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Talks on Truth
Lesson 12
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[Talks on Truth]
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Lesson XII
The Holy Spirit
GOSPEL is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from God (good) and
spell (story, tidings). It is now universally identified
with Jesus Christ's mission and the doctrine that has grown
out of it. So when we speak of the gospel it is understood
that we refer to that system of religious beliefs that has
centered about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
2. But as to what that gospel is in detail, there are many
opinions. Many believe that it is the plan of salvation for
men outlined in the dogmas and creeds of the churches. But
those doctrines, creeds, and dogmas were formulated three
hundred years after Jesus taught and demonstrated. There is
no authority from Him or from His immediate disciples
attesting the genuineness of many of these later
enunciations interpreting the original teachings. They are
the work of men who had to sustain an industry known as the
church, who had to provide for a privileged class called
the clergy. These had become
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an important part of the body politic, and it was thought
best to organize them according to human ideas; hence,
church creed and church government. Thus originated the
Catholic Church; the Protestant churches are its offspring.
All that the Protestants count dear as doctrine they
borrowed from the Catholics, who had patched it together
from early Christianity and from paganism. These teachings
are not the pure Christianity of Jesus Christ, and He did
not authorize the ecclesiastical structure called the
Christian church.
3. It is safe to assert that no one can know the doctrine
of Jesus Christ without going direct to Him for
information. The writings of the New Testament known as the
four Gospels are the most reliable external guide. When
these are studied with unbiased mind, it is perceived that
Jesus delegated no ecclesiastical power to anybody; that He
did not formulate His doctrine or authorize any other human
being to do so. Jesus appointed one teacher: "The
Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to
your remembrance all that I said unto you."
4. The Holy Spirit is the only authorized interpreter of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and no man can know what His
doctrine is unless he gets it direct from this one and only
custodian. It is not to come secondhand, but each for
himself must receive it from the Holy Spirit, who is sent
by the Father in the name of the Son.
5. The question is frequently asked: "Who is
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the Holy Spirit, and what relation does He bear to God and
to Christ?"
6. The early disciples knew the Holy Spirit as the third
person of the Trinity. The Father is always first, the Son
second, and the Spirit third. The terms Father and Son
express an eternal, reciprocal relation. The Spirit is the
infinite "breath" of God, as the Son is His infinite "Word."
7. We may understand the relation and office of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit by analyzing our own mind and
its apparent subdivisions during thought action, because
each one of us is a perfect copy in miniature, an image and
likeness, of the great universal first cause--Being.
8. The source of all my manifestations is my mind. This
source is exactly like the Father--is the Father in degree.
An idea arises in my mind of something that I want to do;
this idea is the Son. I express that idea in definite
thought; that is Spirit going forth to accomplish that
whereto I have sent it.
9. The Father is Principle. The Son is Principle revealed
in a creative plan. The Holy Spirit is the executive power
of both Father and Son, carrying out the creative plan.
10. Thus we might also say that Father is Being in the
absolute, the unlimited, the unrelated. Son is the I AM
identity of Being. Holy Spirit is the personality of Being.
In its last analysis, Holy Spirit is the personality of
God. The Holy Spirit is neither the all of Being nor the
fullness of Christ, but is an emanation, or breath, sent
forth to do a definite work. Thus circumscribed, He may be
said to take
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on, in a sense, the characteristics of personality, a
personality transcending in its capacity the concept of the
intellectual man.
11. The Holy Spirit is designated in Scripture as
personality and as not always existing for the
consciousness of humanity in uniform degree. The mission of
Jesus was to open the way for the Holy Spirit to enter into
the minds of men. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear
witness of me."
12. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for
you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto
you. And he, when he is come, will convict the world in
respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
13. The function of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of truth,
implies distinct personal subsistence: He speaks, searches,
selects, reveals, reproves, testifies, leads, comforts,
distributes to every man, "searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God."
14. What writers of the old Testament ascribe to Jehovah,
the writers of the New Testament ascribe to the Holy
Spirit. (Compare Isa. 6:9 with Acts 28:25, and Jer.
31:31-34 with Heb. 10:15; see Acts 5:3, 4.)
15. The Holy Spirit is the law of God in action; in that
action He appears as having individuality. From this fact
the Hebrews got their concept of the personal, tribal God,
Jehovah. Their prophets and
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mystics came into conscious mental touch with this
executive lawgiver of God, and He used them as the
mouthpieces through which He guided and directed His
people. Adam talked to Him as Jehovah God. In this we
understand that by means of the harmony and perfectness of
the sinless man's mind, he was always conscious of the
omnipresent Holy Spirit. Discord had not entered his
innocent world--he was in the Eden of infancy. The desire
for independent experience entered his mind; he began to
get knowledge from experimenting blindly with the powers of
Being, and in so doing severed the connection between his
mind and the mind of the Holy Spirit.
16. Then the Holy Spirit found other means of communicating
with men, the most common being the visions of the night,
or dreams. "And he said, Hear now my words: if there be a
prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known unto
him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream."
