Emmet Fox: By Their Fruits

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Intelligence is just as essential a part of the Christian message as is love. God is love, but God is also infinite intelligence, and unless these two qualities are balanced in our lives, we do not get wisdom; for wisdom is the perfect blending of intelligence and love. Love without intelligence may do much undesigned harm—the spoiled child is a case in point—and intelligence without love may ultimate in clever cruelty. All true Christian activity will express wisdom, for zeal without discretion is proverbially mischievous.

It often happens that when people first become possessed of a knowledge of the Truth, and are perhaps set free from some oppressing difficulty, they are so overjoyed that they go running about pouring out their discovery to others, indiscriminately; and probably urging them to accept the Truth too. It is entirely understandable that this should happen, for love longs to share its good; but, nevertheless, it is very unwise.

The fact is that the acceptance of Truth involves, as we have seen, the scrapping of all the old standards; and, after all, this is a tremendous thing to expect from anyone, and it can only happen, in any case, when people are spiritually ready for the change. If one is spiritually ready, he will be glad to accept Truth, if it be put forward in some way that can appeal to him; if he be not ready, no amount of intellectual discussion or argument will make him so.

Never rely upon your own judgment to say who is ready for the Truth and who is not; but rely for guidance upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Most of us have had the experience, when we first realized the Spiritual Idea and what it means, of picking out certain of our friends who, we felt sure, would jump at it, only to find that in most cases they refused to take it at all. On the other hand, several people whom we, in our foolishness, chose to regard as being unspiritual (because they did not seem to be spiritual) accepted it gladly and made a great success with it. If you are praying regularly every day for wisdom, intelligence, and fresh opportunities for service, the right people will be brought to you, or you will be brought to them; and a convenient occasion will be provided for the subject to be introduced. If, when in company with anyone, you are doubtful whether or not to broach the subject of Truth, do not; but pray for guidance instead, and leave the matter to the action of God. Sometimes nothing happens, no convenient opportunity presents itself while you are with your friend, and that means that the time is not ripe and that no good would have been done by speaking. Very often, however, an obvious opening does occur in the conversation, after the treatment has been given, or some external incident happens which furnishes an opening for introducing the subject; and I have seen some very surprising and pleasant awakenings happen in this way.

Above all things, be chary of forcing the subject of Truth upon the people with whom you have to live and work; especially in your home. It is easy to make yourself nothing less than a constant nuisance by forcing your ideas upon people who cannot appreciate them, because they are not ready. As members of your household and business associates have naturally to see a good deal of you, and you of them, such a policy will probably give rise to a good deal of friction, and even ill feeling. Try to realize that in the absence of your personal awakening they cannot possibly see the thing as you do; and that they are therefore seeing something else. Also, you may not be very skillful in expounding your ideas in the best way. Finally, remember that those with whom you associate closely will have your personal conduct under constant inspection, will be familiar with many of your faults and weaknesses, and, if you talk too much and without a good deal of wisdom concerning spiritual enlightenment, will be sure to look for a greater demonstration than you may be able to make in the beginning, and they will have to be of rather more than average humanity if they do not sometimes point out discrepancies at most unwelcome moments—if you have been too aggressive. In other words, “hasten slowly” is here the watchword. It cannot help the spread of Truth at all for you to get the reputation of being a crank or a nuisance. The quickest way to spread it is by living the life yourself. Then, people will notice the change in you, and, as they see improved health and prosperity in your life, and happiness shining in your face, they will come round of their own accord, begging to share your secret. They will require no urging to drink the waters of life.

When you are desirous of introducing the Truth to a particular person, or to a group of people, the proper course is to prepare yourself by a special daily treatment for several days, or better still for a week or two, in advance. Work for Intelligence, Love (to overcome impatience, and to help you to meet ridicule or seeming unkindness), and, above all, for Wisdom, which, as we have seen, is the right union of the other two. Claim that the action of God will make you say the right thing when the time comes, and that it will also endow your listener or listeners with the same qualities. Do not allow yourself to care in the least what the actual result of the discussion may turn out to be. Voice the Truth, and leave it. You will often be amazed at the results you will get following a few days’ spiritual preparation of this kind.

