Nicol C. Campbell
My Path of Truth
The School of Truth
Johannesburg, 2nd ed., 1954.
[42] If you look at us human beings and judge us according to appearances you will agree, I think, that we are a very sorry lot. Wherever you go, no matter whom you meet, you seem to find discord of some sort--misery, poverty, disease, misunderstanding and hatred.
For twenty years, I have been trying to analyse the power we call Love, to analyse God, not from my own human standpoint but from the point of view of people with whom I come into daily contact, trying to assess, as far as my limited mind is able, the spiritual side of my own nature and this power of Divine Love.
I wonder at times, if perhaps it is only wishful thinking on my part, if it is only because I want to make excuses for my own omissions and commissions that I sum up God, as I do, as Love.
If we judge ourselves in relation to the material conditions associated with us, we do not amount to much, but the more I progress--I do not mean spiritually--the more I advance in my seeking to prove this power of God as Love, the more I substitute for the bias of my own thinking the will of God in my life, the more of health and happiness seems to flow into me and through me.
[43] When Christ told us that God was Love, He did not mean that God is a personality, some anthropomorphic being up in the sky that loves you and me, He meant the very word Love is God, and that, as a father pitieth his children, so does this infinite power that we call God pity us, whether we are good or bad, black or white, rich or poor.
This power, I conclude, from my own experiences and from the many hundreds that you have related to me and to other members of the School, has only one mission, not that of teaching us to find the consciousness of God, but that of pressing into our hearts, minds, bodies and affairs His own fulfilment. Therefore when people ask me what is my conception of God I say, 'To me God is Something so infinite, so beautiful, so perfect that in spite of myself--my waywardness and mistakes--as long as I trust Him, He will be concerned only with filling Himself full in my consciousness as peace and happiness, and the manifestation of whatever else I may need.'
I know how difficult it is for some of you to believe in this infinite Power of Love. You have so many problems that confront you; perhaps your son or your daughter takes the wrong path, you see maybe your husband, or your wife doing the things that should not be done, all kinds of unhappy problems are presented to you and you pray, I really believe, sincerely and earnestly, for release from them.
I know that everyone of you, who comes to this School, although you may not be conscious of it, comes with a sincere desire to find fulfilment, to find God as a [44] present help to find within or even outside yourselves, something that will take care of you, help you, guide you and make you do the right thing. How often have you not said to me, 'If only I could give up this or that!', 'If only I had the will power to accomplish such and such a thing!', 'If only I had the strength of purpose to act thus and so, how grateful would I be!'
Whence come those desires? Again and again I have asked myself from where springs that longing for mastery? It comes from within, does it not? It is God Himself, the Spirit of Love, that is of 'too pure eyes' to behold your iniquities and mine, a Spirit trying to find some way to express some measure of outlet, so that you may have the peace, love, companionship, and understanding that you are entitled to, and that is the fulfilment of all of your desires.
How many of us, however, really trust Him? How many can say, as Job did, "Though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust Him"? He was diseased, he had lost his wife, his family, everything he owned, all that the human heart cherishes, and yet he could make that statement and mean it. Can you sincerely say that you can do likewise?
Job was only an example, he was not a man, he was a symbol of human nature, an illustration of the wheel of fortune functioning in your lives and mine, and, if we can read that allegory, if we have the courage to say, "Though the Lord--the Law--slay me, yet will I trust in Him," we shall not be required to give up anything, [45] we shall not need to make any sacrifice, because, as we find out later in the story, not only did he recover that which he previously had, but he received a hundred-fold more. That is how God blesses you and me if we have the courage to trust Him.
To me the approach to God is a very simple thing. I know that one can study hundreds, even thousands, of books on metaphysics, I realise that every individual has his own interpretation of God, his own conception of the Entity that brought him into manifestation, I recognise that there is not one human being who sees God as his fellow man sees Him, feels Him, or knows Him, but I speak for myself. I am an ordinary man and I find that by the exercise of trust, of simple faith, all my worries, my burdens, and my problems are taken off my shoulders.
I find that I do not need to read all kinds of books to find the Kingdom of God, for His Kingdom is not to be found therein--not in The Path of Truth; nor in any other magazine; these contain at best only information relating to the Kingdom, but It, Itself, none of them can reveal.
The Kingdom of Love is within you and within me, and I can tap its resources to an unlimited extent, but, since only like will attract like, these will be unable to flow through my life, body, and affairs if I am filled with criticism, condemnation, resentment, or bitterness.
If you wish to find God by the hard road, you are at liberty to do so; you may approach Him in whatever manner you desire, but the cost of the effort may be great.
[46] It seems a waste of time to take a long by-path to God, when there is the track from the mind to the heart, a straight highway from information to knowledge, from fear to faith.
If I take everything I have ever read, analyse it and find that it gives me nothing more than the knowledge that God is Love, and that that Love is not an intangible commodity far up in the sky, I have learned a Truth. We live, we move, and we exist in the presence of that Love. Whenever I call upon It, in that moment It has answered, if I but call in love. The key to the Kingdom, the key that will unlock my heart and open the floodgates of this Divine Love is in myself, it is simple faith.
No matter who you are, where you go, what you do, what you see, or through which channel you try to go to God, you will still have to take the route of faith and love and you will have to travel it as a little child for only as such may you enter in. That is all that you and I, as human beings, are, yet wrapped up within us, and within every individual in the world, irrespective of class, colour, or creed, is the principle of Love.
This is the harmony that keeps the universe running smoothly, in an orderly manner, that allows only peace to flood our lives. It is we who are out of tune. Life is beating at a certain tempo, on a particular tone of Love, trying to draw us up by the urge of our own inner desires, but we refuse. We want our own way, but nothing can change the chord of creation, even God cannot change His own vibrations, His Love, His Fulfilment, already manifest. We have to strike that same chord, the key of Love in our hearts, and the second we do so, by [47] sincerely desiring to express love, at that instant we shall become one with Universal Love and all mankind, for every single fellow-being is a necessary part of our lives, our happiness, our success, and our fulfilment. I can no more have success and fulfilment without you than you can have these without your neighbour; we are all cogs in the one great scheme of life, and if one cog goes wrong, we are all out of trim, unbalanced, and the whole machine is useless, it breaks down.
At this moment Love is saying to you and to me: "Come in! Come in and be like Me. Be of too pure eyes to see iniquity. Come in and see, not the shadows in the lives of other people, because you have a beam in your eye, but enter and see clearly, judge 'righteous judgment'. Keep that eye, that is My Eye, single to the good, and all the shadows in the lives of those who bring you unhappiness, or try to do so if you accept it, will disappear, for you have lit the light in your own hearts and it will shine on them, swallowing up all their darkness in its radiance."
And still you ask me: "What is this love going to bring forth?" Many people say: "Of course, it is very nice to love people, very commendable, but what do I get out of it? The cost of living is increasing and increasing, what I need is more money with which to pay my bills! I need more harmony in my home, I cannot stand the conditions there any longer. I need more health so that I can live and make a living! What will love do for me with regard to these matters? How shall I profit? I am prepared to accept it only with certain provisions, certain qualifications."
[48] This is quite in order as far as God is concerned. You can have your reservations and limitations, they will affect none but yourself, but shall I tell you what you will gain if indeed you start to love?
First of all fear will be eliminated from your consciousness, it will become an unknown factor in your life. It will be like walking past a heater, you will feel the radiations, but these will not affect you, the warmth will be all around you but it will not burn you, and in much the same way you will perceive the possibility of fear, but it will not enter into, nor contaminate, your consciousness.
