Excerpts from
Complete Works of H. Emilie Cady Order the complete book in Adobe eBook format for $8.95 or click here to order in printed form from Amazon.com for $10.91 Book Description
One neat volume holds the wisdom of one of the foremost thinkers in the New Thought movement. It explains basic metaphysical practices from Dr. Cady's personal experiences. Three classics in one volume: Lessons in Truth (over 1.6 million copies sold), How I Used Truth, and God a Present Help. Dr. Cady was already a trailblazer when she begain writing, being one of the first female physicians in NY. This book is a collection of her written work and is an invaluable tool to those seeking a deeper understanding of practical Christianity. Dr. Cady lays the foundation of Jesus' teachings in a clear and concise manner, then invites the reader to heed the Wayshower's call and "Follow me". She explains that Jesus was the great example, not the great exception. We are called to do more than worship Jesus; we are called to be like him and we do so by discovering our own inner Christ. This book gives the reader the roadmap necessary to uncover God's image within and to reaquaint ourselves with the "true" meaning of what Jesus came to share with the world. This book will not leave you the same...you will be changed. Bondage or Liberty, Which?
In
entering
upon this course of instruction, each of you should, so far as
possible, lay aside, for the time being, all previous theories and
beliefs. By so doing you will be saved the trouble of trying, all the
way through the course, to put "new wine into old wineskins" (Lk.
5:37). If there is anything, as we proceed, which you do not understand
or agree with, just let it lie passively in your mind until you have
read the entire book, for many statements that would at first arouse
antagonism and discussion will be clear and easily accepted a little
farther on. After the course is completed, if you wish to return to
your old beliefs and ways of living, you are at perfect liberty to do
so. But, for the time being, be willing to become as a little child;
for, said the Master, in spiritual things, "Except ye . . . become as
little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven"
(Mt. 18:3). If at times there seems to be repetition, please remember
that these are lessons, not lectures.
"Finally . . be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might" (Eph. 6:10). "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8). 1. Every man believes himself to be in bondage to the flesh and to the things of the flesh. All suffering is the result of this belief. The history of the coming of the Children of Israel out of their long bondage in Egypt is descriptive of the human mind, or consciousness, growing up out of the animal or sense part of man and into the spiritual part. 2. "And Jehovah said [speaking to Moses], I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 3. "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:7,8). 4. These words express exactly the attitude of the Creator toward His highest creation, man. 5. Today, and all the days, He has been saying to us, His children: "I have surely seen the affliction of you who are in Egypt [darkness of ignorance], and have heard your cry by reason of your taskmasters [sickness, sorrow, and poverty]; and I am [not I will, but I am now] come down to deliver you out of all this suffering, and to bring you up unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with good things" (Ex. 3:7 adapted). 6. Sometime, somewhere, every human being must come to himself. Having tired of eating husks, he will "arise and go to my Father" (Lk. 15:18). "For
it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God" (Rom. 14:11). 7. This does not mean that God is a stern autocrat who by reason of supreme power compels man to bow to Him. It is rather an expression of the order of divine law, the law of all love, all good. Man, who is at first living in the selfish animal part of himself, will grow up through various stages and by various processes to the divine or spiritual understanding wherein he knows that he is one with the Father, and wherein he is free from all suffering, because he has conscious dominion over all things. Somewhere on this journey the human consciousness, or intellect, comes to a place where it gladly bows to its spiritual self and confesses that this spiritual self, its Christ, is highest and is Lord. Here and forever after, not with sense of bondage, but with joyful freedom, the heart cries out: "Jehovah reigneth" (Ps. 93:1). Everyone must sooner or later come to this point of experience. 8. You and I, dear reader, have already come to ourselves. Having become conscious of an oppressive bondage, we have arisen and set out on the journey from Egypt to the land of liberty, and now we cannot turn back if we would. Though possibly there will come times to each of us, before we reach the land of milk and honey (the time of full deliverance out of all our sorrows and troubles), when we shall come into a deep wilderness or against a seemingly impassable Red Sea, when our courage will seem to fail. Yet God says to each one of us, as Moses said to the trembling Children of Israel: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will work for you today" (Ex. 14:13). 