Now here is one of our major points in this work that our relationship with God is not only a sacred one, but it is a secret one. It is in absolute, hidden secrecy in the depths of our own inner being that God reveals Itself to us, and there must be long periods of quiet reflection, of quiet inner peace, of a separation from this world, so that we can commune within us. And then, we must be very careful that we do not announce it, even to those who are to benefit by it, since every announcement for it is a direction towards our self, with a small s-e-l-f. It is either that we may be praised of men or that we ourselves may praise ourselves for what we’re doing.

Be careful, because this leads to the next step, which is the really important one. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret. Thy Father, which seest in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

You see every contact or communion with God is of such a nature that it really cannot be consummated when we are outside of ourselves in the gaze of men. It is only when we’re really inside of our own being, it is only when we have cut off our relationship with man whose breath is in his nostril, with the things and thoughts of this world, it is only when we are doing nothing to be seen of men or to be praised of men, or to be rewarded of men that we actually find this inner relationship, and then find that anything we do in the withinness of our own being is known to the Father, unless it is done for the purpose of drawing attention to the self. Then, the Father knows nothing about it, because God knows nothing about this so-called self.

Then you are absolutely leaving the domain where God is the moment you draw attention to a selfhood apart from God. Now, when you understand that it is God’s Selfhood that gives alms, it is not your selfhood or mine, when you realize that it is God’s Selfhood that actually is the revelator, that which we call the healer or healing agency, when you realize that actually no man or woman on the face of the Earth, including Jesus Christ, has ever healed anybody, even of a headache, that nobody yet has ever had sufficient understanding to perform any miracle on Earth, that all of these miracles were performed by the Father within me, using as instruments those individuals who had a sufficient sense of their nothingness to enable them to be a good instrument.

And never forget that. There is no power in a man or woman, regardless of how much understanding they ever achieve. As a matter of fact, the greater their degree of understanding, the more they understand the nothingness of their power, and then they can become nothing of themselves, and let the Father within do the work.

Now then, the very moment that an individual engages in this work, in any phase of it, with anything in mind that has to do with the enriching or glorifying of themselves, be assured of this. They do not have the aid, the activity, the Presence of the Father within, because there is no way under this sun for the Father to glorify a human being. It never has happened in the history of the world; it never will happen. God’s glory is reserved only for God. God’s glory is manifest through the Son of God, which is your invisible Selfhood, not your visible selfhood, your invisible Selfhood.

And so it is that only those things that you do in secret have power. Only those things and thoughts that you have in secret are blessed with divine Grace.

Now, you’ll be surprised. I love to tell this, because it is one of my very common experiences these days and probably one of the most joyous experiences that I ever have, and that is the work that I have learned, the things that I have learned through my work with animals. I have learned this that whenever I am called upon to help a dog, or a cat, bird that that animal knows me forever after. I have learned this. Now, I’m born and brought up in New York City right here on the pavement. I know nothing about cats and dogs. I’m not an animal lover, and I probably never saw a bird but a sparrow until I was in middle years, so animals have no natural attraction for me and never did have, and they still don’t have, but wherever I am brought into contact with animals that relationship now is changed. And I have seen, even in being called on the phone and asked if I would treat somebody’s dog or cat, that the next time I went to their home that dog or cat immediately jumped into my lap and couldn’t be made to leave there.

Now, I’ve even had that recently with birds that they would come and sit on my shoulder after I have been called upon for help for them. You see, as long as there isn’t a human mind to refute it, we are aware of each other. We are aware of each other. It’s only the fact that we have a human mind that we have a barrier up against each other, but if that weren’t true, you would find that anything that went on in the consciousness of one would be and could be quickly known to another. I’m speaking now anything in the nature of our true Being.

We had that explained to us this summer about these boys during the war who landed on islands in the South Pacific and found that when they landed on one shore that the natives on the other side of the shore knew it within a few minutes, long before they could get to the other side, the natives were expecting them and waiting them. And we learned, just wasn’t it this summer or last summer, gosh, that the secret of it is this that, when the natives have anything to communicate to each other, they beat their drums to attract the attention. And then as soon as the natives hear that drum, they know there’s a message coming, and they just close their eyes and listen, and instantly, they receive whatever the message there is to be received. In other words, they still their human thinking capacities, and instantly their divine Consciousness is open and alert to know all that’s necessary to be known. Now that is the thing that I have observed in animals that they have that state of mind, that they instantly become aware of Truth.

The moment there is Truth in your consciousness, I know we used to have a large dog at home in Boston, and as soon as we sat down in our house to give treatment, that dog came right over and sat there, and the moment the treatments were over, it got up and walked away. Now, you watch this. You can experiment in your own home with your own pets, and you will see that very often, while you may not be able to make them obey you with the human direction you give them, because they don’t understand your language and you don’t understand theirs, that the moment you stop giving directions and hold to an inner silence, they’ll instantly know what you want, and they will do it.

Now, it is the same with us. The very moment that we stop our human thought, open our consciousness to the Divine, everything necessary flows into it, and all those who are in tune with us receive it, because they have that area of consciousness. That is very much the action of asking for help. You ask for help, and then automatically you relax yourself from thinking about your problem. In that moment that you have relaxed, you have relaxed your conscious thinking, or human mind, and opened yourself to the receptivity of the Divine. And now you can see why a silent treatment very often is more effective than a spoken one, because the spoken one you only receive in your mind, in the intellect, whereas the silent one, if it’s really an activity of Truth, you are receiving in your, through your Soul faculty.

Now, our relationship with God is exactly in that manner. I have nothing to do with any man, woman, or child on Earth. “I and my Father are one. The place whereon I stand is holy ground. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. If I go through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art there. Where thou art, I am. Where I am, thou art. I in thou and thee in me, we are one. The Father and I are one. Thou seest me, thou seest the Father that sent me,” for right here, invisible, is God visible, as probably Joel. Right here is I and the Father. And I have no need of anything but going secretly and silently within to make my contact with that inner Being or Selfhood, to come into the realization of that Presence, and then that Presence goes out before me to make the crooked places straight.

I don’t have to tell any man my need. I don’t have to tell any person my need. I don’t have to go out to advertise. I don’t have to do a thing. I must make my contact with God, and then the All-Knowing Mind fulfills my every need, even if it has to tell you over in Africa to come to New York, or even if it has to tell me to go to Africa, but in one way or another, every door is opened for me, but it’s only opened for me by the divine Mind, and it is opened by not by telling you about it, not by telling you my need, not by advertising to the world what I would like to do or be, but by going secretly and sacredly to God, and confiding myself in the divine Presence, and letting that secretly work itself out.