In order the better to comprehend the deep and vital truths contained in the within Message, you are urged to approach each reading of it with quiet and open mind. Still the intellect and invite your Soul to do the teaching. Read but a sentence at a time, and do not pass to the next until Something within you responds to the truth therein, and points out clearly the meaning for you.
More than all, try to realize that the I speaking thruout the Message is the Spirit within, your own Soul, the Impersonal Self, the Real You; the same Self that in other moments of quiet points out to you your mistakes, your follies, your weaknesses, and is ever chiding and aiding you to live up to Its ideals, which It continually holds before your mental gaze.
It was to such a quiet mind as this that the within Message came during months filled with an intense yearning for the guidance of the Spirit and an opportunity to serve the Loving Father who had been found to be ever-present and always ready to bless those of His children who loved Him enough to make Him first in their hearts and lives.
The help and guidance thus received is passed on to you, for the wise and loving teaching is so unusual and so wholly Impersonal that it will apply equally well to everyone who is ready to receive it.
This little book, therefore, is intended to serve as a channel or open door thru which you may enter into the Joy of your Lord, the Comforter promised by Jesus, the living expression inyou of the Christ of God.
THE PUBLISHER.
I.
I AM
To you who read, I speak.
To you, who, thru long years and much running to and fro, have been eagerly seeking, in books and teachings, in philosophy and religion, for you know not whatTruth, Happiness, Freedom, God.
To you whose Soul is weary and discouraged and almost destitute of hope.
To you, who many times have obtained a glimpse of that Truth, only to find, when you followed and tried to reach it, that it disappeared in the beyond, and was but the mirage of the desert.
To you, who thought you had found it in some great teacher, who was perhaps the acknowledged head of some Society, Fraternity or Religion, and who appeared to you to be a Master, so marvelous was the wisdom he taught and the works he performed;only to awaken later to the realization that that Master was but a human personality, with faults and weaknesses, and secret sins, the same as you, even tho that personality may have been a channel thru which were voiced many beautiful teachings, which seemed to you the highest Truth.
And here you are, Soul aweary and anhungered, and not knowing where to turn.
To you, I AM come.
And likewise to you, who have begun to feel the presence of that Truth within your Soul, and seek the confirmation of that which of late has been vaguely struggling for living expression within.
Yes, to all you who hunger for the true Bread of Life, I AM come.
Are you ready to partake?
If so, then arouse yourself. Sit up. Still your human mind and follow closely My Word herein spoken. Or you will turn away disappointed once more, with the aching hunger still in your heart.
I!
Who am I?
I, Who speak with such seeming knowledge and authority?
Listen!
I AM You, that part of you who IS and KNOWS;
WHO KNOWS ALL THINGS,
And always knewand always was.
Yes, I AM You, Your SELF; that part of you who says I AM and is I AM;
That transcendent, innermost part of you which quickens within as you read, which responds to this My Word, which perceives Its Truth, which recognizes all Truth and discards all error wherever found. Not that part which has been feeding on error all these years.
For I AM your real Teacher, the only real one you will ever know, and the only MASTER;
I, your Divine SELF.
I, the I AM of you, bring to you this My Message, My living Word, as I have brought to you everything in life, be it book or Master, poverty or riches, bitter experience or love, to teach you that I, and I alone, your own True Self, AM The Teacher for you, the only Teacher and the only God, Who is and always has been providing you not only with the Bread and Wine of Life, but with all things needed for your physical, mental and spiritual growth and sustenance.
Therefore that which appeals to YOU, as you read, is MY Message, spoken to your outer human consciousness from within, and is but a confirmation of that which the I AM of you always knew within, but had not yet translated in definite, tangible terms to your outer consciousness.