This is the wonderful passage in which Jesus enunciates the primary truth of the Fatherhood of God. This truth may be called primary because it is the foundation stone upon which the whole structure of true religion is built. Until men could understand the meaning of the Fatherhood of God, and something of what that implies, they could hardly obtain any satisfactory religious experience. As long as men had believed that there were many gods, a sound religious experience was not possible, for all genuine religious experience is a search for conscious union with the One. Many gods must necessarily be gods of limitation; and as they were always, and necessarily, represented as being in conflict among themselves, only chaotic thought could follow from such a belief. Those who had got beyond that idea to the concept of the One or True God, still thought of Him almost universally as a kind of Oriental tyrant-king, or sultan, owning and governing man with a rod of iron, on much the same lines that a capricious human tyrant might be expected to pursue. The God of many of the Old Testament writers is a very jealous, revengeful, and cruel despot; a sultan whom it is almost impossible to please, implacable in his anger, often indiscriminate in his vengeance. He seems to have no more in common with mankind than men have with the animals; in fact much less, for we do conceive ourselves to share many of the lowest creatures’ limitations in a common susceptibility to suffering and hunger and death.

This Oriental-sultan view of God was actually the view held by very many earnest orthodox Christians down to very recent times, be it remembered, and it denied to man anything in common with God at all. A witty modern writer has compared this god to a certain English millionaire who keeps a private zoo near London as his own personal hobby. It is stocked with a number of creatures which exist solely for their owner’s interest and pleasure. He visits his menagerie from time to time and (acting no doubt on expert advice) orders certain animals to be destroyed, others to be moved into more commodious cages, and others again perhaps to be dealt with in this way or that. He has, of course, no spiritual communion with them whatever. They are simply so many animated toys that exist for his entertainment. This is not by any means an overstrained description of the ideas held by many Fundamentalists, for instance.

In this passage Jesus once and for all lays the axe to the root of this horrible superstition for those who will read their Bible with an open mind. He says here, definitely and clearly—and he stresses his words in the most circumstantial way—that the real relationship of God and man is that of parent and child. Here God ceases to be the distant potentate who deals with grovelling slaves, and becomes the loving Father of us, His children. It is extremely difficult to realize the far-reaching importance that this declaration holds for the life of the soul. If you will read and reread this section dealing with the Fatherhood of God every day for a few weeks, you will find that it alone answers a great many of your religious problems. I venture to say that you will be considerably surprised at the large number of puzzling questions that it will settle once and for all. The teaching of Jesus concerning the Fatherhood of God was original and unique. In the Old Testament God is never addressed as “Father.” Where references to His Fatherhood are made, He is referred to as the Father of the nation, and not of individuals. Indeed this was the reason why Jesus made the declaration of the Fatherhood of God the opening clause of what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” It explains, for instance, the tremendous statement in Genesis that man is the image and likeness of God.

It is axiomatic, of course, that the offspring must be of the same nature and species as the parent; and so if God and man are indeed Father and child, man—notwithstanding all his present limitations, and despite all appearances to the contrary—must be essentially Divine too, and susceptible of infinite growth and improvement and development up the rising pathway of divinity. That is to say, as man’s true nature—his spiritual character—unfolds, which means as he becomes more and more conscious of it, he will expand in spiritual consciousness until he has transcended all bounds of human imagination; onward, and yet onward still. It is in reference to this, our glorious destiny, that, as we have already seen, Jesus himself says elsewhere, quoting the older scriptures: “I have said ye are gods, and all of you Sons of the Most High.” He then emphasized his point by adding significantly: “And the scripture cannot be broken.”

So, in this passage we are set free once and for all from the last link in the last chain that binds us to a limited and a degraded destiny. We are the children of God; and if children, then sons, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, as Paul says, and as sons of God we are the heirs of our Father’s estate, not strangers, or paid servants, much less chattel slaves. We are sons of the house and will one day enjoy our inheritance. At the present time we find ourselves full of limitations and disabilities because we are spiritually but children—minors. Children are irresponsible, lacking in wisdom and experience, and have to be kept under control lest their mistakes should entail serious consequences to themselves. But as soon as man comes of age spiritually, then, as we have seen above, he claims his rights and obtains them. “The heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors”; but when the fullness of time is come, he awakens to the Truth, and obtains his spiritual majority. He realizes that it is the Voice of God Himself that is in his heart, making him cry: “Abba, Father.” Then at last he knows that he is the son of a great King, and that all that his Father has is his for the using, whether it be health, or supply, or opportunity, or beauty, or joy, or any other of the thoughts of God.

The most mischievous thing in life is man’s slowness, indeed we can say his reluctance, to perceive his own dominion. God has given us dominion over all things, but we shrink like frightened children from assuming it, although that assuming is the one and only escape for us. Mankind is often like a fugitive who sits in the driving seat of an automobile which is all ready to bear him away to safety, but who cannot bring himself, for nervousness, to grasp the controls and start the car. He sits there half-frozen with terror, glancing over his shoulder, wondering whether his pursuers will catch up with him, and what will happen to him if they do. He could make his escape into safety at any moment, but he will not, or dare not.

Jesus, who knew the human heart as no other has ever known it before or since, understood our difficulty and our weakness in this respect; and with his unparalleled magic of living words, his power of putting fundamental truth in such simple, direct, and pointed fashion that even a child could not miss it, commands us: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

It is impossible to imagine the thing being stated more definitely and compellingly than in these words. There are simply no words in any language which could be clearer or more emphatic, and yet, for the most part, Christians quietly ignore them, or else discount their meaning until they are left without any meaning at all. Now, as I have previously pointed out, we are obliged to believe either that Jesus meant what he said, or that he did not; and, as we can hardly believe that he did not, or that he could talk nonsense through want of understanding, we are compelled to accept these words as being true—and, indeed, where is there room for evasion?

Ask and ye shall receive. Is not this the Magna Charta of personal freedom for every man, woman, and child on earth? Is not this the decree of the emancipation of the slaves of every kind of bondage, physical, mental, or spiritual? What room does this leave for the so-called Christian virtue of resignation, so often preached? The fact is, of course, that resignation is not a virtue at all. On the contrary, resignation is a sin. What we commonly dignify with the fine name of resignation, is really an unwholesome mixture of cowardice and sloth. We have no business to be resigned to inharmony of any kind, because inharmony cannot be the Will of God. We have no business to accept ill-health, or poverty, or sinfulness, or strife, or unhappiness, or remorse, with resignation. We have no right to accept anything less than freedom and harmony and joy, for only with these things do we glorify God, and express His Holy Will, which is our raison d’être.

It is our most sacred duty, out of loyalty to God Himself, to refuse to accept anything less than all-round happiness and success, and we shall not be following out the wishes and instructions of Jesus if we do accept less. We are to pray and meditate, and reorganize our lives in accordance with his teaching, continuously and untiringly until our goal is attained. That this attainment, that our victory over every negative condition, is not merely possible but is definitely promised to us, finds its proof in these glorious words, the ensign of freedom for mankind: Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

This is the sublime precept that we call the Golden Rule. Here Jesus reiterates the Great Law in a concise summing up. This repetition follows upon his wonderful statement of the Fatherhood of God. The underlying explanation for the existence of the Great Law is the metaphysical fact that we are all fundamentally one—all parts of the Great Mind. Because we are all ultimately one, to hurt another is really to hurt oneself, and to help another is really to help oneself. The Fatherhood of God compels us to accept the brotherhood of man, and, spiritually, brotherhood is unity.

The understanding of this great truth includes within itself all other religious knowledge, and is, in the old phraseology, law and the prophets.

There is only one way under the sun by which man can attain harmony, that is to say, health, prosperity, peace of mind—salvation, in the true sense of the word—and that is by bringing about a radical and permanent change for the better in his own consciousness. This is the one and only way; there is no other. For countless generations humanity has been trying in every other conceivable way to compass its own good. Innumerable schemes have been designed to bring about happiness by making changes of some sort in man’s external conditions while leaving the quality of his mentality untouched; and always the result has been the same—failure. We are now in a position to see why this must be so, that it is because the very nature of our being is such that it is only by a change in consciousness that outer conditions can really be altered. This change in consciousness is the strait gate that Jesus speaks of here, and, as he says, the number of those who find it is comparatively small. Today that number is increasing with great rapidity, though indeed it is still comparatively small, but at the time that Jesus spoke it was very much smaller still.

