A rendezvous with life

Olsen, Rona, E.F. Jones, Printer, Wellington, N.Z., 1937

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The original publication details are as follows:

Title: A rendezvous with life

Author: Olsen, Rona

Published: E.F. Jones, Printer, Wellington, N.Z., 1937

A RENDEZVOUS WITH LIFE

RON A OLSEN

PRELUDE

I am releasing this hook into the world of humanity’s brotherhood trusting that for those who desire to know, it may reveal glimpses of Truth hitherto hidden—that some clearer ray of light may illumine the pathway of life. I send it forth with only Love in my heart and a sincere desire to be of service to my fellow man.

RON A OLSEN.

We only know Life when light from the inner self sheds its rays on the path.

LIFE.

To understand life is of paramount importance, not only its expression through the physical body, but life in mind and spirit.

To the average individual, life conveys no real meaning, just a continual round of ordinary activities interspersed with sickness and trouble of various kinds, until life seems more of a problem than a pleasure. We can never understand life by looking at it from the external plane —the old conception was that unless we built our lives on a materialistic basis it was impracticable —that to speak of building on a spiritual foundation was a sign of mental inefficiency, of impracticability. It was like saying we must have oil for lighting our homes and cities, because it is visible, whereas, when we turn to electricity, it is an invisible and therefore impracticable power, yet it is the invisible that is real, and this must be understood by every individual if he is to live a life of health, harmony and happiness. Between the outer expression of life and life itself there is a connecting link through which contact must be made. This link is the mind, situated between the spirit on the inner side and the body on the outer side. Its purpose is to convey life to the body and also to carry that

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life into our activities on the external plane, therefore, when we attune our minds to the vibrant realities of spirit, we make personal contact with life. We set free the greatest force in the Universe, and it quickens and vitalises every cell of our minds and bodies. This means greater health to the body, brilliance to the mind, and strength to the personality—an ever expanding consciousness, expressing in all its fullness the life of the Divine. When our thoughts are constructive / and our words are filled with spirit and power we become one with the great Universal life, and will receive in abundance. This life of God is free and available to every person, but the first contact is within. "From within man, the spirit of God shall flow forth like rivers of living water.”

New visions of beauty now open up to us in the world of nature, for we are moving from the outer form to the inner life. The song of the birds, the friendliness of the trees, the stream’s lullaby, a galaxy of stars —all these come close to us, and the spirit within them mingles with our spirit and we recognise the bond between ourselves and everything expressing life. So long as we think our human resources are all there are on which to depend, life will become an eternal enigma, without any possible solution to the many problems that confront the individual who so thinks and lives, but when we break through the barriers of sense a new world opens before us —we

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lose to find. We lose the limited life at the circumference and find the richer life within. Life becomes a glory—a song- —a constant inspiration and revelation. Every step of the way becomes a joy—the thrill of the ecstatic contact with life gives a new outlook, a greater vision because of rising above the surface and limited view to the higher levels of the unlimited.

When we are out of darkness we are in light. Weakness and bondage will pass away, for we are now living in the strength and freedom of the Infinite. When we find the abundant life we no longer take the leading of the personal self, for the spiritual self is now in control, and causes all the illusions, limitations and ills of external existence to disappear. It is only when we live with God that we can receive from Him, so the more fully we realise and become conscious of the Christ within, the more life we will express in mind and body.

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LIFE.

To be spiritually minded is life.

I live and have my being in a vast ocean of life.

I fling wide the doors that open to this Divine inflow and outflow.

In the soul of man lies hidden the life of the Infinite.

Blessed are they who have found life, for they know they are immortal.

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When the Sun of Eternal Truth rises above the horizon of consciousness it floods our whole world with Light.

TRUTH.

