April 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Vitalizing Faith ~ Ernest Holmes

"In order to have faith, we must have a conviction that all is well.  In order to keep faith, we must allow nothing to enter our thought which will weaken this conviction.  Faith is built up from belief, acceptance and trust.  Whenever anything enters our thought which destroys, in any degree, one of these attitudes, to that extent faith is weakened.

Our mind must be steady in its conviction that our life is some part of God, and that the Spirit is incarnated in us.  Affirmations and denials are for the purpose of vitalizing faith - for the purpose of converting thought to a belief in things spiritual.  The foundation for correct mental treatment is perfect God, perfect man, and perfect being.  Thought must be organized to fit this premise, and conclusions must be built on this premise.  We must keep our faith vital, if we hope to successfully treat for ourselves or others.

All sciences are built upon faith principles.  All principles are invisible, and all laws accepted on faith.  No man has seen God at any time, nor has he seen goodness, truth or beauty, but who can doubt their existence?

Not only must we have complete faith in Spirit, and Its ability to know and to do, but we must have complete confidence in our approach to It.  We must not be lukewarm in our conviction.  We must know that we know.  We are to demonstrate that spiritual thought force has power over all apparent material resistance, and this cannot be done unless we have abounding confidence in the Principle which we approach.

Pure faith is a spiritual conviction; it is the acquiescence of the mind, the embodiment of an idea, the acceptance of a concept.  If we believe that the Spirit, incarnated in us, can demonstrate, shall we be disturbed at what appears to contradict this?  We shall often need to know that the Truth which we announce is superior to the condition we are to change.  In other words, if we are speaking from the standpoint of the Spirit, then there can be no opposition to It!  It is only when we let go of all human will, and recognize the pure essence of the Spiritual Principle incarnated in us, that thought rises above a belief in duality.  We should constantly vitalize our faith by the knowledge that the Eternal is incarnated in us; that God Himself goes forth anew into creation through each one of us; and that in such degree as we speak the Truth, the Almighty has spoken!"

April 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for SELF-HELP

Ernest Holmes

The Witness of Truth

There is a Witness within me who knows the Truth and who will not let me enter into falsehood.

My Inner Guide keeps me on the Pathway of Life and directs me at all times to that which is right and best.

I shall never be without this witness of the Spirit, for I believe in It and accept It as the Great Companion of the Soul.

The spirit within me is perfect now.

Through the Long Night Watches

Through the long night watches Thou has been with me. 

In the dark places of human ignorance Thy hand hath guided me, 

Thy light hath lighted the pathway of desolation to a land of plenty.

I have perceived Thee from afar, and my soul hath yearned to Thee, O Thou Might One!

The Spirit within me hath urged me on to the goal, and I have not been misled.

I have been guided and guarded through the long journey, and thy Presence hath been made known to me.

I awake from the dream and reenter the house of my Lord clothed with Peace and robed in colors of Light.

The Spirit of Truth watches over me.

January 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How to Use It (Continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We should be able to look a discordant fact in the face and deny its reality, since we know its seeming reality is borrowed from illusion, from "chaos and old night."  Our standard is one of perfection.  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"  (Matt. 5:48)  We should be able to look at a wrong condition with the knowledge that we can change it.  The realization that we have this ability must be gained by the application of our knowledge. 

The practice of the Science of Mind calls for a positive understanding of the Spirit of Truth; a willingness to let this inner Spirit guide us, with the conscious knowledge that "The law of the Lord is perfect."  (Psalms 19:7)  And we must believe this to be a fact.  IN SO FAR AS OUR THOUGHT IS IN ACCORD WITH THIS PERFECT LAW, IT WILL ACCOMPLISH AND NOTHING CAN HINDER IT.  "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,"  (Matt. 24:35) said the beautiful Jesus, as he strove to teach his disciples the immutability of the Law of Righteousness.

A practitioner uses thought definitely and for specific purposes, and the more definitely he uses the Law, the more directly will It respond to him.  A false fact is neither person, place nor thing to the one who uncovers it, and once uncovered it has no place in which to hide.  The illusion, seen and understood, is made negative in the experience of the one who suffered by it.  While it is true that wrong conditions exist, they could not remain unless there were someone to experience them.  Consequently, the experience must be in consciousness.  Change the consciousness and the false condition will disappear.  Conditions are not entities, we are entities.  Cannot that which is conscious cast out that which has no consciousness?  If we properly understood, we would be able to remove false conditions as easily as Jesus did.  He knew, but our faith is weak.  We must strengthen it and we can.

Let us analyze this:  One finds himself impoverished.   He wishes to change this condition.  He knows that it is not in accord with Ultimate Reality; that the Spirit imposes no limitations.  Therefore, he knows that his apparent limited condition has no rea law to support it; it is simply an experience of consciousness  He wishes a definite result in the opposite direction.  First, he realizes that the Law of Life is a Law of Liberty, of Freedom.  He now states that this Law of Liberty is flowing through him and into all his affairs. But the image of his limitation persists. Her is a definite contradiction of his statements of freedom.

Right here, he must stop and declare that these images of limitation are neither person, place nor thing; that they have no power, personality nor presence and no real law to support them.  He does not believe in them and they cannot operate through him.  He is free from their influence, forever.  He then begins to fill his thought with the idea of faith, the expectancy of good and the realization of plenty.  He senses, and mentally sees, right action in his life.  He puts his whole trust in the Law of good, and It becomes very real to him as he definitely speaks It into being - into his being and into the being of his affairs. He denies anything and everything that contradicts his realization of this truth.

At this point of realization, he meets a friend(?) who immediately begins a tale of woe about hard times, bad business condition, etc., and, should he listen to this "tale of the serpent," he might reverse his previous affirmations and make negative his former mental and spiritual concept!  This does not mean that he should refuse to hold conversation with people, for fear they will neutralize the position which he has taken in his mind, but that he should refuse mentally to accept the false position.  Then he can talk with anyone and not be disturbed.

The time will come when we will let our "conversation be in Heaven," and refuse to talk about, read or think about, those things that ought not to be.  But, someone will say, "Should we refuse to look at sickness, poverty and unhappiness"  This is not what we are discussing.  We will not refuse to help the helpless or lift up the fallen, but we will refuse to wallow in the mud because of our sympathies.  "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."  (Matt. 15:14)"