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Footnote: (excerpt from)
CHRIST MAY BE IN YOU--WHAT IT MEANS I AM HERE. Jesus. I desire tonight to write you in reference to the way in which, as the preacher
advises, "Christ may be in you." I know that it is almost universal among preachers of the orthodox church to teach
their hearers that the way to salvation is to get Christ in them and thereby they will
be enabled to come into unity with the Father, and cease to remain subject to the
effects of sin and evil. Well this teaching is the true foundation of salvation for the
Celestial Heavens, provided it be understood by the preachers and the people what
the true meaning of "Christ in you" is, and unless this meaning be comprehended
the fact that preacher or people may believe that they have Christ in them will not
work the results that they may suppose or desire. Many, and l may say the most, of these professing Christians, have ideas of what
this expression means in order to become effective, that are not in accord with the
true meaning of this condition of the soul. They believe that all that is necessary is
to believe on Jesus as their saviour by his sacrifice and death and that in so
believing they have Christ in them, and that nothing else is required. They have no
conception of the distinction between Jesus, the man, and Christ, the spirit of truth,
or more correctly, the spirit that manifests the existence of the Divine Love in the
soul. Christ is not a man in the sense that he is Jesus the son of the Father, but
Christ is that part of Jesus, or rather quality that came to him after he fully received
into his soul the Divine Love, and was transformed into the very Essence of the
Father in His Love. Christ is thus, not a man but is the manifestation of this Love as
bestowed upon Jesus, and made part of his very existence. And when men use the
expression, having Christ in you, if they could correctly understand the true purport
of the same, they would know that it, the expression, means only that the Divine
Love of the Father is in their souls. The indiscriminate use of the words, "Jesus and Christ," is the cause of much
misunderstanding among these Christians as to a number of the sayings of the
Bible. Jesus became the Christ only because he was the first to receive into his soul this
Divine Love and to manifest its existence, and this Christ principle is one that all
men may possess, with the result that they will become at one with the Father in
His substance of Love and Immortality. It would be impossible for Jesus, the man, to get into or become a part of any
mortal, and it would be equally as impossible for Christ, as the man Jesus, even
though perfect and free from sin, to become a part of anyone. NO, THE MEANING OF HAVING CHRIST IN YOU IS TO HAVE THIS LOVE
OF THE FATHER IN YOUR SOUL, WHICH CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED
THROUGH THE WORKING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE INSTRUMENT
OF THE FATHER IN BRINGING THIS LOVE INTO THE SOUL. Good-night. Your friend and brother, JESUS. |