LESSON 169 By grace I live. By grace I am released.

1. 1Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. 2It is the world’s most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. 3It is past learn­ing, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. 4Grace becomes inevitable in­stantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.

2. 1Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seem­ing hate and fear. 2By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world con­tains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.

3. 1Grace is not learned. 2The final step must go beyond all learn­ing. 3Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. 4Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. 5It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. 6It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

4. 1We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. 2But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. 3And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth’s effects on you.

5. 1Oneness is simply the idea God is. 2And in His Being, He encompasses all things. 3No mind holds anything but Him. 4We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. 5There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. 6It has united with its Source. 7And like its Source Itself, it merely is.

6. 1We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. 2It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received completely. 3It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. 4It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. 5The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. 6The world has never been at all. 7Eternity remains a constant state.

7. 1This is beyond experience we try to hasten. 2Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. 3We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.

8. 1All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. 2He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. 3We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done.

9. 1For oneness must be here. 2Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. 3We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name, and in the Name of His Creator’s Son.

10. 1There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. 2When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. 3Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. 4Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

11. 1Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. 2The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. 3It does not matter. 4For your part is still what all the rest depends on. 5As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.

12. 1Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. 2And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. 3Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while.

13. 1The interval suffices. 2It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. 3What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into time­lessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? 4How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, un­awakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?

14. 1Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. 2You carry them back to yourself. 3And revelation stands not far behind. 4Its coming is ensured. 5We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. 6We welcome the release it offers everyone. 7We do not ask for the unaskable. 8We do not look beyond what grace can give. 9For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.

15. 1Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. 2Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?

3By grace I live. 4By grace I am released.

5By grace I give. 6By grace I will release.