ALL SANE persons acknowledge the necessity of observing the laws of health in their daily living, but the great majority have a human standard. Now that the whole race is awakening to the knowledge of a higher source of existence more people every day are giving attention to the law of Spirit in their life.
"Order is heaven's first law." If we desire to demonstrate health when we receive more spiritual life, we must order this life rightly, for if it is not so ordered, mental and physical discord will ensue. This applies to all that we think and do. Everything must be brought into order. If we affirm prosperity, that too must be brought into orderly relations to the rest of our thinking. We may be declaring life and prosperity and at the same time be holding some disorganizing thought. This will produce inharmony and discord in body and affairs. Lack of orderly arrangement of thoughts is responsible for many delayed demonstrations of healing.
We find in the Scriptures constant reference, in symbols and also in direct language, to order as a fundamental law of the universe and of man. There must be order in the spiritual life as well as the material life. All peoples have observed this, and especially the people of God. Paul said, "Let all
things be done decently and in order."
Suggestion is systematically used in the business world, and unless you are strong in your own convictions as to what your needs are, you will be loaded up with many things for which you have no use. The remedy is to establish yourself in the spiritual law. You will come under one or the other of these laws, the man-made or the spiritual, and it is for you to choose which is best.
You want to know then the metaphysics of order as a means of demonstrating health. How can you order your life by the divine plan? By accepting it as a truth that there is such a plan and by making this plan yours through affirming your oneness with the omnipresent Mind in which this plan exists in its righteousness. Say, "I am the offspring of God, and I am one with His perfect wisdom, which is now ordering my life in divine harmony and health." Ask for wisdom; then affirm divine order. Put yourself in unity with Spirit. Then you will come into the consciousness of a new world of thought and act and find yourself doing many things differently because the orderly Mind that directs the universe is working through you. A harmonious relation will be established in all your ways. Whatever there was in mind, body, or affairs that was out of harmony will easily be adjusted when you open the way in your mind for the manifestation of divine order.
The bringing forth of man even in the material sense is an orderly process. The birth of Jesus is an example. His coming was foretold and arranged
beforehand. It was not left to chance. His mother "magnified" the Lord before He was born. This illustrates the truth that it is necessary to have order from the very beginning. The bringing forth of John the Baptist is an example of the coming of another state of consciousness and of the necessity of law and order in prenatal culture.
The same law holds good in our body and our affairs. The power of the word should be expressed in our homes. We should surround ourselves with words suggestive of spiritual things. If words count, and we know they do, we should be careful of every idea taken into consciousness through the eye as well as through the ear.
From their inception to their expression words are important. The law is fulfilled not only in mind but in manifestation also. Every suggestion that enters the mind brings forth like expression in act. The time is coming when it will be unlawful to print in the daily papers any record of crime or of anything that will bring discord into the minds of readers. Recently I read of a man who committed a crime, and in his pocket was found a newspaper clipping describing almost identically the same criminal act. His crime was the fruit of suggestion. How many such suggestions does one large daily paper carry to its thousands of readers in its recital of the daily horrors that make up the news?
As the world comes more and more under the spiritual law editors and publishers will not ask their readers what they want, but will give them
what they should have for mental food. And as the people are raised to higher planes of consciousness they will demand reading of an uplifting character. They will be just as careful as regards what they read as they are now beginning to be in reference to food. There will be the same demand for pure reading as for pure food. If it is against the law of the land to adulterate food, how much more is it against the law of right thinking to adulterate the truth. We can see the necessity of order and law according to Spirit. If we would demonstrate health, every deleterious thought should be kept out of our mental atmosphere even more carefully than harmful elements are kept out of our material food.
This spiritual law is operative in food and clothing. If we think about order and harmony our taste in material things will change. We shall desire the purest foods, and there will be more harmony in the colors we choose to wear. "If God doth so clothe the grass of the field . . . shall he not much more clothe you?" Some people think it is impossible for man to be clothed like the lilies. But if man stands above all creation, has he not power to clothe himself in the richness and glory of Spirit? Out of the air we may manufacture the things we eat and wear. This is not a flight of fancy. Chemists are already considering the possibility. It is not an assumption of theoretical metaphysics that we may be able to make our food and clothing from the air, but a logical conclusion that follows the understanding of God as the omnipresent source of all that appears.
So long as we believe in the slow processes of what we call nature we shall place ourselves under a law of slowness. But if we know the spiritual law of health and the power of the word, we shall bring into operation in our lives an entirely different law. Where is the limit to the power of thought?
So let us begin anew and lay down the law of order in all that we do. If there is a tendency to hurry, let us stop and affirm divine order and rest ourselves in its poise. Geologists tell us that our world has been whirling around the sun for over five hundred million years. So you see there is no need to hurry. Remember that you live in eternity now. This thought of omnipresent eternity will alleviate nervous tension. Put every thought and act under the divine law. Even if you think you are going to miss a car, do not hurry. Another car will be right along, and if your mind is in divine order, it will be your car.
If you are disorderly and indefinite along any line, put yourself at once under the order of Divine Mind by affirming daily that the same law that swings the stars in the cushioned ethers is operative in and through your life and all your affairs.
All people who have studied metaphysics and understand somewhat the action of the mind recognize that there is one underlying law and that through this law all things come into expression; also that there is one universal Mind, the source and sole origin of all real intelligence. First is mind, then mind expresses itself in ideas, then the ideas make
themselves manifest. This is a metaphysical statement of the divine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity Mind, the expression of Mind, and the manifestations of Mind are found in simple numbers and complex combinations everywhere.
The metaphysics of the Hebrew Scriptures are based on this law of the Trinity. They were written far ahead of the race thought, and it is probable that those who wrote them did not understand all that was involved in the word of the Spirit. It is seldom that great writings are fully understood. Not many years after Shakespeare's demise a book aiming to give the names of all the English poets was published in London, and Shakespeare's name was left out. It is said that a great man must be dead five hundred years before his work will be appreciated.
In the King James Bible the Hebrew "Jehovah" has been translated "Lord." Lord means an external ruler. Bible students say that Jehovah means the self-existent One, the I AM. Then instead of reading "Lord" we should read I AM. It makes a great difference whether we think of I AM, self-existence within, or "Lord," master without. All Scripture shows that Jehovah means just what God told Moses it meant: I AM. "This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." So instead of "Lord" say I AM whenever you read it and you will get a clearer understanding and realization of what Jehovah is. God was known to the Israelites as Jehovah-shalom: "I am peace." You can demonstrate peace of mind by holding the words "I am peace."
If we start any such demonstration and try to apply the I AM to personality, we fall short. This is frequently the cause of lack of results in carrying out the laws that all metaphysicians recognize as fundamentally true. The mind does not always comprehend the I AM in its highest, neither does it discern that the all-knowing, omnipotent One is within man. This recognition must be cultivated, and everyone should become conscious of the I AM presence. This consciousness will come through prayer and meditation upon Truth. In Truth there is but one I AM, Jehovah, the omnipotent I AM that is eternally whole and perfect. If you take Jehovah-shalom into your mind and hold it with the thought of a mighty peace, you will feel a consciousness, a harmonizing stillness, that no man can understand. This consciousness is healing in itself. It must be felt, realized, and acknowledged by your individual I AM before the supreme I AM can pour out its power. Then you will know that you have touched something; but you cannot explain to another just what it is, because you have gone beyond the realm of words and made union with the divine cause. It is the quickening of your divinity through the power of the word. This divine nature is in us all, waiting to be brought into expression through our recognition of the power and might of the I AM; so Jehovah-rapha is "I am he that healeth thee."
We should not fail to think always of the spiritual law under which the I AM moves. It is possible for man to take I AM power and apply it in external
ways and leave out the true spiritual law. In our day we are proclaiming that man can use I AM power to restore health and bring increased happiness; in fact, that through righteous, lawful use of the I AM he can have everything that he desires. But some people are using this power in a material way, neglecting soul culture, building up the external without taking the intermediate step between the supreme Mind and its manifestation in the outer. We should remember that the soul must grow as well as the body. For example, a man was overtaken with physical disability and loss of eyesight some years ago. In his extremity he turned to the spiritual law for help and was very faithful in its mental application. I saw him not long since; his physical condition was unchanged, but there was a great change in his mind. He had found the light and he was filled with inward rejoicing. He had become blind that he might see. However his family thought all his dependence upon Truth had been a failure because his physical sight had not been restored. During all these years however he has managed his business, and it has prospered, and his family has been well provided for. He was himself for a time disappointed and rebellious because his eyes were not healed; but now he is glad, because through the prayers and meditations he has found the inner light. His physical sight will be restored when he has made the complete connection between mind and body.
