This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the home of Mrs. Helen Storey on Lafayette Blvd., Norfolk, Va., this 10th day of April, 1938, by request of those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Esther Wynne, Hannah Miller, Frances Y. Morrow, Helen Storey, Helen Ellington and Ruth LeNoir.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you Group #1, members of which are gathered here, and their study of the lesson SPIRIT. You will give to each at this time, as I call the names, that needed to enable them to understand and make practical application of this lesson:
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, and their work on the lesson Spirit.
3. As to that which may be helpful for each, we find they each have their individual problems which to them as individuals often supersede their activities as related to spirit manifestation in their lives - as related to others.
4. This may be that which has been referred to by some as the latent sin in all through Adam. Yet you as students, as seekers should have gathered - as has been indicated - that the more there is the effacement of self the more there may be magnified in your activity the spirit of truth.
5. What has He given? "If ye will love me, if ye will keep my commandments, I and the Father will come and abide with thee."
6. This does not signify, then, that your individual problems are to be neglected, forgotten nor thrown aside; but rather that you - as the spirit moves you in the DOING of the commandments of the Son in the Father - WILL show forth, in your dealings with others, that your problems are HIS problems - and that you live as such.
7. What then are His commandments? He has given that "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, thy mind, thy body; thy neighbor as thyself." As He has given, this is the whole law.
8. Because ordinances of secular organizations have adopted this or that manner of expressing the adherence or the consecrating of self for service in His vineyard, these - as ye accept them as individuals - become a portion of thy individual experience. But the whole law is bound in that as He gave, "And a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you."
9. These are to many but sayings, so trite that ye have stumbled or do stumble over the spirit of same.
10. Ready for names.
11. (Q) [379]:
    (A) Let thy meditation, thy prayer ever be: "Father, God! In that Thou hast given to me the Christ Consciousness, may I - in my daily walks before my fellow man - manifest the spirit of the Christ; in humbleness, in love, in patience, in longsuffering; that I indeed may manifest the spirit of the Christ Consciousness."
12. (Q) [404]:
    (A) Let THY prayer be: "Lord, Thy Will not mine be done in and through me! May I hear, may I see in those about me the love of the Father for the children of men! May I so act, so mete in my daily conversation, in my daily activity, giving the spirit of truth - even as the Son gave; and condemned no man! May I then condemn none, that I be not condemned."
13. (Q) [303]:
    (A) Hold thou to this in thy prayer, set in the order with thy own problems: "Lord, let me fill that place, that purpose in the lives of those I contact day by day, that the spirit of truth as manifest in Jesus the Christ may be magnified in my speech, my activity; that others may see, may know that I walk, that I talk with thee often! Let that which has been be as passed. Let me look up, into the face of the Christ, with the pure purpose that each word, each act may be in the true spirit of the Christ-life."
14. (Q) [413]:
    (A) Let thy conversation, thy prayer be: "Lord, here am I - use me in the way that I may be a living message known of those whom I meet, with whom I am associated day by day, as one who lives that professed in the heart and in the speech day by day." Not looking to sorrow or joy, but rather being glad within for being counted worthy as one that may be an ensample before others of the truth and the spirit of the truth - as shown in the Christ-life.
    "Let my yeas be yea, my nays be nay, but with that graciousness, that beauty as He manifested in His speech with and in his walks among men day by day. For I, O Father, would be like unto Him!"
15. (Q) [585]:
    (A) In thy problems, in thy cares, take them all to Him in the spirit of truth and love that He expressed and manifested to those with whom He walked and talked as in the flesh; "As ye abide in me and I in you, so may the Father be glorified in me." For in so living, speaking, acting before others is the spirit of the Father - which is thy birthright - manifested. And what does this bring into thy consciousness? That awareness, that joy, that peace which He has promised, and that is a part of thy inheritance in Him - the peace that passeth understanding; the assurance that thou art His and that He is thine! Make thy wants known to Him. For He is mindful of thy cries. Keep the face, then, towards the light of the Christ, and the sorrow and care will fade.
16. (Q) [307]:
    (A) Ask and ye shall receive, saith the Lord who is thy keeper. Then in thy prayer, thy meditation, call ye on Him. For he is not afar off. And with the spirit of love that is His commandment to thee, "that ye love one another" ask in His name.
    SOW the seeds of truth, but DO NOT continue to scratch them up - but leave the results, the increase to Him.
    Sow that as ye would have thy Father do, and say, to thee. For the Lord hath called thee to an excellent service, to thy fellow man. Then let His ways be thy ways, his people be thy people, His prayers thy prayers, His messages thy messages; and ye WILL in the spirit of the Christ BRING an awakening in the minds and the hearts of those who seek to know Him.
