Chapter 4
Let Christ Be Formed In You
There is a principle in man which, if called into expression, will make him far, far above the average. The Scriptures teach very positively that this principle can be developed or formed in man. “Christ in you the hope of glory.” If this principle can be called into expression in us, our most devout prayer should be for that consummation, to the end that we may realize our ideals. Then let us begin right now the development of the Christ principle. Let the Christ in you arrive. Let this Supreme One take the mastery. “Christ in me my hope of glory,” is a good affirmation for one who desires to enter into the Christ consciousness.
“Christ is risen in me,” is another good statement. Many of us are holding Christ in the tomb of material limitations. He is not yet risen, because light has not yet broken into our understanding. We have not understood the mighty truth that Christ is the Divine Man Principle in us all. “Christ, the only begotten Son, is risen in me.” Take that into deep spiritual understanding and it will quicken the Christ Man, and you will have power that you never had before.
There are none of us but have asked these questions: “What is the meaning of life? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Those who have not had answers to these questions are unhappy. A certain discontent fills the mind when it is ignorant of the object and aim of existence. Nearly everybody has times of darkness, but those who have once received the Christ light are never without a certain assurance of guidance and safety, no matter what comes. Get but a glimpse of Divine life and all your way will be brighter. This present life consciousness is to be crowned with one of far greater capacity. As a race we are now in the kindergarten of life, and we must strive for the higher grades.
Did you ever think what the crown of life is? We all have life, but what is the life? What are we living for? Is it for the attainment of some earthly ambition? Do not set your ideal on a crown of temporal things. You will never get real crown the if you do. Those who are crowned with life, live eternally in the presence of God. This does not mean that we are to attain this crown in some other realm after we are dead, but here and now. Life is a science; it is the science of living under law.
We are told that those who strive for the mastery are temperate in all things. Then temperance must be a part of this life science that we are living. You must be temperate if you run this race of life successfully, because life is a very precious thing. Those who ran in the Greek races had to be temperate in all things. They found that if they dissipated their life energy in sensuous pleasures they were weakened. Life in the body must be conserved and purified. As a race we are beginning to get glimpses of this law of the conservation of life. But it is usually taught from the material standpoint. In our schools, religion is divorced from psychology. Because the orthodox religious teachers have not taught a religious science, their doctrines are excluded from the fields of exact thought.
The attainment of the crown of eternal life depends upon the understanding of the science of right thinking. This is taught in Christianity, and, rightly understood, will form the only true science of living. Jesus attained the crown of life, and his teaching should be inquired into in its scientific aspect by all who aspire to permanent, enduring, eternal life.
The baptism, the death and the resurrection of Jesus are steps in the attainment of the crown of life. There is a spiritual baptism, and that leads to an effacement, a doing away with the earthly appetites and passions. That is real temperance. If we are striving for the mastery in this race for life, we should be giving heed to these things. If you are really giving attention to the higher teaching, if you are one of the students of the Lord God Almighty, you will begin to search yourself within. The Resurrection is brought about by an inner concentration of the mind. First is the realization that there is an omnipresent principle of life; that there is a principle which will regenerate or transmute this coarser consciousness of life into a finer life. We are told by men of science that there is but one universal principle, and out of it comes all that we see in the visible world. That is true, and as you get hold of that inner consciousness you will find that there is a forming power in your mind. You have the power through your Higher Self to direct this formative principle to any part of your body, and as you direct it, transformations will go on wherever your attention is centered. Thus the consciousness of life itself is increased until the field of life merges into the Great Universal Life, and this is “life eternal.”
We are told that Jesus, on that wonderful Easter morning, stepped out of the tomb in his natural body. Here was a resurrection of the physical man. By using this law of right thought and right living Jesus attained the crown of life, and we are commanded to follow him.
