CONTENTS
Preface
Part One
I. Three Planes of Development
II. Good and Evil 27
III. Elements in Character-Building
IV. Breath Control
V. Dependence and Independence
VI. Psychic Development
VII. Self-Expression
VIII. Prayer and Its Fulfilment
IX. Immortality
X. True Dominion
Part Two
I. Practical Idealism
II. Success
III. Friendship
IV. Equality of the Sexes
V. Marriage
VI. The Rights of Children
VII. The Truth that Makes Free
VIII. The World Beautiful
IX. The Religion of Life
X. The Realization of Power
Preface
The prayer of the world today is for “light, more light.” The mind of man is reaching out for a more comprehensive knowledge of the laws which regulate and control life.
There is a wave of spiritual thought and feeling that is extending to the uttermost parts of the earth. While the ancient faiths are passing away, and man no longer accepts his religion because of the authority of any book or dogmatic creed, yet there is a new authority coming into life, such as the world has never known save in rare instances.
The authority is the realized presence of God in the individual life of man. Where one feels with the heart, and knows with the mind, and is not in any way dependent upon any or all authority, the way of life is illumined by the light within. The kingdom of God is found as a conscious reality in the soul of man, and the individual soul becomes conscious of both dominion and power and rules its own kingdom.
This little book is written with the fervent desire, on the part of the writer, to throw some light on the way of life; or perhaps better still, to call into conscious existence latent powers of being that are resident in the soul of “every man that cometh into the world.” If it fulfils this object to one or to many souls, it has accomplished its mission. If it tends to make the burdens of life lighter by bringing new joy or hope into any life, it will more than repay the author for the time and labor expended in writing it.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Brodie Patterson
Three Planes of Development
Part I
The glorious creature laughed out even in sleep!
But when full roused, each giant limb awake,
Each sinew strung, the great heart pulsing fast,
He shall start up and stand on his own earth;
Then shall his long triumphant march begin;
Thence shall his being date;—thus wholly roused,
What he achieves shall be set down to him.
When all the race is perfected alike
As man, that is; all tended to mankind,
And, man produced, all has its end thus far;
But in completed man begins anew
A tendency to God.”
—Browning
While the law of evolution, as explained by its discoverers, tends to clear up and make plain many phases and conditions of things hitherto unexplainable, there are yet numberless things shrouded in mystery.
If we accept the law of the survival of the fittest as conclusive, we must consider Nature as being in one sense thoroughly heartless; that is, that natural law decrees the destruction of all that is weak and the preservation of all that is strong. Yet for countless ages there has been a constructive work going on, having for its aim the perfecting of a habitation for living creatures, beginning with the tiniest conceivable—each habitation becoming ever more complex and complete; hence, what we see in the phenomena of growth is not the destruction of life at all; it is the destruction of imperfect form, in order that the inner living entity may begin anew the construction of a more ideal body. This process continues until each form is complete and perfect, when a new type is evolved, because there is mind-action in even the very lowest forms of life. When nourishment is required there is intelligence enough to draw, or to cause the entity to reach out after, the needed sustenance; and if Nature has not provided the means of locomotion, the latent powers of the creature are then forced into activity. I believe the time is near when the scientific world will perceive that the law of evolution is not sufficient in itself to explain the why and wherefore of life in its varying conditions and forms, and that the so-called law of natural selection will have to be discarded and another substituted that will not work injury to the law of evolution, but explain it more fully: a law that will take into account a supreme Intelligence seeking manifestation through a multiplicity of ideals; a law that will demonstrate that the ideal is always first and the expression of it last. The law of evolution deals with effects, at no point entering the realm of causation. The higher law, of which evolution is but the outer expression, will only be understood when we go to the fountain-head of things—when we seek knowledge of causes.
Knowledge coming to us in this way will give the real key with which to unlock the secrets of the external world. The one who would know must begin with causes, and through them explain effects; the law of involution first, the law of evolution last; the Immanent God, the Indwelling Spirit, the Ideal seeking expression. When John the Baptist said, “God can raise up of these stones children unto Abraham,” he did not mean an external power, but an infinite and eternal Energy pulsating even in the very stones. This is not a dead universe, but one that throbs with life from the very heart to the circumference. The universe lives and moves and has its being in God.
Our knowledge of earth-life is not eternal knowledge. It pertains to temporal things. Through its right application, however, we are enabled to develop the knowledge that is latent within each of us. This is not accumulated wisdom, but rather the potentialities of soul and mind. The enduring qualities of human life pertain to the soul.
In the first place, let us consider the ideal man as a spiritual being, animated by the spirit of God, controlled and directed by a divine intelligence—the microcosm, the very image and likeness of God—in whose life is contained an infinity of possibilities reaching from the lowest earthly conditions to a realization of oneness with God; from conditions wherein sin, sorrow and sickness weigh down and burden the life to that absolute sonship wherein the soul triumphant has dominion and power over all things. We may not postulate the “birth” of the soul, but we can trace its history through its earthly pilgrimage.
Although the spiritual man is first in reality, yet, when we come to deal with man from the phenomenal or the evolutionary point of view, we must necessarily begin with the physical or animal man—the animal that is more subtle than any beast of the field, because this man is in reality the summing up of the whole animal kingdom. He is also the epitome of all the intelligence that controls and directs the animal kingdom.
Every characteristic found in any of the lower kingdoms can be found in man, so that when man looks out on the visible world about him he is looking on a picture of what he is, or what he has been; there is absolutely nothing that has not its correspondence in his own conscious life.
In the purely physical stage of development, man to a very great degree is governed by the same law that controls and directs the life of the animal. If he conforms to the law of this lower plane, he is comparatively well and happy. It is not as yet essential to his well-being that he have conceptions as to his relations to God and humanity. Moderation and temperance are, however, qualities necessary for his physical health. If whatever mind he has developed is comparatively free from the passions of anger, hatred, and strife—if the life is in a state of control, so far as it has developed—it makes no difference whether religious ideas have as yet found place in his mind. Obedience to this law of moderation in all things brings health and happiness as a natural result. The requirements for this plane of development being so few and simple, more people are found here well and strong than on the higher and more complex planes. From him to whom little is given, little is required.
At this stage of life, instinct (it can hardly be called intuition) is the guiding factor rather than thought or reason. But even at this early period in man’s life a higher consciousness is demanding recognition. There is something pressing from the center of his being that cannot and will not be ignored. Dim though it may be at first, as time goes on it becomes more and more a controlling and directing force. Instinct gives way to thought and reason, and man enters the second plane in his evolution. A new world is opened to his vision, and the work of reconstruction is begun. I would not be understood as saying that any marked change takes place at any given moment, because in all probability the change is a gradual one. It may be like the bud that has been swelling for days, or even weeks, when, lo! in the twinkling of an eye the blossom is unfolded. Doubtless there is a time when man first realizes the consciousness of a thinking, reasoning power as something distinct from and even superior to the sensuous animal life. He now finds himself between two planes of existence. The things that appeal to him from the purely physical side and the appeal that comes to him from his dawning intellectual powers cause a conflict that never ceases until the spiritual supremacy in life is attained.
It is really at this stage that a distinct sense of what is termed good and evil enters man’s consciousness. In the light of the new development, desires and habits acquired on the lower plane are looked upon as hindrances to intellectual progress. The struggle between living a new life and dying to the old one has begun, because life on this phenomenal plane of existence is one of constant change; the things that we live and believe today pass away, and behold! on the morrow a new order—for men “mount on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things.” Not that the old has been evil, but with the coming of the new there is a larger interpretation; new ideals enter the mind, and failure to live up to these higher ideals constitutes sin, or lack of conformity to one’s knowledge of law and order. Every new and larger ideal of life brings with it increased responsibilities, and the failure to meet these responsibilities brings about a state of mental unrest and dissatisfaction which in turn finds expression in the physical organism—first producing weakness, then disease.
We must regard man as a unit. The soul is not separate or distinct from mind, for mind is its offspring—the something wherewith it becomes related to the phenomenal universe, as the body is, in turn, related to mind. What the mind thinks the body becomes, and when the mind thinks its noblest and truest thoughts of life- the body responds by giving external expression to those thoughts. Mind is related to life in two ways; we might say that it stands between the phenomenal universe on the one hand and the unseen world of causes on the other. In the first stages of its development it turns almost exclusively to the outer, believing that reality is to be found there, as well as everything needful to satisfy its life, having as yet little if any knowledge of the spiritual force or power that gave it being. We now have what might be termed the carnal mind, or the mind not yet illumined by the indwelling spirit. We cannot look to the purely spiritual side of life from the animal plane, and account for success or failure from that point of view; but we must go right to the physical—to man’s sense-nature—to find the determining point. Take two individuals, then, in whom the sense nature is equally developed, and who possess a perfect development of the animal functions. We find in one case a degree of moderation— that is, a certain amount of temperance in the use of material things—which is missing in the other. Again, we find that one has a degree of perseverance that is not possest by the other.
The purely animal quality known as instinct is not a much higher attribute when manifested by man; but when man accepts the guidance of his instinct he is led into the right course of action. When a man tries to do a thing, and persists in the effort even after repeated failures, his success is inevitable. It may at first seem very difficult, yet his instinct forbids discouragement. On this plane of existence we find men who are most successful—who develop and express genuine power because they follow its true lines.
Even on the physical plane, therefore, we find that the man who uses both moderation and perseverance accomplishes more than the one who is lacking in either of these qualities. Little by little, the man who uses moderation in all he undertakes—who perseveres and keeps firmly in mind the thing he wishes to accomplish—is certain to succeed. Moreover, because of the concentration of his force, he is becoming strong mentally and physically, for mental strength is manifested in and through the physical. The other sort of man becomes weaker each day instead of stronger, and finally Nature abandons the attempt to utilize his powers in her economy. We say that a tree is cut down because it encumbers the ground. This means that the life that has come into existence has not used its intelligence to its fullest capacity; that it must go out of its physical form and later begin the work of construction anew. Some people are spiritually lazy, others are mentally lazy, and some are physically lazy. We cannot feel strong nor equal to the duties to which we are assigned if we are victims of laziness—a condition that always results from failure to use power in the right way.
Let us examine the result of the right use of power on all three planes. We can trace the operation of the evolutionary principle in all forms of life, from the lowest creatures known to science up almost to the manifestations of divinity; hence, we should be able to discern the reasons why evolution should take place. We are born with certain appetites and desires; also with instincts and a degree of intelligence that knows how to use those qualities in the right way. Some people say that the sense-nature of man is not good, and that it must be overcome or represt; others insist that the intellectual side of man’s being is of no consequence—that the spiritual side alone is important. Yet the fact remains that every phase of man’s life—from the lowest sense plane to the highest spiritual plane—is a vital factor of his being; but its beneficence is dependent upon its right use.
We know by instinct that it is essential to our growth that we should construct in one way or another. After a time, through this effort, comes the development of intellect, by which man has power to think and reason. The physical should always be subordinate to the intellectual; for to the degree that man is intemperate in the indulgence of his passions, his mental force is reduced.
Man knows that as he perseveres he succeeds. He knows also that, as he thinks clearly, concisely, and logically, he accomplishes his undertakings. Now, the mentally strong man will bring his force to bear on one thing at a time, not on many things at once. Thus will he become truly constructive.
Besides the virtues of concentration, moderation, and perseverance, there are certain moral and ethical questions that affect the problem of life, and only as man considers them in their true relations can he hope to generate the highest power. He knows that aside from all thought of spiritual development, his mind is at peace only when he feels and acts justly toward others. He is endowed with a sense of justice, and only as he expresses it is his mind strengthened; for if he cultivates the habit of injustice, inharmony enters his mind and thus weakens his mental capabilities. Or, again, upon this plane of being he may be in danger, by an extreme cultivation of his mental faculties, to look upon his mind with its powers of thinking, reasoning and forming judgments as the highest attribute of his being. It is at this period in his life that he formulates creeds and becomes dogmatic in his religion. The thought of “justice” is a predominating one—but that justice is not always tempered with mercy.
The most cruel things the world has ever known have not come from the man on the physical plane, but from the intellectually developed man, whose life was barren of love for humanity. Men who thought they were doing the will of God have perpetrated crimes, in the name of religious creeds, too fearful to contemplate. The intellectual plane of development is the great plane of unrest, of ceaseless activities. More mental and physical disturbances occur on this plane than on either the physical or spiritual planes. On this plane man’s desires become multiplied and the mind is never satisfied. Each gratified desire brings another want to take its place. The accumulation of knowledge does not bring contentment; in fact, it becomes rather a burden. We may acquire all possible knowledge of the outer life and yet be deficient in wisdom, for wisdom and knowledge are not the same; but when they are combined the individual puts the knowledge he has to practical use. It is only through the right use of our knowledge that we become strong. When we utilize our possessions in the right way, greater possessions are acquired; thus do we learn the true secret of power. Many people think that if they half starve themselves, or if they live on certain kinds of food, or if they do or abstain from doing certain other things, they will bring about conditions that will tend to develop spirituality. But if one is right within he will do everything right without; that is to say, a man that is pure in heart will be clean and whole in body.
We need power on the physical plane; we need power on the intellectual plane, but most of all we need power on the spiritual plane, for when we consciously enter the realm of spirit, our old life-methods are entirely supplanted by the new. It is the spirit within us that contains the transforming power; the outer is but the instrument of the inner entity. Let us cease the useless effort to relate ourselves to the outer world—to people we think can aid us, or to things that we feel have benefited us—and let us seek that which shall bring the real abundance of life. Everything of value is within the realm of spirit, and we can get therefrom whatever we wish. We must get mental and physical health in the right way—through the recognition and development of our soul qualities. The man who fully realizes that he is living and moving in God can never express disease, because he has passed from under the “law of sin and death” (the law we ourselves have made), and has now come under the law of the spirit of life, which gives freedom from all negative conditions and makes for health and power.
He has come to see the light that has been shining in the darkness: the light that is to enlighten every man that cometh into the world—that light which is a spark of the divine Presence in the life of man, which must eventually become a living flame. From the very center of being, the soul attributes of faith, hope and love are pushing outward, demanding recognition. These qualities cannot be imaged in the mind; yet, beautifying and uplifting, they lend tone and color to every thought picture, until earthly things stand revealed in heavenly glory. This is the coming of the kingdom of God on earth—the transmutation – of the self-will into the divine will, where man realizes his at-one-ment with God.
From the altitude of the spiritual plane, everything is seen in a new light; old things have passed away, and, behold! all things have become new. The law of evolution has ceased to act, and the soul has become a law unto itself. The soul stands revealed as the image and likeness of its Creator; not a physical image, not a mental conception, but a spiritual consciousness endowed with divine faculties that shape reason, control thought, and perfect the physical organism. “For if the spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit which dwelleth in you.”
It is only from this plane that man perceives the unity of life; that he realizes that all life is one; and that he ceases to resist what is termed the “evil” of life and sets his face stedfastly toward the accomplishment of every undertaking through the power of good. He has risen above the turmoil and strife, so that while seeing them he is not affected by them; not that the heart has lost sympathy for the sorrow and distress existing on the other planes, but that a new consciousness has come which discloses the fact that all things work together for good. Sorrow and pain seem very real while one is passing through them: they are signals of distress showing a lack of adjustment, but they are not real or permanent conditions in the life of man. “The suffering of the present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Good and Evil
It was not strange I saw no good in man,
To overbalance all the wear and waste
Of faculties, displayed in vain, but born
To prosper in some better sphere: and why?
In my own heart had not been made wise
To trace love’s faint beginnings in mankind,
To know even hate is but a mask of love’s,
To see a good in evil, and a hope
In ill success.
—Browning
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving Soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All served, all serving; nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown.
Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
—Pope
Light is positive and radiates.
Darkness is negative and absorbs.
One is powerful, the other powerless.
We underestimate the power of good.
So with good and evil.
We exaggerate the power of ‘evil.’
Evil is the weakest thing in life.
It is a mirage, a temporary appearance only, and contrary to all the tides and currents of the universe.
Good has all the forces of the Infinite behind it.
Its power is incalculable. It never fails.
—Charles B. Newcomb
At the very outset of life man is confronted by the greatest of all mysteries: the problem of good and evil. Within this problem is contained the solution of all the lesser questions of life that vex and perplex the mind. It is not only this problem that is the first thing to demand man’s attention, but when he has solved it the world and the things of the world have lost their hold on him forever; for he has risen triumphant over sin and death; so that we might say that his solution is the Alpha and Omega of all the wisdom of the world.
In the first stages of man’s life begins the personification of good and evil, and he has many gods. Whatever affects his life in a beneficial way becomes a god of good; whatever has harmful effects, becomes a god of evil.
In his worship of the gods of the good, the qualities corresponding to those he worships, come into a living existence in his own nature. In the same way the attributes with which he endows his gods of evil, find expression in his own life. He is thus constantly between two forces; one making for good and the other for evil; the one calling out for love and reverence, the other, hate and fear.
As he allows his mind to come under the sway of the one or the other, so his whole life is influenced and he becomes what his gods are. As his knowledge increases, the number of his gods decreases, until at last he has but two—a god of good and a god of evil; but his state is no better than before. The many personalities of the past have resolved themselves into the attributes of these two gods. At the very heart of man’s life is the divine ideal which is eternally steadfast, which knows naught of anything save good. To some degree he is conscious of this; and instinctively he places the evil of life outside himself so, when he is guilty of any evil thing, he attributes it to the influence exerted over him by the god of evil. He shifts the weight of responsibility from his own shoulders, and the devil is made the scapegoat for his sins. When, however, he conforms to his higher ideals of good, he attributes this good to himself rather than to any external being.
The reason for these two conditions might be summed up as follows: There being no evil at the heart of life, it follows that evil must be external to the life; therefore, the responsibility of evil-doing must be placed elsewhere. But the sense of good being an innate quality of the life does not require any external being to account for it. Evil does not reach further back than the imaging faculty of the mind of man, and it comes from man’s failure to comprehend the true relation of things in life; it comes from man’s inability to grasp the unity of life; it comes from partial vision and undeveloped knowledge, wherein things are seen not as they are, but rather as they seem to be. There is a law of contradictions which governs the true knowledge that distinguishes between the real and the unreal; a law which eventually makes clear that “all is of God that is or is to be, and God is good.”
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil shows us that the reality of good is only made evident to us through that which contradicts it—evil; that evil is not something in and of itself, but rather the dark background which brings out life’s perfect picture; that it has only power as we believe in it and give it power; that it is the absence of light and of knowledge. Just as darkness is the absence of the light of the sun, so evil is the absence of the knowledge of the law of God, and exists, as darkness exists, not as a reality, but as an unreal something which shall pass away before the coming of the light of truth.
No matter at what point on the surface of life we start, no matter how evil a thing may seem to be, in the final analysis of the underlying thought or motive we find nothing but good. Good may be diverted into wrong channels, and so fail in positive expression. When the ideal is not perfectly expressed, as the law demands it shall be, the perverted good becomes apparent evil. Because of perfect law and order throughout the universe, any failure on the part of man to bring his life in accord with this law and order violates his intuitive recognition of the harmony necessary to his well-being, and results in a discordant condition which is termed evil. Let us hold clearly in mind this thought: Everything is good. Let us consider the universe as a perfect whole composed of many parts, each part having its perfect office. When, however, a part is made to do duty for other than that for which it was intended, the law is violated and an element of friction and discord is engendered, which constitutes what is termed evil. Some time it will be recognized that whatsoever man does which results in harmony and peace of mind is in reality the fulfilling of the law. It makes no difference one way or the other what the conventionally minded think, harmony is, after all, the key-note of existence.
In the life of man there is a constant process of development, each stage being perfect within its limitations, just as the unripened fruit is perfect in so far as it has developed. To the more highly developed mind, when there is knowledge of law and order, looking back on the stages below and failing to find knowledge equal to its own, it conceives such conditions as being wicked or evil.
Shakespeare uttered a great truth when he said there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so; and Paul a still greater one when he said he was persuaded that all things are good, but to him who thinketh a thing to be evil, to him it is evil. At every stage in the development of man, wherein there is lack of knowledge and conformity to law, such development is brought about through many and varied experiences and these cause sorrow of mind and pain of body. If man cannot see and choose the higher way, there remains no other way for his purification save through the fire which burns out the dross of life. While passing through the experiences needful to the working out of his salvation, and failing to see the good, he looks upon his trials and sufferings as being evil.
There are no mistakes in God’s plan; God did not make some people good and others evil, neither did He foreordain some to everlasting life and others to everlasting death. His perfect thought is wrapped up in every soul, and there is nothing that can nullify it.
Man is not good or bad; knowledge and right use of mental faculties tend to make him harmonious. Lack of knowledge and consequent disobedience of law result in discord so that the chords of life are not harmoniously played. But as with the musician, experience and practice make perfect. Whether a man is consciously and actively engaged in discovering and conforming to law and order, or whether his eyes are blinded to the light, the force of life pressing outward from the center brings with it unfoldment of innate qualities. Where consciousness of the truth of this exists the real joy of life comes through the knowing and the doing.
In our study of good and evil, we must approach it from still another standpoint; that is, that every inner ideal is seeking outward expression, and in this effort there is the resistance which one form of life offers to another. In the great economy of life up to a certain stage in the development of man resistance seems to be a necessary qualification to growth. When the resistance becomes too great, growth is thwarted; when there is little resistance there is comparatively little mental or physical development. An illustration of this may be found among the people who live in the Frigid Zone where the outer resistance is so great it becomes a struggle to maintain physical existence, and the sensibilities of the people are blunted, while in the Torrid Zone, where physical existence is so easily maintained, there is a consequent sluggishness of mind and body. Only in the temperate zones do we find the more perfect development which comes from resistance being neither too great nor too little, showing us that between extremes man finds his point of balance. The balance on one plane differs from the balance on another.
The resistance and competition on a. lower plane, when transferred to a higher plane, would no longer prove beneficial; so the law of resistance, as understood by the physically and intellectually developed, would make way for the law of non-existence, when man unfolds to a knowledge of his true relationship to God and man. One might ask, Does the law of God change? No: the law is eternal and unchanging, but man’s perception of it changes. At one stage of life we are only able to perceive the most external manifestation of law, so that it seems to be physical in its inception and action. At another stage, thought and reason reach a still higher conclusion. Law here has its beginning in mind and its manifestation in the material; but in both cases there is failure to recognize the perfect law, for sin, sickness, and death continue to be real conditions rather than conditions which have an existence that passes away with the coming of the fuller knowledge of the law of the spirit of life which frees from sin and death.
In reality there is neither sin, sickness, nor death. God’s law can neither be broken nor set aside, and when man knows this of a very truth then will come the real freedom of life. The belief in the personal self is one of the causes of much of the seeming evil of the world. The thought of personality separates man from God and from his fellow man, and personal existence and well-being become the leading motives of life. This condition generates selfishness and the many evils which flow from it. If we could know that there is no separation from God or man in all the great universe, that God is in all, that life is in all, that man is one with the Source of his being, that men are as closely related to one another as they are to God, that we are nothing apart from God, that one’s neighbor is himself, the thought of personality would fade from our minds forever.
Selfishness is the greatest devil one has to contend with in life. It not only retards one’s own progress but also stands in the way of the development of others; in that whatever one habitually feels or thinks is constantly acting upon the lives and minds of others, helping to generate similar conditions. The selfish thought and feeling can go out from one who indulges in it adding to the density of other minds who to some degree are living selfish lives. Our thoughts can become imps of darkness or angels of light—just as we choose to make them. False thoughts and false emotions engendered by selfishness are the seeds of sin and sorrow, disease and death. The one, however, who lives the unselfish life is through such living protecting himself from all adverse influence, for selfishness can no more enter the mental atmosphere of an unselfish person than darkness can come while the sun is shining. Selfishness is the father of lies, whose place is in the outer darkness. Nothing is ever gained by a selfish person, save the experience which leads him in the end to see how unprofitable selfishness is and the necessity of leaving it behind him. As one presses forward in his quest of light and truth, the life becomes a constant overcoming, wherein all the shadows and unrealities are left behind; one wherein all that is partial or incomplete becomes whole and complete and the knowledge of the real self comes: then all is changed and our thoughts, inspired by our deepest feelings, become messengers of light and life and love to bless and do good to all. All the evil is gone: God and His Creation is all there is and man is at-one with God and his fellow man.
To the pure in heart all things become pure. When man looks with God’s eyes on the world about him, he will pronounce all things good, he will know that from first to last all things have been working together for his perfect development, and that God’s law when fully understood is the law of love. Having thus risen to a knowledge of the true law, the real inheritance of life is made known: that we are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ, that we have passed from death unto life into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
Elements in Character-Building
Will faith ever remain unscientific, will science ever remain uninspired? Faith cures disease, causes energy, clears the understanding, conquers men, gives the losing cause its final triumph. Faith as a law of scientific investigation has not been cultivated, and science as a method of divine inspiration has not been pursued. Will no one teach us the law of the wisdom of true spirituality?”
—Mozoomdar
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God;
Pursues that chain which links the immense design,
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above, and some below;
Learns from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end, in Love of Cod, and Love of Man.
—Pope
Faith
What we are is the result of what we have thought. In the process of evolution thinking may have covered a vast period of time, nevertheless thought shapes the protoplasm as well as every other form in the ascent of life until in the fullness of time the body of man becomes the outward expression of that which he has thought himself to be. Mind, intelligence, thought, are in all things, even from the least to the greatest; thought in itself is only the instrument which shapes all form; the real substance of life is faith. Take away the element of faith and thought ceases to be creative. To the degree that faith enters into the life, man becomes a creator. In thoroughly intelligent character-building we must consider the relative value of everything entering into the plan of life in order to get perfect results.
Faith may be said to be the foundation principle in the life of man; through it we become consciously related to God. From faith were the mountains made and by faith shall the mountains be removed. There are no obstacles in life which are not leveled by the power of faith. Faith is the real substance of life and love is the only law to which faith must conform. We lay an eternal foundation when we accept love as the law and faith as the substance of all things. There is no law, there is no substance, apart from love and faith. The recognition of this makes man one with God, giving him dominion and power over all things.
Many have thought faith a state created by the mind, something we could add to or take from, but the mind is not its author. The mind may throw wide the door and invite faith to enter and flood the outer life. When this takes place man can accomplish in the outer world whatever he wills to do. A New Testament writer tells us of the wonderful works done by the great and holy men of Israel through faith. When we realize its importance and absolute necessity to our well-being, we should desire it fervently and seek it diligently. The influx of faith is dependent very greatly on its use; only as we use it in accordance with its law does the supply equal the demand. The real development of character comes through the mind’s use of faith, and through its influence the mind becomes positive, and is no longer lost in a sea of doubt.
Thought is like the Galatea of Pygmalion, while faith is the principle which animates and gives life. Bring the animating principle into everything you think and everything you do, and your every work will become instinct with life. The great pictures, the great music, the great statuary, the great poetry, and everything that has been great in this world, has been great only because of the faith put into the work. Everything which endures, endures because of faith. Let us desire, let us pray, that in all things we may have faith. Doubt saps the very force of life, and in a spirit of doubt we can accomplish no good thing. In the spirit of faith we put our hope and trust in God, the mind’s thought pictures become clear, there is perfect fearlessness, and every faculty of mind functions in the way it was intended from the beginning.
We make our lives complex and hard to live by departing from the great essential things of life and living in the non-essentials, but we can be what we will to be, through love and faith. Character-building is not making something out of nothing, but it is the right use of the talents with which we are endowed. We do not build character through or by the external knowledge of life. The real fountain of wisdom has its source in the secret places of the Most High, “whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”; but wisdom, the word of God in the life, shall endure forever.
Let us learn to be thoroughly consistent; let us see that the law in its action discloses to us an evolution from within rather than an accumulation of knowledge from without. Faith is the great vitalizing force of the universe; it heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, it is more real than anything we can see or touch. Faith is not belief. Without faith, works are dead, yet the real manifestation of faith becomes evident through works. In character-building we require faith in God, in man, and in ourselves, as well as in whatever we undertake. If we are lacking in faith life becomes a failure; abiding in faith, all things tend toward success. Some time the importance and value of faith in the life will become so thoroughly understood that doubt will have no place.
Hope
Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow
Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe;
Won by their sweets, in Nature’s languid hour,
The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower;
There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing,
What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring!
What viewless forms th’ Æolian organ play,
And sweep the furrow’d line of anxious thought away.
—Joseph Campbell
Faith and hope are so closely related, it is difficult to speak of one as apart from the other. Hope has an important office in life, for it is the foundation on which faith builds; there can be no living faith without hope. It is because we know in part that we have hope for still greater things. Before the spirit of hope, gloom and doubt must pass away; hope tends to clear, and improve the mental vision, and rest comes to the mind because of its presence. All the pessimism of the world has never had the tendency to make man better, and we know that happiness is as far from pessimism as the North Pole is from the South. With the inner realization of hope will come an outer expression, which in itself will be a gospel of joy and glad tidings of peace and good-will, giving hope and courage to others.
Life is one eternal round of progress; in its spiral motion, one height reached discloses still another, making hope an eternal factor in man’s development. Hope is a never-failing spring; from it we drink the waters which quench the thirst occasioned by the unrest of doubt and despair. Let us learn to place our hope and trust in the Eternal Father who brought us into existence—that Father who has cared for us and has given to us of every attribute which He possesses; given them to us that we may use them to become His representative on this earth. Let us learn to be hopeful in all things, knowing that whatever comes to us brings a lesson that will work for our good and profit. Under seemingly the most adverse circumstances, hope is to be found if we seek it, and it will aid us to overcome all difficulties. Live in the spirit of love, let hope do its perfect work and let the faith which is in thee be the substance from which the whole life is fashioned.
Love
“There’s no good of life—but love—but love; What else looks good is but some shade flung from love—Gilds it—gives it worth.”
It is not possible to understand in our minds the nature of God-love. In our souls we may feel and know, but language is dumb when we try to express through spoken words the fullness of love. For oft are we deceived by its counterfeit, emotion, which is awakened by some external influence brought to bear on the mind. We may rest assured of the fact that no element of selfishness enters into divine love, that jealousy is no part of it. Love, like the air we breathe, is universal; it is in us and we are in it, and yet we may be blind to its influence. It is God ever present with us, even though we are unaware of the Presence.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. Where one consciously abides in love there can be no thought or act contrary to law. It is the law of the spirit of life which makes us free from the law of sin and death. He who lives in this law, abides in the shadow of the Almighty; no evil thing shall befall him, for love taketh no account of evil, there being no sense of separateness in love. Evil comes into the life of man, because of his thought of separateness from God. Love is the eternal sunshine of life, and to one living in that sunshine, there can be no darkness. Under its influence the external universe radiates a heavenly beauty, and perfection is everywhere apparent. Where love is there is kindness; where love is every thought becomes a perfect deed.
Love is the pearl of great price, and its possession includes all else. Love in the life of man radiates in all directions, influencing every person who comes in contact with it, and changing every condition in life. Only as we love do we become really conscious of living, and without love we are dead—dead to a knowledge of God and man; dead to a knowledge of our real selves. The resurrection to the life eternal comes with the conscious recognition of the divine love working in us to will and to do. When we desire love with our whole thought, and keep the mind restful, then will love come to us and bless us, bringing perfect happiness and that peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Desire in heart and mind is the motive power or magnet which attracts to us, not only things from the objective world, but opens the way for an overflow of the inner feeling. It relates us to both the inner and outer world and is of the utmost importance in aiding the development of life. If we desire to control our lives in a lawful, orderly way, then we may say that the first step has been taken in the attainment of control. All desire for real development in life must be directed toward the awakening of faith, hope and love, the attributes of the soul, which have their source in God, and the true self-control finds its inception in these highest attributes. He who seeks to bring these soul-qualities into an active existence in his life will find it the most direct way to acquire perfect control of thought and action; because in working from the center outward, the way of life is a straight and narrow one. Meditation, desire to know God’s will, brings the outer life into closer touch with the inner forces. As the mind becomes restful and is at peace it mirrors and reflects the universal will. This inner realization of oneness is in turn reflected to the mind from the outer world, producing both unity and harmony of thought. When the mind realizes both the inner and outer unity of life and expression, all sense of fear is lost, the whole attitude of man becomes changed, the thought of oneness enters into everything, duty to God and to man becomes plain, every thought-picture is a true one, every act finds perfect expression, power is not only rightly directed, but its course is unimpeded and free; every faculty of mind responds to the soul-impulse and the body is strengthened, quickened, and renewed.
In centering the mind on the positive good, all negative or evil thought disappears, the kingdom of God is attained, the real purpose of life is disclosed in that man now glorifies God by showing forth His perfect image and likeness.
Temptation
As an element in character-building, many people might easily consider that temptation had no place and might desire to avoid anything of that nature, and yet it is without doubt one of the greatest elements in character-building. Therefore if I seem to enter into the matter at some length, it is because I feel the necessity of showing the influence it has upon our every-day life. William Penn has said,
God is better served, in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.”
In the Lord’s prayer, we read, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Whether or not the Master ever used the words, “Lead us not into temptation,” the fact stands preeminent that temptation as a means of growth is necessary in the life of man.
We are told that Jesus was tempted and tried like as we are, and it would seem that such temptation had for its purpose the perfecting of His own life, as well as the presenting of an ideal which would prove helpful to all who would follow in His footsteps. The sin does not consist in one’s being tempted, but in entertaining the temptation and allowing it to fasten itself in one’s mind until at last it finds expression in word or act.
The above passage, from the Lord’s Prayer, would convey to the mind the thought of God as tempting or leading us into temptation, while in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness the devil or adversary was the one that tempted. We are also told in the Scriptures not to say we are tempted of God, for God tempts no man. No matter how the passage may read, we are led to believe that the thought would be better expressed, “Leave us not in temptation”—that is, in our hour of trial, God’s spirit be with us, causing us to rise above trial and temptation, delivering us from the evil of wrong-doing.
Throughout life we are encompassed by temptation, so that there is no time when we are not obliged to choose between a lesser and a greater good. As we meet and overcome each temptation in life we are strengthened; each temptation put under foot brings with it the ability to meet and overcome still greater things. Temptation is rooted in selfishness and there is no temptation apart from it. By overcoming the personal self and rising into the universal Self-hood, we are freed from its influence. It is not the spirit of God that tempts us, but it is the carnal mind, the mind of the world. The spirit of God is with us to lead us out of all temptation.
On all planes of consciousness temptation is active, but it is more subtle on the higher planes. On the physical plane the appeal comes to man through his sense-nature—the things that are pleasing to the eye and the things that are good for food. All these are good in their relative places, but when a universal good is subordinated to a selfish end, the willful perversion becomes a source of evil.
It must not be understood that the sense nature of man is evil in itself; the senses are not the arbiters of one’s actions, but convey to the mind reports of objective phenomena. The mind acting on these impressions received, determines the course to be followed, be it beneficial or otherwise. Temptations on the lower plane can be clearly defined, having to do solely with things of a purely physical nature; and with temperance and moderation—refraining from excess in all things—and with thoughtful consideration for the welfare of others, man overcomes temptation, thereby strengthening his own character.
An entirely different phase of temptation is that which comes to a man in the desire to be praised by men, and here the perversion of his highest development often occurs in order to gratify the vanity of the mind. Pride, envy, and jealousy are among the enemies to be met and conquered. We cannot so easily define the temptations on this plane as on the plane below, for their name is legion. It is possible, however, to determine whether an action is right or wrong by its effect on ourselves and others. Anything that confers a real personal good cannot bring in its train an evil effect on some other life. Every good thought and every good deed have their centers in individual life, but in their actual working out they must bless the lives of many; but what works an injury to the many can bring no good to the individual. Every time one foregoes a selfish desire and generously gives unto others of his fullness, life becomes easier, and the temptation of that desire ceases to vex and trouble the life.
More subtle and far-reaching are the temptations which come to man through the desire for riches and power. In the pursuit of riches man loses sight of the more vital meanings of life, and the Master was quite right in saying that it was harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to enter the eye of the needle.
When one is tempted by the desire for wealth, the love of it entering the mind displaces the higher love which would work for the welfare of humanity. Great wealth is seldom, if ever, a blessing, the responsibilities it brings are rarely fulfilled, and the law holds here, as well as in all things, “To whom much is given of him much shall be required.” Very often wealth serves to develop the love of power over men, making its possessor a tyrant, depriving others not only of their worldly goods, but their mental freedom as well. Many seeking to find justification for the possession of great wealth, recount the good done by rich men; how much money they give to the support of charitable institutions, libraries, and schools for the education of the masses, as though this were enough in itself to offset all the misery and suffering caused to the many by the vast accumulation for the benefit of the one. There is a temptation even in giving, for the ostentation which brings the giver prominently before the public gratifies his pride, in that men speak well of him.
In summing up the whole matter, we would say that under one of three heads comes every temptation which presents itself in life: the appeal to the sense-nature; desire for the praise of men; love of riches and the worldly power that riches give.
We know how the Master met all these temptations. “Command that these stones be made bread,” was answered, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “Cast thyself down” (from the pinnacle of the temple), and the answer was, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
When riches and power were within the Master’s grasp he said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
When we read that Jesus was tempted and tried like as we are, yet without sin, this story of the temptation in the wilderness shows that every possible temptation was offered and was overcome by the affirmation of man’s true relation to God. There is a bread of life more essential to man than the bread which sustains his physical body. Man should never prostitute his God-given powers to win the praise of men. Riches and power should never tempt one from his allegiance and service to God.
Mistakes
Habits are formed at a time when they serve a purpose in life, but later on, when that purpose is outgrown, the habit, instead of proving helpful, often acts as a hindrance to greater development and a kind of warfare is set up between old habits and new desires. Many people are governed more through subconscious habits acquired in the past than by conscious thought action. It is almost as though they were afraid to make any new departure and they hold on to the old with a tenacity that might be worthy of a better object. They are so fearful that in any new departure they may take a mistaken course that, for the time being, they tend to retard their progress. Sometimes it is because they are fearful of interfering with their soul life that this course is followed, but be it understood that the mistakes in life are not made by the soul of man, but by the mind; neither do mistakes affect the soul. They do, however, affect the whole mental and physical life of man.
Viewed from the larger standpoint there are no mistakes. Every experience that comes to us brings us a lesson whereby we may profit. The prodigal son was working out his salvation when he took the course he did just as surely as did the elder brother who never left the father’s home, and we have every reason to believe that the prodigal came to a realization of the Father’s loving kindness before his brother. All things work together for good whether we call them by the name of good or evil. Doubtless the suffering caused by the course pursued by the prodigal son was far greater than that endured by the elder brother. It needs be that offenses must come, no matter if they do bring suffering in their train. It is the sorrow and suffering in life that purify and perfect the character. It follows that if man has the power to make a mistake he has also the power to correct it; that there is no mistake that can be made in life but what can be corrected.
And what is our failure here but a triumph’s evidence for the fullness of the days?
Have we withered or agonized?
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?
Why rushed the discords in, but that harmony should be prized?
Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear,
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe.
—Browning
He who teaches otherwise teaches not in accord with the divine law. It is never right to do evil that good may come, but out of every so-called evil must come good. The friction and discord in life are on the surface, but back of the surface are the eternal verities; the surface action is only an indication of growth and change taking place continually. Every mistake made may become a round in the ladder of progress, whereby we put the mistake under foot, and through it and by it rise to a higher condition. There is no thought of failure in the divine plan, and everything is working together for the accomplishment of one great end, that end the coming of God’s kingdom in the outer and visible world, where perfect peace and harmony will replace the discord and unrest.
The mind of man is the great battle-ground of life; the real enemies, if that they can be called, are found here. The one thing to subject and bring into perfect control is one’s own mind; in doing this we attain the real mastery of life. The thoughts we think give form to our words and deeds, and we become workers with God when we try to express perfect harmony in our own lives. Every thought-picture of life should have God in it, not as a personality, but as a living principle in the life, making each thought strong and vital. When there are purity, beauty, and harmony in one’s thoughts, then God is in them, and God will find expression in our lives; that is, we will become Godlike, we will be gaining the real control. Everything we do partakes of the quality of our thought; if the thought is a perfect one, then the work also becomes perfect; but a perfect work can never come from imperfect thoughts.
The great wonder of a perfect thought is this: that it is a reflection of God’s love and wisdom, and when uttered it becomes God’s spoken word. It was because they held their minds still until a perfect thought could enter that the prophets of old, when the word of the Lord came to them, spoke as those having authority. That thought they knew to be God’s thought, and it could be given to the world as such.
This is what we call inspiration, and when one speaks, inspired of the spirit, he speaks not of himself, for the Father working within him is responsible for the word. “Open your mouths and I will fill them.”
When we feel the assurance of truth in our thoughts we should try to make them effective by keeping the mind centered on them; that is, every thought that conveys to our mind an element of strength or beauty, should be cherished as a part of our real inheritance. It would be found that in doing this each true thought would banish a false thought and by and by there would be no room in the mind for other than true thoughts. We would have formed a habit that would make it far easier for us to think such thoughts than otherwise. We would overcome all the mistakes that we had been making and it would no longer be possible to make new ones. In this way life would become a source of pleasure and happiness, for there is a wonderful joy in the present life when development is taking place, and we are conscious of it. It is a mistake to defer this joy to a future time when we may have it now.
There are many elements in character-building other than those treated in this chapter, but if one only goes to the source of life within and tries to live the whole life which takes in soul and mind and body in the order enumerated, then through such living, from center to circumference, must come the development in life which we call character.
Breath Control
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life-anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst dol
“Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do or to endure I
“Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Till all this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine I
“Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So I shall never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
—E. Hatch
The freer step, the fuller breath,
The wide horizon’s grander view,
The sense of life that knows no death,
The life that maketh all things new.
—Samuel Longfellow
He who gives breath, He who gives strength, whose command all the bright gods revere, whose shadow is immortality.
—Sacred Books of the East
It is not possible at the present time to form any adequate estimate of the true value of rightly controlled breath, all theories believed in and held to, in the past, fall so far short of what is really true concerning the wonderful benefits to be gained both in mind and body through an understanding and use of the function of breathing.
When one considers the fact that the majority of people use only from one-fourth to one third of their lung capacity, the question of breathing assumes an importance which heretofore it has not received. It is a well-known fact that nature never creates anything without a purpose and that if an organ is not used it becomes weakened and it is only a step further to disease. Thus it is no wonder that so many people suffer from diseases of the lungs or from other diseases caused through failure to breathe properly.
There is no question, however, but that the minds of thoughtful people are becoming more interested and desirous of knowledge upon the subject to enable them to use this function in a true and natural way, and there is no doubt but that the good derived through the true use of the breath will prove of incalculable benefit.
May it not prove the starting-point of a new round of evolution, which will tend to make man in every sense greater than he has been in the past and with more wonderful capacities? Many scientists believe that the evolution of man has reached its highest limit, and that any decided change would tend rather to develop him abnormally. For instance, if man gained in his brain-power, it would be at the expense of his body. This need not be true. When the lungs are used to their full capacity the physical man will keep pace with the intellectual.
The one thing upon which stress is laid by medical and scientific men is that oxygen is the all-important element in the atmosphere to be inbreathed; that it is the element which keeps the blood pure and from which life is derived. But oxygen is not life—no matter what our scientific friends may think about it. It is only one of many properties proceeding from the Great Life. Everything necessary to sustain the physical man is to be found in the atmosphere he breathes. It does not consist alone of the organic elements, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic-acid gas, but of countless infinitesimal life-germs, and it may be that the body, from first to last, is composed of these life-germs, which we have breathed in from the atmosphere about us, and that every cell in the body is a living organism, endowed with a life and intelligence of its own. Furthermore, the time is not far distant when consciously we shall take from the atmosphere through the right use of the breath, nearly, if not all, the nourishment necessary to complete and sustain the body—no matter whether that nourishment is contained in the atmospheric elements, or whether it is breathed in from the myriad life-germs in the atmosphere, or both.
It is generally conceded by the scientific world, now, that some kinds of bacteria add to the nourishing properties of food; for example, those which infest milk. It is also a well-known fact that these same germs improve the quality of butter. That bacteria are necessary to the upbuilding and sustaining of vegetable and animal life seems to be shown by the fact that when milk is exposed in high altitudes, beyond the range of animal and vegetable life, the bacteria no longer enter into it. This would tend to show the wonderful economy of nature, for only where there is organic life is there the wherewithal to sustain it.
Some may ask, Why is it if nourishment can be inbreathed, that people have to eat so much food? When we take into consideration the fact that people ordinarily are using only one third of their lung capacity, is it to be wondered at that they eat a large amount of food? Suppose the lungs were developed to their full capacity, might not the result be far different? In the many cases which have come under my observation of people who have made a study of the use and control of breath, I have noted that without exception they all eat less, many reducing their food by one-half and a few even going beyond that, in every case with beneficial results. It was not that they themselves had any desire to lessen the quantity of food eaten, but it was rather the result of growth, a natural change.
Again, it may be said that the lower animals eat and that it is natural for them to do so. Very true, and it may be perfectly natural for man to replenish his body in the same way, and yet there may come a time when all the food necessary can be taken by breathing it directly from the atmosphere.
It may be asked of what use will be the digestive organs if man is to obtain his food by breathing. I would suggest that while those organs have been necessary in the past, and may still be for a time in the future, man in a higher stage of development will use them in a different way. Evolution has shown us that as organs of the body become unnecessary they are reduced in size, either disappearing altogether or assuming some new function.
Plants and many kinds of fish breathe in nourishment. It might argue a retrograde movement on the part of man if only the lowest forms of life take their sustenance from the atmosphere; but this would really be no argument, for the fish and the plant in their limited capacity are perfect. Man has not yet attained to his perfection; but when he does attain it he may develop the power to nourish and sustain his physical form by the indrawing of life from the atmosphere.
I am quite thoroughly convinced that controlled breath action exerts a power on man’s physical life that is of very great importance. One on which the majority of people fail to place an adequate estimate. Breath acts as a counterbalance to the fire in the human body. When we consider that the body is composed of all the elements of the earth, it should be plain to any one that these elements should be properly adjusted or in right relation one to another. Fire when dominant destroys physical equilibrium; if the breath is short and weak there is a tendency for the fire to consume and destroy the body.
The function of breathing characterizes the whole body from head to foot. When one is breathing in a true natural way not only are the pores of the body open and the breath is inhaled and exhaled through them, but the breath penetrates or circulates among all the molecules of the body: the whole organism may be said to breathe.
If we draw with the inbreath (as many scientists claim that we do) life-giving properties from the vegetation about us, and the vegetation in turn is benefited by outgoing breath, it shows the interrelation between man and the lower forms of life, and that all life is one, and that the true relation consists in a mutual giving and receiving, which holds good even from the least to the greatest of things.
