be learned and thoroughly realized before man can pass on to any experience higher or wider than the present one in our father's house of many mansions but the key to higher Mansions is always acquiring complete dominion over the one we are in now if prosperous people will while they are still prosperous acknowledge God as their true source and pray daily for still more spiritual understanding they need never suffer poverty or financial trouble at all at the same time they must be careful to use their present resources well not hoarding riches selfishly or spending foolishly but recognizing that God is the owner and that they are only the stewards of Trustees for him the command of money involves a responsibility which one cannot evade dispense it wisely or be prepared to learn some lessons this General principle applies to every one of our difficulties not merely physical or financial troubles but all the other ills to which the flesh is air family travels quarrels with friends sadness and all the rest need never come if we will seek first the kingdom of God and ride understanding but if we look in another direction for our source of power then the Troubles of life will become our own and then this sadness will be a blessing in disguise for through it we shall be comforted and by Comfort the Bible means the experience of the presence of God which is the end of all sadness blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth on the surface this beatitude seems to have very little validity and seems to be obviously contradicted by the Plain facts of everyday life no sensible person looking about the world or studying history could sincerely accept this saying as its face value and most honest Christians have passed it by in practice with a regretful feeling that no doubt that is how things ought to be But realize things aren't that way in real life the fact is that when correctly understood the teaching of Jesus is found to be not only true but exceedingly practical and of value to every situation every day of Our Lives we find him that he was no sentimental dreamer no mere dealer in empty platitude but the unflinching realist only a great Mystic can be and the whole essence of his teaching and of his practical application is summed up in this beatitude blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth when you possess the spiritual meaning of the statement you have the secret of Dominion of overcoming every kind of difficulty it is literally the Key of Life it is that Jesus Christ message reduced to a single sentence the words Meek and Earth are both used in a special and highly technical sense and they have to be unveiled before the wonderful meaning that underlies them can be found first of all the word Earth in the Bible does not mean merely this terrestrial Globe it really means manifestation manifestation or expression is the result of a cause a cause has to be expressed or manifested before we can know anything about it and yet every expression or manifestation has to have a Cause now we learn in Divine metaphysics and particularly in The Sermon on the Mount that all causation is mental and that our body and all our Affairs our home our business our personal relationships all our experiences are the expression of our own mental States the fact that we are unconscious of most of our mental States doesn't change anything because the thoughts are there in our subconscious mind and still create or cause our lives to turn out the way they do our Earth means the whole of our outer experience and to inherit the earth means to have dominion over that outer experience that is to say to have power to bring our conditions of life into Harmony and true success all the Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord his soul shall dwell at ease and his seed or prayer shall inherit the earth the Lord Reina let the Earth rejoice so we see that when the Bible talks about the Earth possessing the Earth governing the Earth making the Earth glorious and so forth it is referring to the conditions of Our Lives from our bodily Health outwards to the effect our life has on others so this beatitude undertakes to tell us how we may possess govern and be masters of our own lives and destinies Dominion that is power over the conditions of Our Lives is obtained in a certain way and in the most unexpected of all ways by meekness the word meekness is also used in a special and Technical sense its true significance has nothing in common with the meaning it bears in Modern English many unpleasant qualities in human nature are associated with the meek suggesting weakness lack of courage and self-respect of no use to oneself or to anyone else the true significance of the word meek in the Bible is a mental attitude for which there is no single word available and it's this mental attitude which is the secret of prosperity or success in prayer It's a combination of open-mindedness faith in God and the realization that the will of God for us is always something joyous and interesting and vital and far better than anything we could think of for ourselves this state of mind inspires a perfect condition to allow this will of God to come about in whatever way Divine wisdom considers to be best rather than in some particular way that we have chosen for ourselves this mental attitude perhaps complex an analysis but simple in itself is the key to Dominion or success in prayer there is no one word for it in common speech but if we desire to inherit the earth we must absolutely acquire this meekness there is a familiar phrase as Meek as Moses resulting from his extraordinary success in prayer the example of his life influenced the whole subsequent course of history by his teaching and his deeds Moses had an open mind ready to be taught new things and new ways of thinking and working he didn't reject fresh ideas because they were revolutionary like all of us he wasn't free from faults of character but he was too aware for intellectual or spiritual pride and therefore gradually Rose above his fault as the new truth worked in his soul Moses thoroughly understood that to conform completely to the will of God didn't involve any loss or risk and could only mean a finer and better and more Splendid life he didn't think of it as self-sacrifice for he knew it to be the highest form of self-glorification in the true and wonderful sense of the word the self-glorification of the egotist is the vanity that always leads to humiliation true self glorification the glorification that is really glorious is the glorification of God father in me he doeth the works I envy and thou in me realization of this state of mind and state of being called meekness is the Key of Life secret of overcoming every difficulty in life the way to inherit the earth blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled foreign to a knowledge of these great truths they naturally try to incorporate them in their own lives realizing the vital importance of righteousness or the thinking only of harmonious thoughts they begin immediately to put their house in order the principle involved is perfectly simple but unfortunately the doing is anything but easy the Nemesis lies in the extraordinary potency of habit and habits of thinking are the most subtle in character in the most difficult to break it is easy comparatively speaking to break a physical habit if one really means business because action on the physical plane is so much slower and more evident than on the mental plane in dealing with habits of thought however we can't stand back and take a comparatively detached view as we can in contemplating our actions our thoughts flow across the stage of Consciousness in an unbroken stream and so rapidly that only unceasing vigilance can deal with them again the theater of one's actions is the area of his immediate presence I can only act where I am I may cause action or reaction by letter or telephone or I may press a button and bring about results at a distance but still my action happens where I am and at this present moment of time in thought on the contrary I can range over the whole area of my life including all the people with whom I have been or am in any way concerned and I can soar away into the past or into the future with equal ease we can see how much bigger the task of achieving all-around harmonious thinking or true righteousness is then it first appears for this reason many people become discouraged with themselves and either don't try or indulge in a great deal of self-condemnation because they aren't able to quickly change the whole current of thought over the whole area of their lives self-condemnation being essentially negative and therefore unrighteous thought tends to produce still more trouble in the old Vicious Circle if you are not progressing as fast as you wish to the remedy is to become even more aware of holding only harmonious thoughts don't dwell on your mistakes or the slowness of your progress but claim the presence of God with you all the more claim wisdom claim power or prosperity in prayer have a mental evaluation or a review of your life and see if you are still thinking wrongly in some section or other of your mind is there some wrong line of behavior that you still pursue is there someone whom you have not yet forgiven are you indulging in any kind of political or racial or religious hatred or contempt disguising itself under a cloak of self-righteousness remove the cloak and expose those thoughts in the light of right thinking the Great Law of the universe is just this but what you think in your mind you will produce in your in your as within so without you cannot think one thing and produce another if you want to produce circumstances of Harmony and happiness you must first produce thoughts for Harmony and happiness and then the outer things will follow if you want Health you must first think health and remember thinking health does not mean merely thinking a healthy body important that that is but it also includes thinking peace and enhancement and Goodwill to all later on in the sermon we will learn that destructive emotion is one of the primary causes of disease if you want spiritual unfoldment and growth in the knowledge of God you must think spiritual thoughts God's thoughts and give your attention which is your life to God rather than to limitation if you want material Prosperity you must first think Prosperity thoughts and then make a habit of doing so the thing that keeps most people poor is the sheer habit of poverty thinking if you want continue companionship if you want to be loved you must first think thoughts of love and Goodwill life begets like is another way of stating the Great Law which means that as a man's soweth in his unseen thoughts so shall he reap in that which is seen let's work together for good to those who love good meaning to love God means to occupy oneself with thoughts of good all things work together for good to those who thou good is there some kind of jealousy left in your heart it may be personal or it may be professional this is a good deal more common than anyone would readily admit replace the jealousy with thoughts of love are there any sentimental regrets or purposeless yearnings for the impossible if so accept a higher mental state through the power of God for no good thing is out of your reach at this very moment in time and forever waste no more time rehashing what is over and done but make the present and the future a splendid realization of your heart's desire is there remorse for mistakes passed and gone then remember that remorse distinct from repentance is merely a form of spiritual Pride to Revel in it is to stay apart from the love and forgiveness of God who says behold now is the day of salvation behold I make all things new blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled in this beatitude Jesus tells us not to be discouraged because we cannot overcome everything at once because our progress seems to be slow if we're not making any progress at all then we cannot be praying in the right way and it's up to us to find out why by examining our lives and by praying for wisdom and guidance indeed we should constantly pray for wisdom and guidance and for The Living Action of the Holy Spirit within us so that the quality of our prayers our prosperity is constantly increase but if we are moving if things are improving even if not very quickly we have no need to be discouraged we need only to work on steadily and provided we are truly wholehearted in our efforts that is to say that we really are hungering and thirsting for righteousness then we shall surely be filled God is Not mocked nor does he mock his children this is our guarantee that our sincere efforts in the search for truth and righteousness will result in success blessed are the merciful Mercy as it stands this beatitude calls for very little comment because the words employed bear the same meaning we give them today and the statement as given is as clear and obvious in its meaning as the law in question is simple and inflexible in its action the point that the scientific Christian needs to note is that as usual the vital bearing of the principle covered in this beatitude lies in its application to the realm of thought the thing that really matters is that we are merciful in our thoughts kind actions coupled with unkind thoughts are hypocritical dictated by fear or desire for self-glory or some other adverse motive they are counterfeits and they bless neither The Giver nor the recipient on the other hand the true thought about our fellow man blesses him spiritually mentally and materially and blesses us too let us be merciful in our mental judgments of our brother for in truths We Are All One and the more deeply he seems to air the more urgent is the need for us to help him with the right thought and so make it easier for him to be free understanding the power of the spiritual idea the Christ truth carries a responsibility that others don't have there is no way to evade it when someone's faults come to your attention see the best in them the Christ within them and be merciful above all it is true that in freeing others from the weight of your condemnation you make it possible to be free from self-condemnation blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God this is one of those rich and wonderful sayings in the Bible that sums up in a few words the whole philosophy of religion as usual in the scriptures the words are used in a technical sense and cover a far wider meaning than we attach to them in everyday life consider the promise in this beatitude it is nothing less than to see God now we know of course that God has no earthly form and therefore there is no question of seeing him in the ordinary physical sense in which one might see a human being or object if one could see God in this way then God would have to be limited and therefore not God to see in this sense refers to spiritual perception and spiritual perception means the capacity to experience the true nature of being we live in God's world and heaven lies all about us it's not a distant locality far off in space and time but all around us now when we think of God's world as separate from us then we are unable to experience it and we think we are Shut Out of Heaven Heaven is the name for the presence of God as God is infinite so is heaven heaven is the realm of spirit substance without age or Discord or decay yet at times do our Earthly view everything is aging decaying wearing out getting born only to die blossoming only to fade but we are only seeing one phase or a partial picture of what is happening Heaven is eternity but what we know here on Earth we know only as a sequence called time which never permits us to comprehend an experience in its entirety we see everything distributed in what we call space which continually inhibits the necessary regrouping of our experiences in order to know where we are our mental habits lead us to mold our experience into limited Dimensions only we are often like a colorblind person in a beautiful flower garden all around us are beautiful glorious colors but we can only see in black and white there is so much Beauty all around us if we could only see it this limitation known in theology as the fall of Man results from using our Free Will in opposition to the will of God God is divine mind and in that mind are no limitations or restrictions at all our goal is to rise above these perceived limitations until we can see things as they really are the sea god is to understand truth as it really is and that is infinite freedom and perfect bliss [Music] thank you [Music] blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God in this beatitude we are told exactly how this supreme task is to be accomplished and who shall do it the pure in heart again we have to understand that here are the words pure and Purity in the Bible mean a very great deal More Than Physical purity in its full and complete sense Purity is recognizing God alone as the only real cause and the only real power in existence it is what is called elsewhere in the sermon the single eye and it is the master key to life it is the secret of escape from all sickness trouble and limitation and overcoming or reversing of the fall of Man the word heart in the Bible usually means that part of man's mentality which modern psychology knows under the name of subconscious mind heart is a subconscious mind this is exceedingly important because it's not sufficient nor is it possible for us to accept the truth with the conscious mind only at that stage it is still an opinion it's not until it is accepted by the subconscious mind and thus assimilated into the whole mentality that it can make any difference in one's character or life as a man thinketh in his heart so is he keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life many people have intellectual or head knowledge of the presence of God but this is external we need to live with the presence of God in our hearts blessed are they who recognize God as the only real cause the only real presence and the only real power not merely in a theoretical or formal way but practically and specifically and wholeheartedly in all their thoughts and words and actions are not merely in some parts of their lives but in every nook and corner of their lives and mentalities keeping nothing back but bringing their own Wills into perfect harmony with God's will for they shall overcome all limitation of time and space and matter and carnal mind to realize and enjoy the presence of God forever God is the only Power blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God here we receive an invaluable practical lesson in the art of prayer and prayer is our only means of communion with God as a matter of fact prayer is the only real action in the full sense of the word because prayer is the only thing that changes one's character a change in character or a change in Soul is a real change when that kind of change takes place you become a different person and therefore for the rest of your life you think and act in a different way Jesus referred to this change as being born again in other words you become a different person the amount of the difference may be only very slight for each time that you pray nevertheless the change is there for you cannot pray without making yourself different in some degree the word prayer should be understood as including any form of communion or attempted communion with God whether vocal or purely mental in the absence of prayer all that you can do is to express the character that you have in whatever circumstances you find yourself prayer changes your character making a new reaction possible the great essential for success in prayer for obtaining that sense of the presence of God which is the secret of healing oneself and others too of obtaining inspiration which is the breadth of the soul of acquiring Spiritual Development the great essential for success in prayer is that we first attain some degree of true peace of mind this true interior Soul piece was known to the Mystic says Serenity and serenity is the grand passport to the presence of God the sea as smooth as glass that is round about the great white throne however we can overcome even the most serious difficulties by prayer without having any Serenity at all in fact the greater the trouble we Face the less Serenity we are able to have and the serenity itself is only to be had by prayer and by the forgiving of others and of oneself so prayer is always the answer but Serenity is necessary for Spiritual progress and it is Serenity that fundamental Tranquility of soul the peace that passes all human understanding experience the peace of God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God the peacemakers spoken of in this beatitude are those who make or bring about this true peace or Serenity in their own Souls for it is they who surmount limitation and