THE TOWER OF BABEL

 

     And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech (Genesis 11:1).

    Read Genesis 11:1-9.

    The story of the tower of Babel is so simple, so concrete, and so clear, that if you only heard it once when you were a child you could never forget it. It is, of course, a parable. The word Babel means confusion and this parable teaches that when you deny the omnipotence of God, and you do this when you give power to anything else, only confusion can follow. To be guilty of that sin is really to have many gods, and that was the characteristic fault of the heathen. Those who knew the truth about God worshiped Him and Him alone, and they received the protection and the inspiration that only the Truth can give. At times, however, many of those who had known the Truth, forget it for a season, and inevitably things begin to go wrong.

    If you should be in difficulties of any kind, it is certain that you have been committing the sin of the heathen in some way; it may be that at some point you have seen the higher and deliberately chosen the lower. Now, if you will turn back to God once more, and reaffirm your faith in Him, all will be well again.

THE CONQUERING HORSE

 

     And I saw, and behold a White Horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he when forth conquering, and to conquer (Revelation 6:2).

    The White Horse is the spiritual nature, and the man or woman who rides the White Horse achieves freedom, and joy, and ultimate happiness and harmony.

    We are told two very interesting things about the horseman on the White Horse: the Bible says that he that sat on him had a bow. The bow and arrow is an ancient symbol of the spoken Word. When you speak the Word you shoot and arrow. It goes where you aim it. The Horseman on the White Horse speaks the Word. The rider on the White Horse also wears a crown, and the crown is a symbol of victory. The rider on the White Horse is always the victor.

    This, then, is the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. If you want peace, an understanding of God, there is only one way--you must ride the White Horse.

THREE WILD HORSES

 

    And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him (Revelation 6:8).

    The first horse is the Pale Horse and "pale" means the color of terror, a kind of ashen gray. The Pale Horse stands for the physical body. If you live but for the body, there is nothing but hell waiting for you on this plane or anywhere else. The body is the most cruel taskmaster of all, when it is allowed to be the ruler. The Pale Horse indicates all other physical addictions too--what the Bible sometimes calls the "world"--money, position, material honors. Whoever lives for worldly pursuits, is the rider of the Pale Horse.

    And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth (Revelations 6:4).

    The Red Horse is your emotional nature, your feelings. It is dangerous to let your emotions have control. This does not mean that emotion is a bad thing in itself. Uncontrolled emotion is a bad thing. A strong emotional nature in a splendid endowment if you are the master, but if it is mastering you, then you are riding the Red Horse.

    . . . and I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand (Revelation 6:5).

    A pair of scales is here a symbol of unbalance. The Black horse stands for the intellect. Riding the Black Horse is letting your intellect dominate to the exclusion of the emotional, and especially of the spiritual, nature. It is a good thing to have the intellect well-trained, but it is a misfortune to let it be the master. Western civilization has definitely been riding the Black Horse since the close of the Middle Ages. Humanity has developed scientific, intellectual knowledge far beyond the point to which it has developed the moral and spiritual understanding of the race.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN

 

Read Revelation 6.

    The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse give the key to the nature of man as we know him. When you understand these symbols thoroughly you will understand your own makeup, and you will be able to begin the work of getting dominion over yourself and your surroundings.

    The Bible is not written in the style of a modern book. It has a method of its own of conveying knowledge through picturesque symbols, the reason being that this is the only possible way in which knowledge could be given to people in all ages in different parts of the world and of different degrees of spiritual development. A symbol appeals to any audience, each individual getting just what he is ready for.

     The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stand for the four parts or elements of our human nature. There is, first of all, the physical body--the thing that you see when you look in the mirror. Then there is your feeling nature or emotions, and although you cannot "see" your feelings, you are tremendously conscious of them. Third, there is your intellect, which contains every bit of knowledge which you possess. Finally, there is your spiritual nature, your real eternal self; the true you, the I AM, the Indwelling Christ. This is your real identity, which is eternal. Almost everyone believes in its existence, but most people are very little conscious of it as an actuality.

