Joseph Benner – The Way Out

Christ should learn the law which if obeyed will enable them to rise out of all conditions of lack, limitation, inharmony, disease and unhappiness that may manifest.

You ask if this is really possible, and if there is a law which if obeyed will enable one to accomplish all that.

We say emphatically, there is such a law, and that you can be free from the fear and dominance of money, that you can have an abundance of all good things, that you can be well and happy, and can bring about an adjustment into perfect harmony of all departments of your life—if you want these things enough to train yourself to obey this law.

You say that you would do anything to obtain such wonderful blessings, if it is humanly possible.

It is not only possible, but everyone who is filled with such a desire can do it. For know a great truth,–that you are permitted to be in such unhappy conditions by your Higher Self—solely in order that you may seek and gain the knowledge, the power and the ability to control them, in order to free yourself forever from them and to assume your true place in life, and therein receive the heritage of good that is here for you, whenever you become wise and strong enough to claim it and use it for the good of others and not for selfish ends.

First know that it is all a matter of Consciousness, and that you, yourself alone, are to blame for these conditions: for you alone created them and are firmly holding them in your consciousness—or they would not be so plainly manifesting. All this we are taught in those great words, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

We know that you have heard this stated perhaps many times before, and so often that it may have become an old story. Some of you have tried to prove it and to rid your consciousness of all your negative thoughts: but because it took determined and persistent effort you soon grew tired, on account of the strong opposition met with, and you then dropped back into the current of the old conditions and if anything became more helpless than you were before.

Others may have heard of the saying, but it did not impress them; for they could not accept the assertion that all of the inharmonies in their lives are the result of their own beliefs, or of their past thinking crystallized into beliefs. They preferred to blame it all on someone else, and even God came in for a share of the blame.

The main trouble with almost everyone is that they do not realize how many negative and destructive beliefs they are carrying around with them in the subconscious realms of mind and which creep through into the conscious mind whenever it is free from interest in other things.

Until you can begin to study your mind and watch for and note these negative beliefs when they come—and you will find that they are actually beliefs—and refuse them further support, there is not much hope for you.

In fact it is the first thing you must learn to do. Those who are too mentally lazy to do such watching and controlling of their thoughts, are usually the ones who will not accept that their own thinking and beliefs create for them all of the conditions now manifesting in their lives.

But it makes no difference whether you accept it as being true or not—it is the law.

THE LAW

Now if you are ready to hear the law, we will state it in words that everyone can understand.

Note these words, and let them impress themselves on you, so that from this moment ever afterward they will live in your mind as a guiding influence.

“WHATEVER YOU THINK AND HOLD IN CONSCIOUSNESS AS BEING SO, OUT-MANIFESTS ITSELF IN YOUR BODY OR AFFAIRS.”

Whether you accept this as yet or not, consider for a while the truth that every thought you think, especially those relating in any way to self, hovers around in your mental atmosphere, just as a child stays close to its parent. These thoughts being about yourself receive the life that maintains them from the feeling that you put into them.

In other words, the thoughts themselves are but mental forms, but when you think them with feeling of any kind you fill these forms with life and they become as living things which ever return to you, their parent, to be fed with more living power. For all feeling expressed is life, is vital power, and if you only knew it, all the thoughts which persistently influence your mind and harass you, are only your mental children clamoring for food and attention, and compelling more worrying, anxiety, or fear from you; all of which are excellent food containing rich vital power, and which makes them grow rapidly, until they become so powerful that in time they dominate your mind so that you can scarcely think of anything else.

When the fact is, these thoughts exist to you only when you let them into your mind—that is, they are of importance to you only when you give them attention and recognition. But on the other hand, their power over you and their life can quickly be nullified by simply knowing the law, and refusing to feed them longer with life power by giving them further attention or interest.

And it should not be necessary to state that voicing such thoughts definitely and speedily out-manifests them, for the spoken word is far more potent than the thought. Above all else you should guard carefully your speech, voicing nothing you do not want to see manifest. Always remember, however, that by preventing such thoughts entering the mind there will be no impulse to voice them.

So that you can see now that it is all a matter of consciousness, of thinking and harboring the right kind of thoughts—those you wish to out-manifest, and of letting into your mind no thoughts you do not want to manifest in your body or affairs.

And perhaps you can also see that what is ordinarily called thinking is only the admitting into your mind of thoughts that originated chiefly in other minds and which you of course attracted to you. This is also true of all negative, inharmonious and destructive thoughts—there must be something in you that attracts them or they would not come.

