HOW CAN WE LIVE IN HARMONY WITH OUR FELLOW BEINGS?

Purpose: To give the three Principles by the application of which harmonious relationships may be maintained with all.

Those who are living the new life should do more than “live peacably with all men.”

There should be a joyful harmony with all humanity, with all nature, with every living creature.

This is the new ideal and realization of it will reveal the new heaven and the new earth.

“Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee,” is a prophecy that is being understood today.

In this lesson we shall consider the problem of human relationship alone.

There are certain principles to be maintained in every relationship.

Supreme among these is the principle of integrity.

If there be a discordant element in the environment, let each person examine himself in some such way as this: Am I true in every detail of my relationship with this one, just as true as I should wish another to be to me? Do I think of him as I would desire him to think of me? Are my acts an evidence of integrity? Then again, let me ask myself: Am I giving this one his freedom just as I wish mine?

Loosing another, and letting him go as his guidance leads him is another essential of true relationship.

The holding of one’s opinion over another or the condemnation of the action of another, although it may be unspoken, is the reason of much unhappiness between those who should rejoice in each other. The critical attitude toward a weaker one is often a cruel bondage to him.

Do I love this one? This is the third important question to be asked.

Love, remember, is that deep inner relation of unity which is evidenced as outstreaming good will.

When I love another, I feel at one with him, and this at-one-ment shows itself as true interest in his experiences, achievement, and growth; and as forgiveness, when he offends; also as a wish to be helpful in so far as his desire, and circumstances, permit. It shows itself in prayer for him and faith in him; it is evidenced by keeping hands off when it is best that this should be.

We are not here to live for another; we are here to live our own lives to the best.

Our help to the world is through our own living.

To be joyful, loving, helpful, is our privilege, and herein lies our power. The most ineffective and undesirable person in the world is the sanctimonius egotist who goes about showing his fellow men how to be good.

There are two sides to every relationship, the outer and the inner. On the one hand, the encouraging word, the kind act; on the other--without this the outer is of but little value-- there is the inner tie, the feeling of unity. In this feeling of unity evidenced in outward cooperation, lies the power and harmony of every relationship.

Treat your every relationship by the practice of the three principles given--integrity, freedom, love--and you will prove their working power.

SOME PROBLEMS OF HOME LIFE

Many are puzzled to know how to solve the problems of daily life in the home. Various questions have been handed me concerning the conditions of poverty, overwork, and the disagreement of the family upon religious views.

Problems are settled from principle, not from experience.

There is a principle to guide the home life as there is a principle to guide our judgment in all things. When our conclusions are made from an unchanging principle, we shall see conditions and experiences conforming to that knowledge. To judge from changeable experiences is to have no certain knowledge. “Judge not by appearances,” said Jesus. Experiences have their place, and will always exist for every action must have its results. The fruit of action is experience, and to interpret correctly, one must understand Principle.

Home life is most important because from it goes forth an influence upon every phase of life: business, religious, and social. The home influence should be the impetus to all the affairs of daily living. In the home we show what we really believe; in the outer world we may assume. At home we like to relax and are likely to think it unnecessary to be courteous, or we become careless of appearance and unguarded in our speech. Do not make home merely a place for eating and sleeping, or a place to go when there is nowhere else to go. We should find in our homes the heart-love and soul-culture that stimulates us to bring forth our best.

A home that is exclusive is not ideal.

Any individual who lives for himself alone never lays hold of the fullness of life--never fully lives.

While the home is the center of living and of action for its immediate members, yet its influence must extend far beyond its doors. Home is the individualized center. I love to compare the individual to the sun, a center of life.

The life of God should radiate from each of us.

Love is to be sent forth brightening all upon whom it falls, cheering whoever comes for a moment within its touch.

All can accept the ideal; but how can it be made practical?

First: Perfect Equality. This does not mean that each one is the master of the house, nor each the handmaid, but that each in his position is of equal importance. Is the hand above the foot or the hearing more necessary than the seeing? We need every member; the foot is as essential to the body as the hand.

Acknowledge the principle of equality in the home--one Mind, as the intelligence of all.

Accept all within your gates in the Truth of their Being, whether they are manifesting it or not.

Second: Co-operation. Each giving the best he has. It is as important to receive as to give; love equally to do both. Co-operation means working together for one end.

Third: Grant Liberty. Do not insist that others shall see as you see. As we demand, we must give. There may have been a time when we would have forced; but faith in the power of God makes us non-resistant. The more faith we have, the more liberty we give.

Liberty consists not only in keeping hands off but also in keeping thoughts off.

If we really believe that the Spirit of God is in each one, we can help another most by seeing that God is working in his life, and by trusting that God-power to lead him rightly. I know a home in which four religious faiths are represented, but the members of the family agree on religious freedom and there is not the least inharmony there.

Nona L. Brooks
Short Lessons in Divine Science

WHAT IS THOUGHT TRAINING?

Purpose: To show how the intellectual perception of our good may be changed into the consciousness of already possessing that good.

I have been giving the basis of healing in order that each one might know why we believe in healing, and how it may be done. There are two things that I wish to recall to your attention, because they are two important items, if we are going to understand many things in the healing work. First, there comes to us in our search for Truth, the perception of Truth. We reason; we listen; we decide that a certain thing, a certain thought presented is the Truth. If it is Truth, it is something to be known positively and to be lived. After this perception, we reach out; we wish more. We have taken a good step, but we are not perfectly satisfied, and never shall be, until there comes to us something that is indescribable; That Something we call consciousness. We perceive a great deal of Truth of which we have not yet become conscious. What is the link? How can we develop from the perception into the consciousness of Truth? Thought training is the link; thought is the instrument of the work.

After we have perceived Truth, the next thing for us to do is to work in thought until we come to the consciousness of Truth.

The three steps in the process of unfoldment then are: first, perception, followed by thought training in that perception, then consciousness--realization.

When consciousness comes, we have reached the place of peace, the place of rest. The place of peace and rest is not the place of inactivity, because the place of the most powerful action is that which comes forth spontaneously from consciousness. When we are conscious, the effort to act, the effort to express is ended, and the expression of the Truth of which we are conscious, is free, joyful, spontaneous. Remember that most of us in our present place of unfoldment are working from perception to consciousness, and this is the reason that so much attention is given to the training of thought.

I have heard words like these: “I have been treating for months; I have been thinking this way for a long time, and yet I am not well. Conditions are not removed.” The mere speaking of the word is not the whole; it is but a means to an end. The person who comes to you with such a statement, shows you that the Consciousness has not come to her or to him. It is but a mechanical process of which this person is speaking--good in its place, yes; but power, peace, and harmony will come to us only when we are conscious of Truth. Each of us is just as peaceful, just as harmonious and just as powerful, as he is conscious, not a bit more nor less.

Consciousness is the one thing to be worked for.

When I say, worked for, do not think that I mean any straining, any labored work. I mean a steadfast determination to gain the realization of Truth, and a peaceful, persistent going forward to the accomplishment--the attainment of consciousness. It will never be refused to anyone who is faithful, according to law, and law never changes. No one can ever hold us back. We alone retard our own development.

There is a great difference between curing and healing. We have much of both in our midst, and if we understand this, many problems are solved for us. Here are examples of the three methods previously discussed. A patient comes to a healer, and tells a lengthy tale of woe; the healer goes to work sending the thought directly to the body of the patient; thus the patient through suggestion comes under the domination of the healer’s personal will, in order to build up tissue or to regulate action. While some cures are wrought by this method, it is through personal will power, and does not lead to the highest realization.

Again, there is the one who says, “All ills are mental. I will send my thoughts to the thought of the patient.” Hence he begins using suggestion and the power of personal will. The healer endeavors to change the thought of the patient, and some good work is done in this way.

In the second method, which is known as faith healing, the worker attempts to turn the thought of his patient to prayer. He says, “Let us beseech the Father to heal you.” But we know that God is not moved, for He is our health now. He knows only health--wholeness.

The third, the method that is best, as we see it, the one that we should seek above all things else, because it goes so much deeper, is this: Someone comes to the healer to ask for healing. What is the healer to do?

He is not to send out his thought to the body or to the mentality of the patient, but to turn his thought directly to God.

Turn there, and train thought to listen to what the Universal Spirit is saying. The Universal Spirit speaks of Life Omnipresent; It speaks of Love changeless; It tells of the infinite power of this Presence; thought listening there becomes illumined. There will be no more great effort to send out a healing thought; the consciousness of God-Presence becomes vivid. It illumines all until it reveals the perfect body. In other words, consciousness reveals life and health until it sees the true state of the patient; when this consciousness of Wholeness includes the patient we get the best healing. There is a spiritual uplift, an awakening of the consciousness of the one who desires to be healed, such as no other way of doing the work can accomplish.

I ask you to keep this in thought, because all of the healing that is done today is on one of these three planes. I do not condemn any one of these, but I advise you to remember always the highest, and work for that. Anyone can cure or heal, if he puts himself in the right mental attitude. He can do surface work through his will power, and the right kind of healing by putting his thought in the right relation to God.

A GROUP OF QUESTIONS
There are two ways in which to answer questions; one is from principle, and the other is from experience. Let me explain what I mean. People have come to me at different times saying, “Do you think such and such a thing can be healed? My answer according to Principle is, “Yes, I know that it can.” “Have you seen it done?” is the question that often follows. When we answer simply from what we have seen, our answer accords with experience. When we answer from what we know can be done, our answer accords with Principle. Both are good; both are helpful. But do not base your acceptance of what can be done with this Truth by what you have seen or by what someone else has seen.

There would be no progress in the world, if we did not see beyond experience.

Marconi knew before he could send a message that such a thing was possible, and then he carried it out into experience. So it is with you and me; if we apply Principle, the Principle that lies back of everything (the One Presence and the One Power), we shall know what can be done, whether it has been done or not.

If Jesus had waited to know what others had done before he attempted to live this way, the life of power would never have been lived by him. He was bold enough to see Truth ahead of what anyone had ever seen before, and he was brave enough to stand and live the truth he saw, alone. This is why he was so mighty, and why he demonstrated. Accordingly, do not let us ask, “Can this be done? Have you seen it?”

Let us learn Principle, and know for ourselves that “All things are possible to them that believe.”

“Can every disease be healed?” This is answered above. If we go to Principle every time, we shall answer these questions within ourselves. Thousands and thousands are healed right along who have been pronounced incurable, not by one physician but by many. Sometimes a seeker will say, “Well, you know, this is one of the hardest things to heal, and I have never known a case like it to be healed.” Someone says, “I have seen everything cured but deafness.” Deafness has been healed; even if it had not been, there would be no reason for saying that it could not be; for whatever we see in Principle, we may declare boldly: “It can be done.”

The power of our healing and the power of our living depends upon our attitude.
We must not listen to experience as a proof, but we must see the possibility from the standpoint of Principle. Every disease there is may be healed; I have seen every kind healed.
Are people receptive to healing whether or not they ask for it?

Yes. But there is a difference in people. Some do not ask for treatment because they do not know what it is; they are, however, in their souls, longing for truth, and whether or not they ask for it, they are ready to be helped. Of course, one who shuts himself off and is not receptive within can not be reached; or, if he is reached, it is by a long process of what would be very laborious work. There are so many ready to be helped that it is better to spend time with the many who are ready than to work with the one who is resisting.

What words shall we use when giving a treatment?

Do not think the word you use is all-important. Remember the word is a means to an end. Remember, also, another thing; a formula is a good thing in the beginning, but if adhered to too strictly, growth in understanding is retarded. Any formula is soon outgrown. It is well to give a patient some statement, some simple words of truth, to keep his thought on something besides his ills.

Let us not say that we have no formulas, or that we must always have formulas. The highest and best healing is the consciousness that goes forth without spoken words; but at times it is necessary to use the word; do not fear to do so. I feel so sure that the universal Spirit knows exactly what each one of us needs that, when I treat anyone, I sit at first perfectly quiet and receptive, thinking of God’s Presence. I have the greatest faith that just exactly what is needed to be realized will be given; the right words, if words must be spoken. We can not make definite rules along that line.

As to how often the treatments should be given, that, the healer must decide; but bear this rule in mind, that the fewer treatments one can give to accomplish the work, the better.

Try to live so well, to be so conscious of the presence and the power of God that you need give but one treatment.

Give each treatment as though it were the only one, and give it with such consciousness that it will be the only one needed, if the patient is receptive. If there are more needed, give them until the patient realizes and manifests his wholeness.

Shall we treat those surrounding the patient?

We were taught at first to treat each member of the [patient's] family, but it is being proved over and over again that we do not have to treat in that way. We can treat the little baby alone if our consciousness is clear and strong and we do not give power in our own thoughts to adverse conditions, as we call them; the one who believes in evil most is the one who is going to do the most treating.

When we see nothing but the presence and power of God, we shall know it includes all, and we shall trust it wholly.

Do Divine Scientists believe in medicine?

Principle, understood, will assure us there is no need for medicine. I have heard it said we often recommend both treatment and medicine.

Never is a physician recommended, never is medicine recommended by the one who sees Principle clearly.

Occasionally someone says to me, “I have been ill for two or three weeks and I had a physician; my husband (or my mother) insisted.” I find that where there is just a little hankering for a physician there will generally be two or three outside who will say you should have one. I have found also that, to those who stand firm in the consciousness of the one Presence and Power, the husbands have not usually suggested a physician or any remedies.

Divine Science does not recommend medicine. However, we do not condemn.

The one who understands the Divine Presence will never feel a need of anything else.

The question is asked, “Is it not helpful to have a diagnosis?”

It simply gauges the attitude of the healer at the time she recommends a diagnosis; she believes the disease is there, a something that she must call by name; she gives a reality to the claim.

The one who is positively conscious of God’s presence and God’s power, cares not for the name of the disease.

He realizes that the power of God is much more powerful than any name under heaven, and there is no temptation to learn human opinion.

What we need more than anything else, what the world needs, is those who are willing to stand for principle despite all that threatens. Do we think that something hard will come to us if we stand by principle? It cannot be half so serious as the fact that we have swerved from principle.

Man’s development is the supreme thing in the universe, and whatever tempts us to fall below the highest we see is withdrawing us from the fullest development to which our souls can come at that time. True to principle, no evil can possibly befall; I care not what the results may seem.

What is the true nature of the body?

It is most important for us to know the truth about the body for, thereby and by that alone, shall we free it from the many ills to which we have believed it heir.

To get the true perception of anything invisible or visible, we must continually refer to our Basis.

To learn the truth of the body, let us go to [the] first principles of our teaching to find what is revealed to us there of the true nature of the body. Our fundamental statements are: God is Omnipresent; therefore what God is, is omnipresent. God is Life, God is Mind, God is Spirit.

The God-Life, God-Mind, God-Substance is everywhere present; there is no other life, no other intelligence.

“I am, and beside me there is none else, saith the Lord.” “Of Him and through Him, and to Him are all things.”

The Substance of the body is Spirit; there is nothing else for it to be. “That which is born of spirit is Spirit.” “Like produces like.” Knowing the body to be Spirit, we come into the perception of its true nature. We no longer condemn it to weakness and limitation. We see it as holy, as whole--an expression of Universal Life. We reap the fruits of our thoughts; for we begin to see the true state of the body.

The true state of the body is health.

Nona L. Brooks Short Lessons in Divine Science

WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF HEALING?

Purpose: To present to the student briefly the three methods of metaphysical healing.

While healing in its largest sense includes many different lines of realization, the term usually means realizing health of body. It is, today, interesting to watch the amount of attention that is being given to healing in the newspapers, magazines, and churches. This is encouraging, because it is indicative of the present trend of thinking. There is on all sides an awakening toward higher thinking.

There are now few churches that spurn healing. The limitations of tradition are fading in the light of this new freedom that the world of men is feeling. The healing of the nations is coming through the healing of the heart. Is there a best way to bring this about? It seems so to me, and I think I have found it. There are three kinds of metaphysical healing:

The first is mental healing. The purpose of this method is to develop the mentality of the individual, the personal will, in order that it may overcome personal ills. Mental science tells us that if we develop our will and are faithful, we shall have the power of suggestion to heal another. This method often brings outward harmony for a time but there are several mistakes here. The first is the exalting of the personal self, for if one does not remain very humble, he acquires the egotistical habit, and rides rough-shod over his fellow men, certain of the effect of strong will-power. Another difficulty is that an untrained mentality formulates without any basis for decision. We cannot trust the personal will; we can trust the Divine Will.

Perfection in every phase of life is God’s Will for us.

The second type is faith healing. In this method God is besought until he answers. However, since we have come to know God as Omnipresent Life, Health, and Good, we no longer beseech Him for any gift, for we know that He has already given us all Good.

The purpose of prayer is not to change God but ourselves.

God does not need changing; He is ever present health. His will is that we shall know this and rejoice in perfect harmony of body, circumstance, and relationship.

This realization comes to us through the third type of healing. Divine Science, true to its basis, the Omnipresence of God, declares that an ever present God means unchanging health for each one of us, and this we realize by using scientific treatment. Scientific treatment has two phases: The silent time when one affirms God’s Presence and denies what is unlike His Presence, until one feels the truth of what he is saying. Then one must go into the activities of the day with the consciousness of God’s Presence, making each thought and act true, loving, and powerful. This is the highest method of healing and brings the richest and most lasting results within and without, for it reveals the Perfect Whole.

What do I mean by The Perfect Whole--Universal Presence? Think of the air. We are all breathing it no matter whether we live in Africa or in America. Wherever our brother is on the face of the globe, we know that he is breathing the same air that we are. You see the analogy. Could there be any one who thinks that the same God is not manifesting in the very heart Africa? God is everywhere. Divine Science stands on the foundation of Omnipresence. Omnipresence is the blessed truth that we live, move, and have our Being in God, and that God acts by means of man. Infinite Being is the One Presence, the One Creator. All activity is the expression of this Power.

We can lay hold of the great law of the Cosmic Energy, and build true to it in our thinking and living.

From the bringing forth of a plant to the fitting of a joint in carpentry, there is evidence of One Creative Power and only One. This One brings forth without ceasing, and all that It brings forth is like Itself, very good. The image that It conceives is true to Principle. Since God, the Perfect One, is the only Creator, creation is Godlike. It is perfect, beautiful, whole. When we see God in Creation, we see that Creation is the perfect expression of Idea eternally unfolding as the visible world.

What is it, then, that makes us see inharmony? Emphasis laid on externals leads to misconception. We are seeing partially, hence imperfectly.

True seeing is healing. When we see the Truth of the Self, we are healed.

When we see rightly, the true creation of God is revealed. All inharmony disappears.

Well I remember my first experience of cosmic consciousness. I was sitting in a small, plainly furnished healing room in the first home of Divine Science in Denver. I see before me now the ordinary sofa and a equally commonplace chair. The walls are bare. In the work that had come that morning, I had realized God’s Presence and Power to an unusual degree. Suddenly as I sat meditating, I saw that a brightness, a veritable glory was filling the room. The walls radiated light; the sofa had changed as well as the simple chairs. I was seeing the true life of this room. It was alive with the Presence. There was nothing old. All things had become new. I was seeing with the inner vision. This Presence is aliveness, and within it we know there is no ugliness, no inharmony.

Divine Science teaches Infinite Power, and has as its highest realization, God, the Omnipotent Thinker, thinking forth creation.

In nature man is perfect--one with his Creator. Of myself I am nothing; I am all things in God. I claim for all men this same wholeness, completeness, and perfection.

What is the truth about healing? Leave the body with the Creator; in His sight it is perfect. Take a stand in the Omnipresence of health and power. Do not touch the body in thought: We do not have to recreate tissue or rebuild organs.

The secret of healing lies in directing thought toward the Creator, not toward the appearance.

We must work to change our mental outlook, not the body. Denials and affirmations are mental exercises. What shall we deny? Only the general things. For example say, “I will not admit this or that unreality to my thought. I deny fear. There is no fear. Human belief is tempting me to be afraid; but, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’.”

Fear has no place in our Divine make-up.

If we allow it to do so, fear can keep us in hell. Hence deny any belief opposite to God as the only Creator. Do not let evil weaken your realization of the Presence and Power of God. Take hold of the world from the God-side. God is the life and the blessedness of His world.

What is the best method of healing? That which gives the most general and far-reaching results; that which is most permanent and most preventive. The test of a method of healing is, “How deep does it reach? Does it reach the center of a man’s being?”

Healing must include the whole man--his body, his environment, his circumstances as well as his Spirit.

The only method that can do this is the one which sees man one with God--whole, complete, perfect. When we grasp this method, we find the preventive for all future disease and lack. We assert that monistic healing has the true basis, and that “All things are possible to them that believe.” Truth never fails; it is only our grasp of Truth that fails. Let us keep our grasp steadfast and our vision clear.

Nona L. Brooks Short Lessons in Divine Science

HOW SHALL WE KEEP WELL?

Purpose: To show that health is natural; that it is the birthright of every person.

Health is natural; disease is abnormal.

When we come to know Ourselves, we shall live in such accord with the Laws of Being that our health will “spring forth speedily.”

To learn the truth of Life, we must go to the Basis--Omnipresence. From this standpoint each one of us has a right to say, “I am born of God; I am included in God; I am inseparable from God.” To know God aright is health, eternal health; for to know God aright is to know Self aright in God, of God, like God.

Man has never lost his Divine Nature; he is just discovering it.

To be endowed with Divine Nature is to be endowed with Divine Wholeness. Health therefore, is ours now. Since this is Truth, why are we ill? The question is easily answered. Through ignorance we have false concepts of life; we misinterpret, and live according to our misconceptions. These false views are in themselves inharmony, and conceal from us the great realities--Love, Peace, Joy, Health.

If we believe in many powers, some good, some evil, we fear the evil powers. This attitude of fear shapes all kinds of monsters in our thoughts. We tremble and cringe; slaves to our own imaginings. However, when we understand the Truth of God’s Loving Presence and Infinite Power, our attitude changes; our thinking is illumined; the body is revealed to us as it really is, formed of Spirit-Substance, alive with Divine Life, cared for by Infinite Intelligence--perfect, harmonious, and free always. This realization is health.

Sometimes we perceive Truth and accept it fully, but we are so fixed in the old habit of thought, that realization of freedom does not come readily. How can this intellectual perception be changed to realization?

Realization is brought about by the steadfast practice of the Presence of God.

What is meant by practicing the Presence?

Suppose that I awaken in the morning with the dread of the day upon me. I lie for a moment hard pressed with the burden of work, monotony, or experience, that is ahead of me. Suddenly I remember my decision to practice the Presence. I think of this Presence as Love, the Love in which I live, move, and have my being; the Love that blesses me with strength and joy. I resolve to live by this, and rising quickly, I go joyfully to the day’s activities because I am certain of this loving care. I put aside doubt and read, and rejoice that I am given wisdom to meet every experience in strength. Or, perhaps, I have a tendency to despondency; then the word joy should be my practice for the day. I should repeat as I dress, and as I work, “Joy, joy, I am glad I am alive.” If I remain true to this joyous attitude in every kind of experience, at night I find that this day has been easy, not hard; bright, not gloomy.

If I tend to irritability or quick temper, I must take love as my practice word, and be true to the thought of love until the old habit fades away. Or I may be thrown with those who hold the belief of illness; (if so, then) life, health, peace, would be helpful words. To these I speak silently, living words. “God’s perfect Life is there within you, around you. It is active now for your good. Trust this intelligent Life. It is doing its perfect work.” I must repeat this statement until the truth of it becomes apparent. I must refuse to see the opposite, the shadow side. I must stand true to Reality no matter what the appearance may be.

While I am training myself to live the Truth faithfully, I am growing daily in the Wisdom and Knowledge of God; I am practicing the Presence of health, and I am unfolding steadily into greater realization.

Nona L. BrooksShort Lessons in Divine Science

HOW SHALL WE SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS?

Purpose: To show that problems are not our enemies but our friends; that they are our opportunities to demonstrate. Also to give the three Principles to be demonstrated in solving them.

We are here to grow, and we grow by solving our problems. To solve a problem means to get the right answer. We are not to be resigned to hard conditions--our unsolved problems. We are to solve our problems; and they are to be solved with power. How shall we do this? First of all--

We must take the right attitude toward our environment with its multifold processes.

In order to bring ourselves to this attitude, we are to remember that:

The goal of all growth is the realization of God as the only Presence and Power.

Everyone is on his way to his goal. Some are farther along than others.

Problems vary according to one’s development.

A problem, when rightly met, becomes a stepping stone to greater unfoldment.

Many so-called problems, when understood, are no longer hardships but blessings.

Sometimes more or less quickly according to our faithfulness, we shall realize steadfastly our oneness with the Father. In this realization there are no problems.

The great discovery of the eighteenth century was that law included everything and controlled everything. The still more wonderful discovery of the twentieth century is that law extends also to the inner life of the individual. The mental, moral, and spiritual phases of our being are lawful. It is a marvelous experience for us to come to understand that we are subject to inharmony only as long as we submit to it. Enlightenment will free us. Jesus says, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

As long as we believe that God sends suffering, we shall consider trouble and disease inevitable; but when we come to know the Truth of God’s Omnipresence and are convinced that God is blessing us always with health and all good, we shall see that we do not have to be ill or inharmonious.

We shall accept our birthright of perfect harmony: physical, mental, and spiritual.

Every process, every experience is according to law. We are where we are in circumstance and in development by law, not by chance. As we come into the understanding of the great principles of the universe, and train ourselves to practice these in our thinking, we live powerfully, and problems disappear from our experience.

Strength is brought forth in solving problems. Latent force is evolved that we should otherwise not be conscious of possessing. A problem is a call upon us to come forth--to express what is within. It is an opportunity to learn more of principle, to lay hold of the depth of Being, and to prove its truth. Problems cease as problems; that is, the problematical part ceases, but not the opportunity to demonstrate what we know. A problem solved is no longer a problem.

There will always be the inner and the outer life, or Life-Principle and its visible manifestation. Principle never changes; outer events and incidents vary, and we also change our attitude toward them, thus putting a different interpretation upon them.

Life is not a struggle; it is only lack of consciousness that makes the struggle in living.

Do not call your problems troubles; there is but one trouble in the world--our mental attitude towards things, the view we take of them. Face your troubles; ask the meaning; seek to know the purpose.

There are two ways by which we may get rid of trouble. We may change our mental attitude; we may see everything as opportunity. What once made us weep, will make us happy.

Inharmonies, whether mental or bodily, mean that we have stepped aside from the Path of Truth.

They are the warning voice that says, “Come back; get hold again; be positive.” If we could wander from the consciousness of God’s Presence and be comfortable, we might stay there; but troubles and sickness are the prods that push us back to realize nearness to God. They are continually saying, “Come up higher.” Poverty says, “Bring forth your wisdom and strength. Apply your knowledge and understanding.” As long as we are in the place of changing conditions we need spurs to action. We fill our lives with companionship, not by seeking but by giving. The new phase of life is non-resistance; not taking arms against a sea of trouble, but lifting our thoughts into clear perception. Everything is co-operating with us. We have failed to meet the demand, but the universe is forcing us to co-operate. There is no separation; all is unity. In this consciousness we can see that problems are opportunities.

The three supreme principles that we are to demonstrate in solving our problems are:

I. Unity--
All are expressions of One Whole. All are included in the One.

“There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” is Paul’s way of putting it. Jesus sees himself and us in the Father. Both Paul and Jesus demonstrated this principle when they gave themselves in loving service to humanity.

II. Goodness--

We partake of the nature of God.

To demonstrate this in powerful living, there must be perfect integrity in every relationship--in our domestic, social, and business activities.

III. Abundance--

Mankind, begotten of God, is included in the Life Universal, the Life that abounds in richness.

Each soul shares with all humanity in these Infinite Treasures.

When we take these principles as our working basis, and demonstrate them in our living, we find that one by one our problems are solved. A great peace comes to us. We rejoice in a new realization of Power. We shout from the depths of our being.

All things are possible to him who believes in God’s Allness, God’s Goodness, God’s Abundance.

Nona L. Brooks (Short Lessons in Divine Science)

HOW SHALL WE PRAY?

Purpose: To show why we pray and the best method of prayer.

A new conception of God calls for a new method of prayer. We no longer feel that we must overcome God’s reluctance, but rather that we are to lay hold of His willingness. More willing is He to give than we are to receive. In order, then, to learn how to pray, let us turn to our Basis, Omnipresence. This means God everywhere; therefore God includes me. I can say with authority, “I am in God and God is in me. Therefore I share God-Being, God-Mind, God-Life.” “All mine is thine, saith the Lord.” By sharing Himself with us God gives us every good gift. Before we call, He has supplied. God is Abundance.

If I seem to lack any good thing it is because I have not believed fully in God’s immediate Presence.

God is doing His part. I do not need to beg or to ask Him to do more. But I must do my part.

I must train my thought to recognize steadfastly the immediacy and fullness of God’s Presence.

I must not permit an opposing thought to stay. What is the commonest opposing thought? It is fear; for fear denies the presence of God. Hence we must not permit fear thought to stay for a moment. We can put it out by denying it, and also by substituting for fear its opposite, conscious unity, love; by affirming, “I do not fear, for God is here this moment,” and by repeating this statement with positiveness until all fear goes.

Inharmony of any kind, sickness or lack, shows that we are ignoring God’s presence.

Let us affirm that which is consistent with God-Presence; health, ever-present, changeless health; supply, ever-present, abundant supply.
But this is not all of prayer; in fact, it is the lesser part. Prayer is active communion. There is no passivity or resignation in prayer. When we have prayed, let us answer our own prayer. God has answered it before we called. Let us affirm the presence of All-Good. Our affirmations are for the purpose of clearing our mentality of wrong conceptions and of establishing within it the certainty of God--health, abundance, power, joy.

We bring our own prayers to fulfillment by living them out in our lives.

Let me illustrate: An unhappy condition exists between me and a friend of long standing. It hurts. I learn by turning to my Basis that I can right it by prayer. I deny separation in God-Presence, and affirm, that as children of God, we share His Divine nature and are therefore loving and kind always. I make this prayer once a day or as often as opportunity offers. Now for the answering of this prayer within myself. I must watch my thinking between my prayers, that it keeps true to the prayer. I must let no thought of anger, fear, or hurt stay in my thinking. Perfect Love, which I have affirmed, and which is the Truth of God and of myself, casts out the opposites. I have prayed for perfect love. I must demonstrate it in thought and deed. This is the royal road to heaven--harmony of living.
After praying and living quietly the love prayed for, there usually comes an opportunity to serve the friend; to do something kind for him or her. I must do it with joy and without ostentation of self-consciousness. If the service meets with rebuff, I will not allow myself to be discomfited, but I will persist in my attitude of love, remembering that, “Love endureth all things, thinketh no evil”--conquers every adverse condition.

True prayer which consists of right thinking and right living, never fails.

It corrects our mistakes, makes us healthful, happy, more loving and more efficient; it brings realization of Good along many lines. Praying does all of this by bringing to us a deeper and clearer realization of God-Presence. Through this realization we are uplifted, purified, glorified; we radiate God-Qualities. Our lives are answered prayers. Our word and our work go out into the world from the radiant Center of Truth, to uplift, to bless, to heal.

WHY WE SHOULD BE WATCHFUL OF OUR THINKING?

Purpose: To show the importance of right thinking.

We lay great stress on right thinking, because from thinking comes results in our lives, words and deeds.
If thought is right, we shall speak truly and do our best. Character arises from habit of thought. A man of strong, positive thought will be a man of strong character. Habit of thought is an indication of character. We cannot think loving thoughts and be unkind. Health depends upon our thinking. Environment is also affected by our thinking. If our environment is not such as belongs to one who thinks right thoughts, let us change our thinking.

To change environment or outer conditions we do not have to work directly with them but with our own thinking about them.

If we think rightly, we shall change either our mental attitude toward environment, or environment itself--which ever needs changing. Our accomplishment in every direction, all that we do in the world, in business and in domestic life, is affected by our mental attitude. Hence it is worthwhile to cultivate right habits of thinking.
Every thought writes something. The true thought is recorded faithfully and the untrue thought, with equal certainty.

Every thought, whether spoken or not, brings about a result.

We once believed that it mattered but little how often we grew angry within, if this anger was not expressed, and that we could think ill of one provided that we did not voice the sentiment. Now we know that thought is always recorded outwardly; if not in speech, in other ways. I have often wondered what the effect would be if thought appeared in visible form before us--the good thought as a form, good to see, and the ill thought as an ill-fashioned form. Do you not think that we would then be more careful of our thinking?

All inharmony is the result of letting ourselves think that which is opposite to truth.

Every object has come forth from Mind Universal. Even the house we live in, the clothes we wear, the paintings we admire, were all thought out, then wrought out; the Intelligence that thought these out is Divine, God thinking through man; the Power that wrought these out is God-Power working through man. The world about us is a constant evidence of God’s living thought for us.

Everything rests first in Mind. To know and to grasp this is to lay hold of a wonderful principle.

Thought is based upon perception. To a limited view life is narrow. To a broad full perception, life is deep and rich. Perfect thinking depends upon perfect knowledge. The process by which we learn to think aright is that by which we go below the surface of things and view the situation from this standpoint. He who goes below the surface has insight. Insight reveals the truth of things, and from this the world takes on a new hue. Things that we once resisted, we now feel kindly towards. Instead of struggling to attain, we gain insight into the principle of attainment. We believe the primary truths of Being, and thought born of such understanding expresses the best without struggle.

The first step toward knowing the truth of things is to seek the truth earnestly.

No matter what we have believed, we must be willing to reverse it, if truth reveals a newer version. Truth is ever going to unfold to us more and more, if we hold ourselves receptive. Never stand still and say that there is nothing more. Truth is ever revealing to us that receptivity is the open door through which we shall realize more and more fully the powers of the Universal Life. When we say, “I can go no farther,” we shut ourselves off from that unfoldment. After the perception of fundamental principles what are we to do? We must certainly do more than accept. After perception and acceptance, thought is to be trained in the Truth every day.
We have not seen life truly; hence we have believed in two powers, two substances. The study of Truth teaches us better. This is perception. We lay hold of its meaning, and then think. First, perception comes; then thought-training follows until consciousness becomes clear. After this no more thought training, for right thinking is spontaneous. It comes because we are conscious of Truth, and we enter heaven. We are conscious of our divinity, and we live out this Divinity.

Systematic right thinking solves every problem in our daily lives.

Right thinking leads to the realization that the successful life is the life that meets the purpose for which it is here, and that this purpose is attainment, unfoldment, the development of the individual--the making of a Man. Every experience, condition, and circumstance, that comes to us is for the purpose of our development, and will be helpful according to the spirit in which we meet it, and the wisdom with which we handle it.

Growth is attained through Self-expression.

Self-expression is induced by every demand made upon one, by every hardship, by every so-called obstacle that he meets. The strong man has always had what is called a hard life; how else could he become conscious of strength? How else could he prove his strength?

True thinking shows us the meaning of what we are calling difficulties; they are opportunities for the development of the individual, not hindrances.

“The strong man rejoices to run the race.” If we are to measure the success of life, we must read the soul aright. Here and here alone is the true, and indelible, and infallible witness of all achievements. Here we find the only result worth looking for.

Source: Nona L Brooks

WHY ARE WE HERE?

Purpose: To show man's part in his own salvation.

Individual life is for the purpose of unfoldment; progress is the watchword. In the highest conception it is self-expression. There are two stages in individual development. Of one, Paul speaks: “The heir, so long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.” While the individual is thinking of himself as a slave to everything, and carrying out this belief by existing in a condition of bondage or limitation, he is, all of the time, “lord of all,” but he does not know it. He is developing toward the realization.
There is the childhood and the manhood of the individual. When he is a child in understanding, he has no knowledge of his true nature or of his power. He is ignorant and innocent; but the power of Love is caring for the individual, and he is compelled to develop. In the childhood of the individual, there is always the seeking of happiness, of what the child calls good. Though he may make many errors, this desire is really his prayer, and it is answered by infinite Love in the way that is best for his unfoldment. The Spirit of Wisdom and Love knows better than the one who desires and prays ignorantly. This childhood is a stage of trouble. It takes life as a burden, because of its ignorance.

Manhood comes when the individual knows the Truth of his being or of his eternal and changeless state. When he knows his power, he enters his kingdom and realizes that he is lord of all.

We are now in the transition period, dropping things of childhood, and realizing some of the things of manhood. Childhood is subject to limitation; it separates itself from God and man. Manhood begins to unite, to recognize Universal Presence and Power. Man is touching the hem of the garment of Truth. There is much more to know and greater power to realize. We find the development into manhood, a freeing process; life, instead of slavery, gives mastery. Many are living in the period of childhood; others are passing into manhood. The undeveloped condition breeds poverty, sickness, and death. Happiness therein depends upon the outer, therefore men work hard to bring to themselves money, friends, things--whatever they consider desirable. We shall never get anything from the outer but what we take of it. The thing we meet on every hand is first found within our mentality. Always striving for outer benefits, we are still unhappy, until we find the kingdom within.
Man must redeem his own life. By his mistakes has his conception of life become distorted. By rectifying these mistakes shall his distorted views of life be changed, and his redemption accomplished. Simple living is to be desired above all else.

There is nothing grander than genuine simplicity; nothing that will so cause us to stand out as strong man and woman. The first step toward living simply is directness.

This means that the individual must make his own connection with God, the universal Life. Man must gain spiritual knowledge for himself. “Religion is the life of God in the soul of man.”

Direct living establishes our connection with God.

The realization of this close communion is the purpose of every silence, the outcome of every treatment. When it is attained we can say, “I and my Father are one.” Imagine the power in understanding life from this conscious unity with the Perfect Life.

Man must act directly from the Center of Life within.

This enables one to live what may be called the spontaneous life. Consciousness of life thus gained must go forth expressing as directly as it has received. Such consciousness is not borne in upon by what people are saying; it is not bound by old conventions, but is living from its own center, is thinking and speaking freely and fully, and is beginning to make us lifters rather than leaners.
Our Science stands for law and order. Not to be limited by conventionality does not mean to be lawless. “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night (follows) the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

The direct life does not live on the surface, but goes to the root of things. It connects with the great Central Energy of the Universe, and there is no waste of power or energy in its work.

This directness gives consciousness of power; it ensures a life of peace; it takes away fear. A life of freedom is the fruit of the simple life that comes forth spontaneously as a result of living directly from our inmost Center. Jesus' life was the simplest we can think of. We cannot imagine that he could ever have done anything for the sake of show, or that he refrained from anything for fear of what people would say. Show impresses children; they of fuller understanding appreciate simplicity. Great men are not afraid to act naturally; that is, according to their nature. This does not mean to act unkindly or selfishly, if we feel so. When living in and from that Center within, we shall not hold such feeling; sensitiveness falls away.

Until the true Center of action is found and our consciousness is made alive to our union with that Center within, we act according to conventionalities, and are bound by unnatural laws to man-made limitations.
Thought training will help us to abide in our center. If I feel angry, let me stop and think; let me not speak that feeling, but the opposite. Love spoken will soon destroy every feeling of anger. “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”

Live from within, if you would have power and peace.

Manhood is the goal. We do not ask a child learning to walk to carry a chair across a room. We learn to place each one where he belongs. Keep in thought the ideal man, the perfection of man.

In knowledge of perfection we go forth not to resist or to conquer, but by co-operation, to express.

WHERE IS GOD?

Purpose: To make God's universality and His immediacy still more vivid to the student, and to show that Truth, wherever found, is One.

All flesh shall come to worship before me, saith the Lord. --Isaiah 66:23.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. --Hebrews 8:11.
Schiller says, “There are three words that I would write in tracings of eternal light upon the hearts of men.” And these three words are faith, hope, and love; the same that Paul chose for his wonderful discourse.
There is one word that I would write upon the hearts of men--Omnipresence.
Omnipresence! Repeat it to yourself; say it often; get the fullness of its meaning. It can never grow old; it will never become threadbare; it can never wear out. I prefer it to faith, hope, and love, because it is greater than these. Omnipresence is beyond hope; it is fulfilment. It is greater than either faith or love, because it includes these, and more within itself. Omnipresence, the All-Presence, the Presence that is always present!
This Presence is around us right now, and It is in us; It is around, through, and in all; It fills heaven and earth.
The Presence dwells everywhere even to the uttermost parts of the Universe, now and forever.
What is our name for Omnipresence? “The Presence that filleth all.” We love to speak of it as God, the Father, Infinite Mind, Source and Cause, Principle. It, in fact, makes but little difference what name we use; the vital matter is that we understand this Presence, and live in the consciousness of It.
The realization of Omnipresence! Please go back of the word every time it is used; go in thought to Omnipresence Itself.
The realization of the Presence will bring to us wonderful consciousness not only of our oneness with God but of our unity with all mankind.
This is the foundation of all the good that we may do our fellow men, of all the help we can give them. We can not go into the slums of our large cities with the manner of superior beings sent from a different sphere to a peculiar people, and lead them away from the vice and filth to their own true selves. On the other hand, we, who through consciousness of Omnipresence, come into a true understanding of brotherhood, can extend our hands to these needy ones as man to man, brother to brother, and lead them out of every condition into the understanding of God as a loving Father, and of men as one with Him and one with each other. Herein lies the salvation of the world, and the only salvation there is, for this is Truth, the Christ-Principle.
Omnipresence teaches us that in the depths of each man's heart, no matter how frivolous he may be, or how material and degraded he may seem, there is a consciousness of God.
Feeble, perhaps, in some; but it is there. This consciousness longs to spread itself, to grow until it takes entire possession of the individual. You and I knowing this, may speak to this great consciousness, not always with the lips, but with the heart, always. Let us recognize its presence, and encourage its progress by this steadfast recognition, until we find ourselves in heart to heart comradeship with those we touch in the day's work. In this way alone can we stand side by side with them, and help them to realize their ideal of the purer, truer life; for the ideal is there within each one and it may be realized.
The noblest, the most sacred, the happiest mission in life is to help our fellow men to a higher realization. The privilege of helping is ours. Realization of Omnipresence brings us into closer relation with our fellow men; it introduces into our daily lives that element of love whose warmth and brightness is much needed here.
It brings us into relationship with all that men have believed the world over, for as we take a greater interest in mankind, we desire to know men better, and we are interested in their views on vital subjects. Our desire is to know how much of Truth has been revealed to men, and how much of Omnipresence they have realized. This desire leads us to pay attention to the different faiths presented to the world; and we are glad to find, as we always shall, if we investigate, that there is not so much difference in the teachings of the various religions as we had imagined. For if we are willing to go back of the form of worship, back of the word to the heart of each, no matter how material it may seem at first, we shall find Omnipresence declaring Itself even there.
The following quotations from Ebers give, he says, a brief summary of what have been found to be some of the secret teachings of the Egyptian priesthood, kept secret because they thought that they could disclose these to the favored few only, who on account of special virtue or wisdom, were ready to comprehend them.
“We know that the Godhead is one; we name it ‘The All,' ‘The Veil of the All,' or simply Ra; but under the name, Ra, we understand something different from that which is known to the common herd; for to us the universe is God and, in each of its parts, we recognize a manifestation of that highest Being without whom nothing is, in the heights above or in the depths below.
“Whether we view the sun, the harvest, or the Nile, whether we contemplate with admiration the harmony or unity of the visible or the invisible world, still it is always with the only, the all-embracing One that we have to do, to whom we also ourselves belong as those of His manifestations in which he places His self-consciousness.”
Again we read, “All that He--the One--has created is penetrated with His own essence and bears witness to His goodness. He who knows how to find Him, sees Him everywhere, and lives at every instant in the enjoyment of His glory.”
Our oneness with God, with our fellow men and with the Truth as it is found in all religions is a result of a realization of Omnipresence.
There is still something more that Omnipresence reveals to us--our oneness with the entire creation. When we understand this, it is very precious to us; for man is restored to his rightful position of unity with, instead of subjection to, the visible. When we look upon the mountains, the plains, the flowers, the trees, and the animal world, let us say within ourselves, “The same Power that formed my body formed them; the same Presence that dwells in me, is in them.” We are one, for are we not the same in origin, in substance, and in life? Then, indeed, shall we find “sermons in stones, books in running brooks, and good in everything.” With this understanding comes the realization of our true dominion, and of our perfect freedom from so-called physical law.
Our realization of Omnipresence does not make it true, but because it is true we may realize it; and this realization will broaden our individuality to the length, breadth, height, and depths of the Universe. There is but one thing that Omnipresence does not include and that is-- What shall I call it? Ignorance, false beliefs, darkness, sin. Call it what you will.
That which is opposed to God--of an opposite nature--has no place in Omnipresence for, broad as it is, there is room for but one, and that one is God.”
“I am God, and there is none else.” --Isa. 45:22.

