THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH LECTURE ONE HAND

"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Yet much preaching does not talk about the goodness, the love, and the supply that has been provided for us; it dwells on the negative. In my own practical experience of over fifty years I have found in it nothing but good. I have found that this promise of the Master is as real today as when it was made so long ago. I do not teach you how to bear your burdens, to put up with unhappiness, sickness and poverty. I try to give you answers to your problems. "I am the way, and the Truth, and the life" and also "the Light" declares God's presence within you. I try to show you how to accept this great promise, how you can release God's kingdom, Which constitutes you in every cell of your being. We talk a lot about "Love", but very few people really practise it. They are not aware that Love is the Power that at this moment is making the propellers of this fan revolve and circulate the air, that is amplifying this microphone so that you can hear me at the back of the hall, that runs this tape recorder, capturing everything I say. Love is impersonal, is not concerned with colour or creed. It does not say that if you are a Truth student you will gain entrance to the Kingdom of heaven. It does say that, if you practise It, you place yourself in the stream of Power and Good, so that It flows through you and on to others. I ask myself constantly "Who is my neighbour?" I ask it particularly when people tend to irritate me - by seeing through dark glasses, feeling that only they are right, that God has chosen only them. When I look upon people I see God walking round and about, God Himself, or Herself or Itself, not humans, full of "evil" and "sin". I see God expressing on this plane of consciousness in the measure allowed by His own body-temples - man. He is everywhere evenly present at the same time, pressing everywhere towards fulfilment. I met a man years ago who asked me with a crafty smile "Who am I?" I looked carefully at him. "Unless you mean this personality that I see before me, you surely mean the individual, the 'I' Who constitutes you.

There is only one 'I'. 'I' and God." "Blasphemy!" he exclaimed. "No, it is not blasphemy. The Master whom you too follow teaches that the living Presence of God is within you, is one with you. So I discount this immature personality and see within you the Presence of God, and I call It forth to myself." He remained silent so I continued. "Do you see the blind beggar on the corner with his cup? Who do you think he is? Now we are both looking at God." "You get more and more blasphemous" - his voice had gone quiet with shock. "No," I replied, "I am not. There is God, and that is as far as that person will express Him. There is no such thing as God-and-me, or God-as-you, or God-as-that-man. There is only God manifesting Himself in millions of nuances of understanding." This is the message of approaching Easter, the message of uplifted consciousness: "I (God-as-me) came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" - abundantly in terms of all that is good, for negation is nothingness.

From when I was a young man I accepted this in toto. I accept the Master who says "As you see me, my kindness, my gentleness, my love and forgiveness, so you see God. And as you see it in others, as you see it in yourself, so too you see God." So I look at myself in every person. I can interact with you only according to my own consciousness, my own understanding. The more critical I am of you, the more I criticise myself, the more I reveal the withholding of God's presence in me. Do you know what it does for you - this seeing God in every person? It makes you completely independent. Whether they know it or not their hands become God's hands and convey only good to you, just as your hands convey only good to them. And, as I have so often said, while your hand is open in terms of love and service, in giving and trusting, just so is every other hand in the world open. I derive great satisfaction, mental, emotional and material, from knowing that God the Good is everywhere evenly present.

Years ago I served on the board of a hospital. And every time I visited, at eleven o'clock in the morning, I had tea with the matron. One day she was also hosting a high-standing orthodox Church leader and cheerfully introduced me to him. He had his hand out to shake mine, but when he heard my name he quickly withdrew it. Clearly he had an impression of me that his Christianity could not tolerate. Yet it is the very teachings of the Master that I apply, and have practised, and have found to be so wonderfully workable. This teaching is Love, or goodwill towards every single person, knowing that all hands are the hand of God. You can never need, never want, for there is always a hand that is open to uplift you, to guide you, direct you, supply you. Yet, sadly, so many "religious" people do not see this. They do not realise that if you decide you do not like this person, or that, or you approve only of this religious group, or that, you are simply closing God's hand to yourself. You are living in a state of illusion, separated from the whole Universal Presence. If I have a jigsaw puzzle and its completed picture is on the cover of the box, I have a plan, I can see what I have to build. It might take me many hours but if I persevere I will see it completed, or "perfect".

Now you and I are living in a jigsaw world. We each want to be happy, to be healthy, to be secure, to live a life of fulfilment, not having to wonder anxiously where our supply will come from. And this tremendous Truth answers our longing: I am you and you are me. As my hand opens to you so does your hand open to me - the one Presence hand of God - open. But just so easily is the One hand closed - when we descend to the personal, to the limited, to fear. So I have been convinced, for over half a century now, that the great promise "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" must include me. I am one of the "they", one of the common people. I have tested it. The Master's fundamental teachings are very simple. Love brings me into tune with the whole universal Presence, like switching on the light over this lectern. Can I really love every person? Can I love to that extent? Of course I cannot feel sentimental love for everyone, but goodwill to every man, doing to him what I would like God to do unto me -that I can. At the very least I can try. And I have found that hand after hand has opened to me. The more I loved, the more goodwill I sent out, the more Love came back to me. People I knew from childhood have come to me and asked "Nicol, what has happened?" My reply has been "I found that the teachings of the Master called Jesus-Christ work." "Work in what way?" "Well," I say "in providing me with health, with happiness and giving me great security. I depend only on God, not on a single personality, for every hand is His hand." Love puts you in tune with God's presence, and from this comes knowledge, or faith.

Now I know that God works all the time, every moment of every day and night - as long as I keep Him switched on within me. It depends on me. I cannot tell you of all the good that pours into my life from all over the world. It is endless the way Love manifests. The Master says "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will." At first I only believed, or rather make-believed, that this Master Christian had something to give to me and to the world, and I found it worked, and my belief grew into knowledge, into faith. I often say to myself "Look how the Master's teachings have provided for me, in every department of my life." You know the true prophet by his fruits. Too many say they are Christians, or Truth students, but with lip-service. I say "By your fruits, your works, your demonstrations, you are known." And do not imagine that prosperity means having enough money to buy happiness and the rest. Prosperity is part of a package that includes the rest. Your open hand releases and your open hand receives - everything. Decade after decade I have been putting this open Hand to the test and have proved it, not only in my case but in the case of thousands of others. They write to us from all the corners of the world. How wonderfully God has provided for them in all the departments of their lives. One wrote "I have been testing this now for ten years to find out where it breaks down, where is the catch, but at last I have come to the conclusion there is no catch." These are the fundamentals that I follow: Firstly, Love is the fulfilment of the Law; this brings me into rapport with the order and harmony of the Universe. Giving opens my hand fearlessly, rids me of my fear.

Serving means I am working alongside my heavenly Father. Lastly, trusting joins me to the whole stream of God's substance, His power, His supply. It is like the adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing of arithmetic. I get the result, not because I say so, but because it is so. This is the message of approaching Easter, for all religious groups: Lift up your consciousness. Take your eyes away from appearances and problems and circumstances and conditions and personalities. Lift up your eyes within yourself to where God dwells, to where God speaks, and sees and hears. Here you companion with His presence and, as you follow the four fundamentals, your life is filled with peace and joy and security.