Just Dealing and True Giving
1923-03-04
This lesson from Charles Fillmore was featured on Bob Brach's Unity Classic Radio broadcast on January 13, 2015
As we study the life of Jesus, We find that the only enemies he considered worthy his steel with the scribes and Pharisees and the Chief Priests. He warned his disciples, "Beware the of the Pharisees." He said unto them, woe on to you, Pharisees, you tithe and you perform your abulations, and you do this and you do that according to the law, and yet you don't bring any salvation you don't bring man to the true understanding of himself.
It was these chief priests and scribes and Pharisees brought about the crucifixion of Jesus. It wasn't the temporal rulers. They were merely the executive power, and they were incited to their action by the church, the church that thought that Jesus was breaking down there creeds, their forms, your ceremonies.
Now, we find as we analyze the social and religious world that these scribes and chief priests and Pharisees are in evidence today, that they have in the world a form of religion without the power there, but the form of things is the prevailing motive for action in the great majority of the people. The spirit is gradually been crushed out of human relations, human activities by this intellectual man, because that really is what the scribes and Pharisees and the chief priests represent.
It is the intellect. We see intellect in the world today in higher criticisms of religion. The higher critics have whittled down the spiritual natural expression in man until they don't feel or see that inner something which we called the soul. They say, why it doesn't exist in reality, and all the miracles and all the so-called supernatural things that happened in the old-time, that was all imagination.
So we have these in high places in the church, but those people in the church even who have been brought up to believe in miracles, in the supernatural, and the immaculate conception and birth and spirituality of Jesus, they still in a blind way claim to those ideas, and they're trying to eliminate the higher critical members of their people were squeezing out even that blind belief, so there is a great division in the Orthodox Church today, but the lesson that will bring this question home to ourselves and give us it's practical application is, to what extent I am letting my intellectual man rule in this realm right get the real source of my inspiration?
Now the intellectual man has his place. He is the man the who formulates; he is the man that expresses in the outer, receiving from within. In other words, the intellectual man, the chief priest and the Pharisee and the scribe in every one of us is that consciousness of ourselves and in right relation it belongs in the divine economy, but not understanding ourselves as spiritual beings primarily, we have allowed the intellectual man to supersede that spiritual inspiration which rightfully belongs to man as a spiritual being.
So in getting back to original principles we must deal with the intellect; we must find out just what that intellectual man is doing in our world, what he is believing in, where he is getting his ideas from, and as we analyze ourselves we find that there is in us a spiritual man a deals with the absolute reality, it deals with primal principle, and there is a logical reasoning, comparing man that takes those ideas and applies them to related things and there is a so-called material expression.
Now in the Bible the intellectual man is recognized. When he has his illumination, he paves the way, opens the way for the entry of the spiritual man, and then the world without becomes in order, the kingdom of God appears in man's earth, we have the restoration which is promised in the Scriptures, and that restoration takes place just to the extent that we regulate open ourselves to the spiritual understanding.
Now Jesus Christ taught again and again to the scribes and Pharisees and these chief priests that there was a principal within them if they would observe would illumine them, would restore them and bring the kingdom of the earth, but they still searched the Scriptures and they said, "Why is there the law. You must observe the law as it was written by Moses and given to us by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We're descended from the those old worthies."
And Jesus said, "I am the way" (John 14:6). He said, "Ye search the Scriptures, for in them you think he hit ye have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me, and you won't come to me that you might have life" (John 5:39). That is it. You are searching some written authority, you're looking to some outside source for your inspiration for your entry into this great kingdom of eternal life. You're looking in the wrong direction. You're looking to form of things, trying to find life in the outer. That is but the expression. The life is the principle within you. It is the me, the real I Am in everyone of us.
Now we, understanding the law, would not do away for one moment with the so-called material world. It has it's place into your consciousness, it will disappear, your world, your material world, will come to an end just as quickly as you perceive that you are a spiritual being, and that your intellect is receiving that spiritual unction, spiritual essence, that spiritual virtue which really belongs to it, and when you get into the consciousness your intellectual man will fall right into line.