    Ultimately the time will come when the first three will be merged in the fourth, and then we will all know instead of only believing that the spiritual nature is all.

    And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

ACCEPT NO SECOND-BEST

 

In the depths of his being man always feels intuitively that there is a way out of his difficulties if only he can find it. The infant, as yet uncontaminated by the defeatism of his elders, simply refuses to tolerate inharmony on any terms, and therefore he demonstrated over it. When he is hungry he tells the world while many sophisticated adults go without. Does he find a pin sticking in some part of his anatomy? Not for him a sigh of resignation to the supposed "will of God," or a whine about never having any luck, or a sigh of what cannot be cured must be endured. His instincts tell him that life and harmony are inseparable.

    Refuse to tolerate anything less than harmony. You can have a happy and joyous life. But to do so you must seize the rudder of your own destiny and steer boldly for the port that you intend to make. What are you doing about your future?

    For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (Romans 2:13).

 

This one goes out for a brother laid up in bed, banged up in a bike accident and may miss World because of it. Prayers to you Jim, love ya man. 

ALTER YOUR LIFE

 

There is no need to be unhappy. There is no need to be disappointed, or oppressed, or aggrieved. There is no need for illness or failure or discouragement. There is no necessity for anything but an abounding interest and joy in life.

    As long as you accept a negative condition at its own valuation, so long will you remain in bondage to it; but you have only to assert your birthright as a free man or woman and you will be free.

    Success and happiness are the natural conditions of mankind. It is actually easier to demonstrate these things than the reverse. Bad habits of acting and thinking may obscure this fact for a time, just as a wrong way of walking or sitting, or holding a pen or musical instrument may seem to be easier than the proper way, because we have accustomed ourselves to it; but the proper way is the easier nevertheless.

    Unhappiness, frustration, poverty, loneliness are really bad habits that their victims have become accustom to bear, believing that there is no way out, whereas there is a way; and that way is simply to acquire good habits of working with the Law instead of against it.

    Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law (Psalm 119:18).

YOUR INVISIBLE DICTAPHONE

 

Your destiny depends entirely upon your own mental conduct. You may think that you know this already, but if you do not act upon it, it is certain that you do not really know it. Most people would be amazed to discover how much negative thinking they indulge in. Thought is so swift and habit is so strong that unless you are very careful you will constantly transgress.

    Suppose that, quite without your knowledge, and invisible dictaphone were strapped on your shoulders first thing tomorrow morning, and that you carried it about all day until the last thing tomorrow night. Then suppose that this record were played over for you so that every word that you uttered for a whole day was repeated to you. Well, if you are an average human being you would probably be embarrassed. Yet it really does happen that everything we say, and think and do, is recorded--in the subconscious mind--and our daily experience is that record being played over to us by the Law of Being.

    Never forget that the circumstances of your life tomorrow are molded by your mental conduct today.

    I have chosen the way of truth . . . (Psalm 119:30).

YOU ARE ALWAYS TREATING

 

You are continually "treating" your conditions with the thoughts that you hold concerning them. What you really think about anything, is your "treatment" of that thing. Many people have the idea that they are only "treating" when they call it "treating," But no matter what you call it, your thought concerning any subject is a treatment. This is the reason visible conditions are always the expression of invisible thoughts.

    If you will begin systematically to treat every side of your life with a series of positive, correct thoughts, and keep to this practice for even a few weeks, you will be amazed to find how much everything will change for the better.

    . . . be ye transformed by renewing your mind . . . (Romans 12:2).

GOD SAYS NOW

 

 God's time for your demonstration is now. The time God wants you to be healed is now. The time God wants you to be in your true place is now. The Bible says that the day of salvation is now.

    God is ready the moment you are. There is nothing to wait for except the changing of your own consciousness. People often make the mistake of saying, "I know that my demonstration will come at the right time." But the only time to be harmonious and satisfied is now. The time to be happy is now and the place is here. Did not Jesus say, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and by this he meant close by.