Truth is eternal and unchanging, yet its aspects are ever changing as we are continually unveiling Truth, so it appears new to us. It is only new in the sense that we have not known it previously, even as electricity had always existed, but became a new power when we discovered how to harness and utilise it. Truth in all its fulness awaits our discovery. Every person is consciously or unconsciously searching for it. We seek in many directions before we discover that "Truth is within ourselves.” That "There is an inmost centre in us all where Truth abides in fullness.” While we continue to live in the limitations of the conscious mind and search only in the outer world for Truth we shall miss the deep stratas which lie beneath the surface. While the conscious mind is able to know the Truth concerning that which belongs to the external plane, yet it cannot discover the Truth about the Realities of Life. To simply believe a Truth is of very little value to the individual —to know a Truth means that one lives that Truth, and it comes into expression through words and actions. When we speak and live Truth only good can come to us. In every Truth we not only take steps toward greater Truth, but we

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are co-operating with the greatest power in the Universe. It will free you from error, sickness and poverty, and from all the mental inharmonies which have hitherto been potent causes in producing chaos and trouble in the life of man. "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.” No Truth can come from the personal or conscious mind, because it is only the impersonal or superconscious that can discover absolute Truth. Truth is clear-eyed and undismayed. Its light is Divine. Untruth and error pass away at its approach. It gives us a true sense of values, showing us that Spiritual realities come first, then mental forces, with their inevitable result on the physical plane.

One of the greatest truths to be discovered is that concerning ourselves —-that we are spiritual beings, living in a spiritual world governed by Divine laws. The untruth that has held so many people in bondage is that we are just human beings, full of frailties and weakness, and we have lived in this thought instead of that of Divine strength. We must therefore train our minds to think Truth. To think Truth is to create that which is true in our bodies and affairs. As we live in the spirit of Truth we must necessarily grow out of everything that is limited and adverse. The word of Truth is the living expression of God and is therefore Truth in vital action. Another indispensable Truth that must be realised bv everv-

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one is that Divine law unceasingly on all planes of Being. We have free-will either to cooperate or violate these laws. The operation of Divine Law makes it possible to control our lives. It places in our hands a tremendous Power for good or ill. It behoves each one of us to seek, to understand and observe these laws. The action on the mental plane is most important, because the mind is the great causative force, moulding conditions on the outer plane. So I need to live mentally with the good and constructive, otherwise a destructive and disintegrating force begins its work. The law works with such perfect exactitude that when a Cause is set in motion through thought, a corresponding result will always follow. This is the great fundamental certainty in Life, making it possible for us to build with perfect surety our future, knowing that the law is unchanging, inviolable.

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TRUTH.

That the unseen things are eternal, and the seen only temporary.

Truth shows the wanderer the way of life.

Truth disperses all that is false in our minds.

Truth is an oasis in the desert of error.

Only that which contains Truth can live.

Realisation of Truth on the inner confers dominion over outer circumstances and conditions.

When we discover the God in us Truth begins its revelation.

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The greater your consciousness of Peace, the greater your power.

PEACE.

I think never before has there been such a need for the cultivation of inner Peace. We are living so rapidly, everything is being speeded up to a degree unknown before. In the rush of our modern life we need peace, poise and balance if we are going to take our place as useful members in the world of humanity.

Peace does not come by trying to escape from life on this plane, but in a fuller and more complete understanding of life. It does not come by separation from the world of business and industry and going away to the lone quiet places on God’s earth. It comes by seeking in the depths of one’s being and finding there the peaceful pathways within the soul. This peace that every person really desires is an inner state of consciousness. We sometimes go away for a short time to nature, hoping thereby to find something of the peace we long for in the quiet of the forest, close to the strong, quiet trees, and in a degree it helps us to know that "In quietness and confidence is our strength.” The Eternal self within us is always at peace —there is no discord or turmoil there, like the depths of the ocean, although there may be disturbance on the surface, beneath are

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the calm, unruffled depths. There is an inmost centre in us all, where not only Truth but Peace abides in fullness —the eternal calm of the soul. We can become so enmeshed and entangled in materiality that we lose sight of the soul, yet Peace is always there in the scintillating glory of God’s world within us. Let us turn often to this still place. Let us attune our minds to the Christ Mind and so allow Peace to come to birth in our consciousness. Our greatest work is accomplished when we are tremendously active and at perfect peace within. We accomplish but little, however great our activity, if we are not at peace, for peace accumulates energy and discord dissipates it.

