REPORT OP MEETING
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SUNDAY, MAY 4, I9I3 -£ t-
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915 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
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11 GOD'S GIPTS TO MA2T" .
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If I would ask you what you would desire above all things I presume I would get a variety of answers; but the majority of you would say, "Give me better understanding of myself and the meaning of Life. I want to know more about the unseen things, the spiritual things". That is what every man is secretly longing for. The most sordid money-chaser in the world to-day, if you would get at the real undercurrent of his Life, would tell you that he wants to know more about the real things of existence^ that he is not satisfied. If you don’t believe it, read the Will of the late J. Pierpont Morgan.
Uow, this is universal, because man is spiritual. That 1 the larger proportion of your nature, - spirituality. ¥ow, that
spiritual nature of you must have an expression; you must cultivate
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is, "How shall that be done"? Man should always pray; he should meditate; he should think, - and that means an interior work.
Now, the larger the scope of your meditation, the larger the results. That is good logic. We are told that the world takes a man at his own estimate of himself. In a degree that is true.
The trouble with most of us is we don't estimate ourselves large enough spiritually. We look at the outer man and think that is all.
I assure you you have a very large spiritual character. That potential spiritual man is called in Scripture "The Christ", the son of the living God; God's idea for every man.
Now, we have found that that man can be accelerated, quickened, by prayer, meditation, affirmation; in other words, by cultivating the man, that man. So, we pray at a mark. We pray with
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the understanding, and we pray with a purpose. Our prayers are not mere supplications, asking some outside king may give us these things, hut you say, "Why, those things are mine already. I have a soul consciousness; I have spirit; I arn the only begotten Bon of God, the Christ of God is in me potentially", and just realise that, and you will awaken to the truth.
How, we will take for our prayer this morning this affirmation, which is based on Truth:	"Let	thy	only	begotten Son, the
Christ, be made manifest in me; Let Thy only Son, the Christ" - not a man that lived several thousand years ago, but the Christ of God, that Divine Idea, let that be made manifest in me. Let everybody pray quietly, silently within yourself; "Let Thy only begotten son,
the Christ of God, be made manifest in me".
(Silence).
As you were instructed last Sunday, we have again to-day a lesson, not a sermon, not a lecture, "but we are a lot of children in school, and we are going to recite our lesson.
I presume you have all studied the lesson. I see you are not all here. I presume some of our students got up early in the morning and raised the curtain and looked out, and said, "It is a little threatening, and I don't think I had "better go to-day", and they are not here. They miss a whole lot. I assure that these lessons are of great importance to youj and if you are a real overcomer, you wont pay any attention to the weather. Weather is simply a circumstance, and Napoleon said: "Circumstances" - when they told him circumstances were opposed to the move he wanted to make - he said,
" C i r cuns t a n ce s
I make circumstances"!
That is exactly the condition that the real overcomer
should always overcome; What made this world?
"Circumstances? Why, I make circumstances . Why, man, man. Man makes conditions; he
makes circumstances. You ought to think about that when you consider the weather or any other thing. If you want to do a thing, go and do it, and that is a .11. Don’t pay any attention to circumstances. Go right about your work.
Our lesson t o-da y is "God ’ s Gifts to Man". As I say, i is a very important lesson. how, last Sunday was our i irst experiment in carrying on a lesson, am there was some confusion, oe-cause several answered the question at the sane time. I think we would get better results if, when you answer the question, you would stand. Make your answer audible to every one present.
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Uow, the first question for your consideration is: "What is the Fundamental Character of all God's gifts to man? What is the basis, the foundation of all God's gifts to man?
A The fundamental character of all God's gifts to man is that of Divine Ideas, Christ Ideas. They are, therefore, absolute, unlimited, Spiritual.
A Love.
A Perfection, Principle.
A They are like Himself - all Good.
