Lesson X
FAITHRev. W. John Murray
The Murray Course in Divine Science
Society of the Healing Christ
New York, 1927.
We have labored in vain if we have not convinced you of the supremacy of the soul of man over the body, of the ascendancy of spirit over matter. The use of the mental faculties alone can work miracles of healing, for these are faculties of the soul. But it is only through faith that we can be certain of our efforts in healing or betterment. Faith is the key to the mystery of the exercise of spiritual power for ourselves and for others. We can be healed, and we can heal others, through faith and right thinking.
Faith is defined by St. Paul as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is implicit belief. It is the indestructible confidence in a power that is higher than ourselves, a power that directs our affairs, comforts us and protects us. If we have faith, we are told, all things are possible to us. There is nothing more precious in the sight of the Father than faith, for it evidences an unquestioning loyalty in His wisdom and His love of the human heart in all its affairs.
Even this world is operated by faith. Every time we take in or pay out a dollar we do so on faith. All public service is conducted on faith. We take a train to a distant city and retire to a sleeping berth without question of our safety or of arriving at our destination on scheduled time. Our faith is in the engineer of the train and in the marvelous organization of the railroad system. The night may be dark and stormy, the ways tortuous and beset with danger, but we sleep serenely as we trust in the agencies responsible for transporting us. We voyage to distant ports with the same confidence in the steamship that carries us. It is the boast of one of our steamship companies that in forty years of service it has not lost a life entrusted to it, and of one of our great railroad systems that in a twelve-month period no passenger on its lines has been killed or injured.
We have faith in our institutions, in our laws and in our leaders. We pay our money into banks and into insurance companies. We accept bonds, we give and take credit. All of our movements are based on faith, from the operation of the alarm clock in the morning to our retiring for sleep at night with a sense of peace and safety. The nation, the state, society, the family–all are based on faith in fellow men and the keeping of agreements.
But faith of this kind often demands security. Oaths, pledges and bonds are required, together with documentary attestation, or symbols of some form assuring in their nature.
Faith in God is, however, faith in the unseen, and must proceed from the heart. We seek and we find. We knock and the door is opened. The assurance is hidden deep within the heart of man. Each discovers Truth for himself. By faith we call into operation our strongest forces and the greater and more complete the faith the more intensity we give to these forces. The faith of Job was an undying fire. Nothing could extinguish it–sickness, misfortune, the scattering of his family, the alienation of his friends, the humiliation of his pride in himself and his possessions–nothing could shake his faith–he stood as immovable and steadfast under the storms of calamity as the everlasting hills. “I know,” he declared, “I know that my redeemer liveth,” and again: “Even though He slay me yet shall I believe in Him.” Job is a type of the indestructibility of the human soul, and it is in the quality of his faith that he proved his greatness and the greatness of humanity.
David had the same quality of faith. “Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
When the risen Christ appeared to the disciples, Thomas, one of the apostles, was not present. He refused to believe what was told him of the presence in the midst of the disciples of the Master and declared that he would believe only after feeling the prints of the nails in the hands and the wound in the side of Jesus. When Jesus appeared to a group of which Thomas was a member our Lord said: “Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing.” Then Thomas answered: “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus said to him: “Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
That is our assurance, the assurance to all of us who have not seen. “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
The words of Jesus on the efficacy of faith are uncompromising. He said to Peter, when the latter pointed out the fig tree that had withered because Jesus had condemned it for its barrenness: “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain (obstacle) be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.”
This is the very essence of faith. “Believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.” And it is the most essential requirement in practice. The things we ask for are already in existence. Our faith, our beliefs, our implicit assurance should be that our prayers are answered even before they are uttered. The answer may not realize itself at once, or in the form that we desire. The thing we ask may require time to externalize or become objective, but that it is ready for us is a necessity of belief.
And herein lies the reinforcement of all the findings of psychology and mental science, all the truth in the creative power of thought. We must have faith. We must believe that the thing we ask for will materialize, and the stronger and more implicit the belief the more certain the materialization.