And when fear, which is but a negative form of faith, goes, what will take its place? You will find peace beginning to enter your heart. You will begin to realise that you are no longer so afraid of outer conditions. You will be able to face them, and you will not know why. They will not have changed one iota, they will still be there--poor, miserable, sick, unhappy conditions--but you will be able to cope with them. Peace, harmony, and love will begin to enter, to flood your being, and you cannot, you know, have two things in the same place at the same time. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect faith, which is the expression of love, brings fulfilment, success, happiness, adjustment in your affairs, more supply, a greater abundance and all good.
That is what you will get out of it if you are prepared to put the requisite measure of love into your life. You can, literally, love yourself out of any condition; love will open any and every door. Love will take the drunkard from the gutter and lift him to a consciousness [49] of peace and freedom. It will dissolve the most chronic disease into its native nothingness, and, as light dissolves darkness, so will Love act upon hate and discord and banish them from your daily living, not just for some few miniutes, but for all time. Often you will fall short, I am fully aware of your limitations, exactly as I am conscious of my own, you will stumble many times, many hurdles will impede you, obstacles will trip you on your way, but you will get through.
We of the School do not want to feel that we have a number of automata running backwards and forwards trying to find God outside themselves, we want to train members who can say: "I am qualified, I am free! I no longer need to rush to teachers for help. I have discovered the Kingdom of which you have taught me. I recognise that I am one with an ever-growing family of particular people, who love and trust God, and have found fulfilment." Problems, they still have, but the illumination thereof, with its attendant peace and all good, has come to pass for them, and harmony now reigns in their lives.
We are merely interpreters, passing on information, telling you what God has done for us as individuals and as a group, explaining to you in the plainest and simplest language what you can get out of life if you are prepared to put love into it.
We show you that every single burden, that you now carry in your hearts, your bodies, or your affairs, is a load of nothingness before this power of Love which is only another name for concord, and ensures harmonious [50] relationships between your minds, your hearts, and people outside, external conditions.
That is what God has established for me, and that is the only way in which I can pass Him on to you. I can but tell you how I find Him in my own personal life.
I wonder with amazement why He blesses me as much as He does, why, in spite of my humanity with its omissions and commissions, this Love continues to pour Itself out upon me, not in any sentimental way, but as an Essence that is goodwill, a Shield that screens me from all the nagging conditions that tear one to pieces mentally and emotionally.
I have often overhead people saying to me, 'He is quite mad', and my inner answer is that I would far rather be mad--be happy, be at peace, having fulfilment and all good--than be sane, and at the same time miserable, sick, and consumed with lack and longing.
Each one must find God in his own way.
We are a School that teaches you Love. If that sounds like sentimental nonsense to you, do not come, you are free to do as you think best, but, as far as we are concerned, this is the only way we know!
This is the only way that we can teach, and we shall continue in this manner, for we can say, with absolute faith, gratitude and humility--after seventeen years that the School has been going--that this is how we have found God, this is what He has meant to us and what He has become, not to hundreds, but to thousands and tens of thousands of students throughout the country.
Thousands of letters come in to us from near and far. Do you imagine that you, or your problems, differ [51] fundamentally from those writers and the situations that they have to face?
Is God some meaningless Being outside of yourself just because you cannot see Him, feel Him, or touch Him?
Every time your heart beats with happiness, it is the beat of Love, of God Himself, that will bring you more than all your intellect can ever offer you. Your faith, based on Love, will give you something that not all the intellectual knowledge in the world--founded as it is on limited human experience--can provide for you.
We point out to you a simple path, a wide road with no stairs, a way on which you will find many fellow-travellers, helpful companions, not competitors, not people anxious to knock you down, to criticize you and to destroy you, but a highway where every hand held out to you is the hand of God, a hand of love, uplifting you, guiding you, leading you on.
You will never want for sympathy, you will never lack supply, you will never be short of peace or happiness, on the contrary, you will have fulfilment for Love is no illusion, It is living Substance, the substance of Life, of God Himself.
Now, at this present moment It fills you full to overflowing with joy and understanding, with every good gift, with all you need and could ever wish for, with God's rich bounty, to share and to spare.
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