A Divided Kingdom
THAT
little kingdom that you call your very own - - look at it, examine into it. Is
it divided? Are you of one mind and that one the mind that was also in Christ
Jesus?
Do you believe that some people love while others hate you? If you do, then your
kingdom is divided. "Love and hate cannot mingle" - - there is no
common basis for them to meet on, and they cannot dwell in the same kingdom
without causing strife, turmoil and finally a division in the kingdom. If you
endow that man with a power to hate you, what good is it for you to say to
yourself, "There is naught but love?" What good for you to say,
"Love is all powerful?" Your kingdom is divided and it will fall.
Perhaps it will not be utterly cast down, but it will be at strife. Enemies are
not for the purpose of retarding your growth, but to aid you and to cling closer
and closer to this great, all absorbing Love which heals everything, even
so-called hate.
Do you believe that matter is the original creator - - do you think that
the original sin, which is the very foundation of the lie that life is in matter
and hence creation is matter, possible? If you do your kingdom is divided, and
what good is it, or what profiteth it for you to declare the nothingness of
matter? Do you believe that Love is both spiritual and sensual - - and say to
yourself, "Suffer it to be so now?" If you do, your kingdom is divided
and will fall. It will be of little merit or profit to say there is no sin and
that it has no power, while you are indulging the senses. The divided kingdom
will tell its own tale when it lies in a heap in the dust.
Do you believe in sickness to the extent that certain things are more
difficult than others - - that there are so-called "stubborn cases"
which do not yield at once" Do you believe in this and also try to believe
that God is Health and that He is ever present and that He is all powerful? Then
the Divided power will finally cleave to one of your arguments and in your
direst need who shall say that it will not be to the belief in stubborn cases.
Do you believe that you have to probe deep into the minds of the wayfarer
and find out all his little personal secrets in order to pronounce some certain
thing the cause of his trouble? This isn't love, but morbid curiosity which is
hiding behind the veneer of Truth which you hold up to your patient. Soon the
divided kingdom will no longer be a storehouse of the Word of God, but a
storehouse or a madhouse of little petty, personal secrets about this one and
that.
Your kingdom is the ever present NOW - - flowing with
milk and honey, a place of light and joy - - it is the sheepfold with open doors
by which all may go in and out with perfect assurance that therein they will
find healing waters and green pastures of rest and strength. Set the walls of
your kingdom to the line - - make its four walls true to the standard laid down
in the Book. You can do this; start today by taking a positive stand for God.
Build daily with words of love and light. Fill the well of your heart with love
- - let it overflow so that the thirsty may drink freely. For every error which
you have been telling and repeating, start a word of truth in its stead; every
time you want to utter an unkind word, stop a moment and find one of your
soldiers who are fighting on the side of good and send him out. Good words are
the soldiers who are fighting on the side of right, and bad words the soldiers
of darkness. When you bring out a whole battalion of these wicked soldiers and
turn them loose in your attempt to picture your brother, you are throwing all
your weight in the balance of evil. Words are the expression of thoughts - - so
many bad words represent so many bad thoughts and vice versa.