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Talks on Truth
Lesson 6
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[Talks on Truth]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson VI
The Ministry of the Word
THE QUESTION of the Word of God, its character and office,
its relation to man, is one widely discussed by the
theological world.
2. The statement made by John at the opening of his Gospel
is of deep metaphysical import; it has always been a
stumblingblock to believers in a personal God. Only one who
understands mind, its laws and its inherencies, can grasp
the relation between God and His word, as here presented by
John.
3. It is interpreted to mean Jesus of Nazareth; and so it
does, in a free application of a universal consciousness
manifesting itself through an individual. But this is a
limited view of the question and does not touch the vital
points of the Word and its relation to man and all other
aspects of creation.
4. John says: "All things were made through him; and
without him was not anything made that hath been made." But
this does not cover the point; it omits to state that there
is a vital connection still
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existing between the things made and their maker.
5. This is where theology has wandered away from the very
present, sentient, and vitally active Spirit permeating all
things, man not excepted. It is here also that the very
essence of the pure metaphysical doctrine propounded and
demonstrated by Jesus has its greatest virtue. It is not a
doctrine of "has been," not a statement of creation in post
mortem terms. It lives with the life and vigor that is in
no wise lost in the recital of what occurred in the misty
past and that cannot be defeated by speculations of what
may occur in the problematical future.
6. Jesus was imbued with a spirit purely His own. He did
not borrow His mission, or His words, or His precepts from
Egypt, Persia, or India. He was a genius that burned with
His own wick and oil. He was not a child of tradition, nor
did He allow the muggy thought of Jewry to befog His midday
Mind. He was not a Son of God by proxy, but appeared in
person and presented His heavenly credentials. There was
not in His whole history and ministry a loophole for the
belief in absence or apartness of God. Herein lies the
appropriateness of our claim upon Him as a forerunner of
the doctrine that we advocate. He is our Elder Brother, and
to Him we are indebted for the clearest presentation of
spiritual science that has ever been given to the world.
7. The presentation of a doctrine has a large influence
upon its acceptance. Some persons think it is only
necessary to talk religion in flowing words
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and heavenly tones. That is one way, but Jesus did not
adopt it. His presentation is peculiar in that it carries
with it, and illustrates by its works, a basis more
enduring than mere metaphysical presumption.
8. The imagination will carry out any idea or set of ideas
that the I AM reflects into it, hence theories are not to
be trusted. There must be evidence in works. To produce
works, there must be a working power. This is exactly what
the Word is--the working power of God.
9. Every known process has its regular advancing steps from
inception to conclusion, and these steps are taken
according to recognized principles.
10. The student of languages must have intelligence as a
base of operation; next he must have ideality; and next,
expression. To leave out one of these factors is to thwart
the end sought.
11. Who can learn a language without the ideal upon which
to form his concepts? Then who can use that language
without the word through which to convey to the listening
ear the inner ideal?
12. Herein is the Word of God prototyped. It is that which
conveys to the world the concepts of the Most High. It is
not the Most High in His wholeness, but it carries with it
the power behind the throne, because "these three are
one"--the Father (Principle), the Son (the Ideal), and the
Holy Ghost (the Formative Word).
13. These three are also minimized in each individual, and
through every ego is being poured all the power of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost just to the extent that the ego
recognizes, acknowledges
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and appropriates them. They are in the world as omnipresent
Principle, having an abiding place everywhere, because they
are as ubiquitous as the air. No man lives a moment without
them, yet few men recognize them: "The light shineth in the
darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not."
14. "There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John."
This is a step from darkness to light. John is the
illumined intellect turned toward the creative light. It is
not that light itself, but bears witness of that light;
recognizes it, and proceeds to clear the way; tears down
the walls of darkness that shut that light from the view of
the purblind ego, blinded not from choice, but by its own
conceits. This is the darkness into which the light shines,
and in which it is not comprehended.
15. But John bore witness of the light. Whosoever testifies
in favor of Truth, though he be far removed from its
brightness, is its friend and is making straight the way
for its full blaze into his consciousness.
16. Light in the Scriptures always means intelligence;
hence that which shines into the consciousness and is not
comprehended by it is the clear revealing, on the plane of
Spirit, of that higher Truth which Spirit alone comprehends.
17. To catch this light in his understanding, man must rise
out of the sense state into the realm of free ideas. Here
is where the Word does its work; here it is that "all
things were made through him [the Word]; and without him
was not anything made that hath been made."
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18. Outside of pure metaphysics (and by pure metaphysics is
meant a clear understanding of the realm of ideas and their
legitimate expression) there can be no correct
interpretation of this peculiar statement: "Without him was
not anything made that hath been made." This implies that
there is a making that is not legitimate--not in accordance
with principle inherent in Being.
19. Those who have made a study of Mind from an independent
standpoint, those who have opened themselves to the influx
of original ideas from Spirit, have discovered, in a manner
inexplicable to mortal sense, that there are apparent
creations that are not creations at all, being but
transitory formations that lose their cohesion and dissolve
when their mental support is withdrawn.
