THE  GREAT  AWAKENING

 PART I

CHAPTER 7

You are not separate from God, but there is much in your mind that lets you think you are.  Separation is only the decision not to know yourself.  You have taught yourself to believe that you are not what you are, and you have regarded the separation as a means of breaking communication with your Father.  This communication has not been broken, but it has been made obscure.

You are not separate from your brother, nor from His Father.  Your brother's Holiness shows you that God is One with him and you.  Faith is the gracious acknowledgment of everyone as a Son of your most loving Father, loved by Him like you, and loved by you as yourself.  You see the Christ in him and he is healed, because you look on what makes faith forever justified in everyone.  Only appreciation is an appropriate response to your brother.  All his loving thoughts are true.  Everything else is an appeal for help and healing, regardless of the form it takes.  To forgive is to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you.  All the rest must be forgotten.

Faithlessness looks upon the Son of God, and judges him unworthy of forgiveness.  But through the eyes of faith, the Son of God is seen already forgiven, free of all the guilt he laid upon himself.  Faith sees him only NOW because it looks not to the past to judge him, but would see in him only what it would see in you.  What is forgiveness but a willingness that Truth be true?  Your brother is as God created him.  Why should you fear to see the Christ in him?  You but behold yourself in what you see.  There is no difference among the Sons of God.  They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness.  God's Son is One, and what is One can have no specialness.

Only honour is a fitting gift for those whom God Himself created worthy of honour, and whom He honours.  Give them the appreciation God accords them always, because they are His beloved Sons in whom He is well pleased.  You cannot be apart from them, because you are not apart from Him.  Rest in His love, and protect your rest by loving.  But love everything He created, or you cannot learn of His Peace, and accept His gift for yourself, and as yourself.  You cannot know your own perfection until you have honoured all those who were created like you.  Anger is never justified, and attack has no foundation.  Pardon is always justified, and has a sure foundation.  Let then your dedication be to the Eternal, and learn how not to interfere with it and make it slave to time.

The healing of God's Son is all the world is for.  That is the only purpose it has.  Forgiveness is the only function meaningful in time.  Look once again upon your enemy, the one you chose to hate instead of love.  For thus was hatred born into the world, and thus the rule of fear established there.  In every wish to hurt instead of heal, you choose death instead of what your Father wills for you.  Yet every instant can you be reborn and given Life again, because your Father wills that you should Live.  Each instant is a clear untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past and into the present.  And the present extends forever.  It is so beautiful, so clean, and so free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there.  No darkness is remembered, and Immortality and Joy are NOW.  How long is an instant?  As long as it takes to re-establish perfect Peace, perfect Love for everyone, for God, and for yourself.  As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven.