should not overlook; that point is the difference between those who perceive their sonship as a possibility, and those who have demonstrated it in their lives. "Ye must be born anew," was the proclamation of Jesus. The first birth is the human--the self-consciousness of man as an intellectual and physical being; the second birth, the being "born anew" is the transformation and translation of the human to a higher plane of consciousness as the son of God.
19. The second birth is that in which we "put on Christ" It is a process of mental adjustment and body transmutation that takes place right here on earth. "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" is an epitome of a mental and physical change that may require years to work out. But all men must go through this change before they can enter into eternal life and be as Jesus Christ is.
20. This being "born anew," or "born from above," is not a miraculous change that takes place in man; it is the establishment in his consciousness of that which has always existed as the perfect-man idea in Divine Mind. God created man in His "image" and "likeness" God being Spirit, the man that He creates is spiritual. It follows as a logical sequence that man, on the positive, formative, creative side of his nature, is the direct emanation of his Maker; that he is just like his Maker; that he is endowed with creative power, and that his very being is involved in God-Mind which he is releasing by his creative thought. It is to this spiritual man that the Father says: "All things that are mine are thine."
21. Understanding of the status of all men in Divine Mind gives us a new light upon the life of Jesus of Nazareth and makes plain many of His seemingly mysterious statements. This spiritual consciousness, or Christ Mind, was quickened in Him, and through it He realized His relation to First Cause. When asked to show the Father, whom He constantly talked to as if He were personally present, He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." His personality had been merged into the universal. The mind of Being and the thought of Being were joined, and there was no consciousness of separation or apartness.
22. Everything about man presages the higher man. Foremost of these prophesies is the almost universal desire for the freedom that spiritual life promises, freedom from material limitations. The immortal perception spurs man on to invent mechanical devices that will carry him above limitations. For example, he flies by means external. In his spiritual nature he is provided with the ability to overcome gravity; when this power is developed, it will be common to see men and women passing to and fro in the air, without wings or mechanical appliances of any description.
23. The human organism has a world of latent energies waiting to be brought into manifestation. Distributed throughout the body are many nerve centers whose offices are as yet but vaguely understood. In the New Testament, which is a work on spiritual physiology, these centers are referred to as "cities" and "rooms." The "upper room" is the very top of the head. Jesus was in this "upper room" of His mind when Nicodemus came to see Him "by night"--meaning the ignorance of sense consciousness. It was in this "upper room" that the followers of Jesus prayed until the Holy Spirit came upon them. The superconsciousness, or Christ Mind, finds its first entrance into the natural mind through this higher brain center. By thought, speech, and deed this Christ Mind is brought into manifestation. The new birth is symbolically described in the history of Jesus.
24. "Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not."
Statements For The Realization Of The Son Of God
(To be used in connection with Lesson Two)
1. I am the son of God, and the Spirit of the Most High dwells in me.
2. I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father.
3. I am the lord of my mind, and the ruler of all its thought people.
4. I am the Christ of God.
5. Through Christ I have dominion over my every thought and word.
6. I am the beloved son in whom the Father is well pleased.
7. Of a truth I am the son of God.
8. All that the Father has is mine.
9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
10. I and my Father are one.
11. My highest ideal is a perfect man.
12. My next highest ideal is that I am that perfect man.
13. I am the image and likeness of God, in whom is my perfection.
14. It is written in the law of the Lord, "Ye are gods, and . . . sons of the Most High."
15. These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.
Lesson Three
Manifestation
1. As a rule, religious people are not scientific. They think that religion and science are separated by a gulf, and that the scientific mind is spiritually dangerous. Science, to them, is associated with Darwin, Huxley, and other students of natural law who have been skeptical about the accuracy of the Bible from the standpoint of natural science, and whom, because of this skepticism, they brand as infidels. Hence it has come to be almost heresy for a good Christian to think about his religion as having a "scientific" side.
2. By science we mean the systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge. This definition does not confine science to the facts of the material world. There is a science in Christianity, and it is only through the understanding of this science as a fundamental of Christianity that the Christ teachings can be fully demonstrated in the life of man. To fail to understand the science upon which spiritual understanding rests is to fail in nearly every demonstration of its power. Paul says: "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also."
3. There is a gulf between the high spiritual understanding and the material manifestation. It is only by bridging this gulf that science and religion can be reconciled. The bridge needed is the structure that thought builds. When Christians understand the science of thinking, the power of thought to manifest itself, and how the manifestation of thought is accomplished, they will no longer fear material science; when material scientists have fathomed the real nature of the living force that they even now discern as ever active in all nature's structures, they will have more respect for religion.
4. Both the religionist and the physicist incorrectly hold that the Bible is a historical description of man's creation. Beginning with the very first chapter of Genesis, the Bible is an allegory. It is so regarded by the majority of Hebrew scholars, and they certainly ought to know the character of their own Scriptures. Paul was a Hebrew, and thoroughly versed in the occultism of spiritual writings; he said, referring to the story of Abraham and Sarah, "Which things contain an allegory." Hebrews almost universally claim that the story of the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, and the serpent is symbology.
5. In the face of these facts, it seems strange that orthodox Christianity should insist that the Bible is a literal history. It is this literal viewpoint that has stood in the way of true spiritual understanding.
