OTHER TEACHINGS FROM the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes
Constant Prayer
""Pray without ceasing." This means to be always on the affirmative side of life. To pray without ceasing is to doubt never, but to always trust in the Law of Good. This inner communion is essential to the soul and natural to the mind. It is a constant recognition of our relationship to that Presence in which we live and move and have our being.
"In everything gives thanks." An attitude of gratitude is most salutary, and bespeaks the realization that we are now in heaven. How we love to do for those who co-operate with, and are grateful for, our small endeavors! Gratitude is one of the chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity.
Quench Not the Spirit
"Quench not the Spirit." We are not to be ashamed of our trust in God, nor are we to deny the Inner Light that lights every man's reason to the ultimate reason of all. Spiritual emotion is common to all people, and is one of the ways through which the Spirit works. When this emotion is blocked, it hinders the currents of life from flowing and the result is stagnation. In psychology, we learn that congested emotions are disastrous to health. If this is true of the physical emotions, how much more must it be true of those higher emotions which are altogether spiritual!
What is true on one plane is true on all. There are ascending scales of being, and each reproduces from the lowest to the highest, each plane partaking of the nature of the Whole, since all are in, and of It. If physical emotions unexpressed, can congest the subjective thought, producing mental and physical confusion - and they can - it follows that unexpressed spiritual emotions can congest the soul and hinder a more complete flow of life through the individual. This is in accordance with Law.
If the artist suppressed all spiritual emotion, he would never be a great artist. In art, we call this emotion temperament; in oratory, we call it inspiration; and in purely spiritual things, we call it illumination. Somewhere the soul must stand naked to the Truth, if it is to receive It in all Its fullness. There must be an outlet as well as an inlet, if there is to be a continual flow. "Quench not the Spirit," but let the intellect decide to what the emotions are to respond. This is the secret of a well-balanced life.
"Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good." We are not to be afraid of strange ideas or doctrines, but are to prove them and accept only that which is true. We are to analyze, dissect and investigate until we know the Truth and then hold fast to It. In this way, all advance must come, whether in science, philosophy, religion or anything else.
Ask in Faith, Believing (James 1:5-18)
If we lack wisdom, we are to come to the Source of all knowledge and we shall receive it. But how are we to ask? In faith, believing. A double-minded man gets nowhere. How true this is! GOD CAN GIVE US ONLY WHAT WE TAKE, and since the taking is a mental act, WE CAN TAKE ONLY WHAT WE BELIEVE WE ALREADY HAVE! This is in accord with the teachings of Jesus: that when we pray, we must believe we already have the answer to our prayer.
Anything that is not of faith is sin, or a mistake, as we are told in another passage of this book of wisdom. Faith in God and in ourselves should be consciously generated. All trouble comes from disbelief in the Universe, followed by wrong acts, which are the result of disbelief and ignorance of the Law of Good, which is a Law of Liberty.
The lesson is simple enough. When we ask for anything, we are to believe that we have it, but we are to ask for that which is in unity with life. This unity includes health, happiness and success. These are native to the atmosphere of God and to the atmosphere of the inner man, which is Christ. Let us dislodge doubt, fear and unbelief and trust implicitly in Good."
Ernest Holmes
Constant Prayer
""Pray without ceasing." This means to be always on the affirmative side of life. To pray without ceasing is to doubt never, but to always trust in the Law of Good. This inner communion is essential to the soul and natural to the mind. It is a constant recognition of our relationship to that Presence in which we live and move and have our being.
"In everything gives thanks." An attitude of gratitude is most salutary, and bespeaks the realization that we are now in heaven. How we love to do for those who co-operate with, and are grateful for, our small endeavors! Gratitude is one of the chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity.
Quench Not the Spirit
"Quench not the Spirit." We are not to be ashamed of our trust in God, nor are we to deny the Inner Light that lights every man's reason to the ultimate reason of all. Spiritual emotion is common to all people, and is one of the ways through which the Spirit works. When this emotion is blocked, it hinders the currents of life from flowing and the result is stagnation. In psychology, we learn that congested emotions are disastrous to health. If this is true of the physical emotions, how much more must it be true of those higher emotions which are altogether spiritual!
What is true on one plane is true on all. There are ascending scales of being, and each reproduces from the lowest to the highest, each plane partaking of the nature of the Whole, since all are in, and of It. If physical emotions unexpressed, can congest the subjective thought, producing mental and physical confusion - and they can - it follows that unexpressed spiritual emotions can congest the soul and hinder a more complete flow of life through the individual. This is in accordance with Law.
If the artist suppressed all spiritual emotion, he would never be a great artist. In art, we call this emotion temperament; in oratory, we call it inspiration; and in purely spiritual things, we call it illumination. Somewhere the soul must stand naked to the Truth, if it is to receive It in all Its fullness. There must be an outlet as well as an inlet, if there is to be a continual flow. "Quench not the Spirit," but let the intellect decide to what the emotions are to respond. This is the secret of a well-balanced life.
"Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good." We are not to be afraid of strange ideas or doctrines, but are to prove them and accept only that which is true. We are to analyze, dissect and investigate until we know the Truth and then hold fast to It. In this way, all advance must come, whether in science, philosophy, religion or anything else.
Ask in Faith, Believing (James 1:5-18)
If we lack wisdom, we are to come to the Source of all knowledge and we shall receive it. But how are we to ask? In faith, believing. A double-minded man gets nowhere. How true this is! GOD CAN GIVE US ONLY WHAT WE TAKE, and since the taking is a mental act, WE CAN TAKE ONLY WHAT WE BELIEVE WE ALREADY HAVE! This is in accord with the teachings of Jesus: that when we pray, we must believe we already have the answer to our prayer.
Anything that is not of faith is sin, or a mistake, as we are told in another passage of this book of wisdom. Faith in God and in ourselves should be consciously generated. All trouble comes from disbelief in the Universe, followed by wrong acts, which are the result of disbelief and ignorance of the Law of Good, which is a Law of Liberty.
The lesson is simple enough. When we ask for anything, we are to believe that we have it, but we are to ask for that which is in unity with life. This unity includes health, happiness and success. These are native to the atmosphere of God and to the atmosphere of the inner man, which is Christ. Let us dislodge doubt, fear and unbelief and trust implicitly in Good."
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