MR. FILLMORE:	how,	I	would	say to you, r
metaphysics. That is, in our first lesson, but another name for a Universal Mind, and following out that Mind, and its action, or creative process"* As these lessons go on
eneriber we are studying we found that God is we are scientifically what is called "the , you will find they will
unfold. All of your answers are correct, but the first answer
given by the lady over here, was the most comp -e hen sive, in that it dealt with the Mind. How, someone else, doubtless, has an answer to that question; "What are the fundamental gifts - what is the character of those gifts?" You get at the foundation, and things will regulate themselves in your mind; you will begin to see something you never saw before.
A Faith ard works?
MR. FILLMORE:	Yes,	Faith	and	works.	How, I would say about
works, that is something that comes as a movement of certain ideas. Faith is one of those ideas, but when you follow out the Mind, you will find there is God, and ideas in the mind of God, and the manifestation of those ideas. How, someone else?
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A God’s gifts to man are his ideas, Divine ideas. Everything in the objective world resolves itself into ideas. The Trinity is Creative Hind, Ideas, manifestation. These Ideas or true gifts are brought into manifestation by the Word of God. Ideas may be likened to the steel framework of a tall building, upon which the outer covering is placed.All those ideas come up in the form of Love, Strength, Life, etc., and are the true gifts, and are for us t o work out, by our Faith and understanding, into manifestation, or into the realm of form.
A The character of the gifts is of the same character that God is. As God says, in the parable, "Son, all that I have is thine." In other words, all that I am, thou art.
HR. FILLMORE:	Then God gives all of himself to man. What is God?
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A God is Love.
A Life, Love and Liberty - all that is.
A Spirit - that is all there is.
MR. FILLMORE:	God	is	Spirit;	God is Mind; and God’s Mind is made
up of Ideas. Now, get clear in your understanding that God gives to man simply ideas, nothing but ideas; and those ideas are the foundation of all these other things. If you would write that down in your mind, and write it down in the walls of your memory, and write, it down at the foot of your bed - "The only thing that God gives me is his ideas", you would get better results than you do, thinking in, well, a confused way, as people do, "God gives this and that and the other thing". He doesn't give anything but just ideas.
You make the other things yourself out of ideas.
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That second question:	"How shall man correct his judgment
of his real nature, and that of the world about him?" How, this question implies that man has misjudged himself, and misjudged the character of the world in which he lives. He has lacked a certain light, a certain understanding of God and his relation to God.
How, the time of restitution has corner comes to every one of us, and that is where we must correct this false judgment, this looking at things in a wrong way. I would like to have your answer to that second question: "How shall we correct this seeing things through a glass darkly"?
A By awakening of the spiritual.
A Judge not thy fellows, but judge righteous judgment. Man must correct his judgment,of his real nature, and that of the world about
him, by seeing himself,as well
as all about him, from the stand
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point of the ideas hack of all appearances.
MR. FILLMORE: That is it. Now, you can straighten out yourself and your world by resolving everything into ideas. I am an idea of what? God's man. I get those ideas of Life, Love, Substance, Intelligence - all that make up the visible world, from that one
Source. Now, I must straighten my ideas out. And the only way to do that is to realize that the perfect Mind of God is manifest in me. has anyone else an answer to that? how are we to get our minds straightened out - get so we see things in their right re-lat ion?
A People have thought by studying books; but it isn't by a study of psychology and Ethics, but by a process of denial and affirmation. Deny the Adam man, the personality, the carnal mind,

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is Spirit, the offspring of God, the Christ, he must again claim the kingdom of God and the power, mastery and dominion that are a part of it. As to the world about him, he must learn not to reason or draw conclusions or formulate laws by merely observing and sensing the outer appearances of things, he must understand and look for the One Mind back of and within all forms and study the idea that gave birth or expression to the form, he should proceed as Jesus directed, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment". Man’s investigation and study of himself and the world about him must proceed from the within to the without. Man's philosophy hitherto has been formed on the mere surface of things, he has been backing up towards God all the time, and going down to ignominy and death all the time, he has trusted to his little intellect and he has failed.