But we have to deal with that man, and the question is just too what extent are we acknowledging the law within and without. Now there is cause and there is effect. Spirit is the realm of cause. The intellect perceives any gives expression in it's world without to that primal cause. So Jesus taught that in all things we should observe the temporal ruling government without.
Materiality has its standards and in a right understanding of the truth, we render onto that ruling power, that Caesar, the things that belong to it. We do not quarrel with it, but we know that the real source is in Spirit, so we give allegiance to God. We gie the power to the Spirit, the real source. Why this letter, these material things, don't profit. They don't originate anything. The originating quality comes from the Spirit, from mind.
You know that. You have evidences of it every day in every way. Your own life, you might say, is made up of these illustrations that Jesus Christ so plainly expressed. So it devolves upon everyone of us to recognize the Spirit, recognize that there is such a thing as inspiration, there is such a thing as a spiritual idea that received onto our minds would enlarge our capacity, or capacity to think, capacity to realize the possibilities within us of a perfect man, a perfect woman.
So we in the simple lesson of righteousness in adjusting ourselves to the law, we are shown the way to observe not only to temporal law, but above all the spiritual law.
In the time of Jesus Christ he was a religious outlaw. He would be a religious outlaw today if he appeared in the world preaching the doctrine of spirit with the same freedom, with the same power, because he exercised the power of Spirit. He healed the people, multitudes of them; he restored them, and as I say, if that healing was done in orthodox circles today, why it would be decried, it would be put aside, it would be something that happened way back in the early days of the church, but isn't happening today.
Now there you can see that the stone that the builders rejected must become the head of the corner (Psalms 118:22). That is what Jesus told those intellectuals. He said, you're refusing right today to receive this foundation of man's character, his real being, which is Spirit, Christ. You can't build a perfect structure, you can't build a perfect body without that Christ consciousness as the chief cornerstone, the head of the corner.
It must be the head of the man. Why, it was in the head, on that hill of Golgatha which means skull, that Jesus was crucified. The intellectual is crucifying the spiritual man every day that you ignore that you deny that you are a spiritual being. Your intellect is holding the power in your mind, body, and you are crucifying. Stop it. Give yourself up to spiritual consciousness, and as you acknowledge the kingdom of God, and that kingdom expressed, why you will find that the temporal kingdom, the expression without will become more harmonious in its ways, because there will be a transformation. You will be transformed into various activities of your functions, the activities of your powers, from the temporal intellectual standing to the real foundation.
In other words, we must as a human family, recognize that there is a God behind what we call nature. We see the wonderful power of nature, receive the mighty works, the stupendous works in the astronomical world, the stupendous setting forth, but going into action of the power, and we can't comprehend it, and yet we deny God. We say, this must have all come about through evolution, or through some unknown power that I am not amenable to.
We do not have to recognize it, my world and it's world don't seem to be connected. But I assure you that the same mind that moves the mighty universe moves every cell and atom of your body, and if you will give yourself up to that mind, you will understand the relations between this great universe and you, the little universe. We are told that man is the microcosm of the great universe without. "There is a great man of the universe," Swedenborg said, "and there is a little one." And everyone that has within him that grand man in embryo. In other words, every cell of your body is a world, every cell, and there are millions of them.
We are told by astronomers that, one of the great stars that has been known to astronomers throughout the history of astronomy has all at once broken into brilliancy. Well, the conclusion is that star is burning up, being destroyed, but that is merely an assumption. That star is so far away that if it exploded it would take some 60 million years before we would hear the sound, and if it began burning 80 million years ago, It would take that time for the light traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles a second to reach us. So this burning or explosion began, it's consumption 80 million years ago and we are just getting the light. That will give you an idea of distance. That star belongs to our galaxy, part of our little ring of the great universe, and yet there is a power that horses little piece of dust, -- that is all this planet is compared with the great universe, compared with the star which we are told has exploded, why we are but his little grain of sand, just a little speck of dust floating in the air.
