From Enemy to Saviour

1. Today 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. Complete 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. Thus 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. One 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. It 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. Bodies 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. Hate 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. Who 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. This 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. Today 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. Select 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. And 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.