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True Spiritual Judgment
By Charles Fillmore
The great judgment day of Scripture indicates a time of separation between the true and the false but there is no warrant for the belief that God sends man to everlasting punishment.
Judgment, a faculty of mind, discerns Truth and balances all the faculties in righteousness. In the Scriptures judgment is often applied to the action of Divine Mind in its work of judging especially in the experiences that come to man through the working of the law of Justice.
Wisdom, justice, judgment, are grouped under one head in spiritual consciousness. Webster says in effect that the ground of reason in judgment, which makes conclusions knowledge, is found in the connecting link that binds the conceptions together. In religion there is the postulate of a judgment through direct perception of the divine law.
How do we unfold good judgment and power? We unfold them first through meditating, through understanding that we live, move, and have our being in a universal mind principle; then through recognizing that this great universal mind is seeking expression through us and that we determine the extent of that expression. He who reckons existence without God lives in a godless world. He who thinks God manifests God, becomes god-like himself.
As Jesus taught His disciples and combined their various talents, so every soul must grow in good judgment and power. Jesus understood man and knew just how mental processes are carried on; knew that just what we are is stamped on both soul and body. His teaching was practical, and all His commandments and sayings are helps in establishing the whole man in righteousness.
Man should understand that the all-knowing One shines in him as it did in Jesus, and that he spiritually manifests divine judgment. He should praise the Spirit of Wisdom in him and it will expand and deepen and enrich his soul consciousness.
Summing up this faculty in every soul, it is easy to percieve that judgment can be exercised in two ways—from sense perception or spiritual understanding. If its action be based upon sense perception its conclusions are fallible and condemnatory; if upon spiritual understanding, it is safe.
We use the same law of mind in forming character as in making external conditions. To realize a perfect character we must claim it in faith and behold ourselves as the image and likeness of God.
Sometime ago, in an interview in the Boston Herald with Dr. Lydiard Horton, who had been a well known psycho-technician for many years, he gave his conclusions of the sources of healing at the grave of a certain priest at Malden, Mass.
Dr. Horton touched on Plato’s descriptions of the Last Judgment.
Both the judge and the judged are pictured as stripped of all life’s appearances, descriptions and disguises; so that the judge with his naked soul shall pierce into the naked souls of those that are brought before him and see their very essence. Then the judge impartiality traces the scars and prints of selfishness, cruelty, arrogance, and injustice of that soul. On the other hand the transparent judge penetrates the soul that has thought and lived unselfishly, generously, doing good to his neighbor, loving God, and to the best of his ability being a good man. The impartial transparent judge tags each soul with both good and evil points and sends it to the punishments or rewards deserved.
We may think this an imaginary parable of a judgment that might be possible to us at some future time, but an understanding of the true character of God as omnipresent Spirit, “Who is over all, through all, and in all” reveals this to be a picture of what is really taking place in everyone. God is the “stripped atom” of all existence and man, his image and likness, is in direct soul contact with his spiritual sources at all times. Every thought flashes its character into the soul and makes there a picture that eventually appears as beautiful or ugly, on the screen of visibility. Here in the picture gallery of the soul we have the queries
“Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? (Matt 25:44) Then shall he answer them saying, “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did not unto me.” (Matt.25:45)
Metaphysically “one of these my brethren,” or “the least of these” means the soul, the brother of the Christ man. The growth of the soul is the supreme object of existence. (Matt: 25:40)
The ideal or Christ man is the pattern which man sees and aims to equal. Every thought serves out of invisible substance the thing that eventually appears in character and finally in the body. The thought of good or ill feeds or starves the soul, the brother of Christ.
We use the same law of mind in forming character as in making external conditions. To realize a perfect character we must claim it in faith and behold ourselves as the image and likeness of God.
It is easy to see that we form in the body the pictures of the ideas we hold in mind; God’s ideas held steadily in consciousness always picture and produce perfection in both mind and body.
Let us see and believe in only good in ourselves and others. Instead of thinking or talking about our faults, let us practice seeing and speaking of the good and beautiful everywhere.
A little school girl was quite famous among her companions for the perfect circle she could draw. The teacher asked her how she did it. She replied, I thinked how a circle looks and then I mark around the think.”
“But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.” (Matt.25:31)
This means an ideal condition, the result of the realization of man’s spiritual birthright, and his demonstrations with all good thoughts.
“And before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” (Matt 25:32-33)
This means that when the light of divine understanding begins to shine in consciousness the “glory” causes a quickening of the discrimination. The Truth is the standard, and all motives, thoughts, and acts that do not chord therewith are denied, and those that do, are affirmed. This is the separation symbolized by the sheep and goats.
The thoughts on the left hand symbolized by the goats mean the vicious, sensual, disobedient thoughts. These kind of thoughts must really be transmuted into their spiritual correspondence. The error is cast into the sea of nothingness; the righteous thoughts inherit eternal life.
“Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34)
The kingdom prepared for the good thoughts (the sheep) “from the foundation of the world” means the elements that minister to the good in man unknowingly.
“For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirstly, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” Matt. 25:35-36
Jesus taught that service is a test of value. “He that is greatest among you, shall be your servant.” (Matt. 23:11) In every department of life we find that the things that best serve us are considered most valuable. This is true in mechanics; it is also true in the moral, and in the intellectual world. In choosing between the emotions and thoughts upon which human consciousness, and all that comes out of it, is founded, we should make service the standard.
However, first of all man should not be servant of appetite, passion, or thought, but these should serve him and minister to him. The righteous servants of mind and body should be given greater power, because they minister in all ways to man while he is yet bound in sense consciousness. The body is built and sustained by the serving forces of nature, and every function of the organism they are clothing, feeding, healing, are giving life and strength to mind and body. All this is being done without thought that they are building a temple for the soul.
When the Higher Self comes into dominion and recognizes the service of these silent workers, they are surprised at being set at the right hand, and are told that when they serve the body, which is brother of the mind, they were at the same time serving the Christ.
The judgment seat is the seat of justice. All in all we find the true way to establish justice is by appealing directly to the Divine Law. We remember always that there is an infinite law of justice, omnipresent, that may be called into activity in the creative center of the soul. When we call our inner forces into actions, the universal law begins its great work in us, and all the laws both great and small fall into line and work with us.
Transcribed by Nita Strauss on July 9, 2018.