20. These formations are produced by the mind working
independently of its wisdom sphere. They are not permanent
because they lack that which is essential to the
permanent--harmony. There can be no creation without a
creator; there being but one Creator, there can be but one
creation.
21. God is the origin of all, and from him, in orderly
steps through His perfect idea (Son) and His wise builder
(Holy Ghost) all creation proceeds.
22. The Son (man) looks to the Father for all instruction,
and the Father responds to the Son's demands by sending
forth the Holy Spirit equipped with the wisdom and power
necessary to perform the work.
23. Man stands in the Godhead as the imaging faculty. He
gives form, outline, condition, relation
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to the infinite possibilities of the formless; but the
formless knows how it should be formed to be enduring, and
this knowledge is communicated to man, along with the power
to form, when he looks for it and acknowledges it. His
failure to ask for this wisdom does not nullify his
formative powers, however, because he is by nature the
formative faculty of Being.
24. Hence, when man ignores the wisdom of Spirit and
proceeds to build his world independently, he seems to make
many states and conditions that are not made at all; they
are merely malformations, and must of necessity fall to
pieces of their own disproportion.
25. All states are mental states. There is nothing else in
all the universe, visible or invisible. Whoever images
anything else is throwing on the screen of his universe the
crude pictures of an uninspired mentality. Such pictures
last for a season, but their own discords are their final
destruction.
26. So in the very nature of things a way must exist
whereby man may form his consciousness in harmony and
consequent permanency. That way is in and through his
acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God.
27. Mind is that quality of Being that knows. It is pure
knowing, and he who cultivates it becomes so filled with
understanding that he intuitively perceives the right of
every question or proposition submitted to him. He does not
have to study books or have experience in the realm of
things.
28. Jesus of Nazareth was an enigma to the
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worldly-wise of Judea. They wondered where He, never having
studied letters, got His understanding. But He did not
claim to have wisdom of Himself; He recognized its true
source in the Father: "The word which ye hear is not mine,
but the Father's who sent me."
29. Everyone coming into conscious recognition of the mind
of Spirit knows that he knows, without having learned
through any of the avenues recognized by the intellectual
man as necessary. It is not a system of reasoning from
premise to conclusion, but a direct summing up of the whole
case in omnipresent knowing.
30. The why and wherefore of this may be explained to those
who have, in even a small measure, disentangled the ego
from the sense mind. It requires a degree of familiarity
with principles. If you can comprehend a state where pure
Mind exists free from the limitations of time, space, and
condition, you can grasp in a degree the working field of
pure knowing.
31. There is within every man such a place--the "secret
place of the Most High." When man finds this place and
accepts its privileges as his, he is let into the realm of
pure metaphysics, where Mind alone with all its
transcendent powers holds free, untrammeled sway. This is
the point in every man where God joins hands with him, and
where the Word of God finds entrance into his
consciousness. It is here that man understands what it is
to be inspired by the Spirit to say and do things
extraordinary in the sight of the world.
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32. Simon Magus tried to buy the secret of this superior
magic, but found that he could not. It is not for sale for
a money consideration. It can be had only for love and
obedience. He who would have fruit from the tree of life
must reach up and get it. He must aspire to it first, and
then in prayer and true word act as if he had already
received it; he must go right ahead preaching the gospel,
healing the sick, and doing the other commandments of the
Master exactly as if he were already filled with the Holy
Ghost.
33. When the disciples of Jesus wanted to restrain one from
doing works in His name, He said, "Forbid him not." So
everyone who goes ahead and does the very best that he
knows, in the name of the Most High Good, will by virtue of
his works draw down upon himself the baptism of the Holy
Ghost--the Word of God.
34. In the Scriptures the Word of God is usually
personified, indicating self-consciousness. He who
acknowledges the self-conscious character of the Word is
led as by One who knows all the affairs of his life--aye,
his most secret thoughts.
35. Thus this Word of God is the revelation to man of the
powers and possibilities of his own being. It is the light
that brings to his notice the inner mechanism of his soul
and his body. Where he externally sees only flesh, blood,
and bones, the searchlight of this Word discloses the
presence of secret springs and living streams of energy and
life. Man awakens from his dream of sense and begins to
visit the different rooms in the temple in which
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he has lived but of which he knows so little. This he is
permitted to do through the "light which lighteth every
man, coming into the world."
36. When man's consciousness is lifted up by this wisdom
Word, he finds himself master of the powers and privileges
of infinity. He then says, with Jesus, "All authority hath
been given unto me in heaven and on earth." These are the
privileges of the sons of God, and every man is a son of
God.
37. But to be or not to be rests upon the immutable law of
the Word of God, for only by the light that it sheds can
man see and appropriate the privileges that are his by
original birth. Only those who receive Him become in fact
the sons of God.
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