Many will still permit them to come, for only by the suffering, hardship and struggle to escape from their influence that you undergo, will you learn how to free yourself and gain the power to control and consciously direct your life to constructive ends.

That is the hard way, but we are now going to show you the true way to free yourself forever from fear and worry about finances, and from all other destructive forces.

We are assuming that all who read are students and followers of Christ’s teachings. You remember those significant words of His in the Sermon on the Mount.

“Take no thought (or be not anxious) saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed;

“For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

“But seek ye first the Kingdom (Consciousness) of God, and His righteousness (Right Ideas); and all these things will be added unto you.

We know that these words seem important to you, but we also know that very few take them as actual promises and try definitely and determinedly to put them to the proof.

But that is the very thing you must do, if you would obey the law; and when we show you how to free yourself from fear and worry you will not only be able to free yourself from the power money has over you, but you will have found the straight and narrow way to the Kingdom. And all the powers of the Kingdom will help you, if you are strong and determined enough to win the goal. For the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is only a state of consciousness where we do right thinking -where we think God’s thoughts only.

Can you do that? Surely you can—if you will. Then this is the way:

THE WAY

You must train yourself to STAND GUARD CONTINUALLY AT THE DOOR OF YOUR MIND, AND TO LET IN NO THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO OUTMANIFEST.

Think this over carefully, and you will see that it is the only way.

It may seem hard—at first, and you may not know what to admit and what to deny. But guard the door from every negative thought and feeling of whatsoever nature—from every thought that you know God would not have you think; from every doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, or concern of any kind; from every tendency to criticize, judge or condemn anybody or anything or any condition; from self-pity, jealousy, envy, irritation, unkindness, anger, hatred, etc. These will give you an idea of what are negative and ungod-like thoughts, and which must no longer have a part in your consciousness.

If you will keep all such untrue thoughts out of your mind, you can see that then and then only can your Higher self draw into your mind the true and positive thoughts that will attract to you the good that is waiting to manifest itself to you. For while your mind is cluttered with all those fearful, worrying, discouraged, sick, weak, poverty-tainted thoughts, how can you expect anyone who feels these vibrations—and vibrations are things you cannot cover up- to be attracted to you, or how can you expect God to inspire you with thoughts of a beneficial nature?

In fact, such negative thoughts actually keep away the things you are longing to have manifest in your life – for like attracts like. Think! Poverty-stricken thoughts do not attract prosperity or jobs; sick thoughts do not build a healthy consciousness; and belief that you are a failure invites failure.

You say this all sounds good, but when one is sunk so deep in conditions that no matter which way he turns he sees only sickness, hunger, poverty or failure facing him, despite months of effort to conquer the condition, to get work, or to do something to tide over till better days come, –how is he to think of anything else?

Yes, dear friend, we see what you are up against, but we also see that you are caught fast between the horns of a dilemma. You have sought help from the world of men and it has turned you down. You have exhausted all the forces of self, and you admit that you are completely helpless. And perhaps you have even prayed to God, and seemingly He has not heard, or He has not answered you.

But where—who is this God to whom you have prayed? Is he somewhere up in the skies, or in some hazy place, you know not where?

Have you prayed to the God within you? Have you turned there and opened your heart to Him, deep within your self, in the Kingdom, where your Higher Self abides?

If not, dear friend, then after reading this article carefully until you truly get its full meaning for you, pray to Him there; get down on your knees and in deep and true humility pour out your heart to Him, knowing that He as your Higher Self hears you, that He does know that you have need of all these things, and that He will answer you.

Go back to those words in the Sermon on the Mount and read them over again and again, until you get all of their wondrous meaning and realize that they are meant for you, and that they are a definite promise made by the Master to you—that if you will do what you are there told to do, the Father will give to you all things that you need.

Think! This is Jesus’ promise to you, and therefore it will be fulfilled—if you do your part.

YOU CAN DO IT

You can do it, you must do it—if you would have the blessings which He promises you, and which we promise you when we say that you can have an abundance of all good things and that you can be free from the dominance of money forever.

And what must you do? You must not be anxious or worry anymore about what you shall eat or drink or what you shall wear, for your loving Father knows that you must have all of these things. But if you will seek first His Kingdom—that is, His Consciousness where you must think only His thoughts for you—as we have shown you how to do, and then will do what He tells you to do when His thoughts come into your mind, He will provide you with all the good things He has had in store for you from the beginning.

We know that we are telling you to do what now seems almost impossible. But, dear friend, this is the only way to win these blessings; and you say you will do anything to obtain them, if it is humanly possible.

