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SUBSTANCE AND SYMBOL.

JOHN VI. 26-64.

Tis the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing: the Words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are Life. Work not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which abideth unto Eternal Life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.

The Master desires us to understand him. He puts his teachings in many different ways, so that notwithstanding the many ways they will be twisted there will be enough understood to leaven the whole lump.

He wishes his followers to get the Truth: he knows that everything can be converted into symbols, therefore he is desirous of directing our attention to the true Substance, which all things simply symbolize.

The Spirit in which we do anything is the actuating principle. The spirit or intention of any act is the thing upon which we are judged. The mere doing of anything amounts to very little, but the spirit in which we do it in amounts to a great deal; is all.

It is as though he had said, Don't pay any attention to my flesh; my flesh is not me at all: my Spirit is me; my Words are me; my Life is me. This is what I mean: my Words are, and are Life; or, Life is to be found in my very Words; Spirit is to be found in my Words. I, the true me, am Spirit. I am Truth, and I am Life. I am not flesh at all.

Work not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which abideth, unto Eternal Life, which the Son of man shall give you. What is it that he giveth to us but his Words? the Words that I have spoken unto you are Spirit, and are Life, but the flesh profiteth nothing, or amounts to nothing.

His Words are meat which abideth unto Eternal Life. And this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent, or that ye believe what the one that is sent tells you, Don't worship my flesh as anything, worship my Words. That is, the Words I have spoken are Spirit and are Life, worship them, pay attention to them, do what I tell you.

Believe what I say to you. I am the bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But remember that it is not the flesh that I am talking about, when I say that I am the bread of Life, it is the Spirit that dwelleth in me, and the way the Spirit manifests Itself is in Words. For my Words are Spirit, they are Life.

I am come down from Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of the Father: and the will of the Father is that everyone that beholdeth the Son and believeth on him should have Eternal Life. Now it is not the flesh that he expects us to behold. In all these eighteen hundred years it has not been contended that it was necessary to behold the flesh or the form of the Son, but to perceive the Spiritual significance of his teachings, and to understand it would be to have eternal Life.

For I am come from Heaven: What came from Heaven, flesh or Spirit, symbol or Substance? It was the Substance; the Real Thing; the Spirit; the Life, and the Words convey the idea.

We must not make the Substance out of the Words, printed or uttered, but of the ideas back of the Words, for the Words are the way the Spirit symbolizes Itself. We hold to his Words, we speak his Words, and finally we seem to be given power that cannot be put into Words, cannot be expressed by Symbols at all. It is the Spirit doing its work. Then we feel as the Master did when he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This is the Subtance that came from Heaven.

Then the Jews murmured, for they were still looking to personality, and said: Is not this the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? Though he had been telling them that his Creator, his Father-Mother was in Heaven, and he came from there, they still seemed to be looking to the flesh.

Then he read them this lesson, No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him. How many to-day are willing to stop all conscious efforts (mortal mind) and let the Father draw them, and draw others to them?

Everyone that hath heard from the Father and hath learned, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is from God, he hath geen the Father. Verily, He that believeth, hath Eternal Life. I am the bread of Life. Your fathers did eat of the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which cometh down out of Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of Heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; yea, and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the Life of the world. But his flesh did not come down from Heaven, the flesh is nothing, it is the Spirit that quickeneth. He did not expect us to eat his flesh, his literal flesh. He says your fathers did eat of the