It is true that if we all lived natural lives it would not be necessary to learn breath control; but because there is so much that is superficial in our every-day way of living, we need to establish all over, as it were, a right habit of breathing; but when this right habit is once established it becomes automatic in its action, and no longer requires the same attention that was necessary in the forming of the habit.
Physical poise is necessary for perfect breathing. The body can only be kept poised as it is held in control by the mind. As one’s thought is centered the body becomes erect. When the thought habit is established it, in turn, establishes the physical habit. Physical exercise of all kinds, such as walking, running, riding, etc., are all good, but we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the mental exhilaration that gives us the true effect; that the mere physical act itself is not enough, and it is the enjoyment which we get from it that tends to renew and strengthen. When anything done in the physical realm becomes monotonous, so that we lose interest, it will bring little benefit to the body. We should learn to be thoroughly interested in everything we do and then both work and play will prove beneficial.
There are always two actions—the action from the center out and a return or reflex action, proving the law that whatever we give out will return to us. Remember, “the reflex action” must ever be the result of the true inner action, so that we have mind and body acting and reacting in perfect harmony.
The controlled effort to breathe should be directed from the diaphragm with the abdomen drawn in and body held erect. The drawing in of the abdomen has a tendency to throw the shoulders and chest slightly forward; this is the true natural position of the body, and if one keeps it either sitting or standing his breathing is going to be far more natural than it could be in any other position. In all breathing exercises, in order to derive the greatest amount of benefit, one should enter into them as he would enter into any recreation, with a pleasurable feeling and the mind thoroughly centered on what he is doing. If one follows this course it will aid him in concentration of thought and in many other ways help to evolve latent powers.
It is the outgoing breath that requires the most attention: on its perfect control depends to a very great degree the incoming breath. The outbreathing corresponds to and is affected by desire; the inbreathing is the response, the inspiration, or fulfillment of desire. People do not breathe as well in the dark as in the light; hence, when the mind is darkened by wrong thoughts, there is a lack of controlled regular breathing. Impure thoughts produce the fetid breath; pure, uplifting thoughts the sweet breath. Some may say that it is not thought that affects the breath, but a disordered stomach; but all the false emotions of life act on that organ, and an impure breath is the result. It is more certain that malaria proceeds from this atmosphere of anxious or evil thought, expressed through impure breath, than from anything that is injurious in the earth’s atmosphere. Our minds, through thought and breath, affect the physical atmosphere about us—to how great a degree it is not possible to say, but as to its effect there can be no question. We all know the discordant and inharmonious feelings we have when in any assemblage where there is conflict of thought and ideas. On the other hand, we have all experienced the peace and harmony that prevail in an assemblage where there is unity rather than conflict of thought—one in which all are of one mind and one purpose.
In trying to acquire the use of the breath one should have high and exalted thoughts in the mind. If we would have noble aspirations with the incoming breath, we must then give out beautiful thoughts with the outgoing breath; because in the giving we receive, and the giving is always with the outgoing breath, and the receiving with the incoming. Breathe out thoughts of kindness, courage, hope, joy, and gladness; then the breath will be pure and sweet—it cannot be otherwise. We do not yet know how much the breath has to do with atmospheric conditions, but it may yet be known that the very atmosphere about us is purified and electrified by the controlled breath, which carries with it high and helpful thoughts.
It is not the long deep breath that makes one think in a strong true way, but rather the strong, buoyant, hopeful thinking that causes the strong, deep breathing. It must be evident to all who have given any thought to the matter, that the different emotions have a direct action upon one’s breathing; that false emotions, such as hate, anger or jealousy, cause a short quick action of the breath, while the inner feelings of peace, joy or love give the properly controlled deep breathing.
Breath action is even affected by purely external things. In the gazing at different colors, for instance, the breath is visibly affected; white, yellow or blue tend in their order toward freedom in breathing; black produces a restraining influence on the breath, while red quickens yet shortens the breath. The wearing of black clothes and the crepe veil that people resort to when their friends have passed on to another life has beyond all question an injurious effect. Retarding the breath in its true action, it also acts upon the mind to keep alive morbid or gloomy thoughts, keeping one in a state that is both mentally and physically unhealthy.
When high and noble thought enters into the life of a man and finds an abiding-place there, he becomes self-centered.
Perhaps a word of explanation is necessary on “self-centering.” I mean by it that when a man realizes his true relationship to God and his fellow man and seeks to control his life from his highest conscious thought, he becomes self-centered, or, in other words, he has found his true center. An instance was given me of the effect of centered or diaphragmatic breathing upon the mind in the case of some college students, who declared that it made them feel more manly and inspired them with a desire for higher things.
This physical center is the great center of feeling; the brain is the great thought-center. As thought is the product of feeling, then the solar plexus must be the vital center of being, and some day the scientific world will recognize this fact. From this center is generated the magnetic currents of life. Thought generates the electric force. The blending of the two forces converts them into one, bringing about the perfect poise of mind and body.
Perhaps no race of people has paid so much attention to breath-action as the Hindu. In talking with one of their very wise men, he told me that many of the things done by the fakirs of India, which seem so strange and mysterious to the people of the West, were produced by breath-action and thought-concentration. Furthermore, the Upanishads lay more stress upon the breath than upon anything else, and in their summing up of God the very last phrase used is “which is the Breath of Life.” Our own Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, have reference after reference to the breath, as, “The Lord God made man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life, and man became a living soul.”
The controlled breath is always the external evidence of the controlled mind, the result of the true inner action from center to circumference. But even in the effort which, apparently, makes only for physical control, one takes a step in the right direction, calling into use as he does mental faculties which in turn aid in the physical development, helping to produce a fit habitation for an immortal soul.
Dependence and Independence
Thou must be true thyself if thou the truth wouldst teach,
Thy soul must overflow if thou another’s soul wouldst reach;
It needs the overflow of heart to give the lips full speech.
Think truly, and thy thoughts shall the world’s famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be a great and noble creed.
—Emerson
Eat thou the bread which men refuse,
Flee from the goods that flee from thee,
Seek nothing! Fortune seeketh thee.
—Emerson
It will usually be found that somewhere between two extremes, or even two contradictions, will lie the simple truth. Take, for instance, some of the truths, the two seemingly opposing sides of which have now and again rent Christendom. Some great souls have believed God determined from all eternity whatsoever should come to pass, down to the minutest detail. They left no room for the slightest exercise of choice or free will; man was reduced to the place of a puppet. To other great souls this seemed a monstrous belief, and they taught and fought and died for the truth that man was a free agent, and could do with his life what he willed. It was argued that both could not be right, and so those who saw the reasonableness of one point of view spent an immense amount of time and energy trying to convince or refute the adherents of the other, and little was ever accomplished by it. But that is just the kernel of the whole matter. Fundamentally both are right. That is, everything is determined by eternal law to the extent that every step of the soul’s unfoldment is written indelibly in the constitution of all things; the great truth of the freedom of man’s will comes in at the parting of the ways of life and death. Both lead to the same ultimate goal, but there is a world of difference for those who choose. Man is perfectly free to choose for himself a life—many lifetimes, indeed—of sorrow and suffering, or to place himself in harmony with the great current of Universal Being, and “so fulfill the law of life” and know the truth that shall make him free. In this way he himself becomes a part of the great freedom of all life.
Again, in the instance of the Unitarian and the Trinitarian—these are but two sides of a single truth. There is but one central source of all life, and yet we read that God said: “Let us make man in our own image,” and “male and female created he them.” From the earliest days the trinity of the mother, father, and child have been the symbol of creative power. Six thousand years before Christ, when Egyptian civilization was at its height, this was the recognized symbol of the thinking world, and yet it was not until considerably after the Christian era that the symbol was confused with the truth symbolized. Both are true. The truth is too great for any symbol to hold in its entirety. So many false beliefs cluster about a symboled truth. It becomes overgrown and almost lost sight of. So we should accustom ourselves to take a broad and comprehensive view of each thing that life presents to us—take an all-around view, and try to see all that is to be seen. It is when we see but partially that we are unjust, and want to coerce others. There is nothing separately and absolutely true. All is relative— all dependent in a way. Now let us first talk of dependence in its broadest sense. It is not the positive side of the one great truth, but there is much in it that repays consideration. It is true that extremes meet. Consider the effect of extreme heat and extreme cold. They are practically the same—both cause disintegration of matter.
The study of dependence is, in a sense, the study of independence also. We are all dependent, to some extent, not only upon environment, but upon every one with whom we come in touch. It is not possible for two people to meet and talk for five minutes without each influencing the life of the other. Sometimes the mutual gain or injury is apparent. Sometimes it does not appear on the surface at all, or not until years afterward. Sometimes one seems to do all the giving, and the other to receive only. But this is only seeming. Anything that does not belong to us cannot stay with us, and what is really ours no one can take from us. This law is applicable to everything—material possessions, friendship, love. We enter into a possession of many things that are not ours. This possession is only seeming, and the law is never transgressed, either by him who gives or him who receives. Now what does dependence mean—what does “living on others” mean? Take the example of a tree and a parasitic vine. At first both seem to be doing very well, but by and by the vitality of even the largest and strongest tree is sapped, and not only does it die, but the parasite also dies in consequence. In depending unduly on another, one, sooner or later, destroys his own life. So those who would give no equivalent for what they receive really hurt and deprive themselves. It is not the amount we give—this has nothing to do with the matter—it is the motive that prompts the giving. We may be able to do or to be or to give very little that is tangible or even recognizable, but if our motives, our earnest endeavor and intention is to do our best, then the great law of poise and balance and compensation will see to it that there is no lack. We can give of ourselves—of good will from the heart—and no matter what form this may take, it is, perhaps, the highest gift of all.
Once while I was traveling in the South a friend called my attention to a fig-tree, and asked me if I noticed anything peculiar about the bark. I looked closely, and saw something that seemed to be a little scab. Under a magnifying-glass it was seen to be a tiny parasite, and on closer examination I saw a still smaller parasite feeding, living, on this other. Many people live just in this way—on the vitality of others. Now this is just as dishonest as if they picked the other’s pocket or stole his bread. Dependents of this character are only making similar conditions for themselves, for like always begets like. This course has nothing to do with the true interdependence—the relationship of one to another throughout the great human family that proves us “members one of another.” It is not essential that the giving and receiving should be invariably between the same people—that is, that we should always see to it that we give an exact proportion to exactly the people from whom we believe we have received a benefit. This is not always possible, nor even desirable. We may have received a benefit from someone to whom nothing that we have to give would be of any service. Leave personality out of the question. “From every man according to his ability; to every man according to his needs.” Let us give of our best—of our very selves— constantly, ungrudgingly, wherever there is a need, and we may then be very sure that no more will come to us than is ours by right.
If every man were given, not bread, but a chance to work, it would transform the face of the earth, and bring about the true dependence which is the coming of the kingdom of God. But, one may say, “What influence have I upon economic conditions, what responsibility have I in bringing this about?” We each have this responsibility: to inform ourselves fully and fearlessly of the facts, and hold resolutely the right mental attitude toward the problem. We may not be able apparently to change outward conditions, but by and by, if the mind of each, and so, of the majority, is on the right side, we will find that wondrous force we call “public sentiment” doing what each of us would have done if only he had been able. This is a greater force than any law on any statute-book.
In the matter of sympathy and good will, there is often just the same abuse of the great law of giving and receiving. We offer a maudlin pity that degrades the receiver and weakens the giver. In this way we put ourselves on the plane with the weakest, and so make it impossible to be of any real service to him. We can never help a man to be better and stronger by talking and condoling with him as to his weaknesses.
We can never call out the good in another by dwelling on the evil. Think of him as good, and this makes it the easier for him to realize your thought of him. Wherever there is the true giving there is no need to consider the matter of receiving. It takes care of itself. Only this, when things come—whether material or immaterial—do not let the spirit of pride prevent the benefit that comes from generous receiving. You hear someone say: “But I don’t want to be dependent; I love to give, but I don’t like to be under obligations.” Now this is all wrong. Give others an opportunity to feel the joy of giving. We are not keeping the law in poise and balance if we want to do all the giving. It is as bad as the other extreme of withholding when another needs. We often give most truly by receiving, and we keep only as we give freely away. “He that loseth his life shall find it.”
There are many phases of independence. Some people think that brutal frankness is independence. They believe that speaking out whatever is in their minds, or anything that is true, without any other consideration, proves them independent. Now, any inconsiderateness or unkindness cannot fail to hurt another, and whatever hurts another must hurt ourselves as well. It is impossible to affect another for either good or evil without ourselves being influenced in the same way and to the same extent. We do not need to tell unkind things of another, even if they are facts, in order to prove our own truthfulness. We do not need to say that we are truthful. Our lives will stand for that. A true independence would be as kind as it is strong. No matter what the words spoken, the motive prompting them would somehow find expression. If one has the good of a person at heart this will make itself felt, and the word spoken in gentleness leaves the deepest impress.
Then as to that class of actions called independent. Often when one person, justly or unjustly, feels he has cause to dislike another, he will scorn any overture from that other. He may “forgive” him, but he will not want to accept any favor from him. Now just stop and think what this means—he is standing in the way of that individual’s doing something that would make his life better. He feels he has hurt the other, and wants to do something to show his change of attitude and to make reparation. The person injured spurns that effort, and thereby hinders his own growth and development as well as that of the other. Now this is not independence, but short-sighted obstinacy, pride, and arrogance. True independence, as I understand it, is this: the knowledge that in life all acts react, none can separate himself, but all contribute, each to the other’s good, and all to the good of the whole. The true independence is where each would scorn to do less than his best, to give less than his real self, and so the best and the truest comes back to each. This does not mean that all relationship with one’s fellows are on a level—that there are no close, warm, personal ties of sympathy and friendship. Even with near friends there are degrees of friendship. We can love all, and yet love some more than others. John, because he had unfolded more to the love principle, could best understand Jesus, and so came into closest companionship with Him. I can conceive of nothing so much to be desired in this world—or any other—as that we love all our fellow men. Not that we love our friends only, or those that love us, but that, without exception and without effort, we love all.
There will always be some that are closest, but if we live from the center, if we live out our true, our deepest selves, there is no reason why the spirit of love should not bring us in touch with all. It is not the love that comes to us, but that which we give out that really enriches our lives. If I could love everybody and everything in this world, it would seem to me I had achieved the grandest, the highest, and most wonderful thing of all life. If this is true, then, is not the life of true independence the life of service, of benefit to others, of answering to their needs? “Give to him that asketh of thee; and of him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.” Let the demand come from wherever it will—it does not matter. From relatives or from strangers—it should be all the same with us in our giving—wherever there is a genuine need, there we should give. This is the plan of life—only as we give out will more come into our lives. You know when you exhale the breath thoroughly, the air rushes back into the lungs again without stint. The effort is in the exhaling, there is none required in the inhaling. So in our lives we must put forth the effort in our actions—in the outgoing— and the return will be without fail. This illustrates the truth that God is more willing to give than we are to receive. This does not mean a personal God, who is at times benign and gracious, and at times indifferent or implacable, but the Law of Love, which is the undying power of the Universe. In the true interdependence there lies the life of perfect freedom. There is nothing contradictory in dependence and independence; in the balance of both lies the truth, and those who poise their lives between the two extremes are giving real service to the world.
Psychic Development
Said the Blessed One: ‘Verily, I say unto you, your mind is mental, but that which you perceive with your senses is also mental. There is nothing within the world or without which either is not mind or cannot become mind. There is a spirituality in all existence, and the very clay upon which we tread can be changed into children of truth.
—Gospel of Buddha
Man is, in a sense, related to two worlds; on one side, the world of form, a world of effect; and, on the other side, the world of the invisible, a world of cause. In reality we are living in two worlds—a world of the seen and a world of the unseen.
A word of explanation is perhaps necessary at this point. There are not two distinct and separate worlds, but two phases, I might say, of one world. We must get this distinction clear in mind of two states of consciousness in life—an inner and an outer. Some people live almost exclusively in the outer, some people live to a marked degree in the inner world. The people of our own country use concentration of mind to make their work effective in the outer world. The people in India and in some other countries use meditation to such a marked degree that they live very little in the so-called physical world.
Their desires and hopes are not placed in the physical, but rather in the unseen world. As I have explained before, it is only as we learn to live in both worlds, or in these two phases of life, and keep the mind thoroughly balanced between the two, that we become rounded out, that we become developed.
We all know then a great deal about the physical side of life, but comparatively few people know much about the psychic side of life, and only in an abnormal way, because the majority of the cases of so-called psychic development are brought about in an abnormal rather than in a normal way.
The trouble with people is that they develop this psychic side of life, without understanding the law that lies back of all development; they do not know how to use the development that comes to them and usually put it to a wrong use. Again, many people seem to think that certain phases of abnormal psychic development correspond to, or rather are in reality, spiritual gifts of a very high order, when just the reverse of this is true.
A great many people who believe in what they term the invisible world are in reality living a more materialistic life than the people who know little, if anything, about an invisible world. Even the investigators of psychic phenomena seem to lose sight of the one great side of this whole question—the spiritual development of man, and they would seek to apply exactly the same law, the same processes of reaching satisfactory conclusions that they would in any outer thing, and it is a curious fact that they are more interested in abnormal than in normal psychic development.
But everything is changed here in this realm of the psychic, and we are not going to be able to apply the same tests that have been used in the outer world. We are getting nearer to the causes of things. In the outer world we have been dealing exclusively with effects. It is always well to remember that until recently, at least, science has had to do with effects. Science seldom at any point comes in real contact with causes; that is, that every scientific fact is a fact concerning the things of the outer and not the things of the inner.
When we approach the inner side of life we must look at things from a very different point of view. In fact, if we are going to investigate the spiritual, we must do it with the spiritually enlightened mind. There is no other way.
Many people confound physical development with occultism, and it is not unnatural that this mistake should occur, as both pertain to secret and unseen things. We must learn, however, to distinguish between the two. Webster defines the word psychical: of or pertaining to the human soul, relating to the living principle in man. He defines the word development: the act of developing or disclosing that which is unknown, the gradual advancement or growth through a series of progressive changes. In other words psychical development is the unfolding to the spiritual possibilities latent within us, while occultism pertains more to a knowledge of the unseen forces external to the soul. It is possible to have a knowledge of occult things without being highly developed spiritually, but it is not possible to be highly developed psychically without possessing knowledge equal to and surpassing the knowledge of the occultist. Those who seek to attain to an understanding of occult laws without first being spiritually awakened, are playing with two-edged tools; and no possible gain can accrue to them, but rather loss from such study. Curiosity and love for things uncanny prompt some to investigate this subject, with the result that not a few become mentally unbalanced thereby. Knowledge of unseen forces comes to us naturally when we have progressed to a state where we are neither affrighted nor disturbed by the phenomena we are brought in contact with.
Leaving, then, the subject of occultism, we will turn our attention to psychical development. In order to make the greatest progress in this direction, it will be found necessary to cultivate all the faculties of mind; by so doing, we will succeed in controlling the animal nature. First of all, strongly desire tranquility and restfulness of mind, in order that truth may mirror or image itself in mind. Firmness is another quality that all should seek to possess. When mind mirrors the truth, firmness is necessary to hold it against all temptation that may appeal to us from any quarter. Forgiveness is also needful. Do not hope to attain to true knowledge of spiritual things when your mind is embittered or your heart hardened against anyone who may have injured or wronged you in any way; by so doing, you bar your way to the true unfolding—forgive and ye shall be forgiven. Abstain from theft. Many people who think themselves far above stealing are baser thieves than those who steal our money. The person who slanders or speaks falsely of another is a worse thief by far than one who steals our material possessions. If you are unable to see and speak of the good in others, then do not defile your mouth by speaking evil of them, for by so doing you descend to a plane where darkness enslaves the mind.
There are still other forms of stealing of which we must beware—the getting of illicit gain, perhaps money or worldly possessions without giving an equivalent in return; the taking of exorbitant interest, thus profiting by others’ necessities. Purity of thought is another qualification to the one who would become spiritually unfolded. Allow the mind to dwell on all that is pure and beautiful; word and deed will then respond to this renewed mental condition. Control your passions; do not let them control you. Many find this more difficult than all else, but repeated failures should only make us desire more ardently to attain to true self-control. Veracity is another necessary quality. There are many ways of lying; some people look upon certain forms of lying as an accomplishment, and it is needless to enumerate, or try to enumerate, the various ways and methods of lying. Freedom from hatred and wrath becomes absolutely necessary before we can attain to soul knowledge. When we are angry or hate others, our minds are like the sea lashed by the tempest— no rest, no peace; tossed to and fro. Oh, that we might realize the necessity of calming this storm-tossed sea, allowing the still small voice in all gentleness, yet in all firmness, to speak the words, “Peace be still.” Greatest of all is the knowledge acquired through the intuitive faculties. Do not be deceived by thinking that all knowledge must come through the intellect. The court of last resort is the intuitive side of your being. People who have cultivated only the intellectual way may disagree with this statement, but their arguments are of no avail to those who have developed the intuitive part of their being. It is not a question of belief to the persons thus unfolded, but one of knowledge; they know whereof they speak.
In order, therefore, to unfold intuitively, we must practice self-control. We may think it to be an every-day virtue; but the fact is, few people have any idea what self-control means. It means far more than the mere control of our words and passions; it means more than denying ourselves earthly pleasures; it means to control our every thought. Self-control evolves concentration of mind, and through it only can true concentration be acquired.
This is the law, in no other way can we become psychically developed, although it is true that certain kinds of abnormal development can be acquired in other ways.
It is possible to learn concentration of mind by looking intently at a black spot on the wall; it may be possible to develop clairvoyance by mirror-gazing, but the concentration and clairvoyance thus acquired are only counterfeits of the real. No true lasting progress can come through the development of our hidden powers, when, by so doing, we shut out the light of spirituality in the soul. There is also more or less danger to the one so engaged. We must understand the uses of the different powers we develop; otherwise we shall not know the true use to make of them, and how can we know the use of powers which we have abnormally developed. It is always well to bear in mind that the greater the knowledge or power we possess, the greater evil it becomes to ourselves and others when put to a wrong or perverted use. The greatest good, when perverted, becomes the greatest evil. True spiritual power may seem more difficult to acquire than some other things, but, when once acquired, it will never leave you; it will ever prove a source of strength and peace, while the false development, in the end, will surely prove a source of unrest and weakness. A pure and unselfish life will do more to fit you to become possessed of spiritual powers than all the study of magic, occultism, of clairvoyance could ever do.
Many people believe that in mediumship there is something of a spiritual nature. There is nothing spiritual about it. It is simply hypnotism transferred to another plane where the medium’s mind becomes subject to the mind of another. Because the person who impresses the mind of the medium has passed out of this body into the invisible, that does not make that person a spiritual being. If a man goes out of this world a liar he must remain a liar until through his own effort he becomes truthful.
Whatever we have in mind when we go out of this world we take with us. A great many people believe that when they pass out of this world they are going to a beautiful heaven, and if they have this heaven in their consciousness when they pass out their dreams will be realized, but if they have it not, and should find themselves in a beautiful heaven, they would be out of place and in no way adjusted to it. It is necessary to take this into consideration.
Mesmerism has been called the key to occult sciences, but beware of the key; have nothing to do with it. God never intended that one soul should control another. Freedom is written in every law of nature; only through freedom of will can man hope to attain to higher planes of existence. Again, there is the violation of the law of God when one soul relinquishes its right to think and act to any other soul. This violation of law has been going on for hundreds of years. Ministers have thought for people, they have worked out for people the way of salvation; that is, these people thought that ministers were doing this, but they never did. They have only to work out their own salvation. If they are doing that they are doing all that God requires of them. Every man must work out his own salvation. While an enlightened man may throw light on the way of life, each one must walk that way for himself.
Whatever thwarts or interferes with individual liberty retards soul growth. Man’s freedom of will consists, not in obeying the dictates of the lower mind, the selfish desires, but in the perfect obedience to the law of God which is written into his own being. The renunciation of selfishness is ever followed by spiritual growth. It is through divesting the mind of its purely personal self, attaching no importance to personal feelings and things, and seeking to realize the higher self-hood, that true individuality is attained, which will continue to last when this purely personal self has vanished away. A belief in personality chokes out all that is true and noble, and in its place spring up thorns and briers.
Sense and intellectual natures are both focused on personality and seek to obtain pleasures and happiness at the expense of other souls. Flee from this false sense of things; happiness is not attained in this way. No harmony of mind can come to the individual who dwells in this false thought of personality. The kingdom of heaven is harmony, power, peace, wisdom, and these things are born of something higher—the love of the good, not of a part, but of the whole; the recognition of the indwelling of God, not alone in our souls, but in the soul of the universe. We are members one of another; an invisible union exists between us which we now fail to perceive, owing to our wrong conceptions concerning the personal man. We talk of the oneness of life and intelligence, but do we realize what this means and how much it means? Oh, that we might, for such realization would awaken in the soul of man a higher, truer and a purer love than he has ever known before, Instead of the narrow love of self, love of family, friends or nation, the soul would overflow with boundless love, not limited but limitless. And as that love takes possession and reigns in our hearts and souls, we shall find this to be true, that we love not family, friend, or nation less; but through loving the whole, we become more capable of loving each part of the whole, we become one with the whole.
And there is this entering into the universal, becoming one with might, becoming one with power, becoming one with the intelligence of God. Out of this condition of life come all minor conditions, comes the psychic development, this ability to see just as clearly in what is called the invisible world as in the visible world, to hear in the invisible just as much as to hear people speaking in this visible world.
One enters into a new consciousness of life, one realizes for the first time that this outer world is not the all important world that we make it. One is no longer influenced, no longer controlled by external things. He realizes that he is superior in every sense of the word to all the external; that the soul of man is greater than the world; that man has dominion and power over every external thing. The soul is superior to it all, the soul makes all true conditions of life, whether they be inner or outer.
Do not let us deceive ourselves about these things; it is easy to be deceived. People can so locate authority in the outer world that until there comes the spiritual awakening, the whole life will be guided by the external, and they will never live, and never can, the life that man was intended to live. Remember, that the truth shall make ye free. Then shall ye be free indeed.
Jesus said, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” In order to live on a higher plane of existence, we must die to a knowledge of the personal self, instead of perpetuating it through the gratification of purely personal desires. The caterpillar dies that the butterfly may live. The personal man must cease to be before the soul can become fully alive to the spiritual man. Death is but dying to one state that we may live in another. When we die to the sense nature, we shall awaken to the psychical.
The mind of man has been so engaged in the study of the visible world about him, that to a marked degree he has overlooked the invisible forces, both within and without. We have reached an epoch in the world’s history where many are turning away from the study of the seen; where the mind, having wearied from oft-repeated endeavors to find the solution of life in the world of form, is turning to a study of the unseen. Evolution in itself can never disclose to our vision the spiritual realities of the universe. We must go back of all existing forms to arrive at eternal verities. We must see beyond the world of effects, because all causation lies within the realm of the unseen. Medical men study the pathology of the body, and there are mental healers who study the pathology of the mind. It is barely possible that they are both necessary states of evolution, but they are only necessary to those having no higher knowledge of the truth. A study of pathology of either mind or body is but going down into the shadows, the dwelling in things that contradict the good and the true. If we would carry light to souls who sit in darkness, we must dwell in the light ourselves. If we are groping about in the shadows involved in the contradictories of truth, how is it to be expected that our light will become manifest to them? In order to reach and be beneficial to other souls we must have a recognition of the possibilities inherent within them, and how can we have such a recognition if we ourselves have not unfolded to the possibilities of the power and goodness that is contained potentially within our own being.
The study of truth, beginning in the deepest recesses of our own consciousness, making it self-first manifest to ourselves, will eventually become manifest to those about us. We can never discover or throw light on the way that leads to life for another, until we have first made that discovery for ourselves. The goodness that we see in others we see only in proportion as we have unfolded to a knowledge of goodness in our own souls. The seeming evil, the lack of truth that we see in others, is but, after all, evil and lack of truth in ourselves. Of course we would express in our own way the goodness or lack of goodness we see in others. No two persons express things exactly alike. While one person may judge and condemn another for what he considers pride, for instance, if he makes a thorough examination of himself, he will find the same quality of mind, or rather lack of quality, expressing itself in other ways in exactly the same proportion. The yardstick by which we measure other people is the only one that we can use in measuring ourselves. We can, therefore, see the necessity of finding the good and the true within our own consciousness, in order that we may judge righteously. If we could thoroughly understand the lights and shades of our own being, it would not be possible for us to condemn or sit in judgment on any other soul. It is not as though there were many ways that souls could take to reach a more perfect state of being, so that there might be differences of opinion as to the better way to take; the way that one soul treads in its unfolding is the way that all souls must tread.
When Jesus said that the way was a straight and narrow one, and also added: “and few there be that find it,” he did not mean to imply that the way would not eventually be found, but simply meant that the minds of those about him were so taken up with thoughts of this world, its cares, and its pleasures, that their eyes were blinded to the true way; in other words, that the great majority of mankind was bent on seeking pleasures and happiness in the world without them, while few were seeking it in the kingdom that lies within.
We stand today on the very threshold of spiritual knowledge and its consequent power, knowledge that surpasses any that the world can offer, power that pertains, not to things of this world, but to our own spiritual well-being. Self is the barrier that stands in the doorway and bars our entrance. He who enters that doorway leaves self behind. Human will must accord with divine will. “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” The indwelling Christ would point the way of life. That Christ is seeking to attain the ascendency in the hearts and minds of all people, and yet we turn away. We are not ready to forego the pleasures of the world for the peace that the world cannot give nor yet take away. We are blind about many things now; sometime we will see clearly. The spiritual senses have been hid; covered up by the physical. When we have subordinated the lower self to the higher will, then will joy and peace and rest flow into our lives, and the things that have been hidden will be revealed. The love of God and the love of man will then become a living spring, flowing through our thoughts and words and deeds, blessing every one, throwing a light upon the path of life that will enable others to more clearly discern the way that leads to everlasting day.
Self-Expression
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no other is, and to do what no other can.
—Chan King
The poor, exiled shrub dreams by a native longing of a splendid blossom which it has never seen, but is dimly conscious that it ought somehow to produce. This is the way in which the ideal of life, the life of full completion, haunts us all. We feel the thing we ought to be beating beneath the thing we are.
—Phillips Brooks
God hides some ideal in every human soul.
At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing.
Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best.
—Phillips Brooks
A New Testament writer reminds us of the diversity of gifts possessed—one has that of healing; another, prophecy; another, tongues. All are expressions of the same spirit, but in the unity of the spirit there is a wide difference of expression. The same informing spirit may even express itself in two opposite extremes, and yet there be perfect unity in the inner force thus outworking. There must of necessity be this variety in the forms it takes and in their operation. It is of this ultimate expression that we as builders decide the form. The informing force is not ours—this is the gift. How we use this gift lies with ourselves, and the gift is really ours only through the true using. And this using of our gift or gifts should be in accordance with our deepest desires.
The desire of the inmost self is the guide to all true effort, activity, expression. That which we truly desire, upon which we earnestly fix and center our minds, comes, of necessity, naturally and freely into the life. With the inception of any strong, true desire, we come into the real possession of the thing desired. Possession is not a matter of some future time, nor even of material expression. The latter belongs to the outward realization only. Someone may say: “This sounds very well indeed, but it is impossible for me to see the truth of it.” Each thing actualized must first exist as an upwelling desire—a mental image—before it can be expressed, externalized. Now, this upwelling force, this primal feeling, is involuntary.
The pictured plan of its outworking is of our making and direction, and the final product is wholly in our hands. We make our own pictures of life. If we make no pictures, have no plans, in our life activities, this central force is practically wasted—frittered away. We drift on the great ocean of existence, our minds go from one desire to another and accomplish nothing. We are like ships without a rudder: we may be intact in equipment otherwise, but if we have nothing to guide us, nothing of service will be achieved. We need a chart for our voyage, we need to know the purpose of our lives, each for himself to know the goal of expression for himself. None can interpret or decide for another. Each must work out his own salvation.
Success in anything can never come through merely wishing or hoping or thinking or taking treatments for success. Any of these may serve as a stimulus, but anything worth the having must be steadfastly worked for; it does not come to folded hands. Our life-plan need not be a hard and fast one—it should be adjustable; growing with the added knowledge and new experiences of each day. We do not cast aside yesterday’s chart, but enlarge it in keeping with today’s horizon. One of the greatest mistakes in life is that of taking for granted that the thoughts and feelings, the conceptions and ideals, that bring us happiness today will satisfy us tomorrow. We hold tenaciously to the old ideals and forms of expression, and try to revivify them to meet the demands of the moment. There is such a thing as divine discontent—a constant hungering and thirsting after fuller expression, larger life, deeper realization. But this is as different as day is from night from the futile, feverish dissatisfaction that finds no pleasure in the present, yet makes no effort to actualize the larger ideal. To the “divine discontent”—the soul’s outreaching—the life more abundant is the unfailing response.
All expression comes through activity. Through repose and relaxation come the gathering together of the life forces and the accumulation of energy and strength. This, however, must alternate with activity, else the accumulation is of no service—is really injurious. The active life is essential to health on every plane, and is the truly religious life. Isolation from one’s fellows—a life of separateness—pondering, perhaps, over some sacred book or revered truth, can never be the most deeply religious life, for it is not the natural life. Not the monk who shuts himself off from the world, to save his own soul, but the man who is acquainted with the joys as well as the griefs of the common people—who lives the common, every-day life, the simple, natural life—is the ideal we need today. Man works as God works; the pressure of energy he feels within him is from the source of his being—from God. We must follow out our own way—our own deepest desire and impulse; we must not imitate or blindly follow, for in this way we destroy the particular message which we came into the world to give. Each of us can do one thing best, and this is the thing for us to do. This does not mean that we are not to listen to counsel, but, after all is said and done, the self, the innermost, must finally decide. The one who gives advice offers the best he knows, the best for him. But what is best for one is not by any means the best for another.
What do you want most to be or to do? that is the question. What is your deepest desire? To make the outer like the inner—this is what we are all, consciously or unconsciously, striving for. We shall not succeed all at once—we cannot build the whole structure in a moment. Shall we, then, yield to disappointment and discouragement—we have tried so hard and so long, hoped for so much and accomplished so little? There is no room for discouragement in this life. Take a broader, deeper view of it, and all is clear, and every step is seen to be an onward step. That life is worse than wasted which has not unfolded— expressed. No matter how full of possessions, of material things, and of power the span of life may be, it is empty, nevertheless, if the true self has not expressed itself. We may travel up and down the earth and search all the wisdom of the past, but if we have not found ourselves we are forever unsatisfied. We must come to know the innermost—we must be at home at the center of our being; this demand is written indelibly in the constitution of all things. And this we can do only through work. I use the word in the broadest sense. Just as there is no enjoyment of food on the physical plane without the requisite amount of exercise, so on every other plane, activity is essential to growth and development. When we are active, each doing “his own ” work, there is a sense of completeness, of fitness, of buoyancy; there is the “keen functionary satisfaction” that marks the square man in the square hole, the final and unquestionable proof that we are doing the right thing in the right place.
There can be no true harmony in the life until we have found our work—until we are doing our work. If we fail to express what is within us demanding unfoldment, we are like dead bodies walking about—mere “encumberers of the ground.” We can realize the joy of living only through work—through self-expression. Mere inactivity is not rest. Rest ceases to be restful when the balance is lost and the activity is not in proportion. There must be this balance—this poise. Nature resents every excess. If at one time we do two days’ work in one day we will presently have to take two days to do one day’s work. As we work steadily and earnestly, doing each thing that comes to hand according to our best light at the moment, we find a corresponding increase of power. The greatest development comes through the well-doing of each duty, however apparently insignificant. The thing we know best how to do is usually the thing that needs to be done by us. We should strive to get a good perspective in our work—to take a broad and all-around view of life. As we, one by one, dispense with the useless, superficial things of our day-by-day life—as the needless tension and strain relaxes, when we begin to live simply, earnestly, naturally—we will find our power increased tenfold. We can accomplish, then, many times what we formerly could; we can dispatch things with greater speed and yet without hurry.
When the mind is poised and the purpose kept constantly and clearly in view, action follows action in orderly sequence; there is no haste, yet no wasted effort or time. One may run, you know, with poise and even quietness, when another, walking, may be in haste and turmoil of spirit. Notice in playing the piano—there must be rapid movement, but it must also be orderly, measured, purposeful. To the purposeless mind, the presentation of two or three things to be done at one time produces confusion. In the purposeful mind there is no reason for confusion. Each new thing falls naturally into its place, and there is neither waste nor haste. If one lives out his own life sincerely there is always a place for him in the world—he cannot be superfluous. The world needs each of us, else we would not be here. Each has a natural, individual message. Of a dozen singers, for instance, there are no two just alike, though all, perhaps, may have the same register. Wherever there is life there is diversity of expression. Just as there are no two leaves alike among all the leaves on all the trees the world over, so there is never repetition in unfolding life. So, too, in our work, in so far as we give ourselves to it, it lives and is of service. We weave ourselves, our very souls, into whatever work we do sincerely. Now, in imitation it is different. No matter how perfect a copy is, it can never carry any special message.
It does not live. It is well to learn of others, but only to the end that we the more completely express ourselves. Work often comes to us to be done. It seems to stand before us, directly in our way when we would go elsewhere and do other things. Now when this happens it is well to do the thing that presents itself—do it well, the best we can. We may not want to go on doing it forever, but the quickest way to get rid of it— to grow out of it into the way of our desires— is to face it and give it our best effort until the especial lesson that it holds for us is learned. We can never shirk or pass over things—however difficult or unwelcome they may seem. And often enough they prove angels in disguise. The clearer we keep our minds and the healthier our bodies are, the better work we will do in whatever line we may choose. We owe this to ourselves, to our fellow men, to God. This is our reasonable service—to “present our bodies whole and acceptable unto God.” It is so much easier to be healthy and wholesome-minded and happy than the reverse, if only we would think so. It is the natural way. Heretofore we have thought so much of our weaknesses and failures, we have dwelt at such length on our discouragements and difficulties; and of course the result was, more difficulty and more failure. Now let us try the other way. Let us try a complete reversal of action.
Let us remember that the power that is in us, working through us, is all—health and all—strength and all—happiness. There is no obstacle or hindrance to the full, free expression of this power except our own wills—our own desires or lack of desire. Remember, nothing presents itself to* us to be done that is too difficult for us to accomplish. No desire can come to us that is too high or too great for fulfilment. If anything comes to us that does not really belong to us, it will not stay—whether it be possessions or experience or whatever it may be. But we must work, nevertheless, for the keeping of even our own. A healer may give his very life to a patient, but if the patient puts forth no effort of his own, it will be of no permanent good. We must do our own work, live our own lives, make our own decisions. No other man or any number of men—not God himself—will do this for us. Work, in its broadest, its true sense is the most essential thing in life. Take work out of life and there is in reality nothing left: no interest, no purpose, no joy. All work should be the expression of one’s real self. The kingdom of God can come on earth only as each individual finds his own salvation through work and brings it in this way. There is no soul exempt from this responsibility. The question comes to each of us now: Am I consciously endeavoring to unfold to the plan of life which God has written into my soul—to be true to the purest, the holiest, the highest instincts of my being? Am I trying to help others to be true to themselves? Do I desire happiness for others as earnestly as I desire it for myself? For it is only in this way that I must eventually work out my own salvation, and in so doing, help to bring the kingdom of God on earth.
Prayer and Its Fulfillment
Silently and unobserved, the Spirit will breathe upon us if we reflect, if we wait for it in stillness day by day. It steals into our consciousness when we think deeply, to guide, to strengthen, to heal, to encourage. The great secret of life is to know how, in our own way, to be receptive to it, how to read the message of its inner whispering. The sure method of growing strong in realization, of its nearness is to believe it will come if we listen, to trust it in moments of doubt as the lost hunter trusts his horse in the forest, to have an ideal outlook, and then renew our realization day by day, ever remembering that, as this Spirit is the only Reality, the one power, the one love, we live in it, and with it, and there is naught to separate us from its ever-watchful care, its ever-loving presence.”
—H. W. Dresser
As a piece (of gold or silver) covered with earth, when cleansed, shines like light, so the embodied soul, when beholding the true nature of the soul (of itself), becomes one, obtains its true end, and every pain ceases.
When, absorbed in this concentration (the Yogi) sees by the true nature of his own self, which manifests like a light, the true nature of Brahma, which is not born, eternal and free from all effects of nature (or, as S’ankra explains ‘tattwa,* from the effects of ignorance), he gets released from all bonds. To God who is in the fire, who is in the water, who entered the universe, who is in the annual herbs, and who is in the regents of the forest (the trees), to this God be reverence, to Him be reverence.”
—The Upanishads
We begin in our earliest childhood to pray, and there is an unceasing, an unending prayer continuing on all through our earthly exist. At times the prayer is a fervent, deep, outreaching of heart and mind and then again it has to do with the most trivial things in life. Why do we pray? Is the great Universal Spirit in any way benefited or uplifted through our prayers? Is God moved to change from a state of displeasure to one of forgiveness because of our prayer? Is natural law set aside because of any supplication on the part of man to the Father of All? No, none of these things come to pass. The laws of God are universal and unchanging.
Why do we pray? Because it is a vital necessity to the life of man. Prayer is desire; desire enters into everything in life, so that life is an unceasing prayer. Desire relates us to whatever we desire whether it be material things, mental attainments or spiritual understanding. Desire may be superficial and transitory and little return come from such desire. A life that is filled with such desires is never able to express anything that is great or wonderful, but is filled with trivial results, showing that one cannot express anything that is greater or higher than the ideals that exist in the mind. When you see great things accomplished by any one, know that it is in answer to prayer; that only the great desire can bring the great result. This applies not only to some things, but to everything in life. Our lives, whatever they may be, are the true expression of our prayers. We should know that our false as well as our true desires are alike expressed; each desire as a seed carrying within itself, its own fruition, each bringing its own punishment or reward. If we could all realize the truth of this, what a difference it would make in our prayers. If we knew that a true desire always related us to the good and the true, ever becoming the seed for greater and more perfect expression, or if we realized that our false desires, not only brought about the loss of mental and physical energy, but also brought into our lives unpleasant and disagreeable things, we would try to shape our desires in order to have them conform to the true requirements of the law of desire and its fulfillment.
A great many people will argue that the disappointments, failures and disagreeable things which come to them are not the things for which they have prayed, not the things which they have desired, and therefore that there can be no such law. The law exists and the law acts, regardless of what they think, and whatever has come into their lives has come because of this action of law. In the Bible we read of one who said, “The thing I feared has come upon me.” Through allowing the mind to dwell upon that which we fear in life, we tend to establish a relationship between ourselves and the thing feared. We may desire the reverse of the things feared, but the fear being the stronger, tends to pervert the desire. One may have a good desire; but if the mind is filled with doubt concerning its fulfillment, it is as though he were reaching out, through his desire, to lay hold with one hand, while through his doubt pushing away with the other.
All true fulfillment of desire comes through the at-one-ment of heart and mind: such condition expressing itself outwardly in action, must eventually bring about the realization of each and every desire. One becomes a magnet to attract to himself everything that soul, mind or body may require, because he is at-one with the eternal laws of life. His demand must bring to him the perfect supply: it is what the Master meant when He said, “Whatsoever ye ask believing, ye shall receive.” He showed, too, plainly that the Father had only good gifts for His children, that He was more willing to give than his children were to ask or receive. If, then, any good thing seems to be withheld from us, let us know that it is withheld, not because the Father is unwilling that we should have it, but because in some way we prevent ourselves from receiving. If we could understand the full truth contained in this, we would cease to think that the objects of our desire were withheld from us because of any cause or fault that lay outside of ourselves, and would place the responsibility where it belonged. It may be hard for us to become accustomed to the thought that we are quite as responsible for all our failures as for all our successes. The unstable mind, the transitory or shifting desires, the passing effort are all states of our own consciousness, and if the outer results of these inner states are unsatisfactory, let us know that they can only be changed as a more permanent and abiding state of consciousness displaces the old.
Prayer is the effort of one’s mind to adjust to both inner and outer life. If the right adjustment is brought to pass within, then the outer adjustment is an effort which is both natural and easy. On every plane of being, from the plane of the purely sense-desire to the plane of the highest spiritual-desire, we can have true prayer.; prayer varying in degree but not in kind; and with all such true prayer, from lowest to highest will come the perfect fulfillment. If in simpleness and directness of mind, one desires everything necessary to his physical well-being and is willing to- work to see his desires take form, to such a man, who is neither envious nor covetous of another’s possessions, will come the full outer reward of his inner desire. On the spiritual plane, when one is using the gifts of which he is already, possessed and desires increased power in order that he may not only enrich his own life, but the lives of others, his prayer will of a certainty be answered. When any strong true desire enters the mind, let us know that it is the starting-point, the foundation of its ultimate realization—that we should hold to it with a persistent perseverance, having no doubt but that its ultimate fulfillment is absolutely certain, and while we might not be able to determine the way or the time, or even how it is going to come, we should know beyond all question that it is on its way to us, and that the only thing that could hinder its coming would be our own doubts or fears, our own mental or physical inaction—that it is being just as surely attracted to us as the steel is attracted by the magnet.
The size and the strength of the magnet determines the size and the weight of the steel. If the magnet be weak and inefficient, only the small particles will be attracted and held by it. If the magnet be. strong and large, it will attract in proportion to its strength. The deeper and the more abiding ideals are, the more powerful they become. It is always the increased power in life which brings more quickly the realization or expression of desire. There was a much more intense desire, reinforced by faith, in the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garments than in the man who had been born blind, for whom Jesus spat upon the earth, making a salve with which to anoint his eyes, telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. In one there was the instant response, the other required both time and form in order to be healed. Jesus was able to perceive the limitations of the understanding of the different people who came to him to be healed. He was the physician who understood every case and who knew how to apply the law to fit every requirement.
Very few people have thought that their desires, whether true or false, have had much, if anything, to do with their physical wellbeing, and yet there is no question but that desire formed in mind begins at once its beneficial or harmful action. The false desires produce an almost instantaneous effect upon one’s breathing; through it new combinations of the elements of the body are affected. Where before existed only health-giving products, poisonous substances are generated, and with each added false desire the whole life—the blood—becomes poisoned, and physical disintegration ensues. This is not a mere theory but an actual fact. Each true desire becomes a vitalizing energy in the life of the body, to restore, to reform, to build up. The breath becomes rhythmic and strong in action, denoting the true self-control. The food taken into the body is both thoroughly digested and assimilated; in fact, the whole action of true desire is to strengthen and renew the physical organism. Not that I mean there is no further action, because no one can tell how far-reaching true desire is. No one can tell how many other minds are affected by the true desire that has its inception in the life of some one person. It goes out to strengthen, to quicken and renew the minds and bodies of many people, blessing and doing good to all. We should learn to make life a truly directed, unceasing prayer.
