VIII. THE WORD
Mrs. C. L. Baum
Studies in Divine Science
The Colorado College of Divine Science
Denver, Colo., 4th ed., 1924.
The Bible abounds in many statements concerning the Word, both in the law of God as given before the Christian era and in the record of Jesus’ teaching and works. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” “But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” “Speak the Word only and my servant shall be healed.” “The sower soweth the Word.” “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Again, concerning speech, we read, “Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account of in the day of judgment.” “For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.” “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”
We cannot read and ponder these statements without being impressed by the enormous importance of the spoken word, which is one manifestation of that great silent Word which was with God in the beginning. For be it known that the power has been given to each of us to speak the word of truth to bless and heal; in the same manner, the choice rests with us to neglect our opportunity for this service. The marvelous potency of speech has been delineated by Carlyle in the following selection from his works, entitled Speech and Silence:
He who speaks honestly cares not, needs not care, though his words be preserved to remotest time. The dishonest speaker, not he only who purposely utters falsehoods, but he who does not purposely and with sincere heart, utter truth and truth alone; who babbles he knows not what, and has clapped no bridle on his tongue, but lets it run racket, ejecting chatter and futility, – is among the most indisputable malefactors omitted or inserted in the criminal calendar.
To him that will well consider it, idle speaking is precisely the beginning of all hollowness, halfness, infidelity (want of faithfulness); the genial atmosphere in which rank weeds of every kind attain the mastery over noble fruits in man’s life, and utterly choke them out; one of the most crying maladies of these days, and to be testified against, and in all ways to the uttermost, withstood.
Wise of a wisdom far beyond our shallow depth, was that old precept: Watch thy tongue; out of it are the issues of Life! Man is properly an INCARNATED WORD: the WORD that he speaks is the man himself. Were eyes put into our head that we might see, or that we might fancy and plausibly pretend that we had seen! Was the tongue suspended there, that it might tell freely what we have seen, and make man the soul’s brother of man; or only that it might utter vain sounds, jargon, soul-confusing, and so divide man, as by enchanted walls of darkness, from union with man?
Thou who wearest that cunning, heaven-made organ, a tongue, think well of this. Speak not, I passionately entreat thee, till thy thought has silently matured itself, till thou hast other than mad and mad-making noises to emit: hold thy tongue till some meaning lie behind to set it wagging.
Consider the significance of silence: it is boundless, never by meditating to be exhausted, unspeakably profitable to thee! Cease that chaotic hubbub, wherein thy own soul runs to waste, to confused suicidal dislocation and stupor; out of silence comes thy strength. “Speech is silvern, Silence is golden; Speech is human, Silence is divine.”
Fool! Thinkest thou that because no one stands near with parchment and black lead to note thy jargon, it therefore dies and is harmless? Nothing dies, nothing can die. No idlest word thou speakest but is a seed cast into Time, and grows through all Eternity! The Recording Angel, consider it well, is no fable, but the truest of truths; the paper tablets thou canst burn; of the “iron leaf” there is no burning.
A great truth is contained in that statement “Man is an Incarnated Word.” Man is indeed the Word of God, the pure and perfect idea of God made manifest. Every individual is a Word or Idea brought into form by the eternal activity and has a pure and perfect spiritual body which never can be affected by negation, save in feeling and mentality. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Being the Word made flesh, we are divine and immortal, for this statement refers to each of us as it did to Jesus. Each of us is God’s Word in the flesh. Hence we should never belittle or depreciate ourselves. The activity of the Divine Mind is perfect and the manifested form is perfect.
It has been customary to speak of a lower and a higher self, and we have used these terms when we knew not the truth. The practice has resulted in confusion for it is wrong to speak of a lower self. And while it may have been a step upward even to recognize a higher self, it is still better to know that there is but one self which is eternal and changeless. The lower self is only what we have believed about ourselves. In recognizing two selves we have claimed a spiritual body and a material body, a perfect and an imperfect body. But in truth, what we have believed was our imperfect body, is only our false conception of our eternally changeless and perfect body. The world is slowly rising into a consciousness of the inherent perfection and divine origin of man, but we must know now that we are perfect spirit substance, the Word of God made flesh.
Consider the statement “The Word of God shall heal the sick.” What is its real meaning? What or who is the Word of God that shall heal the sick? It is yourself. You are the healing word, for it is your consciousness of truth that goes forth to help one who has not that consciousness. The self, the indwelling Spirit, is the Word of God, and when you realize this you will know truly that the Word of God shall heal the sick. The one you endeavor to help is also the Word of God manifest in the flesh, and as you know this in your consciousness, the Spirit in that one responds to your Spirit, the truth is recognized and healing results. In this way, then, the true Word of God heals the sick. The Word is the same always, but the human mentality from time to time becomes filled with false concepts which must be displaced with the Word of Truth. The truth of the body is its health and this consciousness heals all belief of disease. Through the thoughts we think and the words we speak, we are continually bringing forth into evidence either the Word of God or our false beliefs. One or the other must illumine or darken our mental atmosphere.
