1. The idea that dominion was given to man in the beginning is so firmly implanted within every human being that each person is continually endeavoring to express it. He tries to surmount conditions and to gain mastery over them. He struggles with sorrow, disease, poverty, death, and all other adverse conditions because he feels, through his memory of past experience, that he ought to be master of conditions and ought to be able to order his life in harmony, health, and success. Spiritual understanding shows that such overcoming is possible, and it points the way.

2. Past failures of the human family to demonstrate mastery over adverse conditions have come from the ignorance of not knowing how to master them. A right understanding and application of the Jesus Christ teachings is the way out of this ignorance because He exemplifies Truth, so completely that He becomes our Way-Shower. By following His teachings man may "know the truth" (John 8:32), and be set free from all the conditions produced by ignorance. Jesus Christ came into the earth as a human being and demonstrated that He could overcome everything that seems to burden mankind. He revealed to all men that they could overcome as He did. He taught them how to do this and promised to help them along their way of overcoming.

3. Because man has not realized that there is but one presence and one power in the universe, God the good, omnipotent, and that he is one with that presence and power, he has built up a consciousness of separation from God. Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Man fails often to realize that this is just as true of him as it is of Jesus.

4. From this basic cause -- a belief in separation from God, the good, omnipotent -- there appears on the surface three reasons why evil appears in the world. But these three reasons have their root in a belief in two powers, "good and evil" (Gen. 2:9).

5. The first of these reasons is that man has not known that he is a spiritual being. He has not known his innate divinity and that his spiritual identity gives him dominion and authority. Not having the full understanding and realization of spiritual mastery he has in ignorance struggled in the outer to improve conditions in his life and in the world about him. The second reason is that man has not known the power of thought to produce conditions, desirable or undesirable, according to the nature of his thoughts. The outer is impermanent for it is the realm of change. As it is produced by thought, it can be changed by thought. Ignorant thinking, or the ignorant use of ideas, makes all the evil that appears. The third reason is that man through lack of understanding has not seen the relation or connection between cause and effect. No ill effect was ever righted except by correction of the cause, and the cause is always an idea in mind. Ideas are the patterns of the manifest world and must be used in right relation with God's law of right thinking.

6. Because some persons have experienced effects for which there seems to be no corresponding thoughts, these persons have doubted that the effects originated in mind. They have looked only in the outer realm. There is a phase of mind called the subconscious. Every idea that has ever been thought about in the conscious phase of mind (realm of thinking) sinks into memory and remains, even though no longer held in the conscious phase of mind. Past thoughts gather about some central nucleus or central point (like attracting like) and form states of mind which constitute and build soul - consciousness. The character of these states of mind is determined by the character of the dominant thought.

7. The formed states of mind make up what is called the subconscious phase of mind and, in a certain sense, they work independently of the conscious phase of mind. Once established by our acceptance and belief, they continue to work according to their character. For instance, in sleep the subconscious carries on breathing, digestion. and circulation. These functions are carried on harmoniously or inharmoniously, according to the past thinking that has become habitual.

8. Besides being the storehouse of memory, the seat of habits, realm of feelings, the controller of the vital physical functions, the subconscious phase of mind is also the mind of instinctive desire. It is not confined to the brain but is existent in every cell of the body. It is the total of each individual's own thoughts as well as the whole of the inherited race thoughts and beliefs. The subconscious phase of mind works subjectively; it has no power of choice. It reaches conclusions from premises given it, but it is not capable of testing the validity of these conclusions. It never sleeps, never rests, never tires; it is the secondary cause, the reproducing phase of mind in the individual. It is constantly bringing forth according to what has been stored in it, thus building man's body and his environment.

9. It is clear that the character of the subconscious phase of mind depends upon past and the present thinking. Controlled, constructive thinking in the conscious phase of mind builds right states in the subconscious phase of mind. Uncontrolled, random, and erroneous thinking in the conscious phase of mind builds untrue states in the subconscious phase of mind. Untrue states having been built into the subconscious phase of mind, it has no choice but to act according to these established states. This is the reason why we sometimes spontaneously think, speak, and act adversely.

10. Paul called the total of all error in man's consciousness "the mind of the flesh," -- Rom. 8:7 or "the old man." -- Eph. 4:22. By some persons this error thought is called "mortal mind"; others name it error consciousness, personal consciousness, or "carnal mind." The consciousness of Truth established by thinking Truth, is called the Christ consciousness; in the Bible it is named "the new man" (Eph. 4:24).

11. When rightly understood, all overcoming is seen to be an inner realization of victory over error states of consciousness. Sometimes, however, one's conscious thought may give him no hint of the overcoming which he needs to do in his subconscious phase of mind. However, when Spirit begins to quicken and transform him, it will reveal the need of a new state of mind.

12. One may find himself in the midst of inharmonious experiences in body or in affairs. When these experiences come a person may feel that he is a great sinner and begin to condemn himself. But condemnation must be overcome because it makes heavier the burden of sin.

13. The seeming injustice of including all the race in Adam's sin is cleared away when the laws of mind and the power of thought are understood. "All men are created equal" (The Declaration of Independence). The same law that makes men sinners makes all men righteous in Christ. The use of the law determines the result in man's life. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). Sin, that is, error or negative thinking, is overcome by the attaining of a consciousness of Truth. The whole message of the Gospel is that as the race went down into sin and death in the Adam consciousness of sin, so shall it be lifted in righteousness and life in the Christ consciousness. A cause set into operation always produces a like effect.

14. The result of overcoming is salvation; freedom from sin and the effects of sinning; freedom from all consciousness of evil, and the removal of evil thoughts from both the conscious and sub-consciousness phases of mind. Every man must work out his own salvation. That is, he must take hold of the saving Truth with his conscious phase of mind, and by the power of his thought build states of consciousness that are enduring, even to the consciousness of eternal life here and now.

15. The whole of salvation is summed up in the consciousness of the Christ Mind. The perfection of man as the offspring of God is an eternal truth. However, this truth must be embodied in man's consciousness -- into his thinking and feeling processes. It is man's conscious individual entrance into the "Christ consciousness" that gives him salvation from his own error thoughts, feelings, beliefs, words, actions, and reactions. Jesus "brought life and immortality to light" (II Tim. 1:10) but man gets the benefit of the light only as he consciously incorporates the light of Truth into his consciousness through the right direction of his daily thought.

<16/a>. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:22). That is, as in the limited Adam consciousness all men die to the consciousness of good, this results in death of the physical body. In Christ all men shall be made alive to the glorious Truth that man is a spiritual being capable of expressing life abundant through his soul, body, and affairs here and now. Adam represents the consciousness of both good and evil. The Adam consciousness is sometimes called the race thought. The race thought is the thought, concept, or belief that is common to the greater part of humanity, whether it be good or ill. Among the error thoughts held by the race are those of sin, poverty, disease, death, and the belief these appearances are inevitable in human experience. Another race thought is the belief that materiality is the real. In the blindness of ignorance, man does not see Spirit manifest everywhere. He thinks God to be separate from His creation; he believes that the world and his body are lacking the eternal life and light of Spirit.

17. These and other adverse thoughts of the race work in the minds of men and produce all kinds of inharmonious conditions. Every one who would overcome must have the understanding of Truth, in order that he may deal with causes intelligently and produce the effects that he desires. If he says, "I don't see what I ever did, that I should suffer," or "My friend is so good, it cannot be that his thinking causes his troubles," he is exhibiting his ignorance of the law of mind action and the power of thought. The negative race thoughts are working in the subconsciousness of all persons who have not fully established themselves in the Christ consciousness. Every overcomer finds that he must deal firmly with these negative race thoughts by putting them out of his mind, and in their place putting thoughts of Truth.

18. The dominant error race beliefs get into the subconscious of men by being carried from generation to generation, forming what is termed experience, until they are accepted and made a part of everyday beliefs and habits of mind and action. When one is quickened by Spirit and awakens to the knowledge that he is the offspring of God, this realization consciously unifies his thinking with the ideas of Divine Mind and he begins to express and manifest more of God's perfect life.

19. When man believes only in a physical heritage as his source of life he manifests the limitations and imperfections of that state of consciousness. These limitations are the result of expressing beliefs that have been learned and accepted from human ancestors from whom one believes he has descended. When man learns that he is by nature divine, is in reality Spirit manifested in physical form, his thoughts begin building a new consciousness. He begins to express and manifest spiritual qualities or ideas, which are his inheritance from God.

