UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY
LEE'S SUMMIT, MO.
THE divine Logos, the Word of God, is within you. It is the source of God's creative power, the fountain-head from which spring living words of Truth.
Words are creative. You can obtain every blessing you desire by thinking, speaking, reading, and writing only true, strong, upbuilding words. Your life outpictures your words. Word by word, in thought and speech, you build up your consciousness of God and Truth, or you lessen your consciousness of God, your ever-present good.
Words are the seed, the mind is the soil. Sometimes we feel dismayed at conditions and wonder why we should suffer so. Long ago we may have sown seed thoughts and then forgotten them. Now the crop shows forth, but we need not stand defeated before it any more than we need stand helpless before the weeds that spring up in our gardens.
We have the power and the innate intelligence to uproot the weeds in our thought field and to sow seeds of Truth. By denying them place in our consciousness we uproot the weed thoughts. By affirming words of Truth and thinking constructively we plant the good seed that yields the good harvest.
Take worry as an example. It is such a common habit, such a useless, destructive one. It crowds out the upbuilding, faithfilled thoughts that invite and establish good in our life and affairs. It supplants them with fear, uncertainty, and gloom. Worry can rapidly be mastered by meeting every anxious thought with a positive statement such as this:
I refuse to worry or fuss. God is with me. I am trusting in His love, resting in His peace, growing in His wisdom. I fear no evil. I have opened my life to God and blessings come to me from everywhere.
The word exists in the principle of Being. When we think true to divine principle we get good results as surely as we get a correct answer to a mathematical problem worked according to the principles of mathematics.
Analyze the words you use. Cease using words like hate, poverty, disease, or condemnation, representing conditions that you would not desire to see manifest. Substitute words of love, prosperity, life, and joy.
How many words are regretted as soon as spoken! Should you say something unkind, untrue, thoughtless, and mischief-making wipe it out immediately by the power of denial. Deny that it has any power to work in your life or in the life of others. Erase it at once and prevent it from doing harm by turning to God and asking that His forgiving power may act through you. Then replace the thoughtless or destructive expression by a firm declaration of divine love, order, good will, and peace.
Practice this every day until you have mastered your thoughts and words. You will reap a rich harvest of blessings. You will be a good friend and you will have many loyal friends, for your good thoughts and words will attract them.
SOWING THE SEEDS
The seed of Truth is sown in consciousness by memorizing promises of God and statements of Truth. We may read passages that are uplifting, but unless the subconscious mind takes hold of Truth and makes it a part of the soul and body consciousness, the good seeds take no deep root and they wither away. For this reason it is good to dwell upon words of Truth until they are fixed firmly in memory. If they are learned with deep faith and interest, they are like leaven; they work in the mind and in the body, quickening and nourishing the whole inner man. In time of trial or discipline they are as a lamp to the mind, glowing with comfort, cheer, courage, and healing when all outer things fail.
Bible texts often excel as word seed.
Here is a text for peace: "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever. And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places."
Here is one for courage: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee! be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
Here is one for energy: "They that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."
This is a text for guidance: "Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."
This is one for mastery: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape."
Your Bible is rich in treasure: "God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
You have the will and the faith to lay hold of the word and make it a part of your consciousness.
"Be still, and know that I am God" is a splendid text to use to bring you into the realization of God within you. Many have proved how this word dissolves ignorant mortal thoughts and quickens the mind in the wisdom of the Christ Mind which responds instantly to man's recognition of it. Whatever God is, your spiritual or Christ self must be. God is life, strength, love, substance, intelligence, power, and being made in the image and likeness of God, you must also be life, strength, love, substance, intelligence, and power. This being true it is good at times to change the general statement "Be still, and know that I am God" into specific affirmations to meet certain needs, as "Be still, and know that I am love."
If you believe in death or fear it, train your unenlightened thoughts to remember: "Be still, and know that I am life; abundant, limitless, eternal life. Life cannot be separated from my body, for I am Spirit, I am soul, I am body, and I am life."