We count for nothing in comparison, and yet in intelligence, and evolution, we may be further along than some of those great stars when we consider the mind. Now I do not think that conclusion of our astronomers that that star has exploded is a true conclusion. It may be that it is going through a transfiguration. We know this planet is alive, all the stars are living beings, and they take on the glory of the glorified spiritual consciousness.
They, like Jesus Christ, might be a transfigured and become glorified, and this may be the condition of this star. It has broken forth into a new glory. We are told it is shining with an increased a full chance, 50 million times greater than it was before. That is a pretty big star, but those astronomers talk in large figures, so large that they no longer measure in miles but in light-days, in light-miles. And mile is compared, or the figure is that a light-mile is equal to 186,000 miles, and their light-mile has been one second in which to act. You can see then what large figures we have to deal with, but take our little world and we think it is a pretty big thing. It is to us.
Why this infinite power can balance it on, you might say, in comparison, the palm of the hand. We say that it weighs millions and millions of pounds. It doesn't weigh anything to the Almighty. If you knew how to handle the ideas of mind, your body wouldn't wait anything. You wouldn't say, why I have two propel myself through the exercise of my legs to walk. Why no, you would just look if you knew that the idea back of body consciousness. Well now, is it worth our while to inquire into spirit?
Jesus Christ attained, through his inquiry into his real character, his son of God consciousness, he acquired ability. He disappeared from the midst of these Pharisees when they trying to lay hands on him. How did he do it? Why, he just made himself invisible. How did he go through the walls are going to the rooms when the doors were closed? He understood the law of spirit, the law that when we understand will restore us first to physical health, and it will restore us to understanding.
Now there are two planes directly of knowing. One is spiritual consciousness and the other is intellectual reflection. The great majority of us are living in intellectual reflection. We do not see directly into this great spiritual realm, but when we begin to exercise our minds as if we did -- Shakespeare says, "if you haven't a virtue, claim one." If you haven't got the spiritual consciousness, claim that you have it, and pretty soon you will have it. That is the law of faith in Christ. We have got to have faith first. You must have faith in things that you don't now discern.
I remember reading once that the man who built the Great Northern Railway first had a mere plan in his mind, and then he said that he saw they carried out and he said he could see in his mind the workmen building that road, mile by mile, and finally he built it clear to the Pacific. He had nothing to start with but what we call an ideal, But he saw that ideal as if it were real, and Jim Hill built the Great Northern Railway in that way. So everything is first idealized. This building was first idealized, and then that ideal was outlined to the architect and the architect drew the plans and the workmen got the materials together and put up the building.
Everything that appears -- this body was built in exactly that way. Now, what kind of a body are you idealizing? I am idealizing the best I know, you say, but you might know a little better. Certainly. And give yourself to the ideal first give yourself to God. Worship God, render unto God the things that belong to God. You belong to God. Man belongs to God. Man was created in the image and likeness of God. To what extent are you giving yourself to God? In observing some of the rules of religion? If you were going to church and reading the Bible and believing that Jesus Christ died and went to heaven -- that is intellectual consciousness. The real truth is that Jesus Christ overcame death and lives with us today in his spiritual body, that is the body which we are every one seeking.
That is the body that will correspond to the divine idea, the body without limitations of the flesh. You want that body. How are you going to get it? Why, by the believing first and then acting as if your beliefs were true. Carry out your belief in your thought, and in your act, and you will arrive at that place eventually. We don't promise that you won't get there immediately, maybe not tomorrow or next week, but if you hold it to your ideal you will surely arrive.
That is the law, and you can prove it. Now, Jesus also in his illustration gave the giving by the widow of the two mites, when he said, as the rich were putting their gifts into the treasury, "This widow has given more than all of you" (Mark 12:44). Why? Because she gave these two mites out of her lack, or her poverty. She gave that gift with great soul consciousness. She put what we would call substance into it. Now that is the real giving, that is the giving that counts. It is the giving that comes, as we say, from the heart, voluntarily. It isn't forced. Those rich people thought it was their duty under the law to give attempt of their income. Well they gave more than the Orthodox Christians to today.