20. There are two definite steps that one must take in the process of overcoming:

21. The first step is for the individual to place himself consciously by faith in the Christ consciousness and hold himself there by training his thoughts to think on God ideas. This step is taken by the conscious phase of mind, the intellect or thinking faculty. One must consciously open his mind to divine ideas and must refuse to recognize anything but good. Thus the change from error consciousness to spiritual consciousness is accomplished in one movement.

22. The complete transformation, however, comes as the result of a second step taken by the subconscious phase of mind (realm of feeling). The thoughts of good are taken into the storehouse of the subconscious phase of mind and produce states of mind that eventually bear fruit in the outer.

23. The working of Truth from the inner, the within, to the outer, from consciousness into the body and affairs, is what is meant by working out one's own salvation. It is incorporating divine ideas of life, love, light, substance, intelligence, into one's consciousness and letting these ideas be expressed in his thoughts and feelings, in his words and actions, that he is saved from all false thinking and its effects in his life here and now. This is working out one's own salvation. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). Holding oneself mentally in the Christ consciousness by faith consciously connects one with the Truth of Being. Truth quickens the mind and renews it, and the renewed mind transforms the whole man.

24. It is sometimes taken for granted that if a man does the best he can, no more should be expected of him. However persons all over the world are doing the best they can, yet they are not being saved from sin, sickness, poverty, and death. It is evident that they should do more than they are doing, more than they have thought that they could do. The difference between one who merely does the best he can and a real overcomer is in consciousness. One uses his own mental effort in the trial and error method. The other turns consciously to the Christ within himself and uses the creative power of God to improve his consciousness and eventually his life and affairs. The overcomer lays hold of a divine power through faith which enables him to do what he of himself could not do. This is the power of the indwelling Christ. "I can of myself do nothing" (John 5:30) . "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13) . One's success as an overcomer depends upon the understanding that he has of the Christ principle within. Prayer enables him to get this understanding.

25. All movements of mind are toward certain standards. Therefore every man's growth is governed by the ideals or standards that he has in his mind. The difference in standards marks the difference between the man who ignorantly does the best he can and the man who makes use of the understanding and knowledge of the Christ, the true standard. The first man has only the thoughts and interests of his human consciousness with which to form his standards. These have no uplifting power and he goes along in a treadmill, making no progress toward spiritual things. The other man has ideals and standards that expand higher and higher, and as he grows in understanding they draw him upward in consciousness. Jesus said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:32).

26. Merely to dwell in the contemplation of high and lofty ideals without being able to reduce them to useful demonstrations is nothing more than idealistic thinking. Such thinking alone does not help one to progress toward spiritual realities. The highest aim that any soul can have is to bring God into manifestation through his thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. Each man must let the Christ be exalted in his soul as the supreme good toward which all his being is drawn. Then, through the overcoming, uplifting power of the Christ, good will be manifest in his life.

27. The children of Israel were a type of the "body" or church of Christ. Their wanderings and all their experiences portray the experiences of the members of the Christ body in their overcoming. The Israelites were forbidden to mix in any way with the nations about them, lest they adopt heathen standards and forsake the Lord, their God. So the church of Christ is a people holy unto God, separate from the beliefs and standards of the world. This is not self-righteousness, but a requirement of the law of spiritual growth. A mixed state of consciousness cannot produce perfection. Jesus said in His prayer for those who believed in Him, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). Though living in the world, followers of Jesus Christ are separate from it in ideas, standards, and manners of living.

28. Everyone grows to be like that with which he identifies himself. The overcomer must then be wise in the matter of identification and must consciously unify and identify himself only with Truth ideas. Many persons have a habit of identifying themselves with disease by using such an expression as "my rheumatism," thus claiming and holding fast to the very appearance that they wish to overcome. The question of what one shall or shall not identify himself with is a very important one to the overcomer. He knows a great secret of help and deliverance when he is wise in choosing his thoughts, and attitudes of mind.

