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"Religious
faith may very well be considered a science, for it responds invariably
to certain formulae. Perform the technique of faith according to the
laws which have been proved workable in human experience and you will
always get a result of power."
- Norman Vincent Peale
"The Science
of Mind" written by Dr. Ernest Holmes, begins with the
"Introduction" which contains four chapters; I The Thing
Itself, II The Way It Works, III What It Does, and IV How to Use It ...
the first four weeks of January, 2007, I will focus on these
Introductory Chapters, beginning with "The Thing Itself."
In this first introductory chapter,
Dr. Holmes, takes us out of the realm of religion to a more enlightened
awareness of God and our relationship to God ... in truth, religion has
separated us from the great teachings of Buddha, Krishna, and Jesus ...
by creating religions from their teachings ... religions which separate
us from each other, and ultimately separate us from God (in our belief).
[The Science of Mind] ... We think of
metaphysics, perhaps, as something that only the most profound thinkers
have known about, but we should remember that we are also
thinkers. The profound thought of all ages has stood in awe of
Life itself, realizing there here is a power and potentiality, the
highest possibilities of which the human intellect cannot fathom.
[The Science of Mind] ... Universal principles
are never respecters of persons; the Universe has no favorites.
There, it is written: "And let him that is athirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely." (Rev. 22:17)
[The Science of Mind] ... This is the simple
meaning of true metaphysical teaching, the study of Life and the nature
of the Law, governed and directed by thought; always conscious that we
live in a spiritual Universe; that God is in, through, around and for
us. There is nothing supernatural about the study of Life from the
metaphysical viewpoint. That which today seems to us supernatural,
after it is thoroughly understood, will be found spontaneously natural.
[The Science of Mind] ... We all know that many
have been healed of physical disease through prayer. Let us
analyze this. Why are some healed through prayer while others are
not? Can we believe that there is a God who picks out some man and
says, "I will honor your prayer, but I do not think so much of Mr.
So and So?" It is superstitious to believe that God will
answer the prayer of one above another. Jesus said that God
"maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45)
[The Science of Mind] ... Since some people
have been healed through prayer, while others have not, the answer is
NOT that God has responded to some and not to others, but that some have
responded to God more than others. Their prayer (their thought)
has responded by corresponding. The answer to prayer is in the
prayer. But what is prayer? A prayer is a movement of thought,
within the mind of the one praying, along a definite line of meditation;
that is, for a specific purpose.
[The Science of Mind] ... What is the
mind? No man living knows. We know a great deal about the
mind, but not what it is. By mind, we mean consciousness. We
are now using it. We cannot locate mind in the body, for, while
the body is a necessary vehicle for consciousness while we are here, it
is not consciousness. We cannot isolate mind. All we know
about it is not what it is, but what it does, and the greatest
philosopher who ever lived knows no more than this ... except that he
may tell us more of how it works.
[The Science of Mind] ... Mind - the Thing,
Spirit, Causation - is beyond, and yet not beyond, our grasp.
Beyond, in that It is so big; within, in that wherever we grasp at It,
we are It to the extent that we grasp It; but, since It is Infinite, we
can never encompass It. We shall never encompass God, and yet we
shall always be in God and of God!
[The Science of Mind] ... We need not ask why
these things are so. There can be no reason given as to why the
Truth is true. We do not create laws and principles, but discover
and make use of them (i.e. gravity, electricity). Let us accept
this position relative to the laws of Mind and Spirit, and see what we
can do with them - rather than how we may contradict the
inevitable. Our mind and spirit is our echo of the "Eternal
Thing" Itself, and the sooner we discover this fact, the sooner we
shall be made free and happy. The Universe is filled with Spirit
and filled with Law. One reacts to the other. We are Spirit
and we are Law. The law of our life reacts to our spiritual or
material concepts, and builds and re-builds according to our beliefs and
faith.
[The Science of Mind] ... There is a Power in
the Universe that honors our faith in It; there is a Law in the Universe
which exacts the "utter-most farthing." We all wish to
feel that the power behind everything is good .... This is the Thing
Itself. .... There is that within every individual which partakes
of the nature of the Universal Wholeness and - in so far as it operates
- is God. That is the meaning of the word Emmanuel, the meaning of
the word Christ. There is that within us which partakes of the
nature of the Divine Being, and since it partakes of the nature of the
Divine Being, we are divine. It reacts to us according to our
belief in It; and it is an immutable Law, subject to the least among us;
no respecter of persons, It cannot be bound. Our Soul will never
change or violate its own nature .... But since it is what it is, and
works in the way that it works, it appears to each through his
belief. It is done unto each one of us as we believe .... The mind
which we discover within us, is the Mind that governs everything.
This is The Thing Itself, and we should recognize its simplicity.
And so now we
understand why the Master Mind Jesus could declare in absolute faith,
"I, and the Father are One." And this "I" ...
is the infinite "I" within all of us; It is our strength, our
love, our health, our light, and our joy. And so we can declare
with absolute faith and confidence, "God-in-the-Midst-of-Me Is
Mighty!"
AND SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev. Hank
Bates
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