How To Live Life And Love It
	The Fine Art Of Giving <  Previous Contents Next  >

PUPIL: It seems to me that the pace you are setting here is going to be rather severe discipline for me. But since it is to be for only a few weeks, if I wish, I shall try it. If there is not a big change for the better, both inside and out, at the end of that time, I can stop. N'est-ce pas?

MASTER: Yes, but please do not enter lightly upon this study. And do not seek to cultivate an acquaintance with God for the sake of what you will be able to get from Him. This is a tragic mistake that many people make, and which is difficult for many of them to rectify. They seek first to get, and promise faithfully that they will then give. But in so doing they have inverted the Spirit's Law of Compensation, which is good, which is as just as it is good, and which is as immutable as it is both good and just.

PUPIL: This sounds interesting. What is this Great Law?

MASTER: The LAW is that FIRST we must GIVE! And after we have given the getting automatically follows, just as day naturally comes with the rising of the sun. But the getting of anything good never precedes the giving of something of value! TRUE GIVING, giving with love as unto God Himself, cannot possibly impoverish anyone; nor can withholding from the Spirit and its service ever truly enrich one. Verily, " 'tis more blessed to give than to receive!" GIVING as unto God opens wide the Sanctuary of Jehovah within us in which we may always find PEACE. GIVING makes of the giver a direct channel for the transmission of Infinite Love and Power into one's daily, hourly life. Then will adversity flee; and certain achievement of "all things whatsoever ye will" follows immediately. But, I repeat, FIRST ye must GIVE!

PUPIL: But what can we give to God if He already has everything?

MASTER: We can give Him the one thing of which He does not have too much, of which He can never have too much, of which we can never hope to give Him too much. The one thing that God wishes us to give Him, first, last and always, is nothing less than the greatest gift in the Universe. Now what is it?

PUPIL: I am sure that it is Love.

MASTER: Right, but just what is Love?

PUPIL: Why God is Love.

MASTER: That is correct, too. But if God is Love, what is God? And if Love is God, what is Love?

PUPIL: Is this a parable? What is Love? What is God? That's just what I would like to know, too. Tell us please!

MASTER: Just what God is, just what Love is, each person must answer for himself. For after all your own conception of God and of Love IS God and IS Love to you! But perhaps we can set forth a few thoughts that may prove helpful, and which will be practical. To some Love is passion, and can only be conferred upon, or come from, the opposite sex. To some Love is the tenderness of a mother for her child, or of a doting father for his brood. To others Love is the love of friends, parents, or orphans. And there are some who love themselves most of all. But REAL LOVE is Love of God, and for God! To LOVE HIM is the FIRST Commandment! And if one keeps this great commandment there is no need of any other commandment; for if we really DO LOVE GOD, which is the first and greatest of the commandments, we automatically keep inviolate all the others!

PUPIL: But is it enough to just love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds? Must we not DO something about it as well?

MASTER: Certainly we must do something about it. Love without the fruits of Love is dead! If we love God, we will serve Him devotedly, faithfully, happily, continuously.

PUPIL: How best may we serve Him?

MASTER: BY GIVING OF OURSELVES to our fellowman! By giving of ourselves to our neighbors as unto ourselves. A scientist, one like Doctor Walter Reed for example, who gives his very life, and lovingly and gladly, in order to benefit mankind knows the true love of God. So does the heroic nurse who ministers to afflicted mankind out of sheer love of mankind. So does the self-effacing, self-sacrificing mother, or father, or teacher, or minister. There are many ways in which one may serve. All do not possess scientific talents, nor healing talents, nor comforting talents. But all do possess something they can give! Some who feel themselves unable to serve directly give of themselves by donating money to worthy causes, and these, too, are serving God because they Love their neighbors and therefore Love Him. Let me give you an example of TRUE LOVE as I personally knew it in a wonderful woman, one of many cases that I know.

PUPIL: Yes, do give us an example. They always help to clarify things, and show us how others have done what we wish to do.

MASTER: Very well. This divine soul was reared in a home of great wealth and culture. But as a very young woman she made up her mind to go out into the world, "on the firing-line" itself, as she called it, to serve actively lovingly, there. She became a nun, and as such was assigned to a hospital as a trained nurse. As she entered upon her life-work she was filled with love for mankind, with enthusiasm for serving God by serving his suffering ones. And she did serve lovingly, happily, faithfully, tenderly eight hours a day, or even twelve hours daily. But the hospital was woefully understaffed; and Marie, as we shall call her here, was soon subject to call sixteen hours daily; and even during the eight hours when she was supposed to have her rest she was often summoned and asked to serve more. Her quarters were right on the same floor with many of the patients, and this ward was her charge day and night. Often at two or three o'clock in the morning the bell beside her bed would ring with an urgent summons. She would arise at once, go to the patient and minister to his or her wants. But in due time she became physically tired, and of course she began to resent the calls that broke into her rest, especially when it seemed to her, as it often did at these times, that the patient merely wished a drink of water, or wanted a pillow adjusted a certain way, or was merely lonely, all of which were irritating trifles to a weary nurse.

For a month or more these trials went on, seemingly from bad to worse. Marie resolved almost desperately to do something about it, and immediately. So she cast about for a way to best remedy the situation. For days she thought about the matter, asking the Spirit for guidance. At length the flash came, directly from the Infinite! She took up a little card, wrote down the new motto that had been given her, and fastened it on the wall above her bed, right by the service bell, so that she might see it and be again reminded every time the buzzer rang. On the card she had written: "THE MASTER CALLS!" Of course her system worked from the beginning. Quite soon she was saying in immediate answer to the bell, even while sleepily fumbling for her light: "THE MASTER CALLS!" And she would arise and go and serve, without impatience, without resentment, yes, rejoicing in the opportunity to again serve in love. As a consequence her energy was untiring; she easily and joyfully did the work of three nurses, always rested, always fresh, always efficient, always smiling, whenever called. Her patients loved her greatly. She was always cheerful, always encouraging, always aglow, as it were, with a holy Love. And to those who did not know her secret, as very few did, the patients she attended seemed to be "miraculously healed." Let your motto also be: "THE MASTER CALLS!" And remember that the humblest service that you can render to the lowliest of your fellowmen, if rendered in LOVE, is a direct service to Him!

PUPIL: This is a profoundly beautiful and powerful illustration. Is that the motto, or the principle, that you use in helping the many who come to you? If not, what is your own personal secret of serving?

MASTER: My own method, in a way, is very similar to that of Marie. Like her I wished to serve lovingly, to serve as many as possible, to help to the limit of my powers in alleviating any and all kinds of suffering, physical, mental, spiritual or other form of unhappiness. Not only do I strive always to help those who seek me out. Every person whose hand I take into mine in greeting, every person into whose eyes I look, in all places at all times, yes even the shop girl who sells me my hose, the milkman who comes to my door, the beggar on the street, everyone to whom I speak at any and all times receives the same strong spiritual impulse from me! I INTENTIONALLY SEE THE RADIANT CHRIST IN ALL!

PUPIL: But I thought that you told me once you never mentally treat people unless they ask for help.

MASTER: I don't, not specifically, not specifically under any other circumstances. My secret is this: I have deliberately formed the HABIT of beholding the Christ in every soul that my eyes fall upon! I do not ever see anyone as being poor, or old, or ill, or bereaved, or lonely, or homely, or evil or imperfect in any way. I BEHOLD EACH AND ALL AS ONLY PERFECT! I SEE ONLY THE RADIANT CHRIST in every one of them BECAUSE THE CHRIST IS in each of them!