My other projects (which are still live) are:
The Global Forgiveness Initiative
https://globalforgivenessinitiative.com/
The Global Rewilding Initiative
my Personal Website: http://williamfergusmartin.com/
You can also find me on Youtube and the like as William Fergus Martin.
]]>This site is about to enter into a new phase. We now have much more material to include and look forward to sharing it with you.
The links are below.
Blessings, William (site Admin).
William
]]>Once upon a time there lived three little housewives very happy and very new! They each lived in a flat in a big block in a busy city and because they were very friendly, too, they used to pool their food and have tea together at four o’clock every day. One day it was the birthday of one of the three little housewives and each secretly planned to make something extra good for tea.
The first one got out all her cookery books and started to select a recipe. First she looked at the cake section, trying to decide whether to make a fruit cake or a seed one, a chocolate cake or a lemon one. Then she thought of making a jam sponge or should she bake some biscuits or lemon curd tarts? Very soon the little housewife grew so tired with reading so many recipes and she fell asleep.
The second one got out her cookery books, decided quickly on an iced coffee cake and began to gather together the ingredients, humming to herself all the while. The humming reminded her that there was a favourite programme just starting on the radio so she thought she would listen to this first and make the cake later on. But immediately after the programme ended an exciting play began and the little housewife listened to that too until all the time was gone
The third little housewife, whose birthday it was knew what she wanted to make right away for she had often used the recipe. So she produced a beautifully baked iced orange sponge and had it all ready by four o’clock.
When the three little housewives sat down to tea and saw the orange sponge on the table, Number One and Number Two were very sorry indeed! “How luck) you are to have that lovely cake,” they said. “Each of us wanted to make one but we never seem to get our wishes at all.”
Those three little housewives are just like Thought Bricks Course Students.
The first type of Student does not really know what he or she wants from life. There are vague wishes for various things and the Student may spend quite a long time each day thinking about different things that would be pleasant and then abandoning these for other ideas and wishes. As the Student has no clear idea of what he or she wants, no clear “thought mould’s is passed on to the subconscious mind so it is not surprising, is it, that nothing ever happens? Very soon this type of Student falls mentally asleep from very weariness and disappointmentand only wakes up occasionally to envy other people
The second type of Student knows quite well what he wants and is very busy getting the right knowledge, getting into the right mood, getting the right room to practise in and so on. In fact, he’s so busy learning about thought building that he never has time actually to build at all Before he has achieved anything he has no more timeand so he, too, thinks how lucky the successful thought builders are.
The third type of Student is the kind who takes up the Lesson, quickly runs through it and chooses the thought building exercise which appeals to them most and then uses the rest of the time in actually practising the exercise. Of course, this brings results because every time we think at all we make some impression on the unseen substance of Reality, but when we think deliberately, consciously and powerfully as shown in Thought Bricks Lessons, wonders just cannot help happening. No wonder, then, that this type of Student smiles when others, who are not so successful as he, say enviously to her: ” You are lucky!”
And that, my friends, is my little parable ….
THE END
– Bernard
]]>One of my new Students wrote the other day: “Very many thanks for your most kind and helpful letter, and those precious Lessons, and for accepting me into your large Family of Students, all bent, like myself, on gaining the victory over all negative conditions by putting God and His Perfectness in the place of our Selfhood which all our lives through ignorance has kept us prisoners. ”
“You are indeed a real leader, bent on making something out of us by spurring us on by your wonderful Lessons. Yes indeed, I feel I do need a ‘spur’ as it’s so easy to get content with reading books and finding no time to spare to get down to real practice.”
“I gasped when I opened your package and said to myself: ‘No settling down on your lees my woman, now. You have got a leader who means business ‘ God bless you and all your efforts to keep us up to the mark by practice”. In my reply I said: “Yes, I do mean business you are quite right. So glad you are entering into the spirit of our Family right away. It is a joy to have you.”
I am particularly pleased with this new Student because she is so very much aware of the need for practice. How many, many times I have mentioned this in the Magazine! People will so often think that it is enough to believe that there is a God somewhere Who will answer prayer provided they can convince Him that they believe in Him; then they gabble a few fearladen words and hope desperately that something will come of it. They call this having faith! But I do want to impress on you all again that if you have any fear at all, the only thing you have faith inis that evil is greater than good, that weakness is greater than strength.
