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Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, by Charles Fillmore, [1949], at sacred-texts.com
ALTHOUGH Paul did not demonstrate complete overcoming, as Jesus did, he saw in man as a mystery the truth that had been lost sight of for "ages and generations . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." We are urged by both Jesus and Paul to glorify God in our bodies. The body is the fruit of the mind, therefore we must become better acquainted with the mind and with the supermind in order to glorify the body.
The fact is that the entire theme of the Bible is man and his various states of mind, represented as persons, tents, tabernacles, temples. In Exodus we read, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." It is explained that this sanctuary was to be the meeting place of the people and their God and eventually the dwelling place of Jehovah. Jehovah means the I AM, which is also the meaning of the Christ or the supermind. Where in all the universe can man meet the supermind save in his own mind and body?
We are then compelled to conclude that the Tabernacle of the Israelites and the Temple of Solomon are symbols of man's body, the real meeting place of Jehovah.
Paul says, "We are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
them."
When Solomon was preparing to build the Temple he soliloquized: "But who is able to build him a house, seeing heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him a house, save only to burn incense before him?" The burning of incense in the house of Jehovah represents the spiritualization of the fine essences of the body through adoration and exalted thoughts. When the mind is lifted up in meditation and prayer the whole body glows with spiritual light.
This spiritual light transcends in glory all the laws of matter and intellect. Even Moses could not enter the Tabernacle when it was aglow with this transcendent light.
It is written that the Israelites did not go forward on days when the cloud remained over the Tabernacle, but when the cloud was taken up they went forward. This means that there is no soul progress for man when his body is under the shadow of a "clouded" mind, but when the cloud is removed there is an upward and forward movement of the whole consciousness (all the people).
We are warned of the effect of thoughts that are against or opposed to the commandments of Jehovah. When we murmur and complain we cloud our minds, and Divine Mind cannot reach us or help us. Then we usually loaf until something turns up that
causes us to think on happier things, when we go forward again.
Instead of giving up to circumstances and outer events we should remember that we are all very close to a kingdom of mind that would make us always happy and successful if we would cultivate it and make it and its laws a vital part of our life. "The joy of Jehovah is your strength."
You ask, "How can I feel the joy of Jehovah when I am poor, or sick, or unhappy?"
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Here is the first step in getting out of the mental cloud that obscures the light of Spirit. Take the promises of Jesus as literally and spiritually true. Right in the midst of the most desperate situation one can proclaim the presence and power of Christ, and that is the first mental move in dissolving the darkness. You cannot think of Jesus without a feeling of freedom and light. Jesus taught freedom from mortality and proclaimed His glory so persistently that He energized our thought atmosphere into light. This light is Spirit power, and it can be seen and felt by anyone who will call on the name Christ and expect it to raise him quickly out of depression and negative states of mind into the power and zeal of an overcomer through Christ.
The Scriptures state that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments his
face shone so brilliantly that the Children of Israel and even Aaron, his own brother, were afraid to come near him until he put a veil over his face. The original Hebrew says his face sent forth beams or horns of light.
The Vulgate says that Moses had "a horned face"; which Michelangelo took literally, in his statue of Moses representing him with a pair of horns projecting from the head. Thus we see the ludicrous effect of reading the Bible according to the letter.
Our men of science have experimented with the brain in action, and they tell us that it is true that we radiate beams when we think. The force of these beams has been measured.
Here we have further confirmation of the many statements in the Bible that have been taken as ridiculous and unbelievable or as miracles.
Persons who spend much time in prayer and meditate a great deal on spiritual things develop the same type of face that Moses is said to have had. We say of them that their faces fairly shine when they talk about God and His love. John saw Jesus on the island of Patmos, and he says, "His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
I have witnessed this radiance in the faces of Truth teachers hundreds of times. I well remember one class lesson during which the teacher became so eloquent that beams of light shot forth from her
head and tongues of fire flashed through the room, very like those which were witnessed when the followers of Jesus were gathered in Jerusalem.
We now know that fervent words expressed in prayer and song and eloquent proclamations of spiritual Truth release the millions of electrons in our brain cells and through them blend like chords of mental music with the Mind universal.
This tendency on our part to analyze and scientifically dissect the many supposed miracles recorded in the Bible is often regarded as sacrilegious, or at least as making commonplaces of some of the very spectacular incidents recorded in Scripture.
In every age preceding this the priesthood has labored under the delusion that the common people could not understand the real meaning of life and that they should therefore be kept in ignorance of its inner sources; also that the masses could not be trusted with sacred truths, that imparting such truths to them was like casting pearls before swine.
But now science is delving into hidden things, and it is found that they all arise in and are sustained by universal principles that are open to all men who seek to know and apply them.
So the time has arrived when all shall know the Truth, "from the least to the greatest of them." Of course there are many sides to Truth. What we mean by Truth is concerned with the great fundamental questions that have always perplexed and at the same
time engaged the profoundest attention of men: What is the character of God? How does God create? What is the real character of man, and what relation does he bear to his source? What is the ultimate destiny of man and the universe?
These are some of the fundamental questions that meet us at every turn. They have been answered by both philosophers and priests in every age, yet they still remain largely unanswered in the popular estimation. Of course the priests think they have the answer, but they offer no proof save that of inspiration.
The philosophers and scientists are not satisfied with the answers of the spiritually inspired. They want facts, and they are testing the seen and the unseen for forces that respond to certain laws without variation or deviation. They claim that the theological explanation of creation by Moses and the location and description of the kingdom of heaven by Jesus are not specific enough and cannot be definitely and scientifically proved; all of which is approximately true. Popular religion does not attempt to harmonize its fundamental facts with the findings of science, and in its ignorance it fights science and thinks that science is destroying the faith of the people in things spiritual.
Anyone who will search for the science in religion and the religion in science will find that they harmonize and prove each other. The point of unity
is the Spirit-mind common to both. So long as religion assumes that the Spirit that creates and sustains man and the universe can be cajoled and by prayer or some other appeal can be induced to change its laws, it cannot hope to be recognized by those who know that unchangeable law rules everywhere and in everything.
Again, so long as science ignores the principle of intelligence in the evolutionary and directive forces of man and the universe, just so long will it fail to understand religion and the power of thought in the changes that are constantly taking place in the world, visible and invisible.