Part 36 (1/2)
He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these questions:-
Is our consciousness in matter or in G.o.d? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, ”Adam, where art thou?” We [10]
are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness.
In the new religion the teaching is, ”He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us,-more true, more spiritual.” [15]
Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious- ness of sickness and sin for that of health and holiness?
What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning? [20]
It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con- sciousness of Soul in sense.
These flowers are floral apostles. G.o.d does all this through His followers; and He made every flower in [25]
Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into matter and the earth to give us these smiles of G.o.d!
We must lay aside material consciousness, and then we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, ”Rabboni!”
-Master! [30]
In 1866, when G.o.d revealed to me this risen Christ, this Life that knows no death, that saith, ”Because he
[Page 180.]
lives, I live,” I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the [1]
flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease my warfare.
When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were [5]
frightened at beholding me restored to health.
A dear old lady asked me, ”How is it that you are restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?”
”Christ never left,” I replied; ”Christ is Truth, and Truth is always here,-the impersonal Saviour.” [10]
Then another person, more material, met me, and I said, in the words of my Master, ”Touch me not.” I shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went out to G.o.d, and I found the open door from this sepulchre of matter. [15]
I _love_ the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and not of death.
Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his resurrection.
Bible Lessons
_But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the_ _sons of G.o.d, even to them that believe on his name: which were born,_ _not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of_ _G.o.d._-JOHN i. 12, 13.
Here, the apostle a.s.sures us that man has power to [25]
become the son of G.o.d. In the Hebrew text, the word ”son” is defined variously; a month is called the son of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak of Jesus as the Son of G.o.d and the Son of man; but [30]
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Jesus said to call no man father; ”for one is your Father,” [1]
even G.o.d.
Is man's spiritual sons.h.i.+p a personal gift to man, or is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man's knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem- [5]
onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite in order to understand his sons.h.i.+p, or unity with G.o.d, good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of Science, unless that requirement should express the claims [10]
of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over what is the person of Spirit,-if we recognize infinitude as personality,-for who can tell what is the form of infinity? When we understand man's true birthright, that [15]