LESSON 157 Into His Presence would I enter now.

1. 1This is a day of silence and of trust. 2It is a special time of promise in your calendar of days. 3It is a time Heaven has set apart to shine upon, and cast a timeless light upon this day, when echoes of eternity are heard. 4This day is holy, for it ushers in a new experience; a different kind of feeling and awareness. 5You have spent long days and nights in celebrating death. 6Today you learn to feel the joy of life.

2. 1This is another crucial turning point in the curriculum. 2We add a new dimension now; a fresh experience that sheds a light on all that we have learned already, and prepares us for what we have yet to learn. 3It brings us to the door where learning ceases, and we catch a glimpse of what lies past the highest reaches it can possibly attain. 4It leaves us here an instant, and we go beyond it, sure of our direction and our only goal.

3. 1Today it will be given you to feel a touch of Heaven, though you will return to paths of learning. 2Yet you have come far enough along the way to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws, and walk into eternity a while. 3This you will learn to do increasingly, as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed, brings you more swiftly to this holy place and leaves you, for a moment, to your Self.

4. 1He will direct your practicing today, for what you ask for now is what He wills. 2And having joined your will with His this day, what you are asking must be given you. 3Nothing is needed but today’s idea to light your mind, and let it rest in still anticipation and in quiet joy, wherein you quickly leave the world behind.

5. 1From this day forth, your ministry takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch, and blesses those you look upon. 2A vision reaches every­one you meet, and everyone you think of, or who thinks of you. 3For your experience today will so transform your mind that it becomes the touchstone for the holy Thoughts of God.

6. 1Your body will be sanctified today, its only purpose being now to bring the vision of what you experience this day to light the world. 2We cannot give experience like this directly. 3Yet it leaves a vision in our eyes which we can offer everyone, that he may come the sooner to the same experience in which the world is quietly forgot, and Heaven is remembered for a while.

7. 1As this experience increases and all goals but this become of little worth, the world to which you will return becomes a little closer to the end of time; a little more like Heaven in its ways; a little nearer its deliverance. 2And you who bring it light will come to see the light more sure; the vision more distinct. 3The time will come when you will not return in the same form in which you now appear, for you will have no need of it. 4Yet now it has a purpose, and will serve it well.

8. 1Today we will embark upon a course you have not dreamed of. 2But the Holy One, the Giver of the happy dreams of life, Translator of perception into truth, the holy Guide to Heaven given you, has dreamed for you this journey which you make and start today, with the experience this day holds out to you to be your own.

9. 1Into Christ’s Presence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect Love. 2The vision of His face will stay with you, but there will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest. 3This you will never teach, for you attained it not through learning. 4Yet the vision speaks of your rememberance of what you knew that instant, and will surely know again.