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Keep A True Lent
Chapter 6
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[Keep A True Lent]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
The World Calls to Courage
Chapter 6
OVER NINETEEN hundred years ago a man taught a religion
that changed the whole trend of thought of people. His
teachings were called "the Way."
In the beginning He had few followers. He was, like
Socrates, accused of treason and killed. His enemies took
for granted that after His death His doctrine would utterly
disappear, as had many doctrines before His time. However,
they lacked spiritual discernment, for the teachings of the
man Jesus of Nazareth possessed an element that the people
vitally needed and they soon sprang up in regions far
beyond the little land where they were promulgated; they
spread to many lands and have been spreading ever since.
It was the Word of God that Jesus was teaching; the Word of
God is the creative agent, and spiritual man is its supreme
creation. Moreover, the man Jesus stands far out in front,
as evidenced by His teachings. He is the divine man of this
race. We should impress this on our consciousness. We
should study His teachings. We should understand and follow
them.
Jesus taught that the world belongs to man and that man is
responsible for it. The human family is responsible for the
poverty or the prosperity of the
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world. By our mental beholding and working we determine
whether we shall have or have not.
In the days when the Israelites were held in captivity by
the Babylonians, a few of the companions of the prophet
Nehemiah were allowed to return with him to Jerusalem and
to rebuild the wall. They engaged those remaining in the
city to help; the Bible says "the people had a mind to
work."
Our prosperity is the result of work--not physical work
alone, but first mental and spiritual work. There is an
everlasting marching on in every industry and science. We
are never content with the present methods but are
constantly seeking better ones; we are not content with our
schools but are always finding easier ways to gain
knowledge for ourselves and our children. Our nation is,
therefore, progressing.
We find that Christianity is surprisingly progressive, too.
Our religion is constantly unfolding new possibilities, new
powers, and new beauties; we are on the way to a great
outpouring of spiritual development. We have not realized
what a wonderful religion we have. It is filled with
possibilities, and these possibilities are made known to us
in mind and spirit.
But we need more courage to develop these possibilities. We
need more initiative. We need more awareness of this divine
power in us and when we awaken to the spiritual man, which
every one of us has within us, we shall see that through
spiritual
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unfoldment all good things are possible of accomplishment,
as Jesus promised.
All things are possible to us, only we must believe.
Believe what? We must believe in ourselves, in this innate
spiritual man in us and we must encourage him. Encourage
him with what? With sound words, with affirmations of
almightiness; then we shall have the key to the overcoming
world.
Our most important study is our own mind, not only the
intellectual mind but the spiritual mind. "Know thyself"
was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and it
must be inscribed on our own temple, "over" the door of our
mind. "Know thyself." We must become acquainted with our
own mind.
Now that it is being universally taught that with every
thought our brain sends vibrations into the surrounding
atmosphere, every progressive metaphysician is admitting
that with this invisible thought stuff we are constantly
making structures for ourselves and the world about us. The
scientific world is also beginning to recognize the fact
that man has within himself the capacity to re-form the
world about him.
Modern metaphysicians have discovered that with every
thought we think there is a movement of active forces--not
only a movement of those forces, but a movement of
everything connected with our consciousness, our body, our
world.
Every time we speak we cause the atoms and
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cells of our body to tremble and go through certain
changes. Not only do we cause the cells and atoms of our
body to form new adjustments, but we even affect the cells
of the bodies of those with whom we associate.
We are told that "the desert shall . . . blossom as the
rose" and that we shall have a millennium here on earth;
that things will be changed "in the twinkling of an eye."
This is a Biblical view. We find that changes come
gradually, and they come through work.
We find in the Old Testament the poems and prophecies of
Isaiah. He tells in the language of the Orient some of the
signs of the millennium--and they have been shown by modern
science!
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the
desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall
blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing;
the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency
of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah,
the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear
not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the
recompense of God; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of
the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in
the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the
thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of
jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with
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reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there and a way,
and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the redeemed.
In every generation since the dawn of history have been
prophets who claimed that they received revelation of the
end of the world. It is claimed that even Jesus told of the
end of the world. However, more recent and accurate
translations of the New Testament show this to be an error.
What Jesus spoke of was "the completion of the age."
A vivid description of the end of the earth's civilization
is found in the 34th chapter of Isaiah. Whether Isaiah knew
any more about the end of the world than many modern
prophets is a question.
History testifies to the fact that they are all wrong. The
world is not coming to an end. Geologists say that it has
taken the Colorado River at least fifty million years to
carve out the Grand Canyon. It is logical, then, to
conclude that God has a future for a globe that has taken
Him so long to make.
But through poets, prophets, and pessimists in every age we
are warned of what, from a human, destructive viewpoint,
might occur. Shakespeare says:
"These our actors.
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
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Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."
Now what we want to ask is this: Are these prophecies of
the end of civilization and the destruction of the earth
and all things the result of sane thinking or are they the
work of sick minds?
They are undoubtedly the work of sick minds. The sane man
with a little logic would determine that our God, with the
power and wisdom to create a world of such mighty
possibilities, would not destroy it and leave the destiny
of all the good people to the mercies of a few unscrupulous
fanatics.
The destiny of the earth and of its people is in the minds
and hands of those who seek to know God as Spirit, and
those who seek Him must seek Him in Spirit.
Jesus points the way, and by following His formulas we
shall find the solution to every problem. All the formulas
given by Jesus are constructive rather than destructive. He
does not teach death but life. "If a man keep my word, he
shall never see death."
Where in Jesus' teachings shall we find a formula to
offset, to dissolve, to meet and nullify the atomic bomb?
We find it in the 10th chapter of Luke and the 22d chapter
of Matthew. This is the formula:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind; and thy neighbor
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as thyself." "This is the great and first commandment,"
Jesus told the lawyer who asked Him what was the "great"
commandment. This is the fulfillment of all commandments.
The formula has been tested, and history shows that it has
built and sustained civilization and produced peace,
happiness, and prosperity.
Let us all join in prayer to this end, that we may take the
formulas that Jesus gave as working principles, that they
may be sent out in the world through the power of the word.
"Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt cause this
people to inherit the land."
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[Keep A True Lent]
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