So if you find yourself disappointed because you do not at once demonstrate health or success, be at
peace and know that your earnest prayers and meditations are working out in you a soul growth that will yet become manifest beyond your greatest hopes.
It is easier to seek the Truth willingly and be watchful and obedient than it is to be forced by some severe experience. Hard experiences are not necessary if we are obedient to the Truth that saves us from them. Time should be given to prayer and meditation daily. We cannot grow without them, and no man who neglects them will successfully develop his spiritual powers.
The great I AM is not far away from man. Spirit is closely connected with the little things of daily life. "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." This means that the mighty One is with us in all ways. We are all in touch, heart with heart, and a real sympathy makes us one. In reality we all love the simple life. The pomp and parade and pageantry of the external world do not satisfy the soul. It is the small things that touch the heart and appeal to us. We want realities. Even in the drama we demand the realistic. I once read of a playwright who tried to give all his scenes the touch of realism, and in one place he had electric fans so placed that they would blow to the audience the odors of the viands that the actors were eating, thus convincing the people that the food was real.
While one of his plays was being given a cat strayed in, stretched before the fireplace, lay down and went to sleep. The audience applauded. This added a touch of naturalness that the playwright
was anxious to introduce as a permanent feature of the play. But it is hard to get a cat to do things when you want it to do them. However the playwright set himself to studying how he could induce the cat to go through with its part, and he hit upon this plan: About noon each day he shut the cat up in a very small box so that it had no room to stretch; then he let it out just at the time its appearance on the stage was desired. Of course the first thing it did was to stretch, then drink from a saucer of milk set ready for it; then it would lie down before the fireplace and go to sleep. So he solved the problem, and this little touch of commonplace realism became the hit of the play.
It is on such little things as these that success hinges in the play called "life." The I AM might is not in the storm nor in the earthquake nor in the fire but in the "still small voice," according to Elijah.
We are receiving new truth in all fields, and if we are to use it, it seems most important that our religion be progressive, that we get new and higher concepts, and that we see deeper and more scientific relations in the lessons and experiences of those who have preceded us in study and demonstration of spiritual Truth.
If there is science in the universe, there must be science in the Mind that projected the universe. If there is mathematical accuracy and order in the material world, there is a like accuracy and order in the mental world. If there is science in the relation of atom to atom, if there is science in the current
that flows over the wire and sets in motion the electric fan, there must be science in the Mind back of all these manifestations.
God created all things by His mind, by His thought, by the power of His word. The divine fiat went forth, "Let there be," and there was. The one Mind is still projecting itself into the universe, and its law of health is expressed by man through thought rightly directed. The highest expression of divine thought is man. God created man in His image, in the image of perfect health. How important then that man should study the science of mind and in every way seek to find the law lying back of the harmonious universe in which he functions.
If we make living cells through the power of thought, we should know something of the law underlying the process. On every hand thoughtful men are searching for the scientific cause of things. Here is an illustration that came to my attention. The woman in the case, an ardent Unity student, had a husband who thought Truth was all foolishness. She did not urge it upon him directly, but she would call his attention to various healings. He paid no attention until his mother was healed of a mole on her face. This woman said to her husband: "Your mother's healing was due to the withdrawal of her nourishing thought. That mole is gone." "How did it go?" he asked, showing some interest for the first time. His mother said: "I withdrew the nourishing thought. Before that I had mourned over it and wished it were not there, and that nourished it and
sent vital forces into it and it kept growing." "I suggested that she quit thinking about it," said the wife; "that she quit nourishing it, and it gradually withered and disappeared." The husband said: "I can see how through our thought we do nourish these conditions in our bodies. If there is such power behind this healing system I am willing to think about it. There is something satisfactory in knowing that one may learn how healing works. I can see as a reasonable proposition that mind acts on the body through nerves and that the conditions are nourished by thought. When Mother stopped thinking about that mole, it was no longer nourished and consequently disappeared. That appeals to my reason. I thought this was a religion, a sect; but if it is something that a logical mind can understand, I want to know more about it." You will find persons like that everywhere. They think this is some new religion, and when they come to understand that it is absolute science they are willing to look into it. This man saw the truth when it was explained to him.
We may nourish a good thing by thinking how good it is--a beautiful face, a beautiful form, whatever it may be that is good; but suppose we take the negative side, shall we then get results also? Yes, absolutely. We shall get just what we think about. The thought of nourishing is a very good thought, because it shows us just what we do. Our mind draws upon the vital forces, and according to physiological laws we alter our tissues. Either we tear down our bodies or we build them up.