The object we hold in mind is a nucleus about which thought builds in its creativeness. If we can form a vivid picture in our mind of what we ask for and desire whole-heartedly, and hold it there constantly before the mind’s eye, the law of attraction will work upon it and unseen forces will come to aid its realization. The thing we desire will take shape in ways to us unknown, and presently it will appear in form. The subconscious mind, sleeping or waking, with this mental image to go on, works steadily towards its manifestation. All that a man really is is in the realm of mind. Health and disease, heaven and hell, are located in the mind. The mind exerts energies of which we are almost entirely unconscious. The fixed resolve of a determined soul finds realization inevitably. God expresses through us. We have so long been slaves to the belief that God does things for us that we unconsciously assume that what we ask of God is to be presented to us–handed to us–much as Santa Claus is supposed to bestow his gifts and presents. But we clear the paths to realization enormously once we get the conviction thoroughly implanted in us that it is through us that the work is wrought. Often the thing that we storm heaven for is at our very hand. We have but to open our eyes to see it. But we must open our eyes. We must trust to our intuitions and inspirations and act upon them. The prayer of faith opens the eyes and the intuitions and inspirations are the accompaniments of activity on our part to bring our desire into being. How often, after we have realized what we have prayed for, have we not seen that the thing was all the time right at our very hand–that we could have had it at any time but we could not see it.
“A genuine act of faith in God is a movement of the whole being towards Him and brings the soul into a vital contact and a vivifying conjunction with the Central Life.” (Dr. W. F. Evans.)
Faith is the most intense form of mental action. It is a union of the intellectual and the emotional, a knowledge of principles underlying action and a feeling of deep and unquenchable confidence in the power that is appealed to. Therefore, when we work under Faith all of our powers, intellectual and emotional, combine in an irresistible pressure. We force out into expression the health or the supply that we are striving for. “Be not faithless, but believing.” Believe that you have already received and you shall have. It is the law. It is inevitably compelling.
A strong, enduring faith. This is the sine qua non for all mental achievement. But the faith that works miracles is a boundless faith in God’s love and Fatherliness.
This faith, it must be perceived, is not blind faith. It is intelligent, conscious faith. The faith that is merely a submission of the will is very often a matter of religious loyalty. Blind faith may be praiseworthy but it is not constructive. It is not the kind of faith that removes mountains of trouble and suffering. Genuine faith, the faith that Jesus lauded, is based on the union of “I know” with “I believe.” That is the faith that is vital and inexorable. Jesus did not reward blind faith. He said to the woman who had touched his garment: “Thy faith hath healed thee;” to those who had heard the speech of the Roman centurion he said: “I have not heard such faith in Israel;” to Peter who was sinking after a first success in walking on the water: “Oh, thou of little faith;” to all of us, “According to your faith be it unto you,” and “All things are possible to him that believeth.” James says: “And the prayer of faith shall heal the sick.”
Thus we see that the faith that has power is the intensely active, conscious process of knowing, feeling and acting with God. It is not a striving to know, but a knowing. It is not only belief in God, but immediate knowledge and awareness of the presence and power of God acting omnipotently in us and in all our affairs. This is the living faith.
Are you capable of great and sustaining faith? It is your test. You can accomplish all things if you intelligently believe. Faith is a blessed state of mind. It is something that sings and makes melody in our heart as we arise in the morning; it cheers and gladdens us through the day; it is a balm for the tired nerves at night.
Therefore let there be no attacks of unfaith. Believe whole-heartedly and sincerely. Unless you believe in this manner unfaith is sure to creep in and spread.
That by and by will make the music mute
And, ever-widening, slowly silence all.”
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.”
PRACTICE IN DIVINE SCIENCE
Methods Recommended for Putting Into Daily Application
No matter what thy lot may be;
Go forth in Faith, and play thy part–
All roads lead to Infinity.”
Golden Grains
“If ye have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall obey you, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
(Matthew 18:20)
(Memorize and Repeat Often)
(Psalms 139:7-12)
“Faith, Hope and Love,” page 99 of the “Astor Lectures.” [Online at this website]
DAILY AFFIRMATIONS
Health, Prosperity, Protection
Health
The order and Harmony of the Christ Consciousness, established in me throughout all eternity, is expressing itself now as perfect Health.
The vitalizing energy of the Holy Spirit is circulating freely through every artery of my being, strengthening and invigorating me.
That Omnipresent Opulence which is God is now expressing Itself in and through me in terms of Unlimited Abundance.
The Lord, the everlasting Truth Sustains me; Divine Love alone governs me, and I reflect its government, in Peace, Power, Purity, Prosperity, Perfection of Mind and Body.
2. Why is faith in God meritorious? What, in faith, do we call into operation?
3. What is the essence of faith?
4. How are we to proceed to obtain an answer to our desires?
5. Of what is faith a most intense form?
6. Which is preferable, blind faith or conscious faith, and why?
The Murray Course in Divine Science
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