So we see the truth about our identity and about our body. Now we know, “My body is the temple of the living God. God made all that was made, and all that God made was made of God; and therefore, it partakes of the very nature of God—eternality and immortality and perfection—God made my body in His, in Its own image and likeness, in My own image and likeness. God made this form, this infinite divine form; and God made this form in the image of true being, to image forth, to show forth true identity.

Therefore my body is a manifestation, an expression, an image or reflection of the I that I am; and all that I metaphysically was taught that I am, is really the truth about my body, not about I, not about me. My body is an idea. My body is an image, a reflection, an expression. My body shows forth all that I am because my body is the I Am formed, formed spiritually, eternally and immortally. I am true identity. I am eternal identity. I am God being. I am God being me, and my body is the temple, the instrument of my activity and of my living.

This is the truth about my being, my true being, my true identity, my God being; and this is the truth about my body; and this thought which is coming through me, this idea, this expression, this is the Holy Ghost, the Christ. This is the communion between God, my true identity, and my body. This is the inner communion with God. This is my inner communion or Holy Ghost with God. I really am; all that God is I am, and my body shows forth this infinite harmony and perfection of that which I am, and it eternally shows forth that which I immortally and eternally am.

And this truth, which I am declaring, is my communion, is my inner at-one-ment, is my inner recognition of attunement and so we have God and body, then we have Christ, the revelator of the truth about God and body, Christ the revelator, Christ the attunement or at-one-ment, Christ the communion, that which reveals the oneness of I, my true being, my true identity and my eternal form. Christ is the revelator. Christ is the comforter. This is the great comforter, this communion, the secret of my true identity and of my immortal being and body—this is the true comforter. This has come to be with us forever. Forever means not until death do us part. This comforter has come to be with us forever, and there is no other comforter. There is no other truth that can remain with us forever because there is no other truth that will give us life everlasting. There is no other truth that will let us live forever except the truth that I am the truth, except the truth that I am divine being, except the truth that I am immortal and eternal now. Only that truth can be a comforter forever, for only that truth can reveal the foreverness of our life.

As against this spiritual truth, there is that form which we see in a mirror. There is that which we call the expressions of nature: trees, flowers, vegetables, fruits. These are not the spiritual being or body. These are the concepts that we humanly entertain of being and body. No one has ever seen a potato because a potato is spiritual; and a potato can only be seen with a spiritual consciousness. What we behold as a potato is our concept of potato. No one has ever seen a rose or an orchid. These are spiritual entities. These are forever identities in the divine consciousness which I am, and I can behold them only in my period of inner communion and illumination. But what I behold with my eyes represents a concept of these realities.

Now, it is for this reason that any attempt through spiritual work, to change these concepts outside, any attempt to reduce fevers or remove lumps must inevitably result in failure. Why? Because after you’ve changed a concept, all you’ve got is an improved concept. You still are not dwelling in or with reality. Even if you could make an empty orchard a full one, you still have attained nothing, because tomorrow it can be empty again. Even is you could restore every physical body on earth to health, you’re doing nothing because the next day most of them are going to be sick with something else or at least they’re going to be a day older.

That is why—even if we could walk around with a magic wand and tell everybody in the hospitals to jump up and walk, it would accomplish nothing. That is why many of the healings that we give to our friends and relatives are meaningless, have no value, because all we’ve done is change a state of ill health into one of good health for them; and we leave them right at the same place in consciousness to go and get sick again tomorrow, and sometimes we make life very difficult for them because we have emptied them out of one error in order to make room for seven more to come in. We have given them a physical healthy body so that now they can go out and get it into seven times more devilment; whereas if they were left in their sick body or sinful body, they, too, could do as we are doing—evolve out of it through a change of consciousness.

