1. Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. 2It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel. 3It sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. 4Would you be this, if Christ appeared to you in all His glory, asking you but this:
5Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the world, or would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.
6For He has come, and He is asking this.
2. How do you make the choice? 2How easily is this explained! 3You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you. 4And what you choose is what you think is real. 5Simply by never using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power. 6And the light of Christ in you is given charge of everything you do. 7For you have brought your weakness unto Him, and He has given you His strength instead.
3. Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. 2In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, “My brother, choose again.” 3He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the truth. 4He would remove all misery from you whom God created altar unto joy. 5He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams of hell, but would release your mind from everything that hides His face from you. 6His Holiness is yours because He is the only power that is real in you. 7His strength is yours because He is the Self that God created as His only Son.
4. The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be. 2Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ’s strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. 3For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight. 4The saviors of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who choose His strength instead of their own weakness, seen apart from Him. 5They will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power of the Will of God. 6And what they will is only what He wills.
5. Learn, then, the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:
2I am as God created me. 3His Son can suffer nothing. 4And I am His Son.
5Thus is Christ’s strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail. 6And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. 7For in that choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with truth.
6. You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. 2What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. 3Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun. 4A miracle has come to heal God’s Son, and close the door upon his dreams of weakness, opening the way to his salvation and release. 5Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.
7. Deny me not the little gift I ask, when in exchange I lay before your feet the peace of God, and power to bring this peace to everyone who wanders in the world uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear. 2For it is given you to join with him, and through the Christ in you unveil his eyes, and let him look upon the Christ in him.
8. My brothers in salvation, do not fail to hear my voice and listen to my words. 2I ask for nothing but your own release. 3There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. 4To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. 5Yet this a vision is which you must share with everyone you see, for otherwise you will behold it not. 6To give this gift is how to make it yours. 7And God ordained, in loving kindness, that it be for you.
9. Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where God’s gift can once again be recognized as ours! 2And thus will all the vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone. 3And all the loveliness which they concealed appear like lawns of Heaven to our sight, to lift us high above the thorny roads we travelled on before the Christ appeared. 4Hear me, my brothers, hear and join with me. 5God has ordained I cannot call in vain, and in His certainty I rest content. 6For you will hear, and you will choose again. 7And in this choice is everyone made free.
10. I thank You, Father, for these holy ones who are my brothers as they are Your Sons. 2My faith in them is Yours. 3I am as sure that they will come to me as You are sure of what they are, and will forever be. 4They will accept the gift I offer them, because You gave it me on their behalf. 5And as I would but do Your holy Will, so will they choose. 6And I give thanks for them. 7Salvation’s song will echo through the world with every choice they make. 8For we are one in purpose, and the end of hell is near.
11. In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother who would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks with fixed determination toward the light that shines beyond in perfect constancy. 2Give me my own, for they belong to You. 3And can You fail in what is but Your Will? 4I give You thanks for what my brothers are. 5And as each one elects to join with me, the song of thanks from earth to Heaven grows from tiny scattered threads of melody to one inclusive chorus from a world redeemed from hell, and giving thanks to You.
12. And now we say “Amen.” 2For Christ has come to dwell in the abode You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity. 3The journey closes, ending at the place where it began. 4No trace of it remains. 5Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone. 6Thy Will is done, complete and perfectly, and all creation recognizes You, and knows You as the only Source it has. 7Clear in Your likeness does the light shine forth from everything that lives and moves in You. 8For we have reached where all of us are one, and we are home, where You would have us be.