When the peace of God has been released into our consciousness it permeates every part of our minds and bodies. We take this serene atmosphere with us and help to still the troubled minds of many weary souls we meet on life’s pathway. We have passed beyond the world of matter and transitory things, and found the real, the unchanging and Eternal. It means perfect poise and balance between the inner and outer life. Turning to this stillness within, we catch the gleams of Light that guide us to a reality beyond the visible tangible plane of sense.

While we live in a state of mental discord and unrest, while we are so engulfed in the personal self, we cannot abide in the shining splendour of the kingdom in the tranquil peace of the Eternal.

[l4]

The self within is continually saying to us, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” Let us open our minds to this peaceful Divine presence, and the abiding calm of the Divine Will be with us. Henceforth the dove of Peace will spread her pinions over our life.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.”

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PEACE.

To remain calm when everything about us is discordant is a sign of greatness.

Peace is only to be found when we strike the balance between the inner and outer life.

Peace does not come through slothful inactiv ity, but through a mind at rest in the Divine.

Our peace is broken when we lose contact witl the Divine.

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Lore sings her song in a great unlimited World.

LOVE.

All the world is seeking Love, however muddled their methods, however unconscious they may be of what really constitutes Love, through much pain, loss and suffering the search continues. We pass through many degrees of Love —each degree leading us nearer to the reality, until we come to the consciousness that Love is the greatest creative power in the Universe, and in ourselves. Even through all the planes of mineral, plant and animal some degree of Love is in expression, however unconscious it may be in its action. If I love a plant I help it to make a greater expression. It is stimulated by my thought. If I am kind to an animal I am helping it in its evolution, and its eyes express in a most eloquent manner its gratitude.

When we come to the human family we find some consciousness of Love, although to a vast multitude of people love is evanescent —a temporary passing experience. If we are living wholly in the sense world, then Love to us has its source in the physical. Its birth and death takes place there, and as it passes away we say Love has died, and we suffer from this seeming loss. But the real truth was, we had not found Love. We had only experienced a small degree of the out-

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ward expression of Love and found it wholly unsatisfying.

The greatest lesson we have to learn in life is "How to Love.”

There is a dreadful drought of Love in the world to-day, showing we have not yet mastered the lesson.

We cannot find Love by searching in the external, in the physical or material plane of being. We can only truly love when we find ourselves. We cannot love with the intellect or the personality, any more than we can think with the brain. As the brain is the instrument or mechanism through which thought functions, so the personality is the channel through which Love can be expressed.

The Spiritual or Real Self within is Love. So the degree of Love we are conscious of depends on how much of this self has been born in our consciousness—how far we have reached to Divine levels. When the Christ is born in us we begin to love divinely, to realise something of the wonder, beauty and joy of the truly satisfying.

It is only the spirit of Love that is real and lasting, and the greater the Love we give, the greater our joy.

The Divine self gives freely, lovingly, lavishly, not hemmed in by any limitations of the human. The human self desires Love, wants to keep and to possess it, but it is only in giving that we

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receive, not in merely seeking or possessing. I can come close to God only through Love. This fountain of Love wells up from within the spirit. Love is the only foundation on which we can build, whether it be a home, a business, or a nation. Kindness, goodwill, co-operation are aspects of Love. It may be only a kind word given to a stray dog, or a thought of encouragement to some weary soul on life’s pathway, but it will return in helpful blessings. Love is the only power that will draw nations together in reciprocal and close union. The strongest nation is not the one that possesses the greatest weapons of destruction, but the one that is living in peace and goodwill towards other nations, for where there is the relationship of Love, there is strength invincible, invulnerable. In any other relationship there is friction, strife and destruction. St. Paul declares that without Love all prophecy, faith, knowledge of mysteries, speech, all are futile. The Master said the whole structure of our civilisation must be built on Love. Love to God and Love to man constitutes the greatest law. Love may be likened to a stream. When the first degree of it is born in the consciousness of man it is just a shallow, trickling rivulet, but on its journey it broadens, widens, and deepens, until it becomes a mighty torrent, never staying, never ceasing until it merges into the ocean. However shallow and limited our conception of Love may

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be, the day will dawn when we shall merge our Love into the great ocean of Divinity. Love waits to be liberated from within. To stifle it is disastrous. It must find expression through some channel, either marriage, work, art, service, for we only hold Love by giving it away.

