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Talks on Truth
Lesson 4
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[Talks on Truth]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson IV
How Shall the Dead Be Raised?
AS DISCIPLES of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to "raise
the dead." To understand this part of our mission clearly,
we should acquaint ourselves with the philosophy of death;
we should know what it is and how it came about.
2. Death is defined by Webster as "cessation of all vital
functions without capability of resuscitation." This, like
all definitions derived from sense observations, is quite
incomplete. It gives us no idea of the relation that death
bears to its polar opposite, life; and no idea of the
process through which life passes in order to appear absent
in that which has "cessation of all vital functions."
Following this to a final analysis, we find that we must
understand life before we can apprehend that appearance of
its absence in a form called death.
3. In this, as in all other investigations of Truth on the
basis of the correct premise, we find that we can never get
at any right relation by examining the
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negative side only. One could not correct the errors in a
mathematical calculation without first understanding the
rules governing numbers. Some people think they can learn
how to be healthy by studying disease; but they get further
and further into disease when they study it as an entity.
The study of health as a real principle involved in the
being of man leads to the discovery of its
foundation--mental harmony.
4. In metaphysics the beginning students insist upon having
evil explained to them--how it originated, and why it has
place in existence--when good is the origin of all that is.
They worry and they play their thoughts upon this question
until in sheer desperation they, as a rule, give it up. The
tangle of a good God and a bad Devil will not straighten
itself out from their plane of perception. The trouble is
that they do not know enough about the good. They want to
know all about the evil without first being acquainted with
the positive side of the question. They are like children
who know nothing about the harmony of music, yet insist
upon a full explanation of discords before they will go on
with their lessons. To know about evil we must first become
thoroughly familiar with good.
5. We find in our investigation of the character and the
place of death that by studying death alone we can get no
clue that will lead us to even a single fact. It has no
foundation in itself. Every definition we can frame implies
that death is the absence of something, and we are forced
to inquire into that which is absent before we can know the
meaning of the condition that the absence seems to cause.
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6. When we have made ourselves familiar with life, we shall
know all about death without studying it at all. We shall
know it from its true standpoint--absolute negation--as
that which might be if life were not all. Those who worry
over the cause of evil always find, when they drop their
investigations from the negative standpoint and go over to
the positive and make themselves familiar with the good,
that all their questions are answered by the good itself,
because it and it only can explain all the vagaries that
arise in the consciousness where good is not constantly
recognized.
7. A study of life reveals it to be an expression of Being
that gives rise to animation, vivacity, vigor, energy. We
learn that life may appear in a form in superabundance,
accompanied by but little intelligence. We perceive that
the character of life is determined by the intelligence
that it exercises. We find that the life expressed in and
through our own body requires the husbanding, directing
power of our intelligence. But life stimulates the lower as
well as the higher faculties. Right here many people do not
exercise wisdom in their living. They think that because
life stimulates the faculties, each of these should be
gratified as it desires. The desires of the animal man are
thus permitted their full exercise; the share of life force
that should go to the intellectual and spiritual man is
wasted, and he is robbed of his sustenance because he does
not understand the law of his being.
8. We find that life is a principle; that it is inherent in
Being, everywhere present at all times;
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that it is manifest to consciousness through vehicles; that
these vehicles are animated by life according to their
capacity or power to express it; that that capacity or
power of expression is governed by the idea of life that is
infused into it by the generative energy of the I AM.
9. Electricity, for example, is everywhere as invisible
potentiality. It may be brought into expression and use
through a motor. Some people think that the size of an
electric motor is the measure of its power. This is not
true. It is the character of the coiled wires within that
measures its capacity. Fine wire closely wound gives power
to the motor. So a fine, intense, high perception of life,
accompanied by a burning desire to express it in its
purity, marks the highest form of the animated vehicle of
God's vitality.
10. Man is the highest expression of God; he manifests
God's life through his body. Physiologists long ago
discovered that it is not the size of the body, nor its
beauty, that determines its vitality, but the fineness of
its texture.
11. Electricity is our best illustration of universal life.
The greatest electrician in the world does not know the
real character of electricity. He knows many ways to
transform that universal energy into light, heat, power,
and so on. Man's body is the greatest of all transformers
of life; in other words, what science has named
electricity. The cell centers are the transformers and man,
the I AM, is the directive agent. Infinite Mind expresses
life in "waves and nothing but waves" according to Sir
James Jeans. In the 1st chapter of Genesis it is written,
"The
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Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Isaac
Leeser, in his "Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures,"
translates it thus: "The spirit of God was waving over the
face of the waters," thus confirming the latest scientific
conclusions. All the potentialities of Being are epitomized
in this universal energy, the source of all existence. To
the man who manipulates it outside of his body in
mechanical devices it is electricity. To the metaphysician
who concentrates it in the nerve and brain centers in his
organism it is God-Mind, the "Father abiding in me" of
Jesus.
