Malachi, the prophet" lived about four hundred and. In the first chapter of his book, this is written in in such a

Transcription

1 ,..fj~ ;~\ Malachi, the prophet" lived about four hundred and eighty years before Christ. I ' II While he was teaching in Jerusalem, Socrates was teaching in.\thens. His name means 'tmy roes senger" In the first chapter of his book, this is written in in such a book Vias written by Ezra and that the name Malachi,meaning "my mes.senger", was part of the text. This pr,'ophet evident 1y -2- was of a very -practical type, and- his call was to a fullel" recognition of the source of all things. The Jevls had freqj ently been called back to their original teaching, and these prophets Viere the original inspirations of the Spirit. It is very evident that the church, the ancient church,fell into ritualistic V'lays just as the chu rch does today, and the original inspirat ion v~as supplemented and replaced by forms and ceremonials, external J)N1TY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN'lY,.,- UNITY ARCHf'fES

2 -3- la'ns, and these religious out laws like Ezra and Jeremiah and Elijah and Jesus had to come in with their original inspiration. And no\v we find as v,e analyze the situat ion from the spirit ual vievipoint that Malachi has place in us as our quickened conscience There seems originally to be implanted in everyone of us the spirit of righteousness and justness. vve call it the Spirit of the Lord in us originally. It is that spirit in man which 4 when quickened gives him understanding of spiritual things. But we, having perfect freedom of will and choice ce.n be just to that spirit and recognize it or we can dravl upon it for a personal expression of life. And Vie find tha.t the tendency of man is to this personal expression, but again and again we have to be called back to the original source of all things, and that source is shown in this lesson as God. All the prophets

3 Job said, there is a spirit in man, and the inspiraintuition. standing. us, and all of the inspired ones seem to have caught that truth. Everything originates in God. The lesson for us this morning is one of, I might say intuition, because this inner spirit is intuitive, natul"al to everyone of us, and we can bring it into expression if we will recognize that there is that spirit of tion of the Almighty giveth it expression or giveth it under- -6- Novv this recognit ion that I have, the spirit ual int uit ion 1 have, the spiritual knowing I have, is a consciousness. in me of something that expressed would lead me into all righteousness and adjust my life not only to the source of my being, but to its manifestation. I say that spirit exists in everyone of and all these prophets were for the purpose of calling it out, showing it not only in the manifest but in the unmanifest, what our

4 manifest. 7 relat ion is,. how vve can ad just ourselves to these two great sources of existence. Now we adjust ourselves readily to the manifest, that is we think we do, but do we really poise and bale.nce ourselves in the world without? We say we are st r,i ving to do Beso, but our striving is not always met with success, and why? cause we haven't adjusted ourselves to the source. Now once man adjusts himself to the source of his being he becomes a balanced 8 I}lan. He becomes the man the infinite mind has imaged for him, and then like Jesus he is the only begotten Son of God made Now this only begotten Son of God is GOd's idea of the perfect man. There is only that one idea. It doesn't make any difference how many men manifest that idea, that idea still exists, and we, asi say, are all striving to manifest that idea. Now Malachi gives special stres~ to what he terms "t ithing".

5 fest. 9 "You have robbed God.t' It was evidently an appeal at that time to the people to keep' up their tithes, to continue to recognize that God was in the world-, that he had a work in the world. Nay; to us should be applied not only spiritually but in the mani- Vie can find out if these lessons are applicable in this day ana age. You Imo'!i t hat the cust om of t 1thing is very ancient, long before the Israelites, found in nearly all of the religious 10 systems of the past, all that have come down to us historically. Jacob Vias the first of the Israelites to tithe. He IrJB.de a covenant with God, if God viould increase him --he always made that bargain first --why he would give one-tenth of his increase. This tendency been the custom. It was.part of the JevJish ritual. It y"as written in the Pentateuch, and they were all expecting to give one-

6 11 tenth of their increase, one-tenth of their income to the supporting of the Levites, the church. Of course they at that time had no money and they brought to the church their products whatever it might be. There was a part of the church building devoted to the s~orage of grain and oil and even the sheep and cattle were brought, and everyone of the cattle had to pass. under the rod, and every tenth ox or cow or sheep was 12 They have evidently demonstrated prosperity. This giving may be one of the secrets of 'their great financial ability. You k:now faculty in a large way, you get a large return. \Vhat is the

7 13 largest way that we could use this.financial ability? By realizing that it is something that is God given. People look upon acquisitiveness as something that very pious people religious people believe belongs to the world, and it is vlicked to be too rich. It must have come from the one original source. Jacob, the father of the Jewish race, was some schemer. He got away with all his father-in-law's goods, and he got away with nearly everything that he touched, that 14 came into his hands. God one-tenth. Well, vie, may get a hint there. We may get hold JJNiTY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY "-. ---, UNITY ARCHIVES.

8 No, 15 of something that if we will apply it we viould everyone of us have a better idea of.the original fount of prosperity. I don't think it is necessary that selfishness is a necessary outcome of prosperity. I am sure that if we understood the great infinite, inexhaustible source of things and were lined up v..ith it we wouldn It be selfish. v1e would have such a hold upon resource that we would see that it has no limit whatever, 16 and we would be the most generous people in the world. Every one of us would give just as freely as we received, and if you wouldn't you give it out freely. Jesus Christ Vias the great est producer that this world has ever seen. He was in touch with the l~w of that he fed 50 cents a meal. he didn't charge them anything

9 Now, 17 at all, because he received freely and he gave freely. I say if we understood this law we would be wonderfully selfishness would disappear from everyone of us. what is the law'? Vfuy, that there is an inexhaustible resource and that that resource is spiritual in its character 18 said, "Be rich toward God," --if our thoughts were constantly dwelling upon the rich resource of spirit, the rich resource of the omnipotent, all-providing spirit, everything that we touch would increase. Just like Jesus Christ, Vie could take a few things and through our thought of substance and life we vlould increase those things. Novo' people are wakening to that law in this day, beginning to apply it, gett ing avvay from the COmmer-

10 19 cialism and narrowness of resource, thinking that only through hard labor are we going to produce things, only through sowing and reaping.. That is one way in which we see the inexhaustible resource of nature, but there is a higher resource than that, and that is the resource of spirit. Everything that we see manifest must originally have come from spirit, and if you lay right hold of spirit as a reality in your kind and hold to 20 it, why you vvill get results. But we have to take people vvhere thoughts upon money, and that is v/here we find the hearts of the people to a large degree --in their treasures. Vfue re a man's treasure is, there his heart is. That is the lay;,. \'fua t you going to do.vvith thi~ kind of people? Take them where they are Now, if you desire to demonstrate greater prosperity, we say if. you have faith in God, begin tithing. Vfu y? Why can 't you jus.t as

11 affairs, begin. "Now, words, 21 well think it out? Because you will find that a large portion of your heart in the sub-conscious is in your money, in your in these material things. There is vihere you have to you have to loosen up your heart, and you do that "through beginning to tithe, to give. Viell, what is the object of that? you become a partner of God. "people say,"r give more than a tenth to good. I give more than one-tenth to the cl'lurch 22 right along." But as you give, are you thinking about God? Is this God's tenth? You have a silent partner in YOU1~ giving. Feople who tithe put aside one-tenth fol" the work of the Lord, as they do that they are thinking all the time, "This is God This is God's vlork. tt is co-operat ing viith me in tl"lis. And you are making a silent partner of God right there. In other you are thinking about God as the source of your supply, through your thought you are throviing yourself right in

12 affairs. 23 touch with infinite, omnipresent resource, and before you know it you have a new strea.-n of prosperity coming in your daily NCVI thj.s is the secret of tithing. It is found that the people Vvho religiously tithe are the most prosperous people in the vvorld. The Mormons adopted that from the Bible. It is taught in the Bible, and all Christian people ought to be tithing. The Mormon peqple are the most prosperous religious people in the vvorld. No question about that. Cocld we add to our prosperity 24 by "ft.ithing? They can't alvlays tell you why. You say, "Then I v..ill tithe as a commercial proposition." That vvon't do. You must get your mind upon God as your resource. You must think about God as t!in supplier of all that you have. You must think about GOdl s spij',1 ti as active in your affairs. "This I am going to do in order to

13 25 carry out the wil1. of God." And that will give you more wisdom in your ventures. You say, "Certainly if I had wisdom I would never make a mistake in my investments, and with my business associates." Now this is another avenue,long neglected,of this tithing proposition. You are thinking constantly about God's wanting you to do this and that, and if you think you are doing it in the name of God, God will shoyl you the way. We have 26 Our Business Men's Christian that God is J:s.rt of the commercial world, that his spirit is back of it, and that it entirely new movement in the commercial world. I savi a letter

14 27 We called him hard boiled, and he said, but it donrt work for me. I never had such a hard time as I have in the last year. Everything has gone against me.'t But he went down never had such success in my life. I made $1000 yesterday, 28 and last week $700,"and he \'lent on to tell what he had accomplished, and he said, "It is all because I am believing in God as my prosperity," and he said, "I want to make a contribution to your work bec~use I got the key in the Business Men's club,"and that you can see is a bringing forth of that spirit of prosperity. can't get into it all at once, but if you really believe that is working in your affairs, you will come into a larger ex-

15 source. time? 29 pression of that infinite mind. I might go on and shov1 you that you scarcely v~ould begin to go into this inner spiritual consciousness through your tithing until you v~ould see that you must give of your life and of your love and of everything 8. certain thought of God. God is the That is tithing. V~e rob God when Vie don't attribute to to this infinite source, that which Vie are expressing in whatever line. It doesn1t make any difference what it is 30 you are expressing, originally it comes from God, and if it does good why not increas~ it? VIf~y not increase your hee.lth? You say, "Vle vlould like to." VJell, begin tithing in your healt h. \'iell, hovi shall I tithe'? Vvhy, give even one-tenth of your thought to God as your source of health. How much time do you give to God about yoljr health? Do you thinlc about it one-tenth of Now probably you don't think of it at all, some of you.

16 unlimited. 32 Do you give a tenth of your thought about vlisdom to God, or do you get it frol1 other s ources~ Nov; you can see that Vie are robbing God in this matter of vlisdom because he is the source of' all. Everything that the infinite mind has he gives to his Son, the Christ man, the ideal man, and that source is No,v, if we began tithing along all these lines, hoy; rich we would grovv in VJisdQm, in love, in povler, in every 33 good thing. So you can see how this fits everyone of us, draw upon the Infinite. V~e must pray more, meditate more, believe in our affairs and :in our lives. ~TY SCHOOL OF CHR'STtANllY, UNITY ARCH1VES