MR. FILLMORE:	In	other	words,	we	must	cultivate the discerning
Spirit. Uow, this brings us to the third question:	"What power
of the Mind should first be developed?" What power in the mind? trow, we know that man has many powers or many ideas. Those, you remember, are the gifts of the Great Universal Mind. It isn't that God stands away off in Heaven, and pitches down to us Life, Love, Substance and Intelligence. God is the inter-penetrating, Om-nicient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Mind, Eminent Mind, in you all, through you all, and above you all, everywhere. How, these ideas, or these gifts of God, come to man, or are expressed by man in an order, under a law. God couldn't make man, ;nake the universe without law. And what is the first power that we should realise -
what is the first idea?
MR. 'FILLMORE:	Divine	Understanding
Someone else?
Mow, it is
good for every one of us to think about this.
A Mr. Fillmore, I will give my answer. It don't go direct along there: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting Life. " After the Love came God, or the Understanding.
MR. FILLMORE:	I	don't think that is a good answer. We see
all about us people who have large love, great sympathy, and yet, they don't make a success of life. "They love not wisely, but too well". Lack of wisdom. So, there is something that must precede Love. Love is a great harmonizing element. It is necessary. You couldn't get along without Love, and we all lack love; but Love must have something back of it, and what is that?
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A The light?
MR. FILLMORE:	The	light,	the	understanding,	just	as	was	given.
Mow, in the Creation, as given in Genesis, the very first day, or the first degree of unfoldment, was, "Let there he light" I "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was void". This refers, now, to your own mind. Every man is a creative process. Your mind is developing, unfolding, and in this unfolding process you are responsible for the different gifts of God that you express. One asks that he may have a larger faith. Well now, Faith is a good thing. You couldn't get along without Faith. It is a necessary idea, and one of the important gifts of God. It is the second. But you must have understanding; you must have the Light. So, let us remember that, in bringing forth this

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spiritual man, the real man, that we should af i. irm. fiist, L,"c^-' have spiritual understanding: "Let the Light of Spirit shine into my consciousness, that I may know how to direct these other powers , because, as you begin spiritualizing yourself, there will gradually cane to you more strength and you will have a quickening of the life in your body, and your affect ional nature will be quickened also. And these powers need a directive guiding intelligence; they need the light. That is what the Scripture calls Understanding
Spiritual Understanding.
Uow, there is really a difference between Spiritual Understanding and Intellectual Understanding. Intellectual Understanding is what you get from the world about you, but Spiritual Understanding
. I can't tell you why you
comes to you in flashes - you just know
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know, but you know, because you know, because you are made to know; because the One Mind, in which you have your being, knows, and you must know.
A Mr. Fillmore, is there a difference between Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding?
MR. FILLMORE:	Ho,	I	think	they	refer to the same thing.
A Mr. Fillmore, what is meant in Genesis, "That the Spirit of the Lord moved across the waters, and God said 'let there be light'".
MR. FILLMORE:	Divine	Mind,	of	course. God is Spirit. So, in
every moment that we make, it is our mind that brings forth the p o we r.
Dow, Do. 4:	"What	are	some	of the evidences of a new race
thought, and what did Jesus use to illustrate Spirit? What are
some of the evidences
that
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a nev; consciousness or a new race thought is coming into expression, and what did Jesus use to illustrate it, to show its character?
A -Some of the evidences of the new race thought are overcoming supposed fixed laws of air, and some of the supposed fixed law of men. Jesus used air to illustrate Spirit.
MR. FILLMORE:	This	light	that lights every man is your own in-
dwelling spirit. It needs exercising though in some of you. How, someone else give us an answer to this question.
A People in general are realizing that the air is filled with
ideas.