In the following meditations, I have no thought of giving any new form to prayer; but would suggest that the reader, by allowing his mind to dwell upon the thoughts contained in the meditations, may find that they serve to call out new thoughts and desires which may mean far more to him than the written meditations. They are given, then, with the object rather that they may become a means to the calling out of one’s inmost thoughts and feelings than to serve as any definite form of prayer or mental treatment. They will appeal to each mind according to its needs; they will help only as one leaves the written word and is able to enter into the “spirit” of the word. If one, after reading a meditation, closes his eyes and ears to the outer world and meditates in the spirit, he shall better understand why I have given in this book these brief meditations or prayers.
Prayer
Eternal Spirit of love and wisdom, we would unfold our desires to Thee, because we realize that Thou art the hearer and answerer of prayer. We can give to Thee, nothing—but Thou givest every good thing to us. Everything necessary to life, to health, to happiness, is given by Thee to all Thy children who pray and ask aright. We would ask Thee for greater influx of Thy love and wisdom, so that we may know how to pray aright. May a deeper realization bring to us the knowledge that the heart’s desire carries within itself its own fulfillment; that the desire for love and wisdom is that which makes love and wisdom ours, and is that which relates us to the universal love and wisdom.
We do not wish to come into communion with Thee with any worldly desires in mind; rather would we seek Thy kingdom within our own highest consciousness; find Thy spirit of love and truth indwelling in us, and forever abiding with us. We would pray for the eternal riches which cannot pass away; that peace and love which passeth understanding should forever be ours, and we know of a very truth, that having all that is highest and best in life, all lesser things are included; that when we consciously realize Thy kingdom in our lives, dominion and power are ours in the outer world; that all things are ours, and with the spirit of peace and love, we repose in the blest assurance that all we have asked of Thee will be granted. Thou knowest our every need, and we rest assured that our every need will be supplied on all planes of our being. Make us one with Thy truth, and one with Thy wisdom and love, so that we may come into the perfect fullness of life, into the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ, wherein the deepest desire of life is realized—a conscious oneness of the human with the divine, and blest indwelling Father, Thy name shall have all the honor and glory forever. Amen.
Meditation
Our Heavenly Father, Thou art the source of all health. There is no knowledge or understanding apart from Thee. Thy truth and wisdom are from everlasting to everlasting. It is Thy truth, which, entering into the mind of man, makes him strong in the power of Thy might; makes him wise in the strength of Thy wisdom. We realize that the desire of our hearts and minds to know more of Thy truth will relate us to, and make us one with it, and that Thy wisdom illuminating our minds shall throw light on the way that leads to life eternal, bringing us into the fullness, into the perfect freedom, of life and truth. May our every thought be inspired with Thy truth, that each word and deed, as it takes form in the world in which we live, shall perfectly express divine truth. We know when we are in the truth that our lives are in harmony with law; that our minds are continually renewed, and our bodies strengthened; that as we dwell in truth, truth lives in us. The joy and the peace of life are realized as never before.
Lead us in the way of all truth. Guide us in the way of all righteousness. Give to us an understanding of Thy perfect law, and strength and wisdom to bring our lives into perfect conformity and trust. Then shall the seeming end of life pass away, and the shadows of doubt and unrest shall no longer disturb us. Then shall we rejoice and be glad, for Thy truth and wisdom shall lead us into paths of pleasantness and ways of peace. And we shall have become free men and women in the Christ, and Thy name shall have all the honor and all the glory, and Thy truth shall abide with us evermore. Amen.
Meditation
O, Spirit of Hope, which proceedeth from the Infinite Mind to brighten and make glad the life of man, enter then into my life and find an abiding-place, giving peace and joy, so that the outer life may be radiant because of thy presence! We know that where Thy light is there can be no darkness, where Thy strength is there can be no weakness. Like a star, bright with promise, shine on the pathway of life, be to us a guiding light to direct us in the way of truth. Resting in Thy spirit, O Hope, love’s dawning will become the sunlight of a new day, and Faith, Thy wondrous sister, will be the crowning manifestation of life. A life that will grow larger, happier and more complete. A life wherein every true desire of heart and mind will be fully and freely realized and expressed.
Meditation
O, Soul, rejoice and be glad! Sing unto the Lord a new song; a song that shall tell of His loving goodness and His compassionate tenderness; a song that shall burst forth in joy, because of the presence of His divine spirit, which filleth thy life with the perfect happiness of living. His presence is ever with thee, so that thy life partakes of His Omnipotence, thy understanding of His Omniscience. He breathes in and through thee the vital breath of life, and never leaves or forsakes, but is ever with thee. The sunshine of His glory illumines thy every way. And His beneficence encompasseth thee. Let the new song which is in thy life sound forth in the world about thee. Let the inner glory and joy call out aloud to those who dwell in the shadows of life, that they may awaken and sing with thee the new song. Breathe upon the world what the spirit hath breathed in thee, that thou shalt aid in making the kingdom manifest, and in thee, through thee, and by thee shall God’s perfect will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This is thy high, thy holy office; and let God’s word shine as a beacon-light, pointing out the way that leads to the life eternal. And in doing this hope shall so fill the souls and minds of those who are cast down that their eyes will be uplifted, and they shall see the divine; faith will so transfigure their lives that they will give expression to God’s perfect image and likeness, and love will so radiate from the center of their beings that it will unite them with all souls, causing them to realize their at-onement with universal soul.
Rejoice and be glad; for in thy life the Christ hath arisen. In thee the Holy One of Israel is born. The Son of Righteousness has come with healing in His wings, and the glory of the Lord is about thee! Give thanks and praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.
Meditation
Our Father, we greatly desire that the real substance of life may so flow through our being that we may become rooted and grounded in faith. We know that without Thy faith we can accomplish nothing, but that in living and realizing faith to be the one eternal substance from which all things proceed, we may become filled with Thy perfect health and strength, which are manifested as holiness of mind and wholeness of body. In Thee, O Father, is the wholeness of faith; in us the part. Make us to realize that the whole and the part’ are one, that there may be no sense of separateness, that we may know that Thy life is our life, and that from Thee comes every good and perfect gift.
Meditation
Our Father, we know that it is a reasonable service that we present our bodies whole and acceptable unto Thee, but we also know that this cannot be done, save through the renewing of our minds, and that our minds are renewed by Thy spirit dwelling in us. In the spirit of faith we pray Thee that Thy spirit may find an abiding-place in our lives, illuminating our minds, and strengthening and making whole our bodies. We would make our bodies a fit habitation for the soul, so that Thy will may find its perfect expression in both mind and body.
Awaken our consciousness to the fact that Thou hast committed into our care faculties of mind, through which divine love and wisdom may act for the upbuilding of the habitations in which we live, and that only as we use Thy power aright can perfect health and happiness be ours. Cause us to see that only as we have health and happiness are we in accord with Thy divine law. We pray for a more perfect understanding of Thy law, and a greater desire to do Thy will. Free us from all selfishness that would ask for ourselves things that we would not as gladly see others receive. Make our wills one with Thy will and our desires one with Thy desires for us, so that we may ask nothing amiss of Thee, and with hearts filled with love and minds filled with thankfulness, we would bless and praise Thy Holy Name.
Meditation
Infinite and eternal Source of love, many have been the names by which Thou hast been called, but the Master has taught us the most beautiful of all Thy names, the name we may utter with our lips, but far and above all else, feel in our hearts: Love—love that transcends all thought or understanding; love that illumines the soul and glorifies the life.
Our Father, Thy love is in all, through all, and above all. The tiniest dew-tipped flower is as much an expression of Thy love as is the radiant sun. Thy love gives color and beauty to all things. May it color and beautify our lives, transform and renew our very being. We know that dwelling in Thy love, no evil thing can befall us; that when it dwells in the heart, the mind is serene and our lives radiate the sunshine of Thy love. May its influx be so great that we shall 6how forth its divine presence in thought, in word, and in deed. We fervently desire that it may abide in us and we abide in it, that we may love Thee and one another as Thou hast loved us.
Meditation
Our Father, Thou in whom I live and move and have my being, Thou art the Loving Giver of every good and perfect gift, I ask that Thy love and wisdom may so illumine and direct my way that Thy invisible kingdom may find expression through my every thought, word, and deed. Help me to realize that Thy kingdom is within mine own soul, yet not alone within my soul but in all souls Thou hast brought into existence; that Thy life, Thy love, and Thy intelligence unite me in closest bonds of brotherhood with all Thy children; that there is no separation between their life and my life, but that we are all one in Thee.
Meditation
Our Father, Thou who dwellest in our own souls, help us to realize our oneness with Thee and our fellow man, that every trace of selfishness may be dissipated and Thy will reign supreme in our lives. Thou hast given us both thought and feeling; Thou hast endowed us with many faculties of soul and mind, wherewith to work out our perfect salvation. We know that when we are at one with Thee, Thy will and purpose are made manifest in our lives; and no temptation, however great, can prevail against us. Thy strength is our strength. We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We desire that spiritual bread, Thy word, which shall sustain our souls in every hour of trial and temptation. We desire to use every gift which Thou hast given us, for Thy honor and glory. We desire the true riches which come through worship of Thee, and loving service to one another.
Meditation
Immortal and Eternal Spirit of love and Wisdom, Father of all, Mother of all, in Thee, through Thee, and by Thee are all things lived. There is no life or understanding apart from Thee. There is nothing in Thy universe, so distant or so small, but is animated by Thy life and controlled by Thine intelligence. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth forth knowledge. All Nature is Thine open book, all Nature lives and moves in Thee.
We pray for a higher consciousness of Thy abiding presence in our lives, that we may know Thee and feel Thy love as the animating presence of our being; that we may comprehend Thy wisdom so that our lives may be directed aright, and that we, through such conscious feeling and knowledge, may realize eternal life, through knowing that Thy life and our lives are in no sense separate, and that Thou dwellest in us, and we in Thee, and that the soul of man and the soul of God are one.
With such consciousness, death loses its sting and the grave has no victory; but man becomes triumphant over death, and attains to that dominion and power which is latent in him from the beginning.
Who can feel Thy wondrous love, who can attain Thy infinite knowledge? Can the part understand the whole? Can the finite comprehend the infinite? Only as the consciousness of the finite and the partial passes out of the life of man and he realizes his divinity, his oneness with the soul of the universe, can he come into conscious communion with Thee, and feel Thy love which passeth understanding, and comprehend Thy wisdom which is not partial, but all-comprehensive. Becoming one with Thee, becoming one with Thy eternal love and life, he dwells forever in the universal soul, and humanity becomes lost in divinity. The temporal is past and only the eternal remains. Death is swallowed up in life, because Thou, O Father, art All in all.
Immortality
Every natural longing has its natural satisfaction. If we thirst, God has created liquids to gratify thirst. If we are susceptible of attachment, there are beings to gratify that love. If we thirst for life and love eternal, it is likely that there are an eternal life and an eternal love to satisfy that craving.
—F. W. Robertson
How gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on forever.”
—Johnson
The question of immortality is one about which there has been a vast deal of speculation and discussion, pro and con. It was a question which agitated the minds of the people during the life of Jesus, and we find in the controversy that the Sadducees were arrayed on one side and the Pharisees on the other. Both Scribes and Pharisees had some faith in immortality. Among the early Christians there were dissensions, and the Apostle Paul based his theory of immortality on the law that if one rose from the dead then all must rise.
We might go ages back of the time of Jesus and find belief and disbelief in immortality. With the Egyptians and others of the Semitic race, immortality was largely conditional on the preservation of the body, but at a very early date the great Aryan race, as represented by the Hindu people, had thoroughly imbibed the thought of immortality. Besides their sacred writings, the next best proof is the burning of their dead bodies, which would tend to show that their belief in immortality has been and is stronger now than among Christians; because Christians still continue to bury their dead, and, like the early Egyptians, make immortality to a large degree conditional upon the body. The church burial service still holds to the thought of the soul’s returning to God who gave it and the body to the earth; and when, at some time in the distant future, the archangel Gabriel blows his trumpet, then shall soul and body be reunited.
This phase of Christian theology is, if anything, more distinctively Egyptian than it is Christian. It is not at all in accord with Christ’s idea, for He declared: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” We find that Jesus, when questioned on one occasion, said, “Before Abraham was I am,” and when those opposing Him retorted by saying that Abraham had been dead these many years, He answered that God is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living.
Jesus said to know. God is eternal life; not through knowing Him as separate or apart from our lives, but through feeling His presence ever with us, realizing that we are one with all life and intelligence. To Jesus there was no separation: “I in thee, and thou in me, that we may be made perfect in the One.” His thought was an animating, intelligent force ever present in His own life, that had power to lay down or take up the physical form at will, showing absolute control of the body.
There is proof that a great majority of the early Christians believed in an immortality which was in no way conditioned by the body. They looked at the physical form as being fitted for the needs and requirements of this earth, but they had been taught that in the Father’s house were many mansions, and that in the laying aside of the fleshly garments they would become clothed with spiritual garments; that, though the tabernacle of this house were dissolved, they had a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
The New Testament thought of immortality is based on the oneness of life and intelligence. It lays little if any stress on a physical resurrection. The Church has forgotten about the spiritual resurrection of Jesus, but it has celebrated for many hundreds of years the physical resurrection. It was not the same body that went into the tomb that came out of it, but a body that He was free to make visible or invisible at will. Some may contend that the marks of the nails in the hands and feet and of the spear in the side were in themselves sufficient to prove that it was the same body. To offset that, again, the body was not recognized by Mary at the tomb, was not recognized by the disciples who journeyed with Him a half day’s journey. We have many instances of stigmata, where, through dwelling on the thought of the crucifixion, people have had the prints of the nails in their own hands and feet.
Remembering that Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,” we must see in the resurrection a deeper meaning than that which is purely physical, and that the resurrection is above all things a spiritual resurrection. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” Through the evolution of the same eternal, unchanging love that brought to pass the spiritual resurrection of Jesus, shall all men attain to the life everlasting. There is no separation between the human and the divine. The resurrection of Jesus was a spiritual resurrection, the passing from the consciousness of the partial to the consciousness of the whole, the divine; the laying aside of everything that could hamper or hold the soul in bondage.
The misconceptions which followed the original Christian ideas came from putting a too literal construction on the allegorical Book of Revelation and the loss of the spirit or religion which had animated Christian bodies up to the time of Constantine the Great. A study of church history will show that from this time the spirit was lost sight of and the Church lived in the dead letter of Christian thought. In the dark ages superstition and materialism combined to utterly destroy all that was vital and true, so that scarcely a vestige of the Christ religion was to be found in the Church. While the Reformation tended to bring back something of the old spirit of religion, nevertheless, no real light came from it on the subject of immortality, or the life to come.
Eventually, it may be found that the thing which at one time seemed likely to destroy man’s belief in immortality, namely, scientific research and investigation, will become the great factor in causing the minds of people to return to a belief in it, or something more than a belief; because the scientific mind of the present time is waking to the fact that the material world is not all; that there are forces, powers, at work in the universe which transcend all material things.
The question of the present is not, What is matter? but, What is Spirit? When we have answered the last question we shall have the key to the first, because we cannot know in reality what an effect is without knowing something of the cause; and when we know the cause of any given effect, we shall be better able to understand the effect. Scientific thought and investigation have done much in the arrangement and classification of form, but they have gone nearly as far in that direction as it is possible to go, and are taking up, and will take up to a still greater degree, the things that are super sensuous.
Conservation of force and the indestructibility of matter tend to show that in the great economy of nature nothing is ever lost. We see people walking about on this earth endowed with animating life and physical form, and we assert that not one atom of these forms can cease to be, nor one particle of energy be lost. We are conscious of an intelligence controlling and directing the physical organism in every part, and everything leads us to believe that it is in all ways superior to the outer form. Scientifically, we are coming to know that this intelligence created or brought into existence and gave being to the very form which it now inhabits and controls.
The law of evolution goes to prove that for ages life has been tending from lower to higher stages—differentiation after differentiation taking place until in the fullness of time man appeared on the earth. At any stage in evolution we shall find intelligence displayed in the construction of form, this intelligence ever tending to adapt the form to the requirements of its environments.
Is it logical, is it scientific, to say that with the passing of the form this intelligence ceases to be, or becomes dissipated? Of course some may retort that as the physical form becomes dissipated, why not the intelligence? But for that matter, there is dissipation and renewal of the physical form taking place all through the life of man, and yet greater intelligence is constantly evolving, and what takes place at the so-called death is only dissipation in a greater degree. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that the minds of people are often clear and active when the life of the body is nearly gone.
The people who would have us believe that this little span of life is the beginning and end of all, and that the physical brain is the mind of man, often bring up such illustrations as an injury to the brain, a fracture of the skull, or something of the kind, interfering with mental action; and these they think tend to prove conclusively that with the entire destruction of the brain comes the entire destruction of mind. Again, they have cited the circumstances where the skull has been trepanned and there has been a return of thought and reason. This, instead of tending to prove their case, in reality proves the reverse. It shows that the mind requires a perfect instrument through which to work, and when that instrument has been damaged it can no longer function in a proper way; but with a return to normal conditions it again resumes its natural activities. It would not be possible to enumerate the cases of people who, while in a state of trance, where physical animation was almost entirely suspended (so much so that attendants could not tell whether life was entirely extinct or not), when the life-principle returned to the body, have recounted many and varied experiences through which they passed during the interval while in trance.
Surely, this could not have been the result of any physical brain-action. If we had no greater proof of life after the passing away of the physical form than this, such testimony should go a long way toward establishing it. Again, there are the many cases of people who have recovered from severe sickness and who, while apparently suffering, have not been conscious of that suffering, but have had a marked consciousness of things other than this world. Of course the advocate of materialism will declare that such things were the hallucinations of a weakened or diseased brain.
The great trouble with the skeptics and agnostics, who array themselves in opposition to the thought of continued life, is that they are not honest in being unwilling to examine into the facts of the case, or else, if doing so, arrogate to themselves an arbitrary way of reaching their conclusions. They can bring no proof which will in any way tend to substantiate their own views, but only dogmatic assertions that the people who believe in immortality are either knaves or fools, and that they have no reasonable grounds whatever for their belief. It is folly to quote Jesus, Buddha, Socrates, Paul, Swedenborg, or any other great mind that has ever lived on the planet. If an angel from heaven should appear, he would not be able to change their conceited arrogancy; what other people have known, believed, and taught they declare to have been all false; in fact, they believe that they know everything. Wherever a great scientific mind, like Alfred Russell Wallace or Camille Flammarion, takes up the study of the more spiritual side of life and considers it in an unprejudiced way, it becomes only a question of time when his investigations lead him to believe in and accept the thought of immortality.
The orthodox Christian ideas of immortality are both vague and unsatisfactory. Their particular regulations for the continued existence of those who accept what they are pleased to term the Christian faith and those who reject it, are neither in accord with the teachings of Jesus nor His immediate followers. In their blindness they misconstrue parable and allegory, thus getting meanings that were never intended, and sending the Pharisees to a heaven of everlasting bliss, while the publicans are doomed to eternal punishment.
This thought of immortality is neither Christlike nor true. The Christ thought is that the lost sheep will be brought back to the fold, that the prodigal son’s sufferings will so help to bring true desire into his mind that he will return to his father’s home, that the eleventh-hour laborer in the vineyard will receive the same compensation as any other, and that God’s love and mercy endureth forever; but that man must prepare his mind for the perfect reception of the spirit of God. And that when he becomes conscious of that spirit it brings with it a realization of his sonship to God; that every stage in life has been a necessary one; that the way to God is from man’s very lowest earthy nature to his very highest heavenly nature; that every step in this way is one step toward God, and that the love for the righteous and unrighteous is one love, and will save even to the uttermost; that God’s mercy endureth forever.
In the Christ Gospel, life and immortality are clearly revealed. A time will come when we shall wonder how we could have misunderstood it and made of it something just the reverse, a doctrine of death instead of eternal life.
The church doctrine of immortality is only a useless encumbrance without life or meaning. There is also an exceedingly vicious side to it in that it condemns to eternal punishment the vast majority of people who pass out of the world, and holds out a reward for a blind belief in doctrines which are in no way essential to the life.
Life and immortality are not for the few, but for all; and this little earth-life is not the beginning nor end of man’s destiny. Through the countless ages of the past man has been working up to what he is, and in the ages to come he will grow into an ever-increasing life. The thought of immortality is inherent in each fiber of man’s being, and, try as he may, he cannot get away from it. To the wrong-doer, who knows that every wrong act brings with it its own reward, and that the seed of vicious thought will bring a harvest of pain and suffering, the outlook may not be fraught with delightful anticipations; but that suffering will, in the end, prove beneficial in bringing him at last to a knowledge of his real duties to God and man.
Jesus, the Christ, passed through the same trials and temptations that we do, and it was only through meeting those trials and temptations and overcoming them that He was able to rise above the law of sin and death, that law which people had believed in hundreds, yes, thousands, of years. He passed from under its dominion and came under the dominion of the law of the spirit of life, which frees from sin and death.
A New Testament writer says that it is the action of this latter law that all must come under; that we are all sons of God and joint heirs with Christ; that Jesus was the first fruits of them that slept; that we all sleep in the earthy man, and that all must awake in the heavenly man; that Jesus through his life and teaching brought life and immortality to light. Life and immortality had been before the very foundation of things, and had ever been throughout eternity; that in the Adam or earthy man we all die to a knowledge of our true relation to God, so, when we awaken in the Christ spirit, that is in our own lives, then we come into the fullness of life and understanding; that the old things pass away; that we no longer place our trust in any form or in anything external to ourselves; that life and intelligence are eternal, and that there is no separation either in this world or in any other to come.
And this same writer tells us that life is one. The form changes and passes away, but the soul is one with God. Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of life. If there were a period in the evolution of man when he had no conscious knowledge of God—a period that could be spoken of as death when man believed in the law of death—then through man’s overcoming this law, through his becoming conscious of another law in his own life, the law of the spirit of life, he becomes the first fruits of them that slept.
This does not take away anything from Jesus; it is not a failure to see the divine in Him, for as we see the human disappear, the divine comes into view. In the early part of the mission of Jesus He referred to Himself over and over again as the son of man, but toward the close of that mission He calls Himself the Son of God, and when He was accused of blaspheming by the people, He answered them in this way: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken.”
You see it is essential that the word of God should come into the life before there can be a realization of the oneness with God. With Jesus it is God’s will, God’s intelligence, God’s power acting in and through Him. He knows that he is one with God and that he has eternal life and eternal power, and that he has come under the real law of the Spirit of life. There is perfect order in the life of man as there is in the life of a plant. Some plants come to maturity in a short time and others take a long time. There is law and order in all things. There is a natural development going on in the evolution of the inner hidden possibilities of man. A time comes in his life when he shall have brought everything into subjection, when he shall have dominion and power over all things, and the last enemy to be overcome is death.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The time will come when we will have attained all the knowledge of this earth, when we will have power to lay down these human forms without sickness, without disease, without any great effort. We will have power to lay down or take up, for man must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.
