If one catches a glimpse of the higher way of life, the way that by-passes death and all its sordid negation, then he must open his heart and mind to new and vibrant truths.
If one can accept the truth that old age, ugliness and even death itself are but the results of man's own negative, erroneous thinking then he must begin to contemplate the reality of thoughts and begin to choose the kind he is willing to harbor. Every thought becomes more powerful when given an abode in a man's mind as it is fed and nourished upon the very essence of his own being.
As one begins to select the caliber of the thoughts he will harbor and entertain, then it is that he places his feet upon the path of higher attainment. He, in that moment, becomes a disciple for he willingly places himself under discipline.
To make the road more clear it will be necessary to reveal the way to select thoughts for often they come unbidden to find a roosting place in the rafters of one's brain. Any thought that is unworthy must be replaced instantly by a more worthy one. The mind cannot become a void. If kind, gracious, beautiful thoughts fill the mind there will be no room for morbid, disagreeable, sorrowful, lustful or evil ones. The two types cannot possibly abide together.
And man, at the end of his life, is but the sum total of all the thoughts he has harbored and held to or sheltered in the hidden recesses of his mind. He is a great man, a mediocre man or an evil, wicked man according to his established thinking habits. Oh yes, a man's way of thinking becomes an habitual thing. And often it is more difficult to break the pattern of one's thought habits than one's personal, everyday, established physical habits.
The mind can be a wishy-washy, cluttered roosting place for every type of drifting thought that happens to drop in. This is "idle thinking" and every individual will be judged by his "idle thoughts" or those worthless thoughts his mind harbors.
Selected thoughts are never idle. And as one undertakes to select his thoughts he advances from a mediocre individual into a thinker. Few people really think. To think one has to select the type of thoughts he entertains.
The brain is a physical organ, an instrument in which the mystic entities of thoughts are harbored and nourished and kept alive.
But the mind is quite different from the brain. The brain is the organ or instrument through which the mind operates. The brain is the housing or casing for the mind just as the body is the abode or dwelling place of the spirit.
The mind is fluid. There are no realms it cannot explore. Time and space are banished by its touch. The mind is spiritual. The mind is a living thing confined neither by time nor space. The mind is a sacred, super-sensitive, almost unanalyzable apparatus of unmeasured quality and infinite power when commanded and put to correct use.
Knowledge is stored in the brain. Facts are gathered and filed away in its niches like papers are filed in the pigeon-holes of a cabinet. But the mind is not a static organ. The mind is a living essence of unlimited power. Its functioning is arbitrary for it can be mis-used as easily as it can be used correctly.
And though both the brain and the mind can be grossly and tragically misused there is within man the ability to command the hidden powers of his mind and be obeyed. Man has within himself the power to command his mind to harbor only thoughts of the highest quality. There is no limit to which man can use the power of his mind. He can use such powers to perfect his holy, divine gift of love as he develops his mind to fulfill its most excellent, positive degree of functioning as he trains it to "Love God" with all its intensity and its power. Then expanding that love he can truly love his neighbor as himself. He can eliminate every dismay, every fear-filled, antagonistic, hateful thought as joyous thoughts rush in to fill his entire being.
What power is there within man that can thus stand guardian over his mind and command it to obey? What power is there that can demand thoughts be selected -- or rejected? If the mind can be used for evil as readily and as easily as it can be used for good, then what hidden force is there within man that can demand obedience from the mind and command it to obey? What hidden intelligence stands over the mind that can demand its powers be used for righteousness?
What could there possibly be higher than the mind but the soul? So it is that one must demand his soul to stand forth and take command. This is his heritage. It is the soul that has the power to command the mind and then the divine ability to see that it obeys. The spirit within man must be developed through man's acceptance and awareness of it. As it is placed on the throne of man's being, in complete command, "He whose right it is to rule" -- the orders and dis-orders of the flesh are canceled and eliminated.
It is the soul that must stand forth and give the all-powerful command of creation: "LET THERE BE!" "Let there be peace! Let there be understanding! Let there be love! "Let there be Light" on any subject on which one is seeking information. Or, "Let only beautiful thoughts be permitted to enter the sacred precincts of my mind! Let all evil, negative, discordant thoughts be forever banished!" Then it is up to the individual to keep watch to see that the command is obeyed. This is the process of bringing forth -- the law of creation.
The physical dominion of earth has held captive, both the minds and souls of men. "Man is born in sin" just as a fish is born in water. He is born into it and is completely surrounded by sin and negation from infancy.
Childhood and youth are spent in developing the physical body while the spiritual nature of man is almost completely ignored. Placing religious seals upon a child's mind, as he is orthodoxed and cramped into narrowed conformity by some creed or applied rituals, is not necessarily a training that develops spiritual growth. And more often than not such rigid training brings a retardment to the spontaneous development of the soul rather than assistance.
The telling of stories in some Sunday school class, stories of the exploits of the great ones of the past, is not sufficient to develop the soul of a child, nor of a man. One can only develop spiritually as his own soul is instructed and assisted in its own growth. Man must be taught how to step forth to fulfill the great works of the past -- and exceed them in "The greater works!" This is man's right. Children must be instructed how to contact and use the unspeakable powers contained right within themselves.
