GIFT OF A. FT o qurtiPSES ELIZA A. QOLDIE GLIMPSES BY ELIZA A. GOLDIE J. F. ROWNY PRESS LOS ANGELES, CAL. 1922 COPYRIGHT 1922 BY ELIZA A. GOLDIE Give me the faith that cannot fail; Grant me the power that must prevail. tOLIMPSES] God's Hidden Meaning It was like the sound of far-off music. I could not grasp it, I could not understand it, but simply knew that some power within me was striving for expression, some unknown force was calling upon me for utterance. Out of the great deep, beyond all human endeavor, came the silent admonition, bidding me direct my energies into this one channel of loving service. All personal effort became tinged by an ever- present incentive. Motives and events com- bined in urging me on to endless endeavor, leading me out into the sunlight of truth and beauty. [3] [GLIMPSES] Religion In a Nut-Shell Be honest to the core. Develop your God- given talents, and in all things have the approval of your own soul. jl jl 4 Growth Life in its fulfillment means continual growth your inner resources developed and applied. Do not blindly follow any teaching. All instruction will come to you from within. External aids are but means to awaken the knowledge already yours. & & j One With the Father I thank Thee for this glorious perfection that is implanted in each and all of Thy chil- dren; potentially here within, to be unfolded in beauty, as the rose; in strength, as the mighty oak. [4] [GLIMPSES] To Those Who Mourn In this quiet and peaceful existence, which the Father grants me, I gather the thoughts He breathes into my consciousness and waft them in glimpses to you, dear troubled heart. Know that I too have lost and suffered and lost again; have passed through sleepless nights, and days that were hopeless and bitter. And still, out of the shadow I come to you who mourn, with a message of hope. Remember always that you are a child of God. Rest quietly in His protecting care, fully assured that after the night comes day, and out of the darkness a light and peace which none but an infinite Father can either give or take away. [5] [GLIMPSES] Your Earthly Heaven God's universal plan involves a meaning for each of his children. There is no mistake in the divine and eternal order, which includes and protects your highest good. Having attained spiritual insight, you will find circumstances and events adjusting themselves, always for the better. On the spiral of life you are ever moving upward. With each turning you gain a higher footing, and with every revolution, a clearer outlook, and in proportion as you absorb and apply what is flashed you in these moments of inspiration, you expand and enlarge your earthly heaven. i* # & The Everlasting Presence Do not strive feverishly with life's difficulties. God is here ; loving, protecting. Seek patiently, prayerfully, for enlightenment. Soon you shall be instructed, and find the seemingly insurmount- able arranged entirely to your advantage. [6] [GLIMPSES] Life Open your eyes to the glory and wonder of life's creative forces. What mechanical device of man more marvelous in its mechanism and engineering power than your own physical body? u a cosmos in miniature," "an epitome of the universe" Your heart keeps ceaseless time with the clock, but who wound it? "How came these atoms to assume this relation and interrelation in exact conformity to law?" not merely prolonging existence, but constantly renewing and creating. To purify your mind, revere the organism through which it finds expression. In a life of efficiency the physical, mental and spiritual are happily blended, and in the last analysis spirit and matter are but varying vibrations of one primal energy. You are as truly spirit as you ever will be, and can, if you so desire, live a spiritual life here and now. [7] [GLIMPSES] Your Kingdom Do you realize, dear friend, that you have a part to perform in this wonderful scheme of creation? Not merely the aim of being clothed, or fed, or perchance entertained, but some acknowledgment from your innermost being, that you appreciate the right, the blessed privi- lege of living. While you may not be con- versant with the language which "Socrates pronounced and Plato wrote," and though you are an employe, apparently part of a great machine, or servant of a system, you can at least liberate yourself from mental slavery. For the present your experience is doubtless what you need in the climb upward, but as a thinker you can eventually free yourself from bondage, and in the realm of self-expression give to the world your finest and best. For in the kingdom of mind you are Your Own Master. [8] [GLIMPSES] Make Your Life Complete Learn to enjoy the present moment. Do not cramp yourself into a world of petty trifles. Come out into the open spaces of greater things, where your loftiest thoughts may find expres- sion. Focus your mind on higher vistas, beyond the things that can annoy or wound. Aspire to