17. (Q) [560]:
    (A) In thy study of spirit and the application of same in thy daily life, let thy prayer, thy supplication be: "Father, Thou knowest my heart, my mind, my body. Make it all one with Thee; that I may in thy pleasure, in thy purposes, be more and more a manifestation of thy love to the children of men.
    "Help me, O Father, to put away - more and more - the cares of this world and look to thee as the author and the finisher of faith; as the manifestation of that which is good, which is holy, which is right in the earth. And let me, O God, in my dealings, in my conversation with and my invocation before men, be a living example of the truth of the CHRIST in the earth."
18. (Q) [993]:
    (A) In thy seeking for wisdom, know that it is not of the earth-earthy. Then let thy prayer, thy meditation be - as ye study the lesson of Spirit and the activity in same be as this; for ye know it is not what is said but the spirit with which it is given that makes it a living thing or a burden to someone's soul. "Father, let that love Thou hast promised in the Christ be in me and my life - yea, in my conversation to my fellow man. Let me so forget myself - yea, the needs of the earthly body - that I may the more magnify the love that is shown in the spirit of the Christ-life.
    "Let my activities be of such a nature that there is never a doubt shown, a fear manifested. For love indeed casts out doubt and fear. And may I live such an experience that the glory of the Christ-Spirit directs - yea, builds - as the Builder indeed - in the lives and the hearts of those I meet day by day.
    "Let this be, O God, a living thing in my experience! For the spirit of truth MUST prevail! Let ME, O God, be a channel through which the Spirit is directed!"
19. (Q) [462]:
    (A) In thy meditation, in thy seeking, know that the answer must come within. For His spirit beareth witness with thy spirit, and ye know within thy own self as to whether ye are conscious of His abiding presence or not. Then let thy prayer be: "O Father, leave me not alone, but come, strengthen Thou me in my weakness! Make me strong in the might and in the purposes that Thou would use me, O God, in such a way and manner that others whom I meet day by day may be constrained to glorify Thee.
    "The cares of life and of the earth at times grow heavy, yet Thou, O God, knowest the way! Be Thou the guide in my daily conversation, in my daily dealings with my fellow man. For the Christ promised that when we ask in His name Thou wilt not be slow to answer.
    "Keep Thou my ways, O God!"
20. (Q) [288]:
    (A) In thy study of Spirit, know there is the influence of body, of mind, of soul. These are manifested in the material plane as an individual entity. Just as the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit is an individual entity. Just as time and space and patience are the individual manifestation of that Spirit Body in the experiences of man.
    Then, as ye pray, and as ye think on these things, let thy cry - yea, let the purpose of thy heart be: "Lord, use Thou me in the ways and manners Thou seest that I may be the greater blessings - in my weak way - before the children of men! Lord, Thou knowest my heart! Make it one with Thee, even as the Christ in the material plane made His life one with Thee!
    "In my weakness I often go amiss, I often am stirred to rebellion in the experiences I see in the children of men. Let me, O Father, be patient, be kind to such; even as the Christ was with those whom He not only blessed but upon whose bodies He poured out His love in such measures that others might be physically and mentally healed even by their presence.
    "Thou art the same, O God, yesterday, today and forever! Then give to me that strength, that measure of love that Thou seest I may use in the PERFECT way in the spirit of the Christ!"
21. (Q) [341]:
    (A) In thy study, in thy meditation upon the activities of the spirit, thou seest in the lives of others the motivative influences that are of good and of bad. And yet the same spirit motivates these. For to each soul is given the choice as to whether it will be one with the Father or, even as the son of perdition, attempt to establish self in glory of self. Then as ye meditate and pray: "Father, keep Thou my mind, my heart open to thy calls! May I choose ever the spirit of the Christ to be the author of my activities day by day. May I be patient and longsuffering. May I be gentle - yea, may I be humble. For without these, the very activity may become a stumblingblock. Then, keep my heart pure. Renew the righteous spirit within me, O God! day by day! May I hear again, as in the days of yore, the voice of the Christ as He calls to men to RENEW their faith and MANIFEST their love of God in their dealings with their fellow man.
    "May I fill that purpose whereunto Thou hast called me into service in the vineyard of the Christ, and may I fill it with that spirit that He manifested when He gave, 'Father, I condemn them not - they know not what they do.'"
22. (Q) [294]:
    (A) We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading - "Norfolk Study Group #1."
2. See 254-97, Par. 26-A--28-A, 32-A--34-A, 4/07/38 and 254-98, Par. 18-A--27-A, 4/30/38 re publication first 12 lessons in book SFG I.

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation