and "Ye are the temples of the living God," cover the Law and all things; and he who denies does not know God. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, does not know either the Father or the Son. He who has learned to "ask in His name" does not ask for this, that, and the other. He is not tossed about by conflicting wishes and whims and motives. His wishes, his longings, his desires are all held in abeyance in the presence of the Infinite. When he asks, he creates, with full sanction of every attribute of his being.

LESSON FORTY

If we love the truth, we will do the will of Him who is the giver of all truth.

St. John 14:15-31.

15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.

If we truly love the light, we will obey the Divine Law that includes this commandment. If we love light more The Christ is the Light

than darkness, we love the Christ. that is in the Soul. He is the Light that envelops the Soul. He is the Illumination, that which is born in glory when the Soul becomes Conscious, "the resurrection and the life." 16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

The world cannot know the spirit of truth, because the world seeks only that which is of the senses. It seeks profits, that it may know the pleasures of the flesh. It subjects men to useless labor, to pain and to suffering and to misery, in order that it may satisfy its desires for the carnal and the sensual.

The world does not seek truth because truth would prevent taking advantage of the less fortunate. It fears truth, for truth would point out the curse of worldly things. The world does not seek truth, nor can it know truth. Only the mind that has awakened to the illusions of the senses will seek for truth; and it will find truth and be comforted by the spirit of truth.

18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me because I live, ye shall live also.

If we have sought for the truth and have found it; if we have lived the Divine Law and have become one with the Christ-then shall we live as long as the Christ lives, because we have become one with him.

The world cannot know of this life, because the Christ has nothing to do with the world. When the world seeks the Christ in sincerity and in truth, then will it find the Christ.

20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

When we have found the Christ; when we have prepared the temple so that the Father can dwell therein-then are we conscious of our Sonship, and then will we know that the Christ is in the Father, and we in the Christ.

21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

To know the Divine Law and to live and do according to the Divine Law, is to love the Christ and to love the truth more than the pleasures of the carnal self. Otherwise, we would still follow after the pleasures of the flesh. To love the Law is to love the Father; and, as we love the Father, so does He love us, and will manifest through us.

22. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

Judas is "that which praises the Lord." Iscariot is "he that destroys." Judas means the Illuminated Soul, that which has learned to know the Father, and praises the Father.

23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

If we love the Christ, we will not only believe in that which He is, but we will keep His words-that is, we will think and act according to His words. To do this, is to become like Christ; and the Father will love us, because we have become like him. To do this is to become the temple of God; and both the Father and the Christ will take up their abode in the temple.

24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

25. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present

with you.

26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

When we have lived according to the Divine Law; when we have cleansed the temple through right thinking, right desiring, and right acting-then, the Christ comes (for it is the Christ to become a Conscious Individualized Soul). But this is not all, Illumination comes; and this is the Holy Ghost, this is the Comforter. While it is true that finding the Christ and receiving Illumination seem to be one and the same thing, yet there is a difference: the Illumination, the resurrection, is the receiving of the Holy Ghost.

27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

When man has found the kingdom of heaven-that is, when the Soul has become fully conscious and is become the Christ-then has man found peace; and, though at times there may be a fear in the heart, this fear will leave him. 28. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

29. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

31. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

LESSON FORTY-ONE

He who has found the Father has become part of the Father and receives life from Him.

St. John 15:1-16.

1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. The Father is the root from which all things come. Christ is the vine, because he is nearest to the Father.

2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

All men that come unto the Christ-which is to say, all men that do the work, or bring forth the fruit, of the Christ are the branches of the vine. He that does not the work of the Father, will be cut away; for he is a parasite

on the vine. The good husbandman cuts away the parasites, and they die; and the good vine brings forth more fruit.

3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more. can ye, except ye abide in me.

Man of himself can do nothing. He is nothing. He is but a house of clay. The clay is his because he has received it from his parents; but the life that is in him belongs to the Creator, and may be taken from him at any moment. But, if man abides in the Christ—that is, if he does the works of the Christ-then does he become like the Christ, and his works are then the fruits of the vine.

5. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing.

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6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned..

Those who do not abide in Christ are they who live only for the carnal, sensual self. They are proud, and think that they have power because they accomplish things on the material plane; but they are like vines that bring not forth fruit. When the Spirit of life, which belongs to the Father, is taken away from them, it is found that they have builded nothing; that the divine spark which was within them is in the same inert state as when they received it from the Father, it is the talent which they buried, and it will be taken from them.

Having nothing, they will be cut off from the vine. That which was theirs, the personality, returns to the earth with the body. And all is destroyed; for it is burned, it is changed into its former elements.