    Do not keep yourself out of the Kingdom of Heaven by inventing postponements, but change your consciousness now, for it can all happen in a moment.

    . . . that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than we believed (Romans 13:11).

BLUEBEARD DRAWS THE LINE

 

We make spiritual progress by putting God into every corner of our lives. Most people on a spiritual path are willing to give God a generous portion of their lives, but there is often one little corner where they do not wish the divine light to shine.

    Bluebeard, you remember, kept open house, with the exception of one little room--and there he drew the line. His current wife, and any of the neighbors could go all over the premises and welcome, until they came to that one little room, the Bluebeard chamber, that was forbidden. Yet that one little locked up room contained the tragedy of the house.

    The contents of the Bluebeard room need not be anything that we usually call horrible. There may just be selfishness, laziness, spiritual pride, or any of the more "respectable" but very deadly sins. There may be an old grudge or bitter remorse.

    Open every door of your soul to God. Have no place where the light of His presence does not shine.

    The secret things belong unto our Lord our God . . . (Deuteronomy 29:29).

TRIUMPH OVER DANGER

 

Read Psalm 91.

    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

    Here the lion stands for a difficulty of which we are so afraid that it seems to us a very lion in our path, rushing at us in the open. How different, on the other hand, is the attack of the adder, or snake; for it creeps upon us in the dark. And here we are promised that our complexes, dragons though they be, shall be dissolved by the realization of God. There is nothing that can be done by any form of psychotherapy that can not be better done by the Practice of the Presence of God.

    The last three verses are in themselves a glorious psalm of ringing joy and triumph.

    Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. There is nothing hypothetical or contingent here. The statement indicates the fixed decision--I will deliver him. And why?--because he has set his love upon me.

    I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. In the Bible the "name" of anything means the nature or character of that thing. Now the nature of God is perfect, omnipresent, all~powerful good, boundless love; and to "know" this is to be set on hand above all our difficulties.

    The last two verses gather up all the implications and promises of this wonderful poem, and present them to the fearful and doubting heart as a song of triumph. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation. 

OUR ASSURANCE

 

Read Psalm 91.

    For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thy dash thy foot against a stone.  This is one of the loveliest promises in the Bible. For tender beauty is stands alone. He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in thy ways--and it is meant for you and for me. It might have seemed appropriate enough that some exalted Being should be given an escort of angels to surround him, to support him, to keep him in all his ways. But the Bible is the book of Everyman, and this promise is give to you and me.

OUR PROMISE

 

Read Psalm 91.

    A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. This clause has been taken to indicate some kind of favoritism on the part of God, whereas, of course, such a thing is impossible. It means simply that those who pray are saved from trouble that would otherwise overtake them, and that does, in fact, overtake those who do not pray.

    Because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall be no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. In the Bible, the word promise is the word given to a statement of some spiritual law. So a "Bible promise" is a statement of the consequences that naturally follow from certain states of consciousness. If Boyle's law was written in the Bible idiom, it would read something like this: "As I live, saith the Lord, whenever thou shalt double the pressure of gas, thou shalt halve the volume, temperature remaining constant." In the language of natural science, our Bible promise would run: "By meditating regularly about the Presence of God with you, and directing your life in accordance with that fact, you become immune from any kind of danger."

OUR DELIVERANCE

 

Read Psalm 91.

    And now the Word of Truth is represented as addressing you with an authoritative assurance that you prayer will be answered, that in some way or other--not necessarily in the way you expect--you will be rescued from your difficulties.

    Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wing shall thou trust: His Truth shall be your shield and buckler. You are to have no apprehension, for your protection is now assured in one of those illustrations from everyday life which the Bible abounds. The motherly hen, at the slightest threat of danger, gathers the little chicks under her wing, covering them "with her feathers:; thus does God shield you from all danger once you elect to trust Him. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. It is the knowledge about the Truth of God and man that makes the demonstration.

    Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor by the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor the destruction that wasteth at noonday. The arrow that flieth by day and the destruction that wasteth by noonday refer to any difficulties of which you are consciously aware. It is, so to say, a daytime problem. The terror by night and the pestilence that walketh in darkness, on the contrary, imply something that, unknown to you, is working in your subconscious mind. Modern psychology has shown that most of our difficulties have their root in the depth of the subconscious. These are indeed terrors of the mental night and pestilences of the darkness.

OUR FORTRESS

 

Read Psalm 91.

    Observe that the poem opens by announcing the irresistible power of prayer. Then in order to bring home the fact that this law applies to us, and that by no possibility could we be an exception, it now changes over to the first person and makes us say, "I." It compels us to voice the I AM.

    I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. The Lord means God. How can knowledge be a presence? Secular knowledge, which is intellectual, cannot; but the true knowledge of God is an actual experience--not a thing of the head, but of the heart--and this is indeed a presence. As a general rule,  people contact this Real Self only vaguely and occasionally. Then, if they pray regularly, the gleams of intuition gradually strengthen into a definite sense of the Presence of God.

    In Him will I trust. However worried or depressed you may be, however full of doubt and misgivings, still the fact that you are praying means that you have at least enough faith for that. The faith to go on praying in the midst of doubts is the tiny grain of mustard seed that Jesus says is sufficient for practical purpose. Declaring in Him will I trust means that you have now determined to trust by ceasing to worry and fear. This is the legitimate and spiritual use of the will.

THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY

 

To live under the shadow of the Almighty means to live under the protection of God Himself. Eastern people, and especially those with a desert background, such as the people of Palestine, look upon the sun as a danger, even an enemy, from which they need to be safe guarded. Shade is sanctuary, or safety--"the shadow of a mighty rock in a weary land." The exhausted traveler sinks down in the shade for his long-sought rest.

    God is called "The Almighty" in order to empress us with the fact that He really is All-Mighty, and can therefore overcome our present difficulty, no matter how big it may seem.

    . . . for with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

    Consider, however, that the promise is made to "him that dwelleth." If we only run into the Secret Place now and again, we can scarcely be said to dwell there. God will come to our rescue whenever we pray, but if we seldom think of Him, we may experience difficulty in making our contact in an emergency. By means of daily meditation we dwell in the Secret Place. 

THE SECRET PLACE

 

The Ninety-first Psalm is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. Like the rest of Scripture, the underlying thought is developed through a series of symbols, and it is by appreciation of the values lying behind these symbols that the power of this prayer is appropriated.

    The way to get the most out of this Psalm is to read it through quietly; pausing after each clause to consider the meaning and assenting to this mentally. If you are fearful you will find, after working through the prayer two or three times, that your fears will have gone and that you are now looking at things from a different point of view.

    He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1).

    The Secret Place of the most High is your own consciousness, and this fact is the most important practical discovery in the science of religion. The error usually made is to suppose the Secret Place of the most High to be somewhere outside of yourself, an error fatal to our hopes, because our success in prayer depends upon getting some degree of contact with God: and since He is only to be contacted within, as long as we are looking without we must fail in our objective. Jesus emphasized this truth, The kingdom of God is within you. Again he said that when we pray we are to enter the closet and shut the door, meaning, to retire in thought within our own consciousness. In fact, this doctrine of the Secret Place and the wonders that can happen therein is taught throughout the Bible.

TAKE GOD AS YOUR PARTNER

 

Why not organize the business of living in a big way? Why creep along, as some people do, from one tiny stepping stone to another, instead of striding out boldly? Why be content with poor health. uninteresting work, or restricted conditions, when many other people have already risen above these things?

    There is a way out of limitation that never fails. It is this, take God as your partner. If you really make God your business partner in every department of your life, you will be amazed at the quick and striding results that you will obtain. Of course, if you want God to be your partner, you will have to include Him in every corner and every phase of your life.