29. Those who drift with the limitations of race thought and follow the popular standards of thinking and living do not qualify as members of the body of Christ nor do they receive the blessings of the overcomer. The overcomers are those who place themselves consciously in the truth of Being and think the thoughts based on the true ideas of God-Mind. These overcomers will make a new world, "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Pet. 3:13). Through the overcomer's understanding and use of Truth, mankind is to be lifted into conscious unity with God.

30. The world is waiting for the manifestation of these sons of God who have the understanding, the faith, the courage, and the fearlessness to think, express, and manifest ideas that will establish an entirely new order in the earth, even the kingdom of heaven. The leaven is at work in the individual overcomer and it will leaven the whole race. Great is the motive power back of the one who knows that his overcoming is not for his personal comfort and benefit alone, but for the uplift of the human family.

31. When the overcomer knows the power of thought he can readily understand that thought expressed in spoken or in written words is also powerful, and he will learn to consider carefully the words that he uses. His conversation will no longer center in negative consciousness. He will not speak of conditions that he does not wish to see manifest, but he will speak of life and health. He will not complain, but will praise and bless God, the All-Good for "the abundance of all things" (Deut. 28:47). The Israelites brought great afflictions on themselves by murmuring. By the same law, similar results follow complaints and faultfinding today.

32. The overcomer does not wait for appearances to testify to the goodness of God, but looks back of appearances to the eternal, enduring ideas. He knows that God is unchangeable and everlasting good, and so he gives thanks with faith and understanding. If sin seems powerful in his life he overcomes it by acknowledging and giving thanks that he is the sinless offspring of the perfect Father. If the effects of sin appear, he erases their appearance by knowing that sin has been wiped out of his consciousness by the knowledge of Truth, and that its effects can no longer mani- fest in his life. Thoughts and words are the tools that God has given him to use in the building of his soul consciousness in bringing to manifestation his perfect body, his perfect world and affairs.

1. In Genesis we are told that God created man in His own image and that the plan for him is perfection or manifestation of God's likeness. This Godlikeness includes dominion over the fishes, the birds, the cattle, over all the earth. Need for dominion arises in man because he finds himself beset with adverse conditions in body or in estate. The need gives rise to a desire to master these conditions. Since the attention of the "natural man" -- I Cor. 2:14, is centered in the outer, he tries to gain dominion over persons, animals, and the forces of nature and to bend them to his will. He is restless, unsatisfied, and dissatisfied until he turns his attention within his own being. Then he sees the beasts of the field as the appetites and passions of his own fleshly body; fishes as his desires and emotions; and birds as his higher, freer thoughts. He attains mastery only through self-discipline; he must achieve victory over his own lower nature.

Man is in reality a spiritual being. This means that in essence he pertains to the realm of cause. Mind is cause; body is effect. Cause has dominion over effect, and man will continue to seek dominion until he becomes conscious of his Divine Source and makes righteously active the spiritual principles that are the essence of his being. Knowledge and use of Truth will make him free.

2. Man is created in the image of God, and in order to be complete he is to make of himself the likeness of God. Specifications for making this likeness are given him through close companionship with Jehovah God, the law and order of his being. Designated as the "Christ Mind," the original principles of his Creator are within his soul as latent substance that contains all the ideas of God, Absolute Good. Man's business is to listen to Jehovah God's inspiration, learn the value, the proper co-ordination, and the right use of divine ideas and to make his body and his world accordingly.

Manifest man is not always conscious of the power of thought, Jehovah God as I AM, and does not understand its use. His attention is largely absorbed in appearances, in effects. Not understanding that his thoughts produce according to their character and experiencing results that are sometimes painful and sometimes pleasurable, he has concluded that there are two powers outside of himself and that these powers work either to increase or decrease his well-being. Pleasurable sensation he calls "good" and painful sensation he calls "evil." The wrong use of his freedom of thought is his undoing, as he becomes absorbed in effects, looks upon them as causes, and so increases evil in his life.

Failure to know that "the kingdom of God is within" -- Luke 17: 21, him; failure to understand that "as he (man) thinketh in his heart, so is he" -- Prov. 23:7 (A.V.); failure to live up to the command "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" -- Exod. 20:3; and finally the ignorant use of ideas in wrong relation has produced all the seeming evil in the world.

3. The subconscious phase of mind in each person is the feeling nature as well as the storehouse in which is kept whatever he has made out of the portion of substance that has been given him. Of this substance he forms his body and his world. In the store-house he keeps patterns of the results that have accrued from the experiences through which his body has passed on the path of life, from single cell to complex organism. Each cell has a capacity for instinctive knowing that is based on the sensations experienced by the fleshly body. The subconsciousness is the seat of various feelings, the feelings of pleasure and pain as responses made to the sensation. The pleasure causes a desire to bring about conditions that enable a person to repeat the sensation. Feelings that are responses consciously or subconsciously to sensations make up his emotional nature.

As a storehouse has its goods arranged, so the subconscious stores of instinct and feeling are organized into habits, opinions, beliefs, memories. These give rise to moods, temperaments, and attitudes of mind from which man acts spontaneously. The subconscious phase of mind has no power of choice; it works deductively, handing out its supplies as they are requisitioned by its master, the conscious phase of mind. From the standpoint of time, the subconsciousness is each one's past (minus what he has eliminated by conscious or unconscious denial), active in the present, projecting into the future. It is the total personal mind (consciousness) of each human being as well as the accumulated race mind (consciousness).

4. First, he must understand the functioning of the subconscious phase of mind so that he will not let any more untrue and imperfect concepts become stored there to become habits of mind. He must watch his conscious thinking and so train and direct it that the subconsciousness will not have any more wrong impressions to work out and bring forth as unpleasant experiences in his life. Everything should be consciously judged according to the Truth of Being.

Secondly, he must watch his emotional responses and so avoid mental disturbances. If a matter now annoying is not going to be annoying five years from now, why become emotionally disquieted about it at any time? The effect of Truth's working in consciousness is to give each event its rightful place and importance in life. The individual should call his reason to the rescue and form true judgments; then he will be undisturbed whatever his experience may be.

Thirdly, an understanding of the activities of the subconsciousness helps us to know why we spontaneously feel, think, speak, and act adversely. We know that the conscious phase of mind thinks or acts and the subconscious phase of mind reacts. Fourthly, all moods, habits, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of mind now entrenched in the subconscious phase of mind and not measuring up to the standard of Truth must be redeemed through conscious effort.

5. The word carnal means "fleshly". The carnal mind then is the error consciousness, the state of mind that sees life from the standpoint of effect rather than cause. It regards the physical body -- the flesh -- as the seat of power, and it unthinkingly gratifies the bodily desires, Man comes to regard himself as a child of the flesh; sees his ancestral lineage as flesh; sees himself as a limited, human being, helpless to control circumstances; sees God as something different and wholly apart from himself; sees the visible world as the real power and the spiritual world as a deep mystery; sees death as the end of all living things.

These wrong beliefs and concepts weaken man's consciousness of dominion, because he is centering his thought and attention in external things, instead of in spiritual realities. But his real power comes from knowing and proving his birthright as a Son of God.

Other names for carnal mind are: "mind of the flesh," "old man," "mortal mind," "error consciousness," "Adam consciousness," "Devil," "Satan," "the Adversary," "the serpent," and the like.

6. The Christ consciousness is the Son of God consciousness in man, the state of consciousness in which the soul and the body are in harmony with Divine Mind, the Father, and all ideas and all faculties are in orderly adjustment and expressing in right relationship. It is man's supreme awareness of the pattern of perfection, I AM, the Christ, the Image, the Son of God. The Christ consciousness is God consciousness expressed in, by, and through manifest spiritual man, His Son. The Christ consciousness is God's ideal for man. The Christ consciousness in the individual is the Church of Christ, or the Lord's Body, the body or aggregation of Christed Ideas. It is the Truth-filled consciousness that sees things from their beginning in cause; it therefore sees only one Being, sees only Absolute Good. Spirit creates by self-contemplation; sees only itself. This idea of the oneness of Being is the Logos, the active agent in creation, identified in man as I AM, the Christ. The Christ consciousness is man's knowing within his own being that he is a Son of God; that "I and the Father are one." — John 10:30. This consciousness man establishes by recognizing God as the presence and power of creation. Jesus knew Himself as the Son of God, with all that this tremendous conception implies. By recognizing God and only God His Sonship became the dominating factor of His life. When man understands this so that he uses the Christ power, ordering his life and modes of thought by it, he is going toward the Christ consciousness. When under the many forms and varied manifestations of the world he recognizes the one life vibrant in every atom, recognizes the hidden love infolding all in oneness, he comes into conscious touch with this hidden life and love. Then he feels himself to be one with all life; then he touches the Christ consciousness. No longer does he seek to fight "forms" with which he does not feel in harmony. Instead he seeks contact with the life behind the form, and as a result the outer becomes "attuned" or ceases to touch him.