MR. FILLMORE:	In	other	words,	some	of the signs of a nev/ race
thought is the awakening of man to the power of mind. Men haven't
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given the mind its rightful place. They have said that there are powers outside of man, outside of Spirit ; that Nature is the real thing; that Nature develops Independent of Spirit, or independent of G-od. Now, Jesus Christ was a good teacher, and he said that this Spirit that is the moving principle in man and in the universe, is like the air. You can hear the sound, but you can't see it. You can't see the mind, and yet you see the evidences of the mind. What is it that causes you to raise your hand? Why, it is the mind, isn't it? Do you know that that power of the mind that raises the hand is unlimited? It is the dynamic force of the universe, and as men awaken to that, they are horn into what is called the new race. Now, it is the culture of this power of the mind that we are here for. We are here to bring into expression the mind of the
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Spirit ; and we know, through, following this process of thought culture, we can ac< om.plish anything we desire.
Mew, Ho. 5: "What do men know about the real character of Light"? How, in that, we are considering Light as an idea, in Divine Mind, and also as a material expression. We say: "That electric light; the light of the sun, the light of the noon".
A Very little, Mr. Fillmore.
MR. FILLMORE:	They	know	very little. They know a good deal more
than they think they do. Someone else has an answer to that, I am sure .
A. I have one in man. He may we do not know.
Light depends upon consciousness. It is the I AM
remain in darkness, or ignorance by affirming that y/e may have light or knowledge by proclaiming our
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union with, the Great Source of light, by affirming "I am light: I do know".
MR. FILLMORE:	That	is	■■ood.	Someone	else?	That i’s the way to
bring light into expression. What relation does Wisdom and what we call understanding, have to light? When you read of Light in the Scripture, what is the relation between that and understanding, Spiritual Understanding?
A They are the same.
MR. FILLMORE:	That	are	the	same. Well now, then if you are
reading in the Bible a statement like this:	"I	am the Light of the
world: Ye are the Light of the world". What word could we subfile re
stituteAfor light? Couldn't we say, "I am the understanding of the world, and you are the understanding of the world'?' Or"I am
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the understanding of Spirit, and you are it?" "I am the Wisdom of God manifest; you are the Wisdom of God manifest" . Bow, you can see that these are statements of Truth. If they are statements of Truth, why are we not in fuller realization of it? Why do we not more fully realize that we are Gods manifest as wisdom?
A Be c a us e v/e don ' t b el i eve , I p re sume .
MR. BILL].TO RE: That is it. V/e don't believe it. In other words, we haven't realized that this Light is just as Omnipresent as the air - just exactly. And that it enters man's mind like the light of the sura comes into a darkened room. You must have some windows, and the one on the inside must open the windows. Well now, how do you open the windows of your soul to Divine Light, or Divine Wisdom, Divine Understanding?
A Through affirmation.
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MR. FILLMORE:	Through	--	now	affirmations are simply to "break
down the intellectual shell with which we are surrounded, hut there is something deeper than affirmation, and that is Divine realization. I just realize within my soul that I am the active center of the One Universal Life, and that opens some of the windows; and the larger my realization, the more I can reach right out into this Great Universal Light, and see myself in my mind as its express ion, the more light I have, the more I can quicken my understanding. how you can see that this does away with the necessity of so much "Book lamin'". We don't have to be wise after the order of the schools, but you must be wise as one of the seers of Spirit. You must be wise with God's wisdom. We must know that whatever
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your education nay Toe, there is a teacher that will show you the right things if you would only open your mind; if you would only follow the Christ within you, and know that all of God's gifts are man's right here and now. This is the substance of our lesson; that all of God's gifts are mine right now; that all of the ideas of Divine Mind have been given to me, and I am,as Jesus Christ said, "the light of the world". A realization of that kind will give you a better education than any man can get anywhere in the earth. You don't have to go to colleges and spend four years, eight years, or any number of years. You can go about your daily work and commune constantly with the One Mind, and affirm that that Mind has given you Life, Love, Substance, Faith, Intelligence, Power, Strength, Eternal Life, and those things will begin to come into
your mind first.
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Then, Divine Mind comes into the mind of man first
and then it begins to express itself, or manifest itself in his
environment, in his thought, in everything that he does. But the
starting-point is always right within you. "God", Emerson says,
"doesn't came into man with caps and bells"; he doesn't come in
that artificial outer way; but he comes in the secret recesses of
the soul.
11:36 A. M.
12:07 P. M.