CHAPTER XVI THE BEAUTY OF GOD. HE beauty of God is so sublime, it cannot be ex Tpressed by tongue or pen; neither can the artist, even though he is proficient with his brush, bring the beauty of God into expression; because it is so exquisitely sublime none save God, Himself, can express it. This He does through nature. Then we find nature is the outer expression of God and a blessing to man. A poet has well exclaimed, "If nature is but Thy garment, Lord! who can see Thy face and live?" The carnal man, whose mind is filled with the burden of care concerning his life as he lives it in his carnal sleep from the cradle to the grave, many times passes through the woods in the spring-time after the warm rays of the sun have melted the mantle of snow which has covered the ground for months and has penetrated into the crevices and melted the ice which has bound all as with chains and, with its soft warm breath caressing and caressed until the tender ferns have appeared in their spring gown of delicate green and the deep blue violets greet the sun and smile a welcome to all who pass by, and he not notice or appreciate the beauty of God which surrounds him. The soft grass soon spreads a mantle over the earth, which a short time before was barren and bleak. The trees send forth blossoms and the birds again return and sweetly chant their songs, morning and evening, to their Creator. The man whose mind is burdened with care and anxiety will most likely be so enamored with self and his cares, that he will see no beauty anywhere, even though it surrounds him on all sides. When winter has wrapped the earth in ice and snow, there is then beauty everywhere. The moutnains, with their deep canyons, streams, foothills and snow-capped peaks are embraced in beauty. The man who is asleep in the dream of care and anxiety beholds it not; but when a vibration from the Heart of God touches the Spirit of man, he soon will see there is a mantle of beauty surrounding him continuously and in every land, from the snow and ice-bound North to the far South where the sky is clear and blue and the warm sun causes tropical flowers to bloom and they fill the air with their fragrance, which are the caresses of their gratitude for the sun's blessings. The beauty of nature is God's blessing to man as he walks on nature's path and is living in the carnal concept of himself. God's Love is so great that it, like the sun's rays, finds every crevice where man may have strayed after he lost his way in the mist, of which the ancient bard speaks in Genesis. The Real Beauty of God is invisible to the unawakened man, but it is not that the wrath of God caused it to be thus. If a man lives in the far north, he feels the cold, and sees the earth covered with bleakness several months at a time; but, should he grow weary of this cold and bleakness, it is his prerogative to move to a warmer climate, even to a tropical country where he feels the soft breezes which are ladened continually with the fragrance of many rare and beautiful flowers. If he is content there, he soon forgets the cold blasts of winter and its barrenness and gratefully gathers the flowers of the tropical land. Gratitude, if permitted to express in the heart and mind, will water the Spiritual nature until the Spiritual Man will arise and become the commander. When man sees with the Spiritual or inner sight, he beholds beauty everywhere and perceives that it is the beauty of God; for as the outer, or carnal eye, sees the outer garment of God, nature, so the inner or Spiritual Eye sees the Real or unchangeable beauty of God, which remains forever invisible to the man who is living in the carnal concept of himself and the universe. With the outer eye man sees a rose, but, even as he admires it, its petals fall, its beauty is gone, and man moves on to gather another and another; but, with the Spirit Eye, man forever sees the rose, the invisible rose, which never changes though the outer rose has budded, unfolded and fallen many times. Therefore, the man who is Spiritually awakened and is filled with the Glory of God, sees with the inner eye, the Eye of Spirit. Such man sees the Spiritual Creation, the expression of God which never changes and is from everlasting to everlasting throughout the endlessness of Eternity. Thus it can be seen that man, living here upon the earth, can, after awakening from the Adam-Sleep, turn so completely toward the inner, which is the beauty of holiness,-the beauty of God, that he, through the Falsh-Lights of Truth sent from the Father, may become so en rapport with the Spiritual vibrations that he recognizes the Glory of God and grows beautiful in its Spirit. At first it seems afar, but as step by step man moves forward upon the Sacred Path he reflects the Glory of God and, as he moves deeper into the Heart of God, he will become conscious that he is filled with this glory and will see the Glory of God within and without in such vivid visions that he abides in the consciousness of the Beauty of God, making him and all his ways glorious. Then the Beauty of God is translucent to him and he, having Illumination in the mind and heart of the Omnipresence of the Beauty and Glory of God, walks upon the Sacred Path (which is invisible to carnality) through the earth among the children of men. He revels in the ecstasy of bliss, the Bliss of the Soul which has awakened and returned Home. The first effort of the awakened Soul is to search to find out God. The Soul, when once it is awakened and has broken the chains of the carnal sleep, will never be satisfied until it reaches the Christ-Light which leads to the Christ-consciousness within man,-that Real Self which . God caused to become manifest in "His image and likeness" and which never changes. The Spiritual Eye of man sees the Real Man who is never changed by any expression of change which may take place in the natural or outer man; even so the real rose is not disturbed or changed, though the petals fall and the outer rose passes into nothingness. Though again and again this rose-garment is woven and worn and fades, passing away, the spirit of the real rose remains and is beautiful at all times to the Spiritual Seer who beholds with the inner vision. It is thus the Spiritual Sight sees man. As man looks at the beauty of nature and revels in it, let him recall the greatness of God's beauty which lies just beyond the curtain in the Glorious Light which the eye of the natural man cannot pierce. "The wisdom of God is foolishness to the AdamMan." When Adam heard the Voice of God in the garden in the cool of the evening, calling, "Adam, where art thou?" the carnal mind which was forming in man's consciousness answered, "We are naked" "and have hidden ourselves and we are making garments that we may clothe our nakedness." Man has been busy making coverings for himself ever since that evening in the long ago. Some are as busy now as then, weaving their mantle of carnality around them. But some there are, and it is only a few compared to the great number, who have awakened from the carnal sleep which began to overcome them in the Garden of 259 Eden and retraced their steps over the winding path and have arrived at the manger where the Young Child lies, wrapped in swaddling-clothes and received the Christ and thereafter pressed onward upon the Path. Perhaps many are now consciously traversing the labyrinth of God's Glory and are endeavoring to assist others that they may receive the same blessings. The beatitudes of the Soul,-none can tell but those who perceive them. The Spiritually awakened and Spiritconscioused man sees in the Glory of God His great beauty, which transcends all visible beauty, it is so vital. Should he look steadfastly toward heaven, which is Harmony, Love and Perfection, he will see the imperfect in the outer form of man, such as disease, pain and old age disappear and the Real Man, "The image and likeness of God," become evident. God's glory is so great, His Love so strong, His Beauty so magnificent, that He is ever ready to flood the outer concept with the evidence of His Presence. It is then that man finds himself healed of every infirmity. When man grows weary of the clouds, fog and damp mists of earth and endeavors to pierce the gloom, God in all His Glory and Beauty is waiting to respond. When God responds to any cry, harmony, health and peace are realized in expression. God is not responsible for man's being in the fog and mist of carnality, where he sees only nature in expression, where he knows man only from the cradle to the grave. Mists arise over the lowlands, when the sun's warm rays overshadow it. The sun shines, but the mist is the result of nature's law. Through natural law the mist is consumed by the sun's bright rays. So, in God's Eternal Law, the carnal concept of man will be consumed by the Eternal sun, the Son of Righteousness, which is God Himself in manifestation. When God reposed, He was impersonal and unmanifest. When He expressed, He became manifest in form and the Universe and systems of universes and man, |