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COURAGE He
that hath the true fear of God in his heart hath no room therein for any other
fear. -CROMWELL.
As every
positive word has a negative counterpart and interpretation, so the word
"fear," which is the ghastly hydra-headed monster that besets the
footsteps of man from cradle to grave. It has a thousand different titles and
names---is personal and impersonal. One person might quake with it, another
thrill with joy. It is easy for a trained pilot to soar about the heavens like a
glorious bird, but the same movements may cause the untutored to be thrown into
paroxysms of terror and dismay. So
likewise the expression "Fear of God" brings to the minds of many the
fear of a most terrible tribal God who takes keen pleasure in bouncing upon them
at unexpected moments and bringing the most fiendish devices to pass, while to
another it means a reverence and security with all attending benefits.
A savage, after seeing some of the terrible things that can be done with
electricity, might fear it, and even obey its injunctions as interpreted by a
savage medicine-man. He might prefer to stay by his
rushlight
rather than have anything to do with this fearful thing. But an enlightened man
will not deprive himself of the glorious benefits and help derived from the
proper understanding and use of the power.
There are many people who profess to be civilized----and smile with
derision at the so called savage----who worship in ignorance a God as replete
with whims, moods, and fearful power as any heathen God dared to be. While
professing to worship a Father God who is mindful of his own, they are filled
with superstitious beliefs concerning him.
I heard a man----with great emotion in his voice, talking to this God
regarding the need of money---finally conclude his high-flown statements of an
impersonal God with, "Now, Father-God, you know if it is best for me to
have this money it will be forthcoming." He was the spirit of humility and
contriteness, and was as near a pagan praying to a glorified figure of clay as
he could possibly be. Imagine praying for the invisible current of electricity
to let you have light if it thought it was well for you to have light. If you
are in
total
darkness and
have
to read, it is an obvious fact
that you need light. Yet thousands are thinking to wheedle
some special favor from this God while afraid, and filled with superstitious
fears regarding Him, so that their humility is nothing but a robe of hypocrisy. "The
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."
The
wisdom spoken of is the understanding of God, and the fear that is mentioned
is the reverence that one naturally has for fundamental laws. A musician, the
more he awakens to the glorious realm of harmony, the more he reverences (fears)
the laws of harmony; he does not see in them anything that will destroy him, or
from which he can curry personal favors. No matter how contrite he has been,
no matter how many times he has told the principle that he is a miserable
artist, full of terrible discords, and unworthy of the power to express
harmony. As an artist he knows that, the moment he falls away from the laws of
harmony, chaos is produced in his playing, and he will eventually completely
destroy himself as a musician if he continues to disregard these laws for long.
"The wrath of God," or electricity, or discord, then, must be
in the keeping of man, no matter what may be said to the contrary.
"The wrath of God" is man's own wrath, or his ignorance or
"fear" of God in the negative sense of the word. Many people have
interpreted the fear of God as meaning a power that constantly requires
sacrifice of everything but the most
ordinary things
of
life. Others have a tribal God who is a bestower of personal favors. Still
others imagine they are one of the few chosen to express this power-that they
are especially consecrated, and that all others must look up to them. Jesus, the
great Way-Shower, seeing this tendency in man, made it clear that the power he
was employing was impersonal, and as available to the man in the street as it
was to him. "Call not me good." Well might he have said, "Do not
worship
me." "I
AM
wonderfully
and fearfully made." Do
you begin to
understand the FEAR
of
God, and how it operates successfully over the "fearfully" made body?
Do you begin to see what is hidden in the word "fear"? Do you
understand how the currents of electricity run freely over a perfectly equipped
house? Wherever there is wiring and equipment there it appears in whatever form
it is needed, and that form is to neutralize a belief in a lack of some kind.
So also
the “fear" of God operates over the body, which is "wonderfully and
fearfully" made. Many an electrically equipped establishment has a system
of wiring and switchboards wonderfully and fearfully made. The most ordinary man
in the street would not find it anything unusual if told that the same power
could freeze and burn at the same time, in the same room; he would not find it
strange that this power could connect him instantly with the other end of the
earth. No, he has recognized this fact, and accepted it. That
the power we call God operates in the same manner is un-understandable to many
people. They want to know what "method" or what power you use to
neutralize disease as differentiated from poverty; what affirmations you say
to bring about happiness as differentiated from those used to produce
prosperity-as if there were a different set of currents in an electrical wave to
produce different manifestations. God is impersonal, omnipotent, and omniscient,
as well as omnipresent. He is everything at the same time. The moment you
recognize the Presence of God in any place, the situation or condition of human
ignorance becomes nil. When
you begin to recognize the impersonal nature of God, great areas of fear leave
you. You realize then that it is not a matter of the power working or not; it is
a question: Are you willing to let it into manifestation? "When you are
ready, I will do the work." When you are ready to stop this ridiculous
praying to a man-god and come before The Presence with the glorious readiness to
let The Power into expression, then will you see and know " The words I
[the I AM]
speak
are not of myself, but him that sent me." The "words" are the
manifestations that you give forth as the Son o/ the
Living God. Do
you begin to see why it is, "if you make your bed in [the] hell [of belief]
I AM
there"?
