Seventeen

The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his “sins” are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven, but *awakened*. In his dreams he *has* betrayed himself, his brothers, and his God. Yet what is done in dreams has not been *really* done. It is impossible to convince the dreamer that this is so, for dreams are what they are *because* of their illusion of reality. Only in waking is the full release from them, for only then does it become perfectly apparent that they had no effect on reality at all and did not change it. Fantasies *change* reality. That is their *purpose*. They cannot do so in reality, but they *can* do so in the mind that would have reality different. It is, then, only your wish to change reality that is fearful, because by your wish you think you have *accomplished* what you wish. This strange position in a sense acknowledges your power. Yet by distorting it and devoting it to “evil,” it also makes it unreal. You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask of you conflicting things. What you use in fantasy, you *deny* to truth. Yet what you *give* to truth to use for you is safe from fantasy.

When you maintain that there must be order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from truth. You believe that truth cannot deal with them only because you would *keep* them from truth. Very simply, your lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain some aspects of reality for fantasy. If you but realized what this must do to your appreciation of the whole! What you reserve unto yourself, you *take away* from Him Who would release you. Unless you give it back, it is inevitable that your perspective on reality be warped and uncorrected. As long as you would have it so, so long will the illusion of order of difficulty in miracles remain with you. For you have *established* this order in reality by giving some of it to one teacher and some to another. And so you learn to deal with part of truth in one way and in another way the other part. To fragment truth is to destroy it by rendering it meaningless. Orders of reality is a perspective without understanding, a frame of reference for reality to which it cannot really *be* compared at all. Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy and learn what truth means from the perspective of illusions? Truth *has* no meaning in illusion. The frame of reference for its meaning must be *itself*. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions *real* and keep them by *justifying* your belief in them. But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the *illusions* are unreal and thus enable you to escape from them. Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you establish orders of reality which must imprison you. There *is* no order in reality because *everything* there is true. Be willing, then, to give all you have held outside the truth to Him Who *knows* the truth and in Whom all is brought to truth. \[Salvation from separation will be complete or will be not at all.\] Be not concerned with anything except your *willingness* to have this be accomplished. *He* will accomplish it; *not* you. But forget not this: When you become disturbed and lose your peace of mind because *another* is attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive *yourself* for just this same attempt. And you are holding *both* of you away from truth and from salvation. As you forgive him, you restore to truth what was denied by *both* of you. And you will see forgiveness where you have *given* it.

Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made your heart seem to sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the beauty which the Holy Spirit loves to look upon and which He thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for *you* until you learn to see it for yourself. And all His teaching leads to seeing it and giving thanks with Him. This loveliness is *not* a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven, and there are no fantasies to hide the truth. The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross that you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity and beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection. This step, the smallest ever taken by anything, is still the greatest accomplishment of all in God's plan of Atonement. All else is learned, but this is *given*, complete and wholly perfect. No one but Him Who planned salvation could complete it thus. The real world, in its loveliness, you *learn* to reach. Fantasies are all undone, and no one and nothing remains still bound by them, and by your *own* forgiveness, you are free to see. Yet what you see is only what you have made, with the blessing of your forgiveness on it. And with this final blessing of God's Son upon *himself*, the real perception, born of the new perspective he has learned, has served its purpose. The stars will disappear in light, and the sun which opened up the world to beauty will vanish. Perception will be meaningless when it has been perfected, for everything that has been used for learning will have no function. Nothing will ever change; no shifts nor shadings, no differences, no variations which made perception possible will occur. The perception of the real world will be so short that you will barely have time to thank God for it. For God will take the last step swiftly when you have reached the real world and have been made ready for Him. The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the world you see *without* forgiveness. The Great Transformer of perception will undertake with you the careful searching of the mind that made this world and uncover to you the seeming reasons for your making it. In the light of the *real* reason which He brings, as you follow Him, He will show you that there is no reason here at all. Each spot *His* reason touches grows alive with beauty, and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of reason is suddenly released to loveliness. Not even what the Son of God made in insanity could be without a hidden spark of beauty which gentleness could release. All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision and lets you see the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos and removing all illusions which had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder and a blade of grass a sign of God's perfection. From the forgiven world, the Son of God is lifted easily into his home. And there he knows that he has *always* rested there in peace. Even salvation will become a dream and vanish from his mind. For salvation *is* the end of dreams and with the closing of the dream will have no meaning. Who awake in Heaven could dream that there could ever be *need* of salvation? How much do you *want* salvation? It will give you the real world, trembling with readiness to *be* given you. The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you this is so intense He would not wait, although He waits in patience. Meet His patience with your impatience at delay in meeting Him. Go out in gladness to meet with your Redeemer and walk with him in trust out of this world and into the real world of beauty and forgiveness.