12. Life in the body is governed by the hold that the I AM
has on the idea of life. Its character is also tempered by
the conservation that judgment and discretion exercise with
respect to the other factors of expression. But let the
idea of life be firmly grasped and put into practical use
through thought and word, and the other factors fall into
line.
13. The energy generated by a dynamo is expressed through
action, and a suitable medium for its exercise must be
provided. We find a parallel to this in our own life.
Thinking and speaking are our methods of creating energy,
and our body is the vehicle acted upon by the energy
developed. We must think life into the living. Jesus at the
raising of Lazarus first "lifted up his eyes." He thus,
through mental dynamics, connected His idea of the
universality of life with universal life itself, and He was
able to say, "I thank thee that thou heardest me. . . . And
when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth."
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14. This event shows that we are to do more than merely
perceive the omnipresence of life; to fulfill the whole law
of manifestation we must speak life into visibility.
15. Yet again, we may perceive the truth that life is
everywhere waiting to be spoken into all forms, and with a
clear understanding of this truth we may speak the words of
life and yet not get the anticipated results. What is the
reason?
16. Going deeper into the factors constituting Being, we
discover that life or energy must have substance through
which to make itself manifest to consciousness. If we have
wasted our substance in riotous living, our word is made
fruitless because of lack of material upon which to work.
17. We should be as careful of the stored-up substance of
the consciousness, of which the body is the lower stratum,
as we are of the thoughts and words that we express. If our
substance is being wasted in the lusts of the flesh, our
word will lack in life-giving quality. Jesus cast out of
His consciousness the limitations of matter; He mastered
the appetites and the passions of the animal man and
dissolved all fear of evil.
18. Jesus demonstrated the law of God, and His word was
with power. He became the Word of God incarnate, because He
fulfilled all the requirements of the law.
19. This fulfillment is the privilege of every man. Whoever
dedicates his whole life to the supreme good and by
devotion, right thinking, right doing, right acting, pure
living, and pure speaking
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fulfills the law, may have all the power of Jesus. God is
no respecter of persons, but He requires an exact
observance of the law to the least jot and tittle.
20. So we say that we cannot explain death without first
having an acquaintance with life, an acquaintance with life
that carries with it an acquaintance with God. We must go
back to the supreme cause before we can get a complete
explanation of the origin of an effect.
21. In the matter of life, we discover by following the
clues given us in our own experience that they point to
intelligence as well as to force. In other words, life
falls far short of its mission if it is not equalized by
intelligence. Yet thousands who are seeking health, which
means more life, have no especial desire to become
acquainted with God. Many think that health and fullness of
life may be had without God, and when asking the help of a
metaphysician they often stipulate that they shall be given
no religious doctrines with the treatments. They might with
like consistency engage a locomotive without an engineer.
All the ills and discords of humanity may be traced to one
error--the indiscriminate and thoughtless use of life
separated from intelligence.
22. What men need above all else in this day is more
wisdom--more discretion in the use of the life that they
have. More life with the same old destructive ignorance in
using it would but add to their misery. Yet God does not
dictate what shall be man's choice in this or in any other
act. If man finds the law through which life is made
manifest in his consciousness,
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he may use it blindly and ignorantly if he so elects. But
he must also abide by the results, and this is where man
sets up his wail of sorrow; he does not like to reap his
sowing.
23. Death came into our world through the ignorant use of
life, and death can be put out only by a wise use of life.
Death is the result of a wrong concept of life and its use.
In the beginning of man's experiments with the powers of
Being, he had no concept of death. His consciousness was
intact and his unfoldment in wisdom was gradual and
orderly. But his desire to experiment predominated.
Sensation was sweet and enticing; it absorbed so much of
his attention that he forgot wisdom--he "hid" from his
Lord--and the result is separation from his Eden, the
divine harmony of the law.
24. When there is disorder in the working parts of a
machine, it breaks down or flies to pieces. That is just
what occurred in man's body. When intelligence was no
longer present in its full complement in his consciousness,
there was lack of harmony, and this resulted in such
disorder that the parts flew asunder--soul and body
separated, and man named the dissolution death. Then in its
train the fear caused by this dissolution was imaged in
man's mind, and he made it a secondary cause. So we find
the mere belief in death in the world today slaying its
thousands.
25. In raising the dead there are, then, two factors to
deal with. The idea of the reality of death and the fear of
death have both become destructive beliefs in the race
consciousness, and they must be
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taken up and dissolved. The total unreality of death must
be portrayed to the deluded consciousness. The omnipresence
and the omnipotence of life are beyond dispute, and there
can be no question that death is a condition set up in
human consciousness alone. God is not dead; He does not
recognize or countenance death; neither does man, when
freed from its delusion. Jesus said, "Follow me; and leave
the dead to bury their own dead."
26. The first step in demonstrating over death is to get
the belief entirely out of the mind that it is
God-ordained, or that it is of force or effect anywhere in
the realm of pure Being.
27. The next step is to live so harmoniously that the whole
consciousness will be not only resurrected from its belief
in death but so vivified and energized with the idea of
undying life that it cannot dissolve or separate.
28. We regard the apostle's words "dead through your
trespasses and sins" as metaphorical. But an analysis of
man, in the supermundane part of his being, reveals that
sin or departure from divine law in the use of a faculty
actually results in its death. That is, after violent
exercise of a power there is such a reaction that it goes
into a comatose state or "sleep of death." Death is the
failure on the part of man to sustain harmonious life in
the body.
29. Death and sleep are brothers in a metaphysical sense.
The life action is never wholly withdrawn from all parts of
a form, but in the experience named death there is such
cessation of
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vitality that dissolution of the outer shell takes place.
Jesus pronounced death to be sleep, and said that the
sleeper could be awakened when the vitality was restored in
divine order. Jesus said that Lazarus was asleep, and
added: "I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."
30. But His disciples did not see deeply, and took it for
granted that Lazarus had merely fallen into a trance or
prolonged sleep, and said, "Lord, if he is fallen asleep,
he will recover." "Then Jesus therefore said unto them
plainly, Lazarus is dead." Paul frequently referred to
those who had dissolved the body as brethren who had
"fallen asleep." The Lord told Daniel, "But go thou thy way
till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in
thy lot, at the end of the days."
31. Our poets in their inspired moments have caught this
truth, and our literature is replete with references to the
"sleep of death." Hamlet, in his soliloquy, opens to us in
a remarkable way the metaphysics of death:
To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
32. We are not afraid to go to sleep at night, yet every
time we lie down and fall into unconsciousness of the body,
we are enacting in a small way the sleep of death. In one
case the soul leaves the body for a few hours and again
takes it up; in
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the other the soul leaves the body to mortal dissolution,
yet it does not fail to return in due time and take up a
body--so long as it believes in the limitation of sense. In
the sleep of a single night, the one with a clear
conscience rests peacefully and is strengthened for another
day's experience. But the guilty, anxious, worried sleeper
is haunted by distressing dreams.
33. The experience of the death-sleeper is similar. If his
life has been according to the Golden Rule, he "wraps the
drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant
dreams"; his soul basks in the sunshine of a world Elysian
and his hope of heaven is for a season fulfilled.
34. This, however, is but the rest that prepares him for
another day's experience in the workshop of Being. This
process is repeated again and again, until man discovers
that there is a law of living that obviates this repeated
"sleep of death." That law is revealed to all who seek to
do the will of God and fulfill the law of life.
35. Here is where we find ourselves today. We know that
this law of life is based on mind action and that through
the mind we may resurrect ourselves from the dead.
36. As we explore the mental realm, which is our causative
thought, we find it filled with a legion of narrow beliefs,
foolish, ignorant beliefs, selfish beliefs, and discordant
beliefs. These we have lumped together and denominated
"mortal mind," or "carnal mind."
37. It is here that we first do our raising of
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the dead. Each of these beliefs of mortality is a sin. The
meaning of "sin" is "missing the mark," and these sense
limitations miss the mark of divine Truth. The light of
Truth must be turned into our consciousness and each of
these sleepers must be awakened. Some of them may seem for
a time to be beyond our power to resurrect; our most
sanguine thoughts may lack faith at the prospect, and may
cry out: "Lord, by this time the body decayeth."
38. But the Christ power is with us. "Said I not unto thee,
that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of
God?"
39. All things are possible to them that believe in the
power of God within, waiting to be made manifest at their
word. Then send forth that word and say to every sleeping
belief of sense: "Lazarus, come forth."
40. If you do not believe in the power of Spirit to
resurrect your consciousness from its tomb of earthly
superstitions, of course you may make no effort to do it.
But if you have faith that it can be done, you can do it.
41. Beliefs of every kind take up their abode in the
consciousness and make a home there. If you believe in old
age and bodily decrepitude and decay, you will find that
all the little cells throughout your organism are carrying
in their depths just such pictures, as the clear waters of
the lake reflect the trees and the clouds. If you want
these obedient little cells of your soul and your body to
reflect pictures of health and vigor undying, hold before
them, in
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the heaven of your mind, clear images of these perfect
states. Not only hold such images before them, but demand
that they express those images perfectly. And do not forget
to conserve your bodily energies by pure, careful thinking
and living, in order that you may have the transparent
substance in which your true thought images may be planted
and, in their course, brought to fruitage.
42. Many who are faithful in holding right mental images do
not get results, because they lack a receptacle; they let
the lusts of the flesh dissipate all the clear water of
life, and their good thoughts and their good words are
returned to them void. Guard all the powers of your being
if you would resurrect them from the dead. They do not
stand alone, but are dependent on one another, and must all
be brought into subjection to the Christ of God. Paul said,
"Every man that striveth in the games exerciseth
self-control in all things."
43. The resurrection of the dead is the sure and certain
work of the true Christian. We know that Jesus is the
example that we are to follow, and we say with Paul:
If the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been
raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that are
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. . . .
But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive. . . . The last enemy that shall be abolished is
death.
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