THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH LECTURE THE TEMPLES OF GOD

I had been listening to the song "How lovely are Thy dwellings, O Lord of Hosts!"

when the question flashed across my mind "How lovely are our dwellings?" yours

and mine. I was thinking not of houses made of bricks and mortar but of the houses

of our physical bodies that you and I offer to the Spirit of Love within us. Do these

habitations reflect a consciousness of Love's presence, or of its absence?

The student who starts out in Truth usually does so because he has come to the

conclusion, not due to any personal demonstration of his own, that God must be

what he has seen in the lives of others, that God must be Omnipotence and

Omnipresence. Our work in the School of Truth has not developed due to

propaganda of any kind or to advertisements in the Press, it has come about

because of personal contact between its members and the public, who have

glimpsed the Presence of Love, or God, because of some 'dwelling' that has

impressed them. These people, who are intelligent, have said to themselves, "If the

lives of X, Y and Z can be so changed by the Presence of Love that they are

reflecting, surely I, too, can experience fulfilment in my body and affairs if I

imitate them?"

All of you who are already followers of Truth carry a tremendous responsibility

both to God and to yourselves because you will be judged, not by your words, or

your beliefs, but according to your actions, for in the eyes of beginners you are the

living advertisements of the good or the non-good.

It happened to me only a short while ago that a very good friend of mine told me

that he was a little perturbed because he had heard me make - probably with no

intention of wounding anybody - certain comments of a critical nature. Far from

being annoyed at what he had said, I was most grateful because it is of the utmost

importance for me to be in line with Love since I have to act as an example, and I

recognized that this man, unbeknown to himself, was the Presence of Love

pointing out to me that I had temporarily separated myself from good in that, for

the moment, I was not reflecting the impersonal type of Love that is God.

I wasted no time in taking myself in hand again. I recognized that I had not only let

God and my friends down, but that I had let myself down too, and because I think

of myself as a green apple on the road in spiritual maturity, I freely admitted that

there was room for improvement.

It is this attitude that permits me to progress in good, for if I felt that I had nothing

more to learn in spiritual matters the apple would obviously be quite ripe and ready

for decay to set in.

When we ask you, "How lovely are your dwellings?" we do so in a spirit of love,

for it is our duty, as your teachers, to point out to you your faults and weaknesses

so that you may find the consciousness of Love and see It reflected in your affairs

exactly as It has become manifest through and for us.

Are you patient, tolerant and kind? Do you try to see the good in all your

fellowmen, or are you perhaps selfish, always wanting your own way, irrespective

of the hurt that this may be causing to others? If you are, the fact that you call

yourselves students of Truth will not preserve you from unhappiness or prevent

lack from invading your bodies and your lives! If, on the other hand, you have

asked guidance of God, you must be very sure of what Love, that never punishes or

wounds, wants for your highest good and happiness before you take any steps

which will set It free, so that only Its Own Nature is reflected in and through you

and all that concerns you.

When I have, myself, come into this consciousness I act at once - quite indifferent

as to whether the world laughs at me or declares that I am wrong - for I am

possessed of an absolute inner conviction that what I am doing is right and that

nothing, and nobody, can in any way hinder the manifestation of the good that I

desire.

Just as I look at you in your dwellings, so you, naturally, look at me in mine, and if

I am not in tune with Love all the time, I expect you to come to me and say:

"Despite the fact that you always claim to be human and unstable as we are, this

and that is what you preach, and we look to you to set the example."

It is shocking that I, too, should fall down on occasion, but in so far as each of you

is concerned it also has its advantages for you can say to yourselves, "He too is

fallible and makes mistakes, yet he is richly blessed so if who am trying to

overcome my weaknesses and the negative traits in my character and to live in tune

with the Spirit of Love, sometimes go wrong there is still every hope for me, for I

am only learning, while he should know better."

As I said before, I am grateful to anyone who pulls me up, for my one desire is to

see the Presence of Love alone manifested through me, and even one tiny adverse

comment, no matter what the motive behind it may have been, is enough to hold up

the expression of Omnipotence and Omniscience in my life and affairs.

I want to be conscious of His help, to have the fullness of His Love in my

innermost heart, and to be in tune with the Law of Prosperity so that I can continue

to give and give to all who call upon me for spiritual teaching.

I am never afraid to admit it when I am in the wrong because it is only when we

realize how fallible and powerless we are - and how Omnipotent is the Power of

Love -that we can develop a simple childlike faith or trust in God, so I want all of

you to look within yourselves, to stand in front of a mirror and, having searched

your minds and hearts, and thought about your actions, to ask yourselves what sort

of habitations are reflecting back at you? Are these those of kindness, sweetness

and tolerance?

Is the mind that you have each examined constantly seeking out the good in other

people - who, do not forget, are themselves the seat of Love, the hands of Love

(open or closed as the case may be) - so that by so doing it may itself find a greater

consciousness of this presence within its own dwelling?