7. Overcoming is a "coming over" into the Christ consciousness or a starting on the return journey to the Father's house: spiritual consciousness. It is in reality the growing consciousness of one's power to master any condition or situation, mentally, morally, physically, or environmentally through one's faculties, supervised by the Christ. To exercise this power in training the lower desires and emotions and in assigning the body to its rightful place in the three-fold being of man is to practice godliness, by which one becomes consciously the likeness of God.

8. The aspiration to become Christ conscious, to know the truth of one's self, causes one to become sensitive to Spirit. In projecting affirmations of Truth into his consciousness man stirs up the entire subconsciousness, the relative good and the relative evil. He may find himself in the midst of experiences that are not harmonious. By noticing his reactions to the conditions and happenings of daily life he will be shown his field of overcoming. If he is overwhelmed by difficulties, jarred by discords, disheartened by failures, out of sympathy with others, he will by asking Spirit learn what mountains of error must be removed to make straight the way of the Lord. As he studies the principles of Truth and grows in understanding he gains a high standard of living. His ear must be trained to hear the inner voice so that he may note the subtle discriminations of Truth. When so trained, whatever is contrary to Spirit will strike a false note to his ears; therefore he should ever be alert to his ideals. Man is to overcome all that is unlike God, Good, in his consciousness, body, and world of affairs—all thoughts, fears, feelings, concepts, beliefs, actions, and appearances that do not measure up to the standard of the Christ perfection and order. Spirit will not only reveal to him what he has to overcome but will also show him how to overcome through the forgiving love of Jesus Christ, which is able to redeem the errors of his mind and make him Christlike.

9. All men are manifestations of God consciousness, the one eternal movement of God-Mind. Mankind is the universal man, one man, the type. There is an outer department of mind that sees personality only as man. It does not think for itself but bases its conclusions on what others say. It believes in birth, sin, sickness, poverty, and other calamitous occurrences, all culminating in death. This mode of belief may be called the Adam consciousness, in which all men are sinners since they are missing the mark of their high calling as Sons of God. To be righteous in Christ every element of the Adam nature must be changed, transmuted into the Christ nature. All men are righteous in Christ as they are conscious only of the perfect creation in all people and in all things. In this consciousness they use their powers wisely and lovingly to make Christ become manifest in themselves and in others, to cause the human to become consciously a divine being.

10. Adam represents the personal consciousness or outer mind of mankind that forms judgments from appearances. The Adam consciousness is the race consciousness, the race mind at work. When a man appropriates in his mind the impressions resulting from his personal experiences, as when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he aligns himself with that which destroys his peace of mind. He places himself under the mental law of cause and effect, where each thought gives rise to a corresponding effect. Cause is always within the individual, and his disobedience to the law of Being produces double vision. Instead of seeing with the single eye of faith in God he is confused; he sees many images, among which are the forms of Adam and death.

Christ represents God consciousness, the inner mind and feeling of man at one with God and at peace within and without, with itself and with the whole universe.

The justice of the statement lies in the fact that all men are created equal. Man is free, just as free as God is free. Therefore he may choose the kind of thoughts and feelings that he will entertain in his mind and heart. If he chooses the Adam variety, he will die. If he chooses the Christ Mind, it will keep him eternally alive in spirit, mind, body, and soul.

11. In the Old Testament the words translated "salvation" have in common the meaning of a broad or wide place, an enlargement. In the spiritual life "enlargement" comes from righteousness, from dwelling under spiritual conditions. Salvation is deliverance and freedom from the narrow, limited consciousness in which man has placed himself by believing in the error desires, feelings, thoughts, words, and wrong acts of personality. Man is partially saved when he removes these mental patterns from both his conscious and his subconscious being, his mind and his heart, so that they will no longer produce more of their kind. He must replace them with perfect ideas or mental patterns. Working out his own salvation is the greatest work he has to do. He is to make of himself a replica or likeness of his Creator. The "working out" requires him definitely to concentrate on the ideal, to hold ever before him God's ideal. At first he forms his own idea of life and its requirements, but later he unceasingly tries to discover God's ideal for him.

