down she said a "great wave of peace and contentment came over her." In her heart she had the consciousness of love and protection even now. At the thirtyfourth floor the elevator stopped and a young man who was very ill got into the elevator. Almost at once he folded up on the floor, unconscious. The elevator operator knew him since he had an apartment in the building; and the nurse and operator together got the man back to his apartment, into bed, and sent for the house-physician who said that the nurse had done exactly the right thing. In about an hour the man regained consciousness and sent for his own physician who wished to assign a nurse of his own choosing to the case. But the patient insisted on having the nurse who had helped him from the elevator, and kept her in attendance on him until he was fully recovered. Just about six months later patient and nurse were married.
PUPIL: That was certainly a lucky break for her, that she should take just that elevator, at that time. That seems to me like drawing the lucky number on bank-night at the theatre. Of course someone always wins but there is no certainty about it, is there?
MASTER: Really the two positions are not at all parallel; they are not even similar. With the nurse it was not luck at all. Deliberately, consciously, in faith, she had plugged into a circuit of great power within herself, the circuit of Universal Power that we call God, or Life and which did produce a perfect reciprocity of feeling and a certain sense of security, protection, provision, companionship In other words she deliberately "initiated a train of causation directed to her individual purpose," to quote Troward, just as you would attach the cord to your electric-iron if you wished to press clothes. There was no luck in the matter whatsoever; it was purest science manifesting, as it always will and does, in answer to a strong desire scientifically placed. Whether it is plugging in to a circuit of electric energy or tuning in with the Creative Life Principle the procedure is exactly the same.
PUPIL: I am beginning to see the light. But the case you have just told me about still seems rather spectacular and unusual.
MASTER: That is because you have not trained the objective quality of your mind to know that it can always trust the Intelligent Creative Spirit of Life within yourself.
You are letting preconceived ideas, and shallow and false ones, take precedent in your mind over pure, scientific Principle.
You do not feel that you need to know the principles of electricity before you can use your vacuum-cleaner. All we know about electricity is gleaned from what we see it do. The same thing applies to Life. The innermost principles of Life will always remain a profound mystery. But one can, and should, live life to the full in the self and love it.
PUPIL: I am wondering if the nurse "lived happily ever after" with her unusually-acquired husband. And did they have the home and the children she so much desired?
MASTER: The couple have lived very happily together for a number of years now and do have a comfortable home and three children. I shall explain more of that later. The secret of living life and loving this:
First, your feeling towards the livingness of life in you, as well as in all life everywhere, should be to recognize life as Intelligent and to know that when this Intelligence is working through you it does not change its essential nature. It has always been a receptive Power, that is amenable to suggestion, and it is always responsive and creative. This is the basis of Troward's meaning in his words which I use for my own favorite affirmation, and which, quoted, is this: "My mind is a center of divine operation. The divine operation is always for expansion and fuller expression; and this means the production of something beyond what has gone before, something entirely new, not included in past experience though proceeding out of it by an orderly sequence of growth.
Therefore since the Divine can not change its inherent nature it must operate in the same manner in me; consequently in my own special world, of which I am the center, it will move forward to produce new conditions, always in advance of any that have gone before." Once you really plug your individual consciousness into the great power of the Universe the above will be your line of thinking. You will involuntarily look to the Life-Principle in you, not only as the only Creative Energy but also as a directive Power.
That is you will let God determine, through your conscious mind, the actual forms and courses which the conditions for its manifestations will always take in your own individual world. Do remember always that the Originating Spirit of Life (of your life, too) is forever a forming Power. It is for this reason that we should use such great care in the selection of our habitual thoughts and feelings - for create they will, and always.
PUPIL: How may I know, for example, that my true husband is being guided to me, or I to him?
MASTER: By your feeling of certainty, even though outward conditions show no sign of the fact. Still you are sure.
You feel close. You know you are protected.
You feel the influence of love all about you.
You have stimulated these special qualities of Life in your individual world by your having persistently looked to God, knowing that He does manifest in you.
Your mental attitude of faith and trust and expectancy has attracted all the joys of life. You realize that all that Life has to give is present with you now just as all that light has to give is present wherever light is.
PUPIL: Do I understand that if I live as closely as possible in the consciousness of reciprocity of feeling, and know that love is guiding, protecting and providing for me with its abundance, I can attract these qualities of life in the form of a man?
MASTER: Yes. For the house and the home feel protection, shelter, perfect harmony. For the husband feel love and joy; then live in the feeling of these things. Feeling is one of the strongest elements in Life and is also the most responsive.
Chapter 2
THE FINE ART OF GIVING
PUPIL: It seems to me that the pace you are setting here is going to be rather severe discipline for me. But since it is to be for only a few weeks, if I wish, I shall try it. If there is not a big change for the better, both inside and out, at the end of that time, I can stop. N'est-ce pas?
MASTER: Yes, but please do not enter lightly upon this study. And do not seek to cultivate an acquaintance with God for the sake of what you will be able to get from Him. This is a tragic mistake that many people make, and which is difficult for many of them to rectify.
They seek first to get, and promise faithfully that they will then give. But in so doing they have inverted the Spirit's Law of Compensation, which is good, which is as just as it is good, and which is as immutable as it is both good and just.
PUPIL: This sounds interesting. What is this Great Law?
MASTER: The law is that first we must give! And after we have given the gett
PUPIL: But is it enough to just love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds? Must we not do something about it as well?
MASTER: Certainly we must do something about it. Love without the fruits of Love is dead! If we love God, we will serve Him devotedly, faithfully, happily, continuously.
PUPIL: How best may we serve Him?
MASTER: By giving of ourselves to our fellowman! By giving of ourselves to our neighbors as unto ourselves. A scientist, one like Doctor Walter Reed for example, who gives his very life, and lovingly and gladly, in order to benefit mankind knows the true love of God.
So does the heroic nurse who ministers to afflicted mankind out of sheer love of mankind. So does the self-effacing, selfsacrificing mother, or father, or teacher, or minister.
There are many ways in which one may serve. All do not possess scientific talents, nor healing talents, nor comforting talents. But all do possess something they can give! Some who feel themselves unable to serve directly give of themselves by donating money to worthy causes, and these, too, are serving God because they Love their neighbors and therefore