If we have faith in good, why should we fear? Ponder on this for yourselves and you will see that if we fear anything we are showing our faith in weakness. So that is why practice is so important. Firstlearn about and lean on God’s Love. Then practise your faith for all you are worthnot with tenseness and effort, but with loving confidence in Him. As you do this, results will come and then you will never doubt for you will know.
As part of the practice we have to prepare our minds for His Life to flow through as it will, when we make good thought moulds of our desires.
To a Student this week I have written: ” The first thing I want you to do is to let go of all resentment against anybody. ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he’so you see, if you wish your life to be ‘a haven of peace’ you must begin to make your mind ‘a haven of peace.’ Let go of every resentment at once, then, and cease to mind what other people say or do. It is your mind alone that is able to build your environment and if you think ‘poverty’, ‘resentment’, ‘worry’, ‘chaos’, these things will come to passnot through God’s will, but throughyour will because God gives us free will. (Ponder on this sentence.) So start to live now the sort of life you want to live in the future, and the future will become now, as you shall see.”
Another point that is made plain to me in some of the Student Family’s letters is the fact that you sometimes say you haven’t time for the practice of your thought building. Now, as you have time to work, cook, wash, eat, etc., however busy you are, it must be that you have not quite enough faith in the power of your thought building to keep you doing it always
This is how I look upon thought building. If I have, say, six hours in which to work, I put five hours into writing, typing, etc., and one hour into thought building. No matter how busy I am nor how sleepy I am I wouldn’t dream of cutting out the thought building I thought build for one hour a do) at least as a matter of course because the thought building is the basis of the work.
As you know, I keep a notebook and write all my meditations, book extracts and prayers down and in my book so far there is not one prayer that has been unanswered! That, my friends, is what practice does.
– Bernard
]]>In the letters section of Bernard’s Weekly News this week I quoted my reply to a Student in which I said: “It wasn’t ‘sent’ from God. God loves you and wants every possible good for you.”
I think that is one of the biggest stumbling blocks of all if a person comes upon a time of adversity he or she promptly “sits down under it,” feeling convinced that God “sent” it and there is nothing that can be done about it. They see God as a Being Who deals out trials and temptations here and there in order to test people’s faith. The quicker they sit down under it, moaning “God’s will be done” (which they conclude is always unpleasant) the sooner will they be rewarded with a run of good luck! But if this is so, why did the Master say: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them”? Obviously, if we believe something we receive that something, so if we believe that temptations and trials are sent from God, and accept them, making them a part of our daily thought, then we will receive still more temptations and trials!
The real explanation of trials and temptations, is this: when we are fired by some strong and excessive desire for something that is really below our plane of progress (so that we ought to want something better) then we drop down into a state of disharmony because the circumstances in which we find ourselves (through the pull of the desire) are out of keeping with our Real Selves. Then everything goes wrong until at last we realise what has happened, turn right round and start to climb up, desiring what is in harmony with our Real Selvesand harmony results. But think what a hindrance it is to think “God sent this,” and then sit down under it, feeling a bit of a martyr and very holy.
James saw this very clearly for he said something very decided indeed in his first chapter. But before I quote the words, let us get it clear as to what lust means. My dictionary gives it as “a strong and excessive desire.” Right: now here’s James: “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” (See James 1, 1314.)
So you see, God doesn’t “send” it at all. Once we realise this we can stop moaning, we can accept the trial or temptation as being the result of our own thoughts and then go right on to turn the experience and wisdom gained into a blessing. Thus, James again: “Blessed is the man that endureth (or accepteth) temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life,” and “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that hath given to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
So recognise the source of the temptation or trial. Accept and endure it while it lasts, asking God for wisdom to learn from it and become strong; then receive the Crown of Life, or the long lasting blessing that will follow. Oh, if only people would search the Scriptures as we have been invited to dowhat a world of optimists we should be!
Another common stumbling block is this a when a person prays for something. Then, after a while he or she comes upon some circumstance opposing it. Immediately they are cast down; and waver. There; I knew it was all too good to be true !” they exclaim disconsolately. And give up.
But what does our friend James say about this? ” Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” (James 1, 67.)
What we want is the power to hold on, actually believing that we have received the blessing asked, that it is pressing in on us from the Unseen and we have only to press out, to receive it. If a man asks for something and then spends a portion of his time in feeling depressed, or pressed in, away from God’s incoming blessing, he is a waverer, isn’t he, actually turning deliberately away from the very thing he desires. “Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord”not because God won’t give it to him, but He cannot if a man turns away in his consciousness from the blessing. We receive through consciousness, you see.
Now, just in case you think all these ideas are cranky and not to be taken seriously among busy people of the world, let me quote a letter I received by air mail this morning from a Student in Africa.
He writes: ” I purposely delayed writing to you until I got the result of my prayers. I made a visualisation and I wanted it to become a reality before I gave a full report of it. Yes I have got the result. Belief in the Supreme Being, God, can do great things as it is said in Matt. 21, 2122.
“What is beyond the expectation of man, belief makes it manifested. What human mind cannot discern, belief makes it discernible. What human effort cannot accomplish, belief can.”
“Now I am beginning the story. I have written you that my education was low to fit the appointment of a teacher. I passed only standard six, but with very strong studies God helped me to be a pupil teacher and head of the staff. I prayed to be engaged as a teacher and it was answered. But here comes the dark side.”
“After I had been appointed and made the head of the staff in January, 1952, the Education Department sent a statement to all pupil teachers to the effect that those who have no school leaving or standard seven certificates would be terminated or paid a bottom scale pay of a very tiny amount a month if they remained. A very heartrending affair indeed. I was more than awe stricken and my spirit cooled down at once.”
“When I was pondering what to do I was mysteriously warmed up. I began to think of my Father in Heaven and said: ‘ I am a prince in my Father’s Kingdom. What need have I to fear?’ I laughed and laughed and laughed till I was animated and glowed with an unusual warmth of pleasure, in my heart. All fears were expelled out of me and I felt a being free, even more than a prince at the Buckingham Palace.”
“I began my prayers intensely and did the exercises in your Lessons. These eventful days began from 27th February, 1952. I prayed for the cancellation of the said Educational Department’s statement which was against me. Two weeks from the above date I received a note from the manager of our school that my pay had been cut down to the tiny amount proposed. I was nearly fainted at receiving this note, but yet I lost no confidence. My belief doubled, trebled, quadrupled and so on. I remembered the text in Psalm 34, 9, and carried on with my prayers to God to have pity on the pupil teachers without the standard seven certificates.”
“On the 19th of April, 1952, a note was sent to all of us that the Education Department’s former statement had been cancelled (but the validity of the statement applies only to those whose appointment has just started). This is the result of my prayer and is it not wonderful? Yes, in reality impossibility has no place in God’s Kingdom. Thanks to God and also to Bernard’s Course.”
In my reply I have said: “My dear friend, your most inspiring and triumphant letter has just arrived and I hasten to reply to it by return air mail. How I rejoiced with you in your splendid Victory of Faith! You did indeed ‘hold on’, despite all appearances of lack or opposition, rejoicing and giving thanks to God because your prayer was already answered. So by your ‘holding on’ you did your part the two units (like the positive and the negative of a battery) were connected. God and you were connected by an act of your own free, God given will; His wonderful Power poured through and His supply of what you needed came into visible form. Yes, it is by holding on to God in confident prayer that we receive our blessings. As James said: ‘That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.’ (James 1, 4.) ‘Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.’ You did not waver, my friend, and God worked His miracle through you. Friendliest greetings.”
So, my dear ones, cut depression right out, won’t you? Instead of being ” pressed in,” press out to God’s Abundant Life.
– Bernard
]]>I think most of you will agree that two of the most conflicting statements (seemingly) in the New Testament are:” Deny thyself; take up thy cross and follow Me.” (Matt. 16, 24. Mark 8, 34. Luke 9, 23.) And: “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16, 24.) The “deny thyself” command suggests (as a Student wrote this week) that one should never ask for anything for oneself except things like strength of character to endure trials, or virtue, perhaps, or patience, or knowledge, or wisdom, or honesty. But if this were so, why are we asked to ask “that our joy may be full”?
Surely this suggests a fullness at all points, of joy? If we were meant to ask only for strength of character, etc., would not the Master have said: “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your strength may be full”? Or: “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your patience may be full”? And so on. Yet how can one deny oneself and still ask for fullest joy?
A little earlier I said that it was only a seeming contradictionand so it is. If you look up the passages I have given, where the “deny thyself” command is mentioned, you will be able to see it in a clearer light. But first of all let me mention that the word “deny” has two meanings, one is to withhold the other is to disclaim.