    Most people would thrilled to be able to go into partnership with some industrial or financial magnate; they would feel that their future was assured. But here is a partnership with Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power awaiting you.

    I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

I AM THAT I AM

 

     And . . . there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud . . . (Exodus 19:16).

    These are dramatic expressions of the change of consciousness as we move away from the common things in life to the higher things.

    In these days of the Exodus, the conditions of the outer world answered very quickly to man's thoughts because people believed it was possible. Moses took his people across the Red Sea by the power of thought, and he was able to do that because in those days people believed in the power of thought. They believed that God could take them across the Red Sea dry shod, and he did.

    Moses had the true knowledge of God from his father's people, the Hebrews. It was the historical mission of the Hebrews to teach that God is not a limited, corporeal being, but incorporeal, infinite, divine mind.

    Moses saw clearly the unity of God and man. He got more than a flash of what we call cosmic consciousness. That was his illumination. Then he realized that he must give this to humanity. 

GOD'S ABUNDANCE FOR YOUR NEED

 

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

 

     Thou shalt not covet . . .any thing that is they neighbour's (Exodus 20:17).

    There are several phrases concerning coveting. You are not to covet your neighbor's house, nor his wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that he has. Much of the evil in the world is cause by wanting something to which you are not entitled. Moses knew what covetousness does to us in what we call today the unconscious or subconscious.

    Coveting affects the soul of man. Even if your coveting never leads you to take anything that does not belong to you, it undermines and ultimately rots your soul. It shuts you off from God. Why? Because to covet something means that you do not understand the Law of Being. You do not understand that whatever you are getting or lacking is the outpictuing and expression of your consciousness. Until you understand that you cannot be saved.

    There is not anything in the world that you ever conceived of that God has not got in abundance. God's supply is infinite, and to envy someone else because he seems to have more is to deny your own contact with God. 

THE TRUE WITNESS

 

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

 

     Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbour (Exodus 20:16).

    First, the obvious meaning is very important although it is only the beginning--do not tell lies about people.

    We have to apply this principle of not bearing false witness right throughout our lives. It is important to practice because whatever you say about another person will happen to you, yourself. If you lie about another person--that is an unpleasant word but I am using it because it is the right word--someone will lie about you. Jesus says so in the seventh chapter of Matthew, verses one and two:

    Judge not, that ye not be judged.

    For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to ye again.

    However, the fundamental meaning of this commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," is that you always express what you are. You cannot be one thing and express another. Emerson says,"What you are shouts so loudly that I can not hear what you say." We are always witnessing to what we are. So again, "Thou shalt not" really means "you cannot"--you cannot permanently bear false witness.

    The true witness is the full expression of God's man. You will be bearing true witness to thy neighbor when you are regenerated in soul. What does regeneration mean? It means the building of a new soul, not correcting the old one. When you change the soul, automatically the flesh changes, the blood vessels, the nerves, and the bones change. But regeneration must begin with a change in the soul, not with anything in the outer world.

    When we truly know these things, we shall be bearing true witness. 

BY RIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT 

 

     Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15).

   Many people will say, "We always knew that we must not steal. If we do we will have trouble and probably end up in prison." All through the ages it is only the smallest percentage of human beings who have stolen. Respect for other people's property was learned early in the history of civilization. However, this most fundamental law of life means that actually we cannot steal. You may say you knew someone who broke into your house and took your silver. The burglar who took your silver actually transferred your silver from your house to someone else's house, but did he get away with it? If that silver belonged to you by right of consciousness, all the burglars in the world could not have taken it away. In fact, if you had this understanding, you could take a ten dollar bill, put it on the sidewalk in the middle of Times Square, and return the next day and it would still be there. Your consciousness of the presence of God in other people would have been so strong that no one could have taken from you what belonged to you by right of that consciousness.

    These ten laws of life are things which cannot be done, and so, says the great prophet in effect, do not waste yourself and your life trying to do these things. They cannot be done. They conflict with the fundamental Law of Being.

    When we give up trying to steal, then we shall begin to have our own. We shall come into our own rights, and when we get that, liberation will not be very far off. 

FALSE ALLEGIANCE

 

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

 

     Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

    Naturally, this commandment means what it says. The Christian standard of conduct with regard to personal purity will never be improved on. Not to commit adultery is fundamentally important because on it is founded the sanctity of the family. But, of course, there is a great deal more in it than that.

    One of the most common Hebrew synonyms was adultery for idolatry. In the Old Testament these two words are almost always interchangeable. The worship of false gods was described as adultery. As you read through the Old Testament, you will find that the idea of the adulterous woman who is unfaithful to her husband constantly means the human soul that is turning away to some other god.

EXPRESSING WHAT YOU ARE

 

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

 

     Thou shalt not kill (exodus 20:13).

    As rules of conduct, the commandments are just such "thou shalt nots" as you see written up, "No Smoking" or "No Thoroughfare." But when you get behind the surface meaning, then "Thou shalt not" become "thou canst not."

    So this commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," is fundamentally an expression of the cosmic law that you cannot kill, and the sooner you find that out the better. We are always trying to kill. However, this commandment is here to tell us that to think we can kill anything is to lay up trouble for ourselves that will have to be met and wiped out some time or other. 

    Nothing ever dies from the outside. No one can kill your character. No one can kill your peace of mind. No one can kill your business, or your reputation, or anything that is yours. You can, but no one else can. No man or women was ever yet destroyed from the outside.

    many people waste their lives in thinking how they are being hurt, or damaged, or injured by other people; how good they could be, what marvelous things they could do, if it were not for others. So long as you believe that you cannot progress. As soon as you know that nobody can hurt you, then you are free to overtake any mistakes, and to be and do the thing you want.

POLARITY

 

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

 

    Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee (Exodus 20:12).

    We should respect our parents just because they are our parents, but that teaching is just the very outer layer of this commandment. Underneath it is instruction in divine metaphysics because your real father and mother is God. When this commandment says, "Honour they father and mother," it brings in the two poles, the male and the female, and, of course, polarity is the motive power of the universe. In the Bible, mother means the feeling nature, and the father is the knowledge nature. Most people have one side or the other more developed. When our prayers fail and we do not demonstrate, we fail because we are not honoring our father and our mother. 

A TIME TO REST

 

The Fourth Commandment

 

    Read Exodus 20:8-11.

    Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).

    This Sabbath day commandment was given to the people at the time of their leaving Egypt and going into the desert, and on the surface it meant what it said for that age. It was a wonderful thing in Moses' day to insist everyone set aside one day a week to think about God or at least to oblige him to stop his secular activities. No rule can make a man religious, or give him faith, but it can help.

    Like all the other commandments this one is instruction in seeking the presence of God everywhere, particularly where the trouble seems to be. Where there is fear and doubt He brings faith, where there is lack He brings abundance.

    Nut here in this commandment about the Sabbath day there is a still deeper meaning. When you are praying everyday and recognizing that God is working in you and in all of your affairs, there will be a sense in which every day will be a Sabbath, because for you every day will be a holy day. One of the most wonderful things about the Bible teaching is that we get rid of the distinction between the sacred and the secular. That is one of the most important steps in the history of the soul.

    God is present everywhere. For those who understand Jesus' teaching, it is always the Sabbath day, and the place whereon they stand is holy ground. 

THOUGHTS ARE THINGS

 

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

 

    Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exodus 20:7).