To forgive is merely to remember only the *loving* thoughts you gave in the past and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on *your* selection. For the shadow figures you would make immortal are “enemies” of reality. Be willing to forgive the Son of God for what he did *not* do. The shadow figures are the witnesses you bring with you to demonstrate he did what he did *not*. Because you brought them, you will hear them. And you who kept them by your *own* selection do not understand how they came into your minds and what their purpose is. They represent the evil that you *think* was done to you. You bring them with you only that you may return evil for evil, hoping that their witness will enable you to think guiltily of another and *not* harm yourself. They speak so clearly for the separation that no one not obsessed with *keeping* separation could hear them. They offer you the “reasons” why you should enter into unholy alliances which support the ego's goals and make your relationships the witness to its power. It is these shadow figures which would make the *ego* holy in your sight and teach you what you do to keep *it* safe is really love. The shadow figures *always* speak for vengeance, and all relationships into which they enter are totally insane. Without exception, these relationships have as their *purpose* the exclusion of the truth about the other and of *yourself*. This is why you see in *both* what is not there and make of both the slaves of vengeance. And why whatever reminds you of your past grievances, no matter how distorted the associations by which you arrive at the remembrance may be, attracts you and seems to you to go by the name of love. And finally why all such relationships become the attempt at union through the *body*, for *only* bodies can be seen as means for vengeance. That bodies are central to all unholy relationships is evident. Your *own* experience has taught you this. But what you do not realize are *all* the reasons which go to make the relationship unholy. For unholiness seeks to *reinforce* itself, as holiness does, by gathering to itself what it perceives as like itself. In the unholy relationship, it is not the body of the *other* with which union is attempted but the bodies of those who are not *there*. Even the body of the other, already a severely limited perception of him, is not the central focus as it is or in entirety. What can be used for fantasies of vengeance and what can be most readily associated with those on whom vengeance is *really* sought are centered on and separated *off* as being the only parts of value. Every step taken in the making, the maintaining, and the breaking off of the unholy relationship is a move toward further fragmentation and unreality. The shadow figures enter more and more, and the one in whom they seem to be *decreases* in importance. Time is indeed unkind to the unholy relationship. For time *is* cruel in the ego's hands, as it is kind when used for gentleness. The attraction of the unholy relationship begins to fade and to be questioned almost at once. Once it is formed, doubt *must* enter in because its purpose *is* impossible. The only such relationships which retain the fantasies that center on them are those which have been dreamed of but have not been made at all. Where no reality has entered, there is nothing to intrude upon the dream of happiness. Yet consider what this means—the *more* reality that enters into the unholy relationship, the *less satisfying* it becomes. And the more the *fantasies* can encompass, the *greater* the satisfaction seems to be. The “ideal” of the unholy relationship thus becomes one in which the reality of the other does not enter *at all* to “spoil” the dream. And the less the other *really* brings to it, the “better” it becomes. Thus, the attempt at union becomes a way of excluding even the one with whom the union was sought. For it was formed to get him *out* of it and join with fantasies in uninterrupted “bliss.” How can the Holy Spirit bring His interpretation of the body as a means of communication into relationships whose only purpose is *separation* from reality? What forgiveness *is* enables Him to do so. If *all* but loving thoughts has been forgotten, what remains *is* eternal. And the transformed past is made like the *present*. No longer does the past conflict with *now*. *This* continuity *extends* the present by increasing its reality and its *value* in your perception of it. In these loving thoughts is the spark of beauty hidden in the ugliness of the unholy relationship in which the hatred is remembered, yet *there* to come alive as the relationship is given to Him Who gives it life and beauty. That is why Atonement centers on the past, which is the *source* of separation, and where it must be undone. For separation must be corrected where it was *made*. The ego seeks to “resolve” its problems, not at their source, but where they were *not* made. And thus it seeks to guarantee there *will* be no solution. The Holy Spirit wills only to make His resolutions complete and perfect, and so He seeks and *finds* the source of problems where it *is* and there undoes it. And with each step in His undoing is the *separation* more and more undone and union brought closer. He is not at all confused by any “reasons” for separation. *All* He perceives in separation is that it must be *undone*. Let Him uncover the hidden spark of beauty in your relationships and *show* it to you. Its loveliness will so attract you that you will be unwilling ever to lose the sight of it again. And you will let it transform the relationship so you can see it more and more. For you will *want* it more and more and become increasingly unwilling to let it be hidden from you. And you will learn to seek for and *establish* conditions in which this beauty can be seen. All this you will do gladly if you but let Him hold the spark before you to light your way and make it clear to you. God's Son is one. Whom God has joined as one, the ego *cannot* break apart. The spark of holiness *must* be safe, however hidden it may be, in every relationship. For the Creator of the one relationship has left no part of it without Himself. This is