We find three Words in the universe by which all visible creation has been brought forth. These are:
The Silent Word, or the Invisible Idea;
The Active Word, or the Process of Thought, and
The Manifested Word, or the Visible Result.
These three comprise the Law of Expression and represent the process through which all creation has been accomplished. The silent, invisible Idea of creation, put into action through thought, was finally manifested as visible creation. The same process is true of man’s devices; he first has the mental image or conception, which is put into activity through thought, resulting in the finished product. Everything of which we have knowledge has come into expression through this process. A clear conception of this fact will show that Mind is the only Cause, either in God’s creation or working in and through man. The law is operative even on the negative plane, and all negative conditions in the world today have gone through this cycle of expression and have come into our experience in this way. Thus all disease has had its origin in our thought and mentality and the right way to overcome it permanently is to set to work this Law of Expression on a positive idea of truth and health, knowing that it will ultimately be manifested, and overcome error by replacing it with consciousness of truth.
It should be plain from the foregoing that the body is a manifested Word and has no creative power – a result, and cannot be a cause of anything. Apparently then, the conception of physical causation is erroneous and cannot stand in the light of the truth that Mind is the only cause, while form and environment are but results.
Now, this body which is the manifested Word of Divine Mind, is a pure spiritual form, perfect and eternal. It is invisible to our sense of vision, because being spiritual it is spiritually discerned, and our lack of discernment of the truth has been the reason why we are in partial bondage to negative things. “Not discerning the Lord’s body, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep.” What great blessing would attend spiritual discernment, and how greatly it is to be striven for is apparent from this statement. Full and complete knowledge of Truth would give us spiritual discernment of all things and we would know that:
God is Perfect as Creator – the Silent Mind;
God is Perfect as Creative Action – the Active Thought;
God is Perfect as Creation – the Manifestation.
Body, therefore, being the manifestation, is Perfect.
“For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” The words of our mouths represent the expression of our thoughts just as much as our actions do, and by our words and actions we are justified or condemned before the world. We cannot justify the spoken or professed truth except by a Life of Truth, and our own unfoldment demands that we so live the truth that it will bring conviction to others.
There is but one Word that man is responsible for and that is the inner Word of his own consciousness. He has it in his own power to unfold that consciousness as steadfastly as he please, and he will find that according as he works within, he will manifest externally. If the consciousness is one of peace, joy and harmony, the environment will be the same and that individual will enjoy heaven here and now. On the other hand, if the mentality is mixed, life will have some discord, sickness and unrest in it. Heaven and hell are but mental experiences. The man who is filled with the ideas of love, peace and trust, is in heaven, just as the one who is filled with the beliefs of injustice, selfishness and hatred, is in hell.
There is but one Substance in the universe, although it has many manifested forms. Whether we call that form the body, food, shelter or means of support, it is a manifestation of the same Substance. The whole universe is filled with the very Substance of God, and that Substance in various forms is for our good. It is the abundance of the one Presence and the one Power – the one Substance made manifest, of which there is no lack. To the individual it may be suggested that if you are not getting your share of that Substance, or feel a lack of it in any form, hold the thought that the Spirit knows and will manifest to you in the form you most need or desire. Speak the word that the one perfect Substance is made manifest to you in the form you need. Be definite about it. “But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” The silent word within you speaks itself forth into manifestation. Whatever you are thinking will come forth and you cannot experience the abundance of supply in any form if you are holding the thought of lack. You cannot be well or happy if you are holding the thought of hatred or jealousy.
The Word of God which is the Divine Spirit within you can manifest nothing which is not a likeness of itself. That we have not known this truth of our Perfection and have not progressed in the spiritual life argues nothing against our being just what the Divine Presence is. We have hitherto manifested nothing higher than our consciousness of the Truth, which perhaps was not very great, but now we perceive the enlargement of consciousness which we are to experience. How shall we accomplish this change? According to the simple rule that “Truth embodied displaces or disembodies error.” Wherefore, if you are thinking error, or are not thinking positively and earnestly on the side of truth, change your methods and displace the error in your thought with truth. This will be the Word of God healing and changing all that is external to you by first being realized in your thought.
STATEMENTS FOR MEDITATION.
In the beginning was the Word.
I am the Word of God.
The Word comes to bear witness to the truth.
The Word that I am shall not pass away, but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent.
I come to do the work of Him who sent me.
Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
My Word is Spirit and it is Life.
The Word is made into visible form and dwells among us.
Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight.
THE LOVING WORD
A living, loving, lasting word,
My listening ear believing heard,
While bending down in prayer:
Like a sweet breeze that none can stay,
It passed my soul upon its way
And left a blessing there.
Then joyful thoughts that come and go
By paths the holy angels know,
Encamped around my soul:
As in a dream of blest repose,
And through the desert stole.
I lifted up my eyes to see-
The wilderness was glad for me,
My heart within was strong.
And sweeter, nearer, clearer heard,
It came, that everlasting word
Of promise and of song!
– Anna L. Waring.
* * * * *
Studies in Divine Science
Table of Contents