9. Each man must sooner or later learn to stand alone with his God; nothing else avails. Nothing else will ever make you master of your own destiny. There is in your own indwelling Lord all the life and health, all the strength and peace and joy, all the wisdom and support that you can ever need or desire. No one can give to you as can this indwelling Father. He is the spring of all joy and comfort and power. 10. Hitherto we have believed that we were helped and comforted by others, that we received joy from outside circumstances and surroundings; but it is not so. All joy and strength and good spring up from a fountain within one's own being; and if we only knew this truth we should know that, because God in us is the fountain out of which springs all our good, nothing that anyone does or says, or fails to do or say, can take away our joy and good. 11. Someone has said: "Our liberty comes from an understanding of the mind and the thoughts of God toward us." Does God regard man as His servant, or as His child? Most of us have believed ourselves not only the slaves of circumstances, but also, at the best, the servants of the Most High. Neither belief is true. It is time for us to awake to right thoughts, to know that we are not servants, but children, "and if children, then heirs" (Rom. 8:17). Heirs to what? Why, heirs to all wisdom, so that we need not, through any lack of wisdom, make mistakes; heirs to all love, so that we need know no fear or envy or jealousy; heirs to all strength, all life, all power, all good. 12. The human intelligence is so accustomed to the sound of words heard from childhood that often they convey to it no real meaning. Do you stop to think, really to comprehend, what it means to be "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17)? It means, "Every man is the inlet, and may become the outlet, of all there is in God." It means that all that God is and has is in reality for us, His only heirs, if we only know how to claim our inheritance. 13. This claiming of our rightful inheritance, the inheritance that God wants us to have in our daily life, is just what we are learning how to do in these simple talks. 14. Paul said truly: "So long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; 15. "But is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. 16. "So we also, when we were children [in knowledge], were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: 17. "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son . . . And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts [or into our conscious minds], crying Abba, Father. 18. "So that thou art no longer a bondservant but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:1-7). 19. It is through Christ, the indwelling Christ, that we are to receive all that God has and is, as much or as little as we can or dare to claim. 20. No matter with what object you first started out to seek Truth, it was in reality because it was God's "fulness of the time" (Gal. 4:4) for you to arise and begin to claim your inheritance. You were no longer to be satisfied with or under bondage to the elements of the world. Think of it! God's "fulness of the time" now for you to be free, to have dominion over all things material, to be no longer bond servant, but a son in possession of your inheritance! "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit" (Jn. 15:16). 21. We have come to a place now where our search for Truth must no longer be for the rewards; it must no longer be our seeking a creed to follow, but it must be our living a life. In these simple lessons we shall take only the first steps out of the Egyptian bondage of selfishness, lust, and sorrow toward the land of liberty, where perfect love and all good reign. 22. Every right thought that we think, our every unselfish word or action, is bound by immutable laws to be fraught with good results. But in our walk we must learn to lose sight of results that are the "loaves and the fishes" (Mt. 15:36). We must rather seek to be the Truth consciously, to be love, to be wisdom, to be life (as we really are unconsciously,) and let results take care of themselves. 23. Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it. Practice the presence of God just as you would practice music. No one would ever dream of becoming a master in music except by spending some time daily alone with music. Daily meditation alone with God focuses the divine presence within us and brings it to our consciousness. 24. You may be so busy with the doing, the outgoing of love to help others (which is unselfish and Godlike as far as it goes), that you find no time to go apart. But the command, or rather the invitation, is "Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest a while" (Mk. 6:31). And it is the only way in which you will ever gain definite knowledge, true wisdom, newness of experience, steadiness of purpose, or power to meet the unknown, which must come in all daily life. Doing is secondary to being. When we are consciously the Truth, it will radiate from us and accomplish the works without our ever running to and fro. If you have no time for this quiet meditation, make time, take time. Watch carefully, and you will find that there are some things, even in the active unselfish doing, which would better be left undone than that you should neglect regular meditation. 