Forget not that you came this far TOGETHER. And it was surely not the
ego that led you here. No obstacle to peace can be surmounted through
ITS help. IT does not open up its secrets, and bid you look on them and
go beyond them. IT would not have you see its weakness, and learn it has
no power to keep you from the truth. The Guide Who brought you here
REMAINS with you, and when you raise your eyes, you will be READY to
look on terror with no fear at all. But first, lift up your eyes and
look upon each other in innocence born of complete forgiveness of each
other’s illusions, and through the eyes of faith, which sees them not.

No-one can look upon the fear of God unterrified unless he has accepted
the Atonement, and learned illusions are not real. No-one can stand
before this obstacle alone, for he could not have reached thus far
UNLESS his brother walked beside him. And no-one would dare to look on
it without complete forgiveness of his brother in his heart. Stand you
here a while, and tremble not. You will be ready. Let us join together in
a holy instant, here in this place where the purpose GIVEN in a holy
instant has led you. And let us join in faith that He Who brought us
here together will offer you the innocence you need, and that you will
accept it for my love and His.

Nor is it possible to look on this too soon. This is the place to which
everyone must come when he is ready. Once he has found his brother he IS
ready. Yet merely to reach the place is not enough. A journey without a
purpose is still meaningless, and even when it is over it seems to make
no sense. How can you KNOW that it is over unless you realize its
purpose IS accomplished? Here, with the journey’s end before you, you
SEE its purpose. And it is here you choose whether to look upon it or
wander on, only to return and make the choice again.

To look upon the fear of God DOES need some preparation. Only the sane
can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion,
but not with fear. For only if they share in it does it seem fearful,
and you DO share in it until you look upon each other with perfect faith
and love and tenderness. Before complete forgiveness you still stand
unforgiving. You are afraid of God BECAUSE you fear each other. Those
you do not forgive YOU FEAR. And no-one reaches love with fear beside him.

This brother who stands beside you still seems to be a stranger. You do
not know him, and your interpretation of him is very fearful. And you
attack him still, to keep what seems to be YOURSELF unharmed. Yet in his
hands is your salvation. You see his madness, which you hate because you
SHARE it. And all the pity and forgiveness that would heal it gives way
to fear. Brothers, you NEED forgiveness of each other, for you will
share in madness or in Heaven together. And you will raise your eyes in
faith together, or not at all.

Beside each of you is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for
the Holy Spirit is in him. Would you hold his sins against him, or
accept his gift to you? Is this giver of salvation your friend or enemy?
Choose which he is, remembering that you will receive of him according
to your choice. He has in him the power to forgive your sins, as you for
him. Neither can give it to himself alone. And yet your Savior stands
beside each one. Let him be what he is, and seek not to make of love an
enemy.

Behold your Friend, the Christ Who stands beside you. How holy and how
beautiful He is! You thought He sinned because you cast the veil of sin
upon Him to hide His loveliness. Yet still He holds forgiveness out to
you, to share His holiness. This “enemy,” this “stranger” still offers
you salvation as His Friend. The “enemies” of Christ, the worshippers of
sin, know not Whom they attack. This is your brother, crucified by sin,
and waiting for release from pain. Would you not offer him forgiveness,
when only he can offer it to YOU? For his redemption he will give you
yours as surely as God created every living thing and loves it. And he
will give it truly, for it will be both offered and received.

There is no grace of Heaven that you cannot offer to each other, and
receive from your most holy Friend. Let him withhold it not, for by
receiving it you offer it to him. Redemption has been given you to give
each other, and thus receive it. Whom you forgive is free, and what you
give you share. Forgive the sins your brother thinks he has committed,
and all the guilt you think you see in him.

Here is the holy place of resurrection, to which we come again; to which
we will return until redemption is accomplished and RECEIVED. Think who
your brother is, before you would condemn
him. And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the
gift of holiness for YOU. Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of
guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. Help him to lift the heavy
burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it
lightly and with happy laughter away from him. Press it not like thorns
against his brow, nor nail him to it unredeemed and hopeless.

Give each other faith, for faith and hope and mercy are yours to give.
Into the hands that give the gift is given. Look on your brother, and
see in him the gift of God you would receive. It is almost Easter, the
time of resurrection. Let us give redemption to each other and SHARE in
it, that we may rise as one in resurrection, and not separate in death.
Behold the gift of freedom that I gave the Holy Spirit for BOTH of you.
And be you free together, as you offer to the Holy Spirit this same
gift. And giving it receive it of Him in return for what you gave. He
leadeth you and me together, that we might meet here in this holy place,
and make the same decision.

Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the self-same gift, nor
look upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as guiltless as I
look on you, and overlook the sins he thinks he sees within himself.
Offer each other freedom and complete release from sin, here in the
garden of seeming agony and death. So will we prepare together the way
unto the resurrection of God’s Son, and let him rise again to glad
remembrance of his Father, Who knows no sin, no death, but only life
eternal.

Together we will disappear into the Presence beyond the veil, not to be
lost but FOUND; not to be seen but KNOWN. And knowing, nothing in the
plan God has established for salvation will be left undone. This is the
journey’s purpose, without which IS the journey meaningless. Here is the
peace of God, given to you eternally by Him. Here is the rest and quiet
that you seek, the reason for the journey from its beginning. Heaven is
the gift you owe each other, the debt of gratitude you offer to the Son
of God in thanks for what he is, and what his Father created him to be.

Think carefully how you would look upon the giver of this gift, for as
you look on him, so will the gift itself appear to be. As he is seen as
either the giver of guilt or of salvation, so will his offering be seen,
and so received. The crucified give pain because they are in
pain. But the redeemed give joy because they have been HEALED of pain.
Everyone gives as he receives, but he must choose what it will BE that
he receives. And he will recognize his choice by what he gives, and what
is given him. Nor is it given anything in hell or Heaven to interfere
with his decision.

You came this far because the journey WAS your choice. And no-one
undertakes to do what he believes is meaningless. What you had faith in
still is faithful, and watches over you in faith so gentle yet so strong
that it would lift you far BEYOND the veil, and place the Son of God
safely within the sure protection of his Father. Here is the only
purpose that gives this world and the long journey through this world
whatever meaning lies in them. Beyond this, they ARE meaningless. You
stand together, still without conviction they HAVE a purpose. Yet it is
given you to see this purpose in your holy Friend, and recognize it is
your own.