UNITY is a hand-book of Practical Christianity and Christian Healing. It sets forth the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ direct from the fountain-head, "The Holy Spirit, who will lead you into all Truth." It is not the organ of any sect, but stands independent as an exponent of Practical Christianity, teaching the practical application in all the affairs of life of the doctrine of Jesus Christ; explaining the action of mind, and how it is the connecting link between God and man; how mind action affects the body, producing discord or harmony, sickness or health, and brings man into the understanding of Divine Law, harmony, health and peace, here and now. UNITY is published on the 15th of the month. Subscribers who fail to recieve it by the 20th should so notify this office. If you have subscribed for any other magazine in connection with UNITY, and should miss any number of that magazine, do not write us about it, but write directly to its publisher. 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Duval St. ST. PAUL, MINN.: W. L. Beekman, 55 East 5th Street. CHICAGO: Liberal Book Concern, 87 Washington St.; Purdy Pub. Co., McVicker's Theater Bldg.; A. C. McClurg & Co., 215 Wabash Ave.; Marie J. Petersen, 4000 Cottage Grove Ave., Room 6. ST. LOUIS: H. H. Schroeder, 3537 Crittenden Street. SAN JOSE: Wm. Farwell, 275 North Third St. LONDON, ENGLAND: Power Book Co., Wimbledon, W.; Higher Thought Center, 10 Cheniston Gardens, W. THE CHANGELESS SUBSTANCE. BY CHARLES FILLMORE. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. - Luke 9:29. The statement, "All is mind, there is no matter, is construed by many to mean that mind does not manifest in form, that because what the sense man terms "matter" does not harmonize in character with what is ideally perceived as true of Pure Mind it is mortal error, not only in its present finite appearance, but in its very essence also. This conclusion has no authority outside of mere assumption; spiritual understanding does not countenance it. "All is mind, there is no matter," is a true statement, but he who makes it should be careful how he confounds the legitimate expression of Pure Mind with that limited formation of the sense man termed "matter." There is a substance which is in its purity the direct offspring of the Spirit. It is the only substance that is permanent. The ego formulates this substance through its imaging faculty. If it is imaged as having length, breadth and thickness, it takes that shape in the consciousness of those who so limit it.If it is: imaged as an inert mass without intelligence, it so seems to those who look at it in that way. If it is imaged as corruptible and subject to disintegration and diffusion, it follows such vagaries in the.mental world of those who so image. it. It is the clay in the hands of the potter, which is never changed as essence but obedient to infinite variety in form. So that which we term "matter" is a gauzy form which we have imaged for the substantial energy of Spirit, which is the real and only substance. Thus Spirit has its substance side. Mind has its expression in form, and it is legitimate. Mind is not a dead level, an inert abstraction; it is infinite potentiality. It acts, idealizes, and sees its ideals manifested. This is a process having its degrees or steps from inception to finish. The idea is the inception, and the form the finish. Forms represent completed ideals. From the character of the form the character of the ideal may be judged. ness. God created man in His image and after His likeTo find out the nature of this man of God, we must know something about the God in whose image and likeness he is. We see life, love, truth, intelligence manifest, so we postulate that they had a beginning in a principle of like character- this must be God, or First Cause. Then man is the ideal creation of God, and the Son of Man is that ideal in course of manifestation. The Son of Man is never fully manifested and never will be any more than is the inherent capacity of any principle. The possibilities of music, mathematics, or art, are beyond conception. Man being the ideal through which the possibilities of God are expressed is also without limit as to completeness. One familiar with computation knows of the infinite combinations possible to the ten digits. Yet how much vaster and more complicated must be the variety possible to the combinations in the Son of Man of the life, love, substance and intelligence perpetually flowing forth from the Father. God is the omnipresent source; Christ is the ideal of that source, and the Son of Man, or the Son of the Ideal, is that which is formed from the combination of the attributes of the principle. It is the ideal in the process of expression. So we each and every one as to our consciousness are the sum total of life, love, substance and intelligence in its various combinations. To know that this is true, and to also know that an infinite storehouse of these potentialities is open to everyone, from which he may draw without stint, is to know the secret through which the most ambitious dreamer may realize his dreams. When man realizes that he is not flesh and blood, brains and brawn, but that he is life, love, substance and intelligence, he comes immediately into the perception of his possibilities. The next step is to possess in their right relation these fundamental elements of his being. Herein is where many lack judgment. Judgment is a quality in itself, the quality of just proportion-discrimination. Eccentric, erratic men and women are plenty. Genius from the mortal view is found associated with eccentricity; that is, men and women who are above the mediocre level established by the common consent of the common herd are said to have genius. They also have unconventional, independent ways, which are pronounced idiosyncrasy; they are strong in some points, but weak in others; they lack balance; they are half made up giants, and do not know how to level up their full proportions. This is where the heart of God-Wisdom-plays such an important part, as evidenced by the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He was not in the beginning the perfectly rounded genius that he became. He knew the law of obedience, however, and was a willing pupil. He resolutely went to work to weed out his weaknesses and build them up with the fullness of the Omnipotent Father. He prayed often and fasted much, until he could say, "The prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me." The ordinary genius receives the plaudits of the world and seeks to meet its approval, which is the approval of ignorance and selfishness. Jesus of Nazareth sought to be justified in the sight of God; he spurned the cheap tinsel of earthly rulership and popularity. Consequently he not only received the recognition of the Father's pleasure, but the world also has bowed before him for nineteen hundred years; this because he sought to know what man should be in the sight of God. He combined the life, love, wisdom and intelligence of God in their just proportion, and the result was the expression of man in a mould so grand, and a character so high. |