LESSON 161 Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

1. 1Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love. 2Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today’s idea. 3Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed be­fore. 4Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored. 5Here is the answer of the Voice for God.

2. 1Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. 2But part of it is now unnatural. 3It does not look on everything as one. 4It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world you see. 5The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you wish to see. 6All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to hear.

3. 1Thus were specifics made. 2And now it is specifics we must use in practicing. 3We give them to the Holy Spirit, that He may employ them for a purpose which is different from the one we gave to them. 4Yet He can use but what we made, to teach us from a different point of view, so we can see a different use in everything.

4. 1One brother is all brothers. 2Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. 3Such is the truth. 4Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? 5Do these words bring perfect clar­ity with them to you? 6What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. 7The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. 8We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.

5. 1It seems to be the body that we feel limits our freedom, makes us suffer, and at last puts out our life. 2Yet bodies are but symbols for a concrete form of fear. 3Fear without symbols calls for no response, for symbols can stand for the meaningless. 4Love needs no symbols, being true. 5But fear attaches to specifics, being false.

6. 1Bodies attack, but minds do not. 2This thought is surely remi­niscent of our text, where it is often emphasized. 3This is the reason bodies easily become fear’s symbols. 4You have many times been urged to look beyond the body, for its sight presents the symbol of love’s “enemy” Christ’s vision does not see. 5The body is the target for attack, for no one thinks he hates a mind. 6Yet what but mind directs the body to attack? 7What else could be the seat of fear except what thinks of fear?

7. 1Hate is specific. 2There must be a thing to be attacked. 3An enemy must be perceived in such a form he can be touched and seen and heard, and ultimately killed. 4When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as surely as God’s Voice proclaims there is no death. 5Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes be­hold, seeing itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.

8. 1Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear’s symbol. 2And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. 3Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn. 4It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope it can reach to its maker and devour him.

9. 1This do the body’s eyes behold in one whom Heaven cher­ishes, the angels love and God created perfect. 2This is his reality. 3And in Christ’s vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet. 4Yet you will take his hand instead, for you are like him in the sight that sees him thus. 5Attack on him is enemy to you, for you will not perceive that in his hands is your salvation. 6Ask him but for this, and he will give it to you. 7Ask him not to symbolize your fear. 8Would you request that love destroy itself? 9Or would you have it be revealed to you and set you free?

10. 1Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. 2Your readiness is closer now, and you will come today nearer Christ’s vision. 3If you are intent on reaching it, you will succeed today. 4And once you have succeeded, you will not be willing to accept the witnesses your body’s eyes call forth. 5What you will see will sing to you of ancient melodies you will remember. 6You are not forgot in Heaven. 7Would you not remember it?

11. 1Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him. 2See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed. 3See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing. 4Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently. 5Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head. 6Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

7Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. 8I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

12. 1And He will answer Whom you called upon. 2For He will hear the Voice for God in you, and answer in your own. 3Behold him now, whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone, and recog­nize that Christ has come to you. 4Today’s idea is your safe es­cape from anger and from fear. 5Be sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. 6And you will see him suddenly transformed from enemy to savior; from the devil into Christ.