Description
The whole principle of spiritual mind treatment, like prayer, is based on the theory that a power greater than we are operates on the treatment and produces the actual results. At first this seems difficult for people to realize since, strangely enough, while we believe in law and order throughout all life and in all the sciences, when it comes to mental and spiritual principles we seem to forsake an intelligent perspective and in some peculiar way feel that we are dealing, either with a caprice in nature or the whimsical fancy of some deific power which may or may not respond. But there really is a science of faith and prayer; if by science we man the operation of a definite law of cause and effect.
When Jesus said, “It is done unto you as you believe” He referred to this law, as though its action toward us were a logical reaction of our approach to it. First of all, “It is done” refers to a power than can, will and must respond. The statement “as you believe”, or according to your belief, implies that the power is conditioned by the way you use it. This implies that its response really is casting back to us the reflection of our own acceptance. This is what is meant by “as you believe.”
Spiritual mind treatment, consciously understood and definitely used, is based on this principle and this method of procedure. It is, of course, understood that those who have prayed with absolute faith and conviction have unconsciously complied with this law, they have met the requirements necessary for its response. But since most of us do not possess such faith the average person may still enjoy the privilege of depending on a principle which responds to him, by corresponding with his mental attitude toward it.
It is necessary that we point out the difference between the prayer of faith, in which everyone believes, and a conscious spiritual mind treatment, which but few people understand. It is necessary that we understand the difference between what we call the Divine Presence and the principle which governs the law of mind in action. A principle is not a presence, and the presence of spiritual awareness in the universe which is God, is more than a principle.
NOTE: There are some slight variations in this document in the later half from the actual phonograph recording, but they are minor.