25. You will find that some time is spent every day in idle conversation with people who "just run in for a few moments" to be entertained. If you can help such people, well; if not, gather yourself together and do not waste a moment idly diffusing and dissipating yourself to gratify their idleness. You have no idea what you lose by it. 26. When you withdraw from the world for meditation, let it not be to think of yourself or your failures, but invariably to get all your thoughts centered on God and on your relation to the Creator and Upholder of the universe. Let all the little annoying cares and anxieties go for a while, and by effort, if need be, turn your thoughts away from them to some of the simple words of the Nazarene, or of the Psalmist. Think of some Truth statement, be it ever so simple. 27. No person, unless he has practiced it, can know how it quiets all physical nervousness, all fear, all oversensitiveness, all the little raspings of everyday life—just this hour of calm, quiet waiting alone with God. Never let it be an hour of bondage, but always one of restfulness. 28. Some, having realized the calm and power that come of daily meditation, have made the mistake of drawing themselves from the world, that they may give their entire time to meditation. This is asceticism, which is neither wise nor profitable. 29. The Nazarene, who is our noblest type of the perfect life, went daily apart from the world only that He might come again into it with renewed spiritual power. So we go apart into the stillness of divine presence that we may come forth into the world of everyday life with new inspiration and increased courage and power for activity and for overcoming. 30. "We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration." We go apart to get still, that new life, new inspiration, new power of thought, new supply from the fountainhead may flow in; and then we come forth to shed it on those around us, that they, too, may be lifted up. Inharmony cannot remain in any home where even one member of the family daily practices this hour of the presence of God, so surely does the renewed infilling of the heart by peace and harmony result in the continual outgoing of peace and harmony into the entire surroundings. 31. Again, in this new way that we have undertaken, this living the life of Spirit instead of the old self, we need to seek always to have more and more of the Christ Spirit of meekness and love incorporated into our daily life. Meekness does not mean servility, but it means a spirit that could stand before a Pilate of false accusation and say nothing. No one else is so grand, so godlike as he who, because he knows the Truth of Being, can stand meekly and unperturbed before the false accusations of the human mind. "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (2 Sam. 2:36). 32. We must forgive as we would be forgiven. To forgive does not simply mean to arrive at a place of indifference to those who do personal injury to us; it means far more than this. To forgive is to give for—to give some actual, definite good in return for evil given. One may say: "I have no one to forgive; I have not a personal enemy in the world." And yet if, under any circumstances, any kind of a "served-him-right" thought springs up within you over anything that any of God's children may do or suffer, you have not yet learned how to forgive. 33. The very pain that you suffer, the very failure to demonstrate over some matter that touches your own life deeply, may rest upon just this spirit of unforgiveness that you harbor toward the world in general. Put it away with resolution. 34. Do not be under bondage to false beliefs about your circumstances or environment. No matter how evil circumstances may appear, or how much it may seem that some other personality is at the foundation of your sorrow or trouble, God, good, good alone, is really there when you call His law into expression. 35. If we have the courage to persist in seeing only God in it all, even "the wrath of man" (Ps. 76:10) shall be invariably turned to our advantage. Joseph, in speaking of the action of his brethren in selling him into slavery, said, "As for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). To them that love God, "all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28), or to them who recognize only God. All things! The very circumstances in your life that seem heartbreaking evils will turn to joy before your very eyes if you will steadfastly refuse to see anything but God in them. 36. It is perfectly natural for the human mind to seek to escape from its troubles by running away from present environments, or by planning some change on the material plane. Such methods of escape are absolutely vain and foolish. "Vain is the
help of man" (Ps. 60:11).
