A: You mean, probably, those who do not even come to you through some friend or relative? Then your only responsibility is to know the truth, and if they are receptive, they will respond to it; and if they are not receptive and do not respond to it, you have done all that you can. I believe that what you’re trying to say is that you’re determined that they’re going to get well, even if they aren’t, and that is sort of taking from them their liberty.
Everyone has the right to live or to die and to live in accord with their own way of life. Now, if they want materia medica, you have no more right to interfere with their freedom than you would want them to come to your home with a doctor and say, “Here, you’ve got to have this doctor, because I want you to get well my way.” No.
On the other hand, and this I referred to a few minutes ago, you do have a responsibility. If you know of someone who is ill, you can’t afford just to pass by on the other side of the road and neglect them. You must retire for a moment within yourself and lift them up spiritually and realize their true identity and the fact that disease in and of itself is not power, and that there is no interference between God and the demonstration of God-being.
That is not only your right, but it is your duty; but that is as far as you have any right to go without the request of an individual or someone acting for an individual not capable of acting for themselves—in other words, a minor child. You can respond to the call of a parent or a person who is mentally unbalanced and cannot know enough to ask for spiritual help, or an unconscious person, or a dying person. But aside from that, please give everybody the same freedom. For all you know, they may wish to pass on, and you have no right to prevent them from fulfilling their highest sense of right at any given moment, for you cannot live their lives for them.
1This copyrighted excerpt is from Recording 225A: 1958 London Closed Class, titled “Realizing Grace Through Conscious Contact Within.” It is posted with the kind permission of the Estate of Joel S. Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available from The Infinite Way Office or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
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