Is that all that is necessary? No, that is only one phase of mind activity. Withdraw the error; then build in the good. Some people leave out this second step. When you get into this understanding of the mind it is always good to use both the denial and the affirmation. Sometimes the denial will produce wonderful results. But this law of the mind working on the body is applicable to both the inner and the outer.
You will get suggestions from newspapers. You may read about some healing drug and a description of how your cold is going to develop into pneumonia and then into consumption if you do not buy some of it. You read the advertisement, which describes in minute detail how terrible you feel, and you say, "Yes, that's my case exactly." If you do this, you will nourish that sick thought. Is it wise then to let this law of mind operate in this way? No. Avoid these things. Don't give yourself up to them.
The universe was not created through illogical assumptions of law. Law is its foundation. There are no miracles in science. Jesus did no miracles. All His marvelous works were done under laws that we may learn and use as He did. As the body is moved by mind, so the mind is moved by ideas; and right here in the mind we find the secret of the universe. This is where Jesus differed from ordinary men: He knew He was the Son of God; He knew the power of spiritual ideas to do mighty works: "The Father abiding in me doeth his works."
Before you can realize the mighty power of ideas you must unify them. All must pull together. Get your ideas in divine order, and a mighty mind force will begin to work for you right away. This divine order is necessary to the upbuilding of both mind and body. This divine order is the "kingdom of heaven" so often referred to by Jesus. To attain this unity and harmony of mind it is necessary to have perfect statements of Truth and to adhere to them in thought and word. States of mind can be set into activity just as through the manipulation of gases, electricity, and so forth we may purify or impart certain potencies to the atmosphere. In a far larger degree ideas change the race thought atmosphere. Jesus had a grasp of divine ideas, and if we believe in and follow Him we shall come into the Christ state of mind. We become like-minded by entering into the absolute Mind. In the absolute Mind there is only harmony.
Spirit is a vigorous stimulant. It uplifts the whole consciousness, vitalizes the organs, and gives us courage and endurance. It also tends to make one supersensitive. In this state one is liable to more rapid waste, especially if fleshly indulgence of any kind is gratified. Failing to restrain one's passions and appetites quickly burns up the cells, and then the collapse is even more complete than before the healing. In order to guard against this students should be instructed carefully in the truths of Being. They must learn that "the wages of sin is death," that they must master their appetites and passions.
As man unifies his own mind forces in the one Mind his body is lifted up into a new state of harmony. If he is not demonstrating this principle, it is because he is not unified with the one great harmonious Mind. He is not expressing this Mind as he should because he is not realizing his oneness with it. Resolve to become one with God through Christ. Harmonize yourself with Him and all your world will be in harmony. Be on the alert to see harmony everywhere. Do not magnify seeming differences. Do not keep up any petty divisions but continually declare the one universal harmony. This will insure perfect order and wholeness. The Christ Mind is here as the unifying principle of this race, and we must believe in this mind working in us and through us and know that through it we are joined to the Father-Mind. That is the Father's house to which, like the prodigal son, we have all so long been seeking to return. In the consciousness of the Father-Mind the unity of God and man is demonstrated.
The fact that you can always return to the Father's house, the ideal world, carries with it the possibility of fulfillment in your life expression. In Being you cannot shirk expression. To think is to express, and you are doing that without cessation. You may deny that these things of the world have existence, yet so long as you live in contact with them you are recognizing their place. A wholesale denial of their existence keeps you even as a house divided against itself. A reconciliation must take place before you can demonstrate the power of the Christ man
over death. Jesus did not say that His body was nothing, but He did say, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." He laid it down in corruption and raised it up in incorruption. He found that His ideal was not being expressed in the body, which was subject to decay; so He let the corruptible be crossed out and from the ruins raised the body of light, which appeared and disappeared at will. This was the fulfillment of His ministry and the demonstration of the power of the Spirit to overcome the last enemy, death.
All men desire to overcome disease and death. The fulfillment of this desire would be the perpetuation of existence in form. So in the last analysis we see that we all want to continue our chain of expression indefinitely, without break. This has always been the desire of mankind, and the whole world is today and ever has been fighting this monster death. Oceans of medicine are swallowed daily, millions of doctors are exerting all their energies, and prayers unnumbered are uttered in a blind struggle to vanquish this dreaded enemy of mankind. This indicates a most powerful desire to be fulfilled. Jesus showed how it might be done and gave the recipe. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death." He also said: "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me" and "The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life."
