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Joy in Jehovah A monthly magazine issued the first of the month by UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY, (Inc.) Tenth and Tracy, Kansas City, Mo. C harles and Myrtle F illmore, Editors Entered as second-class matter, July 15, 1891, at the post office at Kansas City, Missouri, under the act of March 3, 1879. Accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, act of October 3, 1917, authorized October 28, 1922. V ol. 58 KANSAS CITY, MO., FEBRUARY, 1923 No. 2 JOY IN JEHOVAH The king shall joy in thy strength, O Jehovah; And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart’s desire. And hast not withholden the request of his lips. For thou meetest him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of fine gold on his head. He asked life of thee, thou gavest it him, Even length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation: Honor and majesty dost thou lay upon him. For thou makest him most blessed for ever: Thou makest him glad with joy in thy presence. — The Psalmist. FIRE OF DIVINE LOVE Thy flame of love touched my garment. I was startled and affrighted Lest all my possessions and cherished hopes Be burned to nothingness. I fled for fear of life, but Thy unquench­ able fire Ever followed me. With troubled heart and misgiving I opened my eyes only to find That thy bright and blazing flame W as not of destruction. It burned, yet destroyed it naught. Oh! Thou effulgent spark, I fear thee no more—I love thy presence; My soul delights in thy presence; Thy presence is my supreme joy! —Swami Paramananda. THE BIBLE IN THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE W. I. Hoschouer UDGE Troward has aptly said: “The Bible is the book of the emancipation of man.” Admitting the truth of this sweeping , we have the key to the inner or mystic meaning of the Bible. It is not primarily a history of a chosen people, but a Truth teaching which, if rightly understood, will set man free. Through par­ able, allegory, and historical statement, this freeing truth is set forth vividly from Genesis to Revelation, consisting both of a teaching and a working plan by means of which the teaching is to be realized. It is at once a code of personal conduct and an inspiration to the spiritual life. The purpose of the Bible being to set people free, one should study it with the object in view of being made free. To view it as history, even of a chosen people, or to consider it as the word of God “com­ manding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong,” without entering fully into its freeing purpose, is to miss entirely its chief good. Israel is the individual enlarged and multiplied, and the decalogue and the new commandment are for the guidance and unfold- ment of the individual soul. As it is in the race, so it is in the individual; and as in the individual, like­ wise in the race. This is the Bible, in a condensed description. Biblical education has dealt so much with the lit­ eral and historical phases of Scriptural narrative that its inner mystical or spiritual application to the indi­ vidual life has been largely neglected. Practical Christianity deals with the spiritual application by emphasizing the personal nature of the teaching. So direct, positive, and conclusive is the application of the sacred word to the individual, and so exact is its revelation of his inner life, that it might truthfully be written on the flyleaf of every one’s Bible: “This is your biography, the intimate revelation of your life, written by the Spirit of the Almighty through Truth-inspired souls. Be guided by its wisdom and you will be blest abundantly.” “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. And light unto my path,” said an illumined soul who knew the purpose of Scripture. No part of Scripture is of private interpretation. W hat is affirmed of one is true of all. People are alike to so great a degree that their needs are not only similar, but identical in most respects. W hat stirs the soul of one strikes an answering chord in every other one; and while the responses differ in intensity and degree, the ultimate effect is the same. The truth that frees one will emancipate the other, and the action of Spirit which saves the soul of a king, touches and lifts the beggar from his squalid misery. The universal nature of Bible truth is the best evidence of its divine origin. To understand the intimate role played by the Bible in human life, one must realize that it is a picture of the human heart turned inside out, the ex­ position of the soul of man “from the highest point of view.” In the Old Testament the supreme Architect presents certain aspects of his divine man, while in the New Testament, the completed creation appears— God manifest in the flesh. This Christ-man is the promise of what each soul will be when the corruptible has put on incorruption, and the mortal, immortality. Let one but read the Bible as a direct communica­ tion from God to himself, revealing the truth of his being, setting forth the one and only plan by which the truth of being may be realized, and he will begin to feel the power of the creative word in his mind and in his body. Such intensive focusing of the energy of the spirit which is back of and functions through the letter, will quicken him to an astounding degree. It will fill him with the creative activity which puts new flesh on new bones, new brains in a new skull, and a new soul in a new body. As in the Adam conscious­ ness the individual dies, even so in the Christ con­ sciousness shall he be made alive. When the dead believe the Word, they immediately live, so potent is its spiritualizing, vitalizing power. Man is revealed to himself through God. A brief spiritual interpretation of a few vital teachings in this revelation will show more clearly how the Bible can be of the greatest value in personal regeneration. In Genesis are set forth the divine nature and origin of man. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” In this the spiritual nature of man is clearly indicated, as this creation took place before mortal, or Adam, man appeared in the earth. Man existed as Spirit, being in the heavens long before the earth was fit to support life of any kind. This proves the individual to be spiritual, not material—-a being whose faculties and powers and functions are spiritual and do not depend in any way upon mate­ riality for their integrity or their efficiency. A clear realization of this truth of being will overthrow false beliefs and will liberate one from the bondage of sense. Here, then, in the first chapter of Genesis is declared the truth which fills with freeing power all who believe it and live it. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” said Jesus. The Bible also gives a direct and explicit answer to the often repeated question; “If I am spiritual, and all my faculties and powers are spiritual, why do I appear mortal? and why have I this sense of bond­ age and disease?” The reason for these appearances is explained in the second chapter of Genesis. Here the story of man’s descent into matter and the consequences thereof, is set forth in the form of an allegory. The creeping of materiality into the self-consciousness of man is described as making him from the dust of the earth: “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This was the birth of self-consciousness in man in physical form, or as an entity self-conscious in the limitations of person­ ality. Before this, man was aware only of the free­ dom and completeness of Spirit at one with God. But coincident with man’s appearance in the earth plane, subject to sense impressions, self-centeredness developed, and a feeling of separation from God arose in man’s consciousness. As his mind was turned from constant awareness of his nature and source, consciousness took on more and more the color of .sense impressions; the divine light within was dimmed. This continued until the race appeared in the Adam likeness, “of the earth, earthy.” Subject to false beliefs, and more sensitive to mental inharmony than to spiritual poise, mortality and materiality became the common lot of man. And this lot is shared by each individual soul, without excep­ tion, because of the identity of each with all. Such, in brief, is a metaphysical interpretation of “the fall of man.” The Old Testament sets forth in picturesque imagery the results of the fading of the Edenic vision and the submergence of man in materiality. It also indicates the persistence with which that vision lives in the soul of man and leads him on to the great adventure of regaining his lost heritage. The battles, the struggles. the defeats, and the victories of Israel symbolize the significant changes in every soul on its upward way.
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