It is no only possible, but it is the very thing ordained and intended for you by your Higher Self -or He would not have brought this message to you and placed this ultimatum so squarely before you.

You have tried your way, and you have tried the world’s way, and you know where they have brought you. And now you are given the opportunity of trying God’s way! The way laid out for you in the beginning. Can you not see that it is now the only way for you?

Thus God brings His children that love Him finally to realize that they cannot serve both God and Mammon. For they must be shown that they are serving Mammon just as much by fearing him and yielding to the power of money, as they would be by openly worshipping money and becoming its slave when having great quantities of it. They must be made to see that by fearing money’s seeming power they are making it first and God second in their lives, and until they truly want to serve God more than any other thing, and prove it by their right thinking, speech and actions, they are not yet where His help can reach them.

THE ULTIMATUM

So this is the ultimatum that you are facing. You have now come to the place where god holds out His hand to you, and says: “My child, I would help you. But it means that you must give yourself and all your ideas over wholly to Me, must learn to think only My thoughts, speak only what I would say, and do only what I would have you to do. It means that you must not let into your mind or believe any other thoughts, no matter what appearances are or how much such thoughts beg for admittance.

“You have had your chance and you see what a sorry mess you have made of things. Now if you are willing utterly and completely to trust Me, and to wait upon and serve Me only, and will keep your mind and heart clean and empty of all untrue thoughts so that I may fill them with My thoughts, I will inspire in you the ideas that will lift you quickly out of your present consciousness—which means out of present conditions—into one where peace, harmony and plenty will be your mental children, that will ever come to you to be fed with loving trust in Me. Confidence in your power to express Me, and with the pure joy of living, that you will then be feeling as the natural and continuous state of your consciousness.”

Is this worth trying for? Do you really want it?

Then what are you going to do about it?

If you are willing to make a supreme effort and to put all the power of your will into it; will make yourself a positive agent of your Father’s Will, looking only and always to Him to guide and inspire you, you will truly receive all the help you need, and will find, if you persist despite any discouragements that may come testing your determination, that you will then walk straight into the good that has long been waiting for you.

APPEARANCES

This means that from this moment you must pay no more attention to appearances for what is now appearing is but the out-manifestation of what you formerly visualized in your thinking, and which your fearing and worrying crystallized into facts and fastened upon you.

Try to realize the great significance of this. It is not what you see as conditions surrounding you that really counts—it is what you believe is so. And when you know—as we have proven to you—that what you believe is the cause of what is manifesting outwardly as it now appears, you will definitely begin to change your beliefs into those you want to manifest.

Think this over, for it is the only way you can change conditions and their appearances,—you must remove from your consciousness the beliefs you are holding there, by replacing them with beliefs you want to see manifest in your life and affairs.

How can you do this—when you cannot help but believe the things that stare you in the face, no matter which way you turn?

THE WAY OUT

We will now show you the way, a way so simple and easy that anyone can do it, if they will obey exactly what we tell them to do.

All that is needed is to say over and over again to yourself until you believe it absolutely, letting not a single doubt of its truth ever enter your mind, the following words:

“GOD LOVES AND CARES FOR ME AND IS GIVING ME ALL GOOD THINGS.

“I LOVE HIM AND THINK HIS THOUGHTS AND DO ONLY THE THINGS HE WANTS ME TO DO.”

Try to realize the full truth of these words, to feel it, to see yourself actually living in the consciousness of it, going about your daily work in that consciousness. If you do this, it will bring the greatest possible blessings into your life.

The first statement should not be hard to believe, for you surely know that He loves and cares for you; for whether you know it yet or not, everything that has come into your life has been good for you, for through these things He has brought you to the place where you should be willing to look to and trust Him only, so that His love and care can give you all the good things He has had for you from the beginning.

And it should be easy to love Him, and through consciously loving and trying to think His thoughts, you can see that it opens your mind so that His thoughts come into it, and can thus direct you just what to do that will bring success, prosperity, health, harmony and happiness into your life.

Dear friends, we wish that we could reveal the truth of the above wonderful statements so clearly to you that they will live with you and will motivate your every thought, word and act forever afterward. They are so mighty in their truth that if lived they will make you more than man.

So do not pass them by because they seem so simple and commonplace. Stay with them until all their glorious import dawns upon you and you feel the change that they will surely and quickly bring into your consciousness and therefore into your life and all your affairs.