17. The Bible records a long line of prophets, mystics, and
dreamers, who for thousand of years communicated the word
of the Holy Spirit to the people. Jacob "dreamed," and
"behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven . . . And, behold, Jehovah stood above
it, and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father,
and the God of Isaac . . . And, behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring
thee again into this land."
18. Joseph dreamed, and he interpreted the dreams of
others. Solomon was instructed by the Lord in dreams.
Daniel prophesied through instruction
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received from the Lord in dreams. Joseph the husband of
Mary, was instructed in dreams, and he saved the life of
the young child Jesus by following the warnings given him
in this way. Peter had visions of the night. "And the Lord
said unto Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but
speak and hold not thy peace." "And the night following the
Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer: for as thou
hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must thou
bear witness also at Rome."
19. The Children of Israel depended upon the Holy Spirit to
guide and direct them, and from Genesis to Revelation the
Bible is filled with incidents bearing testimony to the
direct and personal interest of the Holy Spirit in the
affairs of men.
20. Jesus Christ, the resurrected Adam, reconnected man
with the Lord, opening the way by which man might at any
time enjoy that communion with his Creator which he had had
in the Edenic state, before his season of experimenting had
begun.
21. Jesus prayed much by Himself and spent long hours in
silent communion with God. Those who have even in a slight
degree opened the Christ consciousness in themselves, so
that it flows forth and recognizes the universal Mind, can
readily understand that Jesus was in the silence with God,
getting the power and wisdom necessary to do His work. The
normal condition of man is one of opened inner communion,
such as was enjoyed by Jesus, a condition in which he can
say of every thought and word: "The word which ye hear is
not mine, but the Father's who sent me."
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22. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to bring all men
and all women into this open communion; but it is a
difficult attainment. "And the light shineth in the
darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." He who is
buried in sense limitations must find the way out of them
into the place where the light shines in the light and man
perceives it clearly. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit
so to guide man in order that man will not mistake the way
into that light or wander off into the darkness of the many
delusive bypaths of mortal sense.
23. The Holy Spirit comes to men in this day, as in the
past, and reveals to them in various ways how to overcome
the erroneous states of consciousness that they have
evolved, or in which they are cast through association. A
higher and more farseeing guide than mere intellect is
necessary, and that guide has been provided in the Holy
Spirit.
24. The Holy Spirit is the one factor that His disciples
and immediate followers counted absolutely necessary to
their success in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They
looked to Him for power and guidance in all their work.
They announced Him as the special gift promised by Jesus
Christ, an endowment that could be given by them to those
who believed on His name. By the laying on of hands they
transferred Holy Spirit power to others, who upon receiving
it went about preaching, teaching, prophesying, and
healing. Even to this day many in the orthodox Christian
church believe that only those are fitted to preach who are
inspired of the Holy Spirit. But in some cases the
inspirations
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of Spirit are so turned away by minds filled with
scholastic dogma and creed learned in ecclesiastical
colleges, that when given forth it is not recognized by the
soul seeking the pure bread of life.
25. But the Holy Spirit is in the world today with great
power and wisdom, ready to be poured out upon all those who
look to Him for guidance. The Holy Spirit is authority on
the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only authority ever
recognized by Jesus Christ, and whoever attempts to set
forth the Christ gospel from any other standpoint is in the
letter and not in the Spirit.
26. Jesus gave His words into the keeping of this universal
receptive agency, the Spirit of truth, whose mission it is
to carry those words directly into the understanding of
everyone who accepts the Christ way into the kingdom of
heaven. The Holy Spirit gave His words to the writers of
the New Testament, and they wrote them out for the
comprehension of the intellectual man. But this does not
signify that the mission of the Holy Spirit ended
there--that after giving this message He then withdrew from
the world. On the contrary, it was just the beginning, the
primary step of that larger, more comprehensive teaching
that Spirit is ever ready to impart to every soul. The soul
needs instruction, and the Father has provided a perfect
way for us to get it. That way is the Jesus Christ way;
whoever follows the steps outlined in Christ's gospel, now
brought to each of us by the Holy Spirit, will finally
reach the same place that Jesus reached.
27. The fact is that everybody has a soul to
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save, not from the hypothetical hell after death, but from
the sins and the delusions of the sense consciousness that
make hell here and now. There is a way to bring that
salvation about, and it is the mission of the Holy Spirit
to reveal that way to every one of us. The revelation
begins the moment we turn from the letter of the gospel and
seek for its spirit. To know that every word and sentence
of Scripture veils a spiritual truth is the first step in
unraveling the gospel. Spiritual truths cannot be expressed
in language that will carry correct concepts to the mind.
No attempt to describe the Holy Spirit is made in
Scripture, because language might be expanded indefinitely,
description and illustration fill volumes, yet the Holy
Spirit would not be compassed or apprehended on the
intellectual plane where human language passes current. The
Holy Spirit is the whole Spirit of God; He can be known by
man only through his spiritual nature. When he tries to
bring Spirit down to the plane of things, he always falls
short.