These words do not refer to any particular man, but to the great universal life of man; not to any one soul, but to all souls of which Jesus was the first fruit. Remember, that in the real temple of God we are all parts, but each part has, in a way, to demonstrate that which the whole must eventually become, and when all individuals have done this, then will man, the universal man, have attained to dominion and power, and will be subject to God and God alone, that God may be all in all.
I heard a minister say, some time ago, when a body was being buried, that the soul had gone to God and that the body would rest in the tomb until the resurrection day, when soul and body would be reunited. When the body passes away, it goes into countless forms of one kind or another. If we were going to live on this planet again, there might be some possible reason for taking up the old body, but just think of some of the bodies that would have to be taken up!
There is no thought of the resurrection of the physical body in the real Christian doctrine of life. Jesus and His disciples never taught it. This body is of this earth and it will never go further than this earth. We shall always have bodies corresponding to our environment. The great truth is that the spiritual resurrection and immortality is hidden in God, is in the thought of life as one, and that life is everlasting; that the life and power are the ever-present indwelling God, and through knowledge of His presence it is given us to shape the individual life in such a way as to at last overcome, to rise above, the law of sin and death. We must lay all stress on the spiritual resurrection, the resurrection to the knowledge of the life eternal, and that the law that brings one soul into its spiritual freedom will bring all souls; that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
True Dominion
It is only to man, daring to think of himself noble, divinely, ay, as the son of God, that there comes the possibility of putting his human powers to their perfect use. Character and service both fling their doors wide open to him that knows himself to be the son of God.
—Phillips Brroks
The glorious consummation toward which organic evolution is tending is the production of the highest and most perfect psychical life.”
—John Fiske
“My mind to me a kingdom is.
—Epictetus
For many years man has been studying the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; but in all his investigations he has overlooked what is greater than all else—man himself. The most important pursuit in all this world is the study of man. It will repay the diligent student far more than any other line of research. “Know thyself,” said a wise man in ancient times; and he might have added, “you will know all other people; you will know all else, because in this human mind—in this soul of ours—is contained everything to be found in the outer world.”
To know ourselves the investigation must be carried on in a manner quite different from that governing all other lines of study. To know ourselves as we are we must set aside pride of self, we must examine into everything carefully and minutely. We need to know the cause of all man’s varying emotions and the motives that prompt him to follow certain courses—such as shutting his mind to certain thoughts and events and opening it to others. In the past we believed what we wished to believe, without regard to its truth. A certain body of men had promulgated certain doctrines, and we took them for granted; we accepted them as the truth without investigation. Our ministers and our doctors have done our thinking for us. But this condition is rapidly passing away, and each individual soul is beginning to think and act for itself, the trammels that hitherto have bound the soul are being thrown aside.
In the study of man, a careful, thoughtful inquiry into the matter by oneself is necessary—not taking anything that others say as the indisputable truth, but investigating and seeing whether another’s idea of truth appeals to the inquirer’s highest sense of right, and whether it will prove beneficial if accepted.
The idea of storing up something for the future is exploded. What we want is health, strength, and happiness, here and now. The idea of going through the world with a long face, thinking it indicates religion, no longer passes current. The religion of Christ is a religion of hope, not despair; yet the majority of Christians carry about on their faces the opposites of brightness and happiness. We must investigate in the true way. Through the exercise of soul and mind and body the whole man grows strong and attains to true self-knowledge.
It is largely through the wonderful control of thought and breath that the Hindu adepts perform many of their remarkable feats. Indeed, the wonders transpiring every day, strange as they appear, are but trifling in comparison to those that will yet be disclosed through the human mind. We do not even dream in the present of the powers and possibilities of mind. We have power in our own souls to transform our bodies; to quicken the action of the heart and the blood; to strengthen every part of the body; and so to increase in knowledge of things good and true that ere long we may absolutely control our bodies.
Knowledge of the law and its application are essential to a thoroughly controlled, powerful life. There is a real science of life, one by which the mind is renewed, quickened and made strong. This renewing of the mind is in turn fully expressed in physical well-being. If we will carefully and thoughtfully examine into these matters, and then live in accordance with our knowledge, there is not one among us who may not be benefited both mentally and physically. Man comes as absolutely under the universal laws of God as suns and planets or systems of suns and planets that move in unison with eternal law. There can be no health nor happiness aside from conformity to the laws of God. In vain shall we seek for these blessings elsewhere.
Students of esoteric science claim that there is one great life-principle which is in all, through all, and above all. Exoteric science speaks of this principle as energy, or force; Christian people call it God; Hindus speak of it as Brahm. But they all mean exactly the same thing—”the Power that makes for righteousness,” as Matthew Arnold aptly puts it. It is that “infinite and eternal Energy” of Herbert Spencer’s belief. Every soul represents a part of it—therefore the Whole; in other words, it is “God working within us to will and to do.” Our bodies, in turn, represent the force within us. The body is the outgrowth of the mind; hence, the mind can make it what it will. If in the past we have made errors, and as a result of them have weak or diseased bodies, remember that we have the power to correct those errors. We have the power to make our bodies what we will, if our wills be in accord with the divine will. It is through the power of God within us, for there is no other power. Everything in the universe gives evidence of it. It is in the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms, and is found in the highest degree of manifestation in the life of man.
Our study of “self,” therefore, rests on the foundation that there is but one supreme life-force in the universe. It naturally follows that there can be but one Intelligence, and that every sentient thing must manifest a certain degree of that Life and Intelligence. We find the degrees varying all the way up from the mineral to the animal kingdom—different degrees of manifestation; yet one power, one God working in all. “I the Lord am God, and besides me there is none else.” It is a realization of this infinite potency in our own lives that will bring health and strength; it is the knowledge that we have the power of God within us—the power of all the universe working with us—that gives strength of mind and health of body. We must realize that it is not possible to be separated from this eternal source; that we are one with all power; and that the whole force of God’s universe is working with us and for us, not against us.
The belief of a God afar off, a God of whom we know but little, is not the true thought; it is not the Christ idea, which is that “the Spirit within quickeneth and maketh whole every part of our being.” It is, therefore, the spirit of God within us that brings health and strength; thus it is necessary first to realize the power of God in our own lives—to feel that we are one with it, and that all the intelligence we have is derived from this one source. Knowing God in this way brings eternal life, since we realize that if a part could cease to be the whole would cease to be; hence, man’s heaven consists in a realization of the Spirit of God in his own life, and that knowledge brings a consciousness of eternal life.
One of the greatest of all questions that man has had to consider in the past is his attitude toward evil. Now, certain knowledge can be derived only from what we term evil. Evil is just as much a necessity in the world, to show man the good and true, as darkness is to reveal the presence of light; or we may say that evil represents the undeveloped or partial expression of life, which, however, always contains within itself the prophesy of wholeness—completeness; even as the seed, through all its varying stages of growth, carries within itself the prophesy of the ripened fruit. Evil indicates the absence of good, as ignorance indicates the absence of knowledge. We would have no idea of the beauties of light, of truth, of love, if their contradictories had not existed—if there were no darkness, no error, no hatred. And the reason is that we compare one with the other. If it were always light we would have no word for light—it would have no meaning. If people always told the truth we would have no word for truth.
It is only through the contradictory that we learn of the reality. Having once learned the reality, the unreality (the contradictory) becomes meaningless. But so long as we endow it with the same power as the reality, just so long will it have that degree of influence over us.
The great lesson for mankind to learn is the reality of good and the nothingness of “evil.” There is no way of overcoming the false, unreal conditions of life (the evil) save through good. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
For thousands of years the world has vainly tried to overcome evil by evil. Can we overcome darkness by darkness? No; only through light. Overcome evil by good; overcome ignorance by knowledge. When we have overcome the ignorance, the evil, and the darkness of the past will disappear; and the reason is plain; two ideas cannot dwell in the mind at one and the same time. If the mind is filled with thoughts of good and of truth, there is no possible room for those of evil or of falsehood. If a room is filled with light, all the darkness of the outer world cannot dispel one particle of that illumination; therefore, if we keep our lives surrounded by the light—if we keep the light burning within—there is no power without that can dispel it. We have the power to close our eyes to the light within ourselves; but no other soul in all the world can do it for us, because that light is a living reality that cannot be overcome from without.
We come now to the development of certain mental powers, or, rather, soul powers, because we have faculties transcending those that are purely mental. We find that through their development will come our greatest good, and that no single power occupies as great a place as that of the will, which is the most powerful force in the life of man when rightly directed and controlled. The will is the actual Self of man—the real man; and when it finds its true direction there arises a power that overcomes the false will. It is the development of this will to which Jesus referred. He recognized the contradictory will—purely human, or partial, and therefore to be overcome. He said, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” To recognize the will of God as the supreme factor in our lives is of the utmost importance. We may not say we do things of ourselves—Jesus never said that. He said: “Of myself I can do nothing. The Father working within me, He doeth the work.” One will alone reigns supreme.
Next in importance to the will comes the imaging faculty. If man uses this faculty aright (for we are now dealing with a faculty of mind, not of soul), he will obtain nothing from it save that which is good. Every ill, or evil, that enters into the life of man comes through the misuse of his imaging faculty. While everything is good in itself, it is only good as it is used aright. When man attempts to combine the different images from this outer world, though each in and of itself is good, he may produce evil through untrue combinations. For example, a web of cotton in itself is perfectly harmless; but by adding to it certain acids we can make gun-cotton and with it destroy a building. The force in the cotton is liberated in an instant, and that liberation causes the destruction. There is more sunshine—more force—in cotton than in any other manufactured substance; and if that force be suddenly liberated, the results are terrible.
Pictures of sorrow and evil fill the mind with anxiety, malice, hatred, jealousy, etc., and cause most of the distress of life. If we could but see that every experience that enters into the life of man comes for a good purpose—to show him something higher, better, and truer; if we could realize that all things are working together for good—then we might not have to undergo certain experiences that bring suffering. We would see that they contain lessons, and our great object would be so to profit by them that the experiences need not be repeated. But they will continue to recur until the lesson of life is learned.
If we image in our minds the good and true, we will obtain the good and true as results; because the mind first makes these pictures, and they afterward express themselves in the physical structure of man. We are suffering to-day from the evil pictures of the past. If we have filled our minds with fear, envy, anger, etc., we suffer, and wonder why we should be so afflicted. We wonder if God has sent these afflictions upon us, whereas we bring them upon ourselves as the result of false mental images, which in turn produce physical poisons.
When we use this imaging faculty aright we picture nothing save the good and true; hence we express that which is good and true in the body. The body is transformed through this “renewing of the mind.” In no other way can we “present our bodies a living sacrifice” save through this direction of soul and mind faculties. There is no medicine known to-day that will bring health or salvation to any soul or body. No medical doctor can say truthfully that the system that he represents is founded on law. The law is that everything must work from within outward. We must work from the inner being to the outer. Man must be controlled by his spiritual faculties if he expects ever to be well and strong. There is no other way, for the Spirit alone quickeneth.
Faith and hope also enter into this subject. What is faith? Many think that it is belief in something that someone else has said. Others hold that faith is a belief that Jesus died two thousand years ago, and that in some way that belief will free them from all future trouble. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” What does that mean? It does not mean the kind of belief just mentioned. We are told that “the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.” The word blood always signifies “life.” The life of Christ, as we make it manifest, is that which cleanses from all sin.
Belief in an event that occurred two thousand years ago is not going to save a man. Salvation that exempts the body is no salvation at all; for a Christian going about with a weak body is not manifesting the Christ nature. We never hear of Christ as being weak or sick. Faith is founded on knowledge, not credulity; but most of the so-called faith we have at present is founded on someone else’s belief. True faith is always founded on personal knowledge; we never hear persons say they have faith in a man, and yet have no knowledge concerning him.
A true understanding of the power of God in our lives gives us both health and strength. Then our faith is real, and greater blessings may come into our lives because of our knowledge of both past and present which constitutes a living faith that shall endure forever.
Wherever we find faith, we find hope; because faith apart from hope is not conceivable. If the mind is filled with faith in God, then it is filled with hope. The person who goes about with a gloomy face, talking over depressing things, has neither faith nor hope. These qualities are essential in the life, and the more faith and hope one has in both God and man the better his life will be. The man that has little faith in his fellow man is not the one to trust. The more faith we have in one another—the more of God we recognize in one another—the better it is for us. The more of God we see in others the more of the divine we show in ourselves.
Finally, we come to the influence that one mind may have upon other minds. Every thought we think has some effect upon the lives of others. It is bound to affect other people either for good or ill; and when we realize the responsibility thus placed upon us we should use our thought-power with the greatest care. Every true thought that enters the soul is an angel that will carry peace and good-will to some other soul; and every evil and hateful thought that enters the mind is going out to mingle with the darkness and despair of other unenlightened souls. If we think true thoughts we need not care about the external word and deed. Both word and deed will take care of themselves through true feeling and thinking.
As a final summing up of what constitutes real Dominion and Power, let us realize that in true feeling is laid the foundation of a perfected “manhood.” One needs to remember that thought is inwardly related to feeling and outwardly related to action. To feel, to become inspired from within, to touch the God-life, is the highest revelation in the life of man. It is the inner illuminations.
Jesus, when asked concerning God, did not say that God is mind or thought, but said, “God is love.” Then to be inspired by the spirit of love is God-like. The great creative powers resident in the life of man have their fountain-head in feeling. “To feel after God” is what one New Testament writer says. Love, faith, hope, are the powers that live eternally in the life of man. All else may change; these must endure, throughout time, throughout eternity.
From this sun of life radiates all else. Even man’s thoughts must take form through his feelings. Let us begin then, with the cultivation of the highest. Let us, in so far as is possible, use loving kindness and good will to all. Let faith become a spring of living water in the life through our having faith in God, in our fellow man, and in our own ideals concerning life and things of life, i Let the spirit of hope throw sunshine about our path in life, lighting our own way and throwing light upon the path of others; thus will the kingdom of God be revealed through us, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In its order it is as necessary to think as to feel. God gave us minds to think, to work out our own salvation in a full and complete way. Let us stop thinking the dead thoughts of bygone generations. Let us stop thinking on the authority of another’s thought. Let us know, once and for all, that through the use of our own minds will come the truest and best solution of all questions presenting themselves to us in life. Think clearly. We must of necessity think clearly if our minds are illumined and made new from within. We must of necessity be positive in our thoughts if our minds are enlightened by the knowledge of an Omnipotent, Omniscient God, working within us to will and to do.
With our thought we shape and direct the force of life, giving it form in the outer world. Let us think, then, the God thoughts, creative and upbuilding thoughts, that make for health of mind and strength of body. Through centering our thought on the things we want to be or do the energy we use is not diverted into wrong channels, but finds perfect expression, and we accomplish what we will to accomplish. That which we will to be, we become.
Inner feeling and controlled thought produce the energy necessary for true action. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” It is through the right use of every organ of the body, under the direction of mind, that the whole organism becomes uniformly strong, that the life-blood pulsates evenly through all parts. Throughout God’s great universe action prevails. Vibration is an eternal action of life.
A tree is known by its fruits. True action is the outer expression of true thoughts and feeling. There is no faith which does not take form in works. Work is a vital necessity for the well-being of man. One who does not work cannot enjoy health or happiness. One’s greatest satisfaction comes in seeing his thought ideals take on visible form. Build castles in the air, but do not stop there. See them expressed on earth. Feel them, think them, and work for them. Grow mighty in doing. Through action let man, as the representative of God, become great in the world in which he lives. Remember this: that the Christ man loves, thinks, and acts.
Practical Idealism
Some people have a great deal of the practical, and very little of the idealistic. Again, other people are very idealistic, without having much that is practical, but between any two extremes is always found the something that will prove truly beneficial. Idealism that is not practical is of very little benefit to any one; and again, one who is not idealistic has really not yet begun to live, for if a man became so practical that he lives only to accumulate material wealth, his life is in reality wasted. We need both: we need to be like the trees that grow, sending their roots down deep into the ground, and yet sending their branches up into the heavens.
While living in this world, we should try to receive all the good that the world can possibly give. It is a mistake to believe that we should live in this world as ascetics, or that we are merely pilgrims here for a little time, and the sooner we get through with the world the better it will be. Such people will awaken some time to a knowledge of their mistake.
To pass through the world without getting the benefit that the world offers is to lose much. Sometimes it is easier to hold to one thing than it is to adjust one’s life to two conditions, and yet these two conditions of life are necessary—an inner consciousness is as necessary to life as an outer consciousness, and the man or woman who neglects one or the other is going to be one-sided, lacking true adjustment.
The world more frequently recognizes the one-sidedness of the people who tend toward idealism, while oblivious of the narrowness of those who give up their time and all their thought to the accumulation of material things. People would not consider it one-sidedness in the latter case, because it is the common way of the world, and we look upon this common way as being a very essential way, a necessary way. If anyone should come into our practical, our utilitarian, world to-day, and try to imitate the Master—the great Nazarene—living His life, going about from place to place, often having nowhere to lay His head, often hungry and thirsty, we would say that such a man was not practical in this age and in this generation. But let me tell you that we have forgotten all about the practical men of His generation, while this one great soul stands out unique and alone, because the life was lost in thought for others—in thinking and doing and caring for others. The practical side of life passes away; only the ideal lives on forever.
Thus we eventually come to see that ideals dominate life, and without ideals we are little better than the animals. The squirrels store up their nuts sufficient to last them through the hard, cold winter. We know so much better than the squirrels: we store up not only sufficient to last through the winter, or the rainy day, but sufficient to last one generation after another generation, and we think that in doing this we are accomplishing God’s work. If we could only understand that we are here to live life—we are here to give expression to every power and to every possibility that is written into the life.
But, supposing someone undertakes to make life so easy for another to live that it prevents any real incentive on his part for giving expression to his innate powers and possibilities.
What benefit or what good can such a course accomplish? It must of necessity retard development and keep back the evolution of life; for when people give all their thought and attention to storing up this world’s goods for their children, they are doing that which invariably interferes with their development. Work is a necessity to life, and if we are not working—if we are not expressing, then we are not fulfilling life. It is, therefore, quite possible to so enrich others with material wealth that instead of being a help to them, it becomes a very decided hindrance.
We need strong, true ideals in life, and then we must make the effort to express our ideals. Idealism does not mean that there is no outer world and that ideals are all, but that ideals exist first, and that sooner or later must come their expression in outer form.
Of what use is an ideal that can never find expression? Of what benefit is it to one if he build wonderful ideals with the imagination and never see those ideals take form in the world? Of what particular benefit is it to him or to any one else? No; an ideal must find expression, and when it finds expression, according to one’s own way and according to his own method, then it represents something that is in his own life; but if it is an ideal borrowed from someone else, and then expressed to some degree, one does not live in it the same way as though it were a part and parcel of himself. No one can copy after another and be successful in the highest degree. Of course, many think that there are minds so far superior to their own, that they can copy from these minds and get greater results than through living out what they could think themselves. If you take a copy of a painting, you will always find, no matter how beautiful the reproduction may be as regards color and technic, there is something about it that is not alive. It is not a living picture, because the man has not put his thought, his soul into the picture; therefore he could not express his thought or soul by copying the work of a master, no matter how great the master might be.
We should then have our own ideals in life, and we should express them. The ideal in the first place may be crude, the expression still cruder, but continued effort to express not only gives a better and more perfect result, but opens the way for a larger and more beautiful ideal.
There is something that each individual can do in this world, and do it better than any other individual…some one particular thing. If one can find that which he can do best, and put his highest thought and feeling into it, then it really becomes a living thing—the thought becomes a thing that is expressed in the outer world. “Thoughts are things.” But only when charged with vital energy do they become things; when you put your feeling into your thinking; when you have faith in the power that animates your being, when you have faith in your ideal, then the work becomes a living thing—something that in blessing your own life will as surely bless the lives of others.
We want, then, to be practical in this world, but the practice of anything, without a living ideal back of it, is of little use in development. Remember, all development comes through effort made on the part of the individual.
It does not come because of a power outside of a man’s self, for there is no power outside of a man’s self that either retards or aids his development. It is simply in the way that he is adjusted to life. If he is harmoniously adjusted, then development is unimpeded, but when inharmoniously adjusted to life and its environments, although development is taking place, it is not the development that conforms to the true ideal. You have perhaps at some time seen a tree growing between two great rocks, and being hard pressed on either side it loses its form; it does not express what it was intended to express. So very often in this life through failure to adjust there comes the pressure of environment. We attribute it all to environment; we say that it has made us what we are; that circumstances have so controlled our lives that we could not be any different, even if we wanted to. Now, this is not true. The strong mind—the strong will— controls circumstances; the strong mind with the true ideal brings about adjustment to environment. We make our lives just what they are; they are not made for us.
Individualized life is the continual unfolding of a plan that has been written into it. Now, the great Universal Soul involved the plan, but every individual evolves or gives expression to the plan that is written into the life. We are told that salvation is a gift, that it is free, and then we are told to work out our own salvation. The gift is this: that the plan was in the very beginning of things the plan of a perfect man, of the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ; but only in the fullness of time, only through His own personal effort, was that plan ever evolved.
From the crudest state—from the Adam— to the Christ, the evolution of the plan has been going on; and in so far as it is possible for us to know, the highest plan is that disclosed by Jesus, the Christ. We, as Christian people believing in the teachings of Jesus, naturally consider His life as a full expression of the ideal man. The Buddhist would say that the highest plan of life came through Buddha and from his conception of it he would be right, because he understands the plan better, possibly, than most Christians understand the Christ plan. The Hindu might say that Krishna gave the most wonderful ideals concerning life; so it might go from one faith to another.
All are true to a degree, none encompass the Absolute; we cannot say, as Christians, that the Buddhists are not right, but the Christians are; that the Christian theory of life is true, but the Buddhist is false. What we can say is this: that we get from the teachings of Jesus, the Christ, something that seems to satisfy, and that the Buddhist gets from the teachings of Buddha something that satisfies him, and the Mohammedan gets from the teachings of Mohammed something which brings satisfaction to his mind. God is the Father of one great family—mankind. All men are members, one of another; there is a great brotherhood of humanity. We have differences—we make all kinds of differences— we throw all kinds of limitations around ourselves, but there is just one God, Father of all, Mother of all, who hath made of one blood all people who dwell on the face of the earth. All people—not some people, but all people who dwell on the face of the earth.
All people have their different ideals concerning life, but the main point is this: if we are living the Christian ideal, believing that to be the highest and the best, then that is all that is expected of us. Again, if the Buddhists, Hindus and Mohammedans are living their ideals, why should we expect more of them?
Let us recognize the fact that humanity is representing many different stages of evolution, and that which is good for one people at one time in their particular stage of evolution, may not be good for another people in a more or less advanced stage of evolution. What is necessary then is charity, concerning the ideals of other people. The only exception any one could take is as to whether the people are living their ideals—whether they are living up to the best they know, and, after all, man is no true judge of his fellow man. So we need not take time to consider that. There is just one thing to be considered: not the ideals held to by different religious bodies, not the ideals held to by different nations, but the ideal held to by each individual person (because it all comes down to that); and what is each individual person doing with his ideals? Because if he is failing to express his ideals, then it would be better for him had he never formed any ideals. You might ask why. My answer to that would be this: that if you have an ideal in mind, and fail to live and give expression to it, then that ideal convicts you, and it is the only thing that ever will convict you: it convicts you of failure to live your ideal. Jesus once said: “If I had not come, ye had not sinned.” The question then naturally arises, How was it possible for Jesus to bring sin into the world? Only in this way: Jesus gave a higher, a more unselfish ideal of living, and people perceiving and failing to live it, were and are convicted by the ideal dwelling within them.
And so we are judged by our ideals, and unless we are living the ideals we have in mind we are out of tune with our conscience. If we are trying to live those ideals, remember, no matter how mistaken we may be, if we are trying to live what we believe to be right and what we believe to be true, then the way, if it is not altogether clear, will be shown us, because we grow through action. An ideal in mind prompts us to do something; the result is either harmony or discord, and the ideal must be judged by its effect. If everything we are doing in life is simply producing discord and unrest, then it shows that we need a new set of ideals; but whenever the ideal is producing harmony, greater peace of mind, greater strength of mind, giving us greater power, then that shows that we must be in the way that leads to life.
But someone may say: “Oh, you are altogether wrong; you are not living up to the real, the truest standard of life, and you should make your standard conform more to what other people require.” The records show that both Jesus and John the Baptist had the same difficulty. They said of John: “Why, this man neither eats nor drinks; he goes out into the wilderness and separates himself from his fellow men. This man hath a devil.” That was the only way they found to account for his unusual actions, and when Jesus went about among the people, eating and drinking, and doing apparently very much as the people about him, they said: “Behold! a glutton and a wine-bibber.” One sees then how impossible it is to adjust to other people’s ideals, and, therefore, how necessary it is to have ideals of one’s own and to live them as best one knows how—making mistakes, but finding out those mistakes through action. In this way one makes his ideal something that lives in the world, for he is giving it expression.
No one would think of keeping a little child from trying to walk, even if that child tumbled down occasionally. No; one would say that the falling down but tended to make the child become more careful, that he would try to overcome that condition of falling, and one would also know that every time the child put forth effort he was making for greater strength as well as greater security. So our mistakes in life become to us stepping-stones to a knowledge of higher things.
It is evident that many people are not so much interested in their present ideals as they are in conditions of the past or future events. Some people are continually troubled and worried over things of the past. Other people are continually troubled over things of the future. Now, the one thing is this: we are living to-day; we are living in this hour, in this minute. The one thing that really concerns us is not how we are going to live tomorrow, or how we lived yesterday, but just how we are living at this present moment; because it is that which counts; it is neither the past nor the future, but the living present, and therefore the ideal should always be put in the present. The practice of the ideal should always be in the present. One must not wait or think that a time will come when he can give a better or truer expression to the ideal, but know that the time is here, and the time is now. He should live what he believes is right in the present moment, and try to do it as best he knows how.
Put your ideals of health and happiness, not into the future time, but right into the present moment; realize that you can be well, that you can be whole, that you can be strong, and that you can begin to be all that this very minute, if you will it so to be. We acquire whatever we desire in this life, in the shortest possible time, by working for it right in the present, not delaying, thinking that we are going to be stronger, thinking that we are going to have greater intelligence to do it in the future. We gain our intelligence and we gain our strength always through doing. It is through action that greater intelligence and greater strength come into life. What we need, then, is more action—more practical action—more desire to express the inner ideal. Remember that to the ideal belongs the inner life, but the expression of the ideal is always an outer thing. The desire for health is in the soul and mind, but the expression of health is always in the physical organism. Let the physical organism express, then, all you desire to have it express. Desire is prayer, and if you pray, knowing that you will receive, do not think that the receiving is going to come at some distant or future time, for: “When ye pray, believe that ye have,” not that you are going to have, but that you have. “But,” you say, “How foolish that would be to say it is possible to pray and have at the same time.” The ideal, remember, is the plan. If you have the plan worked out in your mind, have you not already begun to realize something of that which you desire? You could not work out something without the plan. Now, if you have the plan, you have laid the foundation: just go right on and know that the building will be built on that foundation, and that you have really begun your building.
There are times in life when the dreaming side, we might say, is necessary—when we have to dream about things. But that is only a momentary time, and then comes the action, because this is, peculiarly, a world of action. Dream just as true as you can; then make your visions come true.
Make your thought pictures clear and well defined, and then go to work and make your dream a real thing in the world, no matter what your dream may be—whether it is a dream for health, a dream for happiness, or a dream to do good in this world—have your dream come true; build your castles in the air, and then see them realized on earth.
Success
All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart;
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.
—Pope
Two things are invariably necessary to successful work, no matter what its line may be: first, the love thereof; second, confidence in the success thereof. Only as we love can we work beautifully, harmonically, courageously. Courage comes with love; it is love alone that makes tasks easy and fingers fly fast.
—W. J. Colville
Very few people care to question the desirability of success in life, and yet many doubtless differ as to what constitutes real success. Some view success from the standpoint of the accumulation of material wealth; others see success in political or social preferment; still others in public recognition of literary or artistic ability. One person might attain to all these varying possibilities of life and yet not be really successful. Real success must be measured by a standard other than by the possession of any or all the things previously mentioned. A truly successful life carries with it something more than the possession of riches or any worldly recognition.
The elements of success are inherent in every individual. The possibility of greatness is latent in every soul, and greatness may take on one phase or another, resulting in one or manifold expressions. That few people do really become great or attain to real success in life is not because they are lacking in possibilities, but because they refuse to follow the highest dictates of their own conscience, or because they are too lazy, either mentally or physically. It is hard to make some people realize that success must be attained through their own efforts; they think that luck or chance is going to bring about a condition whereby they will profit.
Now, the way of life is a straight and narrow one, and the man or woman who refuses to recognize it as such cannot hope to attain to any real or lasting success, because success in life has for its foundation the development of character. If there is lack of character, there can be no permanent success. People without character have sometimes the shadow, that is, certain external evidences of success, but if you could look behind the masks of life you would find that they were deficient in the substance. All is not gold that glitters. All is not success that seems to be success.
If young men starting out in life with a business or a professional career ahead of them could rightly discern some of the real requirements of life, and turn their minds to the accomplishment of certain definite action whereby they would develop their latent power and mental faculties wherewith to use that power, the true way of success would then lie open to them.
Let us consider some of the elements which make for success: First of all, the development of the love-nature which results in kindness of thought, of word, and deed. It is just as easy to be kind, to think kindly and to act kindly as to think unkindly or act disagreeably, and the effect on one’s own mind, as well as on the minds of others, is far more beneficial. It makes life easier to live and more worth the living. Sometimes we forget this one great essential of character and become impatient and fault-finding with others. When we do this we are placing an obstruction in the way of success.
Besides kindness there is another element: faith; faith in the people we have to deal with, faith in human nature. If we do not have faith and trust in people, we are making it harder for them to have faith and trust in us. The thought we have in mind concerning them is what, sooner or later, they must feel, and it must result in an action in their minds which will call out the doubt and lack of faith we had in them, making them faithless to us as well as to others. How can a man have faith in himself and faith in his fellow man if his interests are centered wholly in himself? We want to think of people always as we would have them be; in order to inspire them with faith we must have faith in them. We must believe in them and show them by our words and actions that we do believe in them. This will call out the best side of their natures, and will help them in a true way.
Having once started to do a thing, faith in one’s own power and ability to accomplish the desired end is a necessary qualification to success. Hope, too, is an inspiring element tending to keep the mind cheerful and bright, impressing other minds and making everything easier of accomplishment. Much depends on clearness of mental vision—the faculty of perceiving things in their true relations and of judging them according to their value.
Many people, with the very best intentions, make the mistake of seeing things as they would have them to be, taking no account of the difficulties which lie in the way, and when confronted by them lose hope and courage and are turned back. The result of this is that they lose faith in themselves, and other people lose faith in them, thereby making the second undertaking harder because of failure in the first.
In all success there must be integrity of thought. This will find expression in just deeds. Integrity of thought is that quality in the life of man which seeks to know and understand things as they are, putting aside prejudice and bigotry, that the vision may not be dimmed, that the mind may see clearly, and so, through clear vision, can act rightly. Integrity of thought and of purpose causes man to adjust himself to his environment, and thus establish true relations between himself and his fellow man, for a man’s influence is determined by the clearness and integrity of his thought and the directness and energy of his action. As the mind thinks clearly, it is better able to act with decision, as clear thought finds its effective conclusion in what one accomplishes in the outer world.
Besides clearness of vision, let there be perseverance. A thing may be difficult to do, far more difficult than was expected in the beginning, yet that is no reason why it should be relinquished; in fact, it is the greater reason why it should receive all the energy of mind and body to carry it to its final completion. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” This was the injunction of one who knew far more about the mysteries and struggles of life than we do. He who turns away from anything because it is hard to do will never succeed to any marked degree in anything he may undertake. But let him persevere, regardless of obstacles, and in doing thus he will strengthen his character and call out real courage. When a man puts his hand to the plow, he should feel, first of all, that it is the right thing to do; and he should courageously face any and every obstacle. Having brought the undertaking to a successful termination, it will be easier for him to succeed in his next.
Sometimes everything looks dark. You have faith in the thing you want to accomplish; you have faith in the people about you; yet outer circumstances seem to conspire against you. This is the time for courage, this is the time to reinforce courage with hope. It is well, then, to remember that the great things in life do not come to us without effort; that it is only as we use energy, as we persevere, as we keep working day after day, that we accomplish that which we ardently desire. We fritter away our force when we try to do two or more things at the same time. When the mind is engaged in one direction, and the hands in another, the mind and body both become tired. The man who keeps his mind centered upon whatever he has before him to do, will do it more easily and better because of that mental attitude. Remember, therefore, in the darkest hour, courage, hope, and perseverance are the qualities which will bring ultimate success.
When we desire a thing greatly we should be willing to work for the accomplishment of the desire. The working for it should be a pleasure, and should not be considered as a burden, or even as a duty, but as a blest privilege. What greater privilege can one have than to see the manifestation of his own ideals, to see the things that he has wrought out in his own mind taking form in the world about him? There is nothing degrading or mean about labor, so long as that labor is unselfish, so long as that labor is going to benefit the world. It makes no difference whether a man tills the ground, or builds houses, or engages in mercantile life, whether a man is an artist or a day-laborer, his work is honorable if he gives it his honest thought and does not try to avoid the responsibilities coming to him.
No matter what position a man may occupy in life, he is of use in that station and should occupy it until he can fill a better one, and he can never fill a better one until he has made himself, in a sense, proficient in that one. He can make himself most proficient by doing his work in the best possible way, each day trying to do it better than the day before, gaining a little here and a little there. Through following this course he makes himself a necessity to his fellow man. No matter what one does, he can do it best by entering into the spirit of the thing, by looking at the calling, whatever it may be, as one that is honorable and upright, and by doing the work cheerfully and well. The more cheerfulness and concentration we put into the things we do, the easier we will find them to do, and the greater satisfaction we will get and also give to others.
“The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without a thought of fame. If it comes at all, it will come because it is deserved not because it is sought after.”
A really successful life must, without doubt, be the result of thorough application to whatever calling one follows; therefore, anything which tends to divert attention from the real issues retards success and interferes with individual development. As a maxim to be followed with undeviating persistence there are few better than “Mind your own business.” That the world follows this to any marked degree is not as yet apparent. If people could realize how many heartaches, how much sorrow and mental distress, could be averted by attending strictly to their own business, it would not take the world long to see the blessings flowing from such a method, and it would become the usual and not the unusual course.
Concentration of mind is needful for the accomplishment of any definite object, but there can be no concentration when the individual mind is prying into the life of another to find something which may tend to belittle or bring the condemnation of the world into that other life. There are characteristics of the animal nature which are not easily overcome in the life of man. The cunning of the fox, the instincts of the jackal and the vulture, are only too apparent in what is called Christian civilization. That which is hardly commendable in the animal is infinitely less edifying in man. Scandal-mongers, slanderers, and inquisitive “busy-bodies” are the prototypes of the lowest instincts of the animal race, and are more of a menace to the welfare of a community than thieves; for as Shakespeare truly says:
Who steals my purse steals trash: ’tis something, nothing;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
The poisoned and evilly disposed mind that makes a business of retailing gossip cannot be trusted in any emergency; friendship with such a mind loses all its real meaning and of loyalty there is none. There may be honor among thieves, but there is no honor in the heart of a slanderer, and the evolution of such a life must come through the bitter experiences always brought by willful disobedience to every known law of right. Said Buddha: “The words of a slanderer are like sand thrown when the wind is contrary; they return upon the slanderer himself, and a virtuous person cannot be harmed.”
There are many phases of minding other people’s business to the detriment of one’s own, some seemingly very harmless, yet all tending to destroy the real usefulness of the offender. They who are continually looking for and expecting favors from others cannot be said* to be attending strictly to their own business. This method may seemingly advance selfish ends, but cannot bring permanent good because true development comes only through rightly directed personal effort.
Much valuable time is spent in giving advice to others that is neither needed nor desired. Were the same time spent in living an example of superior wisdom, it would prove more effective than many words of advice. Freedom is essential to the highest growth and development of the individual; and it is absolutely necessary, in order to be free, to respect the rights of others. There need be no selfishness involved in this attitude which tends to individualize the life. Whenever a demand is made by others, minding one’s own business does not in any way interfere with doing them good by lending a helping hand.
Questioning the motives of others is another phase of minding other people’s business, and a lack of generosity in this respect too often reveals the same underlying motive attributed to others by the self-appointed critic.
From true individualization will flow the larger social life; the ideals of the few, when practically applied, eventually become the ideals of the many. There is no conflict between real individualism and real socialism; they are the two halves of one truth. Individual and economic freedom must go hand in hand in order to bring about better social conditions in the world.
No individual stands alone. He is an integral part of society, and the real law never works for the benefit of any one individual to the exclusion of all others. The law works to bring about the larger good to humanity; thus the individual, in turn, enters into the larger, the happier life because of the good that has come to the many.
The man, then, who has made the greatest success in life is the one who has been the greatest benefactor to the race, is the one who receives the love of the many. It is only as he has given of himself to the many that the many in turn give to him. A man may have an abundance of this world’s goods, but without the love and respect of his fellow man his life is a barren one. It can in no way be considered a success. The real riches of life are not made up of material accumulation, but consist in the development of all the qualities necessary to the well-being of man, and these are the things that in turn bring him into touch with his fellow man, so that he is able in a sympathetic way to enter into the lives of many, understanding their needs and knowing how he can best be useful to them.
The man who has succeeded in doing this is the truly successful man, is the man who will never know want—want of love, friendship, or respect, or want of any material thing; because he has sought and found God’s kingdom. Having come into the inner kingdom, and being also in true relation to the outer kingdom, he has not only an abundance within, but that inner abundance finds true outer expression. True it is he is not weighted down by vast accumulations bringing with them untold responsibilities, for it is well to remember right here that vast material wealth brings with it tremendous responsibilities, responsibilities that are not always recognized, but which, nevertheless, exist, and only as they are fulfilled does it become possible for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a state of peace and harmony—peace and harmony in one’s own mind, and peace and harmony with the rest of mankind; and if one is not living up to the requirements of life, but shirking its responsibilities, there can be no such peace and harmony.
Individual success, then, must never be considered apart from its effect upon society. If the effect of any given course of action by the individual proves beneficial to society, then there must be a corresponding benefit or success to the individual. So, the wise course for the individual to follow in each and all of his undertakings is to ask himself two questions: First, what is going to be the effect of my action upon the lives of people with whom I am associated? Second, what is going to be the effect of it upon my own life? When he has decided that the effect will prove to be good upon others, the second is easy to answer. That which is good to the many, must of necessity be good for the individual. In the highest and truest sense, real success can never come to any one who puts the accomplishment of mere personal ends in advance of the greater good he might do to the world at large. Real success in life is attained through losing sight of the personal self and working for the realization of some great and good end which will benefit and uplift humanity in a physical, or a moral, or an intellectual way.
Selfishness is that false quality in man which breeds suspicion of other men, and the suspicion in the mind of the selfish man will call out suspicion in the minds of others toward him, thereby making it the less possible for him to become really successful. The truly upright man can never be selfish. He may desire his own good, he may desire an abundance of this world’s good, but he will not desire them at the expense of others; for in the pathway to success one can never expect to’ reach the goal through the failure of someone else. The world may think differently, but the world is not right. The man who makes the greatest success is the one who is thoroughly mindful of other people’s interests, realizing that his own good is inseparably bound with the good coming to others with whom he may be associated. He will be considerate and fair in all his dealings. He will realize that justice and honor are the true basic principles for a successful life, and this sense of justice and honor in him will appeal to the minds of those he is associated with, and will be recognized, doing away with suspicion or anything that could act to the man’s detriment. The real success of life is not what an individual accomplishes for himself, but the good he has been able to bring to others. A life which has been devoted to the acquisition of wealth, knowledge, or even spiritual development, for a purely personal gain, is a life that has been wasted. In seeking to find itself it has been lost in the tangle of personality. Man may have wealth and be successful, if he is using the wealth that has been entrusted to his care in a wise and judicious way, by helping others to help themselves—not by accumulating and hoarding for the sake of accumulation or any personal end. Man may be successful in the field of knowledge, but only as he seeks to impart some of his own knowledge to those less developed than himself, and through the giving he receives a still greater store of knowledge.
One may become successful in life without a thoroughly intellectual knowledge of the laws of life by being intuitively led into conformity to law. Nevertheless, the one who has an intellectual understanding of law, as well as an intuitive perception, is better equipped for a successful life. He then has reason for his inner faith. He knows intellectually that discordant, inharmonious results come from a violation of law, and he is led to ask himself the question as to how he has violated it. Getting at the causes, he is able to adjust himself in a way entirely satisfactory to his own mind. This process of readjustment is most essential. Excessive friction and inharmony show a lack of adjustment to environment and that a thorough readjustment is necessary. Therefore, the great process of life is to adjust one’s life in accord with law, and when changes and new developments come, to bring about a readjustment so that through the perfect balance of life will come the real joy of living. Because, success that does not bring with it a joy in life and a joy in doing cannot be considered real success—at least it is only partial. The really successful man is the one who delights in his work, and who gets a thorough satisfaction from the many other things in the world about him.
One who would be successful is going to profit by understanding the true relation between the inner and outer worlds. He shall see that all outer things exist because of inner causes; that his own product, be it what it may in the world, is an expression of his own mind and thought. In order, therefore, to have that expression perfect and harmonious without, the inner cause, his own mind and thought must be thoroughly harmonious. By doing away with friction in the inner he avoids friction in the outer. Thus he consciously works from cause to effect.
The real elements of success are not so much in one’s environment as in one’s own mind. A man must look there, then, for the real cause of success in life, and not to chance, luck, environment, or any external thing.
To sum up, the elements of success might be enumerated as follows: a study of the inner law of life, and a study of the expression of that law in the outer world. The results flowing from such knowledge would be integrity, honor, clear insight, courage, perseverance, concentration of mind, and, over and above all, the great soul-qualities, faith, hope, and love, that cannot be pictured by mind nor expressed by words, but which all may feel and all may give expression to if they will do so. For they are latent as living force and power in the lives of all men: faith in God, faith in the power given us which comes from God, faith in our fellow men, faith, in fact, that everything is working together for our good, and the good of all; hope that will fill the mind with brightness, that will cause us to turn away from the gloom and despondency of life, that will bring gladness to our hearts, making our very faces radiate with the truest joy. Thus, our hope and faith may find abiding places in the minds of many. And a love receiving God in the soul, knowing God in the inmost, will bring us in vital touch with God in the lives of others; a love so wise and all embracing that kindness will flow to every living and moving thing; a love that will tend to bring God’s kingdom here and now that His will may be done on earth even as it is done in heaven.
The individual who realizes the truth contained in these things will be the one who is the most eminently successful in life, whose life will become one unending joy.
Friendship
Judge not thy friend until thou standest in his place.
—Rabbi Hillel
What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
—George Eliot
A friend is a person before whom I may be sincere. Before whom I may think aloud.
—Emerson
The only way to have a friend is to be one.
—Emerson
A great deal has been written about friendship—much of which is fine and true, but some of which is very poor and inadequate. In reality this is one of the most vital questions of life—this matter of friendship, that we often treat so lightly and superficially. We speak of, as our friend, almost anyone who is not actually antagonistic to us. But, after all, how comparatively few know or live the true meaning of friendship! How few of us have any realization of what constitutes the friendship that will last—that in its very nature cannot die—the friendship that knows no change, that is the same in storm as in sunshine, that knows, and therefore gives no heed to what others say or do, to others’ opinions or criticisms or recriminations. It is easy enough to be a friend; when one gains as much or more than one gives. But such times are not the test of friendship; at such times it is difficult, perhaps, to distinguish between the true and the counterfeit friendship. For there is a counterfeit friendship that passes muster in many of the relations of life until some keen-edged circumstance pierces the shell, the superficial, and reveals the seed of truth or of falsity within. There is what might be characterized as a “give and take” friendship, genuine enough after its kind, but of so low an order that there is really nothing of a lasting element in it. True friendship can only give, give continuously, freely, unquestioningly, with no thought of self or gain or return of any kind—an unconscious giving— an outflowing from the heart as natural as breathing. There are probably as many motives for giving as there are gifts, but the truest motive is because there is a need. To give in answer to a genuine need is to give as God gives, as nature gives, as friendship must give to be worthy the name.
Many people think that friendship cannot exist where there are differences of thought and action—”my friend must believe and do as I do,” they say, “or there can be no companionship.” Now, as a matter of fact, the true friend never exacts anything, never questions, never doubts. A friendship that depends only or chiefly on similarity in superficials has a very insecure foundation. Nor does true friendship require that motives shall be laid bare. Indeed, what spoken word can fully reveal the deepest, strongest motives? All true judgment is from the heart. If the heart of one friend touches another in love and faith, then the anathemas of all the world will count as nothing. It is the motive back of every action that counts, that is the starting-point of all, from which everything works outward to the surface, immaturely, and mistakenly at first, perhaps, but by degrees more clearly and truly. The trouble is, we mistake results for causes, effects for the effort, the motive behind them, and so our judgment, being superficial, is unjust and hurtful. Each of us is given judgment to reason out life’s problems, but how few of us reach the same conclusions. It would not be unsafe to say that no two of us arrive at exactly the same. We are fortunate if at last we come to understand ourselves; we can never wholly understand another—the source of his impulses, the mainspring of his motives. Therefore, we can never judge. And, therefore, faith is a necessary element of true friendship. As we have faith in others they will grow to worthiness of it.
It is easier to see in others what we have in ourselves. A man who is seeing only evil in others, who is always suspicious and untrusting, proves in this that he has less of loyalty, of good, in himself than the man whose simple faith and genuineness calls out whatever there is of these qualities in others. And so when we are disappointed in our friends it can never be that they are wholly to blame. No matter what our starting-point may be, whatever comes to us, whatever we discover, comes because it finds fellowship in some degree, be it ever so little, in ourselves. So there can never be any real friendship that does not possess the quality of faith. No matter how much we may “like” another person—likes and dislikes are dependent upon moods, upon the state of our physical organism, upon any one of a dozen things that come and go and have no bearing on the real life—we can never hope for any depth or richness of companionship unless there be also a deep, generous, and abiding faith. It is not necessary that we approve of or wholly understand what our friend does—no one of us acts invariably from only the highest motive; but there is, nevertheless, something in the life of each of us that is worthy of trust, that is steadfast and deserving of loyalty, that even when we do not understand we can yet believe in and build on. The circumference of life may be disturbed, but the heart of life with each of us is absolutely good and true and steadfast. Each of us has God at the center, and in friendship this center is what we deal with, else it is no true friendship. It is only from this center that we touch the same center in others—we can be of more service in life by “walking hand in hand with our own ideals”; so and only so do we help our friend to live true to his own ideal. When any cloud of seeming misunderstanding appears above our horizon we should hold firmly in mind the unshakable belief that the motive was good, however mistaken the method, and that there is an adequate explanation for everything—when the right time arrives. This side of life—the side on which understandings and misunderstandings lie—is the side where changes and development are going on—we must look for fluctuations, and, anticipating them, rise superior to them.
