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By Root 603 0

it especially difficult to demonstrate in certain directions, while having little difficulty in others. This is to be expected, and only means that more work needs to be done in some directions than in others. If, however, you are getting no real demonstrations in any direction, it means that you have left the Path and are no longer praying rightly; and you must immediately get back, by claiming that Divine Intelligence is inspiring you, and that you are expressing Truth. If you do this, you will come to no harm, even if the unproductive period seems to last rather a long time; and you will learn a good deal. But if, on the other hand, you behave like the Pharisees and, instead of frankly admitting your mistake, proceed to indulge in self-righteousness and spiritual pride, then indeed you are in for a bad time. If, like some misguided people, you say something like this: “I do not demonstrate, but I do not wish to do so, because I am too spiritual; I am above demonstration; I am too advanced for that kind of thing,” or perhaps, “I demonstrate in ways that you cannot see” then you are not merely talking nonsense, but you are doing something very like blaspheming Divine Wisdom itself—and what is this but the sin against the Holy Ghost.

One does not seek demonstrations as an end in themselves, but one seeks to know Truth as an end in itself; and since the Law is that as one acquires true understanding the outer picture improves automatically, that change in the outer picture becomes the visible evidence of the change in the inner—“an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”—and thus we come to know unerringly where we stand. I he outer picture is like the gauge that tells what is happening inside a boiler.

The real reason for desiring demonstrations is that they are the proof of understanding. There is no such thing as undemonstrated understanding. As within, so without; as without, so within. If you wish to know how you really stand spiritually, look about you at your environment, beginning with the body. There can be nothing in the soul that is not demonstrated sooner or later in the outer, and there can be nothing in the outer which does not find some correspondence in the inner.

Whether it be the testing of your own soul, or the test of a teacher, or the test of a book or a church, that test is always simple, direct, and infallible. Does it work? What are the fruits? By their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

(Matthew VII)

Mankind is slow to realize that there is simply no way of salvation except by changing one’s consciousness, which means trying to do the Will of God consistently in every department of life. We are all willing to do His Will sometimes and in some things, but until there is a complete alignment both in the great and in the small things—a complete dedication of one’s whole self in fact—there cannot be a complete demonstration. As long as we are allowing any secondary thing to come between us and the Primary thing, there is no full salvation. “There is no home for the soul in which there dwells the shadow of an untruth,” said George Meredith.

This danger is an extraordinarily subtle one. No sooner have we met and mastered it in one direction than it seems to attack us in another. It calls for nothing less than unceasing watchfulness, and an almost heroic courage. Never is it more true than in the life of the soul, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We must not allow any consideration whatever, any institution, or organization, or any book, or any man or woman, to come between us and our direct seeking for God. If our reliance is upon anything but our own understanding of Truth, our