Lesson 187

W-pI.187.1. No one can give unless he has. ² In fact, giving is proof of having. ³ We have made this point before. ⁴ What seems to make it hard to credit is not this. ⁵ No one can doubt that you must first possess what you would give. ⁶ It is the second phase on which the world and true perception differ. ⁷ Having had and given, then the world asserts that you have lost what you possessed. ⁸ The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess.

W-pI.187.2. How is this possible? ² For it is sure that if you give a finite thing away, your body's eyes will not perceive it yours. ³ Yet we have learned that things but represent the thoughts that make them. ⁴ And you do not lack for proof that when you give ideas away, you strengthen them in your own mind. ⁵ Perhaps the form in which the thought seems to appear is changed in giving. ⁶ Yet it must return to him who gives. ⁷ Nor can the form it takes be less acceptable. ⁸ It must be more.

W-pI.187.3. Ideas must first belong to you, before you give them. ² If you are to save the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. ³ But you will not believe that this is done until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you look upon. ⁴ Herein is the idea of giving clarified and given meaning. ⁵ Now you can perceive that by your giving is your store increased.

W-pI.187.4. Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them. ² What you thought you did not have is thereby proven yours. ³ Yet value not its form. ⁴ For this will change and grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. ⁵ No form endures. ⁶ It is the thought behind the form of things that lives unchangeable.

W-pI.187.5. Give gladly. ² You can only gain thereby. ³ The thought remains, and grows in strength as it is reinforced by giving. ⁴ Thoughts extend as they are shared, for they can not be lost. ⁵ There is no giver and receiver in the sense the world conceives of them. ⁶ There is a giver who retains; another who will give as well. ⁷ And both must gain in this exchange, for each will have the thought in form most helpful to him. ⁸ What he seems to lose is always something he will value less than what will surely be returned to him.

W-pI.187.6. Never forget you give but to yourself. ² Who understands what giving means must laugh at the idea of sacrifice. ³ Nor can he fail to recognize the many forms which sacrifice may take. ⁴ He laughs as well at pain and loss, at sickness and at grief, at poverty, starvation and at death. ⁵ He recognizes sacrifice remains the one idea that stands behind them all, and in his gentle laughter are they healed.

W-pI.187.7. Illusion recognized must disappear. ² Accept not suffering, and you remove the thought of suffering. ³ Your blessing lies on everyone who suffers, when you choose to see all suffering as what it is. ⁴ The thought of sacrifice gives rise to all the forms that suffering appears to take. ⁵ And sacrifice is an idea so mad that sanity dismisses it at once.

W-pI.187.8. Never believe that you can sacrifice. ² There is no place for sacrifice in what has any value. ³ If the thought occurs, its very presence proves that error has arisen and correction must be made. ⁴ Your blessing will correct it. ⁵ Given first to you, it now is yours to give as well. ⁶ No form of sacrifice and suffering can long endure before the face of one who has forgiven and has blessed himself.

W-pI.187.9. The lilies that your brother offers you are laid upon your altar, with the ones you offer him beside them. ² Who could fear to look upon such lovely holiness? ³ The great illusion of the fear of God diminishes to nothingness before the purity that you will look on here. ⁴ Be not afraid to look. ⁵ The blessedness you will behold will take away all thought of form, and leave instead the perfect gift forever there, forever to increase, forever yours, forever given away.

W-pI.187.10. Now are we one in thought, for fear has gone. ² And here, before the altar to one God, one Father, one Creator and one Thought, we stand together as one Son of God. ³ Not separate from Him Who is our Source; not distant from one brother who is part of our one Self Whose innocence has joined us all as one, we stand in blessedness, and give as we receive. ⁴ The Name of God is on our lips. ⁵ And as we look within, we see the purity of Heaven shine in our reflection of our Father's Love.

W-pI.187.11. Now are we blessed, and now we bless the world. ² What we have looked upon we would extend, for we would see it everywhere. ³ We would behold it shining with the grace of God in everyone. ⁴ We would not have it be withheld from anything we look upon. ⁵ And to ensure this holy sight is ours, we offer it to everything we see. ⁶ For where we see it, it will be returned to us in form of lilies we can lay upon our altar, making it a home for Innocence Itself, Who dwells in us and offers us His Holiness as ours.