IS WISDOM'S WAY OF PRESENTING HERSELF.

VOL. 12.

SEPTEMBER, 1900.

No. 12.

The Dissolution of the Barthly House of our Tabernacle.

"For we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' 2 Cor. 5: 1.

ELIGION is a very simple thing, rightly understood; it means, bound back, or oneness with God-oneness in Being, in action, and the result of action. It means oneness of life, love, Truth, substance, intelligence.

power and

The earthly house of our tabernacle is a figure of speech, which stands for the totality of all beliefs and opinions based in the supposition of physical causation. If all the building based in so-called physical causation were dissolved, we have a house of God; one made of Divine Substance, and eternal in its nature. The only house of our tabernacle that can be dissolved, is that which is not eternal-not based in God-for the house of God is based in heaven, in an eternal state of unity and harmony with its builder, co-eternal and co-equal with God.

Each one is earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with that house which is from heaven. People do not recognize that the body they now have is from heaven; if they did, they would very soon realize something of the eternal nature of its substance and of its heavenly and harmonious state of Being; for if it be that we now have a body that is eternal substance, we are not found unclothed, but that which we have hoped for is come, what we have longed for is ours, therefore it is a privilege to claim it in word and deed, and thus demonstrate the Truth of the doctrine.

To believe that the only way to get rid of trouble and the sense of limitation is to get rid of the body, is to be unclothed, as it were. Let us prove that we do not believe ourselves to be unclothed. The dissolution of the earthly house has no reference to the separation of Spirit and body, or to what is called literal death.

The mistake that the church world is making in its teaching, is in separating spirit and body, and presenting a dual doctrine based in opposing powers. The product of these theories is many inventions for the salvation

of man. There are some metaphysical teachers of the present day who claim that the substance of man is eternal; that no part or atom of his body can ever be destroyed, but that the shape of the body is mortal, and must be dissolved. Divine Science proves that the idea of form is its shape, and is eternal; never a time it was not, and it can never cease to be.

The second verse of this wonderful chapter tells what all people desire : "We groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with immortality our house from God;" to feel sure and certain that our bodies are safe and permanent. Many at the present day are seeking to understand, and are practicing different methods by means of which they wish to demonstrate immortality of body. Paul's comment in the third verse shows that recognition of Truth and the practice of it will enable us to bring about the demonstration. Divine Science proves that the demonstration is a matter of revelation. revelation that " mortality is swallowed up of life." The fourth verse reveals the mental condition of all. We all want to know and to realize that our body is life; that it is not subject to mortal claims-a false view of things.

The

The fifth verse gives a reason why we should not be unclothed, or lay the body aside, and assures us that we are heirs of Spirit or God, even the eternal life of sonship. Let us not forget what this Truth will do for us, if we practice it in word and deed.

The sixth verse is an affirmation of the fifth. To be at home in the body, is to believe that we dwell therein, that it is equally a source and cause for happiness and unhappiness, when in reality we are only at home in the Lord, which is the Truth of our Being. We live in Omnipresence, and we walk by the faith of our true sonship. When the two first disciples of Christ asked him where he abode, he invited them to come with him and see. His eternal abiding place is in the Father. To abide with him in the Father, is to walk in Faith. Were we to walk entirely by sight, or by what is seen, we would be absent, as it were, from the Spirit invisible and Omnipotent.

The following is the Greek reading of the eighth verse: "But we are confident, also, we are well pleased rather, to be from home out of the body, and to be at home with the Lord." We live in God, and the body in us, not in the body and God in us. I in God and God in me, is true from the standpoint of "I and my Father are one;" and "If you have seen me you have seen the Father." Wherefore, also, we are very ambitious, whether being st home or being from home, to be well pleasing to him. This, the Greek reading, conveys quite a different meaning from what is conveyed in the translation. It shows that because of the Truth of oneness we are desirous to please God, by doing godly things, or by acting out the Good.

To appear before the tribunal of the anointed, is to judge truthfully of of all deeds done in the body. The following advice from Paul is suggestive

and practical at this point:

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."-Rom 6: 12-14.

"What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God; and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Paul makes no distinction; both body and spirit are one, are God's. This shows what the death is that he refers to, it is death unto separation, once and for all.

Living unto ourselves is living in separation, which is weakness. We should live unto Being expressed, unto the all.

Wherefore, henceforth, we know no man after the flesh, because we know him after the spirit. We know him as immortal throughout, one substance, and not two. A new creature is one that is all one mind, one reconciled to be co-eternal with the All Good.

Our work is to reconcile the world, ourselves, our bodies-man as a whole unto oneness, and do as God does, impute no trespasses unto any one.