DEFINITE INSTRUCTIONS

And now for instructions of a concrete nature. Let us take some definite good that you want to have manifest in your life—we do not mean things, but conditions that will bring harmony and happiness to yourself and dear ones; which means that you must make sure that it is good, that it is what the God of you wants you to have. That should be easy for He has ordained all good things for you—but you must know that and be able to see it as good.

Then build in your mind a picture of that good. Built it perfect, in every detail, so that it stands out clear and distinct as a finished and accomplished fact. According to how complete and distinct is this picture in your mind is it actually finished on the mental plane—the plane of concrete mental forms, which determines its physical appearance—and is it ready to come forth into manifestation.

And now if you will follow exactly the same process which brought into manifestation all of the present unwanted conditions in your life, only using the opposite kind of thoughts and feelings, as we shall indicate, you can bring forth into perfect manifestation this picture now existing on the mental plane and awaiting the action of your will.

We will take as an illustration a friend who recently lost her position. Several weeks before, this friend mentioned to the writer that their business was very poor and that they had laid off several who had charge of departments similar to hers, and she supposed she would be the next to go. The writer remonstrated with her and tried to show that that attitude of mind would bring to her what she did not want. Two weeks later another friend reported that she had said the same thing to her, and we do not know to how many others she had voiced it. But a few days afterward, as she had pictured it, the notice of her dismissal came.

Now let us analyze the mental process which created and brought to pass the losing of her position.

The conditions of the business, the letting go of other department heads and clerks naturally caused our friend to build a picture in her mind of her also probably having to go sooner or later, and through the fear of it she actually saw herself leaving. Day after day the conditions in the office, her talks with fellow employees and with others in other businesses in similar bad straits, and with those who had lost their jobs, increased and intensified her fear and helped her to build in the details of her picture, until she had it all finished and perfect. Then she naturally felt she would soon have to go. So of course it had to come to pass.

Now do you understand? The proof that she and she alone created the necessity of her going was, (1) she was the last of all the heads of departments let go, for she was the most efficient; (2) she began criticizing her employers and their actions: (3) she learned afterward that they did not want to lose her and they might give her back her position, having hired two young men to replace the other women let go.

But she had created on the mental plane the finished thought form of being dismissed and had vitalized it with her fears and other feelings, and as a result that thought form had to out-manifest; and so it forced itself into the minds of her employers and impelled them to do what they otherwise would not have done.

Now let us apply similar thought processes to the bringing forth of the good you pictured above into manifestation.

You have built and now see the finished picture of that good, but now instead of seeing a negative out-manifestation of that picture, we will see a positive and happy one. So every day and as often as possible during the day you will see your pictured good manifesting, affecting your life in every way you can visualize it; see yourself actually enjoying it and sharing it with your dear ones and friends; and all the time you are seeing it consciously pouring deep feelings of joy, of love and gratitude into your sense of its being an actual and living reality, your own creation, the product of your own spirit, which you are nursing and bringing forth into physical being.

And just as surely as our friend brought forth her unwanted creation into actuality, so must your good come forth and be to you all that you visioned and intended it to be. It is the law, and a faithful following of this process in all constructive thinking and creating will always bring the results sought, even as your destructive thinking brought the results unsought.

Study the above examples and explanation until the process stands out clear and true to you. Then study your own individual case until you see plainly how you came to your present state. Then begin to reverse your thought processes as shown above, until you express along constructive lines only.

Your sincere desire to free yourself—not just to ease yourself from suffering and hardship, but to know the truth, to learn the cause of being in any unwanted condition, and to gain the ability to free yourself from it, so you can help others to get free—will draw to you the help needed, and you will in time be free. Do not give up if your mind does not respond immediately, for it has formed the habit of wrong seeing and thinking, and you were a long time forming present conditions. Just know that if you persist until your mind sees that you are determined and really mean it, it will soon fall in line and follow the new ways of thinking you lay down for it as easily as it did the old ways in the past.

The main thing is to remember always that you are dealing and working with mental substance on the mental plane, and are not concerned with outer appearances and conditions for you know that by such work you are shaping and changing conditions to those you wish to be manifest.

We have now shown you the Law. We have explained to you its operation. We have made clear that by wrong thinking and believing you have brought upon yourself the conditions now surrounding you, and we have shown you how to free yourself from these conditions and how to create those you wish to manifest in your life. There now remain only a few more things to tell you to help impress it all upon your mind so that it will become a part of your consciousness.

BE POSITIVE

The first is the importance of always being positive in your thinking, positive in your speaking, and positive in your doing. And never negative.

