My thought goes forth to meet the dawn.
It goes forth to greet the face of the One who dwells in the midst of Eternity.
It is not afraid but travels afar in company with unseen forces of Life and unnumbered hosts of the Invisible.
I stand in the center of the Universe and behold the One who inhabits the endless ages.
Mighty thoughts rush out to greet Thee and Thy Presence encompasses All.
As our thought goes forth to view what the future holds in store and we contemplate its possibilities, building our expectations upon past experiences we may more or less accurately prophesy the new age. That a new age is being ushered in no thinking or observant person can doubt. The signs of the times and the revolution of thought which the world is undergoing, economically, religiously, politically and internationally, furnish positive evidence that the human race is on the verge of a new experience.
Human evolution, which is the unfolding of the inner life through the personality of each person, is an eternal progress in an ever widening circle. Always the future is a logical outcome of the past and the present suspended between the past and future is a tendency linking events into one sequential whole. Standing before the portals of a new year, meditating upon the past and anticipating the future, we may well pause and ask ourselves what tendency our life is taking.
To the student of Religious Science the past has been a vehicle conveying the soul to an eternal future of enlarging possibilities, brighter outlooks and broader ranges of experience. We carry no corpses with us but let the dead past bury its dead having learned by experience lessons both hard and easy we consciously let go of all unpleasant memories and seek to forgive and to forget. Whatever of sorrow or grief may have been endured, it is enough that the lesson is learned, it is enough that we have progressed for this is the eternal mandate of Mind. We should carry into the future only that which is ennobling, inspiring and constructive.
If the past has taught anything it has taught the futility of trying to run the universe with the feeble intelligence of finite minds. Again and again we are brought back to the fundamental proposition that the universe is self-existent and is run by the propulsive action of its own untiring energy. Perhaps the greatest lesson which we have to learn is the lesson of faith, faith in the good, the true and the beautiful. While the sun sets on falsehood and the night closes in on mortal strife that which is true endures forever.
The temple of Faith must be entered through the gateway of understanding; on either side of this gateway stand the pillars of love and reason symbolizing the out-pouring of Spirit and the government of Law.
Faith is not a blind belief, its language is not a child crying in the night; it is the voice of truth shouting in the wilderness of human superstition and proclaiming its own intuitional perceptions.
True faith is built on the foundation of immutable law and through love carries with it the atmosphere of eternal givingness while reason justifies itself and establishes the mind on the only certain foundation, the Truth which is, is ever self-evident to those who perceive it.
Reading the pages of human evolution we watch the gradual ascent of humanity from the first unconscious, upward glance to the state wherein we now live and we note that it has been a continual progression, a consistent growth, a slow steady but certain advancement. Nature has not forced itself upon humanity but has attended the way, ready and willing to do our bidding whenever and wherever we have understood its laws. Things undreamed of in prehistoric times are today an essential part of everyday life, this through the agency of natural forces, unknown to our ancestors. Despite crime, pestilence, famine, tidal wave and flood, despite human avarice, greed, lust and cupidity the world has progressed and judging the future by the past, it will still continue to progress. The world is today more unified, more compassionate, more solicitous for the welfare of the human being than at any period in history. Life is easier and all have greater opportunities than ever before. It seems as though there were an urge behind all things forever pushing onward and upward and the path of human experience is unquestionably leading to the gateway of good.
Having learned the lesson of the past, having forgotten its failures, its doubts and its fears, let us carry with us into the future only that which is abiding that upon which the sunshine of eternal truth can never decline.
We are each on the pathway of experience, ever ascending, ever progressing, ever unfolding, ever increasing in knowledge and wisdom. Each person is an individualized center of God-consciousness and the Divine Urge, inherent in all things, is the cause of our progress. As we cannot compute the infinity of numbers so we cannot fully anticipate the possibilities of man. This possibility becomes a probability only as we allow the Divine currents to flow through us, the eternal mind to inspire us and the eternal loving kindness to stimulate our actions.
True religion is as essential to the spiritual nature of each person as food is to our physical well being. No person lives who is not religious. The religion of the future will be one of faith because it will be based upon a scientific understanding of the subtle laws of mind and Spirit which govern all things. Passing through the gateway of love, guided by reason, we enter the temple of Faith and meet a new experience; our true relationship with the Creator, the unity of all life.
The future religion will be free from fear, superstition and doubt and will ask no one where God may be found. For the “secret place of the Most High will be revealed in the inner sanctuary of each person’s own heart and the eternal God will sit enthroned in each mind. We can know no God external to that power of perception by which alone we are conscious of anything. God must be interpreted to each person through that person’s own nature. Who would know God, must be as God, for the One who inhabits eternity finds Its objective dwelling in Its own creation. Standing before the altar of receptivity in the temple of Faith one learns that one is an integral part of the universe and that it would not be complete without us. That native faith within, which we call intuition is the direct impartation of Divine Wisdom through us. Who can doubt its gentle urges or misunderstand its meaning. The Divine face is witnessed by all and in the silent moments of contemplation one merges with the whole and no longer guesses but knows.
The temple of Faith is built on an elevation higher than the range of finite vision. We must climb if we would view the length and breadth of reality. The Infinite will not be finite, therefore the finite must expand and it is for this purpose that we study the laws of mental science.
Deep scientific research and profundity of thought have been necessary for the development of religion as a science, now we must simplify our language and hasten the explanation.
TREATMENT: I am therefore I exist; therefore I must be and know that I am employed in the business of the One who moves and works through all. Harmonious activity is expressed by my very existence and nothing can operate within or through me to hinder my Divine expression. No fear within me no lack within me. Joy and bountiful blessings alone manifest through me.
–originally published in Science of Mind Magazine, January 1928, as “Greetings to the Dawn” by Ernest Holmes. Edited here into gender neutral language for the 21st century.