be your true self, that ideal self, which is finer, more tender, and more divine. Jl Jl Jt Supply Do not despair, just around the corner may be something new for you that you do not expect. Remember the Infinite power upon which you may draw, and the strength which resides within yourself. Realize that you are a great soul and can rise above every hindrance. Your darkest moments hold God's hidden mean- ing for you, just you, and under each shadow a blessing is born. [9] [GLIMPSES] Control Your Forces If you are straining for sights and sounds from the invisible, be assured that not until you have full control of the riches within yourself can you be allowed to glimpse those beyond. Spiritual progress implies a more complete adjustment of the physical and spiritual. Not a disbelief or shunning of the material, but a more intelligent mastery of its forces. On the well-disciplined body, depend the clarity and sanity of the mind; through the developed mind comes spiritual illumination, while neglect of body causes poverty of heart, mind, and soul. By divine law there is every reason to believe that your spiritual transformation will be as great as that of the larva, when the chrysalis opens and the butterfly soars into the sunlight. But unless you have solved your larva problems, you cannot hope to fly on borrowed wings. [10] [GLIMPSES] A Temple Divine Look reverently into the heart of your friend, seeing only the purest intentions. Try to realize fully what this friendship means to you, and never, under any circumstances, put it to the test of a doubt. Never, willingly, impose upon it the infliction of a word or a look that might rankle or wound. & jt ^ Self-Supremacy If you have been a failure, do not continue being one. In the school of personal effort you will find the open door of another life. There is a congenial work for you. Find it, and get into a new atmosphere, away from the withering thought-waves that pull you down. Open your mind to its divine possibilities. Then move onward and never look back. Persevere, and resist all weakness. It can be done. [11] [GLIMPSES] Your Divine *C ailing Heavy-laden, and high-aspiring, are you doing the work you want to do? or holding captive the faculty that is waiting for recog- nition? If you are still in the iron coil of necessity, be assured that you alone hold the key for its unwinding. It may test your endurance, and require precious time, but be patient and persevere. If your talents lie in your brain, or your voice, develop them; if in your finger tips or your toes, manipulate them. Whether you sing for starving souls, or bake bread to appease physical hunger, whichever you can do best, make that your study and aim, for therein lies your divine calling. You can easily recognize your own specific gift, the individual work that is meant for you, by the pleasure you derive through its achievement, the thrill that fills you, heart and soul, when you have mastered the thing you want to do. [12] [GLIMPSES] Your Talent I bring you a flower, exquisite in design and coloring. Accept it as a symbol of your cher- ished ambition. Care for it tenderly in the golden morning hours. Brood o'er it lovingly in the stilly night, until at last you behold your own design. Slowly but surely it will unfold in beauty and brilliance before your astonished eyes, and you shall know its meaning. & & & Illumination There is a guidance, dear heart, and God is all-sufficient. However deep your sorrow, He knows, and is leading the way. We cannot understand why He should lead us into lonely places into the midnight of solitude, until, in that sacred moment of assurance, a flash of illumination reveals to us His meaning and all- enfolding goodness. [13] [GLIMPSES] Forget the Past You are living too much in the past, dear friend; whether it be grief, regret, or remorse, study the art of forgetting. Let us suppose you have sinned. Can you not see the very fact that you recognize your shortcomings is proof that you have within you the perfect model from which to judge and make comparison? And again, the fact that you are alive, have eyes to see, and understanding to read these words, is further proof that the Father still has need of you need of your developed and purified faculties. Then detach from your mind all thought of what is past and gone, carve for yourself a new beginning, and live live to enjoy and to give freely of life's great blessings. [GLIMPSES] Your Opportunity If at any time in maturing years you find yourself quite alone in the world, try to realize it is not through chance that you have reached this stage in your development. Your inner nature is calling for companionship, and it will depend largely upon the treasures entrusted to this second self, whether you derive pleasure or pain from your experience. Loneliness may become friendly by bringing into it the riches of your soul, the wisdom and knowledge