28. So those who attempt to learn of the Holy Spirit by
reading about Him, or from the teachings of others, will
fail. The Holy Spirit comes only to those who earnestly
seek Him. If you are depending for spiritual enlightenment
on some book or on church ritual and doctrine or on some
teacher or leader, you need not expect to have the Holy
Spirit fall upon you. It is the prayer and supplication of
the soul alone in its upper room (state of high spiritual
aspiration) that brings the Holy Ghost.
29. The doctrine of Jesus Christ is so intimately
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associated with the Holy Spirit that they are inseparable.
The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Christ, and the
Christ is the thing interpreted. They are omnipresent and
cannot be separated in spirit or in works. Hence, to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ is to set forth that the Holy
Spirit of God is ready and willing to bring all men and all
women into the kingdom. It is the proclamation to
everybody: "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."
30. All down the ages, ministers of the gospel have assumed
that the requirements are met when men have been persuaded
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of their
souls, and to keep on believing this until they pass out of
their bodies; then, the teaching runs, believers are
received into the arms of the Lord. But the Holy Spirit
does not indorse this assumption, neither does the letter
of the Scriptures.
31. In the 17th chapter of John are these words of Jesus:
"Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that
believe on me through their word; that they may all be one;
even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou
didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I
have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are
one." Here Jesus opens the door of unity with the Father to
all who believe on Him. It is thought by nearly everybody
that Jesus was the only Son of God, but here He prays that
we all may be in God as He is in Him and may realize our
sonship.
32. Jesus wants companions in power, dominion,
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and glory, that it may be demonstrated to the world, this
world, that what He claimed about man and his relation to
God is true. Jesus was one with the Father--was the Father
incarnate, and His prayer was "that they may be one, even
as we are," that the world may believe.
33. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that all men shall become
God incarnate. It is not alone a gospel of right living; it
shows the way into dominion and power equal to, aye,
surpassing that of Jesus of Nazareth.
34. Paul also saw it in this light. In the 2d Chapter of
Philippians, he says: "Have this mind in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God,
counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be
grasped."
35. "But," we are asked, "do you mean to say that living
upright, moral lives in the sight of God will not fulfill
the requirement of the gospel of Jesus Christ; that
believing on Him as our Saviour will not bring us into the
kingdom of heaven?"
36. Jesus answered this question when He said that if our
righteousness did not exceed that of the scribes and
Pharisees we could in no wise enter into the kingdom of
heaven.
37. How can one be in the Father, where Jesus Christ is,
without being right with Him in consciousness? That is, to
be one with the Father, as He is one, and thereby fulfill
His prayer, we must be equal with Jesus Christ. If we have
a sense of inferiority, if we believe that He has greater
wisdom, or power, or love, then we are not fulfilling the
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requirements. So long as we feel any difference between
ourselves in the Father and Jesus in the Father, we have
fallen short of that "mind . . . which was . . . in Christ
Jesus."
38. The cry goes up: "This is foolish, sacrilegious, to put
man beside Jesus Christ and claim that they are equals."
The claim is not that mortals, in their present
consciousness, are equal with Jesus, but that they must be
equal with Him before they will emerge from the sense of
delusion in which they now wander.
39. We know that health is the normal condition of man and
that it is a condition true to his real being; we claim and
declare this truth, right in the face of appearances to the
contrary. We have proved by experience many times repeated
that our words in this way reveal that health is potential
in Being.
40. If man is the son of God, he must be that son right
now; sonship must be just as real, just as omnipresent, as
the health that God has revealed through His Word. How
shall man reveal his sonship to himself and to others
except by claiming it; by declaring that he is not a son of
mortality, but a son of God; that the Spirit of God dwells
in him and is now shining through him; that this Spirit is
Christ, who said through Jesus: "Neither for these only do
I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their
word"?
41. Your word is the power through which you make your
belief manifest. Simple belief in or assent to the truth of
a proposition never gave understanding
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to anyone. There must be mental action; organic changes in
the mind are necessary before the new state of
consciousness takes up its abode in you.
42. If you can convince yourself that you are a son of God,
your next step is to declare it in word and to carry it out
in the acts of your daily life. After declaring this, if
you fall short in demonstrating yourself to be a son of
God, you are to find out why. "Ask, and it shall be given
you . . . knock, and it shall be opened unto you." You have
neglected some of your spiritual powers. You may be
dissipating in the lusts of the flesh some transcendent
energy given you by the Father.
43. Here comes the mission of the Holy Spirit. When you ask
in the silence of Spirit to be shown why you do not
manifest the powers that Jesus of Nazareth manifested, the
Holy Spirit will in some way reveal to you the lack. How
that revealment will come about no one can tell you. But if
you are patient and trustful you will be guided and
directed so that all the links in the chain of your being
will be brought together and harmoniously joined, and the
Son of God will be revealed in you.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of
Jehovah is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but
Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. . . .
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man
passed through thee, I will make thee an eternal
excellency, a joy of many generations. . . . For brass I
will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for
wood
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brass, and for stones iron. I will also make thy officers
peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no
more be heard in thy land, desolation nor destruction
within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls
Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more
thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon
give light unto thee: but Jehovah will be unto thee an
everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no
more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for
Jehovah will be thine everlasting light, and the days of
thy mourning shall be ended.
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