37. There is no permanent or real outward way of escape from miseries or circumstances; all help must come from within. 38. The words, "God is my defense and deliverance," held in the silence until they become part of your very being, will deliver you out of the hands and the arguments of the keenest lawyer in the world. 39. The real inner consciousness that "the LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps. 23:1 A.V.) will supply all wants more surely and far more liberally than can any human hand. 40. The ultimate aim of every man should be to come into the consciousness of an indwelling God, and then in all external matters, to affirm deliverance through and by this divine One. There should not be a running to and fro, making human efforts to aid the Divine, but a calm, restful, unwavering trust in All-Wisdom and All-Power within one as able to accomplish the thing desired. 41. Victory must be won in the silence of your own being first, and then you need take no part in the outer demonstration of relief from conditions. The very walls of Jericho that keep you from your desire must fall before you. 42. The Psalmist said: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains [or to the highest One]: From whence shall come my help? 43. "My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth. 44. "Jehovah [your indwelling Lord] will keep thee from evil . . . 45. "Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth, and for evermore." THROUGHOUT ALL His teaching Jesus tried to show those
who listened to Him, how He was related
to the Father, and to teach them that they were related to the same
Father in exactly the same way. Over and over again He tried in
different ways to explain to them that God lived within them, that He
was "not the God of the dead, but of the living." And never once did He
assume to do anything as of Himself, always saying: "I can of myself do
nothing." "The Father abiding in me doeth his works." But it was very
hard then for people to understand, just as it is very hard for us to
understand today. Jesus kept His eyes away from the external
altogether, and kept His thoughts at the central part of His being,
which was the Christ. "Judge not according to appearance," He said,
that is, according to the external, "but judge righteous judgment,"
according to the real truth, or judge from Spirit. In Jesus, the
Christ, or the central spark that was God, the same that lives in each
of us today, was drawn forth to show itself perfectly, over and above
the body, or fleshly man. He did all His mighty works, not because He
was given some greater or different power from that which God has given
us—but just because He was in some different way a Son of God and we
only children of God—but just because this same Divine Spark, which the
Father has implanted in every child born, had been fanned
into a bright flame by His prenatal influences, early surroundings, and
by His own later efforts in holding Himself in constant, conscious
communion with the Father, the Source of all love, life, and power.
Jesus was always trying to get the minds of the
people away from His personality, and to fix them on the Father in Him
as the source of all His power. And when toward the last, they were
clinging to His mortal self, because their eyes had not yet been opened
to understand about the Christ within their own souls, He said, "It is
expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come"; that is, if He remained where they could keep looking
to His personality all the time, they would never know that the same
Spirit of truth and power lived within themselves. You want to manifest the perfect Christ. Affirm with
all your heart and soul and strength that you do so manifest now, that
you manifest health and strength and love and Truth and power. Let go
of the notion of being or doing anything in the future. God knows no
time but the eternal now. You can never know any other time, for there
is no other. You cannot live an hour or ten minutes in the future. You
cannot live it until you reach it, and then it becomes the now. Saying
or believing salvation and deliverance are to be, will forever, and
through all the eternal ages, keep them, like a will-o'-the-wisp, just
a little ahead of you, always to be reached but never quite realized.