gar- nered for just this time of harvest, and now is your opportunity to apply and put into practice the accumulation of experience and information gained in years past. [15] [GLIMPSES] Realization My beautiful lily, a mere tube-like forma- tion yesterday, has opened wide the portals of her celestial palace, and invites me to partake of its purity and beauty. Looking deep into the fairy-decked enclosure, my soul revels in the goodness and forethought that has wrought this miracle. Touched by Infinite love and wis- dom, this marvelous creation has risen from its tomb of earth to attain perfection, to fulfill its highest mission of joy and gladness. j* Inspiration You are a note in the great universal sym- phony, and in sacred moments feel yourself drawn into its rhythm and harmony. As the tiny fledgling finds the burden of his little back lifted in winging flights of freedom, so you, on waves of inspiration, are ever reaching upward to higher planes of assurance and fruition. [16] [GLIMPSES] Find Yourself The knowledge and ability you crave for your chosen work, resides within yourself. As co-creator in the universal plan, you are en- trusted with some part in the great design, and can summon at will the wisdom and power needed for the purpose assigned you. Then do not scatter or dissipate your own glorious talent, that particular phase of the divine idea, which you alone represent. If you have been foiled in your cherished aims, begin over again, and grow into that state of useful activity your higher perceptions have visioned. "You always may be what you might have been" through obedience to the superior wis- dom of your own mentality. [17] [GLIMPSES] He Saw Divine instruction takes many and varied forms in chiding our indifference to the bless- ings that daily fill, and make our lives worth while. A miner long entombed was finally rescued. Crawling out of the tunnel, and while still in a stooping posture, he reverently clasped his hands, and blinkingly looked up into the blue. Common air and everyday sunshine had unex- pected revelations for this man who had spent seven days in midnight darkness. jt jc # Blindness How many of us walk unseeing under the beautiful stars; how few read the message in growing plant, in velvety depths of the full blown flower. [18] [GLIMPSES] Whither Going? For you who are rushing through life, pant- ing, and breathless, I would gladly hold the reins for a little breathing space, and most cheerfully assist you, if possible, in making existence more endurable, and more simple. Your strenuous way of living is hurling you out of your own orbit, your own beautiful thought world, with its wonderful treasures in store for you. Through an endless chain of social hopes and fears, you find yourself entangled in a coil of petty anxieties, with apparently no way of escape. But listen, please. Suppose you re- duce your list of wants to helpful needs, sim- ply let go of non-essentials, and cling only to what is beneficial and needful to you and yours. In time you will be surprised to discover you have really made no sacrifice in giving up use- less burdens, but instead have gained a glorious freedom from the tyranny of being always on the fly. [19] [GLIMPSES] Hidden Treasures While Nature is lavish in her gifts to man, she nevertheless guards with jealous care those she deems of greatest value. We find 'the sweetest kernel housed in the hardest shell, the choicest rose protects herself with forbidding thorns, the finest grains of wood are found in deepest jungle, and the purest gems must be searched for in cavernous earth. Likewise, life's richest treasures are hidden deep in the human soul. All goodness, all power, the very essence and image of the divine, are enshrined here, and just as the tiny bud of the coming flower unfolds in beauty and splen- dor, so too, in time every striving human being shall evolve in the fullness and glory of per- fection. [20] [GLIMPSES] Patience My dear friend, why bemoan present condi- tions? They are the very best possible for your state of mind today, and until you have fully imbibed this truth, no further knowledge can come to you. Yes, I can understand. You have hoped for so much and accomplished so little. We all have need of the lesson in per- severance and patience taught by the dear little girl who spent months in persuading a supposed- ly untamable horse to come close enough to lap up the morsel she had placed on the ground and then concealed herself at a distance for hours, to watch him. However, she finally conquered, mounted him, and became his happy owner, when a mere wave of the hand or a call brought him quickly to her side. Patience, patience, dear friend. Spiritual evo- lution is not always visible. You may have achieved more than you realize, and if truly sincere, will awake some day to find the seed of your present effort germinating into life divine. [21] [GLIMPSES] Protection