When thoughts of anger, resistance, hate, and revenge are running riot, command them to be still, saying, "Be still, and know that I am peace."
If given to harboring thoughts of lack, put them away with the word "Be still, and know that I am substance."
You may be in the habit of thinking that you are ignorant, unable to comprehend, to remember. If so, say, "Be still, and know that I am intelligence."
When tempted to doubt your dominion and mastery, say to the doubts: "Be still, and know that I am power. All power is given to me in mind and in body."
Should you feel weak, declare, "Be still, and know that I am strength." This is a very practical way of bringing every word into obedience to Christ and learning to use your divine authority in all overcoming. God is not limited to the attributes here mentioned. The seven given are examples to show you how to adapt Truth thoughts to your various needs.
God is love, faith, trust, hope, patience, courage, knowledge, and understanding. These are the things that we must meditate upon as we enter the silence, the things that we must bring out of the silence with us and build into our character, life, and affairs. We must make our words alive with them. Then they will go forth in the power of Spirit to accomplish perfect work.
To enable Spirit to inspire us, our thoughts must be kept free from worry, fear of sickness or limitation, failure or lack, free from any idea that denies God as ever-present good. Health and supply are included in our understanding of God as our good, for God is the wholeness and reality of our being as well as the supply and support of our world. When we permit disease, inharmony, or poverty to control us we are worshiping other gods than the one God of life, love, and substance.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is the divine command. This means that we must establish ourselves in the consciousness of absolute good only, of God. Thus we shall be constantly building good into our subconscious mind until it becomes a strong foundation of Truth to our thoughts, supporting us in all that is good.
Keep your eye single to God, in whom you live and have your sustenance. Constantly realize your oneness with Him and His infinite love for you. See God in your body as the perfection of wholeness. See Him in your affairs as divine order, joy, prosperity, and success. See Him in your mind as the wisdom that leads you in paths of peace, Truth, righteousness, and spiritual bliss. See God in your life and in the life of others as the pure, perfect love that cleanses of all impurity, forgives all iniquity, heals all disease, banishes all lack. You and your Father are one! Rejoice!
EATING WORDS
"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart."
To affirm words of Truth and appropriate them in our life is to eat them. The affirmation is something more than mere repetition of statements of Truth in intellectual understanding. They are Spirit and life! They quicken, nourish, and redeem mind, body, and soul.
A purely intellectual statement has no quickening power. Therefore at times it is good just to abide in the consciousness of an inner stillness instead of forming words, because the personal consciousness often takes up the words and tries by hard personal effort to accomplish results. Try this method of letting go, and if you have not already discerned the difference between the personal and the spiritual consciousness in working out your problems, you soon will.
The personal is a factor we all have to deal with. When we weary of its efforts we learn to let go and give God a chance. Then His Spirit floods our consciousness with its peace and overcoming power.
Much of the trouble in the world comes from feeding on empty words. They are empty because, having no foundation in Truth, they are void of spiritual substance. "Let no man deceive you with empty words."
"He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul." Lying and deception put the soul in shackles.
"The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels,
And they go down into the innermost parts."
Words of anger, hate, and jealousy are afire. They burn and boil the blood and flesh and leave deep scars upon the soul.
"He that spareth his words hath knowledge." The person who talks too much wastes vital energy. Then he seeks some tonic to remedy the waste.
"Ephraim feedeth on wind." Ephraim doubtless fed on boasting words.
"A fool's lips enter into contention ...
A fool's mouth is his destruction,
And his lips are the snare of his soul."
Every error word leaves its mark. Jesus said, "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." His warning would be better heeded if man realized that every day is a day of judgment in which idle words bear the fruit of suffering.
The living words of God are "life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life."
"The tongue of the wise is health."
"Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue
Keepeth his soul from troubles.""The lips of the wise shall preserve them."
"Bread of falsehood is sweet to man;
But afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.""A flattering mouth worketh ruin."