the *only* part of the relationship the Holy Spirit sees because He knows that *only* this is true. You have made the relationship unreal and therefore unholy by seeing it *where* it is not and *as* it is not. Give the past to Him Who can change your mind about it *for* you. But first be sure you fully realize what *you* have made the past to represent and why. In brief, the past is now your justification for entering into a continuing, unholy alliance with the ego *against* the present. For the present *is* forgiveness. Therefore, the relationships which the unholy alliance dictates are not perceived nor felt as *now*. Yet the frame of reference to which the present is referred for meaning is an *illusion* of the past in which those elements which fit the purpose of the unholy alliance are retained and all the rest let go. And what is thus let go is all the truth the past could ever offer to the present as witnesses for its reality, while what is kept but witnesses to the reality of dreams. It is still up to you to choose to be willing to join with truth or illusion. But remember that to choose *one* is to let the other *go*. Which one you choose you will endow with beauty and reality because the choice *depends* on which you value more. The spark of beauty or the veil of ugliness, the real world or the world of guilt and fear, truth or illusion, freedom or slavery—it is all the same. For you can never choose *except* between God and the ego. Thought systems are but true or false, and all their attributes come simply from what they *are*. Only the Thoughts of God are true. And all that follows from them comes from what they are and is as true as is the holy Source from which they came. My holy brothers, I would enter into all your relationships and step between you and your fantasies. Let *my* relationship to you be real to you, and let me bring reality to your perception of your brothers. They were not created to enable you to hurt yourselves through them. They were created to *create* with you. This is the truth that I would interpose between you and your goal of madness. Be not separate from me, and let not the holy purpose of Atonement be lost to you in dreams of vengeance. Relationships in which such dreams are cherished have *excluded* me. Let me enter in the Name of God and bring you peace that you may offer peace to me.

God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing you do which does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God ascribed to anything is its only function. Because of His reason for creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became forever “to make happy.” *And nothing else*. To fulfill this function, you relate to your creations as God to His. For nothing God created is apart from happiness, and nothing God created but would *extend* happiness as its Creator did. Whatever fulfills this function not *cannot* be real. In this world it is impossible to create, yet it *is* possible to make happy. We have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not *deprive* you of your special relationships but would *transform* them. And by that all that is meant is that He will restore to them the function given them by God. The function you have given them is clearly *not* to make happy. But the holy relationship shares God's purpose, rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every special relationship which *you* have made is a substitute for God's Will and glorifies yours instead of His because of the delusion that they are *different*. You have made very real relationships even in this world which you do not recognize simply because you have raised their substitutes to such predominance that when truth calls to you, as it does constantly, you answer with a substitute. Every special relationship which you have ever undertaken has as its fundamental purpose the aim of occupying your minds so completely that you will not *hear* the call of truth. In a sense the special relationship was the ego's answer to the creation of the Holy Spirit, Who was God's answer to the separation. For although the ego did not understand what had been created, it *was* aware of threat. The whole defense system which the ego evolved to protect the separation from the Holy Spirit was in response to the gift with which God blessed it and by His blessing enabled it to be healed. This blessing holds within *itself* the truth about everything. And the truth is that the Holy Spirit is in close relationship with you because in Him is your relationship with God restored to you. The relationship with Him has *never* been broken because the Holy Spirit has not been separate from anyone since the separation. And through Him have all your holy relationships been carefully preserved to serve God's purpose for you. The ego is hyperalert to threat, and the part of your mind into which the ego was accepted is very anxious to preserve its reason as it sees it. It does not realize that it is totally insane. And you must realize just what this means if *you* would be restored to sanity. The insane protect their thought systems, but they do so *insanely*. And *all* their defenses are as insane as what they are supposed to protect. The separation has *nothing* in it, no part, no “reason,” and no attribute that is *not* insane. And its “protection” is part of it, as insane as the whole. The special relationship, which is its chief defense, *must* therefore be insane. You have but little difficulty now in realizing that the thought system which the special relationship protects is but a system of delusions. You recognize, at least in general terms, that the ego is insane. Yet the special relationship still seems to you somehow to be “different.” Yet we have looked at it far closer than at many other aspects of the ego's thought system which you have been more willing to let go. While this one remains, you will *not* let the others go. For this one is *not* different. Retain this one, and you *have* retained the whole. It is essential to realize that all defenses *do* what they would *defend*. The underlying basis for their effectiveness is that they *offer* what they defend. What they defend is placed *in* them