The sky takes on a deeper hue, the song of the birds is sweeter, the whole world is greater and grander when we love. When we do not love, the world seems cold. We miss the beauty of sky and sea, friends drift away, everything seems wrong in our world because we have failed in our application of the great law of Love.

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LOVE.

Every individual is an embodiment of Love, however much it may be hidden by the Mists of the physical.

There are no barriers to Love. All doors swing open at her approach.

Love always acts from the plane of Reality.

Love merges and unifies; hatred separates and destroys.

Love creates all and sustains all.

Love is the bond of union between ourselves and God.

Through Love the world will be redeemed.

We can only discover one another through Love.

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Love soothes and heals.

Love forgives and forgets.

Love seeketh not her own.

Love never faileth.

Love is the highest law in the Great Universe of God.

Love is the source of the greatest happiness on all planes of Being.

Love is the only wealth.

Love is the White Light of the Spirit.

God reveals Himself to me only through Love.

Nothing can separate me from the indwelling love of God that has taught me the way of Life.

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Bodies are Thought-Built and they are Thoughtdestroyed.

HEALTH.

Health means perfect harmony in every part of the body—that the life-force is flowing freely to every organ. If there is any interruption in this flow then the body is weakened, thereby causing disease.

We must realise that disease is not some inimical or obscure force, which attacks us from without, but an abnormal state that develops from within —the resultant symptoms appearing in the body. We have in the past attempted only to deal with disease externally. If an organ was not functioning normally, the suggestion was to remove it, which was quite a normal action if we were dealing only with physical methods, without recognising the Divine Life of God and His Laws governing Health. We have turned to every external means to try to overcome disease, in the same way we have tried to solve all our problems in life, and we have failed lamentably, and the reason for our failure is due to the fact that the causes of our troubles, physical or otherwise, are subtle and internal. Health is not found in drugs, pills, tonics, or anything external. Health is a spiritual reality—the heritage of every person — therefore it is possible to overcome disease, because disease is a relative condition, brought about by Man’s ignorance and violation of Divine Laws.

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These laws operate on all planes of Being. On the physical plane there are laws governing food, breathing, elimination of waste matter, etc. Many people are sick through over-eating, also through eating food containing too much waste, and through lack of complete elimination this causes trouble in the body. Under these circumstances it is better to abstain from food for a short period, or to take food containing a minimum amount of waste (fruit juices, vegetable soup, green vegetables) , and so enable the system to throw off any superfluous substance. The laws operating on the mental plane are extremely important, as they are more potent in their operation in this finer world of mind, the violation of which is the main cause of disease in our world to-day. The body has no power of its own to be sick or well. It is always reflecting from the mind. It is the mind which moves it to action, and the mind can receive its life only from the spirit within. It is, therefore, the spirit that heals all our diseases of mind and body. The mind is full of maladies, in the shape of hatred, selfishness, fear and anger. These can only be overcome by Love, Peace, courage and unselfishness. The invisible life force, if not hindered by the mind, will fill every cell and organ of the body and will give to it the abundant life of God.

Health that Is within us is greater than any disease; therefore, the lesser condition of disease must pass away when the power of health is released.

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As the switch releases electricity, so the mental switch releases health. By releasing electricity contact is made with the central station —so, when health is released, we make contact with the Central Power of Health. We have power to switch on or off, and so produce light or darkness —health or disease.