And what of your hearts? Remember that out of the fullness of the heart the mouth

speaketh! You have learned that you must forgive before you can be forgiven and

you realize that lip-service is not enough, for you have met people who have

received injuries by way of certain human channels and who, claiming to have

forgiven these mortal agents, nevertheless recount again and again the wrongs that

they have suffered at their hands; and when it is pointed out to them that they must

forgive those that despitefully use them they retort, "But I have done that long

ago!" Theirs however is no true pardon, the Spirit of Love has not been set free,

otherwise there would remain no negative burden in their hearts to betray its

presence by the words that issue forth from their lips.

Such people are judged by the spiritual Law acting, not as an individual, but as an

impersonal recorder, registering the fact of Truth's imprisonment in their hearts, or

of Its having been set free.

If I tell you that I am expressing Love - Which is the Light-consciousness - and all

that you can see is darkness, you will say to me that there is no radiance in my

dwelling, that I am expressing only my own nothingness-awareness, and that what

I am claiming is a lie, for you know that 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he' -

in his body and his affairs, and his face, his physical envelope, and all his material

concerns, must and do express this accurately.

Let us now consider your actions. Are they selfish or selfless, do they bring

happiness to others, your immediate associates, their friends, and the community in

general; or do you, in your egotism, disregard them altogether, and seek but your

own will and way? You can have this, for a time, but it will bring you nothing, for

you take out of life only what you have put into it. If you sow love you reap it, if

you spread happiness it comes back to you, and if you scatter unselfishness, that

also you will receive. What you hold onto in a spirit of blind possessiveness you

will lose, for to retain the consciousness of any good, be it health, prosperity or

gladness, you must give it away. What you try to get, slips through your fingers,

what you loose you retain.

It is actually a matter of faith. 'There is that which scattereth, and increaseth,' but

the person who holds on to anything because he is afraid of losing it, is clinging to

a nothingness, for fear is not an entity and is powerless, the only Power being

Love, Omnipotence.

We all have to learn that the only thing in life that we need to achieve is the

consciousness of Love, the awareness of the Presence of Omnipotence and

Omniscience, of which none can deprive you once you have found it.

Because that is a stable faith, an unshakable knowledge that knows - and knows

that it knows - that your dwelling is a temple of Love, Which is the fullness of all

the mind's and heart's desire.

You can find within yourselves the solution of every problem that confronts you, if

you are sincere enough to look inside for the tiny obstructions that are so

effectively damming up the good that is within you. And it is my duty to point out

to you your mistakes, because you, like ourselves, are frequently so close to the

wood that you cannot see the trees.

We are the eyes of love - just as you are - and there are fundamental principles that

none can ignore. If we are honest we can find the flaws in ourselves and it is well

worth our while to do this because all the prayer in the world will not bring one

atom of good into our lives as long as we pray amiss.

The basis of all prayer is the unselfish love that recognizes in itself the Substance

and Prosperity of God; that becomes a consciousness of faith such as nothing can

destroy; that experiences in its body the vibrating Force of Health; that puts an aura

of protection around you that wards off all that is evil and not of God.

The most magnificent car in the world, with a flawless body and a first class

engine, is powerless if there is sand in the carburettor; and just as I might be said to

be kind to that car if I removed the offending grit, so are you only being kind to

yourselves when you cast out, by the application of Love, the obstructions that

hold up your good and delay your success.

Dr Emilie Cady says, 'There is nothing that the outer man needs or desires that the

inner spiritual man cannot and will not supply, for the supply ever precedes the

demand,' which however must always be made. So will the Spirit within you reveal

to you that you are indeed making this demand when you look into your hearts and

remove the grit and sand, and become radiating centres of love, compassion and

thoughtfulness.

It is the daily effort that Christ had in mind when He said, 'What is that to thee?

Follow thou Me.' It does not matter what others do to us, or say about us, the only

important thing is what we do, or say, about them. If they choose to become

separated from their good, that is not our affair, we have to send up a prayer of

thankfulness to Love for the opportunity It is giving us to serve these very persons,

for Its care of us, for Its protection - in the face of what seems to be directed

against us - and for the happiness that fills our lives.

We have not to judge, to criticize, or even to see the flaws in our fellowmen; we

have to help and uphold them, remembering that Love 'ever gives, forgives,

outlives, and ever stands with open hands, and while it lives (which you know is

eternally), it gives and gives and gives.'

That is the only basis upon which anyone can build up true prosperity - peace of

mind, happiness of heart, health in the body, and abundance to share and to spare.

Material things you can attain without the application of love, without having any

trust in God, but they turn to dust and ashes in your lives.

It is happiness that all men need and long for, a state of peace within, the certainty

that Love is in Its Heaven; that It is the Power constituting our dwellings; that It is

our unassailable Habitation and that all is well in our personal worlds and in the

whirling universe of which we form a part and to which our God Himself is Moon

and Sun.