    Now this law of life really means you cannot take the name of the Lord in vain. If you try to do so you will fail because when you take the name of God unto yourself and implement it, then consequences will follow. It is a pity more of us do not realize that fact because constantly we are trying to take the Lords name in vain. The name of God is your conviction concerning God. Your idea of God will determine your whole life. If you believe God is good, God is love, God has all power, God is intelligence, all the conditions of your life will steadily improve. If you believe God is intelligent but not good--I know people would not dare to say that, but people who think that God sends sickness and trouble really believe in a God that is not good--if you believe in a God who has all intelligence but is not loving, then you idea of the nature of God must work out. Troubles will come to you, and you will not overcome them because you are saying, "God sent this trouble for a good purpose, and I must put up with it." You will put up with it. Your idea of God cannot be in vain. It will work out for you in accordance with your belief.

    There is no one of us who is not limiting God in some respect in his thought and because of that we are going to suffer limitations in some way, for we cannot take the name of God in vain. 

     

POCKET GODS AND GRAVEN IMAGES

 

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

    Read Exodus 20:4-6.

    Thou shalt not take unto thee any graven image . . . (Exodus 20:4).

    A primitive people needed to be thus instructed because they were much given to making idols of palpable sort. We do not do these things, but when ever we give power to anything but God, we are making that thing into a graven image. For example, we give power to our ailments, particular if it is a favorite ailment. We all know people who say, "My rheumatism," and they say it quite lovingly. Been with them a long time! Has become a conversation piece! Others say, "My indigestion." We are making a graven image of these things. It is only when we take power away from them that we can heal them.

    If you forget God and worship graven images of any kind, you are going to suffer. You can demolish a stone statue; you can burn a wooden one. The way to destroy mental images is to stop thinking of them and giving them power.

    This commandment goes on to say, "For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." Moses does not mean that God is jealous like a man, but that God must have first place. The trouble with many pious people is that they want God to be vice-president, keeping the presidency for themselves. So the Bible uses the word "jealous" in the sense that if you give power to anything but God, you have lost God altogether. You cannot have a percentage of God. Either God is the only power or nothing at all. 

RAISED CONSCIOUSNESS

 

     THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

 

     I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

    Thou shalt have no other Gods before me (Exodus 20:2, 3).

    Moses lived in Egypt over three thousand years ago, and he led some six hundred thousand people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. That is historical. But, Moses also stands for a faculty in yourself, and the things that Moses did typify the states of your mind.

    The mountain means prayer--the elevated consciousness. We are told that the general public were not allowed to go up Mount Sinai, but that does not mean that certain people were not good enough to go up. It means that if we want to go up the mountain--if we want to raise our consciousness, if we want to get closer to God--we must prepare ourselves by prayer. If we want to go up the mountain, we have to become a high priest spiritually and we must rid ourselves of all faults and weaknesses--otherwise we cannot elevate our consciousness and get our contact with God.

    Moses had his revelation, and then he realized it as the experience that God and man were one. When he got that revelation, Moses brought back the laws of life, beginning with the First Commandment, as we call it.

    What is the beginning of the First Commandment? I am the Lord thy God. Our trouble in our religious life nearly always is that we think, "In the beginning Me." That is very human but it does not get us the revelation that Moses got. After affirming I am the Lord thy God . . .the First Commandment says thou shalt have no other God before me.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

 

     And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant . . . and had respect unto them (Exodus 2:24-25).

    Moses grew up as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter with all the privileges and training of royalty. As the years went by and he witnessed the oppression of his people, he determined to lead them out of bondage and into a better life--their Promised Land. We are told "that their cry went up to God" (Exodus 2:24) and God Himself led them safely through their wilderness. Then at the time of their uncertainty, their moral laxness and emotional confusion, He gave Moses certain basic rules of life, which we still know as the Ten Commandments.

    The Ten Commandments at their face value are true and valid, but that is only the beginning. If people are going to escape from the continuous strife and struggle of life, they must have something more. So within these commandments he concealed the deeper laws for those who were ready for them. And within those again, he concealed the deepest and highest spiritual teaching for those who were ready for that.

    In other words, Moses designed these laws of life so that the higher we go spiritually, or the deeper we go intellectually, the more we can get out of them.