for safekeeping, and as they operate, they *bring* it to you. Every defense operates by giving gifts, and the gift is *always* a miniature of the thought system the defense protects, set in a golden frame. The frame is very elaborate, all set with jewels and deeply carved and polished. Its purpose is to be of value *in itself* and to divert your attention from what it encloses. But the frame *without* the picture you cannot have. Defenses operate to make you think you *can*. The special relationship has the most imposing and deceptive frame of all the defenses the ego uses. Its thought system is offered here, surrounded by a frame so heavy and so elaborate that the picture is almost obliterated by its imposing structure. Into the frame are woven all sorts of fanciful and fragmented illusions of love, set with dreams of sacrifice and self-aggrandizement and interlaced with gilded threads of self-destruction. The glitter of blood shines like rubies, and the tears are faceted like diamonds and gleam in the dim light in which the offering is made. Look at the *picture*. Do not let the frame distract you. This gift is given you for your damnation, and if you take it, you will believe that you *are* damned. You *cannot* have the frame without the picture. What you value is the *frame*, for there you see no conflict. Yet the frame is only the wrapping for the gift of conflict. The frame is *not* the gift. Be not deceived by the most superficial aspects of this thought system, for these aspects enclose the whole, complete in *every* aspect. Death lies in this glittering gift. Let not your gaze dwell on the hypnotic gleaming of the frame. Look at the *picture*, and realize that *death* is offered you. That is why the holy instant is so important in the defense of truth. The truth itself *needs* no defense, but you *do* need defense against your own acceptance of the gift of death. When you who are truth accept an idea so dangerous *to* truth, you threaten truth with destruction. And your defense must now be undertaken to keep truth *whole*. The power of Heaven, the Love of God, the tears of Christ, and the joy of His eternal Spirit are marshaled to defend you from your own attack. For you attack Them, being *part* of Them, and They must save you, for They love Themselves. The holy instant is a miniature of Heaven, sent you *from* Heaven. It is a picture, too, set in a frame. Yet if you accept *this* gift, you will not see the frame at all because the gift can only be accepted through your willingness to focus *all* your attention on the *picture*. The holy instant is a miniature of eternity. It is a picture of timelessness, set in a frame of time. If you focus on the picture, you will realize that it was only the frame that made you think it *was* a picture. Without the frame, the picture is seen as what it *represents*. For as the whole thought system of the ego lies in its gifts, so the whole of Heaven lies in this instant, borrowed from eternity and set in time for you. Two gifts are offered you. Each is complete and cannot be partially accepted. Each is a picture of all that you can have, seen *very* differently. You cannot compare their value by comparing a picture to a frame. It must be the pictures only that you compare, or the comparison is wholly without meaning. Remember that it is the picture that is the gift. And only on this basis are you *really* free to choose. Look at the pictures. *Both* of them. One is a tiny picture, hard to see at all beneath the heavy shadows of its enormous and disproportionate enclosure. The other is lightly framed and hung in light, lovely to look upon for what it *is*. You who have tried so hard and are *still* trying to fit the better picture into the wrong frame and so combine what cannot *be* combined, accept this and be glad: these pictures are each framed perfectly for what they represent. One is framed to be out of focus and not seen. The other is framed for perfect clarity. The picture of darkness and of death grows less convincing as you search it out amid its wrappings. As each senseless stone which seems to shine in darkness from the frame is exposed to light, it becomes dull and lifeless and ceases to distract you from the picture. And finally you look upon the picture itself, seeing at last that, unprotected by the frame, it *has* no meaning. The other picture is lightly framed, for time cannot contain eternity. There *is* no distraction here. The picture of Heaven and eternity grows *more* convincing as you look at it. And now by *real* comparison a transformation of both pictures can at last occur. And each is given its rightful place, when both are seen in relation to each other. The dark picture brought to light is not perceived as fearful, but the fact that it is just a *picture* is brought home at last. And what you see there, you will recognize as what it is—a picture of what you *thought* was real and nothing more. For beyond this picture, you will see nothing. The picture of light, in clear cut and unmistakable contrast, is transformed *into* what lies beyond the picture. As you look on this, you realize that it is *not* a picture but a *reality*. This is no figured representation of a thought system, but the Thought Itself. What *it* represents is *there*. The frame fades gently, and God rises to your remembrance, offering you the whole of creation in exchange for your little picture, wholly without value and entirely deprived of meaning. As God ascends into His rightful place and you to yours, you will experience again the *meaning* of relationship and know it to be true. Let us ascend in peace together to the Father by giving *Him* ascendance in our minds. We will gain *everything* by giving Him the power and the glory and keeping no illusions of where they are. They are in *us* through *His* ascendance. What He has given is *His*. It shines in every part of Him as in the whole. The whole reality of your relationship with Him lies in *our* relationship to one another. The holy instant shines alike on all relationships, for in it they *are* one. For here is only healing, *already* complete and perfect. For here is God, and where He is, only the perfect and complete *can* be.

The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant in living in this world. Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. The holy instant *never* fails. The experience of it is *always* felt. Yet without expression, it is not *remembered*. The holy relationship is a constant reminder of the experience in which the relationship became what it is. And as the unholy relationship is a continuing hymn of hate in praise of *its* maker, so is the holy relationship a happy song of praise to the Redeemer of relationships. The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. It is the old unholy relationship transformed and seen anew. The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment. In all its aspects, as it begins, develops, and becomes accomplished, it represents the *reversal* of the unholy relationship. Be comforted in this—the only difficult phase is the beginning. For here, the goal of the relationship is abruptly shifted to the exact opposite of what it was. This is the first result of offering the relationship to the Holy Spirit to use for *His* purposes. This invitation is accepted immediately, and the Holy Spirit wastes no time in introducing the practical results of asking Him to enter. *At once* His goal replaces yours. This is accomplished very rapidly, but it makes the relationship seem disturbed, disjunctive, and even quite distressing. The reason is quite clear. For the relationship as it *is*, is out of line with its own goal and clearly unsuited to the purpose which has been accepted for it. In its unholy condition, *your* goal was all that seemed to give it meaning. Now it seems to make no sense. Many relationships have been broken off at this point, and the pursuit of the old goal reestablished in another relationship. For once the unholy relationship has *accepted* the goal of holiness, it can never again be what it was. The temptation of the ego becomes extremely intense with this shift in goals. For the relationship has not as yet been changed sufficiently to make its former goal completely without attraction, and its structure is “threatened” by the recognition of its inappropriateness for meeting its new purpose. The conflict between the goal and the structure of the relationship is so apparent that they *cannot* coexist. Yet now the goal will *not* be changed. Set firmly in the unholy relationship, there *is* no course except to *change* the relationship to fit the goal. Until this happy solution is seen and accepted as the *only* way out of the conflict, the relationship seems to be severely strained. It would not be kinder to shift the goal more slowly, for the contrast would be obscured and the ego given time to reinterpret each slow step according to its liking. Only a radical shift in purpose could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole relationship is *for*. As this change develops and is finally accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. But at the beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. A relationship undertaken by two individuals for their unholy purposes suddenly has *holiness* for its goal. As these two contemplate their relationship from the point of view of this new purpose, they are inevitably appalled. Their perception of the relationship may even become quite disorganized. And yet, the former organization of their perception no longer serves the purpose they have agreed to meet. This is the time for *faith*. You *let* this goal be set for you. That was an act of faith. Do not abandon faith, now that the rewards of faith are being introduced. If you believed the Holy Spirit was there to *accept* the relationship, why would you now not still believe that He is there to purify what He has taken under His guidance? Have faith in each other in what but *seems* to be a trying time. The goal *is* set. And your relationship has sanity as its purpose. For now you find yourselves in an insane relationship, *recognized* as such in the light of its goal. Now the ego counsels thus—substitute for this *another* relationship to which your former goal was quite appropriate. You can escape from your distress only by getting rid of each other. You need not part entirely if you choose not to do so. But you must exclude major areas of fantasy from each other to save your sanity. Hear not this now! Have faith in Him Who answered you. He heard. Has He not been very explicit in His answer? You are not now wholly insane. Can you *deny* that He has given you a most explicit statement? Now He asks for faith a little longer, even in bewilderment. For this will go, and you will see the justification for your faith emerge to bring you shining conviction. Abandon Him not now, nor each other. This relationship *has been* reborn as holy. Accept with gladness what you do not understand, and let it be explained to you as you perceive its purpose work in it to *make* it holy. You will find many opportunities to blame each other for the “failure” of your relationship, for it will seem at times to have *no* purpose. A sense of aimlessness will come to haunt you and to remind you of all the ways you once sought for satisfaction and thought you found it. Forget not now the misery you *really* found, and do not now breathe life into your failing egos. For your relationship has *not* been disrupted. It has been *saved*. You are very new in the ways of salvation and think you have lost your way. *Your* way *is* lost, but think not this is *loss*. In your newness, remember that you have started again *together*. And take each other's hand to walk together along a road far more familiar than you now believe. Is it not certain that you will remember a goal unchanged throughout eternity? For you have chosen but the goal of God from which your true intent was *never* absent. Throughout the Sonship is the song of freedom heard in joyous echo of your choice. You have joined with