THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH LECTURE ONE PRESENCE AND ONE POWER

"No man can serve two masters." It is strange, after centuries of existence of the Christ teaching, that so few people in this world understand it. And it seems fantastic to me that after countless manifestations of God's power over all conditions of limitation, we still doubt Him. I, personally, have seen wonderful demonstrations of good in the lives of innumerable people. I do not mean the type of demonstration that many think "would have happened anyway", I mean the kind where all hope has been given up, when man not only feels that his fellowman has let him down, but even that God Himself does not exist. And yet, in the very extremity of despair of these people, I have seen the love and power of God express as the fulfilment of their particular need. Then, perhaps weeks or months later, in spite of this absolute proof of Divine aid, to my amazement I have found these same people in the throes of some new worry or fear. Why should it be so? Why can we not continue to hold on to God and the abundant manifestation of His good? Surely if His power works in one case it must continue to work? This morning, after reading the newspaper, I found myself so impressed by the terrible warnings of disaster that I thought to myself "A teacher of Truth is a voice crying out in the wilderness." On almost every page there was negation of God's promises of good - beware of this, beware of that, no glimmer of hope for you or me anywhere. You say you do not believe all the things you read, and that you have so trained your mind to be constructive that such negation does not affect you. Well, I consider my mind to be fairly well disciplined to reject the negative, and I have shown you what my reaction was. What are we thinking when we react like this? We are agreeing that what is written is true and real and inevitable. And according to our faith it is done unto us - we help to bring the not-good into manifestation and to perpetuate it.

The Master tells us we should not be of "this world", that the prince of "this world" (of negativity) will come to us, but we must not allow him entrance into our consciousness. So there is the acid test! Do you believe that God is All-power and All-knowledge and that He is the omnipresent Spirit of Life permeating the whole of His universe? You cannot serve two masters. Do you believe that you are His temple and that He is able to overcome every condition of discord, hatred, poverty and disease? If you believe these things you have nothing to fear, and you will keep your mind and heart and all your attention centred on God, not on the propaganda of fear mongers. I believe with all the power I have within me in the message of the 91st Psalm, that if I believe in God, and live consciously and constantly in His presence, a thousand shall fall at my side, and ten thousand or a hundred thousand or a hundred million at my right hand, the not-good shall not, cannot, come nigh me. Should I ever be proved wrong I will be the first to tell you, but I know there is no power outside of God.

You go to God because you desire happiness, peace of mind, health and success. You expect these things from Him. You say it is your right to have the good and you will not attempt the "evil". If you are thus truly God's child, He, like any loving father, wishes you only well and manifests only good through you and for you. Do you accept this with deep conviction? You expect God to take care of you, but what does He expect from you? He is impotent to work through you until you invite Him by opening your mind and heart to Him. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot expect Him to answer your prayers if you devote only a few minutes a day to living in tune with Him. Nor can you have health, happiness, peace and success when you are constantly attuned to the negative and destructive. You have to ask yourself continually: Who is the Power, God or man? There in effect is man shouting in his newspaper "I do not believe in God." He is advertising the fact that he has faith, not in the omnipresent power of Divine Love, but in man and his failures. If I believe that man is greater than God then I must pander to humanity to ensure my wellbeing, and I must accept what humanity does for me or does not do for me. But if I want absolute Security, I have got to make up my mind and be onepointed.

Then, according to my trust, do events in my life take shape. Our responsibility is to meet God half way. When the prodigal son arose and went to the father, the father came to meet him. He did not expect the father to sink to his own level of materialism and destructive living. He realised that he had erred and that the only way of salvation for him lay in the direction of his father's house, so he took his first step homewards. And when he was yet a long way off his father saw him and came joyfully to meet him and heaped blessings of love upon his head. This great story depicts our personal relationship with our heavenly Father. We are always saying we want this and that from God but, when it comes to shouldering our responsibilities in working with Him, we are not prepared to enter wholeheartedly into the matter. How can we know what God will do for us if we refuse to accept His invitation to prove Him? The universe is held together by the vibration of harmony and we can liken it to a great orchestra playing a symphony, with God as the conductor. He is beating a strict tempo but, if we choose to disregard it and play according to our own conception of the rules of music, we shall produce a terrible cacophony - discords of disease, unhappiness, poverty and strife. Surely that is not the Creator's fault? Your life reflects what you believe - whether you trust implicitly in the goodness of God's will for you, or whether you have faith that man is destined to suffer all the ills of the flesh without any hope of salvation and fulfilment.

But remember this: When the not-good, the so-called evil, makes its appearance in your life, it is not something that God has created or that you have brought into being by any powers of your own. Through your belief in, and fear of, the opposite of good you are merely shutting out the Spirit of Divine Love and Life and making real to yourself the very things that you do not desire. You cannot, out of the substance of Perfection, create imperfection. The not-good that you experience in your life has no substance in itself beyond the chimera which you give it by your continued faith in it. Change this faith in negation into a living and persistent faith in the omnipresent good of God, and the chimera must disappear. It is no use saying that God does not hear your prayer, or that He is not concerned about you personally. Spiritual law is laid down for each one of us - the Master calls it Love. If our minds and hearts are in harmonious relationship with God we shall experience health, peace and success, and accord with our fellowmen. We must fulfil the Law.

We must think, feel, speak and act in tune with It and make It an integral part of our consciousness. We must recognise and acknowledge that there is only one Presence and one Power in the universe, in spite of man's stupidity and ignorance. God's promise is that it is not by physical might or power but by His spirit that true success attends our efforts. Just think of it: Not by physical force and striving and struggling will happiness and health and success be brought into our life, but purely by our own serene consciousness of the truth that we are the temples of the living God, Whose spirit expresses through us as fulfilment. There is a stream of living substance within man that is more than sufficient to meet every need no matter how catastrophic the condition may appear. But it must be tapped in his own consciousness. All that God expects is that you arise and lift your mind and heart above the lying condition of lack and acknowledge Him as the only Presence and Power in your life. The work of restoration is His - leave it to Him.

Do not hinder the operation of His spirit in you by your fear and doubts and questionings. He will perfect all that concerns you when you keep your inner eye centred on His will of good for you. If you love God-the-unseen and God-the-seen, His invisible spirit of harmony will come forth quietly and effortlessly to bless you and your material affairs. It is the perfect spiritual law of the universe that what you release in heaven (Spirit) by loving God-the-unseen and trusting Him, must be set free on earth (your body and affairs) as all the health and harmony and success that you can ever desire. But you dare not compromise. It must be God and God only in whom you put your trust. Otherwise, as you have all discovered through vacillation, you experience a mixture of good and not-good in your lives. So, if you are sincere in your efforts to prove the power and the love of God which will set you free from the failures and fears of the past, let this be your watchword, and hold on to it with all your mind and heart: "There is only one Presence and one Power in my life - God the Good. His Spirit in me is my dominion over all circumstances and I have nothing to fear."