This doctrine that what matters is one’s consciousness, because your own concept is what you see, Jesus calls the Way of Life, and he says that all other doctrines are but a broad road to destruction or disappointment. Now why should man be so reluctant, apparently, to try to change his consciousness? Why is it that he seems to prefer to try almost any other method however arduous or even farfetched it may be? All through history every other conceivable way has been tried to bring about the salvation of humanity, and, of course, all have failed, as we now know that they must; and yet man will seldom try the “strait” way until he is driven to it, individually, by irresistible pressure.

The answer is that, as we have already seen, the changing of one’s consciousness is really very hard work, calling for constant unceasing vigilance and a breaking of mental habits which is sure to be very troublesome for a time. The natural man is lazy, always tends to take the line of least resistance, and so, in this as in lesser matters, he does not get down to bedrock principles until he is compelled to.

The Way of Life, the strait gate, is, however, worth much more than whatever trouble or effort it may call for. On this road the rewards are not temporary but permanent; every mile gained is gained for all eternity. Indeed, the changing of one’s consciousness is in truth the only thing that is really worth doing at all. A comparison from everyday life will help to illustrate this point: Suppose a man successfully removes a stain from his coat; that action will benefit him for as long as the garment is in use, say a few months. Suppose, on the other hand, he develops a bodily function, say his breathing capacity, by suitable physical exercises; the improvement gained here will be with him for the remainder of his physical life, perhaps fifty or sixty years, and is, for that reason alone, a far more important thing to have done, even apart from the much more far-reaching effect upon his life of the operation itself. Now, if he makes a qualitative change in his consciousness, which is what happens under prayer or treatment, then not only is the effect of that change felt in every phase and department of his life, but it is with him through all eternity, for he never can lose it. Thieves cannot break in and steal.

As soon as you obtain the spiritual consciousness you will find that all things indeed work together for good to those who love Good, or God. You will experience perfect health, abundant prosperity, and complete and utter happiness. Your health will be so good that mere living will be in itself an inexpressible joy. The body, no longer the burden to be dragged about that so many people find it, will be as though it were shod with winged shoes. Your prosperity will be such that you need not take the question of finance into consideration at all. You will always have all the supply that you need to carry out any of your plans. The world will turn out to be full of charming people only too anxious to help you in every way. Others will come into your life only for good. You will find yourself occupied with the most delightful and interesting activities of the most widely useful kind. All your energy and all your faculties will find full scope for their expression and, in short, you will develop the “completely integrated and fully expressed personality” of which modern psychology dreams.

Those who have not glimpsed the secret of the Christ Message may look upon all this as nothing but a beautiful vision, “too good to be true,” but it is just the essence of the Christ Message that nothing is too good to be true, because the Love and the Power of God are true. It is just this very belief that complete harmony is too good to be true that really prevents our getting it. We, as mental beings, make the laws under which we live; and we have to live under the laws that we make.

A tragic mistake that is often made by orthodox religious people is to assume that the Will of God for them is bound to be something very dull and uninviting, if not positively unpleasant. Consciously or not they look upon God as a hard taskmaster, or a severe Puritanical parent. Too often their prayers virtually amount to something like this: “Please, God, give me such and such a boon, which I sorely need—but I don’t suppose you will, because you won’t think it is good for me.” Needless to say, a prayer of this sort is answered as all prayers are answered, according to the faith of the subject; that is to say, the boon is not granted. The truth is that the Will of God for us always means greater freedom, greater self-expression, wider and newer and brighter experience; better health, greater prosperity, wider opportunity of service to others—life more abundant.

If you are ill or in poverty, or obliged to do work that you dislike; if you are lonely, or if you have to mix with people who displease you; you may be certain that you are not expressing the Will of God, and as long as you are not expressing His Will, it is natural for you to experience inharmony; and it is equally true that when you do express His Will, harmony will come.