The negative person attracts all the negative things of life, all the ills, inharmonies, troubles that are in the mental atmosphere—the effluvia of other weak and negative minds; while a positive person attracts all the good. If you understand the radio you will know that when you set your dial at a certain wave length, all that is “on the air” of that wavelength will make itself heard. It is exactly the same with your mind; it will receive whatever happens to be “on the air” of the wave length to which your thoughts are attuned. So that it is “up to you” and you only what your mind radio gives forth or out-manifests.

Have you ever noticed how a positive person in a crowd of ordinary persons is always the center of attraction, always makes his or her presence felt, and always accomplishes things that lesser ones never think of? A most forcible illustration was once when driving on a thoroughfare where there was a temporary narrow road built at the side of where a new bridge was being constructed, we came to a halt because of a long line of automobiles ahead. After waiting for some minutes the writer got out and noticed perhaps thirty cars on the long decline to the bottom of the ravine and a similar line up the hill on the other side. But seemingly the left side of the road was clear all through. He could not see any sense in waiting, so he pulled out and started ahead and went through without opposition. While going up the other side he looked back and found a great string of cars following him, and a man in one of these told him they had been waiting back there for twenty minutes. Evidently two cars from opposite directions had come together with others following them, and they were afraid they could not get through on the narrow road, because of other cars coming.

It is always so in life; the positive Soul gets there, the negative one stays behind, or tags along when he finds a leader. Why be negative? It is all an attitude of mind, and can be changed simply by changing your beliefs.

Besides we are all sons and daughters of God, children of the greatest King in the world. Who naturally gives of His Kingdom to all those of us who know it is our divine heritage and who will accept and enjoy them.

A KINGS’S SON

TRY TO REALIZE THAT YOU ARE THE EQUAL—NAY THE SUPERIOR—OF ANY WORLD prince, the son of the King of any World Kingdom; for our father’s Kingdom includes his father’s kingdom; and if we could lift our minds to the consciousness of our true Selves as sons of God, we would go about KNOWING that all that our Father, the King, has is ours, and that all of the Father’s servants will rush to supply—to anticipate—our every need. This is actually so. Each one can experience it. All you need is to believe it, and to go about in that consciousness, even as does the Prince of any world kingdom in his lesser kingdom consciousness.

Then as a King’s son you must learn, if all that your Father has is yours, to spend freely of the riches He has given you with absolute fearlessness. For there is no limit to them, no lack of wealth, for it is always available—His resources are inexhaustible.

You must acquire this consciousness, you must feel even as does the other Prince about spending or using money. Think you that he has any fear of lack or limitation of supply? No, there is always a great plenty for his every need, for his every comfort, every pleasure, for every constructive idea; for he knows that back of him is his father, the King, and all the resources of his Kingdom. So must you learn to know that back of you is your Father-God, with all the resources of His Kingdom.

USE MONEY FEARLESSLY

The quickest way to rid your mind of that old fear of want, fear of your job, fear of the power of money, is to have an absolute trust in your heavenly Father’s loving care and for you to pay out gladly your last dollar for the needed thing, KNOWING that by so doing you make it possible for Him to supply you with plenty more.

It is as if your needs must keep the stream of money ever flowing, if you would not clog up its source. For money, in its true sense is the means for the perfect expression of material life; even as the blood is the means for the perfect expression of physical health.

In both cases your mind must not only hold true and pure thoughts—God’s thoughts only—about the material life of yourself and others, and about your physical well-being but you must know that God’s Mind is the Source of all true thoughts; and by perfect faith and trust in Him you thus keep yourself open to the free circulation of His Thoughts in your consciousness about both your affairs and your body, thus creating perfect health and harmony in both.

This has been proven by many so-called “tithers.” They have created a consciousness where they know that, by using money freely in such perfect trust in God, and especially in thanksgiving and loving gratitude to Him, giving freely a percentage of their income to that part of His Work which is bringing the Truth to them, they become greatly blessed in this world’s goods and are put in a position where they can help many souls to come into this same truth.

It is the pinching and holding on to your last dollar, fearing that no more will come, that actually prevents your receiving more. For giving, more than anything else, helps to open the channel so that supply, both spiritual and material, can freely flow.

Now we wish finally to emphasize that the application and proving of this great law not only will bring financial freedom and success, but it will bring also perfect health, harmony, and happiness into all departments of your life. For when you begin to think only true thoughts about yourself, then of course God’s consciousness lives in your body and His thoughts rule your mind, and there can manifest only perfect health in your body and perfect harmony in all your various affairs; when naturally happiness must sing in your heart and be your daily companion.

So, dear friend, we have given you this message—one born of an intense yearning to furnish to those who are wandering in the darkness of present world conditions a sure guide to lead them back into the Light of Love, of abiding Trust, and of true Happiness.

If the Message, The Way Out, strongly impressed you and especially f it was the means of freeing you from desperate conditions from which there seemed no way out, we earnestly urge that you do all you can to get it in the hands of those of your friends who need its saving help.

THE WAY BEYOND

In our booklet, “THE WAY OUT.” Was pointed the way to freedom from lack, limitation, inharmony, disease and unhappiness, and there is no excuse for any who faithfully follow the suggestions given to be any longer in such condition.

The booklet has reached scores of thousands of readers and many have been lifted by its truths into a new consciousness and thereby into a new world, where everything and everybody are changed, for they are seeing with new eyes and with a different understanding. That which appears is no long what it seemed, but the good and the real are now visible and can be seen shining through all conditions and people—because they are now looked for, and the former negative tendencies are tabooed and not allowed to enter the consciousness.

This is not the case with all of course, for a great number have not been able to conquer those tendencies which so long have been permitted to rule. The press of circumstances and the negative conditions everywhere manifest seemingly have been too much for them and they have become utterly discouraged, not knowing that they actually have within themselves the power to rise out of these conditions, and that help is waiting the moment they awaken from their despondency and definitely determine to do the best they can to prove the truth of what was stated in the booklet.

It is for such that this Message is written, with the earnest desire that all who read will be so inspired by its truths that they will make the necessary effort and will thus receive the good that has been waiting for them from the beginning.

We first urge that everyone who reads procure a copy of “THE WaY OUT.” If one is not already owned, and that it be studied carefully and prayerfully.

It will do no good merely to read it, or even to study it, unless what is given you to do is faithfully tried until proven—that is, tried day after day in all your thinking, speaking and acting, for at least one month. If you will do it that long we promise that such a change will manifest in your consciousness —and likewise in your affairs—that it will be a turning point in your life, and you will never again return to the old way of thinking and acting.

Is it not then worth the effort? Then do not let anything prevent your making a supreme effort, asking God to give you the strength and ability to accomplish what we have shown.

GOD WITHIN YOU

Now, we are going to try to make clear to you the statement in “THE WAY OUT,” that God is within you; make it so clear that never more will you think of Him as somewhere up in the skies, nor will you be uncertain as to who or what He is.

First try to realize that the life animating and growing you is not your life, that you have no control over it, that it does things to you, causes you to do things, puts you through all the experiences you are undergoing without your consent, and that seemingly it knows just what it is doing and must have a very wise and loving purpose in doing it.

Likewise the consciousness that you call yours seemingly receives all its ideas, thoughts and impressions wholly independently of your will or desire .They come into your mind when they will, influence your feelings and actions continually, and you have little power to prevent it. Also you will admit that you have no power of your own, that you can think, speak and do only as the power to do these things is given you from within.

And that something doing all this, uniquestionably is a greater, far wiser and a very loving Something that knows always what to do, knows the end before the beginning, and is apparently trying to teach your human mind about Itself, teach it the lessons contained in each experience, and the laws back of life and of physical manifestation.

Because that Something is so different from and yet is so intimate a part of what you call you, It must be akin to what is termed God. We have called It the Higher Self, and it is in fact very God in you. It is like a ray or reflection of God’s mind shining somewhere deep within your consciousness—a “light which shineth in the darkness, but the darkness (of the outer human mind) knoweth it not.” For certainly when It can get your mind’s attention and you listen, It displays a wisdom that is as near to that god as the human mind can conceive. And those who heed and obey are given a glimpse of something wonderful which while inexpressible is altogether divine and most satisfying.

GOD IS ALL IN ALL

You have heard the statement that God is All in All, and of “the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Then that light must be a ray of God’s Mind that shines in the darkness of the human mind, ever trying to make it aware of its Divine Source within itself—the Mind of God, from which it derives all that it is, all that it has and all power to be, to know or to do anything.

Then think, if god is All in All, He is in everything and in everybody—no matter what it is or who he is. It must be so! Yet who of us always sees and acknowledges Him in such.

And because we do not acknowledge Him in His manifestations, refuse to see Him, and call Him everything He is not, we see instead all the error, the evil and the lies that our darkened minds have accepted as real, lose ourselves in the maze of our “separate” mis-conceptions; and in consequence endure the inharmonies, disease and suffering of minds thinking themselves apart from the Consciousness that included them and all that is.

