James Dillet Freeman - The Household of Faith (The Story of Unity)
This is the landing page for the full text of James Dillet Freeman's 1951 book The Household of Faith.
What’s new here is that I have incorporated all 90 of Tom Witherspoon’s Essence of Unity audio clips into the text of James Dillet Freeman’s book. So what you have are two classic resources merged together -- the original 1951 text of The Story of Unity written by Unity’s great poet, and the 1981 lectures by Unity’s great historian. Witherspoon annotates Freeman, giving you a new learning experience.
In addition to the Witherspoon audio clips, there are numerous photographs and links to other resources, such as tracts, the Bible and biographies.
Here is an example of why it is so fun to visit the Unity Archives ... to the right is a letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Lowell Fillmore, where the FBI Director thanks Lowell for sending him a copy of The Household of Faith. Click on the image to open/download a PDF of the letter.
Here's why you should read this book ...
I remember my metaphysics teacher telling us to "rephrase" the way we talk to God. You see many of us had included "theistic" language in our prayers. Not only had we spoken "of God", we had actually spoken "to God." Our transgression was a double offense: not only had we spoken in theistic terms, but we had done so personally.
In exasperation, I asked, “would Charles Fillmore pass muster in this class?” His reply was “Well, no, not the way he wrote in in his lifetime.” That was all I needed to know about my teacher's metaphysics.
Click on link to the right entitled 12. The Fillmores as Teachers. Then scroll down to page 172. There you will see Charles Fillmore's response to such modern-day Pharisees who would correct my relationship with God ...
"I can remember with what satisfaction I used to imbibe the assumed wisdom of freshmen teachers ... I knew nothing about God because I had never made an effort to get acquainted with Him and in my egotism, I said, 'All these people that think they are in communion with God are deluded.'”
"But a time came when I decided to solve this question independent of any man's opinion. I set about to search for Him with my mind. And right here, I want to add my testimony good and strong with those who have said I know God. I talk and think to God, and He flashes His ideas into my mind. I am not deluded.”
“Repeated thinking about the presence of God makes Him increasingly plainer to my inner vision. I have thought about Him as the life of my body until every cell is athrill with an energy that I can feel as you feel the shock of an electric battery, and He tells me how to communicate this life to others who have not recognized it as I have. Don't let the fool say in your heart, 'There is no God'. I let that kind of fool talk in my heart and it set up a current of thought that kept me for years speechless in the presence of God."
Text and audio by inspired writers may not bring us into an awareness of the presence of God. But they may shift the nature of our thoughts from being a household of philosophy to becoming a Household of Faith.
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