It is a tragic thing, yet true, that if any one stepped forth to attempt the greater works he would be crucified by the ridicule and derisive persecution of his fellow Christians.
Such magnificent thoughts as one's daring to believe in the possibility of fulfilling Christs' great and unspeakable promises in this present day and age have never been allowed to enter the minds of the children of men. So how can any one grow up with the vision and the ability to instruct the little ones in some Sunday school class as to how to go about fulfilling such irrevocable, dynamic, eternal promises? Such promises have been looked upon only through the blind, mortal eyes of the masses and the deeply veiled vision of their leaders.
Those who look only into the past to behold the miracles and the works of God and who have never lifted their eyes to behold His glory or His power in the present, have remained unenlightened and impotent and have failed Christ utterly.
No wonder "The learning of the world is foolishness to God!" The learning of the world is composed entirely of the tangible, orthodoxed works brought forth by the physical side of man's nature. Churches point into the past for their foundations and their structures. Their authority and their power is the past instead of the Living God. They exist in the shadows of "What has been."
The earth is flooded with books that deal in crime and sex. Paintings are actually defiling the earth in their ugly, morbid-minded distortions of the Divine Creator's handiwork. His sublime creations are smeared in ugliness as they are lauded as modern art. Entertainment has become a perverted, shocking revelation of man's lowest impulses. Nations are stacking up their desecrating instruments of war and destruction. Industries are burdened with mechanical gadgets and almost incomprehensible, cumbersome machines while man himself is more dwarfed and afraid and lost and bewildered than ever before.
It is only because of the bleak, skimped, fearful little thoughts of the physical minds of men that Christ's teachings and His dynamic promises have remained unfulfilled. The very lack of power stands as a mockery to His Holy Name. Why have not professing Christian leaders fulfilled His words proving their belief in Him? Why have these, who so loudly proclaim their belief in wordy sermons, remained so empty of power? Why do they not heal the sick, the lame, the halt and the blind and cast out devils, or the unclean spirits and thoughts harbored in the minds of the mental cases, which are increasing in such alarming numbers upon the earth? Why do they not bless the meager supply into an over-abundance?
Why? Simply because it is the over-ruling, moral, physical side of man's nature, that does not have the ability to apply His powerful teachings of eternal, living power, that is functioning. New churches are being constructed to extort funds from the already over-burdened inhabitants of the earth as they glorify their empty altars while pointing their spired steeples upward like fingers, shaming the sky. And these same churches become only the musty, archived receptacles of past traditions instead of endowing their living members with the knowledge of how to fulfill His promises and so bring forth their own powers to stupendous accomplishment. Christian philosophy has become a rattling skeleton which is violently shaken on Sabbath days by the shouted phrases of the preachers. Yet their words are without power as they direct the minds of men back across the ages to the great "once-was." The powerful present, the eternal NOW is never permitted to express in the lives of the living. Man is held in profound ignorance as his attention is directed backward and veiled mystery shrouds God in an unapproachable realm of dead, by-gone power. God has been held in a realm of impotency because man has lost the power to believe in His promises and the way of their fulfilling. He has lost the contact with his own soul and hence the contact with God.
As the soul is commanded to STAND FORTH the mind is subjected to obey. As the mind is refined and trained to obey one learns to think with purpose and power. The black, hideous, nightmare thoughts, the weak, impotent thoughts as well as the greedy, jealous, or revengeful thoughts of hate and fear are conquered and eliminated. These sordid, mortal thoughts are then replaced by thoughts of singing, triumphant beauty as one's eyes become single to the dynamic, breathtaking glory of God. With the joyous vision of that perfection established in singing praise and gratitude one becomes glorious.
Oh man of a million mystic, unfathomed, subtle and unused powers, which have lain dormant within, leave your mortal thinking habits and negatious restrictions behind and step forth into the full measure of your creation.
"To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." It is also power. (Rom. 8:6).
The Light of Christ is the Spirit of Truth and the powers of creation are contained within. "As also the Light of Christ is in the sun and the light of the sun and the power thereof by which it was made.
"As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made;
"And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand.
"And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understanding;
"Which light procedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space --
"The Light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God, who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity. Who is in the midst of all things."
When one brings forth that "Light of Christ which is given to abide in the very center or 'midst' or middle of a man's own being," he will be in contact with truth. "He will know the Truth and will be henceforth free!"
Within that light, held unfulfilled within man's own inner being, is engraved the record of heaven. Also within that dynamic light, held entombed within his own being, is the pattern and the power of each individual's own fulfilment and the truth and the power of every promise ever given by God to man.
When that Christ Light is brought forth and developed from within It will have the ability and the power to contact that same Light that fills the great immensity of space and one will be able "to comprehend all things!" He will also be able to contact that same light in the heart of another and help to awaken it and bring it forth.
As that divine Christ Light is brought forth, through one's mind reaching out to accept and comprehend it, a man becomes one with the very fulness of that light. So it is that as an individual becomes one with that light he also becomes equal with it.
As the spirit is commanded to step forth and the mind is brought to obey, man places at the controls or helm of his own being the power of divinity and he passes from mortality into immortality.
As one learns to consult his soul in whatsoever he does instead of blundering through his dealings and his life with only his mortal, physical qualities functioning, he is lifted above the vicissitudes, temptations, afflictions and forces of this "lone and dreary world."