What is the Religion of Divine Science?

Purpose: To stimulate the student in his realization that the all important thing in his life is Love to God and to his fellow men.
It is necessary to know fundamental truth in order to live a well-directed life. This basic truth, Omnipresence, has been considered in the two preceding chapters. It is necessary to know the method of attainment, and this was given in the preceding lesson. However, there is still something that is necessary. We may understand both the philosophy and the psychology of Divine Science, and yet, if this be held as purely intellectual knowledge, it is not satisfying; we long for something more. Faithful practice of the principles given in these two phases of Divine Science brings to us the realization of the third phase, which is Love, the religion of Divine Science.
Religion, the realization of Love, brings richness, beauty, joy; it is true and abiding companionship with all there is; it gives us ability to serve with power, as well as to meet every human need, every soul hunger.
We usually interpret Love as conscious unity. Another satisfying interpretation is, “Love is out-streaming good-will.” We may think about God and our fellow men in just the right way, without realizing this out-streaming good-will which is the essential in every relationship. Such a man will be called good, just, and upright, a man of fine character; but he has missed the very essence of life, the feeling of oneness, of companionship with God, and the joy of cooperation, of companionship with his fellow men. This man cannot evidence power in what he does; nor does he call forth love from others. A person of this sort is good but he is lonely, He has missed the secret of companionship and power.
An understanding of the principles of life is necessary; it is also essential to practice these in right thinking and right living; but it is religion, the realization of love, the warmth which glows through every experience, that truly blesses and uplifts.
If one is trying to progress without learning the meaning of God-Love, he is trying to tread the path without the light of day. If one is trying to preach, teach, or heal, without embodying in his thinking and living the never failing Power, Divine Love, he is but sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
Love is the supreme gift; it is the kingdom of God within us.
“God is Love, and he who dwells in Love, dwells in God, and God in him.”
Jesus gives two commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Paul sees that “Love is the fulfilling of the law”; that, above prophecy, above the understanding of mysteries, above knowledge, faith, and deeds of charity, is Love. To John who loved most was given wonderful visions of Truth.
Love is the only way to realize Truth, Life, Self, All. A pure fervent love for God is followed by love for all.
Not love for one alone,
But man as man thy brother own.
--Goethe.
Let us practice love in our thinking and in our doing.
Is there a dreaded task ahead? Let us delight in service.
Is there suffering? Let us know that Divine Love is the healing Presence.
Is there limitation in any way? Let us know that God is abundance and that God is Love; Love shares its abundance with all.
Do you know anyone who is fearing or disliking another? Know that there is blessing and perfect forgiveness.

HOW SHALL WE APPLY THE TRUTH OF OMNIPRESENCE

Purpose: To show that, through the application of Truth to the experiences of the day, each one of us may banish sickness and all inharmony.
This little book is for students, and it is taken for granted that you who are reading this lesson now have been faithful in your study and practice of Omnipresence, and that consequently you have realized the blessedness of a fuller understanding of its Truth.
Now, the questions come: How can I make this Truth practical in my own life? How can I apply it more definitely to the experiences of the day? How can I use it in helping others to freedom from sickness and inharmony of every kind?
The following suggestions are helpful:
Let us think of Omnipresence as Mind - the Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding of the Universal One, which evidences Itself as intelligence in the forms and forces of nature. In this understanding our affirmations will be
Omnipresence is Mind, the Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding of the Universe.
Mind is here.
Mind includes me.
The province of Mind is to think.
The Universal Mind thinks according to Its Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding.
Thought, the activity of Mind, is the Creative Power of the Universe.
All things (forms) are thoughts of God.
The Law of the Universe is--Like begets like; thought is like the thinker.
God-Thought is Godlike; hence, God pronounces His Creation Good.
Universal Intelligence--God Mind active everywhere--Substance in manifestation--is Form, Man, the Individual.
Like begets like--the Individual is Godlike.
The individual is begotten of God-Substance, Spirit; is formed by God-Intelligence; is partaker of God-Nature, Goodness.
This is the true state of Man.
All Substance is God-Substance; hence all Substance is perfect.
Substance does not change its nature by taking form.
Man, begotten of the Father, the Perfect Source, is perfect.
Each man can say, My true state is perfection.
Study the foregoing until it is yours.
Now let us apply this Principle to the problems of the day.
In sickness what should we do?
Sit quietly and alone. Think for a few moments: “God is here” Read thoughtfully the preceding affirmations. When our thought, through this method, has been fully withdrawn from externals, let us repeat several times: “God is Love; God is Peace.” There comes a wonderful sense of the Presence; a great joy fills us because we are certain, very certain, of God and of God’s Goodness.
While the blessedness of this realization is upon us let us turn our thought in deep love to the one whom we wish to help. We must forget the claim of sickness, or weakness, that is being made for him and by him, and know only the Truth. It helps sometimes to think directly to the person: “You are God’s child; God’s love surrounds you and cares for you; God’s Life is yours. In the light of the Great Reality I see you perfect, free from the delusion of sin, sickness, death. I see you whole with God’s Wholeness; I rejoice to speak this word for you; it is the Father that speaketh in me. The word of God is powerful to bless.”
Never stop treating until you have made yourself certain of the truth, and with this certainty comes a feeling of rest; personal responsibility slips away as the assurance of God, the Living Factor in our lives, comes.
However, do not think that you have done your full part with this treatment. There is more help that you can give, and that is to take with you into the activities of the day this faith that you have realized in your time of meditation. Do not give credence to human opinion in regard to your patient.
Have faith in God’s Presence as the Reality that is greater than climate, food, so-called material conditions, or human conceptions.
Again, if you wish to bring about concord between two persons where inharmony has seemed to prevail, the method would be the same. The thought emphasized should be that they both partake of the One Nature, Love, and that “Love is the Divine Adjuster.”
If you wish to realize supply, withdraw thought from the contemplation of lack and its accompanying inconveniences, and give full attention to ever present abundance.
Live as if you believed in abundance; pay every debt, no matter how great the sacrifice; be true in every business transaction; be generous in attitude.
Rejoice in your good.
Demonstration is money in hand. Do not spend ahead of your realization, but get the realization of plenty. God is Abundance, and the Father has said, “All mine is thine.”
What is the conclusion of the whole matter? What is the psychology of Divine Science? That we live in a Universe of Mind whose activity is Thought or Life.
That there is but One Mind. That we are dealing with One Mind, not many minds.
That all of our functions have a spiritual import. That we think and act in and by the One Mind. Hence, Life abounds in the richness of Universal Thinking. The truth of life is the truth of the Individual, Life’s expression. Each man can say, “I live in Universal Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding. This realization frees me from every limitation placed upon me by my misconceptions or those of the race.”
“God is my Father; I have no human heritage of thinking or of doing.”
“God is my environment; I know no other presence.”
“Love is my nature; I acknowledge no opposite.”
“In God I am complete.”

Source: Nona L Brooks - Short Lessons in Divine Science

SHORT LESSONS IN DIVINE SCIENCE

Lesson 1 - What is the Fundamental Teaching of Divine Science?

Purpose: To give the student a simple and definite statement of the Principle upon which all Divine Science reasoning and every conclusion is based.

This lesson deals with Omnipresence, our basic teaching in Divine Science, and gives our reasons for believing in this Supreme Truth of the Universe. Divine Science lays its greatest emphasis upon Omnipresence. It is vital that the student should have this fundamental truth thoroughly grounded in thought before he proceeds to consider the further unfoldment of this system of teaching.
Knowledge of Omnipresence is necessary if one is to realize his God-given power.
Omnipresence! hopefully you will get a great deal of meaning out of this word, and that you will come to love it as I do. Moreover, I hope that what it suggests will come to be the very Guiding Power of your life.
Omnipresence! The many in the One and the One in the many; the All-Knowing, All Powerful One.
All forms and forces are the expressions of Omnipresent, Intelligent Substance. There is just one Creator.
He who is religiously inclined, clothes this Supreme Truth in religious phraseology, and speaks of the All-Inclusive One as God. The scientifically inclined thinker will speak of the Infinite and Eternal Energy, the Cosmic Intelligence, from which all things proceed; while the philosopher will delight in the transcendent and immanent One.
Be certain that the idea--there is One and only One in all the universe--is clear to you, whatever form in language the thought may take.
“All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the Soul.”
Spirit, Living Substance, God, is everywhere, and there is no other substance. Mind, the Infinite Intelligence of God, is everywhere, and there is no other intelligence.
Hence, we live in a Universe of God-Substance and God-Thought. To one who sees this, there comes the fulfilment of the prophecy of the new heaven and the new earth.
Divine Science did not accept lightly its doctrine of Omnipresence; and the years of teaching and demonstrating this Principle have proved its certainty.
Here are some of the reasons that have led us to accept Omnipresence as Truth:
The great spiritual seers of every age have believed it.
The Bible gives the same thought in many different ways.
Poets have sung it, and philosophers have used it as the basis of their philosophical systems.
Nature in her infinite variety of expressions proves Omnipresent Intelligence and Activity.
Jesus teaches it at every point.
It is interesting to see that even the natural scientists have discovered the same truth, and while some of them might reject the thought, when given in terms other than their own, nevertheless they are expressing the same idea very definitely. They affirm one substance in place of the many once proclaimed; they find one intelligence working everywhere, with one purpose, to one end. Therefore, unity has become a principle of natural science.
Again, the concept of Omnipresence is satisfying to the one who goes back of externals, and grasps the reality of things. It gives a principle of interpretation. It opens up new fields of research. It is a continuous delight mentally and spiritually.
When we accept Omnipresence as a working hypothesis; that is, when we assume Omnipresence to be Truth and live as if it were Truth, we find that our Principle works. It is applicable to all of our experiences and problems. We find healing, happiness, power, and success for ourselves and others, through the application of this Truth, that is, through the practice of the Presence of God.
The highest reason for the acceptance of Omnipresence is that when one has truly laid hold of the God-Consciousness, he knows that the One Presence is All.
First, then, in the attainment of power is the acceptance of this Basis, the Omnipresence, as the Truth of the Universe.
[8] Or, if we cannot do this honestly, let us assume it as a working basis, in order that we may have the opportunity of proving for ourselves its truth. We who accept fully shall get easier and quicker results. We who assume this hypothesis shall, in time, discover for ourselves. We shall grow and shall finally be assured.
The reader is urged to make the contents of this chapter his own through study and practice, that he may be prepared to understand the next and to get full benefit from it. The following suggestions are given for daily practice for a week.

Think on the great Truth of Omnipresence in some such way as this--
Omnipresence is Truth.
This means that:
God includes me now.
God-Love is caring for me now.
God-Wisdom is guiding me now, in this problem.
God-Abundance is supplying my present need.
I can trust this Power and must not fear.
I am thankful for the Truth that makes me free.
These affirmations may be applied to others whom you wish to help.
Live faithfully by these truths, and you will find yourself unfolding into the realization of Power.

Source: Nona L Brooks; Short Lessons in Divine Science

CONSCIOUS CO-OPERATION

It is when simple consciousness becomes self-consciousness, and apprehension becomes comprehension, that man, unlike the young child begins to perceive the relation which one thing bears to another, whether it be in the world of art or literature, mathematics or metaphysics, all of which sciences are.

The assertion that it is as necessary for the soul to rise above the plane of sense in order to "know God," as it is for the intellect to rise above the general, in order to understand the particular, is based on the truth that the child must, through education, gradually learn that a house is a thing composed of many other things, all of which must bear harmonious relation to every other thing, before that one thing which he calls a house can become the thing it is.

Man must now rise as a spiritual being to the perception of his relation to Great First Cause. It is at this point of the perception of his relation to First Cause that man becomes religious in a true sense of the word, for it is at this point that he realises that an evolution which has gone on until this moment by Cosmic or subconscious processes must, from now on, continue through conscious co-operation. He has arrived where the responsibility of working out his salvation on a more elevated plane presents itself, and with such knowledge he springs to his task, as one who knows that all things are now within his reach and only awaiting the taking and the enjoying.

Equipped with the consciousness of his Divinity, man must commence at once to lift up his thoughts to the hills of Spirit from whence cometh his help. The ordinary man becomes an extraordinary man in the sense that he accomplishes now by the aid of his new concept of himself, what he never could have accomplished so long as he rested under the belief of himself as a material individual, subject to material laws. Apparently living in a world of chance and change, he learns that he is really living in a Universe of immutable harmony, where "All things do really work together for good".

Working for Good always on the plane of the Universal, the Law will work for Good for the individual on the plane of the particular, only as he works consciously with it. The perfect way of working with the Law is through understanding, and inviting the blessings of right thinking.

We are learning that the kingdom to which Jesus refers is not something afar-off and outside oneself and one's present experiences, but that it is something near, very near, and inside of oneself, as that state of content which is based on the knowledge that, "In the universe that is filled with the presence of God there is no room for evil".

This brings us to the understanding of the one-ness of Jesus with the Source of all-Being. That it is the one-ness of all with the Source of Being, for unless the all is one with the Source it is bereft of reality. The one-ness of each individual with the Universal is a Truth which can never be offset, but the individual must know this Truth; otherwise he will never be free from the belief that he is separate, or separated from God.

It is this belief that we are separated from God which is the cause of all our problems; therefore the conviction that "Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus", is the one which is to bring about our emancipation from all that is contrary to health, happiness and holiness.

When man learns to govern his life according to Principle rather than by personal opinion, he will not be swayed by externals. Realising that he lives and move and has his being in that Eternal order where Harmony is the only state of consciousness, he will understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Nothing shall by any means hurt you," for he will know that no thing which has proceeded from Principle, can be in any wise injurious, and he will acknowledge nothing that does not proceed from It.

It is the restoration of man to his divine rights that is the crowning glory of the mission of the Master, and this restoration can never be brought about save as it is brought about by man's intelligent co-operation with Divine Law. There can be no co-operation without understanding or true knowledge of man's divine rights; and this is what Truth is intended to convey.

One accept the fact that Great First Cause is Spirit or Mind, and we must admit that Man as Great First Effect is spiritual or mental, and that what seems to be material in connection with man is nothing more nor less than man’s material concepts of himself at a certain period of his mental unfoldment.

It is these material concepts that Truth has come to destroy, so that we may enter into the enjoyment of those things which God has prepared for us from before the foundation of the world.

We should realise that there are no material laws, but that All laws are mental for through this admission it'll enable us to avail ourselves to those mental laws, and thus rise above our accepted limitations by a purely mental process; the process of Thought, for "Thoughts are things" and the most real things in the universe.

The difference between God's universe and man’s world, is the difference between law and order, and chaos and confusion. The only way for man to conform his world to God's universe is to learn to form mental pictures of the Ideal, that is, to think of things as they are in contradistinction to things as they appear to be to his disorderly senses.

The law of Mind has no limits. We are limited in our application of the law by our belief that it has limits. We are not merely affected and influenced by our thoughts, but we are what we are, in actuality and in manifestation, that which our thoughts have made us. All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Whether we ascend the loftiest heights or descend into the lowest depth, we shall never go out of out mental realm; it will always be our own thought that we shall perceive.

Man is free to direct his attention, which is his concentrated thought, as he chooses, but he must choose in accordance with law and order if he would have law and order prevail in his affairs.

SCIENTIFIC PRAYER: What It Is – How You Can Use It

Our faith is based upon the conviction that the infinite Mind has all Intelligence, all Ability, all Power, all Wisdom, and knows how to create anything. We can think of the most difficult thing it is possible for finite minds to imagine, and can rest in the assurance that Mind knows how to solve the problem or to create the new conditions.

Our faith is likewise based upon the fact that the Universe is a system of Law and Order, and the Law of Mind always responds according to the nature of our thought. The Law never reasons with us, saying, “You know, I don’t think that would be a good thing for you to have.” We have faith in the undeviating neutrality of the Law. It has no preferences. It never draws backs and says, “That goes against the grain with me.” It is absolutely neutral. If It could talk to us if would say, “You go ahead and name it, and I’ll make it. “It does not like to make one kind of things more than another. It is willing to create whatever we dictate through out pattern of thought. The Law is an intangible principle of Mind that operates in this unswerving, obedient way because Its nature is to do so.

We are able to consciously avail ourselves to the action of the Law when we recognise its nature. When we understand that the mind in man is an individualisation of the Mind of God, Spirit, then we know when we speak our word of Good that it is the word of Spirit which is being spoken, which is the Law of its own fulfilment. We rise far above the idea of man standing erect and calling upon the great Creative Mind to do his bidding.

For when man speaks his word, being the expression of God, that word becomes the word of God and is manifest.

When we pray, we have a definite intention in our thought and the prayer is being given for a specific purpose. We become quiet within our thought and reassure ourselves of the reality of the infinite Power with which we are dealing, erecting an altar of faith and conviction in the sanctuary of our consciousness.

Next we make a series of statements, which should flow from our conviction, since there’s no magic in the words themselves. The statements used should flow spontaneously from our awareness of the Perfection of God now manifesting.

We are convincing ourselves

If we wish to pray for an increased activity in our affairs, our statement must be so formulated as to convince ourselves of that activity. Our whole endeavour is to convince ourselves and assure ourselves that there is a Divine activity in our affairs, that this activity is functioning in everything we do. It is surrounding us with love and friendship; it goes before us and prepares our way; it opens the doorway of opportunity for us and compels us to make right judgements, to act intelligently; it inspires both our thoughts and our actions. Spirit enlightens our minds and gives enthusiastic buoyancy to our acts.

We also can state that our word removes all doubt, fear and uncertainty.

When a prayer is released, it is a completed thing. It is then in the hands of the Law and will be carried forward into manifestation, just as it is.

The person who speaks his word, releases it, but is filled with doubt and misgiving as to whether it will ever be fulfilled, has his answer right then. That prayer will be answered, but in reverse.

All prayers are answered, although not always in the way we would like. But they area answered according to the individuals pattern of thinking and conviction at that time.

If our prayers are released, as Jesus’ were, with the fullest confidence that the Law can do nothing else but answer them, our demonstrations will come thick and fast. If they are released with only partial acceptance, then they will be only partially answered. If they are released with little or no inward conviction, then the answers will be of a like nature. There is no escape from this, and no exception. Remember, we are dealing with inexorable Law, which never deviates and never varies. It knows only to obey.

The Law of Mind is impersonal, like the law of electricity, which will move into action for anyone who observes the principles governing its flow. Anyone may press the button, the electricity doesn’t care who it is, for its nature is to flow at the touch of that button.

The Law of Mind will always flow in the direction of constructive creative activity when we understand and apply the principles by which It works. We have the mightiest force in all the world to command. We can step out of a prison of ignorance and fear, and into the light of a constructive expectancy which will remake our world for us.

The Value of Giving Thanks

In releasing our word to the action of the Law we do so with a glad and thankful heart. Giving thanks is a further indication that we have fully released our word. It means that we are sure of the completion of the creative process; that there are no lingering doubts.

When one has done his work thoroughly and well, he can turn his back upon the prayer, give thanks for its certainty, and rejoice in its fulfilment, even though he has not seen it outwardly fulfilled as yet.

At some time or another we have to become quiet and in the solitude of our own thought, discover for ourselves what we actually believe, and then proceed to put that faith into creative action through patterns of thinking build around that faith.

Theories are fine but meaningless except for idle speculation unless we practically apply them to any and all problems and situations which may confront us. It is wonderful to say we believe in prayer, but what can it mean to us unless we pray?

There comes a time in the process of our own growth and development when we have learned enough and we must start using what we have learned. Otherwise we can find ourselves spending a lifetime gathering together ideas which will be just a mass of interesting information of no practical value.

Regardless of how little or how much we may feel we have learned about the Science of Mind, the only time to start to make use of it is now. We have to start using today whatever we may know or we shall find that the time never comes when we feel we know enough.

The real secret to the practical application lies not in how much we know, but in the application of what we do know. And the application means only that we have to apply it, not just think about applying it.

The results, large or small, much or little, depend entirely on the degree of conscientious endeavour, enthusiasm and joy, conviction and faith we can bring to bear on any particular situation.

No one else can do any of this for us. We alone must do the applying, for the Science of Mind is to be a practical dynamic factor in everyday living. It’s up to us.

Source: Ernest Holmes

THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION

It has been said that the development of true personality depends largely, if not altogether, on concentration. By this is meant that the focusing of thought on a specific subject or object is the one thing needed to the understanding of the subject or the acquiring of the object.

The creative capacity in man is like the creative capacity in God, for it is and must be the result of unwavering direction. “If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light, “said the Master, and James declares that, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

A man’s eye is not single when his attention is easily drawn away from the thing he desires to be, or do. Hence the innumerable failures in the world.

Nothing successfully interferes with true and constructive concentration as the common tendency to judge after appearances. Appearances may indicate that conditions are greater tIt has been said that the development of true personality depends largely, if not altogether, on concentration. By this is meant that the focusing of thought on a specific subject or object is the one thing needed to the understanding of the subject or the acquiring of the object.

The creative capacity in man is like the creative capacity in God, for it is and must be the result of unwavering direction. “If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light, “said the Master, and James declares that, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

A man’s eye is not single when his attention is easily drawn away from the thing he desires to be, or do. Hence the innumerable failures in the world.

Nothing successfully interferes with true and constructive concentration as the common han man’s capacity to overcome them, and so long as man believes they are, they will be so to him. The believer will be conquered by his own beliefs.

When a man thinks or believes that negative conditions or limitation are larger than his power to overcome them, he is concentrating on a falsity.

Concentration is the art and the science of discrimination. It is the capacity to separate the wheat of the real from the chaff of the apparent, for it is only as we are able to do this that error can be overcome by Truth.

The tendency of an idea or mental picture is to externalise itself, unless it is inhibited by negative thinking. Those who think in the negative bring into their lives negative conditions such as sickness and failure, those who are a mixture of negative and positive thinking, swing between success and failure. Those who have discovered the wisdom of dwelling” In the secret place of the Most High” which is the art of concentrating on the real, makes it appear.

Jesus had formed the habit of concentrating on the Real or the things that are made of God, and by so doing it was easy for Him to see through appearances.

Man in ignorance regard the abnormal as real and as normal, and then wonders why man is persistently tormented by the abnormal and the unnatural. So long as man continues in this state of mind, man shall speak of the awful uncertainty of things. The awful uncertainty is not in things but in man, and it will ever continue to be so until Truth is known, and the Truth is that, only, that which is real, of which God is the Author.

“All things were made by God, and with Him was not anything made that was made”

We shall know what are the things that were made by God, when we know that God is not the author of confusion but of peace. When we can discern that whatever is confusing (i.e. sickness, anxiety and poverty) is not of God, no matter how real these seem to be, we shall have arrived at the place in our spiritual development where we can say none of these things (appearances) moves us. Then we shall know the meaning of the words, to them gave He dominion.

Concentrating on the things that are, the appearances which seem to be, will be eliminated, and being eliminated from consciousness they will cease to have power over us, for it is in consciousness that man suffers or not suffer at all.

To fill consciousness, therefore, with the things of God, is to render it empty of all else, and when consciousness is empty of all else , then God manifests Himself as Health, and Wholeness, for it is only as such He can be manifested. Just as the sun can manifest itself only in that which is of its own nature, such as light and heat, so God can manifest Himself only in that which reflects Beauty and Harmony, Perfection and Purity.

Whatever, then, we desire, only that which is good on the principle that only the good endures, we should keep on thinking it with greatest persistency, for by so doing we shall bring good into our experiences according to the eternal law of attraction.

Do we desire health, think it, and let us never allow ourselves to be diverted from thinking it.

It is because health is in us that we are able to through thinking health to bring it into manifestation. We must externalise it through the intelligent direction of the only power with which God has equipped us for this pleasant and profitable duty. This power is the power of mind, for as James Allen says,

‘Man is mind, and evermore
He takes the tool of thought
And, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand ills,
He thinks in secret and it comes to pass,
Environment is but his looking glass”



Source: W John Murray (Mental Medicine 1923)