become actual are not merely potentially the children of God this condition of mind is the objective of Jesus in all his instructions peace I leave with you my peace I gave unto you let not your heart be troubled neither Let It Be Afraid to be a peacemaker in the usual sense of settling the quarrels of other people is as all practical people know an excessively difficult role to fill by interfering in other people's Strife it's ever so much easier to make things worse than to make them better personal opinion is almost certain to enter into our efforts and personal opinion is very likely to be wrong once we incorporate the power of prayer many quarrels heal in the true way probably without speaking at all the silent thought of the all-power of love and wisdom will cause any trouble to melt away blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you in view of what we know about the essential character of the teaching of Jesus that the will of God for us is harmony peace and joy and that these things are to be attained by cultivating right thoughts or righteousness then this beatitude is a very controversial statement Jesus tells us again and again that it is our father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom and that the way in which we are to receive it is by cultivating Serenity or peace of soul he says that the peacemakers who do this praying in meekness shall obtain Prosperity inherit the Earth have their sadness turned into Joy and that in fact whatever they shall ask the father in the manner of this teaching will be fulfilled yet here we're told that it is blessed to be persecuted as the result of our right thinking or righteousness and by these means we shall Triumph that it is cause for rejoicing in gladness to be reviled and accused and that the prophets and the great enlightened ones suffered these things too all this is perfectly correct only we have to understand that the source of all this persecution is none other than our own selves no outside persecutor but only our own lower selves when we find righteousness or right thinking very difficult when we are very strongly tempted to hold the wrong thoughts about some situation or some person or about ourselves or to give way to fear or anger or despondency then we are being persecuted for righteousness sake and this is for us an extremely fortunate or blessed condition for in such moments we are really advancing every spiritual treatment or scientific prayer involves a struggle with our lower self indulging the old habit of negative thought keeping the familiar and resisting change all the great prophets and enlightened ones even Jesus overcame by just such struggles with himself persecuted by their own lower natures now since these battles with the lower self have to be fought out sooner or later then the sooner they are over and done with the better and so they are great Blessings by keeping us on the path to God there is no virtue or Advantage whatever in being persecuted or annoyed by other people nothing can come into our experience unless it finds something in us with which it is a tune and so to have trouble and difficulty is only a sign that our own mentality needs clearing up for what we see at any time is nothing but our own concept some feel inclined to claim that they are being persecuted on account of their spiritual superiority some prefer the heroic self-sacrifice of the Martyr but their understanding is incomplete or they wouldn't feel persecuted if you fix your attention on superiority or martyrdom regarding it as the highest good you will as with anything upon which you fix your attention tend to bring it to yourself in the Great Law of Life which The Sermon on the Mount explains we can get only what belongs to us at any time and no one can prevent our getting that and so all persecution and hindrance are absolutely from within for what you see at any time is nothing but your own concept thinking is being teaches us how to examine and alter our thinking to bring truth and Harmony into our lives all the Bible quotes are from Matthew chapter 5. [Music] we are the salt of the earth the salt had lost his saber where which shall it be salted it is dense forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be traveling Under Foot of men ye are the light of the world a city that is fed on a hill cannot be hid neither do men light a candle and put it into a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven in this wonderful passage Jesus is addressing those who have awakened to the understanding of material bondage and have acquired some spiritual understanding of the nature of being that is to say he is addressing those who understand the meaning of the oldness of God or good on the powerlessness of evil in the face of Truth such people he describes as being the salt of the earth and the light of the world and indeed that is not too much to claim for those who understand the truth and who really live the life that corresponds to it it is possible and in fact only too easy to accept these vital principles as being true to love the beauty in them and yet not to put them constantly into practice in one's own life but this won't work because in that case the salt has lost its favor and is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot if you understand and accept the teachings of Jesus and make every effort to practice them in every Department of your own daily life if you seek systematically to change in yourself everything that keeps you from God such as selfishness Pride vanity penicuity self-righteousness jealousy self-pity resentment condemnation and so forth not by feeding or nourishing them by giving in but starving them by refusing to give them only thought or expression if you extend the right thought loyally to every person or thing in your life especially to the people or things you dislike then you are among those called the salt of the earth if you truly live this life then it doesn't matter in the least what your present circumstances may be or what difficulties you may have against you you will triumph over them all and make your demonstration and you will be in every positive and literal sense a healing and Illuminating influence on all around you and a blessing to the whole human race ye are the light of the world a city that is sat on a hill cannot be hid the state of your soul is always expressed in your outer conditions and in the intangible influence which you radiate at large there is a cosmic law that nothing can permanently deny its own nature Emerson said what you are shout so loudly that I cannot hear what you say in the Bible the city always stands for Consciousness in the hill or Mountain always means prayer or spiritual activity I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help accept the Lord keep the city The Watchmen waketh but in vain neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house let your light so shine before man that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven the soul that is built upon prayer cannot be hidden it shined up brightly through the life that it lives it speaks for itself but in utter silence and does much of its best work unconsciously its mere presence heals and blesses all around it without special effort no one can force another person to accept spiritual truth but if people are favorably impressed by your life or your behavior and by the peace and joy that radiates from you they will come to you of their own accord wanting to be near the wonderful thing that you have think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets I have not come to destroy but to fulfill for verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same Shall be Called great in the Kingdom of Heaven for I say unto you that accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees he shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven true Christianity is an entirely positive influence it comes into a man's life to enlarge and enrich it to make it Fuller and wider and better never to restrict it you cannot lose anything that is worth having through acquiring a knowledge of the truth there has to be sacrifice but only the sacrifice of things that one is much happier without never of anything that is really worth having many people have the idea that getting a better knowledge of God will mean giving up to things that they will regret losing the most some people mean to take up religion later on when they are older because they want to enjoy themselves for a while first this concept misses the whole point the things one has to sacrifice are selfishness fear and belief and necessary limitation of any kind above all one has to sacrifice the belief that there is any power or endurance and evil apart from the power that we ourselves give it by believing in it Drawing Near to God doesn't cause the loss of any enjoyment but gives us immeasurable happiness when we stay near to God our Consciousness changes and we find that certain forms of pleasure seeking will no longer attract us when this happens there is ample compensation in the new light that is thrown upon every phase of our life and in the wonderful new aspects that the world begins to hold for us only the things not worth having disappear under the action of truth only to things not worth having disappear under the action of truth some suppose that the knowledge of truth of being puts them above the moral law in the sense of having special authorization in fact the more spiritual knowledge we possess the more responsibility we have to be aware of our own moral code in every facet of Our Lives all sincere spiritual understanding is accompanied by moral Improvement but real spiritual progress comes from living God's truth with right thinking and right Behavior for verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled a jot the Greek Iota means the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet the Tittle meaning little horn is one of those tiny Spurs or projections that distinguishes one Hebrew letter from another the thought is that not only the letter of the moral law is to be kept but smallest detail of the letter we have to exemplify not merely common morality but the highest standards of Honor for I say unto you that accept your righteousness shall be exceeded by the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven the scribes and the Pharisees were for the most part worthy men leading strictly moral lives Unfortunately they had only the letter of the law but that letter they usually kept in its entirety rigorously doing their Duty as they saw it their faults were the Fatal weaknesses of the religious formalist everywhere spiritual pride and self-righteousness they were unconscious of these faults and did strive to fulfill the law as they understood it Jesus knew this and gave them credit for it but warns his followers that unless their lives are in every respect as good as and even better than that of these people they need not suppose that they are making any spiritual Headway spiritual attainment and the highest standards of conduct must go hand in hand unless both are there neither is there as you're growing through spiritual power and understanding you will actually find that many outer rules and regulations will become unnecessary because you have really risen above them this point in your development or your understanding of Truth enables you to dispense with certain outer props and regulations is the spiritual coming of age to give a simple illustration some people find that at a certain stage of their progress their mental processes become so orderly and clarified that they can go through their day's work keep all their appointments and discharge all their duties without bothering to consult a clock or needing to wear a watch when the student is spiritually ready to dispense with his watch he will find himself doing the right thing at the right time without thinking about the watch at all the point is not to attain Mastery over time the proper course is to wear a watch be aware of time and devote our thoughts and prayers to things that really matter such as healing ourselves and others overcoming weakness working for understanding and wisdom and the larger issues of Life the spiritual Coming of Age cannot be hurried or forced but must appear in its own good time when the Consciousness is ready exactly as the flowering of a bulb can only be the result of natural growth you have to be who you are where you are know that in your heart of hearts you have to demonstrate Where You Are occasionally we see people who try to demonstrate beyond their spiritual level for example someone may be ill and refuse to take medical treatment because they believe that the Holy Spirit alone will heal them although it is perfectly advisable to practice scientific prayer giving God total power to heal and to make the illness disappear it is also advisable to seek God's help Through The Healing Hands of a trained physician the man who has considerable moral imperfections perhaps in the habit of a grave era of character and yet at the same time sincerely desires spiritual growth 82 relinquished the Quest for Spiritual knowledge until he reforms his conduct surely not as a matter of fact to improve himself morally without spiritual growth is destined for failure to use Abraham Lincoln's phrase no more can a man raise himself off the ground by pulling on his own bootstraps then the sinner can reform himself by his own personal efforts the only thing to do is pray regularly especially at the actual times of Temptation and to give the responsibility for success to God we must continue in this method no matter how many times we sail and if we continue to pray we'll soon find that we are free from that particular problem to pray scientifically is to keep affirming that God is helping us that the Temptation has no power against us and constantly to claim that our own real nature is spiritual and perfect this is much more powerful than to merely evoke the help of God in this way moral regeneration and spiritual enforcement will go hand in hand the Christian life doesn't require that we possessed Perfection of character or else who would be able to live it what it does require is honest genuine striving for that perfection [Music] you have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Reika shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell Fire therefore as thou bring thy gift to The Altar and there remembers that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift the Old Law dealing as it did with an earlier and Lower State of Consciousness of mankind concerned itself necessarily with external things for man's apparent evolution is from the outer to the inner just as his fundamental spiritual growth is from the inner to the outer he begins by giving his attention exclusively to externals thinking to find in them cause as well as a fact but as mankind progresses the truth gradually Dawns on him that outer things are the finished article only the result of causes and happenings on the inner and at this stage he has started definitely upon the search for God the Old Law said Thou shalt not kill and provided man did not murder he kept the law regardless of how much he may have desired to commit murder or how much bitterly he might still hate his enemy it said Thou shalt not steal and provided man did not appropriate his neighbor's property he fulfilled the law no matter how he really felt Jesus came to carry the human race forward to the next great step the most important step of all which can indeed be the final step in the overcoming of all our limitations if we can understand clearly what that step implies and take it the heart of the whole Sermon on the Mount which is itself the essence of the Christian message is the insistence upon the need for this step the understanding that outer Conformity absolutely essential as it is is no longer sufficient in itself but that now if we are to come of age spiritually we have to not merely conform outwardly to Outer rules but to change the inner self also have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment the old lost shalt not kill but Jesus says that even to want to kill even to be angry with your fellow man is sufficient to keep you out of the Kingdom of Heaven it was a distinct gain when primitive barbarous people could be persuaded not to murder those who had offended them but spiritual demonstration requires that anger itself be overcome we have to release the resentment and condemnation of ourselves and others before we can truly experience God and his power of healing in prayer the more love the more power and this is why people have developed spiritual perception take such constant pains to keep themselves free from thoughts of criticism and condemnation they know that they can have either their demonstration or their indignation but they can't have both and so they don't waste time trying therefore if thou bring thy gift to The Altar and there remembers that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift indignation resentment the desire to punish other people or to see them punished the desire to get even the feeling it serves him right all these things form a quite impenetrable barrier to spiritual power or progress Jesus dramatizing in the Oriental way says that if you are bringing a gift to The Altar and you remember that your brother has anything against you you must put down your gift without attempting to offer it and go away to make peace with your brother and then when you have done that your offering will be acceptable it was the old law to take Gifts of all kinds to the temple now under the new law Jesus means that our altar is our own Consciousness and our offerings are our prayers and treatments our burnt sacrifices are the error thoughts which we let go of or burn away in spiritual treatment and so Jesus says that when we are about to pray if we remember that we have any wrong thoughts or hard feelings about our brother man no matter who he may be and regardless of whether the object of our hostile thought is an individual or a body of people we must pause and practice love towards them until we have released this sense of hostility and have once more restored the seamless Garment of our spiritual integrity but I say to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Reika shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell Fire Jesus builds up this tremendous lesson again in the Oriental tradition by employing a series of steps three in this case he says first that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger secondly to be seriously or vindictively hostile to another is to be in grave danger and finally that to hold so low an opinion about a fellow human being that we allow ourselves to consider him beneath us then we have shut ourselves off from any hope of spirituality while we remain in this state of mind to call a man a fool in this sense means that we consider that nothing good is to be expected from him which is to deny his indwelling Christ Jesus says whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause no same person gets angry without what he deems to be a cause however trifling the cause may be what Jesus means is that whoever is angry with his brother under any circumstance is in danger [Music] delivered thee to the judge and the judge delivery to the officer and thou be cast into prison apparently I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou Hast paid the uttermost farther goth is it the utmost practical importance Jesus is stressing here the instruction contained in his message to watch and pray it's so much easier to overcome a difficulty if you tackle it immediately at its first appearance then it will be after the trouble has had some time to establish itself in your mentality the moment evil presents itself to your attention you should immediately turn it out refuse to accept it and by quietly affirming the truth give it no chance to enter your life if you do this you will find that it has little or no power over you even if you don't experience results right away don't give up give truth the power and the power of truth comes back to you on the other hand by accepting the evil and by thinking about it you are giving the power to evil and incorporating it into your mentality and if you go on doing this long enough it may be exceedingly difficult to get rid of we find it comparatively easy once we have learned to pray scientifically to overcome new difficulties as they present themselves but the older ones whose positioned we have fortified by years of acceptance are difficult to dislodge Jesus in accordance with his usual custom when you wish to drive home a particular important Point employed a graphic illustration from an everyday life of the people around him in those times when a man found himself indebted strongly behooled him to come to terms with his creditor by an acceptable means and as quickly as possible even at the present day it is highly important to someone in debt to keep his case from coming to court if possible because there are so many additional costs that are added to the original debt the longer the case drags on so do lawyer's fees quote costs and all sorts of expenses accumulate indeed cases are cited where the costs involved in legal proceedings actually exceeded the original debt it's the same with the various difficulties that present themselves to us in our daily lives the original difficulty usually becomes multiplied many times by all our wrong thoughts concerning it and we aren't free until the whole debt is cleared by coming to terms in the first place this is to say by getting our thoughts right immediately concerning the difficulty we incur no further costs and the transaction remains a simple one when the era first presents itself to our Consciousness that is to say at the first moment that the possibility of catching cold occurs either through sneezing or feeling chilly we should immediately reject it claim our dominion and affirm the truth the cold may never appear or run its course much sooner business or family difficulty should be handled in exactly the same way usual behavior when finding bad news concerning business Affairs is to accept the worst and to dwelt on it at almost any length many people will saturate themselves with the thought of Ruin discuss it in great detail with others and rehearse every kind of trouble and difficulty that might result in addition to all this there would in many cases be bitter resentment and condemnation towards the people held to be responsible for the bad news even a very slight knowledge of the causative powers of our thought will show us that the result of all this must inevitably be to increase and multiply the trouble and make it more and more difficult to escape as students of the Christ teaching we will sooner or later start to drive all negative thought out of our mentality substituting the true law of being and to do this according to Jesus is to immediately turn to God our real support and refuse to accept the suggestion of trouble as binding upon us and literally Drive the thought of loss and danger right out of our Consciousness together with the fear and resentment that go with it if we do this working steadily until our peace of mind is restored we will presently find ourselves safely out of difficulty in some way or other the trouble will disappear the same principle would of course apply equally to any kind of difficulty whatever since Universal Harmony is the true law of being a dispute a quarrel or misunderstanding should be handled in the same way from the first moment you become aware of it whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her had committed adultery with her already in his heart Jesus stresses the master truth so utterly fundamental yet so unsuspected by The World At Large that what really matters is thought people have always been accustomed to suppose that as long as their deeds conform to the law I have done all that can be expected now we know that the thought we allow to become habitual will sooner or later find expression on the plane of action in the life of scientific Christianity thoughts literally are things and that our choice of conduct really lies in our choice of the kind of thought that we permit to occupy the stage of our mind in other words we have discovered that a wrong thought is just as destructive an act as a wrong deed keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life [Music] this concludes thinking is being directing life despite life's Direction foreign to have in order to maintain the Integrity of our soul in the face of life's most difficult situations all the Bible quotes are from Matthew chapter 5. and If thy right eye will then be plugged out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell [Music] and If thy right hand offends thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body shall be cast into hell the Integrity of the Soul is the one and only thing that matters and so Jesus in his teaching is almost exclusively concerned with impressing us with the importance of this fact and we're instructing us on how we are to accomplish it cost what it will involve what it may the Integrity of the Soul must be preserved for everything else falls upon that behavior health Prosperity life itself better to sacrifice your right eye or right hand so that your soul may obtain the clarity of understanding that is salvation Jesus means that any era of character any Grudge left Unforgiven any Greed for the things of this world whatever stands between us and our true contact with God must be eliminated from our lives these things however are fairly obvious it's a subtle things like self-love and self-righteousness spiritual pride and so forth that are the most difficult for the self to detect and correct but must be done sometimes the practice of a certain profession or the association of certain people or membership to some particular body is standing in our way and if so must become part of the past it has been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery we are told that in those days divorces were granted by the rabbinical law on the most trifling grounds married people who were not getting on together as well as they would have liked were too prone to run away from their problems by obtaining an easy disillusion and then trying their luck with someone else now we understand that no permanent happiness can be obtained in this way as long as you are running away from your problem you will continue to meet it in a new disguise at every turn in the road the scientific solution is to meet your difficulty Where You Are by means of spiritual treatment or scientific prayer this applies to problems concerning marriage quite as much as if not more than to problems of any other kind as none of us is perfect and the one complaining is certain to have his or her own faults no less than the one complained about then if it can possibly be done make the present marriage a success by persistently knowing the spiritual truth about each other if the aggravated partner will see the Christ truth about the other one than in nearly every case a happy solution will be the outcome one woman said after a few months of handling her problems spiritually the man I was going to divorce has disappeared and the man I married has come back we are perfectly happy again just as in running from one business position to another or from one home to another without first having brought about a change in Consciousness we find ourselves repeating the old conditions in a slightly different way so as a rule people who divorce freely trying marriage after marriage are apt to finish up as dissatisfied as they began the general rule and Truth is fight out your problem where you are with prayer nevertheless there is a limit to what a man or a woman can be expected to put up with in marriage and in certain cases no doubt the Lesser evil is a disillusion but this should be only The Last Resort Jesus we know consistently refrained from laying down hard and fast rules and regulations for the details of our conduct knowing that if our principles were right such things would take care of themselves without fail and we may be sure of that with this supremely practical and Common Sense handling of human problems he would have given the wise and merciful decision in any particular case in the time of Moses adulterers were stoned to death under the law but under the guidance of the scriptures Moses forgave and dismissed them in peace at any rate those who are in any doubt concerning their own conduct in this matter have a simple remedy they should pray for guidance they should claim that Divine wisdom is Illuminating their understanding and direction of their actions in the matter and avoid taking any definite steps until they find a clear leading in their own consciousness the general rule is still good for all conditions in life rather than trying to divorce or amputate the inharmony let it dissolve a way of itself under treatment of Prayer that is what was done by the woman who said that the man she married had come back and she considers her demonstration a perfect one [Music] again ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time a shalt not forswear thyself but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the Earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay may may for whosoever is more than these cometh of evil swear not at all is one of the cardinal points in the teaching of Jesus it means briefly that we are not to take vows we are not to mortgage our future conduct in advance we are not in any way to seek to fix our conduct or our belief for tomorrow while it is still today for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof it's an absolutely vital part of his teaching that we are constantly to seek direct inspirational contact with God if we are to receive the guidance of God Divine wisdom it is absolutely essential that we have an open mind because the wisdom we receive may not be in accord with our own personal feelings or present opinions not staying open in our thoughts and beliefs is what the Bible calls the sin against the holy ghost or any action within ourselves which prevents the activity of the presence of God from taking place in our soul the symptoms of this malady Are Spiritual stagnation and an all-round unhappy life too often accompanied by feelings of self-righteousness and spiritual Pride the only cure is a change of attitude of course Jesus doesn't mean that we are not to enter into ordinary business engagement these things are matters of legal convenience for the transaction of business between man and man they are right and necessary and an ordered Society The Sermon on the Mount as we have seen is based on the spiritual life for the spiritual life controls all the rest but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's Throne nor by the Earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king many of the churches still require their ministers upon ordination and usually while they are still quite young with immature Minds to solemnly promise or vow that they will for the whole of their future lives continue to believe the doctrines of their particular sect and this is what Jesus especially wished to prevent if we are praying every day as we should for enlightenment and guidance the one certain thing is that we will not go on holding to the same ideas as we grow older but that we will be continually revising enlarging and expanding them we will die daily as we are to be reborn bigger and wiser and better for tomorrow we must always be perfectly free at any moment to conduct the Affairs of our soul as the action of divine wisdom may lead us to pray or not to pray to pray in this way or that way and for this and for that purpose to read or not to read any book to attend or not to attend churches or meetings as we may feel led the most important application of this injunction against making hard and fast rules lies in the matter of our prayers many people have made rigid rules for the conduct of their personal prayers or devotions but these are sure to destroy the spirit of the thing sooner or later people say I always start with the Lord's Prayer or a certain Psalm or I begin every treatment in such and such a way oh this is a mistake we should always pray as we feel led to do by the action of the holy spirit in our soul at the moment that carries power a thought that is given to us in this way has considerably more power to demonstrate than one that we consciously select for ourselves or borrow from any other source remember however that it's only hard and fast rules that are to be avoided it's a good idea to have some kind of schedule for prayer to fall back upon at times when nothing better presents itself in fact most people will need a schedule in the beginning the essential point is that we must always be ready to drop it at a moment's notice under the guidance of the spirit if our prayers seem to bring no result or if we feel stagnate in our means of Prayer we can go to our secret place for inspiration and then use the first thought that comes or try dipping into the Bible at random and find an inspired Direction neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil this section further teaches that we must not undertake to bring about particular events or conditions or particular solutions to our problems what is technically called outlining when we find ourselves in difficulties we should pray for Harmony and freedom and expect to get it but we should not seek to select the exact Arrangement that will come about or the course that things will take if we make up our minds very firmly that we are going to get a particular thing we very likely will but this exercise of willpower is almost certain to create difficulties stand for what is called in scientific prayer the affirmation and the denial respectively these are the affirmation of Truth and Harmony and the omnipresence of God in reality and the denial of any power in error or limitation ye have heard that it has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also and if any man will soon be at the law and take away thy coat that he may have thy cloak also and whosoever shall compel thee to grow a mile go with him between give to him that ascathy and from him that would borrow thee turn thou not away when we accept the Jesus Christ message nothing is ever the same again all values change radically compared with Jesus all the so-called revolutionists radicals and reformers of History are now seen to have only been merely scratching the surface rearranging unimportant externals whereas Jesus went down to the root of things the old law designed to maintain some degree of order among a barbarous people had said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth to whatever extent he maimed or wounded another he himself would be made to suffer for Barbara's people unable to look forward Beyond The Passion of the moment this did no doubt in most cases furnish an effective check upon primitive instinct then as time went on and barbarism gradually passed into a settled civilization this primitive code was slowly Modified by public opinion into something at least less obviously brutal this was the case as far as public Justice was concerned in private life however the ancient code continues to hold sway in men's hearts and Minds to this day even though they no longer perpetrate the same Deeds of violence when we've been hurt or suffered Injustice or witnessed things which we did not approve the desire to get even to get one's own back to even things up somehow or other is still with us all and will remain with us until the time when we definitely take ourselves in hand and change it Revenge lies at the root of all the Strife in the world public and private it is the direct cause of international Wars a family feuds and personal quarrels and ill health now Jesus reverses this and says that when someone injures you instead of seeking to get your own back or to repay him in his own method you are to do the very opposite you are to forgive him and set him free no matter what the provocation may be and no matter how many times it's repeated this is what to do you are to free him and let him go for only then can you be freed yourself only then can you possess your own soul hatred ceases not with hatred says the Asian philosophy enunciating this great Cosmic truth many centuries ago and Jesus put it in the Forefront of his teaching because it is the Cornerstone of man's salvation this doctrine of resist not evil is a great metaphysical secret to the world or to those who don't understand it sounds like moral suicide the feebleists surrendering to the aggressor but in the light of the Jesus Christ Revelation it is seen to be superb spiritual strategy antagonize any situation and we give it power against us or for mental non-resistance and it crumbles away but I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also Jesus gives us no instructions for details of external conduct and so the references here to suing at law to coat and cloak to lending and borrowing to turning the other cheek our illustrative and symbolic of mental States and are not to be taken in the narrow literal sense this statement however is not in any way an Endeavor to evade or gloss over a difficult text we cannot remind ourselves too often that if the thought is right the deed cannot be wrong your teacher could ever say that a given act must necessarily be right at any time because the play of circumstances in human life is too hopelessly complicated for any such prediction this instruction about turning the other cheek refers to the changing of one's thoughts when faced by error changing from the error to the truth and as a rule it works like magic when someone is behaving badly instead of thinking about the trouble immediately switch your attention off of the human to the Divine and concentrate upon God or upon the real spiritual self of the person in question and you will find if you really do this that their behavior will change this is the secret of handling difficult people and Jesus understood it thoroughly if people are Troublesome you have only to change your thought about them and then they will change too because your own concept is what you see it's been tried thousands and thousands millions of times and it never fails when properly carried out sometimes we find ourselves in company where the conversation is very negative with sickness and trouble being described and dwelt upon at Great length or perhaps uncharitable statements are made about other people for various reasons draw mentally turn the other cheek helping both the speakers and their victims and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him Twain give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow thee turn not thou away let him have thy cloak also and go with him Twain our dramatic Expressions that even further emphasize the principle of non-resistance in thought to seemingly evil conditions meet the attitude of fellow men sympathetically as far as you possibly can concede every point that is not absolutely essential and redeem the remainder with the true thought of Christ Never Surrender to error of course but it's the error and not the one who errors that is to be avoided [Music] you have heard that it has been said Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he make it his son to rise on the evil and on the good and descendeth the rain on the just and on the unjust for if ye love them which love you what reward there be do not even Republicans the same and if ye salute your brethren only but do ye more than others do not even Republicans so be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you hatred ceases not with hatred is here again the theme and now Jesus puts this fundamental truth in such a plain and simple way that no one can misunderstand him instead of hating our enemies as our lower Instinct impels us to do we are to love them for curses we return blessings and hatred we reward with good for our spiritual enlightenment we need to be void of all sense of resentment and hostility and change our state of mind until we are conscious only of Harmony and peace within and have a sense of positive Goodwill towards all this is not merely the most practical policy but for the reasons upon which the whole Sermon on the Mount is founded it is the only policy where progress is possible physical health itself in the long run is not possible without forgiveness and Good Will to everyone and even material Prosperity will disappear unless our soul is free from hatred and condemnation in the understanding of what is called the spiritual idea here is a wonderful lesson in Practical spiritual treatment or scientific prayer quite simply the spiritual idea is the understanding of the basic fact that good is permanent omnipresent and all-powerful and evil is a temporary insubstantial belief without character of its own which is destroyed by scientific prayer the only existence evil has is that which you give it by temporarily and sowing it with your thought withdraw this and it fades into nothingness unthink it it's always your thinking that matters to quote Shakespeare there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so fear hatred and resentment are ideas heavily charged with emotion and when added to any difficulty recharge it with fresh and vigorous life and make it all the more difficult to overcome again the mere rehearsing in thought of any difficulty endows it with new life going over old grievances mentally thinking how badly someone acted and recalling the details has the effect of Reviving what was quietly expiring of neglect we mold our own life Destiny day by day entirely by the manner in which we react mentally to experience as it comes right action is the Supreme art of life and Jesus compressed The Secret of that art into a sentence when he said resist not evil as soon as we resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance we endow it with more power which it will use against us and deplete our own resources whether we have to meet a physical a personal or a business difficulty we mustn't belabor it mentally or block or deny its existence instead we should reach out mentally for the presence of God and hold that thought steadily that the presence is with us and also with the person or the place where the evil has presented itself this is the true spiritual method of loving your enemy that ye may be the children of your Father which art in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth Reign on the just and on the unjust God is love and is therefore absolutely all-powerful this is the scientific application of Love against which nothing evil can stand loving your enemies in this scientific way is also the key to Health by which the secret of physical well-being lies in the realization of Divine Life and divine love all physical Improvement follows after this it does not precede it we know the importance of the glands for the proper functioning of our bodies and our glands are governed entirely by our emotions therefore the way to adjust and regulate the glands is by the cultivation of right feeling and this must extend to our subconscious feelings which can only be done by treatment by prayer be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect this command of Jesus is one of the most tremendous things in the whole Bible consider carefully what he is saying he is commanding us to be perfect even as God himself is perfect and as we know Jesus doesn't ask the impossible he gives us his authority to the doctrine that it is possible for man to become divinely perfect and moreover he tells us to do it therefore man can't possibly be the miserable hopeless sinner that theology has too often represented him to be but that we are the very offspring of God our Father which is in heaven and our potentially Divine and perfect as Jesus elsewhere puts it quoting the ancient scripture I said ye are gods and all of you sons of the most high he then added by way of emphasis and the scripture cannot be broken now if we really are the children of God capable of Eternal and Flawless Perfection then there can be no real power in evil not even in sin to keep us permanently in bondage using right thinking it can only be a matter of time before we assume our true condition of spiritual salvation I will arise and go unto my father and take the Kingdom of Heaven by storm [Music] this concludes such directing life despite life's Direction living heaven on Earth shows us how prayer can make our lives the very best they can be foreign [Music] I heed that ye do not your arms before men to be seen of them otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine arms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have the glory of man verily I say unto you they have their reward but when thou doest arms let not thy left hand know what thy right hands doeth the thine owns may be in secret and thy father would seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly and when thou praised Thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their reward but thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou Hast Shut by door pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father would see it in secret shall reward thee openly but when ye pray use not vain repetitions as the Heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much-speaking be naughty therefore like unto them for your father knowest what things you have need of before he ask him foreign [Music] man is the ruler of a kingdom and that kingdom is the world of his own life and experience the Bible is full of stories of kings and Their Kingdoms of wise Kings and foolish Kings of wicked Kings and righteous Kings of Victorious Kings and defeated Kings of the rise and fall of Kingdoms of every sort Jesus in his teaching uses this idea as a simile each of these Kings is really every man studied in the various aspects of his mental Outlook the Bible is a book of every man primarily a textbook of metaphysics a manual of the Soul's development the spiritual awakening of the individual problems are analyzed from every possible angle and the fundamental lessons of spiritual truth are put forward in all sorts of ways to meet every condition and every need and almost every mood of human nature sometimes you are a king sometimes you are a fisherman sometimes a gardener a weaver a Potter a merchant a high priest a captain of hosts or a beggar but a king as the absolute ruler of his own kingdom is the consideration of The Sermon on the Mount for this is the most complete of all the comparisons when we know the truth of being we are the absolute monarch of our own lives we make our own conditions we make our own health we attract certain kinds of people and certain conditions and others we repel we attract riches or poverty we attract peace of mind or fear entirely in accordance with the way in which we govern our own kingdoms most people believe that the conditions of Life are largely made by outer circumstances and by other people and that at all times unforeseen and unexpected accidents of one sort or another seriously inconvenienced or even completely ruin the scheme of life but the truth is being is just the contrary of all this and man has suffered because he has been deceived about the nature of life and of himself and that is why Jesus said know the truth and the truth shall make you free that is why he spent the years of his public life teaching and explaining the truth telling us about God and man and instructing us how to live and he deliberately chose to undertake the difficulties and suffering of his life in order to help Mankind and be the example we should follow that thine alms may be in secret and thy father would see it in secret himself shall reward thee openly considering his his kingdom in a little we find at the king's Palace the office of government so to speak is nothing less than our own Consciousness our own mentality this is our very own private office and the business transacted there is the swirl of thoughts that continually pass across our minds this secret place of the most high is the ultimate secret because we are the only ones who ever really know what we are thinking there is privacy and there is Dominion we have the power to think what thoughts we like we can choose which thoughts we accept and which we reject we are Masters there the kind of thoughts that we hold in Consciousness the secret the secret place are presently going to be expressed in our outer lives in our bodies and our affairs whatever the mind dwells upon will sooner or later come into our experience it's not that the particular thing you are thinking will be exactly what will happen although sometimes it does therefore if we think very much about disease we tend to undermine our health if we think about poverty then we tend to bring about failure and if we think about trouble chaos and dishonesty we attract them to us thinking about these negatives is only one of the two facts that produce the negative circumstances the other and more important factor is the entertainment of negative or destructive emotions to have feelings of anger resentment jealousy Spite and so forth is certain to damage our health and our successes the question of the justification of such feelings does not apply at all justification has absolutely nothing to do with the results for it's a matter of natural law sometimes we feel we have a right to be angry perhaps being the victim of shabby treatment and that we possess a kind of license or special permit to hold angry feelings without experiencing their natural consequences on our lives this of course isn't possible who can give such a permit and if they could general laws could never be set aside for special instances and we should have not an ordered universe but chaos if we drink a deadly poison we will die because that is the law of nature even if we have mistaken the poison as a harmless liquid it wouldn't make any difference because the law takes no account of intentions for the same reason to entertain negative emotions is to ask for trouble no matter what justification we may think we have following the same principle the right to hate is not justified no matter how incorrigible the person or the crime they may have committed scientific Christians never consider hatred to be justifiable in any circumstances and there is no question about its practical consequences we might just as well swallow that dose of poison and believe we are protected because the Venom is directed at a murderer or an evil person there is no doubt as to who will receive the results of the poison it's very significant that Jesus should call our Consciousness the secret place he desires as always to impress us with the truth that the inner causes the outer and not the outer that brings about the condition of the inner neither does one outer thing ever cause another outer thing cause and effect are from the within to the without this all-embracing master law is not difficult to grasp in theory in practice however it can get lost in the Russian tumble of everyday life nothing has any real significance unless originated in the secret place think rightly on the inside and sooner or later all will be well on the outside changing the externals in your life without also changing your thoughts and feelings not only waste your time but you may easily lull yourself into a false sense of security and live an empty and hypocritical life and when thou prayest Thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are for they love to praise standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their reward but thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou Hast shut thy door pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father would see it in secret shall reward thee openly from the beginning of time mankind has cherished the illusion that outward acts which are easy can be made to take the place of interior change in thought and feeling which is difficult it is easy to buy and wear ceremonial garments to repeat set prayers by road to use stereotyped forms of Devotion to attend religious services at prescribed periods and to leave the heart unchanged the rituals of religion take but a moment to fasten onto but the cleansing of the heart takes hours and years of earnest prayer and self-discipline the spiritualization of thought does in practice undoubtedly lead the student to simplify his mode of life for so many things that previously seemed important are now found to be unimportant and uninteresting and they gradually find themselves meeting different people reading different books spending time differently and that conversation naturally changes its quality old things are passed away behold I make all things new and these things follow upon the change of the heart they can never precede it those who listen to The Sermon on the Mount had often seen the Pharisees performing good works in the most ostentatious way in order to win the reputation of being exceptionally Orthodox insanely with the impression that they were actually advancing their spiritual welfare as well Jesus has analyzed and explained this Behavior once and for all he says that the Applause that follows upon outer acts is the only reward they ever bring and that the only results worthwhile are to be found in the secret place of consciousness if we pray scientifically to our father in secret he will reward us openly with a genuine demonstration of a happy life but when ye pray use not obeying repetitions as the Heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much-speaking be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things ye have need out before ye ask him here Jesus lays stress upon the need for keeping our prayers alive merely to repeat a phrase mechanicalism no use at all when praying one should be constantly feeling out making himself receptive to divine inspiration there is no problem in repeating a helpful phrase provided it doesn't become mechanical if your prayers lack the feeling and begin to be routine then stop go away and do something else and return later with a fresh mind for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him we don't create good for it already exists eternally in the truth of the omnipresence of God nevertheless we bring good into manifestations through our own personal realization of Truth when we pray on our particular needs of particular problems only for General Harmony the results of our work will be spread over every Department of our life but the Improvement in any particular detail may be negligible of course we don't pray for a specific thing as an object in itself but when we experience a lack whether it's money or position or a house or a friend we treat ourselves to Soul concerning that sense of lack and when we have prayed enough to correct our understanding regarding the problems the thing we are needing will appear as proof that the work has been done satisfy the sense of lack within ourselves with a sense of divine love and the missing thing will appear in our lives of its own accord s will be done when we say our prayers we can even be precise and business-like Jesus himself was all these things [Music] after this manner therefore pray Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen for if ye forgives man their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses [Music] this the greatest of all prayers which we commonly call The Lord's Prayer is in fact a superb summation of the whole Jesus Christ teaching in a form unequaled for its brevity and completeness it is really nothing less than a complete outline of Christian metaphysics in these few verses this prayer defines the nature of God and of man and explains the true relationship between them tells us what the universe really is and provides a method of Rapid Spiritual Development for those who use it intelligently every day note particularly how strongly Jesus insists upon the need for forgiveness if we are to make any spiritual progress at all moreover when ye fast be not as the Hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men too fast verily I say unto you they have their reward but thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto man too fast but unto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly fasting was the General custom among the people in those days and Jesus Takes this practice for granted physical fasting has occasionally been found helpful in the overcoming of a chronic difficulty when accompanied of course by a spiritual treatment this is mainly due to the high degree of concentration that accompanies a physical fast ing as we understand it in scientific Christianity is the abstinence from certain thoughts deeply negative or error thoughts but in some cases it's necessary if you want a demonstration to abstain for a time from thinking at all about a particular problem there are certain problems usually those that you have been mulling over too much that are overcome only by prayer and fasting in such a case it's best to give the problem a definite and final treatment and then leave it alone for a time or hand it over to someone else to handle for you keep your thoughts completely away from it and again Jesus says to appear not unto men but unto thy father in the secret place say not up for yourselves Treasures upon Earth where moth and rust got corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven were neither moth nor rust or corrupt and where these do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also the light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of Darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness having realized the nature of the secret place and that prayer or Divine realization is the Key of Life Jesus goes on to stress certain consequences that follow all this with the object of showing us how we can recast our whole lives in accordance with this new understanding now that we know the material plane is only projected thought if you will we should realize the Folly of collecting or trying to collect large sums of money or Goods or material property for the sake of having them if our Consciousness is right that is if we have a good understanding of God as the loving source of our boundless Supply we will always be able to demonstrate whatever money or Goods we may require wherever we are or whatever our conditions may be we can't want for anything once we truly realize that in divined mind demand and Supply are one and on the other hand until we do realize this we can never really be safe from want in fact there is no way in which we can have true security without spiritual understanding the safest Banks can and do fail catastrophes happen on the stock market mines and oil wells give out or may be destroyed by some natural disaster a new invention May easily replace an old one any number of reasons May ruin the value of your real estate to say nothing of the unpredictable effect of political upheavals therefore it's a waste of time to give too much attention to collecting material possessions which are so vulnerable to changes and chances to Martin rust and thieves if a reasonable part of the time and attention that most people spend in the pursuit of material Goods was devoted to Scientific prayer and meditation the change in Consciousness which would follow would put them Beyond any possibility of suffering from any of these changes when we have the spiritual understanding of Supply our investments probably won't fail but if they do our losses would be immediately replaced in some other way sometimes before we have time to suffer in any case the owner of a Prosperity Consciousness cannot be impoverished nor for that matter can the owner of a poverty Consciousness ever be permanently enriched in the long run no one can retain what does not belong to him by right of Consciousness nor be deprived of that which is truly his therefore we are not to lay up Treasures upon Earth but rather to lay up Treasures in Heaven that is the understanding of spiritual law if we look to Outer passing changing things for either happiness or security we are not putting God first if we do put God first in our lives we won't labor under undue anxiety about anything for where our treasure is there will our heart be also Jesus goes on to say that those who understand this are to be free from all sorts of petty anxieties and worrying details which continue to afflict those who don't understand this principle applies to all the details of everyday living if we pray for ourselves in the right way every day we find the minor things of life will gradually fall correctly into place of their own accord without any trouble on our part compare this to the usual method of trying to get everything right by separately organizing a thousand Petty details and we can appreciate how wonderfully this new spiritual basis sets us free if thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light this is the summation of all truth if your focus is on God then the whole body of experience shall be full of the presence of God the eye symbolizes spiritual perception whatever you give your attention to is the thing that governs your life tension is the key our Free Will lies in the direction of our attention whatever we steadfastly direct our attention to will come into our lives and dominate it if we don't direct our attention consistently to anything in particular and many people don't then nothing in particular will come into our lives except uncertainty and suspense somewhat like a drifting log if we direct our attention to the outer world of manifestation which is continually shifting and changing we are bound to have unhappiness poverty and ill health but if we direct our attention to God if the glory of God comes first and to express his will becomes the rule of Our Lives then our eye is single and our whole body or embodiment will be full of light [Music] no man can serve two masters for either you will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other he cannot serve God and Mammon therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what he shall eat or what he shall drink nor yet for your body what he shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than Raymond behold the vowels of the air for they so not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth things are ye not much better than they which of You by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature and why take ye thought for Raymond consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you or ye of little faith therefore take no thought say what shall we eat or what shall we drink or where would all shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you thank you many Christians accept these facts theoretically but have been half-hearted when it comes to their practical application and this vacillation has landed them in the massive difficulties that always follow upon inconsistency and weakness it's found that those who live all together upon the material basis have on the whole a better time for they are at least living in accordance with the best that they know and playing the game as they understand it to try to rest sometimes upon one basis and sometimes on another is to try to serve two masters and this of course cannot be done you cannot serve God and Mammon meaning riches man is essentially spiritual the image and likeness of God and therefore made for the spiritual basis and cannot really succeed on any other level the birds of the air and the Lilies of the Field furnish a striking lesson to man in their complete adaptation to the laws of their own respective planes they thoroughly Express their own true Natures they go through their lives perfectly themselves and without knowing anything like the worry and anxiety that distorts so many human lives the lilies referred to in the Bible are the beautiful wild poppies of the East and whoever has seen a field of poppies dancing and swaying in the breeze will appreciate the sense of relaxation and freedom and joy that Jesus had in mind as being our true Birthright relaxation freedom and joy our true Birthright of course he didn't mean that human beings are to copy the lives or the methods of birds or flowers literally the lesson is that we are to adapt ourselves as completely to our element as they do to theirs your true element is the presence of God Augustine said thou Hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they Repose in thee when man accepts the truth that in God he lives and moves and has his being as completely and unquestionably as the birds and the flowers accept the truth of their condition he will demonstrate as easily and as thoroughly as they do if anyone was so foolish as to take these beautiful similes literally instead of spiritually and should let's say lie down in a field among the poppies Waiting for God to perform a dramatic Miracle on his behalf he would surely learn by the experience that this is not the way to truly emulate the wisdom and glory of the vegetable and the animal kingdoms we should employ our faculties and resources to stay continually alive in our own Realms that of prayer and meditation the spiritual basis means intensified activity but on the spiritual instead of the material plan this is the only way in which we can be seeking first the kingdom of heaven and then all the things we need will fall into place if we are worried confused discouraged that's the time to lie down among the puppies mentally and read the Bible pray gently but persistently until something happens either something within or something in the outer picture this is not laziness there is a lot of activity in praying even when our Affairs seem to be in a hopeless tangle or eminent ruin we should drop the whole burden mentally while spending two or three days browsing through the Bible and praying for peace and happiness if we are sincere everything will clear up like magic without having to take any material action the way of sustaining one Supply is to follow some useful business or profession where one is happy and satisfied doing good work and receiving a liberal compensation for it scientific prayer will put anyone into such a position if he doesn't already possess it and then if we sincerely pray each day whatever our situation we will be continually improving of course this doesn't mean that one need necessarily go out to business the person taking care of their home is just as useful a citizen as anyone else and many people whose private incomes put them beyond the need of earning money lead lives of the highest usefulness in developing literature and art and many other helpful activities what is certain is that no one on the spiritual basis will lead the life of an idler no matter how much money he may have one hears occasionally of curious cases of people who claim to be so spiritual that they do not feel called upon to earn their own living someone else a relative or a friend who is not too spiritual to go out to work is expected to keep them in their idleness but this attitude of mine speaks for itself if you're understanding of metaphysics is sufficient to enable you to dispense with ordinary work you will find yourself automatically supplied in an independent and self-respecting manner with a good living this cannot possibly apply to people who are in debt or living off others try the experience of living by the power of the word just make sure that your motives are sincere the only way to have this experience in a genuine manner is to let it be demonstrate or starve if we are secretly looking to someone else or something else to come to the rescue then we're not really depending upon God every scientific Christian is entitled to a reasonable Prosperity which means enough to live on in decent comfort and reasonable security until we can demonstrate this genuinely by the power of the word alone we should use our treatment or prayers to find our rightful position and to make it a success [Music] which I would jump by taking part and add one cubit onto his stature this is one more way of stating the great truth that Jesus States in so many ways that we have to be born again we have to incorporate the presence of God into our lives to change our lives before we can experience a new life only in this way can we add to our stature take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof in scientific prayer we usually work in the present tense the whole idea of scientific prayer is to adjust one's Consciousness and this must necessarily be done in the present behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation when a problem regarding the future presents itself the right thing is to pray about it now in the present tense we shouldn't wait until the time comes but work on it now that is work on our Consciousness concerning it and in the present tense we can't try to project our treatment forward because it won't be successful the event may be in the future but the very fact that we think about it at all means that it's present in Consciousness and as the thought is a present one it can and must be dealt with in the present tense in the same way we can treat past events and should do so if they are still a worry pray about them in the present tense because the thought of them is present treats past and future events in the same way as though the incident were going on at the present moment remember that God is outside of what we call time and the Beautiful healing action of his holy presence is just as applicable to one day as to any other the only thought we need to concern ourselves with is the present one the thoughts of yesterday or of last year don't matter now because if we can get the present thought right it will make everything else right here and now the best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today's Consciousness Serene and harmonious all other good things will follow there's no need to look for troubles to pray or treat about just pray Faithfully with problems that bring themselves into our attention and the hidden things will be taken care of In The Same Spirit scientific Christianity discourages too much consideration of the next plane or of after death conditions such preoccupations can be an escape from the realities of this life and of everyday problems that should be faced and solved Here and Now we are to dwell upon life and not death and to concentrate Upon Our quality of life here and now choosing the life I live an explanation of the golden rule of scientific Christianity but how we think and what we do comes back to us in the circumstances of Our Lives these Bible quotes are from Matthew chapter 7. choosing the life I live [Music] foreign judge not that ye be not judged with what judgment we judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again and why beholdest thou the mouth that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the being that is in thine own eye or how wilt thou say to thy brother let me pull out the moat out of thine eye and behold a being is in thine own eye thou hypocrite First cast out of the beam out of thine own eye it then shalt thou See Clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye in these five verses we are told more about the nature of man and the meaning of life and the importance of conduct and the Art of Living and the secret of happiness and success and the way out of trouble and the approach to God and the emancipation of the Soul then all the philosophers and the theologians put together have told us for it explains the great law it is vastly more important that every man woman and child should be taught the meaning of these five verses than anything else taught in schools or colleges judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment he judge ye shall be judged and with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again again and again we are struck with amazement upon rereading The Sermon on the Mount with a fresh mind to find how its most challenging statements have been quietly ignored and practiced by the bulk of the Christian world if one didn't know for a fact that these words are constantly heard in public and read and private by millions and millions of Christians of All Sorts we could hardly believe it to be possible for the truths which they teach seem to be the last consideration in people's motives and behaviors in everyday life and yet these words Express the simple and inescapable law of life the law of life is that as we think and speak and act towards others so will others think and speak and act towards us whatever sort of conduct we give out we are inevitably bound to get back anything and everything that we do to others will sooner or later be done to us by someone somewhere the good that we do to others we shall receive back and like measure and the evil that we do to others in like manner we shall receive back also this doesn't mean at all that the same person whom we treat well or badly will be the actual ones to return the action to us at some other time or place long afterwards someone else will nevertheless repay it for every unkind word that we speak to or about another person an unkind word will be spoken to or about us for every time we cheat we will be cheated for every time that we deceive we will be deceived for every lie that we utter we will be lied to every time that we neglect a Duty or evade a responsibility or misuse authority over people we are doing something for which we will inevitably have to pay by suffering the same thing ourselves with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again if everyone realize this is true the entire world would change such an understanding would do more in practice to decrease crime and raise moral standards than all the laws ever passed or formal punishments handed down by judges people are apt to think especially when they are strongly tempted that they can probably escape the law of the land or slip through the clutches of authority in some way or another they hope that individuals will forgive them or else be powerless to take revenge or that the whole thing will be forgotten sooner or later or better still that they'll never be found out at all the law of Retribution is a cosmic law as impersonal and unchanging as the law of gravity and the law of Retribution should be regarded the same as the law of gravity water Finds Its Own level sooner or later and our treatment of others returns at last upon ourselves some Christian people upon hearing the law of Retribution explained have objected that this is Buddhism or Hinduism but not Christianity now it's perfectly true that this law is taught by the Buddhists and by the hinduistics as the law of Karma and largely so because it is the law of nature it's also true that the law is better understood in Oriental countries but this doesn't make it an oriental position it simply means that the Orthodox Christian churches have greatly neglected to make clear to the people this important section of the Christian teachings to those who say that it is unchristian is the gospel of Saint Matthew a Christian document or not but Jesus Christ a Christian or a Buddhist you may not like or dislike the doctrine and if you wish you may try to ignore it but you cannot deny like Jesus Christ taught it and in the most direct and emphatic way when he said judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure you need it shall be measured to you again [Music] now we see that we had better not do to anyone else anything that we don't wish to have done to us because that's what will happen this is even more severe if we act badly towards someone who is in our power but it's a pole law that doesn't work both ways and so it's equally true that for every good deed that you do for every kind word that you speak you will in some way at some time or other get back the equivalent When We complain of ingratitude on the part of those we have helped or given favors paint shows a false attitude of mind which is important to correct when we feel hurt because someone is ungrateful for our kindness it shows that we are looking for gratitude and this is a mistake the true reason for helping another is that it's our place to help others in as far as we can do so wisely or because it's an expression of love the accomplishment should be its own reward and in some other way the deed will surely be recognized the very fact that one looks for gratitude means that he is putting the other person under a sense of obligations and that person will probably know this subconsciously and resent it strongly that this is human nature do your deed and then pass on while you're expecting or wishing for personal recognition isn't it a beautiful and encouraging thought that all the prayers you have ever said in your life and all the good deeds and kind words for which you have ever been responsible are still with you and that nothing can ever take them away our prayers and our words and acts of kindness to others are the only things that we do keep and all the rest must disappear errors of thought world and deed are worked out and satisfied under the law that the good goes on forever unchanged by time the good goes on forever unchanged by time students of scientists or Christianity who understand the power of thought will realize that it is here in the realm of thought that the law Finds Its true application they will see that the one thing that matters is to keep our thoughts right about other people and ourselves the right thought about God the right thought about our fellow man and the right thought about ourselves that is the law and the prophets knowing that Dominion is located in the secret place it is on the secret place that we focus our attention the golden rule in scientific Christianity think about others as you would wish them to think about you understanding the importance of thought then the observance of this rule becomes a very solemn Duty and actually a debt of Honor meaning an obligation that cannot be enforced by any law the Fulfillment of the obligation depends on honor and self-respect because no one can know or prove how we are thinking therefore we are not responsible for our thoughts to any tribunal but the highest one of all the tribunal which never makes mistakes and whose decisions are never evaded now that we have gained an understanding of what the Great Law is and how it works as it's so wonderfully summed up by Jesus In this passage we can take the next great step and understand how it is possible to rise above even the Great Law itself in the name of the Christ in the Bible the term Christ doesn't mean Jesus the individual it's a technical term which may be briefly defined as the absolute spiritual truth about anything now to know this truth about any person or condition or circumstance immediately heals that person or condition or circumstance to the extent that truth is realized by The Thinker this is the essence of spiritual healing that the Christ in this technical sense comes into the world to redeem it and save it whenever the Christ that is the true idea concerning anything is raised up in thought by anyone healing follows physical healing moral healing or even intellectual healing as the case may be intellectual healing would be to make a dull or slow person bright and intelligent children especially respond like magic to this treatment one should claim Divine intelligence for them and realize that God is the soul of man sickness and sin poverty and confusion weakness of character all disappear under the power of the healing Christ it makes no difference How Deeply rooted the trouble may be the realization of the Christ or the spiritual truth behind the appearance will heal it there is no exception whatever to this because the Christ is nothing less than the direct action of God himself the self-knowing of spirit it overrides all else the higher law of spirit overrides or supersedes all the lower laws of physical and mental planes this doesn't mean that the laws of the physical and mental planes are broken it means that man because of his essential Divine self has the power to rise above the physical and mental into the intimate dimension of the spirit where the laws no longer affect him he has not broken the laws but has adventured Beyond them now the law of karma which is not compassionate or vindictive but forgets nothing is actually law for matter and mind only it is not law for Spirit in spirit all is perfect and eternal unchanging good here there is no Karma to be reaped because none can be sown and when manned by what we call prayer meditation or treatment transfers his attentions to the domain of spirit he comes to that extent under the law of perfect good and Karma so man has the choice of karma or Christ this is the best news that has ever come to Mankind and for that reason it is called the good news or the Glad Tidings of the Gospel this is man's Charter of Freedom his dominion over all things as the image and likeness of God we have our choice we can remain in the limited region of matter and mind in which case we are tied fast to the wheel of karma or we can appeal through prayer to the realm of spirit the Christ and to be free we have the choice Christ or Karma in other words the only escape from karma is prayer as soon as we pray we begin to rise above karma in other words we begin to wipe out the unpleasant consequences of past mistakes for any given mistake we must either suffer the consequences which we call being punished or wipe them out by scientific prayer the practice of the presence of God does this mean that any mistake any stupidity any sin can be erased from The Book of Life with all the punishment and suffering that goes with it yes it means nothing less than that there is no evil that the healing Christ will not overcome God so loves the world that he manifests his unique Christ power that whosoever chooses it shall not perish through his own weakness or Frailty but have everlasting salvation of course we can't suppose that the consequences of a mistake are to be easily evaded by a routine prayer we need enough realization of God to change us inside to alter our character in order to wipe out the consequences that otherwise must always follow when sufficient prayer or treatment has been done so that we become aware of our mistakes and truly have no desire to repeat our sins then we are saved and the penalties are paid for Christ is Lord of karma foreign [Music] living the prosperity Consciousness reveals the secret of discovering the truth in our lives and in every situation we face all the Bible quotes are from Matthew chapter 7. [Music] give not that which is holy unto the dogs neither cast ye your Pearls Before Swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and render you intelligence is just as essential a part of the Christian message as love God is love but God is also infinite intelligence and unless these two qualities are balanced in our lives we don't have wisdom for wisdom is the perfect blending of intelligence and love without intelligence can do harm spoiled child is a case in point and intelligence Without Love Can Be Cruel for any Act without genuine concern for others is hypocrisy all true Christian acts will Express wisdom wisdom is the perfect blending of intelligence and love [Music] when people first experience the knowledge of the truth and its positive influence on their lives they are so excited that often it's all they can talk about and they urge everyone around them to accept the truth and change their lives this is understandable because love longs to share its goodness but it isn't wise the acceptance of Truth involves discarding old standards of belief and this is a lot to ask of anyone and can only happen when one is spiritually ready for change truth is gladly accepted when one is ready and if it's presented in an appealing way no amount of intellectual discussion or argument will ever bring the truth to someone who is not ready for the experience when most of us realize the concept of Truth we probably picked out several friends we felt would be interested in the same ideas and then they refuse to show any interest at all on the other hand those who might not appear to be ready can accept and incorporate truth successfully in their lives we can never rely on our own judgment to determine who is ready for the truth and who isn't rely upon the guidance of the holy spirit for inspiration if you are praying regularly every day for wisdom intelligence and fresh opportunities for service the right people will be brought to you or you will be brought to them and the convenient occasion will be provided for the subject to be introduced whenever in doubt whether or not to discuss the subject of Truth pray for guidance and lead the matter to the action of God sometimes nothing happens no convenient opportunity presents itself and that means the time is not ripe and no good would have been done by discussing it very often however an obvious opening does occur in the conversation or some external incident happens which furnishes an introduction to the subject some very surprising and pleasant Awakenings happen in this way above all be careful of forcing the subject of Truth upon the people closest to you at work and especially at home it's easy to cause more harm than good by becoming an irritating nuisance constantly expounding on an experience that people don't understand and aren't ready to accept those close to you are aware of your faults and weaknesses if you constantly talk spiritual enlightenment your friends may expect you to represent a greater example of perfection the most effective and efficient way to spread the word of Truth is by living the life yourself then people will notice the change in you and as they see improved health and prosperity in your life and happiness shining in your face they will want to be around you and share in the joy you have found when you desire to introduce the truth to a particular person or group of people it's best to prepare making a special daily treatment for intelligence love and above all wisdom claim that the action of God will allow you to say the right things when the time comes and that the words will be accepted in truth don't allow yourself to care in the least of the actual results of the discussion may turn out to be voice the truth and leave it you will often be amazed at the results you get following a few days of spiritual preparation [Music] ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened or what man is there of you whom if his son asked bread will he give him a stone or if he asks a fish will he give him a servant [Music] if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him In this passage Jesus explains the primary truth of the fatherhood of God on which the whole structure of true Christian religion is based as long as mankind believed in many gods a sound religious experience wasn't possible for all genuine religious experience is a search for conscious Union with the one many gods means gods of limitation and they are always represented by being in conflict with themselves therefore only chaotic thought could result even those who believed beyond that idea to the concept of the one or true God still thought of him as a Tyrant King owning and governing almost impossible to please Relentless with anger and indiscriminate with vengeance many Earnest Orthodox Christians still have the belief that man is denied anything in common with God that God is a great Master with no spiritual communion with his subjects mankind Jesus clarifies the real relationship between God and man and replaces the distant all-powerful ruler with the loving father of all of us the teaching of Jesus concerning the fatherhood of God was original and unique in the Old Testament God is never addressed as father where references to his fatherhood are made he is referred to as the father of the nation and not of the individuals Jesus made the Declaration of the fatherhood of God in the opening Clause of what we call the Lord's Prayer it explains for instance the tremendous statement in Genesis that man is the image and likeness of God The Offspring must be of the same nature as the parent and so if God and man are indeed father and child then man notwithstanding all his present limitations must be essentially Divine also and susceptible of infinite growth and Improvement as man's true nature his spiritual character unfolds and as he becomes more and more aware of it he will expand in spiritual consciousness until he has transcended all bounds of human imagination it is in reference to this our glorious destiny that as Jesus himself says I have said ye are gods and all of you sons of the most high he emphasized his point by adding significantly and the scripture cannot be broken I have said ye are gods and all of you sons of the most high So In this passage we are set free once and for all from the last link on the last chain that binds us to a limited and degraded destiny we are the children of God and Heirs of our father's estate as long as we find ourselves full of limitations and disabilities lacking in responsibility experience and wisdom then spiritually we are children soon as we come of age spiritually when we can claim our rights and receive them when the fullness of time has come we awaken to the truth and realize that God is in our hearts then we know we are the children of a great king and all that our father has is ours for the using health supplies opportunity Beauty Joy or any of the other gifts of God God has given us a dominion over all things but we are like frightened children afraid to assume and accept it Jesus who knew the human heart as no other has ever known it before or since understood our difficulty and our weakness in this respect and with his unparalleled magic of living words his power of putting fundamental truth in such a simple direct and pointed fashion so that everyone could understand oh [Music] and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened there are simply no words in any language which could be more definite or more emphatic and yet for the most part Christians quietly ignore these words discount their meaning until they are left without any meaning at all again we are obliged to believe that either Jesus meant what he said or that he didn't therefore we have no option but to believe these words are true and choose to start living this Prosperity consciousness [Music] ask and it shall be given you Jesus gives permission for the personal freedom of every man woman and child on Earth freedom from every kind of bondage physical mental or spiritual also freedom from resignation which has been so often preached as a Christian virtue resignation is not a virtue but an unwholesome mixture of fear and laziness we shouldn't be resigned to in harmony of any kind or ill health poverty sinfulness Strife unhappiness or remorse we have no right to accept anything less than Freedom Harmony and joy for these things glorify God and express his holy will which is our divine right our most sacred Duty out of loyalty to God and following the wishes and instructions of Jesus is to accept nothing less than complete happiness and success we are to pray and meditate and reorganize our lives in accordance with his teaching continuously until our goal is attained this attainment is our victory over every negative condition this is not merely possible but promised to us ask and ye shall receive seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you [Music] therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets good morning [Music] this is the sublime Commandment that we call the Golden Rule here Jesus reiterates the great law that follows upon his wonderful statement of the fatherhood of God the underlying explanation for the existence of the Great Law is the metaphysical fact that we are all fundamentally one all parts of the great mind therefore to hurt one another is really to hurt oneself and to help another is really to help oneself the fatherhood of God compels us to accept the Brotherhood of Man and spiritually Brotherhood is unity the understanding of this great truth contains all other religious knowledge and is in the old phraseology the law and the prophets [Music] um enter ye in at the Straight Gate for wide is the gate and Broad is the way that leadth to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and the narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and a few there be that find it [Music] there is only one way in which men can attain Harmony that is to say health Prosperity Peace of Mind salvation in the true sense of the word and that is to bring about a radical and permanent change for the better in his own consciousness this is the one and only way and there is no other for countless Generations Humanity has been trying in every other conceivable method to bring about the salvation of humanity innumerable schemes have been designed to bring about happiness by making changes in people's external conditions while leaving the quality of their mentality untouched this is destined to failure because we Are Spiritual Beings and only a change in the way we think can bring about change in our lives this change in Consciousness is the Straight Gate that Jesus speaks of and says that the number of those who find it is comparatively small but as we evolve spiritually throughout the ages the number increases more and more changing our Consciousness For The Straight Gate which leadeth into life Jesus Calls the way of life he says that all other methods of living have wide Gates and Broad roads that lead to destruction or disappointment then why are there so few who choose the way of life the changing of one's Consciousness as we have discovered is really very hard work calling for constant vigilance and breaking of mental habits which is sure to be very difficult for a Time the natural way is to be lazy and always to take the line of least resistance we don't usually get down to truth principles until we're compelled to do so the way of life the Straight Gate is however worth much more than whatever trouble or effort it may require on this road the rewards are not temporary but permanent every mild game is gained for all eternity the changing of one's Consciousness is in truth the most important thing we have to do now if we make this qualitative change in our Consciousness and that is what happens with prayer or treatment then not only is the effect of that change felt in every phase and Department Of Our Lives but it is with us through all eternity and we can never lose it as soon as we obtain the spiritual consciousness we find that all things work together for goodness for God then we experience perfect health abundant prosperity and complete and utter happiness our bodies will no longer be a burden to be dragged about merely living but with an inexpressible Joy finances are no longer a consideration as we will always have all the supply we need to carry out any of our plans the world will turn out to be full of charming people anxious to help us in any way people will come into our lives only for good we will be occupied with the most delightful and interesting activities that will be helpful and useful in the widest sense all our energies and faculties will find full scope of their expression in fact we will develop the completely integrated and fully expressed personality that modern psychology strives for those who haven't experienced anything of the Christ's message may think that this is a beautiful version of perfection but certainly too good to be true however nothing is too good to be true because the love and the power of God are true if we believe that Perfect Harmony is really too good to be true then our belief will prevent us from ever having it as mental beings we make the laws under which we live and have to live under the laws that we make nothing is too good to be true nothing is too good to be true if we believe that the will of God is not perfect and beautiful but a dull and restricted life with God as a task master or puritanical parent then our prayers will reflect our belief please God give me what I so desperately need but I don't suppose you will because you won't think it's good for me since prayers are answered according to our faith this prayer couldn't yield much positive results [Music] oh the truth is the will of God for us means greater Freedom greater self-expression wider and newer and brighter experience Better Health greater prosperity and a wider opportunity to be of service to others life more abundant if you are ill or in poverty or doing work that you dislike if you are lonely or if you have to be around people who displease you you can be certain that you are not expressing the will of God and as long as you aren't expressing his will it's natural for you to experience in Harmony and it's equally true that when you do Express his will Harmony will result [Music] beware of false prophets which come in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening rules we shall know them by their fruits do men gather Grapes of thorns figs of thistles even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is healing down and cast Into the Fire wherefore by their fruits he shall know them is there any infallible way in which we can find out the real truth about God and about life and about ourselves is there any way in which we can tell for ourselves which is the true religion and which isn't which of the churches are genuine and which are false which books are teachers teach the truth and which teach in error many honest Seekers for truth fused and worried by conflicting theologies and arguing groups have yearned with their whole heart for some simple test where the honest Seeker could discover for himself what the truth really is there a single sincere Christian who wouldn't eagerly strive to follow the wishes of Jesus Christ if only he could find out what they are we are told by all sorts of people and by all sorts of churches that they alone represent the true teaching and yet they disagree among themselves upon vital points both of theory and practice and each of them individually is full of inconsistencies Jesus the most profound and at the same time the most simple and practical teacher of the world had ever known has provided for this need and was given as an utterly simple and universally applicable test for truth it's a test that any man or woman anywhere can easily apply for themselves it is a simple and direct as the acid test for gold it is the simple question does it work this is the fundamental test for truth does it work because truth always works the truth always heals a true story always turns out to be consistent while the most plausible lie will break down somewhere under investigation truth heals the body purifies the soul reforms The Sinner solves difficulties and pacifies strife According To Jesus truth will automatically prove Itself by practical demonstration they shall cast out Devils speak in new tongues take up serpents drink any Dudley thing with impunity and they shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover false teaching on the contrary no matter how attractively it may be presented no matter what social or academic Prestige may be attached to it will demonstrate the absence of Truth even though perfectly sincere in their claims and pretense these false prophets clad in sheep's clothing come between the seeker and the saving truth false teachers despite their intentions are spiritual wolves by their fruits ye shall know them [Music] the only proof of true understanding is in successful demonstrations or results therefore we will know when we leave the past because our demonstrations will cease even though our progress might be slow as long as positive results from our prayers are demonstrated then we are still on the path some demonstrations come easily some are more difficult this lets us know where we need more work more prayer if no results in your life are evident then claim that Divine intelligence is inspiring you and that you are an expression of Truth don't try to deny there is a problem and behave like the Pharisees indulging in self-righteousness and spiritual Pride when someone's life is in a mess and they claim that they are spiritually above prayer in its results and don't care to make their life happy and successful or that they are rewarded in ways that no one can see it's not only nonsense but opposes the will of God we don't seek answers to our prayers as an end in themselves but truth is what we're really after the law says that acquiring understanding of Truth in our lives creates an outward and visible sign of Inward and spiritual Grace the outer picture of Our Lives is a gauge that tells us what's happening on the inside therefore we always know where we are whether we're on the path or not because there is no such thing as undemonstrated understanding so if you want to know where you stand spiritually look at your environment begin with your body and physical health everything in the soul is demonstrated in our outer lives and our external World always corresponds to our inner being whether it's the testing of your own soul or the test of a teacher or the test of a book or a church the test is always simple direct and infallible does it work what are the fruits for buy their fruits ye shall know them [Music] not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord had we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you apart from me ye that work iniquity [Music] again Jesus tells us that only those who change in their Consciousness to do the will of God in every Department of their lives will enter the kingdom of heaven not just when it's convenient or beneficial but a complete dedication with nothing between us and our primary goals there is no home for the sower in which there dwells the shadow of an untruth and the Shadows try to creep into our lives in subtle ways which calls for our unceasing awareness and undaunted courage price of Liberty for the life of ourselves is eternal vigilance we can't allow any organization institution any book in a man woman or child to come between us and our path to God we can only rely on our own understanding of the truths truth within our hearts it's our duty to get all the help that we can from teachers and books and so forth but if we use their ideas and their words we are only crying Lord Lord and he will know us not [Music] the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven Is by genuine consistent hard work on your own Consciousness to realize God many people find it hard to free themselves from a religion or church that they have outgrown afraid to break family tradition see that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and the people who do break away often find themselves settling into another organization where they seem to go to sleep again under the impression that at last or once again as the case may be they have discovered the truth some people develop a personal Devotion to their spiritual teacher or leader or rely on a textbook as their infallible source of wisdom the only infallible thing known to man is the simple text for truth that Jesus gave us by their fruits ye shall know them you should gladly take advantage of helpful teaching wherever you may get it go to churches or meetings that help you listen to speakers and read books that inspire you to find yourself but never surrender to anyone your own spiritual judgment thank those who have helped you and acknowledge those who have helped you and acknowledge the good received but always be ready to pass on to the next step remember that the truth of being concerns itself with the infinite the impersonal principle of life and doesn't lend itself to the exploitation of particular personalities or organizations you do not owe an Adam of loyalty to anyone or anything in the universe except your own indwelling Christ your own spiritual integrity it's merely enrolling oneself in the membership of some organized body where a guarantee of spiritual understanding our Salvation would be a much simpler manner than it is temporary alterations in the conditions of Our Lives can be achieved by willpower but the only true and permanent way to change our Consciousness