LESSON 164 Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

1. 1What time but now can truth be recognized? 2The present is the only time there is. 3And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ. 4He looks past time, and sees eternity as represented there. 5He hears the sounds the senseless, busy world en­genders, yet He hears them faintly. 6For beyond them all He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.

2. 1The world fades easily away before His sight. 2Its sounds grow dim. 3A melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more distinct; an ancient call to which He gives an ancient answer. 4You will recognize them both, for they are but your answer to your Father’s Call to you. 5Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.

3. 1How holy is your practicing today, as Christ gives you His sight and hears for you, and answers in your name the Call He hears! 2How quiet is the time you give to spend with Him, beyond the world. 3How easily are all your seeming sins forgot, and all your sorrows unremembered. 4On this day is grief laid by, for sights and sounds that come from nearer than the world are clear to you who will today accept the gifts He gives.

4. 1There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. 2There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. 3There is a sense of holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched. 4All this today you will remember. 5Faithfulness in practicing today will bring rewards so great and so completely differ­ent from all things you sought before, that you will know that here your treasure is, and here your rest.

5. 1This is the day when vain imaginings part like a curtain, to reveal what lies beyond them. 2Now is what is really there made visible, while all the shadows which appeared to hide it merely sink away. 3Now is the balance righted, and the scale of judgment left to Him Who judges true. 4And in His judgment will a world unfold in perfect innocence before your eyes. 5Now will you see it with the eyes of Christ. 6Now is its transformation clear to you.

6. 1Brother, this day is sacred to the world. 2Your vision, given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on them in a new light. 3And what you see becomes the healing and salvation of the world. 4The valuable and valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. 5And what is worthy of your love receives your love, while nothing to be feared remains.

7. 1We will not judge today. 2We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world. 3Our practicing today becomes our gift of thankfulness for our release from blindness and from misery. 4All that we see will but increase our joy, because its holiness reflects our own. 5We stand forgiven in the sight of Christ, with all the world forgiven in our own. 6We bless the world, as we behold it in the light in which our Savior looks on us, and offer it the freedom given us through His forgiving vision, not our own.

8. 1Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. 2Your trifling treasures put away, and leave a clean and open space within your mind where Christ can come, and offer you the treasure of salvation. 3He has need of your most holy mind to save the world. 4Is not this purpose wor­thy to be yours? 5Is not Christ’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals?

9. 1Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiv­ing your consent and your acceptance. 2We can change the world, if you acknowledge them. 3You may not see the value your accep­tance gives the world. 4But this you surely want; you can ex­change all suffering for joy this very day. 5Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours. 6Would God deceive you? 7Can His promise fail? 8Can you withhold so little, when His Hand holds out complete salvation to His Son?