Good
Tidings of Great Joy
"Come
to me, all who labor and
are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28)
Suppose some dear, lifelong friend in whose ability, resources, and faithfulness you have the utmost confidence should come to you today and say: "Friend, rejoice; I have brought you some good news, almost too good to seem true, but true nevertheless. From this day all things in your life may be changed. You have inherited a large fortune. In fact I have come to bring it to you, together with a message of love and goodwill. Everything that money can buy is now yours for the taking." What do you think would be the effect of such news upon you? At first the glad tidings might seem too good to believe; but if this friend reiterated his statement, giving not only verbal assurances but tangible evidence of its truth, do you think you would hesitate, and question, and quibble about taking the proffered gift? I think not. Instead your heart would leap within you with great and inexpressible joy as you began to realize all that this good news meant, if true. It would mean relief from pressing care, cessation of the gnawing anxiety about making ends meet, ability to gratify your lifelong craving for the beautiful in art and literature, time to read, think, travel, live; and above all else, it would mean the ability to help hundreds of others who are struggling with the problems of sickness, poverty, and discouragement. Then suppose that before you had mentally quite taken in the new situation this messenger of good news should say: "Friend, in addition to this I have found a physician who has never failed to cure every kind of bodily disease from which you are suffering, and if you will come with me to him, he assures me that he can cure you.'' How long would a person stand undecided about accepting these two gifts? How long would anyone hesitate while he argued with the messenger about his doubts and fears, his unworthiness, or his lack of ability to use these gifts properly? Yet this is exactly what we as Christians do with God our Father. A messenger has been sent with a definite, positive message: ". . . good news of a great joy which will come to all the people." (Luke 2:10) The good news is this: ". . . the kingdom of heaven is at hand, "(Matt. 3:2) here, now. We have read and heard the story since childhood, with varying emotions. At first with a child's understanding and simple trust we imagined that it meant just what it said. But as we went on in the Christian life we found ourselves losing the child's idea and coming to believe that the message does not mean at all what it says. The very simplicity of it made our older, wiser minds recoil from taking it as it reads, and this in spite of the truth uttered by Jesus: ". . . unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3) Jesus' first sermon of which we have any record was preached in Nazareth: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' "And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' " (Luke 4:16-21) In other words, the Lord God hath sent Me, Jesus Christ, and I am now this day here present with you to comfort all who mourn, to deliver the captives from prison, to give sight to the blind, to heal the sick, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. (Isa. 61:2, 3) This is the good news I have come to bring to you from God your Father. As time went on Jesus sent out twelve men whom He chose to spread this good news, giving to each the same power and the same commission, that is, the power to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and so forth, and to preach this practical gospel: "And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." (Matt. 10:7, 8) When John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He really was the Christ or if they should look for another, He said, as evidence that He really was the messenger sent from God: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." (Matt. 11:4, 5) After Jesus had risen and as He was about to part from His disciples He told them that their future mission in this world was to be exactly what He had been: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21) In other words, as the Father sent Him to preach the good news that the kingdom of heaven is here now, that the sick can be healed now, that the blind can receive sight at once, that the brokenhearted can be made to rejoice, that all this spirit of mourning and sorrow and heaviness can be changed into joy and praise, so send I you into the world to preach the same glad tidings to them that sit in darkness and discouragement to tell all people that God is their Savior, their genuine right-at-hand-this-moment deliverance. As Jesus continued in the ministry of such a gospel, His heart was wrought upon as He saw how ignorant the people were of the real truth of God's desire toward them, and we read: After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them . . . "heal the sick . . . and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' " The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them ". . . Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:1, 2, 9, 17-30) In other words, rejoice not so much because you are able to make these marvelous demonstrations of power as because your spiritual eyes have been opened to the real relations between God your Father and yourself. Jesus Christ did many marvelous works in the material world; and in thus appointing others to help Him in His work among men—in increasing members as the work enlarged—and giving to them the power to manifest the same mastery over untoward material conditions, He showed conclusively that at least part of the gospel deals directly with God's deliverance of His children from sickness, poverty, and all manner of human suffering. The early Christians for three hundred years following the resurrection of Jesus believed this and did the mighty works that He said should be done in His name. Then they lapsed into worldliness and the power was lost. Every Christian recognizes today that the work of Jesus in the world was to establish a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and love; to teach us a higher law than the one we had known, that of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But many entirely overlook the fact that in addition to teaching us a higher way of living, Jesus proved to us by daily ministering among the sorrowing and sick, and by giving the same power and commission to those whom He sent out to continue the work in His name and stead, that God is in His world to do both; that is, to help His children live a better life, and also to be to them life, health, comfort, all material things needed. There is no record that Jesus ever said to the sick who came to Him that continued suffering would develop in them greater spiritual virtues. He did not say to the leper: "Your disease is the result of sensuality. I will not heal you, because if I do you will continue in the same way of sin." He only said: "Do you want to be healed?" . . . "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." (John 5:6, 8) He did not say to anyone who came for healing or for any other deliverance, "Yes, I will heal you, but the healing will not become manifest for several months—just to test your faith." Nor did He say to anyone who came, "I heal many; but it is not God's will for you to be healed, and you must be submissive to His will." Oh, the deadening effect of this kind of submission! Who but knows it! He did not let the people go hungry, saying it was their own carelessness not to have provided bread and they must not expect a miracle to be wrought to encourage such carelessness. He first fed them with spiritual food, to be sure; but immediately following that He ministered with equal ease and alacrity to their physical hunger, even though the lack may have been their own fault. When the widow of Nain, with heartbreak such as only a mother can know, followed the bier upon which lay dead her soul's pride, her beautiful and only son, Jesus did not simply comfort her with platitudes or even by bringing some superhuman joy in the place of sorrow. She wanted her boy back; and He gave her what she wanted. Peter lacked money for the tax gatherer. Did Jesus say: "Peter, the gift of God is spiritual riches. Do not ask for worldly money, for God has nothing to do with that. If you have no money for taxes be patient and work it out some way"; and then did He leave Peter to anxiety and care? Not at all. He instantly supplied the thing that was needed. Jesus Christ came to show us the Father, to reveal to us the will of the Father toward us. Did He not say: "He who has seen me has seen the Father . . . The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works"? (John 14:9, 10) Then how can we in our minds separate God from His world as we do? Most of us confine Him to His spiritual kingdom alone. We know that He wants to give us purity and spiritual grace. Every Christian believes this. But do we know or believe that He wants us to have the other desires of our heart as well? Do we believe He wants to heal our bodies, provide our taxes, feed our hunger? Do we believe that Jesus Christ really is the same yesterday and today and forever? Do we believe that he is not God of the dead, but of the living; that the kingdom of heaven is here at hand this moment, only that our eyes are so held by sense conditions we do not see it? He said: ". . . You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. " (John 8:32) Then if we are not free we do not yet know the Truth but are believing in a lie, or in the lack of Truth at least. Is this not so? Is dumb, hopeless submission to suffering a spiritual grace? I do not believe it is. Jesus never taught that it is. He taught us nonresistance to evil; that is, not to fight evil as an entity. But He also taught us how to obtain absolute victory over and deliverance from evil of whatever form by coming into living and vital touch with Christ. This He declared to be God's will toward us; and He demonstrated it continually by delivering all who were bound in any manner by sin, sickness, suffering, or sorrow. An earnest Christian mother related to me a few years ago a story of her little boy, who had the whooping cough. The mother had taught the boy to pray; and whenever he felt one of the dreaded coughing spells approaching he instantly ran and fell on his knees, exclaiming, "Oh, Mamma, let me pray, let me pray quickly so God will keep this cough away!" The mother told of the difficulty she had had in explaining to the child that while it was good to pray, yet he must not expect God to stop the cough, because when one has the whooping cough it is natural to cough! Now, according to Jesus' teachings and His dealings with people here on Earth, is this not just what the boy might and ought to have expected God to do? ". . . Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. "(Matt. 18:3) . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you . . . . (Psalms 50:15) This is the gospel, the "good news of a great joy which will come to all the people." This is something of what He meant when He said: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Surely He meant more than we can ask or think when He said: "Come to me." Order the complete book in Adobe eBook format for $8.95 or click here to order in printed form from Amazon.com for $10.91 |