many in the holy instant, and they have joined with you. Think not your choice will leave you comfortless, for God Himself has blessed your holy relationship. Join in His blessing, and withhold not yours upon it. For all it needs now *is* your blessing that you may see that in it rests salvation. Condemn salvation not, for it *has* come to you. And welcome it together, for it has come to *join* you together in a relationship in which all the Sonship is together blessed. You undertook together to invite the Holy Spirit into your relationship. He could not have entered otherwise. Although you may have made many mistakes since then, you have also made enormous efforts to help Him do His work. And He has not been lacking in appreciation for all you have done for Him. Nor does He see the mistakes at all. Have you been similarly grateful to each other? Have you consistently appreciated the good efforts and overlooked mistakes? Or has your appreciation flickered and grown dim in what seemed to be the light of the mistakes? You are now entering upon a campaign to blame each other for the discomfort of the situation in which you find yourselves. And by this lack of thanks and gratitude, you make yourselves unable to *express* the holy instant, and thus you lose sight of it. The experience of an instant, however compelling it may be, is easily forgotten if you allow time to close over it. It must be kept shining and gracious in your awareness of time but not concealed within it. The instant remains. But where are *you*? To give thanks to each other is to appreciate the holy instant and thus enable its results to be accepted and *shared*. To *attack* each other is not to lose the instant but to make it powerless in its *effects*. You *have* received the holy instant, but you have established a condition in which you cannot *use* it. As a result, you do not realize that it is with you still. And by cutting yourself off from its expression, you have denied yourself its benefit. You reinforce this every time you attack each other, for the attack must blind you to *yourself*. And it is impossible to deny yourself and recognize what has been given and received by you. You stand together in the holy presence of truth itself. Here is the goal, together *with* you. Think you not the goal itself will gladly arrange the means for its accomplishment? It is just this same discrepancy between the purpose that has been accepted and the means as they stand now which seems to make you suffer, but which makes Heaven glad. If Heaven were *outside* you, you could not share in its gladness. Yet because it is within, the gladness, too, is yours. You *are* joined in purpose, but remain still separate and divided on the means. Yet the goal is fixed, firm, and unalterable, and the means will surely fall in place *because* the goal is sure. And you will share the gladness of the Sonship that it is so. As you begin to recognize and accept the gifts you have so freely given to each other, you will also accept the effects of the holy instant and use them to correct all your mistakes and free you from their results. And learning this, you will have also learned how to release *all* the Sonship and offer it in gladness and thanksgiving to Him Who gave you *your* release, and Who would extend it *through* you.

The practical application of the Holy Spirit's purpose is extremely simple, but it *is* unequivocal. In fact in order to be simple, it *must* be unequivocal. The simple is merely what is easily understood, and for this it is apparent that it must be clear. The setting of the Holy Spirit's goal is general. Now He will work with you to make it specific \[for application *is* specific\]. There are certain very specific guidelines He provides for any situation, but remember that you do not yet realize their universal application. Therefore it is essential at this point to use them in each situation separately, until you can more safely look *beyond* each situation in an understanding far broader than you now possess. In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is, “What do I want to come of this? What is it *for*?” The clarification of the goal belongs at the *beginning*, for it is this which will determine the outcome. In the ego's procedure, this is reversed. The *situation* becomes the determiner of the outcome, which can be anything. The reason for this disorganized approach is evident. The ego does not know what it *wants* to come of it. It is aware of what it does *not* want, but only that. It has no positive goal at all. Without a clear cut positive goal, set at the outset, the situation just seems to happen and makes no sense until it has *already* happened. *Then* you look back at it and try to piece together what it must have meant. And you will be *wrong*. Not only is your judgment in the past, but you have no idea what *should* happen. No goal was set with which to bring the means in line. And now the only judgment left to make is whether or not the ego likes it—is it acceptable, or does it call for vengeance? The absence of a criterion for outcome set *in advance* makes understanding doubtful and evaluation impossible. The value of deciding in advance what you *want* to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to *make* it happen. You will therefore make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of your objective and concentrate on everything which helps you meet it. It is quite noticeable that this approach has brought you closer to the Holy Spirit's sorting out of truth and falsity. The true becomes what can be used to meet the goal. The false becomes the useless from this point of view. The situation now has meaning, but only because the *goal* has made it meaningful. The goal of truth has further practical advantages. If the situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome *must* be peace. And this is quite *apart* from what