Is there any infallible way in which man can find out the real Truth about God, and about life, and about himself? Is there any way in which he can tell for himself which is the true religion, and which is not? which of the churches are genuine and which are false? which books or teachers teach the Truth, and which teach error? How many honest seekers for Truth, confused and worried by the babel of conflicting theologies and brawling sects, have yearned with their whole hearts for some simple test whereby the honest seeker could discover for himself what the Truth really is?

Is there a single sincere Christian who would not eagerly strive to follow the wishes of Jesus Christ if only he could find out what they are? He is told by all sorts of people and by all sorts of churches that they alone represent the true teaching, and that he will disregard their doctrines and their discipline at his peril; and yet they all disagree among themselves upon vital points both of theory and practice; and each of them individually is full on inconsistencies.

If man really were left without a simple practical test of religious truth, he would assuredly be in a sad plight; but happily this is not the case. Jesus, the most profound, and at the same time the most simple and practical teacher the world has ever known, has provided for this need, and has given us an utterly simple and universally applicable test for Truth. It is a test that any man or woman of any kind, anywhere, can easily apply for himself. It is as simple and direct as the acid test for gold. It is the simple question—Does it work?

This test is so staggeringly simple that most clever people have passed it over as not worth considering, forgetting that all the great elemental things of life are simple. Yet, just this is the fundamental test for Truth—does it work?—because Truth always works. The Truth always heals. A true story always turns out to be consistent when thoroughly sifted, while the most plausible lie will break down somewhere if sufficiently investigated. Truth heals the body, purifies the soul, reforms the sinner, solves difficulties, pacifies strife. From this it follows that, according to Jesus, teaching that is true will automatically prove itself by practical demonstration. “They shall cast out devils, speak in new tongues, take up serpents, drink any deadly thing with impunity, and they shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.” False teaching, on the contrary, no matter how attractively it may be presented, no matter what social or academic prestige may be attached to it, will fail to do all or any of these things; and, failing to measure up to the test, must be condemned. Its sponsors are false Prophets clad in the sheep’s clothing of true religion; but, although they are usually perfectly sincere in their claims and pretensions, still they come between the seeker and the saving Truth, and are therefore, despite their good intentions; spiritual wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them.

Now that we understand clearly that a successful demonstration is the proof, and the only proof, of true understanding, we have no further excuse for straying from the Path. Our progress on the Path may, for one reason or another, be comparatively slow, but at least we shall be able to keep on the Path. We shall always know when we have left the Path, because demonstrations will cease. Most people find it especially difficult to demonstrate in certain directions, while having little difficulty in others. This is to be expected, and only means that more work needs to be done in some directions than in others. If, however, you are getting no real demonstrations in any direction, it means that you have left the Path and are no longer praying rightly; and you must immediately get back, by claiming that Divine Intelligence is inspiring you, and that you are expressing Truth. If you do this, you will come to no harm, even if the unproductive period seems to last rather a long time; and you will learn a good deal. But if, on the other hand, you behave like the Pharisees and, instead of frankly admitting your mistake, proceed to indulge in self-righteousness and spiritual pride, then indeed you are in for a bad time. If, like some misguided people, you say something like this: “I do not demonstrate, but I do not wish to do so, because I am too spiritual; I am above demonstration; I am too advanced for that kind of thing,” or perhaps, “I demonstrate in ways that you cannot see”; then you are not merely talking nonsense, but you are doing something very like blaspheming Divine Wisdom itself—and what is this but the sin against the Holy Ghost.

One does not seek demonstrations as an end in themselves, but one seeks to know Truth as an end in itself; and since the Law is that as one acquires true understanding the outer picture improves automatically, that change in the outer picture becomes the visible evidence of the change in the inner—“an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”—and thus we come to know unerringly where we stand. The outer picture is like the gauge that tells what is happening inside a boiler.

The real reason for desiring demonstrations is that they are the proof of understanding. There is no such thing as undemonstrated understanding. As within, so without; as without, so within. If you wish to know how you really stand spiritually, look about you at your environment, beginning with the body. There can be nothing in the soul that is not demonstrated sooner or later in the outer, and there can be nothing in the outer which does not find some correspondence in the inner.

