Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing
in the Unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads
beyond the world entirely. It is past learning yet the goal of learning,
for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance.
Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where
it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for
the gift.
Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear.
By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite
to everything the world contains that those whose minds are lighted by the
gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.
Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is
not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that
an open mind can hear the call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's
Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus
is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which
it is familiarly at home.
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of
the Father and the Son as One has been already set. But we have also said the
mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it.
And yetwe
urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth,
and speed its advent into every mind which recognizes its effects
on you.
Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being
He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and
then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There
are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel
that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source,
and like its Source Itself, it merely is.
We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every
mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given
and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where
the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all
thought of time, forgiveness, and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has
merely disappeared into His Father, as his Father has in him. The world has
never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned,
brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself
determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it in that
what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.
All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized
all that time holds and gave it to all minds that each one might determine,
from a point where time has ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity.
We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done.
For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is
entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always
was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long
since, and fully recognize as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's
script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no-one in the world can understand.
When revelation of your Oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood.
Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen
to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can
the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and
go to sleep by them?
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must
remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your
part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to
you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat
as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme which runs throughout
salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it
runs directed, and its outcome sure.
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that
grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven yet does not
replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices.
It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants
you receive, through grace, in your experience, to all who see the light that
lingers on your face.
What is the Face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness,
and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to
bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a
part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened and in need of you
as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and accept the gifts
that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands
not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace and for experience
that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not
ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this
we can give in the grace that has been given us.
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer yet, in the world, what
could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask,
as it was given Him?
“By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release”