the outcome *is*. If peace is the condition of truth and sanity and cannot be *without* them, where peace is *they* must be. Truth comes of itself. If you experience peace, it is because the truth has come to you, and you will see the outcome truly, for deception cannot prevail against you. And you will recognize the outcome *because* you are at peace. Here again, you see the opposite of the ego's way of looking, for the ego believes the *situation* brings the experience. The Holy Spirit knows that the situation is as the goal determines it and is experienced *according* to the goal. The goal of truth requires faith. Faith is implicit in the acceptance of the Holy Spirit's purpose, and this faith is all-inclusive. Where the goal of truth is set, there faith *must* be. The Holy Spirit sees the situation as a *whole*. The goal establishes the fact that everyone involved in it will play his part in its accomplishment. This is inevitable. No one will fail in anything. This seems to ask for faith beyond you and beyond what you can give. Yet this is so only from the viewpoint of the ego, for the ego believes in “solving” conflict through fragmentation and does *not* perceive the situation as a whole. Therefore, it seeks to split off segments of the situation and deal with them *separately*, for it has faith in separation and not in wholeness. Confronted with any aspect of the situation which seems to be difficult, the ego will attempt to take this aspect elsewhere and resolve it there. And it will seem to be successful, except that this attempt conflicts with unity and *must* obscure the goal of truth. And peace will not be experienced except in fantasy. Truth has not come because faith has been denied, being withheld from where it rightfully belonged. Thus do you lose the understanding of the situation the goal of truth would bring. For fantasy solutions bring but the illusion of experience, and the illusion of peace is not the condition in which the truth can enter. The substitutes for aspects of the situation are the witnesses to your lack of faith. They demonstrate that you did not believe that the situation and the *problem* were in the same place. The problem *was* the lack of faith, and it is this you demonstrate when you remove it from its source and place it elsewhere. As a result, you do not see the *problem*. Had you not lacked the faith it could be solved, the problem would be gone. And the situation would have been meaningful to you because the interference in the way of understanding would have been removed. To remove the problem elsewhere is to *keep* it. For you remove yourself *from* it and make it unsolvable.

There is no problem in any situation that faith will not solve. There is no shift in any aspect of the problem but will make solution impossible. For if you shift part of the problem elsewhere, the meaning of the problem *must* be lost, and the solution to the problem is inherent in its meaning. Is it not possible that all your problems *have* been solved, but you have removed yourself from the solution? Yet faith must be where something has been done and where you *see* it done. A situation is a relationship, being the joining of thoughts. If problems are perceived, it is because the thoughts are judged to be in conflict. But if the goal is truth, this is impossible. Some idea of bodies must have entered, for minds cannot attack. The thought of bodies is the sign of faithlessness, for bodies cannot solve anything. And it is their intrusion on the relationship, an error in your thoughts *about* the situation, which then becomes the justification for your lack of faith. You *will* make this error, but be not at all concerned with that. The error does not matter. Faithlessness brought to faith will never interfere with truth. But faithlessness used *against* truth will always destroy faith. If you lack faith, ask that it be restored where it was *lost* and seek not to have it made up to you elsewhere as if you had been unjustly deprived of it. Only what *you* have not given can be lacking in *any* situation. But remember this: the goal of holiness was set for your relationship and *not* by you. You did not set it because holiness cannot be seen *except* through faith, and your relationship was not holy *because* your faith in one another was so limited and little. Your faith must grow to meet the goal that has been set. The goal's reality will call this forth, for you will see that peace and faith will not come separately. What situation *can* you be in without faith and remain faithful to each other? Every situation in which you find yourself is but a means to meet the purpose set for your relationship. See it as something else, and you *are* faithless. Use not your faithlessness. Let it enter and look upon it calmly, but do not *use* it. Faithlessness is the servant of illusion and wholly faithful to its master. Use it and it will carry you straight to illusions. Be tempted not by what it offers you. It interferes not with the goal, but with the value of the goal to *you*. Accept not the illusion of peace it offers, but look upon its offering and recognize it *is* illusion. The goal of illusion is as closely tied to faithlessness as faith to truth. If you lack faith in anyone to fulfill, and *perfectly*, his part in any situation dedicated in advance to truth, *your* dedication is divided. And so you have been faithless to each other and used your faithlessness *against* each other. No relationship is holy unless its holiness goes with it everywhere. As holiness and faith go hand in hand, so must its faith go everywhere with it. The goal's reality will call forth and *accomplish* every miracle needed for its fulfillment. Nothing too small or too enormous, too weak or too compelling, but will be gently turned to its use and purpose. The universe will serve it gladly, as it serves the universe. But do not *interfere*. The power set in you in whom the Holy Spirit's goal has been established is so far beyond your little conception of the infinite that you have no idea how great the strength that goes with you. And you can use *this* in perfect safety. Yet for all its might, so great it reaches past the stars and to the universe that lies beyond them, your little faithlessness can make it useless if you would use the faithlessness instead. Yet think on this, and learn the *cause* of faithlessness: You think you hold against the other what he has done to you. But what you really blame him for is what *you* did to *him*. It is not *his* past but *yours* you hold against him. And you lack faith in him because of what *you* were. Yet you are as innocent of what you were as he is. What never was is causeless and is not *there* to interfere with truth. There *is* no cause for faithlessness, but there *is* a Cause for faith. That Cause has entered any situation which shares Its purpose. The light of truth shines from the center of the situation and touches everyone to whom the situation's purpose calls. It calls to *everyone*. There is no situation which does not involve your *whole* relationship in every aspect and complete in every part. You can leave nothing of yourself outside it and keep the situation holy. For it shares the purpose of your whole relationship and derives its meaning from it. Enter each situation with the faith that you give to each other, or you *are* faithless to your own relationship. Your faith will call the others to share your purpose, as this same purpose called forth the faith in *you*. And you will see the means you once employed to lead you to illusions transformed to means for truth. \[Truth calls for faith, and faith makes room *for truth*.\] When the Holy Spirit changed the purpose of your relationship by exchanging yours for His, the goal He placed there was extended to every situation in which you enter or will *ever* enter. And every situation was thus made free of the past, which would have made it purposeless. You call for faith because of Him Who walks with you in *every* situation. You are no longer wholly insane, nor no longer alone. For loneliness in God *must* be a dream. You whose relationship shares the Holy Spirit's goal are set apart from loneliness because the truth has come. Its call for faith is strong. Use not your faithlessness against it, for it calls you to salvation and to peace.

The holy instant is nothing more than a special case or an extreme example of what every situation is *meant* to be. The meaning which the Holy Spirit's purpose has given it is also given to every situation. It calls forth just the same suspension of faithlessness, withheld and left unused, that faith might answer to the call of truth. The holy instant is the shining example, the clear and unequivocal demonstration of the meaning of every relationship and every situation, seen as a *whole*. Faith has accepted every aspect of the situation, and faithlessness has not forced any exclusion on it. It is a situation of perfect peace simply because you have let it be what it *is*. This simple courtesy is all the Holy Spirit asks of you. Let truth be what it is. Do not intrude upon it, do not attack it, do not interrupt its coming. Let it encompass every situation and bring you peace. Not even faith is asked of you, for truth asks nothing. Let it enter, and it will call forth and *secure* for you the faith you need for peace. But rise you not against it, for against your opposition it *cannot* come. Would you not *want* to make a holy instant of every situation? For such is the gift of faith, freely given wherever faithlessness is laid aside unused. And then the power of the Holy Spirit's purpose is free to use instead. This power *instantly* transforms all situations into one sure and continuous means for establishing His purpose and demonstrating its reality. What has been demonstrated has called for faith and has been *given* it. Now it becomes a fact from which faith can no longer *be* withheld. The strain of refusing faith to truth is enormous and far greater than you realize. But to answer truth with faith entails no strain at all. To you who have acknowledged the call of your Redeemer, the strain of not responding to His call seems to be greater than before. This is not so. Before, the strain was there but you attributed it to something else, believing that the “something else” produced it. This was *never* true. For what the “something else” produced was sorrow and depression, sickness and pain, darkness and dim imaginings of terror, cold fantasies of fear and fiery dreams of hell. And it was nothing but the intolerable strain of refusing to give faith to truth and see its evident reality. Such was the crucifixion of the Son of God. His faithlessness did this to him. Think carefully before you let yourself use faithlessness against him. For he is risen, and you have accepted the cause of his awakening as yours. You have assumed your part in his redemption, and you are now fully responsible to him. Fail him not now, for it has been given you to realize what your lack of faith in him must mean to *you*. His salvation *is* your only purpose. See only this in every situation, and it will be a means for *bringing* only this. When you accepted truth as the goal for your relationship, you became givers of peace as surely as your Father gave peace to you. For the goal of peace cannot be accepted apart from its conditions, and you *had* faith in it, for no one accepts what he does not believe is real. Your purpose has not changed and *will* not change, for you accepted what can *never* change. And nothing that it needs to be forever changeless can you now withhold from it. Your release is certain. Give as you have received. And demonstrate that you have risen far beyond *any* situation that could hold you back and keep you separate from Him Whose call you answered.