God being All in All, then all things and all men are good and perfect. They could not be otherwise, when God and His goodness and perfection are everywhere.

But make no mistake, when stating that all things and all men are good and perfect, we are not speaking of what you with your “separate” mind and present understanding see and believes; we are not speaking of “appearances”—of your separate mind’s creations. For what you see now are only the pictures you have built in your mind of what you thought was the truth—before you really knew about God’s being All in All and ever showing forth His goodness, beauty and perfection in everything—to those who have eyes to see.

Therefore it is necessary first to convince your mind of the truth, so that it can be free itself of all these untrue beliefs—these false pictures of God and of His expressions of Himself that it has built and is carrying around in its consciousness.

Then listen! God Who is all in all and Who is all good and all perfect, must be also all wise, all loving and all powerful. Anything less than these is not of God, but must be man’s wrong, ignorant, and distorted concepts of God and of His expressions of Himself. Think that out until you see how true it is.

Then all things of an inharmonious or unhappy nature that you see, whatever they be that are less than good or perfect, are only what you think is so, because of ignorance or wrong teaching. And so long as you continue to believe these things are real, they will continue to be real to you, no matter what they are, whether they pertain to the conditions surrounding you, to your body, to your self, to your affairs, or to those invisible things which relate to and affect your life, health and happiness.

GOD IS THE REAL YOU

Now let us relate this truth of God being All in All to yourself. If He is all we have stated, then He must be the real you, must be that higher, greater you we pointed out earlier in this message, whose life is animating your body, whose mind is influencing all your thoughts, speech and actions, and whose power enables you to do all things that you do. It must then be His Consciousness that is your consciousness, but stepped down through your Higher Self to your soul and then to your human mind, expressing Itself on the Spiritual plane in your Higher Self as the Christ Consciousness, on the soul plane in your soul or soul consciousness, and on the physical plane in your brain mind as mortal consciousness. But it is all God’s consciousness relayed down through your Higher Self, and enabling you to be as much aware of God, the Real Self of you and the One Self of all men (for is He not all in All?) as the channel of your darkened mortal mind has been illumined to perceive Him and to partake of His Consciousness.

It is said that to Know god, man must first know his self. And when you truly know that you are not a thing of flesh and blood, but are a human soul or a center of consciousness clothed by a garment of flesh, even as your soul clothes your Real or Christ Self—the Holy Spirit or consciousness of God— as we have shown above, you can begin to understand how God actually is within you—IS you.

Now let us consider you first as a soul, a center of consciousness, and then we will try to show you the relation of your soul to your human mind and your Higher, Spiritual Self.

You in your integrity are a soul and are pure consciousness. In other words you are that which is conscious or aware of all that comes to you from without through the avenue of your five senses, or through vibrations which they are not sensitive enough to perceive, such as impressions or thoughts from other centers of consciousness. All of these sensations are brought to your consciousness through the mediumship of your human mind, while the vibrations mentioned are received directly by the soul and are interpreted to the mind according to how the mind has been prepared to understand them.

As a soul or consciousness you are distinct from your human mind, for the mind serves merely as an instrument to receive and inform you of what comes from without in the world of matter. Yet your mind is in reality an outer extension of your soul consciousness, slowed down to the mental capacity of your human brain, there serving as your agent in the informing you of all things going on in the physical world and the carrying out of your instructions pertaining to that world.

In that partial and necessarily limited consciousness, your mind grew to think itself a self and separate from you in your soul consciousness. In this fancied separateness it gradually filled its consciousness with all those wrong concepts and beliefs about physical and mental things spoken of above, which grew so real and tangible in its consciousness that they in time ruled all your thoughts, speech and actions. And this outer and fancied separate consciousness is what constitutes your lower or mortal self.

But these concepts and beliefs should have no influence over your soul consciousness only as you let them. The proof is, when you get quiet and still your mind and shut out all thoughts and impressions coming from without, then you are in your pure soul consciousness and are free to be aware of the impressions coming from within your soul. For then you learn that deep within the soul there is a higher consciousness and a Spiritual intelligence that presses the soul from within informing you of Spiritual things, even as the outer mind’s consciousness presses from without to inform you of material things. And that higher or innermost consciousness is that of your Higher or Divine Self.

In reality there is only one Self, but this enables you to see how the Higher self, the Spirit of God in man, reaches down or out from the center of man’s being in Divine Consciousness into the soul consciousness, and thence outward into the mortal mind, giving to man’s brain its consciousness, which causes man to think his consciousness separate, when it is only the consciousness of God thinned down to the brain mind’s capacity to hold and use it.

