The Master Key System

Truth is the imperative condition of all wellbeing. To be sure, to know the truth and to stand confidently on it is a satisfaction beside which no other is comparable. Truth is the underlying verity, the condition precedent to every business or social relation. Truth is the only solid ground in a world of conflict and doubt and danger.

Every act not in harmony with Truth, whether through ignorance or design, cuts the ground from under our feet, leads to discord, inevitable loss and confusion, for while the humblest mind can accurately foretell the result of every correct action, the greatest, most profound and penetrating mind loses its way hopelessly and can form no conception of the results due to a departure from correct principles.

Creation consists in the art of combining forces which have an affinity for each other, in the proper proportion. Thus oxygen and hydrogen combined in the proper proportions produce water. Oxygen and hydrogen are both invisible gases, but water is visible.

Germs, however, have life; they must therefore be the product of something which has life or intelligence. Spirit is the only Creative Principle in the Universe, and Thought is the only activity which spirit possesses. Therefore, germs must be the result of a mental process.

A thought goes forth from the thinker, it meets other thoughts for which it has an affinity, they coalesce and form a nucleus for other similar thoughts: this nucleus sends out calls into the formless energy, wherein all thoughts and all things are held in solution, and soon the thought is closed in a form in accordance with the character given to it by the thinker.

A million men in the agony of death and torture on the battlefield send out thoughts of hatred and distress; soon another million men die from the effect of a germ called "influenza." None but the experienced metaphysician knows when and how the deadly germ came into existence.

As there are an infinite variety of thoughts, so there are an infinite variety of germs, constructive as well as destructive, but neither the constructive nor the destructive germ will germinate and flourish until it finds congenial soil in which to take root.

The germ plasma in each generation always contains the sum of all that has passed before it. The nucleus of every cell contains the chromosomes and these reproduce the species of nature and condition according to definite law. Each chromosome, microscopically small as it is, contains the elements of every other cell in a matured body, plus characteristics of species, plus characteristics of form and appearance, plus family resemblance, plus nature, plus mind, plus matured tendencies, plus everything that makes personality and individuality. We are then physically exactly what our forefathers were, plus environment and education. It is this persistency of the identity of the individual chromosome from generation to generation which has given rise to the idea of reincarnation.

The idea that there is a phenomenon called Black Magic is attributable to credulity, superstition and a lack of understanding of the laws governing in the mental world. All thoughts and all things are held in solution in the Universal Mind. The individual may open his mental gates and thereby become receptive to thoughts of any kind or description. If he thinks that there are magicians, witches or wizards who are desirous of injuring him, he is thereby opening the door for the entrance of such thoughts, and he will be able to say with Job, "The things I feared have come upon me." If, on the contrary, he thinks that there are those who are desirous of helping him, he thereby opens the door for such help, and he will find that "as thy faith is, so be it unto thee" is as true to-day as it was two thousand years ago.

This is not only true in the mental and spiritual world, but in the physical world. As the ear becomes trained in music, it is enabled to receive finer vibrations, until the trained musician can hear harmonies of sound of which the ordinary person is entirely unaware.

One of the characteristic signs of a general awakening is the optimism shining through the mist of doubt and unrest, this optimism is taking the form of illumination, and as the illumination becomes general, fear, anger, doubt, selfishness and greed pass away. We are not looking for the Christ child, but the Christ consciousness. We are anticipating a more general realization of the Truth which is to make men free. That there may be one man or one woman who shall first realize this Truth in the new era is barely possible, but the preponderance of evidence points to a more general awakening to the Light of Illumination.

Yes, this includes man's ability to think lack, war and crime. If he can think constructive thought he can also think destructive thought; but as soon as man learns that thinking is a creative process, that we are creators, not creatures, he will discontinue the process of thinking destruction for himself and his fellows.

25. You are, without doubt, correct in stating that Carlyle's attitude of hatred of the bad was not conducive toward his own best development; on the other hand, what should be the attitude toward the giant evils of the day, such as war, corruption, murder, vice, theft and the like? Is it not often true that a tearing down, a clearing away of the brushwood, so to speak, must precede constructive work?

No, it is not true, the tearing down process is not at all necessary. We do not need to laboriously shovel the darkness out of a room before letting in the light; on the contrary, all that is necessary is to turn on the light and the darkness vanishes; likewise, if but one-tenth of one per cent. of the money and effort were spent in constructive work that is now being spent in destructive work, the giant evils of the day to which you refer would disappear as if by magic.

The unit of the Nation is the individual. The Government represents only the average intelligence of the units comprising the Nation. Therefore, our work is with the unit. When the thought of the individual has been changed the collective thought will take care of itself, but we try to reverse the process. We try to change governments instead of individuals, which cannot be done. But with a little intelligent organized effort the present destructive thought could be readily changed into constructive thought.

Temples have their sacred images, and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind; but in truth, the ideas and images in men's minds are the invisible powers that constantly govern them; and to these they all pay universally a ready submission.—Jonathan Edwards.