You see, the only permanent health and the only permanent wealth that can come to us is through evolving out of our present state of consciousness into the higher or true state of consciousness. If a man were living by theft, and you gave him a life income, you would not stop him being a thief even though he never stole anything anymore. You haven’t changed his consciousness. You’ve merely made it unnecessary for that consciousness to operate, for the time being at least. If you could restore health to everybody on the face of the earth, you would be doing nothing for them except giving them a little temporary painlessness, but if through this truth you can change the consciousness of an individual so that it evolves into the realization of its true nature and being, then the thief says, “How foolish to steal when all that the Father hath is already mine and all I have to do is stay in bed until somebody brings it to my back door and unloads it for me.”

Just wait, wait, patiently wait, as Burroughs has told us; and it will come to us. It will come to us. It has to come to us. It has to come to us; there is no other way. There is no other way, if we can be patient, if we can be patient. Do I have that here? I hope [Joel turns pages, looking for reference.] This is John Burroughs. Many of you are familiar with it:

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Whater’ the storms of life may be;
Faith guides me up to heaven’s gate,
And love shall bring my own to me.

Ah, you see? It is ever so, that all that God is I am; and the moment that I rest and relax in that truth, I give to God the divine love, the opportunity to let flow to me that which is mine but that which I have blocked by attempting myself to get it, to achieve it, to acquire it.

You see, the I there becomes a devil; the I that seeks, the I that tries, the I that strives, the I that is a go-getter, the I that is a planner and a schemer. That I interferes with the I that I am, bringing me my own.

There is no need for that word I in our vocabulary—the I that strives, the I that seeks, the I that does. There is only room in our being for the I that is, the I that recognizes that all that God has is mine; that all that God is, I am. That I, then, rests serene, waits and lets life reveal itself, lets God disclose Itself, lets the harmony of eternal being appear; but you see, mental work prevents that; mental work stops all the divine forces from operating—in our experience. It doesn’t stop the divine forces operating, because they’re always operating for those with open consciousness, but they surely stop them operating in our experience, the moment I attempts something, the moment I desires something.

I have said in some of our recent classes, desire is sin; and many of you wonder why I say that, when Mrs. Eddy has said that desire is prayer. Well, of course, Mrs. Eddy was right, because when Mrs. Eddy said desire is prayer, she assumed that you knew that she meant desire for God is prayer. Above all people, she knew well that desire for automobiles or houses or marriages or divorces or children was not prayer. She knew that the only one, true desire is a desire for God. That desire is prayer—a desire for an awareness of God, for a realization of God, a desire to know God whom to know aright is life eternal.

That desire is prayer, but all other desire is sin. The desire for a home and the desire for marriage and the desire for companionship and the desire for children and the desire for harmony and the desire for beauty—all of this is sin. Why? Because in the fulfillment of one’s desire for God, all these things are added unto us; and the attempt to acquire them without the acquisition of God is and constitutes the sin.

Someone, somewhere said if you had God and nothing else…no…“If you had God and all there is in the world, and if you had only God and nothing else in the world, you would have the same.” Yes, because God is all inclusive, and so to acquire God, to attain Godhood, to attain Christhood, to attain the realization and demonstration of God means the attainment and demonstration of all there is. But to seek even one thing separate and apart from God is sin. It’s a sense of separation.

That is why metaphysics has failed in the degree that it has failed. Only those have succeeded with it who have seen through its highest spiritual life to the realization that one must seek God alone.

All others who are demonstrating supply, demonstrating place, demonstrating positions, demonstrating a practice, demonstrating a student body—they must all ultimately fail; even though some through willpower will have a temporary success. But in the end all must fail, because there is no such thing as a permanent demonstration, except the demonstration of Christhood, in which all things are included.

Now let us remember this, because of our various metaphysical backgrounds—from this moment on:

I am. I am being. I am life eternal. I am true being. Thou seest me thou seest the Father that sent me, for I and the Father are one. All that God is, I am; All that the Father hath is mine.

Number two:

My body is the image and likeness of Me. My body is the manifestation of Me, of the I that I am.