Jehovah said to Job, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel?" Job uttered words of faultfinding and complaint against God. He maintained that he was righteous and that God was sending unmerited punishment upon hirn. Words like those which Job used are darkening counsel every day. Cross, willful words cast a shadow over a man's path, and he cannot see the way; they dull his ears until he cannot hear the counsel and guidance of Spirit. He knows not at what he stumbles, but it is his own words. He will cease stumbling when he uses only words of light and Truth.
When we eat true living words we appropriate the substance of Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. We eat His immortal, incorruptible flesh when we eat words of Truth. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves."
"I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
"The lips of the righteous feed many."
"Grace is poured into thy lips: Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever."
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in thy sight,
O Jehovah."
It is impossible for anyone to stop thinking of a matter so long as he continues to talk about it: if there is something to be dropped out of mind, the first step is to cease talking about it. This is true whether the matter is a disease, an anxiety, a contention, or any of the other inharmonies that arise from the ignorant, careless, or egotistical use of mental powers. If every person would take this bit of wisdom home to himself and act upon it, what great changes for better would be made. Woes would quickly pass away, having no word substance to sustain them.
The self that is centered in itself and loves to talk is disciplined and set in order by cultivating the meekness and lowliness of Jesus Christ. These affirmations help one to become poised in the confidence, peace, and mastery of the Son of God:
I am meek and lowly of heart, and I find rest for my soul.
I do not seek the chief seats.
I do not seek to be heard of men.
I serve the Lord with humility of mind.
I humble myself, and God lifts me up. He feeds my mind with divine ideas. My words are clothed with substance, alive with the creative power of God.
GOD GIVETH THE VICTORY
"Let no man deceive you with empty words."Every craving of mind, body, and soul can be controlled and satisfied by turning to God. "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." Whether the prayer for freedom from drink or drugs be made for yourself or another, the answer is sure. God satisfies the longing.
Empty words cause intemperance. They are void of the substance of truth, void of love, faith, courage, and hope. Empty words of nagging and faultfinding, or bullying, boastful words, or discontented words incessantly demanding something, or deceptive, enticing words drive many a person to drugs and drink.
Empty words leave a vacuum in the mind. An all-gone feeling pervades the body. Not knowing God as his resource, man seeks relief in the stimulation and oblivion afforded by narcotics, tobacco, and alcohol.
Words born of the living Word of God, words of kindness, comfort, understanding, encouragement, cheer, faith, and Truth fill the vacuum made by empty words and set man free from bondage to habit.
Let the light of truth illumine you. It eliminates darkness, ignorance, bondage, and fear, for light is expressed intelligence. Words of light spoken in faith and with spiritual authority directly to the wrong desire, whether for yourself or another, will act with divine power to control and satisfy.
In overcoming drug, tobacco, or liquor habits, God and man, heart and head, love and wisdom, will and faith must work in unison. To suppress a wrong desire by sheer will power, unattended by faith, love, understanding, and forgiveness is like bottling up a constantly expanding energy. It is liable to explode. When reformation is brought about through observing the lav/ of righteousness and Truth in thought, word, and deed, the addict is healed of his craving for all time. It will never return nor will it ever trouble him again.
God gives the victory! Meet all shortcoming with this truth. Words filled with the substance of Spirit can be applied in a practical way whenever the appetite demands gratification. Instead of eating and drinking intemperately, eat living words; that is, take them into your consciousness by affirmation. One who is tempted to yield to false appetite will find freedom and satisfaction by using these true statements:
The light of Truth illumines me.
God has given me the victory!
God has set me free!
Help others to overcome by declaring:
The light of Truth illumines you.
God has given you the victory!
God has set you free!
Peace, power, plenty:
Words that are heaven-born;
Say them, ye hearts that are weary,
Till hope in your souls is born;
For words are things that will lift on wings
The one who believes them true;
And whatever you will when the mind is still
You may call to the soul of you.
—Henry Victor Morgan
Lee's Summit, Missouri
PRINTED U.S.A W6-4M-6-52-W OF T
