The Bible lessons included here originally appeared in the Monthly Letter of Joel S. Goldsmith beginning in January 1963 and appearing through April of 1965. Since then they have been published as pamphlets, but for the last decade they have been out of print. It is our pleasure to offer them at this time.
A mystical teaching like The Infinite Way requires study. It is not a religion where you can find comfort in a church, temple or mosque. The way one increases mystical understanding is through study and meditation. This can lead to illumination, which is a state of consciousness where the presence of God is experienced. The tools we have for this kind of study go back to antiquity. Many great lights lived as transparencies for the Divine, and many left records of the principles necessary to live in that consciousness. Joel Goldsmith's work is a message of Christian mysticism, and he left a large body of work for people to study. To fully understand the principles he left to the world it is helpful to know of the Bible.
These lessons require the active participation of the student. They require more effort than just reading from a book; they guide the student into finding the connections between the modern presentation of mysticism and its ancient roots. Not everything in the Bible is spiritual. Much of it describes the struggle of a people wanting to know God, and defines their concept of what God is and how man relates to the divine and to his fellow human beings. The mystical revelation in the Bible is hard to find. Many times it is veiled behind a human agenda. Because of Joel's many years in Christian Science, where the Bible is essential to the service, Joel knew the Bible and was able to unveil its mystical thread. In his Infinite Way message Joel continued to use the Bible as the foundation for mystical revelation. Joel recognized Virginia Stephenson's expertise in the Bible and asked her to prepare lessons that he could include in his monthly letters. These lessons focused the students on the various principles and aspects of mystical unfoldment, and gave them an opportunity for contemplation and meditation.
To use these lessons, you will need a Bible, preferably the King James Version, as that is what Joel used and the corresponding Infinite Way book. You begin by reading the passages from the Bible. These passages have been selected to emphasize the theme of the lesson. Next you will read the paragraph or paragraphs from the designated book. Following this kind of study you will increase your knowledge of scripture, and you will discover the correlation between today's awareness of mysticism and its ancient root.
Joel Goldsmith mentioned the value of these lessons in a talk to the students in Cape Town, South Africa in1962. You can listen to what Joel said below. The excerpt is from recording No. 506B 1962 Cape Town Class, "Love Expressed."
(A note for study: an incomplete paragraph at the top of the page is not the first paragraph.)