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Peace Within Yourself, St. John Speaks
INTRODUCTION
This book is based on a series of lectures and classes given on the inner
meaning of the Book of John in America and many other parts of the
world. In 1948 I published St. John Speaks giving the psychological lifegerm
hidden behind the words of this book. It was very popular and became
a transforming instrument, lifting the minds of students from the literal to a
higher level of meaning. Due to innumerable requests all over the world, I
have issued this revised, enlarged edition which contains the essence of my
most popular of all lectures on the Book of John.
The Bible is a book intended to teach you correct mental and spiritual
processes. The object of all the Bible parables, allegories, and discourses is
to convey spiritual truth so that man may learn to advance and grow spiritually.
In a series of lectures on the spiritual meaning behind the stories in
the Book of John in South Africa, Japan, India, and Europe on a recent world
lecture tour, I said to thousands of students, “Unless you have the inner psychological
and spiritual meaning behind the Bible, you have no Bible at all.”
Paul said,The Bible contains the congealed wisdom of the ages. A holy man in
India said to me last year that the Book of John was the most mystical of all
books of the Bible or any Bible in the world. He added that it was the most
profound work on the laws of life.
The ancient writers of the Bible were illumined men; they had three
ways of expressing their thoughts. The same word took in their pleasures–
the literal, figurative, and the hieroglyphic sense. The first two ways, that is
to say, those which consisted of taking words in the literal or figurative
sense, were spoken; but the third, which could only receive its hieroglyphic
form by means of the characters of which the words were composed, existed
only for the eyes and was used only in writing. (See The Hebraic Tongue
Restored, Fabre D’Olivet.) Through an understanding of the symbols and the
meaning of each Hebrew letter (denoting a certain state of consciousness),
man can interpret the Bible without much difficulty. Strong’s Concordance
and Young’s Concordance are used by the writer in determining the meaning
of names in the Bible.
Truth comes as a sword, for we must die to our illusions (beliefs in
merely historical Biblical characters) and awaken to the psychological significance
before man can know himself. The Bible is essentially a story about
ourselves, although undoubtedly some of the characters were factually historical.
All the stories in the Bible teach functional psychology and practical
metaphysics. Any of the historical characters, therefore, refer to attained levels
of consciousness–moods, feelings, and ideas. The carnal mind (conscious
mind, the intellect) has difficulty in grasping the things of the spirit.
This is the reason so many students of New Thought do not grow faster spiritually.
They will cling fanatically to historical characters as such and fail to
secure confidence in themselves–in their Self–The One Altogether Lovely!
They are so busy setting up outer gods that they ignore the God within.
We get nowhere in the New Thought Movement by attacking the historicity
of Jesus, Moses, Paul, etc; all this is idle speculation and a waste of
time. Why not accept “the bare bones” of historical fact (not ecclesiastical
jargon and legend), and begin clothing the bones with the flesh and blood of
metaphysical reality and wisdom? The writer believes there was a man
called Jesus who lived and performed so-called miracles of healing, but the
historical Jesus also symbolizes and personifies the Universal Principle
common to all individual men.
The Jesus of the Bible has more than one meaning. The word Joshua
is identical with the name Jesus. Joshua (Jesus) means “God is Savior,”
“God is Deliverer.” When you read the Bible, look upon Jesus as Taylor
said, “illumined reason or your knowledge of God.” It also means realization
of your desire, the solution to your problem or salvation, the God-Presence
within. Jesus symbolizes the cornerstone rejected, but which is most essential
in building the temple of God-consciousness. The realization of our desire
saves us from any predicament in the world; therefore, that is our savior.
Our own consciousness or conviction saves us. “Thy faith hath made thee
whole.”
It is never a man that saves; it is that saving state of consciousness
which works the miracle. A man with hatred in his heart finds love is his savior,
since it restores peace. Love would be Jesus–or savior–in that instance.
The truth which Jesus taught saves, not the man Jesus. The man Jesus mere
ly discovered the truth that functions in and about himself. “Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” For example, your feeling or
mood of opulence will save you from poverty.
Undoubtedly, the great mystics who wrote the Bible used the historical
Jesus as the ideal man whom every man aspires to be. They also used
him to personify spiritual and ideal states of consciousness. Instead of worshiping
men, let us increase the valuation we place upon ourselves. Instead
of worshiping Jesus as God, let us find and worship the God of Jesus. Do not
bow mentally to idols or strange gods, as your own awareness is God–the
only Living Reality.
The Gospel according to St. John (gospel–good news) should not be
studied from the historical viewpoint. It teaches you how to bring health,
harmony, and peace into your life by increased understanding of God. Let us
be asleep to the world, awaken to God, and move upward from glory to
glory, walking always in the Light.
Jesus gave us the challenge, “Be ye perfect as the Father is.” Does this
not mean that as long as we persist in and remain on the human, conscious
level, we can never cease being man? Hence we never become as God in our
respective world of body, mind, and circumstance.
We must realize that God is Omnipresent. He is in us and He is the
very life of us. He has His own Unity and Integrity in Himself, but you have
Him in you on your level of awareness.
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