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Blessed ones, faith stands as a shield, as an armor behind which the righteous and the unrighteous alike can afford themselves some measure of protection against mortal vulnerabilities. As God maketh the sun to shine upon the just and the unjust, so his gift of faith has been equally appropriated by some who suppose that by reason of their manifestation of some quality of God, some quality of faith, some quality of healing, they have also earned the right to cosmic virtue.
Let me say for the eternal record that an act of faith, as it was intended to be from the beginning, is an act of faith in the right use of the eternal principles of God; it is an act of faith in his manifest goodness, in his righteousness expressed, in the exaltation of all of his purposes into loveliness outpictured. The outer manifestation by any man or woman of a condition that is less than the total overcoming of a condition of pain, of sickness, or of calamity, does not necessarily indicate that such a one is forsaken of God, neither does it necessarily indicate, because men are free from these conditions, that they are in very deed ministers of righteousness.
Each man is truly judged according to his own work; the energies of his life are inscribed upon the pages of his own record, revealing cause, effect, intent, and motive of every thought, word, and deed he has ever committed. The mask of self-deceit does not, then, hide any man from the Eternal One, and only by great openness of motive, of intent to purity, to Godlikeness, can men wholly escape from the nets and snares they do weave and have woven in the past. Those who would trick others, must first be tricked by themselves. Thus, in this age of unfolding righteousness, the hand of the Infinite One extends to his ministers and plenipotentiaries who bear on winged hand and heart a message of faith and love, conveying absolute cosmic integrity.
Unless men can summon faith in Almighty God and the tomes of his laws, they cannot help but be orientated around lesser objects of affection. To effect a faith in the invincible integrity of God is to attune with it; to live according to that design is to manifest it, and thus does faith carry man to the portals of hope, but a hope that is not rooted in faith in God's own integrity is no hope at all. Moral dogmas are no substitute for the feeling of almighty life that surges within the heart and declares that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof ..." from one end of infinity to the other, from the beginning of each cycle unto the end thereof.
I come, then, this day to infuse you at the portal of this yearly cycle with the need to summon that faith which is the supreme good of every man. Remember, "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. ..." Every age has seen its Trojan horses, and the ringing declaration of the Christ, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," is to the present hour a revelation of mortal ignorance of the divine law. Let all ignorance be healed by faith in God's purposes, for this is our simple plea made manifest as heavenly thought and feeling, centered in divine faith.
Make straight the ways of the Lord, make straight paths for your feet, for many shall run in the hollowed contours of those paths, and in the wake of your own karmic walk, you may yet leave footprints in the sands of eternal illumination for those who follow after eternal values.
I AM faith in action, in the virtue of God's mind within you!