You see a fledgling falling from the mother nest, helpless, and a prospective victim of near- by claws. In your eagerness to save the inno- cent life, protecting fingers enclose the fluttering mite, until a safer retreat can be found. Frantic with fear it shrinks from your touch, a throb- bing, quivering, helpless thing. If it but knew your intent. If it but knew. Likewise, God's human children, if they but know His meaning when danger threatens, and the power of His mighty hand is felt to close about them. But they do not understand, they do not know that it is but to shelter, to keep from further harm, that freedom is denied them. [22] [GLIMPSES] Nature's Message Green meadows and waving trees. Verdure, verdure everywhere. Beautiful sunlit orchards, clinging vines and mid-summer riot of color and bloom. Wonderful creations ! Could you but read the language of growing plant and open- ing bud, each tiny leaflet might inspire you with new hope. Almost we hear them whispering peace, be still, and grow, grow without fear, without anxiety or care for the future, simply trusting and fulfilling the purpose intended for you. j* & & Sunbeams Let the glory of the sunbeam symbolize God's all-pervading goodness and unfailing love for you at all times and in all places. Strong, yet tender, penetrating, still not obtrusive, all the attributes of strength and beauty commingle in the gentle sunbeam. [23] [GLIMPSES] Let Your Light Shine You who view life as an opportunity, and through sustained personal effort have gained self-mastery, may look with pity, or even dis- dain upon a fellow being without purpose or endeavor. And yet, in that slumbering soul be- side you are hidden the same potential elements which have given you the broader outlook. You have had glimpses of the light beyond, while for him the electric currents have not yet been prop- erly adjusted to the divine spark within, and did you but truly value and fully unfold your God- given power, yours might be the privilege to put in motion those vibrations which could arouse him to the dignity and worth of his higher self- hood. Not obtrusively, nor through undue in- fluence on your part, but by example, through kindness, and your reflected light on the hidden recesses of his darker nature, causing him to discover and recognize his own inherent power for good. [24] [GLIMPSES] Fulfillment When we place a seed in the soil we do not question its ability to attain fruition, but are confident of results. We know that the ele- ments of growth are now prepared to begin its development. But of that marvelous bursting forth from its prison shell, and that silent reach- ing upward toward the surface, there can be no visible evidence. Many of us have not ad- vanced beyond this initial phase in our spiritual unfoldment, this underground stage, in which the seed of the flower receives its first impulse to rise to a brighter existence. We may have glimpses of some far-off achievement but our aiming toward it is not sufficiently sincere. We lack the patient persistence and courage of the little plant to go forward into the full light to which we are entitled. Never, for one moment, does the frail little stem, released from the hid- den seed, hesitate in its upward striving, until the tiny shoot appears in the sunlight, and finally in a bloom of beauty attains the fullness of realization. [25] [GLIMPSES] In the Dawn of Life In the panorama of unfolding life there are many stages, and in glancing back over the eons, we find among the more significant, that gradual migration, when the lower species, formerly confined to the ocean, emerge between tides, for fuller development upon land. Vegetation having, through successive orders, purified the atmosphere and elaborated oxygen for higher and finer formations, now bursts into living, breathing activity, and an ever varying procession of invertebrates, the back-boneless denizens of earth, pass before us, until finally we see, quivering at our feet, a gelatinous mass of animation, which we are informed is the first conception of the vertebrate plan of structure; that the white, thread-like line through its cen- ter marks the position of the spinal cord, and that from this lowly creature, a being devoid of brain, of organs and of mind, there is a slow [26] [GLIMPSES] and steady advance to the firm, erect and com- pleted skeleton of man. In the marvelous continuity and relationship of this ascending scale of organism, each pro- gressive type, rising from its predecessor en- riched, assumes new developments for the next superior structure, until in man appears the crowning glory and fulfillment of the organic series. And nowhere is this beautiful story of creation so impressive, so awe-inspiring, as when man, guided by Infinite wisdom, transcends the groveling state, stands erect, and lifts his eyes and heart to heaven. The groping mind, spurred on by necessity, awakes to intelligence, then with ever-increasing faculities broadens and lightens into knowledge. [27] [GLIMPSES] Unfoldment As in the organic kingdom new and finer organs were constantly evolved, so now in climb- ing the psychic scale, man's possibilities of de- velopment are infinite. That ceaseless, untiring energy, moving onward through the ages, may be traced with as much precision in the mental and spiritual realms as in the physical, and since science finds in the organic region symbols by which to apprehend what lies beyond, may we not, with equal assurance, predict man's future spiritual career? Are we not justified in be- lieving that he has capacities in reserve which imply a much more exalted earthly existence than he at present knows? the reality of all that we revere. [28] [GLIMPSES] We Are Progressing The fullness and splendor of creation were as rich and complete in the Master's time as today, but only the toiling geologists have since discovered God's sublime truths written in the rocks. In that day our globe was as round and revolved as rapidly as now, but human inge- nuity still reached blindly toward four corners of the earth, and not until the patient and perse- vering astronomer had made confidants of the stars, could this higher intelligence be flashed in return. At that time as now, water rose to the level of its source, but for lack of this know- ledge the Romans built endless aqueducts over hill and dale. Nature's secrets are not withheld from those who seek instruction ; and through forces unseen, but perceived by minds that are receptive, fear is taking wing, and mankind rising toward eman- cipation, fruition and even perfection. [29] [GLIMPSES] Is the World Growing Better? Never, in any age, was courageous living more essential than in this time of re-adjust- ment. With our planet still in the shadow of a great wrong, and humanity staggering under the weight of an intolerable burden, there is a ten- dency to doubt world-advancement. And yet my dear friend, through an inner assurance you know and I know that it is still God's wonderful world, still, your divine privilege and mine to assist in making it more wonderful and more beautiful. Despite our recent calamity and the glaring head-lines that daily stare us in the face, back and beneath them all, are loving, tender human hearts that beat in unison with the uni- versal throb, and mighty thought-waves wing- ing their way into lonely places to heal and to bless. Oh, my friend, come out of Horror's lane into Thanksgiving avenue, out of the hovel of discontent into the joy and beauty that you yourself can create. Look up into God's ever- lasting blue for the peace that has no ending and the faith that casts out fear. Give to hu- manity your noblest inspiration, and thus shall you find the world ever growing better. [30] [GLIMPSES] Yourself When you begin to fathom the secrets of your soul your own ever-watchful ego, its depth of meaning and far-reaching design, you have a keener appreciation of the temple in which it holds sway. With clearer insight you take account of this wonder-working miracle you call yourself, these myriads of minute par- ticles, so perfectly adjusted, and exact in their movements so absolutely in accord and essential to each other, that an injury to one means dis- turbance for all. Going deeper into these studies, you are amazed by the revelation of countless cells and numberless nerves in their never-ending round of duty, from the crown of your active brain, to the tips of your sensitive fingers, and down to your willing, tireless toes. And then, if you are true to yourself, you will ask the Father for strength and wisdom in rul- ing this retinue of faithful servants, and in keeping wholesome and pure and sacred this marvelous home of your soul. [31] [GLIMPSES] Be a Law Unto Yourself Many and perilous are the dangers to be en- countered in climbing out of material bondage to the psychic heights of spiritual freedom. The everlasting arms are not always in evidence, but be assured they are ever-present, and only a willingness to be led, or defiance of authority, decides for the pilgrim either a gentle leading, or the mighty pressure of an iron restraint. But having reached the sun-lit realm of spirit you transcend the law of matter and gain your royal sovereignty with the privilege of choosing and deciding your own actions. And this responsi- ble freedom can be attained without closing your earthly career. Here and now you may become the arbiter of your own destiny; and if unfoldment is your true aim, opportunities for growth and development will open out before you so convincing in their unfailing assistance, that a glow of thankfulness and a reverend de- sire to rise to your highest wells through your entire being. Henceforth you no longer doubt that you are here for some divine purpose. [32] 49180- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY