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Your victory should be your concern!
The endowment of man with individuality was and is the greatest conferment of the miraculous sense ever conceived by God. If you contemplate, if you meditate, if you invoke wisdom, you will always find His immortal purpose shining behind the mask of creation. And what joy can come to any man who will gaze upon the Plan behind the appearance!
Let man concede a sense of limitation - something within him, whether defined or undefined, springs up to affirm the law of survival and his real need to extinguish all thoughts that would extinguish him. You may not be able, beloved ones, to unravel every enigma of Life. You may find in the cosmic drama the deliberate draping of events which the Lords of Creation have decreed in order to veil the sacred mysteries from the profane; but if you are sincere in your pursuit of the things of the Spirit, if you have faith that God is leading you onward, you will not fail to apprehend the victory of divine purpose which often remains hidden behind the appearance world.
Boring situations may present themselves, frustration may chasten the mind of man, events may weigh upon the senses, and hope seem nigh extinction; but behind the appearance world, and even beyond the psyche of man above all outer manifestation, is to be found the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The fact that other men have not seen with their eyes or handled with their minds the true concepts of what God really is, of what spiritual power is, can do no more than temporarily hinder the manifestation of your own cosmic victory. And even this need not be if you reject the skepticism of the mass mind that palls the spiritual senses.
Victory is inherent within the universe. It is to be found in Matter as well as in Spirit, implanted there by the power of the Word, the Christ that nobly declared through the Master Jesus, "If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."1 How great is the potential of your victory that remains fixed as the star of your own Christ-identity! The victory of nature is a miraculous one, but He who has concern for the elements also has concern for the consciousness of each individual man!
Will you stop right where you are, beloved ones? Stop whatever you are doing and ponder for a moment the victorious sense that can, if you will accept it, permeate your consciousness with a vital, essential, spiritual effulgence. Will you let the continuity of divine purpose bathe you right now with its omnipotent Light and imbue you with the sense of your own continuing victory? There is no need to struggle; for man is, by the grace of God, like unto a ball of fire welcoming a transcendent dawn. Hope presents itself in the rising sun. It is the miracle behind all nature, and it is the miracle behind man.
Although individuals have permitted themselves, through what we term a warp in consciousness, to entertain the sense of the bizarre, of doubt and astral confusion, there is no reason for you to permit them to encroach upon your own sense of the miraculous. Because He lives, you live. And in the consciousness of each man, through the Consciousness of Christ, the sense of victory can open up new doors that reveal the miracle of infinity momentarily caught in the net of time. Right here in the seeming emptiness of space the Light of the Holy Spirit that originates in the Consciousness behind the consciousness, fills the void with His Presence. For God is found on earth even as He is in heaven; and out of the lives of the many great souls who have served their fellowman through this unique perception has come the realization that without faith it is impossible to please God.2
What is it, beloved ones, that the carnal mind desires to foster upon mankind if it is not fear, doubt, and discouragement? For wherever there is a lack of faith, truly no great works are possible.3 It is, then, by your sense of victory that your victory is won. When you permit your consciousness to be dragged down by the influences of others, by idle chatter in the marketplace, unfounded in fact, when you allow yourself to lose your perspective, it is then that you lose your momentum of the victorious sense. But when you understand that in reality it is God and He alone, it is Spirit and Spirit alone, which can strengthen your faith, you will see that your victory is not wedded to persons, places, conditions, or things.
You, then, will not seek to empty others of their temporary opinions or shallow-pan grasp of the true beauties of Life. Do they wallow in sham and deceit? Do they hold impure concepts? Leave them alone. Let not their concepts soil your consciousness. By the indomitable sense of universal victory anchored within yourself, you will find a new faith pervading your universe. It matters to others that the concepts they hold are weak and destructive. They will reap what they sow,4 as all shall. But, ah, the mercy of God, the love of God, the strength of God! He who appoints the bounds of man's habitation5 has also created the limitless Light; and, with the dawn of the New Year, the momentum of that Light shall continually pour forth its healing rays for the New Age.
There may be deceivers in the world, but the cast of their own minds shall create snares into which they shall fall. Ye shall know them by their fruits.6 Hold above all the concept of God's healing love that has the power to change the world from darkness into Light. How can man die save he extinguish himself by the sense of sin? He must learn to draw strength from the reservoir of overcoming power which God placed in Jesus and in every one reborn in Christ. This is that divine power which abolishes sin by the law of perfection and love, by the law of victory that supplants death and defeat.
He who said "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again"7 can be sought and found in the eternally recurring cycles. Man can be the master of cycles. By the victorious sense he can hold his mind firm in the certitude of God. His victory is not based on mortal opinion, but on the constancy of faith and good works. The grace of him who said "My reward is with me"8 is sufficient for you unto this day.9
Not in dogma alone but in love do the winds of the Holy Spirit quiver the consciousness of the new heart. Central to the being of man is the concept of love; but the power of divine love is one glory, and the power of human love is another. Let men and women understand that even the most learned among them have needs they know not of. The sense of victory is electronic, vitalizing, healing, and faith-producing. It is an activity of perfection working in the walls of time; it is a leaven of ideas maturing and pulling the whole bent of the mind in their direction. Positive thoughts that expand are like flaming seeds that illumine the horizon of the mind; those who permit themselves to dwell in negativity have not the momentum to expand the victorious sense - the only means by which one's laurels can be won.
Recognizing with what hope some view the New Year and with what despair and apprehension others submit to the tides of human aggression, I must remind all that one can do no more for himself or his universe than he thinks he can. Out of the sense of victory, victory is born. Why will you not see that God is obtained through your own Christ-awareness as you invoke the fiats of the divine nature? Like a staccato burst of energy, they ripple across the mind and heart and then return to the peaceful flow of certitude, of calm soul-knowing.
Out of patience and steadfast devotion victory is born. And love and Light come to all who will aerate the mind and cleanse their consciousness of those distressing specters of the past. Fruitful endeavor carved out of plodding effort climbs the hills of victory into the domain of achievement that enriches not only the self but the entire universe. He who said "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"10 had long ago obtained the miraculous sense of victory, and he holds it still.
As each man realizes his intrinsic worth sealed by God within his being, he sees that He who made all things by Christ continues to frame each monad in the reference of pure love that nourishes the seeds of victory within his soul. Through the gift of free will, without which none could successfully meet the challenge of Life, man accepts the opportunity for self-mastery and ascends the ladder of initiation.
Now observe as hint after hint is released from Above through the forthcoming cadence of the year:
Cycle's door is still ajar -
Holds its memory from afar,
Trades the old for ever new,
Casts down fears and opens view.
This door ajar will carry far
If you'll remember who you are.
Out of the Light of your God Presence,