To recognize this is to see the darkness of hell dissipated in the light of
Spirit. To the human sense, flames may have light and a burning heat, but
this is nothing as compared with the light of Spirit. Hell is always personal,
and limited to the belief of a person; heaven is universal and everywhere
present, and is available to everyone.
That this power has always been, goes without
saying, just as we know the principle of the automobile always existed. Jesus
might have ridden into Jerusalem in an automobile as on an ass, as far as the
existence of the principle is concerned. No one recognized the principle; hence
it did not seem to exist. In the same way you, in your human darkness, do not
recognize the presence of heaven here and now, and so it does not exist to you.
Because of the limitations of human language, terms of symbology and
parables are used to bring out the hidden meaning of the visible-invisible; yet
it is ridiculous to compare the power of God with the power of electricity.
The Power is so much beyond the limited illustrations man can give, that
words utterly fail to convey the idea, and the best illustrations only raise
many queries in the mind of the reader. Who can define the Infinite?
The first fear, then, to be eradicated is the false interpretation of the
"fear of God," not the belief in a power opposed to God. When you are
unafraid of God because you are beginning to understand the ALL-Now of the
All-Presence, and are ceasing the terrible struggle to make this Power work
according to human standards; when you cease to fear him as a terrible tyrant,
meting out horrible punishments
to helpless victims of his caprice
---then will you begin to know "the peace that passeth all understanding,
"for" in the twinkling of an eye "you will see that all fears are
induced merely by the lack of understanding of God-"the fear of God
"-the understanding of this great Power so completely fills you that
there is no room for any other " fear."
"The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” The reverence for,
and aligning of oneself with, this glorious Power, is the beginning of wisdom.
You will see the human fears for what they are-the product of a double mind. A
man I met, working in the service of God, was afraid lest he could not get
sufficient money to keep his church in operation. What about it? Do you suppose
that this great Power, desiring to express itself, fails to supply everything
necessary to make this possible, without the aid or assistance of man? Who is
this man who thinks he has to strain every nerve to bring in the Christ Kingdom?
Who is this poor benighted soul who imagines that if he does not make a
place for God to express, God will not be expressed? Where is that one who is
seeking no favors, nor any permission to express that which God hath given him
to express? Where is the one that needs no recommendation, but finds the
temple doors flung wide open to him?
Is it that one who, as Cromwell says, "hath the true fear of God
in his heart" to such an extent that "there is no room for any other
fear"?
You who read this page, what is the nature of your fear? First, what of
the fear of God? What do you actually feel in your heart regarding this God? Are
you afraid of him? Do you fear him in the old sense of the word, or do you
"fear" (reverence) him as the great Impersonal Power? If you but learn
to be unafraid of this Power, you will be like the learned electrician. Your
fear and superstition regarding the truth will melt away along with the other
fears of evil, poverty, and disease.
"The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Do you hear, you
who read this line? The door is opening to you-the door into the glorious land
of understanding, through which you may enter and be free. They (your fears) may
seem terrible and imminent. They may seem sere to annihilate you
until you
learn that through the unafraid state of mind they will flee. You cannot fear
anything when your heart is full of the fear
of
the Lord, remembering that you are wonderfully and "fearfully" made,
and that the power which is to activate this mechanism is now in full
manifestation.
"Come, ye children, hearken unto Me; and I will teach you the fear
of the Lord." The I AM
will
reveal to the unafraid soul all the wonders that are hidden beneath the
"fear." The eyes of the blind will be opened. You will begin to see
that although some may say "Peace, peace, and there is no
peace,"
and some may retain the "the fear of the Lord" in their hearts and
suffer the pangs of the damned, yet others may be so filled with the "fear
of the Lord "that no other fear can enter. Do you see? Do you hear---you
who read this line? Does not your heart suddenly burn with a glorious joy? Are
you not aflame with the glory of
the new
revelation-you who read this line? You have nothing to fear because you have
the "fear of God."
You will begin to read the secret doctrine and see the things that are
hidden away from the wise and prudent. You will begin to see how the letter
often contradicts itself as well as confuses. Witness this for prosperity; "By
humility and fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." Interpret
this from
the
negative meaning of the word
"fear" and
you have a contrary argument
to the
non-fear state that appears to be necessary for the relative world of finance
to-day. Fear is to be ejected at all costs, and as fear so it is, but
consider this with
its true meaning, with your heart
full
of
it, and you will see that prosperity is not a matter of demonstration, but a
matter of recognition. You cannot help but manifest prosperity, any more than an
electric bulb could refuse to illuminate when the power is turned
on.
"Search
the Scriptures." You will learn to search the deep hidden meaning of the
Word. "I will reveal myself to you."
It is only when your heart is full of the Dear
of
the Lord that you can truly say, "I shall fear no evil," concluding
with the glorious reason, "For thou [the understanding] art with
me."
"He
that hath the true fear of God in his heart hath no room for any other
fear." It
is wonderful.
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