Truth is established only when it is "experienced," therefore he must bring the God ideas or powers of his being into manifestation by doing all things to the glory of God. It is a just provision that each person must work out his own salvation. No one else can do it for him; there is no vicarious atonement. Each one must make in his own mind and heart the changes that cause him to be safe and free in all ways.

12. The "race consciousness" is the sum of past and present thoughts, beliefs, concepts, and ideas prevalent among mankind. It has been said that possibly the greater part of our thinking did not begin at our cradle; that it is the sum of the thoughts of those born before us, producing the atmosphere we are born into and causing our thoughts to have the same general character as theirs. Of many persons it might be said that they are living dead men's lives, since they are thinking dead men's thoughts. The thoughts of those who have lived before us may be either helpful and uplifting or depressing and limiting. As generations of self-centered, self-conscious men have succeeded each other it is the limiting thoughts principally that have been accepted and impressed on the succeeding generation. The stream of thought thus established, with its strong currents drawing all thought in their direction, is the race thought, or "race consciousness."

The thoughts and emotions of humanity in general must be dealt with as being below the level of man's divine inheritance and as having no power in and of themselves. Their seeming power is that which the individual gives them through his own process of thinking and feeling. This allows the imagination to form all sorts of "bogeys" and out of the suggestions that have been dropped into the subconsciousness during the history of mankind.

13. From the time a child is born into the world until he reaches the age of perception, usually considered as twelve years, he is open-minded and susceptible to the impressions of his senses. He readily accepts what is told him by those around him. He often fully believes what his schoolmates tell him. Only exceptionally is a child taught to think for himself. Accepting the point of view of those with whom he associates, he makes their beliefs a part of his subconsciousness. Then too the thoughts that people in general believe and express are in the air, and these enter his mind unless he has learned to be alert and to shut them out. When the current thoughts are accepted consciously or subconsciously, they lodge in the subconscious phase of mind and take root there like weed seeds in the garden or dandelions on the lawn.

14. Flesh heredity is the belief that man has his origin in flesh, that he is created through the will of mortal man; that through his ancestral lineage he inherits disease, traits of character, good and evil qualities, as manifested by his fleshly ancestors.

There is no foundation for the belief that one inherits diseases or characteristics from the flesh. The flesh profits nothing; it has no life of itself, is not lastingly causative. Spirit, Divine Mind, through the action of the Christ idea, is the cause of all that is divinely perfect. Science teaches that the body with which we were born is not the body that we have at the age of seven years. The later body is an entirely new set of atoms in motion. By another kind of growth man gradually begins to see himself as Spirit. The composite idea of the Christ man holds together in one body the atoms of the physical organism as well as all the ideas that inhere in the spiritual body, in order that the individual may be consciously a true instrument of expression and manifestation of Spirit. Seeing that he does not inherit his earthly father's mind -- for his father still possesses his own mind -- man begins to look for the source of his mind or consciousness and is forced to acknowledge an origin common to all. This is universal Mind, the ideas of which are for the use of the entire creation. He goes still further and sees himself as the composite idea of universal Mind, and he knows that as such he inherits divine ideas more powerful than any human concepts. At last he gets the vision of himself as a Son of God, the inheritor of the presence (mind substance), and the power (thought, words, or idea) of his Father, Divine Mind, the cause and creator of all that he is.

15. First, it is necessary to believe that it is possible to overcome our animal instincts and lower emotions such as fear, hatred, etc., as well as our error thoughts, wrong concepts, and false beliefs. The assurance of our victory is given us in the victory of Jesus, who overcame the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We must hold firmly to the belief that it is possible here and now to master our lower nature and to live the present life in the Christ consciousness. This work is not to be postponed. As a matter of fact we do not "live" but only exist before we are awakened to the Christ consciousness. Secondly, as the determination and the constant endeavor to live up to daily overcoming become more stable, they find expression in our mode of thought, feeling, and living. The idea grows in strength and clarity through constant attention, and it becomes in time the dominating factor of our lives. We are no longer affected by the thoughts of those with whom we come in contact. The Christ ideal has become established in our subconsciousness and we are so filled with Spirit that we radiate it spontaneously and effortlessly.