I was meditating on all this some weeks ago and I jotted down in my notebook with the aid of a concordance all the times that the word “deny” appeared in the Bible. To my surprise I found that in the great majority of instances, the word is used in the sense of disclaiming. There is Josh. 24, 27, “Lest ye deny your God.” Prov. 30, 9, “Lest I be full and deny thee.” Matt. 10, 33, “Whosoever shall deny Me, him will ldeny before my Father in Heaven.” And many more. So you see, we have to consider the possibility that the Master meant by “deny thyself”, its other meaning: “disclaim thyself”or: “say to yourself: ‘I do not know you’ .” Got that?
Now let’s have a look at the passages where the “deny thyself” command occurs. In all of the three instances given we find that the subject under discussion was not austerity, poverty, starvation, joylessness or the casting away of every desire. What was it then? Jesus had just told His disciples privately that He was going to be killed but that in three days He would rise again. Now instead of realising that this was a part of His Christhood (for, as you will see, He had just told them that He was the Christ but had commanded them not to tell anyone about this) and that He had power to rise from the dead, Peter looked at it purely from a human standpoint and rebuked the Master, saying that he would not allow it to happen, and so on.
We can just imagine hot-tempered Peter trying to lay down the law about the protection of his beloved Master Then the Master turned to Peter and spoke sternly to him; He said that he “savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of man “meaning that Peter did not take the divine Power into account, but was looking on Jesus as just an ordinary man.
He had already told them that they too were God’s sons, heirs of God and join theirs with Him, and so He went on to teach them that if they too would come to the glory of being conscious sons of God, they must be ready to suffer, because the world would hate them; they must be ready to strive, to practise selfdiscipline, to be dissatisfied with themselves and ever seek to climb to the spiritual heights. They must no longer “savour the things that are of man,” but must disclaim all knowledge of themselves as just ordinary men; they must deny themselves as but mortal men and start to live as befitted the heirs of God. Then, so that they should not think this was a hard saying and one which should arouse and foster gloom, He went on to speak of the wonderful joy, glory, happiness and power that was in store for those who would follow Him.
Immediately after this He gave them a wonderful demonstration of what He had promised them. He took them privately into a mountain and He was transfigured before them; a great radiance shone around Him and the disciples, at first awestricken, were afterwards so filled with joy that the impetuous Peter actually said that it was so “good to be here” that they had better build tabernacles and stay there ! It was after this wonderful demonstration of Divine Power that Jesus cautioned His disciples, telling them not to tell anyone of what they had seen until after He had risen again from the dead. Then, of course, it would not matter. Everyone would know that it was possible for the Master to return to life after being dead; and the evidence of the disciples that they had actually seen the glorified bodies of Moses and Elias would simply make it all doubly clear.
You see, then, don’t you, that the whole matter had nothing to do with withholding the necessities of life from oneself? True, it might be necessary from time to time as part of the upward spiritual climb, but that it should be the usual practice to refrain from asking for the life’s needs and having all the burdening distractions of wondering how the rent could ever be paid or the children fed or clothed, was never intended.
Indeed, the Master said that we were to ask for these very things from our loving Father. But just as an athlete disciplines himself before entering a contest (and joys in it) so does the one who spiritually climbs delight in the discipline of training. I have fasted for three or four days from time to time, as a spiritual exercise and have also lived very, very frugally for months on end for the same reason. But just as the athlete returns to his joyous reaping, so did I.
Paul knew this, too, when he said he knew ” how to be abased and how to abound, how to be empty and how to be full,” and added: “I can do all things through Christ . . .’ The normal life for every man, then, is to deny that he is merely a mortal man and claim that he is an heir of God. Then, with joy he climbs and climbs, counting any little disciplines on the way as small beside the intense joy of living as God’s heir and asking forand receivingall his least needs. Then he can say with the Master: ” Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me and I know that Thou hearest me always.”
– Bernard
]]>Do you know, Family, that in spite of all the Thought Bricks teaching, Students still give me the hint, at times, that they are not really sure if thoughts have power or not? For instance, they tell me that, if a thing they are hoping and praying for does not come to them very quickly, they lose heart. Others say that they know what they want will come to them in the future, so they are being very patient about it and just waiting for it to appear.
Now, if they wanted, say, a wardrobe or, for a woman, a handmade rug, they would not think of just hoping
for it, would they? Nor would they get despondent if, after just hoping, it did not come to them? They would set to work and make it and, though the hours spent on it might be long, they would be contented in the knowledge that every hour of work brought what they wanted nearer. You see, then, that remarks such as those mentioned above reveal that the writers could not have seen thoughtpower in the same practical light as making a wardrobe or a wool rug?
Are you one of these? Do you, perhaps, think that there is no concrete, down-to-earth proof that thought
building really builds something? Well, one could not have anything more concrete nor down-to-earth than a dictionary, could one? So let us look at one and see what this has to tell us on the subject.
Let’s look up the word “conceive” first. Of course, we all know the most common use of this word. A child is conceived. Then what happens? Well, we are quite sure something will happenand it does. Long months go by, but nobody doubts that something will happen. Presently, a child is born. What does our dictionary say about the word, “born”? It says: “To come into the world by birth.”
Now let us look at the other meaning of the word “conceive”. Our dictionary says: “Pregnant. Form in the mind. Imagine. Formulate. Express.” So when we have a thought, we conceive something; we give it form in the mind; we imagine it, or give it an image.
Looking up “Pregnant” in our dictionary we find: “With child. Teeming with ideas. Imaginative. Fruitful in results.” The word “Imagine”, we see, means: To conceive; to form a mental image.” And when we look up “Imagination” we find it is “The creative faculty of the mind.” So here is an ordinary, down-to-earth book giving you Truth and who can doubt a dictionary or think it ” too fanciful for words”
So now let us group all these things together and get a very clear, solid, practical, down-to-earth picture of what happens when we think. We first conceive a thought that is, we become aware of something we would like. Now when we conceive a thought. we give it form. If we let it drift away and do not think of it again, that form dissolves. But if we hold to that thought and keep on thinking that thought, we definitely keep the form alive; the more we think of it and see it mentally the more solid the form grows and the more enduring; the more we imagine it, the clearer and stronger the image becomes. Sooner or later what we have conceived must be bornor “come into the world.”
Something always follows a thought conceived and held toand that something is the birth or manifestation of what we have conceived. (That is why we have to be so careful not to brood over depressing, unwanted things.) You may ask: “But how can I know this will all happen as you say?” “Because,” I reply, “it has been an established fact for so long that words have been chosen to describe the process in the language and are recorded in the dictionary.” Could anything be plainer than that? Dictionaries are not made up of fancies, but facts.
So now, my friends, conceive some thoughts of your own; be “teeming with ideas” and” fruitful in results”.
– Bernard
]]>Have you met a person who says that he only believes what he can see? Have you, perhaps, been that man or that woman? Are you, perhaps, that man or that woman now?
In the many thousands of letters that I receive, this underlying idea reveals itself at times like a dark thread. Nothing will induce most people to admit that they don’t really and truly believe in God’s promises to man their very unwillingness to admit it shows that they are afraid of God, instead of gladly and confidingly taking His ‘hand’ and accepting all He has promised as “Gospel Truth.”
If, then, you are aware that you have not a true belief, and if you will admit itto yourself particularlythen you can be very sure that you are beginning to make good progress towards that belief which you know would give you so much joy, in fact, you can “rejoice exceedingly!”
As you know, there are many people who refer to religion as dope as a kind of soothing syrup to make people accept their trials and tribulations. These “doped” people are popularly supposed to be weak and easily kept down. All these ideas make me smile Nobody could be less “dopy” and “soothed” than I am; nobody could be less ready to “sit down” under trials and tribulations, instead of realising their source is in myself, putting my thinking right and saying “goodbye” to them as soon as possible. And anybody who has tried to “ride roughshod ” over me because of my religious convictions has very soon discovered that I am a follower of the One who said scathingly: ” Ye hypocritesye whited sepulchres ” to those who tried to trap Him.
On one occasion when a man tried to pick a quarrel with me I replied: “Don’t be foolish; you don’t mean any of thatyou have just lost your temper. Actually you like me very much and think I am sincere and genuine. ” A slow grin spread over his face and we parted the best of friends – and still are.
Belief in Things Invisible, then, need not make anyone nambypamby and that fear is the cause of much shedding of belief. Faith, I think, is actually an acceptance and belief in Things Invisible. The other day a Student wrote: “At last I am realising that thought building is a reality and not just a beautiful thought.” So this Student realised that up to now thought building had been just “a beautiful thought !”