Whether it be the testing of your own soul, or the test of a teacher, or the test of a book or a church, that test is always simple, direct, and infallible. Does it work? What are the fruits? By their fruits ye shall know them.

Mankind is slow to realize that there is simply no way of salvation except by changing one’s consciousness, which means trying to do the Will of God consistently in every department of life. We are all willing to do His Will sometimes and in some things, but until there is a complete alignment both in the great and in the small things—a complete dedication of one’s whole self in fact—there cannot be a complete demonstration. As long as we are allowing any secondary thing to come between us and the Primary thing, there is no full salvation. “There is no home for the soul in which there dwells the shadow of an untruth,” said George Meredith.

This danger is an extraordinarily subtle one. No sooner have we met and mastered it in one direction than it seems to attack us in another. It calls for nothing less than unceasing watchfulness, and an almost heroic courage. Never is it more true than in the life of the soul, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We must not allow any consideration whatever, any institution, or organization, or any book, or any man or woman, to come between us and our direct seeking for God. If our reliance is upon anything but our own understanding of Truth, our work will cease to be fruitful. If we rely unduly upon anyone else, upon a particular teacher or healer, for instance, he will be certain to fail us, probably through no fault of his own. He will be out of reach when we most need him, or for some other reason will be unavailable in our hour of need. The same principle applies when people allow themselves to become the slaves of special conditions. A certain woman said: “I can treat myself only when I am in the reading room of our local center; the atmosphere there is so beautiful.” The time came, and not very long afterwards, when her husband was transferred by the government to a mid-African station where she had to meet a crisis thousands of miles from a reading room, and more than a hundred miles from any other white woman. Then she was driven back on her real knowledge of Truth, and, of course, made a great advance in understanding.

It is your duty to get all the help that you can from books and teachers, and so forth; but unless your real reliance is upon your own understanding, you are only crying “Lord, Lord” with your lips, and pretending to prophesy in His name while essentially “knowing Him not”; which, for practical purposes, will be as though He knew you not. There is no entering the Kingdom of Heaven in this way. For the thousandth time let it be said, you have to earn your salvation by genuine, consistent hard work upon your own consciousness in realizing God.

Many people hesitate to free themselves from an orthodox church which they have really outgrown, because of the practical or merely sentimental inconvenience of breaking a family tradition; but “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Again, many people seem to find it possible to summon up enough energy and courage to break from the orthodox church, only to settle down once more, almost as inertly, into one of the more liberal churches, or into some spiritual center or organization, where they seem to go to sleep again, under the impression that they have now at last discovered the Truth, and need take no further trouble. As if this were not exactly the same old mistake made by the pioneers and founders of all the orthodox churches themselves; all of which originally started as reforming heresies. What do you gain by breaking free from one organization if you are only going to surrender your newfound freedom to another one?

In other cases people have developed a personal devotion to some independent teacher which has caused them entirely to yield their own judgment to his. Others again have some favorite textbook which, in fact if not in name, they regard as infallible.

Now the only infallible thing known to man is the simple test for Truth that Jesus gave us—By their fruits ye shall know them.

You should gladly take advantage of helpful teaching wherever you may get it; go to churches or meetings that help you; listen to speakers, and read books that inspire you to find yourself; but do not surrender to anybody your own spiritual judgment. Thank those who have helped you, and acknowledge the good received; but always be ready to pass on to the next step. Remember that the Truth of Being concerns Itself with the infinite, the impersonal Principle of Life; and does not lend itself to the exploitation of particular personalities or organizations. You do not owe an atom of loyalty to anyone or anything in the universe except your own Indwelling Christ, your own spiritual integrity. If merely enrolling oneself in the membership of some organized body were a guarantee of spiritual understanding, our salvation would be a much simpler matter than it is. Unfortunately the problem is much more involved. Centers, churches, schools, all fill a useful purpose in providing the physical framework for the distribution of right knowledge, through lectures, books, and so forth; but the actual work must be done in the individual consciousness. To claim more than this for outer things is to reestablish superstition. If, when the testing time comes, we attempt to lean upon a church membership, or upon our devotion to a teacher’s personality, or upon a mere letter-perfect acquaintance with any textbook, the Voice of Truth will proclaim that it never knew us; and we shall have to go without our demonstration.

