ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

JENNIE H. CROFT.

86. I notice in the SUNDAY SCHOOL QUARTERLY which you publish that you give a meaning to words which I can find nowhere else. For instance, you say Saul means demanded, the will; Paul, little, the regenerated will; Damascus, violence; Jerusalem, city of peace; hand, power; foot, understanding, etc. Will you tell me where I can get these interpretations? - A SUBSCRIBER.

We first take the meaning of the words as given in the Bible Dictionary, Concordance, Emphatic Diaglott and Hitchcock's Analysis of the Bible, and any standard dictionary giving the meaning of proper names, and get at the idea the words convey originally. Then we take these meanings in connection with the portion of the Bible under consideration into our silent communion with God (the Spirit of Truth within) and there we are shown the symbolical interpretation and its application to the case in hand.

87. How may I obtain the metaphysical meaning of dreams? -N. M.

So far as we know, no metaphysical dream-book has been compiled, nor is there any authority upon the subject, save that one supreme authority upon all subjects Infinite Intelligence. To receive illumination upon any point, it is necessary to enter into that state of conscious oneness with the Spirit (Infinite Intelligence), which is beyond the mental action called reasoning, and there it will be given us, as in a flash of light, that knowledge for which we seek. The Spirit leads and teaches us often through dreams, and when their symbology in interpreted to us by and through communion with this same Spirit, then the way is open for our advance in understanding and consequent manifestation of Truth.

88. Please explain the following: "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."-(Psa. 90: 12.) - MRS. E. R. S.

This passage from our Scriptures has been embodied in the burial service of the Church, and has

been thought of as teaching that "our days" are limited, and that we must strive to attain wisdom before time shall cease for us. We believe, however, that time has no beginning or ending, that we are now in eternity, and that we are simply to take account of, or number, each day as it comes to us as a further opportunity for the unfolding into consciousness of that wisdom which is within each man, which is the real or Divine Self of each man.

'My God, my

89. What did Christ mean when he said, God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Also why did he so bitterly mourn in the garden of Gethsemane? I infer that he did not want to give up his physical body. Am I right?

-W. P. R.

We presume our questioner means "Jesus" when he says "Christ." The Christ, the individualized Spirit of Truth, does not know bitterness or mourning, for It is beyond the things of sense. Jesus, the man, like all other men who reach the place in their spiritual development where the sense man has to abdicate the throne of dominion, found that this was not accomplished without a struggle. It was not the giving up of the physical body, for men often face. death calmly, but it was the final giving up of the idea that the humanistic sense of life is the real life, which culminated at the cross in the surrender of that idea, and the acceptance of the Spiritual as the only life. The events in the life of Jesus are typical of the steps which each individual soul experiences in its upward progress. Each has his Gethsemane, his Calvary, his Resurrection and Ascension, but it is all in the realm of consciousThe cross is the place in consciousness where the mortal and spiritual ideas cross, and the mortal is crucified or put away, and Spirit reigns. Then follows man's resurrection from the thraldom of erroneous ideas and his ascension into that highest plane of consciousness where he realizes his oneness with Spirit, or God. This is done by the Christ alone. The faculties of the mind (the disciples who fell asleep in the garden) cannot aid here although they have their part in the resurrection. The mortal feels that

ness.

it is forsaken, and makes a despairing cry before that illusion is given up, but peace comes with the consciousness that the victory is won, and we may then say "It is finished."

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.

Two years ago the 28th of December we were forced up against the proverbial stone wall without a wicket to get through or a ladder to climb over it (to all appearances). Then came in the promises of God, and the little faith that had to grow a long time to gain the size of the mustard seed in my case. I find even a little could do much, and had the power to hold while the mountains of lack, doubt, fear and inharmony have been moving, and they have all to go. The joys this teaching brings into one's life are beyond count, the love of God for us and our love for Him. Three years ago I went into a meeting just to see what it was like, and there I was taught to find my Christ, and now my happiest moments are when I can lead some other inquirer to learn "the Way, the Truth, the Life." Many have come, and none that I know have ever turned back. To be sure,

I have had many downfalls, but always after stronger, uplifting, and each time more knowledge of how to gain the mastery. I sometimes want to proclaim this great joy in my heart from the housetops so as to be heard more easily by all and to reach all. I don't go into my closet for silver nor gold, for I know all that the Father hath is mine in love of God's love. want to realize fully what that means, great riches, the greatest riches, the pearl of great price is mine. Christ keep me humble and faithful that I may enter that door that no man can shut. - M. M.

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One of the greatest obstacles in the way of our advancement in the higher life is the universal desire to superintend personally the results of our affirmations. We are very much inclined to think that we are a littte more capable of "bossing" the job than any one else. Supposing we suddenly find that we are under the bondage of illness; we know that by using the knowledge we have of our oneness with

Omnipresent health, and holding this thought persistently, we will, by the inevitable law of Spirit, rise triumphant over this bondage in saying that we know this. I refer to those of us who have attained to this knowledge, and, thank God, there are a great many. But we are quite apt while holding this thought, or figuratively speaking, keeping one eye upon it to keep the other one employed in watching anxiously for results as if we were apprehensive of some hitch in the spiritual law, which, if not under our constant surveyance, would cause a complete failure of the desired result. Now, this watching for results is the very essence of doubt. "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, ""Let not that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord." If we expect to gain the object of our desires, we must attend strictly to our own business, which is to "be still and know" that it must come. We are to take no thought of how. Let us then start with a new determination from this time to do with our might what our hands find to do," (and surely to hold steadfastly the thought that any perfect gift is ours, in direct opposition to the evidence of the senses, which have enslaved us so long, is as active doing as we can do), and to know that the results are in perfectly capable hands. In this way we will achieve victory after victory until every foe is vanquished, and Christ in us is Lord indeed. - LILLIAN B. THURSTON.

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I want to write you a statement that I make over and over when a thought of trouble from any cause comes, and I persist in saying the words till the troubled thoughts give way to the Truth:

All things are working together for good.

All things are working and work as they should;

All things are working, and work as you would

Have them to work when they are working for good.

When so much was being published about breathing exercises the following words came to my thought

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.

and I found that when repeating them, a deep, full breath would come in response, and no effort was put forth:

Life, life, life! I breathe it in the air,
For God is life, and God is everywhere.
Life, life, life! in it there is no care.

Sin, sickness, death, have place nowhere;
For life is God, and life is everywhere,

And in Life's perfect fountain all have share.

As I took the wrapper from the December UNITY, I opened and read the first words that presented themselves to me and they were the ones that answered the Subscriber's question as to what she should do regarding her husband who had not reached the understanding to which she had attained. It seemed to me a very wise and helpful reply.

Sincerely yours,

MRS. R. B. B.

All goes to show that the Soul in man is not an organ, but it animates and exercises all organs; is. not a function, but uses these as hands and feet; is not a faculty but a light; is not the intellect or the will, but is the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our Being in which they lie — an immensity not possessed and that cannot be possessed. ***We know that all spirtitual Being is in man. *** There is no bar or wall in the Soul where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, We lie open on

begins. The walls are taken away.

one side to the deeps of spiritual nature, to the attributes of God.- EMERSON in Over Soul.

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'Stop being content to grovel in the enjoyment of the senses. Man is a creature of the air, and should claim his inheritance. He need not die in order to visit other planets. Yes, the white eagle hath not wings like unto the Man Regenerate."

Claim the good, for as you claim so will you receive."