We cannot express health in our bodies if we have discord in our minds. We must eradicate all those inharmonious states of mind and realise that constructive thought is a most powerful health giver. The utter futility of trying to overcome disease or any undesirable condition without reference to Divine Law must ultimately be the experience of every individual. We have struggled and battled with disease, and disease has increased. When we study the laws of health and fulfill the conditions by practical application, disease will fall away of its own accord. As bodily states are reactions from internal causes, so long as those internal causes remain it will profit nothing to struggle with the external effects, yet the unlimited power of the Infinite is available to help, to heal and bless. We are like captives that are being set free —fetters are being snapped asunder. The Christ within is putting all error and disease under our feet. We yield to the highest and become one with the Great Power pouring forth through every waiting channel.

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HEALTH.

We often need to tonic our mental bodies instead of our physical bodies.

Our goodness is greater than our imperfections, so our health is greater than disease.

We do not hate, fear, or worry with the intellect —we do these things with all our organs.

Destructive mental states are the most insidious preventatives of health.

The body is a channel through which Divine Life flows. Keep the channel clean and free from debris.

Health is entirely governed by laws which are impartial and never-failing.

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One of the greatest joys in life is to help someone to happiness.

HAPPINESS.

In many diverse ways in life every person is seeking happiness. If the consciousness is centred in the external world, then the search is confined to the things of the outer plane—yet real happiness is not found in things; they are at best only minor contributors to happiness. So, like children, we play with our toys and then grow tired of them, and desire something new. Happiness does not he in position, in possession of things, or in any external condition. Happiness, like Love, is an eternal principle, it belongs to the real, the absolute, otherwise we would buy it in the markets of the world. If this were possible, the richest people in the world would be the happiest. There are some who find happiness in the world of nature —they respond to her beauty and life; others find happiness in music, art, literature — they are responding to the finer things in life, and therefore experience a greater joy. They are vibrating in the higher world of harmony, colour and knowledge. The higher the vibration the greater the degree of happiness. Mental and physical activity add to our happiness, for in activity we are creating or giving something to the world in the form of service, and no service fails

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to bring to us its quota of joy. Mental obstacles are usually the greatest bars to happiness. The constructive power of man’s mind is available to remove all mental barriers that stand between him and his happiness.

There is the barrier of separateness —trying to live our separate lives, without any thought for others, thinking our own little circumscribed life is all there is to consider. We must recognise the law of interdependence operating through the whole —that we are all parts of one indivisable brotherhood. We need each other, and the more freely we can co-operate on terms of fellowship and goodwill the more quickly will evolution proceed.

We are only as independent as the spoke of a wheel. It has its own particular place in the wheel, but its real purpose is to strengthen the whole, and not just to make an individual expression. As each spoke fits in to the same centre, so we all live and have our being in the centre of Divinity, therefore we cannot inflict loss or suffering upon others without experiencing a corresponding reaction upon ourselves.

When we cease thinking of our own personal interests and advantage, and turn some of our attention to the general good, we are unfolding those qualities which not only contribute to our own progress and happiness, but enrich and make for the permanent happiness of all.

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In our mental action let kindness and goodwill prevail, for in this mind we enter into unity and harmony. Contrary mental states are disorganising and destructive. If we could enter in to that consciousness that realises that every thing that we possess, whether spiritual qualities, mental powers, or material things, are given, not for selfish and personal use, but that we might contribute toward the good of the larger family of humanity.

In orchestral music a player’s work is to see that his instrument is giving out harmonious sounds, and not to declaim against others who may be out of harmony.

Happiness is so infectious that the really happy person becomes a radiant centre of light, dispelling all the clouds of despondency and misery—a veritable sun shining forth and pouring upon all the healing rays of Love and Joy.

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HAPPINESS.

The seed of every joy is in the thought and deed.

Happiness cannot be produced by self-centred methods.

Not that the search for happiness, but the nature of that which yields happiness, shows how far we have come in understanding.

If we love, laugh and serve, happiness will not elude us.

If you have fallen, do not lie moaning in the mud. Get up and smile.

True happiness can only come when the real self is allowed to rule.

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"Until the Christ be born in you.”

CHRIST-IN-YOU.