There is a chain of mind action connecting cause and effect in all the activities of life. This chain is
forged by man, and its links are thoughts, words. Jesus laid great stress upon the power of the word. Yet He was wise in the injunction that His words should be kept; that is, men were to keep before them the ideal that He had. This realm of the ideal is the realm from which the word draws its substance, and its character determines the result.
The "sayings" of Jesus were charged with tremendous significance. They raised the idea of man and God far above what had ever before been conceived. They so far transcended the thought plane of the people that even His followers could not accept them, and many "walked no more with him." It is but a few years since the followers of Jesus began to grasp the power of the word as taught by Him. Who in the past has taken Jesus literally and sought to overcome death by keeping His sayings? Many have believed in His doctrine, and a great ecclesiastical industry has been built upon it as a foundation; but who has taken in full faith the words of Jesus and made them flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone by not only believing in them but by saturating his mind with them until they reincarnated themselves in his body? This achievement is the secret of every spiritual demonstration; it is not only a concept of what is true of Being but a carrying out in thought, word, and act of that concept.
If I can conceive a truth, it follows that there is a way by which I can make it manifest. If I can conceive of omnipresent life as existing in the omnipresent
ethers, there is a way by which I can make that life appear in my body. When once the mind has accepted this as an axiomatic truth, it has arrived at the point where the question of procedure arises. No one ever fully sees the steps he is to take in reaching a goal. He may see in a general way that he is to go on from one point to another, but the details are not definitely clear to him unless he has gone over the ground before. The architect tells the builder to follow the plans. So in this demonstration of the spiritual powers that are ready to find expression through man he must be willing to follow the directions of one who has proved his efficiency by demonstration.
We all intuitively know that there is something wrong in a world where poverty, suffering, and sorrow prevail. We would not, any of us, create such a world. We all want to see these things blotted out in this world. This is the index pointing the way to the possibility of doing so. Whatever we see as wrong is for us to right. Lack of health is not prevalent in God's universe, and if such lack appears anywhere it is the work of man, and it is our duty to do away with it.
There is a way, the "highway of the Lord." Will you take that way? It is a broad way, and there is room for everybody. Jesus called it the kingdom of the heavens and said that "all these things" should be added to those who sought it. This implies that you do not have fully to enter this kingdom in order to have the things added, but you do have to "seek."
You must turn your attention in the right direction; then they begin to come to you.
This is being proved by many thousands in this age who have accepted the promises of Scripture literally and are looking to God for every need, health included. They may not in the beginning of the seeking have a single thing to encourage them. They just accept the promise, proceed to carry it out in faith, and act as if it were true, and all at once new life and new strength are theirs. This encourages them to go on still further in seeking this kingdom of God, and eventually they will demonstrate the perfection of Christ.
These are they who have wisely used their one talent. They may not have caught sight of the holy of holies in the inner sanctuary, but they are gradually getting closer and closer to it. This is the step that everybody is commanded to take. Trust God in all things, and see the result made apparent by the mental currents that you set going all about you. You may not be able to point out just how each separate word of allegiance to the Father took effect, but as the months go by you will gradually observe the various changes that are taking place in your mind, body, and affairs. You will find that your ideas have broadened immensely to begin with. The little world has been transformed into a big world. You have begun to think about realities instead of appearances. Your mind is more alert, and you can discern when before you were in doubt. Your body is vital, and you are free from inharmony and weakness.
You are not so fearful. The consciousness that there is a divine hand guiding the universe and you has given you a feeling of security. This has extended to your body and your affairs. There is an absence of prejudice and faultfinding in you. You do not judge so harshly. You are more generous, and others respond by being more generous too. Things are coming your way now where you once thought they were blocked.
This is not only true of your own particular life and affairs, but if you are observing you will notice its effect in a measure upon those with whom you come in contact. They are getting more substantially healthy and happy. They may not in the remotest way connect it with you or your thoughts, but that does not affect the truth about it. All things have their cause, and every cause is mental. Whoever comes in daily contact with a high order of thinking cannot help but take on some of it. His mind takes it on unconsciously just as his lungs breathe the air of the room. Ideas are catching, and no man can live where true ideas of wholeness and abundance and peace are being held without becoming more or less infected with them. "For none of us liveth to himself." Health is the divine heritage of every human being.