Teach Us to Pray, by Charles Fillmore, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
Teach Us to Pray, by Charles Fillmore, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
"AND GOD created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them." "And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made."
Science tells us that all living forms are made up of aggregations of cells, that all cells are made up of molecules and atoms, and that atoms have within them electrons and protons, the soul of light and energy, the source of everything the atom and its aggregations manifest. So we are safe in asserting that the atom at its core is Spirit and that Bible characters had this primal source of light in mind when they spoke of the light of the Spirit. Jesus proclaimed: "I am the light of the world." "Ye are the light of the world." When He spoke thus He was speaking of this inner light which gives life and intelligence to all creation. When the apostle James wrote, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights," he was corroborating the Gospel of
John, which in the very first chapter says: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world."
These light and energy units radiate light and generate light, of which an incandescent electrical bulb is an example. From this we get a clue as to the status of man and his body as a light center with an aggregation of billions and trillions of cells, every one of them flashing light of varying color and brilliancy and forming about the body an aura of splendor. As stated in John, this aura shines in the darkness and the darkness apprehends it not. The mind must be illumined by Christ before it can behold the light radiating from every soul. When that light is developed it is visible to those who know how to still the outer mind and enter into the silence. In the 1st chapter of Revelation John says: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. . . . I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow;
and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. . . . and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."
Here John, resting at the light center of his soul, saw the resurrected Master.
The development of this spiritual light is the destiny of us all; and we shall not be satisfied until we "awake in his likeness." All are radiant in a certain degree with this spiritual light, but especially those who have an understanding of Spirit and its universality. We feel the light and sometimes mentally see it flashing into expression when we have a spiritual uplift gained from a new idea of Truth. Others feel its influence and are moved to higher things by it; or if it is radiating gloomily, they are moved to depression and discouragement.
The scientific understanding of the great Bible truths thrills the soul with the desire for spiritual attainment, with a longing for spiritual fulfillment. Today many enlightened persons are proudly acknowledging Jesus Christ as the grand and perfect fulfillment, as perceived by John in Revelation, and they are claiming His promises: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will,
and it shall be done unto you." "If a man keep my word, he shall never see death."
We revel in just concentrating upon the name Jesus Christ and in speculating about the history of His soul's unfoldment. We take delight in speculating about the true reason why He is so far in advance of our time. Surely Jesus Christ was the product of a cycle of human development that was before our present cycle of development. When here on earth, through the mastery of spiritual laws of which we today have only an inkling, He performed many seeming miracles. Think of the condition in those times of a body that had been dead for four days. Imagine Jesus thanking God that His petition had been heard and then speaking the word of life to one who had lain in the grave for this length of time. Then imagine this person instantly being charged with new life; imagine great streams of life flowing through his every cell and fiber until he came walking out of the tomb, restored to perfect health. Imagine Jesus in the consciousness of perfect unity with God speaking the healing word to many "sick unto death" and each one instantly throwing off the disease and coming forward sound and well.
Jesus taught us how to pray. He taught us that prayer is not only the spiritual approach to the Father but that through prayer and realization we attain the interpenetrating consciousness of God's perfect life and love and power. Jesus revealed to us that we are the sheep of His pasture; that is,
that we are children of the same Father as He. He is our Elder Brother, our helper. We are His people, and He is interested in our progress.
Jesus Christ has provided and provides today the greatest impetus to the ongoing of our race. When the soul of the race (symbolized by Eve) became involved in the pleasures of sensation (symbolized by the serpent) and sought other guidance than that of Jehovah God, gradual degeneration of the whole human family began until men were in a bad way. Something had to be done. Someway, somehow we had to be lifted out of the murky darkness of sense thought.
To lift the race out of sense thought Jesus was compelled by the necessity of soul sympathy to become an intimate associate of the people He sought to help. Hence He incarnated into the race and was "tempted in all points as we are, but without sin."
Through His experience on the cross, where His precious blood was spilled, through His suffering there Jesus lowered His consciousness to the consciousness of the race, thereby administering to the whole race a blood transfusion, imparting to both the soul and the body of men the properties of Being that will restore man to his divine estate.
With their blood transfusions the medical men of today are copying this grand transfusion of life. We are on the way to fulfillment and the Jesus Christ way!
Jesus Christ broadcast the electrons of His blood into the race thought atmosphere, and they may be
apprehended by all who believe in Him. These electrons become centers of energy and life in those who appropriate them, and thus men gradually transform and regenerate their blood and their body. This is the real spiritual meaning of being saved by Jesus Christ.
The blood is the life. Jesus really came to bring to the whole human family a larger consciousness of life. He said, "I came that ye may have life, and may have it more abundantly."
Life is a universal energy that moves even the corpuscles of the blood. Therefore life is more powerful than the blood. Consequently we believe that it was through the "shedding," the getting rid, of the idea of flesh and blood that Jesus accomplished His great works. He tapped the great reservoir of divine life and raised His consciousness of life to that of the Father. Through Him we all have access to this perpetual life stream. We must really eat of His substance, as He taught us; that is, we must appropriate it as spiritually ours. We must drink of His blood: let His life stream flow through our mind and body, healing, cleansing, and purifying us in every way. This is the grand at-one-ment (atonement) of man's life with the life of God through Jesus Christ. This is the way to perfect fulfillment.