“I can’t thought build and I can’t visualise,” writes another Student, “and I’ve just realised why. I don’t really believe, deep down, that abundance is flowing towards me and is mine for the asking. I want faith. You see, I couldn’t, if I had a hundred orphans to feed, not know where their next meal was coming from. It wouldn’t seem practical or sensible to me.”
That’s the mental state of lots of people but they haven’t always the courage to say so, as this Student has. “It wouldn’t seem practical or sensible to me.” In fact if it is not visible this Student does not believe it is.
Now let’s see what Paul has to say about Things Visible and Invisible:” For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.” . . .” Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.” . . .” Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things notseen … Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen were not made of things which do appear . . . He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him… By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. . Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive … because she judged Him faithful who had promised. . By faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him Who is invisible … By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land. . . By faith the walls of Jericho fell down… And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthae, of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong. . . Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight… Rejoice in the Lord alway… Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God … Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true . . . think on these things .
I know both how to be abased and how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry … I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me… I have all, and abound. I am full… My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”. .
Now, my friends, see the Invisible by means of this great cloud of witnesses.
– Bernard
]]>Once upon a time there lived a man named Nigel Gatling. He worked in a factory stamping out a small metal part for an unimportant metal tool. He lived in a small terrace house in an unimportant district. In fact, he did nothing of any importance at all and found life very drab. He had a wife and four children and, although his wife was a hardworking woman, the children were hard playing and they wore out their clothes and boots so fast that at times Nigel insisted on seeing the tattered remains before he would believe it was true.
One day, after he returned from the factory Nigel’s wife had told him at supper all the things which she needed for herself and the children; consequently, when the meal was finished, Nigel felt very subdued.
He left his wife washingup (though he usually helped her) opened the door of the small front parlour which was only used on Sundays, closed it behind him, locked the door and crossed the room to a battered looking desk. This had been a schoolboy possession and was still stained with ink. There was a secret drawer which was known to Nigel only for he had cherished this tiny spot of privacy for years. He manipulated the concealed spring, the drawer flew open and he took out his hidden hoard.
Alas, it was only a pound note, one solitary pound which he had scraped together coin by coin, and changed into a note only the week before His face was sad as he looked at it. He had hoped to buy something special with it one day, but he could not forget the long list of wants his wife had given him at supper. It must go
Having come to this unhappy decision, Nigel’s head drooped onto his hand and, being very weary, he was soon fast asleep, the pound note still between his fingers …
Nigel dreamt he was walking along a brightly lit street. Surely it must be high summer, for the sun was very
bright and so mellow, too. He had never enjoyed sunshine so much before. Presently he came to a great door and, overhead in very large letters were the words: ” The Invisible Market.” The name seemed so very extraordinary that Nigel walked in.
There were little stalls where people were sitting; others were walking around; some were engaged in earnest conversation. While he was passing one stall he was surprised to see that it had nothing on it. A hurried glance showed him that the other stalls were likewise empty A man smiled at him from the stall and he was thereby encouraged to ask:
“Why is there nothing for sale in the market?”
“But there is,” the man assured him”only it is invisible.”
“What good is that?” Nigel was astounded.
“All things come from one Invisible Substance,” explained the man. ” Everything that exists, and everything that has ever existed comes from this Invisible Substance and it is brought into visibility by thoughts. The world was created by thought. As the Creator’s heirs, we inherit His creative power and we too can shape the Invisible Substance by our thought.”
“It sounds too good to be true,” stammered Nigel. ” How can I know that it is true? ”
” Why not try it?” smiled the man. “That’s the best argument What is it that you want? “Immediately Nigel thought of all the things his wife had wanted for herself and the children and he told the man all about them.
“You don’t need to manifest shoes,” explained the man helpfully, “because there is a woman over at that stall opposite who is always manifesting shoes by her thought. She is interested in them. And as for the children’s clothes some of those you will need to manifest for yourself but I can manifest the boys’ suits for you … Tell you what ! Can you manifest a couple of bicycles?
“My two kids are keen to have them then we can do an exchange.”
“I don’t know,” Nigel said doubtfully. “It seems so extraordinary.”
“It isn’t extraordinary at all. People are always manifesting something by their thoughtwhether it’s good or bad. You can’t even move your foot without thinking about it first It’s just a natural thingso natural that lots of people haven’t noticed it. By manifesting through thought we are harnessing a power that has been there alwaysjust as electricity was there always and noone knew before. When we think in pictures or feelings we make a shape for the Invisible Substance and it manifests. That’s all.”
“If I think or picture bicycles, then, will they appear on this stall?
“No; they come gradually, attracted into our lives; the actual arrival of the bicycles will seem to be most ordinary as though it had nothing to do with thought at all. But it has!”
For a while there was silence, while Nigel pictured two bicycles very clearly indeed, deciding on their type, colour, size in fact, he knew a thing or two about bicycles and he put his best into them. Then the man broke the silence by saying:
“Good. You can expect the suits and I can expect the bicycles. But the value you are giving me is greater than that which I am giving you, so I must give you a note to that effect.” He wrote on a slip of paper and Nigel exclaimed:
“But what good is it? It’s not real money at all !”
“It’s a symbol,” the man explained patiently. “A symbol that you have thought built something of more value than you have received and so you will receive the extra value at a future time. You’ll call it a bit of luck, I expect. Money, real money, as you call itis only a symbol, you know.”
“Is it?” Nigel looked puzzled.
“Of course. In return for money you receive something which has been made out of the Invisible Substance just as everything has because it is the only Substance. There are plenty of people who think that money has a power in itself, but this is not so. When the world was created, money was not created. Money was an invention or creation of man’s so money is man’s servant.
“When a people can see clearly that money is a symbol of thought building and that in the measure we thought build from the Invisible Substance, so we will receive all our needs, we will never love or fear money again. It will have become our tool and he will have become its master. From that moment, we will create deliberately with our God given thought power whatever we need. We will ask confidently because we are God’s heir and we will receive. All that we need comes to us quietly, without sensation or strain. Some of our needs will come directly, but often through the symbol of money. Looking at this money we will see it as a kind of ‘receipt’ for our thought power That is all money is, my friend,” said the man impressively.
“True riches are in the Invisible Substance, waiting for us to shape it by his confident thought. And as the Invisible Substance has existed always and will always exist, and as it is limitless, you will see that once you know you have nothing to fear. How could we be heirs of the Creator if we did not inherit His creative power of thought? That is His legacy to us don’t you see?”
“I do see,” Nigel said fervently and straightway he awoke.
He glanced around the front parlour in bewildered fashion for a moment and then his eyes fell upon the pound note.
Lifting it up between his two hands, he laughed silently at it. “Just a symbol ” he exulted. “A symbol of my thoughtshaping of the Invisible Substance. Why, I’m rich I’m the King’s heir, just as we all are His heirs, only we don’t realise it. From now on I shall indeed remember that ‘all things are possible to him that believeth.’ I shall look beyond the symbol of money to the reality, the limitless Invisible Substance and, as my faith, so shall it be unto me.”
Closing his eyes, Nigel began happily to do his first real praying in that parlour for at last he had faith.
– Bernard
]]>TIhe other day I had a letter from a Student who told me of her difficulties regarding noise in the house where, she lives. I was so sorry, for I know how trying it is to live with a constant disturbance. in fact, I always find silence feeding in an inner way. Do you see what I mean ? I expect you do.
Silence is something we all need, something which is very precious and which gives us strength. In my reply to this Student, I wrote: “Will you be good and accept what I am going to say now, as true for it really is? These noisy circumstances happen to be in your life because of something not in harmony within, or something not yet learned. Everything outside that comes to us is the result of something within. (‘What a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’)”
” So you must first learn to live in a state of perfect harmony with all men and perfect harmony in your thoughts, before you can manifest perfect harmony in your life and circumstances. For instance, never be critical in your thoughts to anyone; never judge from appearances but realise there may be much that you do not know; never be hasty, irritable or impatient, and so on. This may be very hard at first (I know this) but how well worth while it is By creating an inner life of perfect harmony you ensure the coming of an outer life of perfect harmonyit becomes a certainty. This is the way of certain and sure success, the way of inner working.”
“Whatever one wants to manifest in the outer life happiness, abundance, peace, health, harmony, joy, etc.if one lives that thing desired in the inner life, it will surely come as the dawn follows the darkness of night. The Master said that when we pray we should believe we have received. If we pray for harmony then, believing we have received harmony, live it within, it will come true in the outer life also. Nothing can prevent it for it is Divine Law.”
– Bernard
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