It is a mistake to believe that we must impute trespasses or sin to people in order to help them. We are not to make the works of God over; to think this to be our work, is egotistical and presumptious; but we are to be reconciled to God as God, to Good as Good, to Truth as Truth, to things as they truly are, for all things are essentially good.

We represent

Now, then, we are embassadors for Christ, the anointed. the anointed, we come in the power and glory of our Being, and we pray you as the anointed be ye reconciled to Being as it is. Immortality is not dependent on anything. It is an eternal fact, and this fact is the basis for its demonstration-the source from which Jesus brought immortality and eternal life to light.

Let us affirm the following Truths:

I believe that my body is the temple of Holy Spirit.

That the Holy Spirit includes all substance, and I am substance.

I am clothed upon with my house, which is of God, and which is eternal in the heavens.

Heaven is within me. I witness its peaceful love working within. I bear witness of the heavenly state of Being daily and hourly.

אן

CONDENSED LESSON IN DIVINE SCIENCE.

N studying the scriptural promises we find they are all for this world, for the here and the now. The promises are fulfilled by, and experienced within each one who keeps the commandments. The question may arise with beginners what commandments do you mean? We mean the commandments written by Moses, and all of the commandments of Jesus, and any other that fulfils the law of Being."

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the sec

ond is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law."

If these commandments are fulfilled, all the other commandments are fulfilled. Their fulfillment, then, consists in letting the love of God rule in our hearts toward all people.

Every word spoken that is true of principle, which is omnipresent spirit, applies alike to all persons. Neither time nor place can change the Truth nor its living word. What do we mean by living word? We mean a body, your body, any body, or any living form or thing which is composed of living or eternal substance; there is but one substance.

A mere belief that there is a power that can heal is not sufficient to "bear away" undesirable conditions of disease; we must fulfil the law of our Being, which is Love, for fear is negative, is not power. "God has not given us the spirit of fear," so let us affirm now, and keep on affirming, that healing is, knowing whatever we speak or ask in the name of the One All, God, the same have we received, and are now manifesting.

What is it to ask in His name? It is to think, speak and act for Him, or as if you were the perfect image and likeness of God. What you thus ask in my name you shall receive. Speak that which is true of God and you speak in His name, for you speak as He would speak; know what is true of God is true of man, and you will know what it is to speak and act in His name; that Truth will be yours which to know makes free. "Hold fast my name." It is the Father's name that is written in your forehead.

We have found in Divine Science that absolute Truth is the power that quickens anew, and proves the body to be as free from inharmony as is the mind, or omnipresent Spirit, of which it is an expression. Then will the body be free from inharmony if we go on and do what we wish with the body, without recognizing the five senses. Recognizing or not recognizing the five

senses does not make the body what it is—the substance of God; but a correct understanding of the senses, that they are spiritual in their nature, enables us to illumine them from the plane of Spirit, and to use them with knowledge and power. They are not master, but are of use.

Faith supplies, desire wants; by faith all living things are made by means of the word. What word is this? It is the word that is true of God. It is His "Let there be," and it is so. Try letting it be" for a while and see if it will not be so.

The way to practice the Truth presented in these lessons, is to live the life of loving affirmation. What one may ask, is, does not one's own intuition guide him as to what is best for his own constitution? What is meat for one is poison to another, is it not? There is no higher intuition than that of loving affirmation. "Each one's intuition," suggests many phases or grades of intuition, when, in fact, intuition is One. Each person is guided by intuition when he guides his words and deeds by loving affirmation. It is frequently said that what is Truth to one is falsehood to another, but it does not mean anything, any more than to say what is meat to one is poison to another. Truth is an undivided whole; but many say what is true to-day is not true to-morrow, to which we must justly say they are endeavoring to practice liberality without a basis. Such statements ignore the Truth of Being, and have no basis but false belief and opinion, which the understanding of Divine Science eradicates. God gives not a spirit of fear, but gives the spirit of love and of power, and a sound mind. If we have but one self, and that self is the higher self, where does the spirit of fear come in? How can there be so many manifestations of deformity at birth? There is no law save the nature of Supreme Being; so God's will and power to manifest perfection are one. There is no power, therefore, in opposition to the law. Where it is known that there is but one self, and that self-hood is God-hood, the spirit of fear does not come in at all, and the reason why there is seeming deformity at birth, is because of the beliefs in duality, of good and evil, and of separation from the Good, and of the many states of fear and forms of anxiety that arise from these beliefs. They are not power; they fall short of power, hence they are powerless to produce; they can make no appearance but that of lack.

To reveal and actualize the Truth of God, one must give it form in spoken word, and demonstrate the same in deed. If any man shall do His will, he shall know the doctrine. The question has been asked at this point, do we not demonstrate evil or bring it into manifestation by seeing or believing in it? This is a vital question. What is called evil is only a belief, and a false one at that, so the point is right here: we should stop believing in falsehood