Man is born on the physical plane with senses capable of responding to the external world. Without these senses he would have no contact with this world or his fellow men. Through a long period of evolution he lives almost wholly in this sense world. He believes the only real things in life are those he can see and touch. Although he may be conscious that he has a mind capable of action, the only value he places on it is to gain knowledge of something pertaining to the outer plane. We can, it is true, live for a time entirely involved in external things. The bubbles on life’s surface may attract us with their scintillating colours, their rainbow hues, but they are short-lived, and as they pass away the result is disappointment and disillusionment, simply phantoms men chase after, to their ultimate sorrow and undoing.

In our expression we are first finite and human, and then infinite and divine. As all invisible forces are greater than visible forces, so the invisible and spiritual man is greater than the visible or physical. The invisible self is made in God’s image and likeness, and the whole purpose and process of life is to find and bring this self into expression. This is the great goal ahead for each one of us, to find and live with the Christ —the Spirit within.

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This unchanging, undying self is silent, but wonderfully eloquent. When we hear the still small voice, it speaks only Truth to us. We make the at-one-ment with the Christ within through thought. The inner door cannot swing open to anything false or destructive. "I live, yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me” is the most important experience in the life of the individual. Such a one is born again, becoming a new being in a new world. The Master declares that "He does nothing of Himself, but that the Father that dwelleth in Him, He doeth the work,” by which is meant that His personality, if it were separate from His Divinity, would be powerless, but that by union with Divinity it has all the power of the Spirit.

The first crescent of the moon reflects a thin line of light on the ocean, but when it is full-orbed the whole ocean is a mass of shimmering glory, so when the Christ is first born in the consciousness, only a faint light shines through the mists of the physical, but gradually, as we live more completely with the real self, the spiritual glory of Christ floods our whole world with light, dispelling all the mists and fog of materialism, all the clouds of destructive thought. There are many people who have believed in the persona! Jesus, but they have not made the great discovery of the indwelling Christ. In the silence of your own souls the Christ wants to lead you into a fuller, grander and more wonderful life than you ever dreamed was possible.

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Your personality will be filled with Divine energy and power —you no longer live as a human being, but as a Divine being. You become conscious of an unlimited power at your disposal, to be used in whatever sphere of life you may be serving for the uplift and help of your fellow men.

The world hungers for reality. This longing of the soul can only be appeased as we make Christ the ruling power in our lives. As a man’s life can never rise above the level of his thoughts, so those who are living nearest in thought to the Divine will receive the greatest illumination of mind, for they have let the mind be in them that is in Christ. When the mind thinks and acts from the spirit there will be perfect harmony and wholeness in our outer world. Whenever this is not so the mind has failed in its obedience to the Christ Spirit. It has followed the false selfconsciousness, instead of unifying itself with God’s thought of Truth and Love. It has lived in a divided consciousness of good and evil. When we live only in the consciousness of good we have passed from death to life.

Let us listen to the voice of the Christ within, which says to us:

"Come unto Me and I will give you rest.”

"I will lead you in pathways of pleasantness and of Peace.”

"I am your rock and fortress, your refuge and strength,”

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"Of whom then shall you be afraid?”

"I will deliver you from the bondage of disease

and error, and from the world of sense.”

"Abide in Me, and let My words abide in you.” "I will be a lamp to your feet and a light to

your path.”

These great statements of the Master were not spoken from the personal, but from the impersonal—from the Christ —those illimitable heights of spirit, that part of our consciousness which is in direct communication with God. When we so live, vistas of unparallelled beauty will open before us.

The symphony of life lying latent in the depths of one’s being will be awakened into melody. Its sublime strains, rising higher and higher, will reach the souls of countless thousands, who in turn will awaken and join in the Divine song, a paean of thanksgiving and praise to God.

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CHRIST-IN-YOU.

"I will do exceedingly above that you can ask or think according to the Christ Power that worketh in you.”

To enter into the Christ is to enter into Freedom, because there can be no bondage in the Spirit.

When we enter into communion with the Christ there is nothing at all impossible or out of reach.

It is not just brain force, but man’s Divine connection that makes him a real constructive power in the world.

Christ in you opens the door to Light, Life, Love and to all your heart can desire.

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Printed by E. P. Jone*. Printer, 68 Willis St. Wellinrton. N.Z.