BY CHARLES FILLMORE
THE wise soul who discerned and put into form the truth "There is but one Presence and one Power in the universe, God the good, omnipotent" sent out by his word a great blessing upon the race. When a person sees that he brings upon himself good or ill according to his thought, he sometimes allows himself to become fearful of the power of evil. Early in his spiritual progress he should establish himself firmly in the understanding of the total unreality of evil. Dominion over all that is called evil comes not by considering it a great power that we overcome by mighty conflict, but by robbing it of its seeming power by our understanding of the allness of Spirit. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
One of the greatest lessons that can be learned in the spiritual life is that in Spirit and in Truth there is nothing to fear. Jesus put this simply, but powerfully, in the promise "Nothing shall in anywise hurt you." It is the nature of the mortal to build up some great bugaboo. Sometimes this bogy looms large and fearful before us as disease or poverty or death, sometimes as "malicious animal magnetism" or "black magic" or "evil spirits" or sometimes as "the devil" or hell and the fear of eternal punishment. Always the mortal finds some kind of devil to fear. If it repudiates satan, it puts something else in his place. The spiritually wise man, seeing clearly in the light of divine understanding, knows that there is nothing to fear, knows that God loves and forgives His children. The child afraid of the dark is an apt illustration of the childish minds of adults who live in the darkness of sense, and who people that darkness with the imaginings of their own minds. The grown man, fearless in the dark, is a figure of the spiritually illumined man who walks confidently and safely in the light of life.
John shows that the light that scatters all fearsome shadows is love. Read his first Epistle and dedicate yourself to the God of love. Open your mind and heart to the light of love, and you shall not stumble nor fear.
Of course the error seems real. But that is where you have to do your work as an overcomer. Appearances are deceiving. "Judge not according to appearance." Whatever appears in your objective world is an image made by your own thoughts. You can change an appearance by changing your thoughts, just as the motion-picture operator throws on the screen a new picture when he so chooses. Blame no one for conditions that you do not like. In understanding, admit that you make your own world. Instead of pitying yourself and looking for pity from your friends, rise in the majesty of your true self and cast off all the works of darkness. Your positive stand in Truth will turn on the light and will dispel ignorance and its shadows, and you will be the light of your world.
FEAR NOT! GOD IS THY SHIELD
Fear not! God is thy shield,
And He thy great reward;
His might has won the field:
Thy strength is in the Lord!
Fear not! Be not dismayed!
He evermore will be
With thee, to give His aid,
And He will strengthen thee.
Fear not! 'tis God's own voice
That speaks to thee this word;
Lift up your head! Rejoice
In Jesus Christ, Thy Lord!
—E. G. Taylor
Unity Village, Missouri 64065
Printed U.S.A. F-1-5M-8-81-FN C