16. The one doing his best is simply using human effort to make his moral character presentable. Deep in his mind there is always the idea that circumstances are unalterable and conditions inevitable. When held to, this conception will in itself prevent complete success. In addition to this he endeavors to combat adverse conditions with his personal will, his human powers. While these may by themselves carry him far, they do not insure success. Disease, lack, and fear continue to possess his conscious phase of mind, and his subconsciousness, having no renewing and constructive thoughts given to cleanse it and to enlighten its structure, remains as it was before. Such a person is vainly trying to establish righteousness by mental law.

The overcomer daily grows into greater knowledge and understanding of Truth principles. He has learned through prayer and meditation to draw on the divine Source of limitless supply; he knows that the most untoward circumstances can be changed and harmonized by the idea of divine love, put into expression. When man through prayer, faith in God, and the spoken word is quickened in mind and in heart, the Christ within gives itself wholly to the work of redeeming the human consciousness and regenerating the fleshly body. This restores the soul to its rightful heritage, a perfect body.

17. Human ideals and standards are limited, but one cannot at once conceive God's plan as stated by Jesus Christ, "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." -- Matthew 5:48. So man must make a mental concept of what this perfection is, of what it consists. His ideal and standard must be higher than his present development indicates, so that he may be ever aspiring toward them and putting forth conscious effort to attain them.

Growth is a matter of vision. Biblical admonitions are to "seek" to "look up," to "behold." Substantial and earnest plodding with the mental law has its virtues, but until the plodder lifts his eyes and beholds the rich ideals of Spirit, until he seeks with great ardor to shake worldly mindedness from his life and glorify his thought with the Christ vision, he is still in the treadmill of the world. To accept the Christ as the pattern, the standard of living, means to subject the whole being to the presence and power that is greater than all human beliefs and standards, unlimited in its ability to accomplish the good.

18. To identify is to make to be the same. Each one becomes like that with which he identifies himself. Many sad experiences are the result of a mixed identification. It occasions moments of peace, joy, and power as well as moments of sorrow and disappointment. To have experiences only of the God nature means dominion and life abundant. Man can be transformed only by beholding the pattern that from the beginning has been in the heavens of his mind; he must fix his vision and his aim upon the Christ ideal. He must have the "now are we the sons of God" vision. This vision will be the guiding light that assures dominion and freedom from adversity. It will transform his mind and transmute his body into a temple of the living God.

19. Each overcomer will help to establish the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. World thought has the attitude of the average moral level, the thought force, and the general enlightenment of mankind as a species. There is a great need today for the triumphant life of those who have developed the spiritual qualities of faith, fearlessness, and spiritual understanding, for these denote the conquering spirit. By holding the Christ consciousness, the consciousness of oneness of Being, the overcomer helps set up a new heaven (cause) and a new earth (effect) wherein dwells righteousness; helps impart a new attitude to life and give a higher expression to it. He builds this first for himself, then more gradually for others; for before he has learned to build well for himself he cannot really help others. Yet he cannot travel onward alone, for heaven is reached only by the path of love and service. He accomplishes his work first by vision, which he seeks to establish outwardly; first he glimpses heaven, and then he seeks to re-form the earth or to make its conditions harmonious.

20. Man's conversation, like his thoughts, is established in heaven when he becomes an overcomer. "The kingdom of heaven is the orderly adjustment of divine ideas in man's mind and body." -- Metaphysical Bible Dictionary 387. He does not desire to talk of limitation, negation, inharmony, disorder, imperfection, for he is interested in Principle and its working. His conversation will no longer feature criticism and adversity but praise and blessings; he will not dwell on aches and pains but on the joys of living. He is strong and reliant; his attitude toward the weak is heartening and toward all others inspiring. One who has learned that he makes his own conditions by his thoughts and words will not talk about anything that he does not want to see manifested. His conversation will be of the good he is seeking and expecting. Dwelling on the bright side of life, he will always strike a constructive, buoyant note.