I saw an estimate the other day of the amount that the Christian church people gives each year, but it was 1/10 of 1% of their income that they give to the furtherance of gods kingdom in the earth. Isn't that generous? And the balance of the world don't give even that much. So these people that belong to the church they give 1/10 of 1% of their income to the setting up of the kingdom of God that is going to save us from Hell.
Now I would like to to call your attention to little different idea in getting that would bring us to the consideration of, well personal matters, the giving of the Unity Society. At the last meeting of our Board, he had to treasurer's report for the year of this local society, and that was that we had contributed, not in a forced way, not true pledges, but voluntarily, $15,370, during the first year and I thought that was an illustration of what we would call giving in the Spirit. We do not any of us pledge that we will give an exact amount, but the plates are passed and you're asked to contribute and you have done that nobly. Now out of that $15,370, we paid out some $13,000, and our treasury showed $635 in the current fund on hand. And that was a very good showing, all expenses paid and then to mount on hand.
In addition to that we had about $1200 in our thanksgiving offering for the new auditorium, and a promise of $500 more, making $1700 virtually on hand for the new auditorium. Now the time is close at hand when we are going to have an Easter offering, April 1st is Easter, that is very far away, and our finance committee are going to announce to you that the way is open, the plates will be passed around on Easter Sunday for your contribution for the new auditorium.
Now the new auditorium must come because we need it. We are a growing people, and it will take a year at least to build that new auditorium, and it will cost us up to $150,000. That is just a rough guess. We have this $17,000 on hand and we will probably raise a good deal more than that on Easter Sunday, and that will be a start. A member has offered to give us a lot across the street worth $25,000 when we get the money to put up the auditorium, and it may be now that there is somebody within hearing of my voice it would like to make a contribution say of $100,000. That is no laughing matter. I talked with a man today who said the Lord had impressed him to do something large for the Unity Society because, he said, I see that you have gotten hold of the truth.
I remember reading once that, in Chicago, Dr. Gonzales was preaching in the auditorium and he had for a long time dreamed about a manual training school for boys, and in his sermon one Sunday he laid that plan before his congregation. He outlined what he would like to see into school, and after the meeting a man came up to him and said, "Would you take the presidency of a school of that kind?" He said, "I would." He said, "How much would it take to start it?" He said, "$1 million would give it a good start at least," and that man said, I will give you $1 million to start that, and my name is Philip D. Armour. And that was the beginning of the Armour Institute.
Now you can see that ideas have to be sown money. We are all striving to do good. Rich people are really looking forward to the use of their money for the benefit of somebody. Every rich man thinks that he will in the end use his money to some good end, and I assure you you will never find any better way for your money than to put it into the education of the people, and especially the spiritual education.
The whole world is starving today for just what Jesus Christ brought and which those Pharisees wouldn't receive because they thought it interfered with their established religion. Now Christ didn't destroy anybody's religion. The religion which he taught is the religion that we are teaching; it is the religion which we must every one receive, and that is that man is spiritual, primarily the son of the living God. He has within him all the attributes of that God.
That indwelling spiritual power belongs to you and through a righteous getting together in the furtherance of this wonderful kingdom of God within you, you will reap the benefit of it, and all that you can give and all that you can express will be as noting compared with the good which will come to you.
Now we all who have entered into the understanding of our spiritual being, who have laid this corner stone, will testify that giving ourselves to the uplift, to the upbuilding of the church of God, through Jesus Christ in the world, is the greatest good that can come to us. We have more joy in the furtherance of this knowledge, this understanding of the Truth and any of the other things that we do. Let us then this morning give thanks for this inflow of spiritual light, of spiritual understanding, of spiritual truth, that the kingdom of God may be set up in the earth.