and our lives is by the practice of the presence of God anything we acquire without the presence of God be it wealth power fame or relationships we will lose in time by denying the truth of being it denies us and can't help us dramatically stated in the Oriental way this becomes I never knew you depart from me ye that work inequity we should always work to supply our needs from the spiritual basis claiming God is our source and realizing the Bounty of God as ours when we acquire this true Prosperity Consciousness then we will never be impoverished foreign foreign [Music] whosoever hear it these sayings of mine and do with them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the weather's blue went out upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and do it them not shall be lightened unto a foolish man to build his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds Bloom and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it Jesus concludes salmon with a simple direct and graphic parable of the two houses it warns us against the dangers in knowing the truth or at least knowing about it and not honestly trying to put it into practice in our lives one of the very oldest and most important symbols for the human soul is that of a building a dwelling house or Temple man the Builder is a familiar character like other examples of mental States man the fisherman man the shepherd Amanda King since Jesus himself grew up in a carpenter's home and workshop this analogy seems even more meaningful the first thing the Builder of a house needs to do is select a proper Foundation without it no matter how skillfully and conscientiously the house is built it will collapse with the first serious storm that comes along Jesus says he will liken him unto a wise man which built his home upon the rock rock is one of the Bible terms for the Christ and the Christ truth is the only foundation on which we can safely build the development of our souls it's the one thing in existence that is absolutely true never varying never shifting same yesterday today and forever resting on this Foundation we will stand secure when the winds and rains and floods of air a fear of doubt and self-reproach beat upon our souls because we are founded on the rock as long as we depend on anything less than that rock upon willpower material Security even the Goodwill of others or our own personal resources if we depend on anything but God in fact we are building on the sand and great will be our fall [Music] and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught them as one having Authority not as the scribes [Music] in this concluding paragraph We are told quite simply that the people were astonished at his doctrines because the Jesus Christ message is totally revolutionary it reverses all the standards and all the methods not only of the world but of all conventional or Orthodox religion it turns our gaze from the outside to the inside and from the man and his Works to God for he taught is one having Authority and not as the scribes the greatest glory of the spiritual basis is that you begin to know when you have obtained the smallest true demonstration by means of scientific prayer you have experienced something that never leaves you you have the witness of Truth within yourself you're no longer dependent on the word of anyone else you know yourself and this is the only Authority worth having Jesus had this Authority and he proved it by the like he led in the next chapter of Matthew in the Bible we learned that immediately after he delivered this Sermon on the Mount on his way back to town Jesus instantaneously healed a leper his life proved that his doctrines were not Theory but a practice of the presence of God Jesus contacted God directly in his secret place and therefore when he spoke he spoke the word of power [Music] foreign of the Lord's Prayer a strategy for living this prayer is found in the Bible in Matthew chapter 6. in the Lord's Prayer a strategy for living we use the scientific key to unlock the deeper meaning of this well-known prayer to understand and apply its wisdom to change our lives for the better forever foreign [Music] of all the Christian documents it was carefully constructed like Jesus with a very clear purpose that is why of all this teach it's by far the best known and the most often quoted it is the one common denominator of all the Christian churches and every Church uses the Lord's Prayer every Christian Child is taught the Lord's Prayer and any Christians who praise it all says this prayer most often it's actual use probably exceeds that of all other prayers put together undoubtedly everyone who is seeking to follow along the way that Jesus led should make a point of using Lord's Prayer intelligently every day and in order to do this we should understand that the prayer is a carefully constructed organic whole many people rattle through it like parrots forgetting the warning that Jesus gave us about vain repetitions the great prayer is a compact formula for the development of the Soul it is designed with the utmost care for that specific purpose those who use it regularly with understanding will experience a real change of soul and the Bible refers to this change as being born again the mere acquisition of fresh knowledge received only intellectually makes no change in the soul whatsoever the more one analyzes The Lord's Prayer the more wonderful its construction seems to be meets everyone's need at their own level it not only provides rapid Spiritual Development for those who are well along the path but in its superficial meaning applies the more basic minded and even with just what they need at the moment if they use the prayer sincerely the greatest of all prayers was designed with still another purpose in view Jesus foresaw that as the centuries went by his simple primitive teaching would gradually become Complicated by all sorts of external things he foresaw that men who had never known him relying sincerely upon their own intellects would build up theologies and doctrinal systems obscuring the direct Simplicity of the spiritual message and actually erecting a wall between God and man he designed his prayer in such a way that it would pass safely Through the Ages without being tampered with he arranged it with consummate skill so that it could not be twisted or distorted or adapted to any man-made system for within it is the whole Christ message so it's turned out that through all the changes of Christian history this prayer has come through to us uncorrupted and unspoiled the first thing that we notice is that the prayer naturally falls into seven clauses this is very characteristic of Oriental tradition seven symbolizes individual completeness the Perfection of the individual soul in Practical use we often find an eighth Clause added thine is the kingdom the power and the glory but this in itself an excellent affirmation isn't really a part of the prayer the seven Clauses are put together with the utmost care in perfect order and sequence and they contain everything that is necessary for the nourishment of the Soul let's listen to these words as we've never heard them before Our Father this simple statement in itself constitutes a definite and complete system of belief it fixes clearly and distinctly the nature and character of God it sums up the truth of being it tells all that man needs to know about God himself and his neighbor Oliver Wendell Holmes said my religion is summed up by the first two words of the Lord's Prayer and most of us will find ourselves in full agreement notice the simple definite statement Our Father Jesus means once and for all that the relationship between God and man is that of father and child this erases any possibility that the deity could be the Relentless and cruel Tyrant often pictured by theology now we all know perfectly well that men and women however short they may fall in other respects nearly always do the best they can for their children speaking of the same truth Jesus said if you who are so full of evil nevertheless do your best for your children how much more will God who is altogether good do for you and so he begins his Prayer by establishing the character of God as that of the perfect father dealing with his children this statement Our Father also fixes the nature of man because if man is The Offspring of God then he must be part of the nature of God it is a cosmic law that like begets like it is not possible that a rose bush should produce a lily or that a cow should give birth to a cult The Offspring is and must be of the same nature as the parent and so since God is divine Spirit man must essentially be divine Spirit also we see that at a single blow this concept has swept away the old theology with its avenging God it's Chosen and favored individuals its Eternal Hellfire and all the other similar interpretations God exists and the Eternal all-powerful all-present God is the loving father of mankind meditating upon this fact with a degree of understanding of what it really means our difficulties and physical ailments would disappear for they are rooted and grounded in fear the underlying cause of all trouble is fear when we realize it completely every negative thing in our lives would vanish away and we would demonstrate perfection in every phase now you see the objective Jesus had in mind when he placed this Clause first the prayer says not my father but our father and this indicates beyond the possibility of mistake the truth of the Brotherhood of Man it forces Upon Our attention at the very beginning the fact that all men are indeed Brethren the children of one father and that there is not Nation versus Nation not rich versus poor not chosen or unchosen because all men are brethren our father means there is no chosen race no spiritual superiority of any one group of human beings over any other group a belief in the superiority of One's Own particular group is an allusion to which mankind is very susceptible but it has no place in the teaching of Jesus he teaches that the only thing that matters is the spiritual condition of our own individual soul and that as long as we are on the spiritual path it makes no difference to what group we belong or don't belong the final point is the implied command that we are to pray not only for ourselves but for all mankind every student of Truth should hold the thought of the truth of Being for the whole human race for at least one minute each day none of us lives to himself or dies to himself for indeed we are all truly and in a much more literal sense than people are aware limbs of one body [Music] which aren't in heaven clearly established the fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man Jesus goes on to enlarge upon the nature of God and to describe the fundamental facts of existence shown that God and man are parent and child he goes on to delineate the function of each in the grand scheme of things he explains that it is the nature of God to be in heaven and of man to be on earth because God is cause and man is manifestation cause cannot be expression an expression cannot be cause and we must be careful not to confuse the two here Heaven stands for God or cause in religious phraseology Heaven is the term for the presence of God in metaphysics it is called the absolute because it is the realm of pure unconditioned beings the word Earth means manifestation and man's function is to manifest or Express God or cause in other words God is the infinite and perfect cause for all things but cause has to be expressed and God expresses himself by means of mankind our destiny is to express God in all sorts of Glorious and wonderful ways we find his expression in our surroundings first our physical body in our home our work our Recreation in short our whole expression to express means to press outwards to bring into sight that which already exists simplicity every feature of Our Lives is really a manifestation [Music] may seem at first to be a little abstract but since it is misunderstandings about the relationship of God and man that lead to all our difficulties towards some trouble to understand relationship realize that God is in heaven man on Earth and that each has his role in the scheme of things although we are one we are not one and the same Jesus establishes his point carefully when he says Our Father which art in heaven [Music] Hallowed be thy name in the Bible the name of anything means the essential nature or character of that thing and so when we are told the name of God we are told what his nature is and his name or nature Jesus said is hallowed the word hallowed or hallowed has the same meaning as holy wholesome or whole or healed so we see that the nature of God is complete and perfect altogether good some very remarkable consequences follow from this we have agreed that an effect must be similar in its nature to its cause and so because the nature of God is hallowed everything that follows from that cause must therefore be hallowed or perfect just as a rose bush cannot produce lilies God cannot cause or send anything but perfect good as the Bible says the same Fountain cannot send forth both sweet and bitter water from this it follows that God cannot as people sometimes think sense sickness or trouble or accidents much less death for these things are unlike his nature if you think that God has sent any of your difficulties to you you are giving power to your troubles and this makes it very difficult to get rid of them Hallowed be thy name means thy nature is altogether good and thou art the author only of perfect good of pure eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity thy kingdom come thy will be done the Earth as it is in heaven mankind being manifestation or expression of God has a limitless Destiny before him our work is to express in concrete definite form the abstract ideas with which God furnishes us and to do this we need creative power without creative power we are merely machines through which God works but man is not a robot but an individualized consciousness God is individualized in an infinite number of distinct focal points of our Consciousness each one quite different and each one is a distinct way of knowing the universe each a distinct experience the word individual means undivided the consciousness of each one of us is distinct from God and from all others and yet none are separated how can this be how can two things be one and yet not one in the same the answer is that in our manifested lives the finite we are separate but in spirit which is infinite We Are One intuitively we can understand this through prayer if God did not individualize himself there would be only one experience as it is there are as many universes as there are individualized thoughts and experiences thy kingdom come means that it is our duty to establish the kingdom of God on Earth that is to say our work is to bring more and more of God's ideas into concrete manifestation on this plane that is what we're here for God has a plan for every man and he has one for you God has glorious and wonderful plans for every one of us he has planned a splendid career full of Interest full of life and joy if our lives are dull restricted or painful then it is not his fault but ours our path is to find out the thing God intends us to do and when we do it all doors will be open all obstacles will melt away we will be successful we will be financially rewarded and most importantly we will be gloriously happy there is a true place in life for each one of us where we can be completely happy and perfectly secure on the other hand until we find our true place we will never really be happy or secure no matter how many other things we possess our true place is wherever we can bring the kingdom of God into manifestation and truly say thy kingdom come thy will be done meaning God's will not our own when we abuse Free Will by trying to work apart from God the very natural result is all the sickness poverty sin trouble and death that we find on the physical plane we must never for a moment try to live for ourselves or make plans or Arrangements without reference to God or suppose that we can be either happy or successful if we are seeking any other end than to do his will it's our essential nature to express God by always working on our father's business whatever our desire may be whether it concerns our daily work our home life our personal relationships or private plans for our leisure time if we seek to serve self instead of God we are ordering trouble disappointment and unhappiness if we choose through prayer what we know to be God's will then we ensure for ourselves ultimate success freedom and joy no matter how much self-sacrifice and self-discipline it may involve at the moment our business is to bring our whole nature as fast as we can into Conformity with the will of God by prayer and awareness our Wills are ours to make them Vine and his will is our peace said Dante in The Divine Comedy which is really a study in fundamental states of consciousness The Inferno represents the state of the soul that is endeavoring to live without God the Paradiso represents the state of the soul that has achieved its conscious Unity with the Divine will and the purgatorio the condition of the soul that is struggling to pass from the one state to the other it was this Sublime conflict of the Soul which inspired the great Augustine to say thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they Repose in need give us this day our daily bread because we are the children of a loving father we are entitled to expect that God will provide us fully with everything we need as children naturally and spontaneously look to their Earthly parents to supply all their ones in the same way we should look to God to supply our ones if we do so in faith and understanding we will never be in need it is the will of God that we should all lead healthy happy Lives full of joyous experiences and that we should develop freely and steadily day by day and week by week as our Pathways unfold more and more into the perfect state of being we require such things as food clothing shelter means a travel books and so on but above all we require freedom and in the prayer all these things are included under the heading of bread covering much more than the literal meaning but all things that man requires for a healthy happy free and harmonious life but in order to obtain these things we have to claim them not necessarily in detail but we have to claim them and we have to recognize God and God alone as the source and Fountainhead of all our good lack of any kind is always traceable to the fact that ply from some secondary source from God himself the author and Giver of Life people think of their supply as coming from certain Investments or from business or from an employer these are merely the channels through which it comes God being the source the number of possible channels is infinite the source is one the particular Channel through which we are getting our supplies quite likely to change because change is the cosmic law and natural flow for manifestation stagnation is really death we realize that the source of our supply is the one and only unchangeable Spirit the fading out of one channel is the signal for the opening of another if we regard a particular Channel like a job or a relationship as being the source then when that channel fails we're left disappointed and depressed because we believe that the source has dried up or gone away and for practical purposes on the physical plane things are as we believe them to be we can realize through regular daily prayer that God is our supply that upon the closing of one channel we find another and probably a better one if our belief is in God as our supply then since God cannot change or fail or fade away our supply comes from an everlasting Source forming its own channels wherever we need them units inner and most important meaning Our Daily Bread signifies the realization of the presence of God an actual sense that God exists not in a casual way but as the great reality the sense that he is present with us and the feeling that because he is God all good all-powerful all wise and all loving we have nothing to fear we can rely upon God to take care of us that he will supply all that we need to have teaches all that we need to know and guide our steps so that we avoid mistakes the God within us called Emmanuel and its meaning requires some degree of actual realization to say some experience in consciousness not just a theoretical recognition of a fact not simply talking about God however beautiful one may talk or even thinking about God but some degree of actual experience We Begin by thinking about God but this should lead to the realization which is the daily bread or manner of the presence of God realization which is experience is the thing that matters it is realization which marks the progress of the Soul it is realization which guarantees results it is realization apart from Theory or oratory which is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen this is the bread of life the hidden Manna and when we have it we have all things indeed and in truth Jesus several times referred to this experience as bread because it is the nourishment of the Soul just as physical food is the nourishment of the physical body supposing that a formal recognition of God is sufficient or that talking about Divine things is the same as possessing them that's the same as looking at a tray of food or discussing the chemical composition of food instead of actually eating the meal this is why people sometimes pray for something for years without any tangible results if prayer is with realization it cannot be possible to pray without something happening desired change cannot be ordered it comes spontaneously as the result of regular daily prayer to seek realization by willpower is the surest way to miss it pray regularly and quietly and remember that in all mental work effort or strain defeats itself then perhaps when you least expect it the change or answer will come to you another link between food of bread and presence of God is that the act of eating food must be done for oneself no one can assimilate food for another one may hire employees to do all sorts of things but we must eat our own food in the same way the realization of the presence of God is a thing that no one else can have for us we can and should help one another in overcoming specific difficulties bear ye one another's burdens that the realization of making real of the presence of God the substance and evidence can in the nature of things only be a first-hand experience the bread of life Emmanuel Jesus calls Our Daily Bread the reason for this is very fundamental our contact with God must be a living one it is our momentary attitude regard which governs our being behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation the most futile thing in the world is to seek to live upon a past realization the thing that means spiritual life to you is your realization of God Here and Now today's realization of God no matter how feeble and poor it may seems has a million times more power to help you than the most Vivid realization of yesterday be thankful for yesterday's experience knowing that it's with you forever in a change of Consciousness which it brought about but don't look to it for a single moment look for the need of today Divine spirit is constant and doesn't change with the ups and downs of human apprehension the manner in the desert is the Old Testament example of this the people wandering in the wilderness were told that they would be supplied with Manna From Heaven every day each one always receiving their needs but they were not to try to save it up for the next day they were not to Endeavor to live upon yesterday's food and then some of them did the result was plague or death so it is with us we seek to live upon yesterday's realization we are actually seeking to live in the past and to live in the past is death the art of life is to live in the present moment and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expressions of God himself the best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today or that it should be [Music] this is side two of The Lord's Prayer a strategy for living we continue foreign [Music] forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us here is the Turning Point the Strategic key to the whole prayer Jesus arranged this marvelous prayer so that it covers the entire ground of the unfoldment of our souls and in the most concise and telling way it emits nothing that is essential for our salvation and yet so compact that there is not a thought or a word too much every idea fits into its place with Perfect Harmony and imperfect sequence anything more would be redundant anything less would be incomplete this statement takes up the critical factor of forgiveness Jesus tells us what God is what man is how the universe works and how we are to do our own work to live Heaven here on Earth then he explains what our true nourishment or Supply is and the way in which we can obtain it and now he comes to the Forgiveness of sins the Forgiveness of sins is the central problem of life sin means a sense of separation from God and is the major tragedy of human experience and is rooted in selfishness a sense of isolated self-regarding personal existence whereas the truth of being means that all is one our true selves are at one with God undivided from him expressing his ideas witnessing to his nature and the dynamic thinking of that mind because we are all spiritually one with the truth of God it follows that we are one with all men because in God we live and move and have our truth of being we are in the absolute sense all essentially one evil sin the fall of Man in fact is essentially the attempt to negate this truth in our thoughts we try to live apart from God we try to do without him we act as though we had life of our own as separate Minds as though we could have plans and purposes and interests separate from his all this if it were true would mean that existence is not one and harmonious but chaos of competition and strife it would mean that we are quite separate from our fellow men and could injure him Rob him or even destroy him without any damage to ourselves in fact it would mean the more we took from other people the more we should have for ourselves it would mean that the more we considered our own interests and the more indifferent we were to the welfare of others the better off we should be of course it would follow then it would pay others to treat us in the same way now if we live only this way it would mean that the whole universe is only a jungle and that sooner or later it must destroy itself by its own inherent weakness and greed but of course that is not true and therein lies the joy of life undoubtedly many people behave as though they believed this to be true and many more feel that this is the way things are even though they don't personally behave this way this is the real basis of sin resentment condemnation jealousy remorse and all the evil that comes to those who believe in it this belief in independent and separate existence is the key sin or spiritual error before we can progress any further we have to change this thinking Jesus knew this and therefore inserted at this point in the prayer a carefully prepared statement he drafted a declaration which would force us without any conceivable possibility of Escape evasion mental reservation or subterfuge of any kind to execute the great sacrament of forgiveness in all its fullness and far-reaching Power as we repeat the great prayer intelligently considering and meaning what we say we must face this problem of Separation to positively and definitely extend forgiveness to everyone mostly to anyone who we think has injured Us in any way Jesus leaves no room for any possible glossing of this fundamental idea he has constructed his prayer with more skill than any lawyer because once our attention has been drawn to this matter we are inevitably obliged to either forgive our enemies in sincerity and Truth or never again to repeat that prayer anyone who hears these words with understanding will never again be able to use the Lord's Prayer unless and until they have forgiven notice that Jesus does not say forgive me my trespasses and I will try to forgive others or I will see if it can be done or I will forgive generally but with certain exceptions and conditions Jesus obliges us to declare that we have actually forgiven and forgiven all and he makes our claim to our own forgiveness depend upon that who doesn't desire the forgiveness and cancellation of his own mistakes and faults who could Endeavor to seek the kingdom of God without Desiring to be relieved of his own sense of guilt surely no one and so we are trapped in the inescapable position that we cannot have our own release before we have released our brother the Forgiveness of others is the past way to heaven we must forgive everyone who has ever heard us if we want to be forgiven ourselves that is the long and the short of it we have to get rid of all resentment and condemnation of others as well as self-condemnation and remorse we have to forgive others and having discontinued our own mistakes we have to accept the Forgiveness of God for ourselves or we can't make any progress we have to forgive ourselves but we can't forgive ourselves sincerely until we have forgiven others first having forgiven others we must be prepared to forgive ourselves a refusal to forgive oneself is only spiritual Pride and by that sin fell the angels there are a few people in the world who have not at some time or another been hurt really hurt by someone else or been disappointed or injured deceived or misled those feelings sink into the memory where they usually cause inflamed and festering wounds and there is only one remedy they have to be healed and the only way to that is by forgiveness of course nothing is easier than to forgive people who haven't hurt us very much nothing is easier than to rise above the thought of a trifling loss but what the law of being requires of us is that we forgive not only these Trifles but the very things that are so hard to forgive that at first it seems impossible to do it all but the Lord's Prayer makes our own forgiveness from God dependent upon the Forgiveness of others no matter how deeply we may have been injured or how terribly we have suffered it's the only way [Music] if our prayers are not being answered we should search our Consciousness and if there is someone we have yet to forgive search and see if we aren't really holding a grudge that may be camouflaged in some self-righteous way against some individual or some body of people a nation a race a social class some religious movement of which you disapprove a political party or whatever if so then an act of forgiveness is in order and when this is done we will probably see our prayers answered if we can't forgive someone at present we will have to wait for our answer through prayer and we'll have to postpone finishing this part of the Lord's Prayer setting others free means setting yourself free because resentment is really a form of attachment it is a cosmic truth that it takes two to make a prisoner The Prisoner and a jailer there is no such thing as being a prisoner of one's own account every prisoner must have a jailer and the Jailer is as much a prisoner as his charge when we hold resentment against anyone we are bound to that person by a cosmic link a real though mental chain we are bound by a cosmic tie to anything that we hate the one person perhaps in the whole world whom you most dislike is the very one to whom you are attaching Yourself by a hook that is stronger than steel we can cut all those ties by a clear and spiritual Act of forgiveness we can save ourselves and because the law of love works alike the one and all we help to save his soul too making it easier for him to become all that he can be but how is the act of forgiveness to be accomplished when we have been so deeply injured the technique for forgiveness is not very difficult to manage when we understand how the only thing that is essential is willingness to forgive with sincere desire to forgive the offender the greater part of the work is already done people have always made such an issue of forgiveness because they have been under the erroneous impression that to forgive someone means that you have to compel yourself to like them happily this is by no means the case we are not called upon to like anyone we don't find ourselves lacking spontaneously if we force ourselves to like someone we'll end up disliking or hating them even more people used to think that when people hurt them it was their Duty as good Christians to pretend to like them and with this hypocrisy they suffered a great deal of distress and ended necessarily with failure and a sense of sinfulness we are not obliged to like anyone but we are under abounding obligation to love everyone love or charity as the Bible calls it means a vivid sense of impersonal Goodwill this has nothing directly to do with the emotions though it is always followed sooner or later that wonderful feeling of peace and happiness the method of forgiving is this find a place to be alone and become quiet repeat any prayer that appeals to you or read a chapter of the Bible then quietly say I fully and freely forgive and say their name I free them and let them go I completely forgive the whole business in question and as far as I'm concerned it is finished forever I cast the burden of resentment upon the Christ Within Me they are free now and I am free too I wish them well in every phase of their life that incident is finished the Christ truth has set us both free I thank God it's that simple and you only need to perform this act of forgiveness once to do it a second time would not be necessary afterward whenever the memory of the person or the offense happens to come into your mind bless them briefly and dismiss the thought do this whenever the thought returns over time it will return less and less until it's forgotten altogether later if the Trouble Comes Back In memory again you will find that all bitterness and resentment have disappeared and you are both free with the perfect freedom of the children of God your forgiveness is complete and you will experience a wonderful Joy everyone should practice General forgiveness every day as a matter of course when we sing Our Daily prayers issue a general amnesty forgiving everyone who may have injured you in any way without the particulars simply say I freely forgive everyone if any specific resentment occurs to you bless it and dismiss the thought soon you will find ourselves cleared of all resentment and condemnation and the effect upon our happiness our physical health and our life in general will be astounding [Music] [Laughter] [Music] please [Music] [Laughter] foreign lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil this Clause has probably caused more difficulty controversy and therefore more attempts to reward it than any other part of the prayer for many Earnest people feel that God could not lead anyone into temptation or into evil in any circumstances and so these words do not ring true people have felt that Jesus could not have said what he has represented to have said and so they look about for some phrasing which they think would be more in accordance with the general tone of his teaching the prayer in the form we have in English gives a perfectly correct sense of the true inner meaning remember that the Lord's Prayer covers the whole of the spiritual life and condensed through it is a complete manual for the development of the Soul and Jesus knew only too well to settle perils and difficulties that can and do beset the soul after the preliminary stages of Spiritual Development have been passed those who have just begun on the path of development have an experience such difficulties and don't understand why this Clause is necessary the facts are the more you pray the more time you spend in meditation and spiritual treatment the more sensitive you become and if you spend a great deal of time working on your soul in the right way you will become very sensitive this is excellent but like everything else in the universe it works both ways the more sensitive and spiritual you become the more powerful and effective are your prayers you do better healing and you advance rapidly but for the same reason you also become susceptible to forms of Temptation that simply don't appear to those at an earlier stage you will also find that for ordinary faults even things that many people of the world would consider to be trifling you will be acutely aware of because you know better seemingly minor transgressions can drain away our spiritual power if not promptly dealt with not meaning that one will be tempted to pick a pocket or burgle the house but this doesn't by any means imply that one will not have difficulties and because of their subtlety even greater difficulties to overcome as we advance new and Powerful Temptations await is on the path ready to bring us down if we're not aware Temptations to work for self-glory or personal honors and distinctions even for material gain instead of forgot Temptations to allow personal preferences to cause Prejudice then it is our duty to deal with all men in perfect impartiality above and beyond all other sins is the deadly sin of spiritual Pride Pride truly the last infirmity of noble mind many times those who have triumphantly surmounted all other tests have lapsed into a condition of superiority and self-righteousness that has fallen like a curtain of Steel between them and God great knowledge brings great responsibility great responsibility betrayed brings terrible consequences one's knowledge of the truth however much or however little it may be the secret Trust of humanity that cannot be violated why you should never make the mistake of casting our Terrors Before Swine nor urge the truth in quotas where it isn't weapon we must do all that we wisely can to spread the true knowledge of God among mankind look at the truth so that no one may go without through our selfishness or our neglect feed my Lambs feet my feet the older cult writer spoke of the Soul as being challenged by various tests as it traveled the Upward Road if one succeeded in passing the test they said he was allowed to continue on his way with the blessing of the Challenger if however he failed to survive the ordeal he was forbidden to proceed now some Souls eager for Rapid advancement have rationally desired to be subjected immediately to all kinds of tests and have even looked about seeking difficulties to overcome but Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God everyone's own personality already presents enough material for any one man or woman to deal with in any lifetime and so Jesus has inserted this clause in which we pray that we may not have to meet anything that is too much for us at the present level of our understanding and if we are wise and work daily as we should for wisdom understanding Purity and the guidance of the Holy Spirit we never shall find ourselves in any difficulty for which we have into the understanding necessary to clear ourselves nothing shall by any means hurt you behold I am with you always [Music] this is a wonderful saying summing up the essential truth of the omnipresence and the oldness of God it means that God is indeed all in all the doer the doing and the deed and one can say also The Spectator the kingdom in this sense means action on every plane for this is the presence of God as manifestation or expression the power of course is the power of God we know that God is the only Power and so when we work as when we pray it is really God doing it by means of us just as The Pianist produces his music by means of or through his fingers so mankind may be thought of as the fingers of God he is the power if when you are praying you hold the thought that it is really God who is working through you your prayers will gain immeasurable efficiency say God is inspiring me when you have an ordinary thing to do hold the thought Divine intelligence is working through me and you will perform the most difficult task with astonishing success the wondrous change that comes over us as we gradually realize what the presence of God really means transfigures every phase of Our Lives turning sorrow into Joy age into Youth and dullness into light and life this is the glory and the glory which comes to us is of course also God's glory and the Bliss we experience is still God himself who is knowing that Bliss through us in recent years the Lord's Prayer has often been Rewritten in the affirmative form in this style for instance the Clause thy kingdom come thy will be done becomes thy kingdom is come thy will is being done all such paraphrases are interesting and suggestive but their importance is not vital the affirmative form of the prayer should be used for all healing work but it's only one kind of prayer Jesus used the invocatory or request form very often and the frequent use of this form is essential to the growth of the Soul it is not to be confused with a supplicatory prayer in which the subject begs to God as a slave pleading with his master that is always wrong the highest of all forms of prayer is true contemplation in which the thought and The Thinker become one this is the unity of the Mystic but it is rarely experienced in the earlier stages of Spiritual Development in whatever way you find easy for the easiest way is the best [Music] Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and so thanks for the other trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but do they Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen [Music] thank you