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Atom-Smashing Power of Mind Chapter 10
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[Atom-Smashing Power of Mind]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Truth Radiates Light
Chapter X
ALTHOUGH Paul did not demonstrate complete overcoming, as
Jesus did, he saw in man as a mystery the truth that had
been lost sight of for "ages and generations . . . which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory." We are urged by both
Jesus and Paul to glorify God in our bodies. The body is
the fruit of the mind, therefore we must become better
acquainted with the mind and with the supermind in order to
glorify the body.
The fact is that the entire theme of the Bible is man and
his various states of mind, represented as persons, tents,
tabernacles, temples. In Exodus we read, "Let them make me
a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." It is explained
that this sanctuary was to be the meeting place of the
people and their God and eventually the dwelling place of
Jehovah. Jehovah means the I AM, which is also the meaning
of the Christ or the supermind. Where in all the universe
can man meet the supermind save in his own mind and body?
We are then compelled to conclude that the Tabernacle of
the Israelites and the Temple of Solomon are symbols of
man's body, the real meeting place of Jehovah.
Paul says, "We are a temple of the living God; even as God
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
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them."
When Solomon was preparing to build the Temple he
soliloquized: "But who is able to build him a house, seeing
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am
I then, that I should build him a house, save only to burn
incense before him?" The burning of incense in the house of
Jehovah represents the spiritualization of the fine
essences of the body through adoration and exalted
thoughts. When the mind is lifted up in meditation and
prayer the whole body glows with spiritual light.
This spiritual light transcends in glory all the laws of
matter and intellect. Even Moses could not enter the
Tabernacle when it was aglow with this transcendent light.
It is written that the Israelites did not go forward on
days when the cloud remained over the Tabernacle, but when
the cloud was taken up they went forward. This means that
there is no soul progress for man when his body is under
the shadow of a "clouded" mind, but when the cloud is
removed there is an upward and forward movement of the
whole consciousness (all the people).
We are warned of the effect of thoughts that are against or
opposed to the commandments of Jehovah. When we murmur and
complain we cloud our minds, and Divine Mind cannot reach
us or help us. Then we usually loaf until something turns
up that
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causes us to think on happier things, when we go forward
again.
Instead of giving up to circumstances and outer events we
should remember that we are all very close to a kingdom of
mind that would make us always happy and successful if we
would cultivate it and make it and its laws a vital part of
our life. "The joy of Jehovah is your strength."
You ask, "How can I feel the joy of Jehovah when I am poor,
or sick, or unhappy?"
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."
Here is the first step in getting out of the mental cloud
that obscures the light of Spirit. Take the promises of
Jesus as literally and spiritually true. Right in the midst
of the most desperate situation one can proclaim the
presence and power of Christ, and that is the first mental
move in dissolving the darkness. You cannot think of Jesus
without a feeling of freedom and light. Jesus taught
freedom from mortality and proclaimed His glory so
persistently that He energized our thought atmosphere into
light. This light is Spirit power, and it can be seen and
felt by anyone who will call on the name Christ and expect
it to raise him quickly out of depression and negative
states of mind into the power and zeal of an overcomer
through Christ.
The Scriptures state that when Moses came down from Mount
Sinai with the Ten Commandments his
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face shone so brilliantly that the Children of Israel and
even Aaron, his own brother, were afraid to come near him
until he put a veil over his face. The original Hebrew says
his face sent forth beams or horns of light.
The Vulgate says that Moses had "a horned face"; which
Michelangelo took literally, in his statue of Moses
representing him with a pair of horns projecting from the
head. Thus we see the ludicrous effect of reading the Bible
according to the letter.
Our men of science have experimented with the brain in
action, and they tell us that it is true that we radiate
beams when we think. The force of these beams has been
measured.
Here we have further confirmation of the many statements in
the Bible that have been taken as ridiculous and
unbelievable or as miracles.
Persons who spend much time in prayer and meditate a great
deal on spiritual things develop the same type of face that
Moses is said to have had. We say of them that their faces
fairly shine when they talk about God and His love. John
saw Jesus on the island of Patmos, and he says, "His
countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
I have witnessed this radiance in the faces of Truth
teachers hundreds of times. I well remember one class
lesson during which the teacher became so eloquent that
beams of light shot forth from her
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head and tongues of fire flashed through the room, very
like those which were witnessed when the followers of Jesus
were gathered in Jerusalem.
We now know that fervent words expressed in prayer and song
and eloquent proclamations of spiritual Truth release the
millions of electrons in our brain cells and through them
blend like chords of mental music with the Mind universal.
This tendency on our part to analyze and scientifically
dissect the many supposed miracles recorded in the Bible is
often regarded as sacrilegious, or at least as making
commonplaces of some of the very spectacular incidents
recorded in Scripture.
In every age preceding this the priesthood has labored
under the delusion that the common people could not
understand the real meaning of life and that they should
therefore be kept in ignorance of its inner sources; also
that the masses could not be trusted with sacred truths,
that imparting such truths to them was like casting pearls
before swine.
But now science is delving into hidden things, and it is
found that they all arise in and are sustained by universal
principles that are open to all men who seek to know and
apply them.
So the time has arrived when all shall know the Truth,
"from the least to the greatest of them." Of course there
are many sides to Truth. What we mean by Truth is concerned
with the great fundamental questions that have always
perplexed and at the same
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time engaged the profoundest attention of men: What is the
character of God? How does God create? What is the real
character of man, and what relation does he bear to his
source? What is the ultimate destiny of man and the
universe?
These are some of the fundamental questions that meet us at
every turn. They have been answered by both philosophers
and priests in every age, yet they still remain largely
unanswered in the popular estimation. Of course the priests
think they have the answer, but they offer no proof save
that of inspiration.
The philosophers and scientists are not satisfied with the
answers of the spiritually inspired. They want facts, and
they are testing the seen and the unseen for forces that
respond to certain laws without variation or deviation.
They claim that the theological explanation of creation by
Moses and the location and description of the kingdom of
heaven by Jesus are not specific enough and cannot be
definitely and scientifically proved; all of which is
approximately true. Popular religion does not attempt to
harmonize its fundamental facts with the findings of
science, and in its ignorance it fights science and thinks
that science is destroying the faith of the people in
things spiritual.
Anyone who will search for the science in religion and the
religion in science will find that they harmonize and prove
each other. The point of unity
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is the Spirit-mind common to both. So long as religion
assumes that the Spirit that creates and sustains man and
the universe can be cajoled and by prayer or some other
appeal can be induced to change its laws, it cannot hope to
be recognized by those who know that unchangeable law rules
everywhere and in everything.
Again, so long as science ignores the principle of
intelligence in the evolutionary and directive forces of
man and the universe, just so long will it fail to
understand religion and the power of thought in the changes
that are constantly taking place in the world, visible and
invisible.
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