Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state
prevailing in the Unity of truth. It is the world’s most lofty
aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning
yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares
itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those
who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly
received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.
Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate
and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents
a state so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose
minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear
is real.
Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace
is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace
in that an open mind can hear the call to waken. It is not shut tight
against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does
not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from
experience with which it is familiarly at home.
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation
of the Father and the Son as One has been already set. But we have also
said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it.
And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the
experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind which
recognizes its effects on you.
Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being He encompasses all
things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we
cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are
no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel
that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its
Source, and like its Source Itself, it merely is.
We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to
every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been
completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into
the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It
lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the
holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into His
Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all.
Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and
learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time
the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do
not hasten it in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who
teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind,
accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds and gave it
to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time has
ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity.
We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that
is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for
revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state,
forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take
the part assigned long since, and fully recognize as perfectly fulfilled
by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name, and in the
Name of His Creator’s Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no-one in the world can
understand. When revelation of your Oneness comes, it will be known and
fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of
things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past
already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the
hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending
must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter.
For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the
role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain
heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the
central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in
meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed, and its outcome
sure.
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow.
Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows
Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while.
The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned
by you from holy instants you receive, through grace, in your
experience, to all who see the light that lingers on your face.
What is the Face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness,
and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to
bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a
part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you
as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and accept the
gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And
revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for
grace and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release
it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look
beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has
been given us.
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer, yet in the world
what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace
we ask, as it was given Him?
“By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release.”