Because human life and human character are so many-sided, the Bible approaches every problem from several different angles. This section of the Sermon teaches another very important lesson too; namely, that the only true way of bringing about anything is by the Practice of the Presence of God. This is the only way in which permanent results can be obtained. Temporary alterations in conditions may be achieved by will power, but they are only temporary, and sooner or later anything that seems to have been accomplished in this way will disappear again, leaving everything worse than it was before. A great fortune, for instance, may be built up by will power alone, but money thus acquired sooner or later takes wings unto itself and flies away again, leaving its deluded victim poorer than ever. Such a person knows not the Truth of Being, and therefore it knows him not, and cannot help him. Dramatically stated, in the Oriental way, this becomes: I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

When a person has made such a mistake as this the thing for him to do is promptly to discontinue trying to work without God, whereupon his mistake will be forgiven, as all mistakes are, as soon as we repent of them. Then he should immediately begin to work for supply on the Spiritual Basis, claiming God as his source and realizing the bounty of God as his. Thus he will build up a true prosperity consciousness, and when this is done he never can be impoverished.

The Sermon concludes with one of those illustrations that for simplicity, directness, and graphic power are unmatched outside the teaching of Jesus. No one who has read this parable of the two houses can ever forget it. It warns us once again of the vanity of precept without practice; of the deadly peril of those who know the Truth, or at least know about it, without honestly trying as well as they can to put it into practice. One could almost say, better never to have heard of the Truth at all, than to know of it and not try to live it.

One of the very oldest and most important symbols for the human soul is that of a building, sometimes a dwelling house, and sometimes a Temple, which man is occupied in building. Man the Builder is as familiar a character in the Occult Tradition as man the Shepherd, or man the Fisherman, or man the King, as we found him in an earlier section. The first thing that has to be done by the builder of a house is to select a sound foundation, for, without that, it matters not how skillfully and conscientiously the building is put up, it will collapse under the first serious storm that comes along. Jesus, we remember, was brought up in the home and workshop of a carpenter, who, in that time and place, would be a builder too, as he still often is in remote country places among ourselves; and this illustration is one that would immediately occur to him. On the shifting sands of the desert it is impossible to build anything at all, and so there people have to dwell in tents. When the Oriental intends to put up a permanent structure he looks about for a rock, and builds upon that. Now the Rock is one of the Bible terms for the Christ, and the implication is very obvious. The Christ Truth is the one and only foundation upon which we can build the Temple of the regenerated soul with safety. It is the one thing in existence that is absolutely true, never varying, never shifting—the same yesterday, today, and forever. Resting upon this foundation we shall stand secure when the winds, and rains, and floods of error, of fear, and doubt, and self-reproach, beat upon us, beat they never so hard; for we are founded upon the Rock. But as long as we are depending upon anything less than the Rock—upon will power, upon so-called material security, upon the goodwill of others, or upon our own personal resources—upon anything but God in fact, we are building upon sand, and great will be our fall.

In this concluding paragraph we are told quite simply that the people were astonished at his doctrine. It is always so. The Jesus Christ message is utterly revolutionary. It reverses all the standards and all the methods, not only of the “world,” but of all conventional or orthodox religion itself, for it turns our gaze from the outside to the inside, and from man and his works to God.

He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The greatest glory of the Spiritual Basis is that you begin to know. When you have obtained the smallest true demonstration by means of scientific prayer, you have experienced something that never leaves you. You have the witness of Truth within yourself. You are no longer dependent upon the word of somebody else; you know for yourself; and this is the only authority worth having. Jesus had this authority and he proved it by doing the works. In the next chapter of Matthew we learn that immediately after the last discourse in this Sermon on the Mount, on his way back to the town in fact, he instantaneously healed a leper. This was proving that his doctrines were not mere theorizing; and proving it with a vengeance.

Jesus contacted God direct, and there when he spoke, he spoke the Word of Power.

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Chapter 7: By Their Fruits

Explained by Emmet Fox (1886–1951)