LESSON 183 I call upon God’s Name and on my own.

1. 1God’s Name is holy, but no holier than yours. 2To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own. 3A father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. 4His brothers share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity. 5Your Father’s Name reminds you who you are, even within a world that does not know; even though you have not remembered it.

2. 1God’s Name can not be heard without response, nor said with­out an echo in the mind that calls you to remember. 2Say His Name, and you invite the angels to surround the ground on which you stand, and sing to you as they spread out their wings to keep you safe, and shelter you from every worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.

3. 1Repeat God’s Name, and all the world responds by laying down illusions. 2Every dream the world holds dear has suddenly gone by, and where it seemed to stand you find a star; a miracle of grace. 3The sick arise, healed of their sickly thoughts. 4The blind can see; the deaf can hear. 5The sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried as happy laughter comes to bless the world.

4. 1Repeat the Name of God, and little names have lost their meaning. 2No temptation but becomes a nameless and unwanted thing before God’s Name. 3Repeat His Name, and see how easily you will forget the names of all the gods you valued. 4They have lost the name of god you gave them. 5They become anonymous and valueless to you, although before you let the Name of God replace their little names, you stood before them worshipfully, naming them as gods.

5. 1Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His. 2Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective. 3Those who call upon the Name of God can not mistake the nameless for the Name, nor sin for grace, nor bodies for the holy Son of God. 4And should you join a brother as you sit with him in silence, and repeat God’s Name along with him within your quiet mind, you have established there an altar which reaches to God Himself and to His Son.

6. 1Practice but this today; repeat God’s Name slowly again and still again. 2Become oblivious to every name but His. 3Hear noth­ing else. 4Let all your thoughts become anchored on this. 5No other word we use except at the beginning, when we say today’s idea but once. 6And then God’s Name becomes our only thought, our only word, the only thing that occupies our minds, the only wish we have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only Name of everything that we desire to see; of everything that we would call our own.

7. 1Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. 2And God will come, and answer it Himself. 3Think not He hears the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world. 4They cannot reach Him thus. 5He cannot hear requests that He be not Himself, or that His Son receive another name than His.

8. 1Repeat God’s Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. 2And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him, creating in His Name. 3Sit silently, and let His Name become the all-encompassing idea that holds your mind com­pletely. 4Let all thoughts be still except this one. 5And to all other thoughts respond with this, and see God’s Name replace the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is one Name for all there is, and all that there will be.

9. 1Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. 2You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. 3You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. 4You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. 5And both can be accomplished perfectly.

10. 1Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. 2No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. 3Words are insignificant, and all requests unneeded when God’s Son calls on his Father’s Name. 4His Father’s Thoughts become his own. 5He makes his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give. 6He calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.

11. 1All little things are silent. 2Little sounds are soundless now. 3The little things of earth have disappeared. 4The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his Father. 5And his Father’s Voice gives answer in his Father’s holy Name. 6In this eternal, still relationship, in which communication far transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and height what­ever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. 7In our Fa­ther’s Name, we would experience this peace today. 8And in His Name, it shall be given us.