of God, be fulfilled. If this were not true, the universe would be weak at its most vital point. Desire is the onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul. It builds from within outward and carries its fulfillment with it as a necessary corollary.
All is mind. Then the things that appear must be expressions of mind. Thus mind is reality, and it also appears as phenomena. The is-ness of mind is but one side of it. Being is not limited to the level of is-ness; it has all possibilities, including that of breaking forth from its inherencies into the realm of appearances. Mind has these two sides, being and appearance, the visible and the invisible. To say that mind is all and yet deny that things do appear to have any place in the allness is to state but half the truth.
An idea is capable of statement as a proposition. The statement is made in response to a desire to know experimentally whether the proposition is capable of proof. A number of elements are involved in the statement of a proposition that are not integral parts of the proposition itself but necessary to its working out. In the simplest mathematical problem processes are used that are not preserved after the problem is solved yet that are necessary to its solution. The figures by the use of which we arrived at the solution are immediately forgotten, but they could not be dispensed with and it is to them we owe the outcome. The exact outcome of each step in the solution is a matter of experiment. The intermediate steps may be changed or retracted many times, but ultimately the problem is solved and the fulfillment of the desired result attained. If this is true of the simplest problem in arithmetic it is equally true of the creation of the universe. "As above, so below." Here is where many who have caught sight of the perfection and wholeness of the ideal fail to demonstrate. They deny the appearance because it does not express perfection in its wholeness.
The student in the depths of a mathematical problem who should judge thus would erase all his figures because the answer was not at once apparent, though he may have already completed a good part of the process leading up to the desired answer. We would not say that a farmer is wise who cuts down his corn in the tassel because it does not show the ripened ears. Do not jump to conclusions. Study a situation carefully in its various aspects before you decide. Consider both sides, the visible and the invisible, the within and the without.
The very fact that you have an ideal condition or world in your mind carries with it the possibility of its fulfillment in expression. Being cannot shirk expression. To think is to express yourself, and you are constantly thinking. You may deny that the things of the outer world have existence, yet as long as you live in contact with them you are recognizing them. When you affirm being and deny the expression of being, you are a "house divided against itself."
We have all wondered why we do not understand more truth than we do or why it is necessary to understand at all, since God is all-wise and all-present. Understanding is one of the essential parts of your I AM identity. Man is a focal point in God consciousness and expresses God. Therefore he must understand the processes that bring about that expression. Infinite Mind is here with all its ideas as a resource for man, and what we are or become is the result of our efforts to accumulate in our own consciousness all the attributes of infinite Mind. We have learned that we can accumulate ideas of power, strength, life, love, and plenty. How should we use these ideas or bring them into outer expression without understanding? Where shall we get this understanding save from the source of all ideas, the one Mind? "But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
In following the principles of mathematics we use rules. There is a rule of addition that we must observe when we add; other rules that must be followed when we subtract or multiply. The ideas of Divine Mind can only be expressed when we follow the rules or laws of mind, and these rules require understanding if we would follow them intelligently and achieve results. Man is given all power and authority over all the ideas of infinite Mind, and the idea of wisdom is one of them.
Closely associated with the idea of wisdom in Divine Mind is the idea of love. These ideas are the positive and the negative pole of the creative Principle. "Male and female created he them." The ideas of God-Mind are expressed through the conjunction of wisdom and love. God commanded that these two ideas should be fruitful and multiply and replenish the whole earth with thoughts in expression.
We have access to the divine realm from which all thoughts are projected into the world. We are constantly taking ideas from the spiritual world and forming them into our own conception of the things we desire. Sometimes the finished product does not satisfy or please us. That is because we have taken the idea away from its true parents, wisdom and love, and let it grow to maturity in an atmosphere of error and ignorance.
In the matter of money or riches we have taken the idea of pure substance from the spiritual realm, then have forgotten the substance idea and tried to work it out in a material atmosphere of thought. It was a wonderful idea, but when we took it away from its spiritual parents wisdom and love, it became an unruly and disappointing child. Even if without love and understanding of substance you accumulate gold and silver, your store will not be stable or permanent. It will fluctuate and cause you worry and grief. There are many people who "don't know the value of a dollar," with whom money comes and goes, who are rich today and poor tomorrow. They have no understanding of the substance that is the underlying reality of all wealth.
To have adequate supply at all times, an even flow that is never enough to become a burden yet always enough to meet every demand, we must make union with the Spirit that knows how to handle ideas as substance. Men have the idea that material substance is limited, and they engage in competition trying to grab one another's money. Divine Mind has ideas of substance as unlimited and everywhere present, equally available to all. Since man's work is to express substance ideas in material form, we must find a way to connect ideas of substance with ideas of material expression, to adjust the ideas of man's mind with the ideas of Divine Mind. This is accomplished by faith through prayer.
That part of the Lord's Prayer which reads, "Give us this day our daily bread," is more correctly translated, "Give us today the substance of tomorrow's bread." By prayer we accumulate in our mind ideas of God as the substance of our supply and support. There is no lack of this substance in infinite Mind. Regardless of how much God gives, there is always an abundance left. God does not give us material things, but Mind substance--not money but ideas--ideas that set spiritual forces in motion so that things begin to come to us by the application of the law.
It may be that you solve your financial problem in your dreams. Men often think over their problems just before going to sleep and get a solution in their dreams or immediately upon awakening. This is because their minds were so active on the intellectual plane that they could not make contact with the silent inner plane where ideas work. When the conscious mind is stilled and one makes contact with the superconsciousness, it begins to show us how our affairs will work out or how we can help to bring about the desired prosperity.
This is the law of mind. The principle is within each one of us, but we must be spiritually quickened in life and in understanding before we can successfully work in accord with it. However we must not discount the understanding of the natural man. The mind in us that reasons and looks to the physical side of things has also the ability to look within. It is the door through which divine ideas must come. Jesus, the Son of man, called Himself "the door" and "the way." It is the divine plan that all expression or demonstration shall come through this gateway of man's mind. But above all this are the ideas that exist in the primal state of Being, and this is the truth of which we must become conscious. We must become aware of the source of our substance. Then we can diminish or increase the appearance of our supply or our finances, for their appearance depends entirely on our understanding and handling of the ideas of substance.
The time is coming when we shall not have to work for things, for our physical needs in the way of food and clothing, because they will come to us through the accumulation of the right ideas in our mind. We will begin to understand that clothing represents one idea of substance, food another, and that every manifest thing
