the real substance of the universe, for the qualities of matter change, decay, limitation, mortality, and imperfection have no place in divine manifestation. Materiality is negation.
All the beauty, grandeur, life, and goodness of creation are Spiritual, not material, and therefore they are eternal to the mind that truly knows and to the eyes that really see.
Not only must we believe in the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, but we must carry that belief to its ultimate extent, which is to believe that there can be no reality in any other presence or power. We cannot allow the claim of any presence other than Good and Spirit to take hold upon our minds in order to be loyal to the greatest command of all : 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind." "In all thy ways acknowledge him." Prov. 3 :6. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." Is. 45 :22.
The Greek philosopher Zeno says: "The most necessary part of learning is to unlearn our errors." The mind that comes up to the fountain of Truth to partake of its blessings must first be placed in a receptive condition, must first be cleansed of its belief in the reality of evil and materiality, in order that it may receive the full Truth, and this cleansing process is accomplished by the word of negation.
Every negative word erases, and to erase false thoughts from the mind the word of denial must be spoken.
In the first chapter of Genesis the mind that awaits the coming of Truth is spoken of in the language of symbolism as the earth, without form and void "and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Darkness is the symbol of ignorance, and light is the symbol of Truth. "And God said [to the waiting mind], Let there be light [Truth] : and there was light."
Denial makes us receptive. "And God said. Let there be" as though the earth must let the light shine. And so it is. The mind must let the Truth come in. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," by beginning to clear out the rubbish of false thinking pulling up the "plants which my Father hath not planted."
People who have sick bodies, or vices, or inharmonious surroundings are like pupils who have worked their problems incorrectly, and before they begin to work them aright they must first erase their old work, then begin the working anew with true principles for their bases of operations.
Right denial pulls down old, false structures built by vain imaginings, and leaves the mind ready to build anew.
Every religion has taught denial in some form. All fasting is but the symbol of the denying which is going on in mind. Sacrifices represent the putting away, or the denying of the power of "the world, the flesh, and the devil " Fanatics have cut and lacerated their bodies, and sat in sack, cloth and ashes, to signify their realization of the vanity or unreality of the earthly body and worldly life. In truth, the real denial was all the time in mind, and no external ceremony could make them realize the nothingness of the worldly life and ways if they were not trying in all sincerity to realize it in heart and mind. We see this proven by people going through long fasts and other external forms of denial, and yet not realizing any more spirituality after them than before. All real denial begins in the heart and mind.
The process of denial is represented in the Scriptures by John the Baptist, who, it was prophesied, must come first in order to prepare the way of the Lord, the full Gospel.
"Repent ye! Repent ye!" was John's cry. The literal translation of the Greek metamoia (mistranslated "repent ye") is "Change your mind." In other words, stop thinking about sin, and so stop the doing and speaking it. Change your mind as to what are the realities of life, and seek the things of the Spirit. "Except ye become converted [turned right about] and become as little children [who know no evil] ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." How is it that Jesus denied himself? By beginning in heart and mind to set aside the fleshly man. He says, "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing;" "I speak not of myself, it is the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." He denied his personality, for he knew that that was not the real Self. He knew Himself to be Spirit, not flesh. "The flesh profiteth nothing," he said. He knew himself to be Immortal, not mortal as he seemed to be. He said, "Judge not by the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." We, too, are Spiritual, not material; divine Immortals, not carnal and mortal. We deny the reality of the carnal mind and body under the name "personality." It is a good term to express all the collective errors that man has held about himself. The word "person" (from the Latin per and sona, to sound through) was originally applied to a mask which ancient actors wore upon the stage. Most personalities seem to hide the real nature of the individual beautiful natures obscured by ugly forms and features, great souls curtained by diminutive bodies. Denial of personality draws aside the curtain, dissolves the imperfect, and reveals the translucent body through which the Spirit shines and works untrammeled.
The fleshly body is not yourself, and nothing done to it can hurt you. Mentally look at all personality as you would look through darkness to the light. Deny its actions, its foolishness, its sickness, its weakness, its meanness, its wickedness, and these will melt before your true word like mist before the sun.
To remember to meet every evil claim, suggestion or appearance with the silent assertion, "There is no evil" is to be a light in the midst of darkness, causing the evil to fly and the real good that was there all the time to come forward in all its strength and power.
You are like one who continually says to false report, "That is not so," and it cannot influence you because you will not believe in it. All evil is a lie, a delusion, and it has power to those only who believe in it. Thus Jesus defines evil and its author : "He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and the father of it." No matter how true a statement may seem to be, if it is not true of God, then it must be known as a relative truth or a lie, and we are not to be deceived by it. One way to lift the mind from believing in evil is to look at the falsities squarely and fearlessly, and say: "You are not real, you are not true. It is nothing. It has no real and true creator, and I will not believe in it any longer." But the most terse, effective, even drastic, denial that one can speak is embodied in those words, "There is no evil."
If you believe the mirage on the desert is a reality, a real lake of waters surrounded by trees, then you will pursue it as long as you are deceived, and endure many sufferings and hardships through your ignorance. But the traveler who knows it to be nothing, says so, and cannot be deluded into following it nor led out of his way, no matter how fair it may be to look upon. So should we regard all evil and all this dream-world which passes away continually, and which all prophets have pronounced 'Vanity of vanities," and "its nations as nothing in the eyes of the Lord."
"But can I not believe my senses ?" the mortal cries. Surely not, since the senses are continually contradicting each other, as has been proven both by experiments and natural experiences. Even material science contradicts the senses. For example, the sun seems to rise and set, but astronomy tells us that that is but an appearance, and it is the earth that moves and not the sun. The senses say the moon is a flat disc, astronomy declares it to be a sphere ; the stars seem points of light, whereas it is said that some are suns many thousand times greater than our sun.
We are not now looking to our senses for Truth, but to the divine Reason within us, and to our Intuition, "that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
When thy senses affirm that which thy reason denies, reject the testimony of thy senses, and listen