YOUR GOD SELF

Then the Higher Self, this Spirit of God deep within you, is the real you, is the Self that has ever been directing all the activities of your life, has been actually doing all through you, knows just what He is doing, assumes all responsibility and evidently sees the end before the beginning.

Then you can realize that of your human self you do nothing, and never did anything; that all the power, knowledge and life you have comes from your Higher Self; and that if you ever wish to be, to do, or to have anything, and to gain the freedom, happiness and peace your soul seeks, it behooves you to get well acquainted with that Self, to learn to cooperate with Him, and to wait upon and serve Him in all the activities of your life.

From this you can also realize that the reason you failed to gain any of these things in the past, is because you tried to get them without reckoning upon your Higher Self or knowing His part in the doing—you tried to do it alone. So He let you fail again and again, until you came to that place where you learned the uselessness of trying to do anything yourself, and you became willing to turn to Him and humbly ask Him to take charge and you gladly yielded over all to Him and put all your trust in Him.

Everyone must come to that place—every seeker of the true way of life; for until self with its human mind has been completely humbled and gives up utterly, it cannot accept the truth of its non-reality and of the actuality of the God-man within, and that He can do all and will provide all things—when the human mind yields itself wholly to Him.

If you who read have come to that place and are truly ready to give yourself to the God Self within, then we will tell you of a great but simple law that you must follow.

A SIMPLE LAW

That Law is -whatever is before you to do, do it the best you know how, in order to please your God-Self.”For He placed you just where you now are and provided the particular task confronting you as the best means and opportunity in which to teach your human mind the next lessons you are to learn, and to develop in you the spiritual qualities you still lack in order to make your human self a perfect instrument for His use.

Then in doing that task, for He provides all tasks and brings you to all problems, having now given yourself over wholly to Him, you are concerned only that you do what is before you the best you can, KNOWING that He will provide the power, understanding and ability needed, and that you are not responsible any more for results, as they are all in His keeping. For have you not put the fuller responsibility on Him, are now trusting everything to Him, and consequently you no longer have any fears, doubts or worries to clog your mind and prevent His accomplishing His purpose for you? Only by thus yielding all to Him can you be a clean and open channel through which He can bring through into being the good and perfect things He intends to manifest in your life. For He can intend nothing less than that, else why all the trouble He is taking with you?

It is all a matter of trusting, dear friend, of trusting the God within you. If you have failed in the past, no matter how hard you tried, it is because you did not trust enough.

Therefore we are bringing this great truth closer by asking you truly to trust the God within, your Higher Self, the Christ in you, Who we have shown has all the wisdom and power of God; to let go utterly and put ALL your trust in Him.

You must learn thus to trust, until it becomes the supreme and dominant influence in your consciousness, for

THE ONLY THING THAT PREVENTS YOUR GOOD FROM COMING INTO NATURAL AND CONTINUOUS EXPRESSION IS YOUR LACK OF REAL FAITH AND TRUST IN THE GOD WITHIN YOU—YOUR CHRIST SELF.

This means that if instead of faith and trust you still let fears, doubts and worries into your mind, then of course there they cause you to build negative pictures of the things you are fearing, and you proceed to entertain and feed them by further fears, until they become actual living things in your mental world. In time they largely control your mind and you are helpless. And naturally every time you succumb to them, you grow more helpless.

Is this not true?—Then what is the solution? Only one thing. You must let go completely and turn the whole problem over to God. Do that actually —“wash your hands” of it, “step out from under.” And throw the entire responsibility upon Him.

Think! Can you do that? Try it. In fact, He wants you to do it. Talk to this God within the Real Self of you, and tell Him that you are through, that you have done your best, and that is all you can do—and it was useless. And now it is up to Him; He will have to handle it. Actually mean it, and then let go and truly “wash your hands” of all responsibility.

Then, and not until then, has He got your mind in the state where it is ready to hear His Voice and learn what He has in store for you. For once it has really thrown off the burden of self, there is no longer a negative force attracting the old fears, doubts and worries. Instead you become a positive force in your believing that He now will take care of all things, for you intend to do nothing and to give Him the chance to prove what He can do.

AN ABSOLUTE LETTING GO

It is to just that state of mind He desires to bring you, where you actually let go, giving the load you are carrying over to Him, and thereby become as free as a little child, just such a child as we will now picture to you.

Standing on the sidewalk of a busy street waiting for the light signal, is a little boy of three years whose hand is tightly clasped in that of his father. Then they start acros