It is easy to play the part of a friend when the majority are on our side and antagonism would be unpopular. But it is when we only are left by the side of our friend that our loyalty really counts and that it may show its own character. Symbols pass—the usages and opportunities of friendship—but the spirit of it endures throughout the lifetime, for the spirit that is beneath it is eternal. The true friend is he who most generously proves his friendship when it is most needed—when the way is dark and rough, and the soul of his friend is beset in its struggle toward the realization of its ideal. It does not materially matter how we may differ on the surface of things. We must learn to discriminate between people and things. It may be that we have a different religion, as we call it; he may be a pessimist and I an optimist. We may be the truest friends, nevertheless. For these are both the same at bottom, as are all convictions honestly held; for all religions at last resolve themselves simply into love and service.
I think I do not speak too strongly when I say that friendship is one of the most precious, if not the very most precious, thing in life. It is the true comradeship, where the soul of one touches the soul of the other. Of course, the more points of outer agreement, the better, in a way. But these are not essential. The two things needful are the eternal giving—of one’s abilities, one’s life, one’s self—and the impregnable faith that knows, though it can neither see nor understand, and that trusts despite all outward appearances or circumstances.
The Equality of the Sexes
The masculine and feminine elements, exactly equal and balancing each other, are as essential to the maintenance of the equilibrium of the universe as positive and negative electricity or the centripetal and centrifugal forces, the laws of attraction which bind together all we know of this planet whereon we dwell and of the system in which we revolve.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The inequality of the sexes in the human race is a disastrous anomaly in creation due to the artificial barriers against the full and free development of woman’s moral and mental powers.”
—Emily P. Collins
No one can dispute the fact that the position of woman has changed very decidedly in the English-speaking countries of the world, in the past twenty-five years. While many will declare that she has gained materially in all things which go toward a more advanced civilization, there are others who look upon the changes with disfavor, not to say antagonism, unfavorable opinions coming at times from quarters least expected. Nikola Tesla, in an article in The Century, deplores the condition arising from the new order of things.
Society life, modern education and pursuits of women, tending to draw them away from their household duties and make men out of them, must needs detract from the elevating ideal they represent, diminish the artistic creative power, and cause sterility and a general weakening of the race.
It is singular how advanced a mind may be in one direction and how behind the times in another. The statement made by Tesla in his otherwise remarkable article seems born of a prejudice coming from the belief in man’s superiority over woman. Notwithstanding my great admiration for the writer, I must say this statement is weak in the extreme, if not absolutely false. One naturally expects a judicial utterance from a scientific mind that is supposed to weigh the evidence in the case. In viewing any subject from an impartial standpoint, one must look beyond the present conditions and consider the case in all its bearings.
Suppose great wrong and injustice are found; in the righting of those wrongs, in abolishing the injustice, there must inevitably follow a certain amount of friction and discord until society has readjusted itself to the new conditions. And the more complex the wrongs the greater will be the temporary disturbance of social conditions; but the final outcome is no less sure and no less to be desired. The onlooker who sees nothing except that which has taken place on the surface, and compares that with previous conditions, may find apparent reason for believing the old order of things better than the new. Nevertheless, in the most highly civilized countries, women enjoy the greatest amount of freedom. Would the United States or England care to go back and take lessons from Turkey or Persia in regard to women? Are the women of England and America any the less womanly because of their greater freedom and their consequent greater intelligence? If, therefore, we acknowledge a little liberty as a good thing, why should not more of it be still better?
The Master said, “The truth shall make you free.” Was this freedom meant for man alone, or was woman to have some share in it?
The Declaration of Independence affirms that all are born free and equal. If there is any truth in this statement, why should men turn later and repudiate it, denying to women equality and the same rights and privileges that men enjoy. No, gentlemen. The day is certainly coming when no right or privilege looked upon by man as his sole prerogative shall not be as fully and freely enjoyed by woman. Some day in a free country right not might shall prevail. In the meantime, unrest and controversy must engender friction and disorder until the new order becomes thoroughly established.
But should the social friction of a generation be allowed to stand in the way when we are trying to work out the highest welfare of the human race? In the larger freedom which has come to woman there can be nothing which in the end will prove in any way detrimental to the well-being of the race. The highest development on any plane of life is attained only when there is perfect freedom. Resistance offered to freedom of natural thought and action in the life of man hinders and dwarfs growth and brings about abnormal conditions of mind and body. And that which in any way retards the highest development of woman interferes to exactly the same degree with the natural growth and development of man. The sinner and the one sinned against are both made to suffer because of the violation of the law of growth.
The conservative mind considers any innovation which sets aside the old order of things as being contrary to the law of orderly progression; but if the opinions of the conservative mind were considered as final there would be neither growth nor development, simply stagnation—inaction—death.
Let us point out a few instances in which the new order of things is preferable to the old, and which will in the end prove beneficial to men and women alike. Not only this, but it will have a very decided effect on the generations to come. Just a word as to former conditions and the belief still retained in the minds of many people of the present day.
The Bible student will quote the Apostle Paul to make good the old order; the scientific mind will dwell on the physical limitations and put forward the thought that the principal office of woman is the reproduction of the race; while the mind that is neither Biblical nor scientific will try to show that there have been but few great women in original or creative thought in the world, and therefore a great woman is an abnormal production of Nature. All this is on a par with nine-tenths of the reasoning that is now in vogue in opposition to the continued advancement and freedom of woman. But these arguments, and a thousand more like them, would not be sufficient to justify the slavery of woman from time immemorial to the present, for we cannot in all truth and candor say that woman has been, or is, free. Granting that a greater degree of freedom has come to her, we still contend that nothing short of absolute equality of the sexes will fulfil the eternal law of right.
When men pride themselves on intellectual development, do they realize that a development of heart is quite as important as a development of head? Is not he who has developed both head and heart a more complete man than the one who has developed only the intellect? And if this is true of a man is it not equally true of a woman? It would be true of woman to-day if the advantages so freely given to the men had not been withheld from her. In spite of opposition and all the disadvantages women labor under, they are insisting on rights and privileges denied them in the past. In this they are not always successful. The chivalry of many of our college undergraduates is far from what it might be. Coeducation is frowned upon by nearly .all young men in college who are yet in their adolescence, and who have not yet lived out the savagery of bygone ages; but why the heads of colleges and universities should be dictated to by the students is more difficult to explain, save on the ground that many college men, through having formed the habit of drawing their opinions from the subconscious mind—the storehouse of accumulated knowledge—are sometimes prone to see the vital questions of the day in the light of past conditions, therefore in only a partial way, because of the automatic action of their minds.
It is pitiful to see the lack of manliness exhibited by men in conceding to women educational privileges in common with themselves. One of our denominational universities, which had previously granted certain educational advantages to women, curtailed these advantages at the behest of the male students who did not care to have their sisters take rank as high as themselves. No fault was found, or could be found, with the standard of scholarship. In fact, when both sexes come together and equal chances are given to both, women acquire and assimilate knowledge quite as readily as do men. That the faculty of a great college should give way to the prejudices of a lot of undeveloped, conceited young men shows both mental and moral weakness; but how can one expect better results when boys see their fathers dictate to their mothers as to what they shall and shall not do? Yes, the world is more civilized than it was when a man could give a woman a bill of divorcement if she cooked him a poor dinner, but it has advanced little, if any, beyond the “goods and chattels” stage, when a man owned his wife and it was her bounden duty to obey him, right or wrong. The world needs more truth and with it more freedom for women.
In the higher freedom of life there will be no dictation either on the part of men or women, there will be that perfect cooperation which will make for the harmony of the whole life. There is but one law for male and female, and both must be judged by that law. A woman, spiritually, mentally, and physically, in the common order of things, will be the equal of the man. She is not the equal of man now, because she is surrounded by many and grievous limitations which make equality impossible. Many of these limitations have been set by man; some are of her own making. But she is beginning to realize that independence of thought and independence of action are indispensable to her happiness and well-being. She is also showing in many and varied ways her ability to compete successfully with man in spite of the injustice done her by the refusal on the part of her employers to pay her equal wages for equal work.
In a study of the history of the nations we find that those who have become the most highly civilized have had the greatest personal liberty.
To the people who think that women need no greater rights than they have, and who prate about man as being the natural protector of woman, one might say, Why does he not protect her by paying her equal wages with man in positions where she is equally competent? No, the natural-protection argument is not sufficient in a world where selfishness is still the mode of power. When throughout our whole country laws are made that are as just to women as they are to men, it will be because women have helped to make such laws, only a woman best understands the needs of a woman, and should have a say in the making of laws.
That woman is gradually coming into her own and taking her rightful place is evidenced in many ways.
Recently Japan threw open its doors of higher education to women, claiming that the nations which hold their women in subjection and deny them the educational advantages granted their men become weak and powerless, citing Turkey and other Eastern countries as proof of the truth of this statement.
The well-being of the race can only become an accomplished fact when men and women are able to enter into and appreciate one another’s thoughts and feelings. The readjustments which have taken place are bringing to man the truer development of his inmost feelings, and to woman is coming that which has been denied her so long: the capacity to think as clearly and reason as logically as her brother man.
These two conditions are always the essentials of perfect equality.
Many people are asking whether the new order of things is not going to play havoc with the domestic relations and home life; whether the rearing and caring for children will not be seriously endangered. It is also contended by some that the mingling of men and women on an equal footing, as students and bread-winners, takes away from womanly refinement and delicacy of feeling, and blunts her intuition and finer sensibilities. Another question might be asked which would offset this: How much more will man profit through such contact? Would not the gain to humanity as a whole be greater than the loss?
With equality, too, will come the true comradeship, the real, mutual, helpfulness that must bring good to both. A woman under such circumstances could never become the mere plaything of a man. She would take her rightful place for the first time in history, and from then on change would follow change; each one bringing something better to the world. The home life must of necessity be benefited, for woman, far from losing her love nature, through being free, should become more independent and self-reliant, better equipped for living a truer, fuller life. There would be less probability of her marrying solely that she might have a home.
Men have often wondered why women have been so harsh in their judgment and condemnation of one of their own sex who leaves the path of virtue, and also why they so easily forgive men who have violated every code of morality. Without going into an exhaustive analysis of the different causes of this attitude, two seem to stand preeminent: First, because of her higher intuitive development, woman realizes to a fuller degree than does man the innate purity of the inner life, and the ideal relationship which should exist between man and woman. Anything which does violence to that ideal shocks her finer sensibilities. In the second instance, man’s thought of possession—and this attitude held to through the ages—and that woman should keep her life pure and spotless, has acted on the mind of woman in the nature of a suggestion.
If this suggestion had been an unselfish one, doubtless it would have been of untold benefit to her, but because it was rooted and grounded in selfishness it resulted in a standard of judgment wherein the good became perverted by a lack of charity and an unforgiving spirit. The standard of judgment she formed for her own sex is not applied impartially to the other sex. Again, suggestion is responsible for this other standard. Man’s belief in his own superiority, and his independence and selfishness in consulting his own pleasures and personal desires, tended to establish a condition of mind that might be summed up by the saying, “The king can do no wrong.” This condition of mind would change of necessity when woman brought reason and logic to bear on the subject. She would certainly deal as impartially with one sex as the other. She would recognize the one law as applying to both. The law of God is alike for all people; He is no respecter of persons. The sun shines on the just and the unjust; He sendeth His rain on the good and on the evil. Why, then, should not a woman be equal with man under the law of man? Why should she be tried by any law, in the making of which she has had no part? Is man so much wiser, that he cannot err? Is his judgment infallible? No. There should be one law for rich and poor and one law for men and women, and all should have some say in the making of law, so that all may be equally protected under it.
She would be in a position to use her best judgment and marry the man of her choice, one whom she both loved and respected.
Without doubt the loveless marriage is responsible for more of the miseries and social evils than any other cause. Some, with Tolstoy, say, “than all other causes.” One of the natural outcomes of the loveless marriage is race-suicide. This must be self-evident to any thinking person. Just the reverse of this would prove true with the woman who loves her husband; she will not be content without children. The harmonious relationship between husband and wife is more fully assured and the home life more complete and rounded out with children. The mutual giving of love and respect tends to make her a more intelligent and capable mother.
The fruit of a true union between men and women must eventually make a paradise of this earth. The world needs this at-one-ment between men and women far more than anything else. From it will come a higher civilization, one in which the “brotherhood of man” will be realized in fact. Freedom must be realized by every child of God before he can come to the true understanding of his relations to God and man.
It is a well-known fact that only as different parts of the body are used are they strengthened, and if any part is left in idleness it becomes only a question of time when weakness ensues. That which is true of the body is equally true of the mind. Only as every mental faculty is used in a rightful way does that faculty become strengthened and perfected. In the past, women have not used their mental faculties to any marked degree, but have accepted their thoughts and opinions ready-made from the lords of creation. How could woman show forth her innate greatness when debarred from creative thought action? Could anybody of men ever become great who lived simply in thoughts and ideas of others? Latent talents and possibilities only disclose themselves when each faculty is used to the extent of its present capacity. The race, without doubt, has been greatly retarded in its development because of the failure to see the necessity for the intellectual development of woman. Let us trace the good which will result from the higher development of woman.
It strengthens the mind to think and reason for oneself, and it brings greater self-reliance and greater independence of thought and action; and these tend also to free the mind from superstitious fears which produce harmful effects to both mind and body. The many and varied positions now filled by women require so much greater activity than has ever been needed in her employment in the past, that the supply of human energy is thereby vastly increased, and strength, not weakness, is the result. We do not as yet see fully how great a factor it will prove in human development, because attention is centered rather on the change and the more external side of the question.
The prophets of evil will find before many years that they have made many miscalculations; that the very things which they prophesied would bring evil to the race have really conferred the greatest benefits; that with the development of the intellectual side of woman, she is better fitted to rear and care for a family; that she is able to impart knowledge to her children which she has gained by her individual efforts and experience. Instead of accepting St. Paul’s advice, when he said that if a woman would know anything let her ask her husband, she will be able to speak out of the fullness of her own mental experience, wherein she has thought out as carefully and as logically the many problems of existence as has her brother man.
At the present, men do not lay marked stress upon the power of woman to think and reason, claiming that she is moved solely by her emotions, and jumps to conclusions. But with a greater development of her intellect will come also a far higher respect for her feelings, and a decided gain will come to mankind through the recognition of the fact that it takes both thought and feeling to perfect the life. The truer development of man will come when this so-called womanly quality of feeling has much greater scope in his life than now.
It would be possible to go on indefinitely enumerating the advantages which would flow from a new womanhood wherein quite as much benefit would come to man as to woman. A perfect equality between man and woman should be the watchword of the day, and the one who succeeds in doing anything to further the cause becomes a benefactor to humanity. It is with gladness that the awakened soul should herald the morning of the new day in which is proclaimed for both sexes liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Marriage
Marriage-making for the earth,
With gold so much,—birth, power, repute so much,
Or beauty, youth so much, in lack of these!
Be as the angels rather, who, apart,
Know themselves into one, are found at length
Married, but marry never, no, nor give
In marriage; they are man and wife at once
When the true time is: here we have to wait
Not so long neither! Could we by a wish
Have what we will and get the future now,
Would we wish aught done undone in the past?
So, let him watt God’s instant men call years;
Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul
Do out the duty! Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of His light
For us i’ the dark to rise by. And I rise.
—Browning
Just as true marriage is the highest blessedness that can come to man or woman, so a false marriage, a marriage conceived in vanity or avarice or sensuality, is the most fearful calamity. The binding of two loveless, selfish hearts together can only result in mutual misery. The resulting state is not simply hell, as it is frequently called. It is that more painful, out at the same time more hopeful condition, which in figurative language we may describe as the compelling of persons who are fit only for hell to dwell perpetually in heaven. It is a condition which calls for the expression of the most tender and unselfish love at every point of constant contact, imposed upon persons who have no love to give. The supreme blessedness of the ideal marriage measures by contrast the superlative wretchedness of a loveless union. The modern man brings to his wife a wide range of business sagacity, political influence, scientific and speculative Interests. The modern woman brings to her husband rich acquisitions in literary and esthetic taste, social life and philanthropic and religious fervor. Each life is reinforced and multiplied by all that is in the other; and thus both enter through the portals of the family into the life of the Universal Spirit, of which at best only vague and shadowy glimpses come to them in the blindness of their individualistic isolation.
—William DeWitt Hyde
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
“For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife,
“And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.”
“For this reason will a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.”
—Mark 10: 6, 7, 8.
The mystery of marriage is in the twain becoming one. If we go back to the allegorical story of creation, we find there this statement:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” —Genesis 1:26
The remarkable part of this statement is the introduction of unity and duality both in reference to God and man. The Hebrews believed in God as being one. The world has never had a purer monotheism than that held to by this people; and yet in this first chapter of their sacred books is found a declaration of unity, duality, and trinity.
To satisfy the mind of the Biblical student, let us make a careful examination and see whether the foregoing statement is borne out by the actual facts in the case, taking the thought of unity, first: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him.” The thought of duality is as directly brought out in, “Let us make man in our own image.” Those who declare for the Fatherhood of God should not fail to perceive that the Motherhood is just as clearly set forth. The trinity is affirmed in the statement of the Father-Mother God creating man in His own image and likeness; the Father-Mother begetting the child which is the third principle of the Godhead. That which is true of God is also true of man, and must of necessity be so in order that man should show forth the perfect image and likeness of God. Careful reading will make it plain that God is a unit as regards animating life and controlling intelligence.
But the full image and likeness of God is in father, mother, child; it is one life in all and through all and above all. And one intelligence controlling and directing all. Oneness in spirit and diversity in form.
We must always remember when we think of man, that image and likeness of God is spirit, not body. That the body at best can only be an outer symbol of the inner man.
Again, I wish to impress you with the fact that in this spiritual creation of man, which is really the foreshadowing of the physical creation, there is no separation between the male and the female. This is the spiritual creation, God’s ideal of Himself, involved in the soul of man, the child of God. When we come to the allegorical second chapter of Genesis, we find another statement of man’s creation. Here we have the physical creation, and at this point we have the differentiation of the male and the female. It is as though the soul had become divided, each part having a separate life or existence of its own.
In this division, the question naturally arises, did each retain the full image of God or did the physical condition point also to a division of soul or mind?
Emmanuel Swedenborg in many of his writings, tells of love as being the feminine principle and wisdom the masculine. Now, in all true marriages it is the love in the woman and the wisdom in the man that forms the magnet to attract and hold them together. Love and wisdom begets the at-one-ment between soul and mind.
When we see men and women drawn together in this way it seems to be the divine plan, although in times past it has been thought by some very wise men that each sex had the possibilities of both, potentially, and that in the process of development each soul would unfold to the fullness of the Godhead, or disclose the perfect image and likeness which was involved in the beginning; that men and women were not in reality complementary one to the other.
Balzac in his wonderfully beautiful story of “Seraphita” brings out the thought of a man and woman of very high spiritual development begetting a child, the parents passing away on the ninth anniversary of the child’s birth. The great central idea is that the souls of the father and mother unite in the life of the child, and when the child has grown to maturity, men fall in love with the feminine nature, and women fall in love with the masculine nature, but the united soul has need of neither. The idea as thus set forth is worthy of serious consideration; in fact, the union, or marriage, of soul with soul is one that should command far greater attention than it does command at the present time. Marriage, without doubt, is the greatest event in this earthly life of man or woman; it is a sacrament fraught with happiness, with all that is highest and noblest in life; or it is a base counterfeit wherein sorrow and degradation usurp the place of the highest and holiest thoughts and emotions of mind and soul.
A thousand other questions of far less importance occupy the minds of the people, but this question which is of the most vital importance to man’s well-being, is kept in the background. Children are brought up so woefully ignorant that they have no conception of what awaits them in the married life. The whole subject of the relation between man and woman is tabooed; it is as though people were ashamed to think or give expression in words to things which, although sacred, nevertheless should be thoroughly understood.
Some people go on the principle that the young will find out soon enough, but it is surely a mistaken policy on the part of parents to keep their children in ignorance of the many problems that await them in wedded life. Some little light, some little knowledge might avert many tragedies that so often arise in the married life. Is experience the only teacher or can we profit by the mistakes of others?
In this question, as in every other, we must take into consideration the three planes of development, and that marriage differs, in a sense, on each plane.
On the physical plane there is little besides the desire for reproduction, and the purely sensuous desires; and if nature’s laws are observed, comparative peace and happiness are the result. The requirements of the physical plane are so limited that there is less liability to mental friction and discord than on the intellectual plane, where there is greater diversity of thought. Two souls uniting on this higher plane, having the same desires and aspirations, should blend harmoniously together, but too often the aspirations and desires are so wide apart that there is no oneness of thought or purpose, and there is failure to understand each other. We find on this plane far more unhappy marriages than on the physical and spiritual planes; one reason being, that on the physical there is a purely physical basis for marriage, and on the spiritual plane there is a purely spiritual basis, while on the intellectual plane a hundred things may act as controlling influences to marriage. Man here is torn by many and conflicting desires—social ambition, ambition influenced by wealth, intellectual greatness, distinction in any part in life, and other considerations without number.
It makes little difference how much two people may desire to do right, if they are not at one in heart and mind they cannot enter into sympathetic relations, they cannot become mutually helpful. Failure to understand each other begets a discordant mental state, which, instead of being lessened, is increased as time goes on.
All spiritual marriage has God as its foundation; that is, has love as its basis. Here, as on the physical plane, there is only one basis for marriage. The marriages on the two planes below are the unions for time. Spiritual marriages are the marriages for eternity. For two souls uniting and blending as one through the power of love there can be no separation, either in time or eternity. Whom God hath joined together, no man can put asunder. They were created one in the beginning; there is no chance or haphazard in God’s plan. There is a spiritual affinity between the soul of man and the soul of woman. Only one thing will disclose this affinity—the power of pure and unselfish love in the souls of both. No animal desire, no earthly consideration; love and love alone—love that thinketh no evil, love that suffereth long and is kind, love that flows from the soul of the universe into the soul of man, this is the undying factor in all real marriage. Man may not annul this or set it aside, and all that man can do through rite or ceremonial shall not add to it.
Some have come falsely to believe that the ceremonial constitutes the marriage, and the Church has rather seemed to foster this idea than to make plain that marriage in its truest sense had to do with heart and mind more than anything or everything else.
The question may arise in many minds as to whether union on the first two planes constitutes real marriage. Under certain circumstances, and with certain limitations, the answer would be in the affirmative. The circumstance which would tend to real marriage would be the harmonious conditions—the ability resulting from the union to understand each other, the desires and aspirations in common whereby they could enter into each other’s lives. The limitation would come from failure to discern the higher law, from the lack of spiritual development, and from placing hopes and desires in externals, so that there would be little influx from the love-nature which tends to unify and free the lives of both from worldly selfishness. Such marriage, however, may find perfect fulfilment and continuation in time and eternity.
Sorrow and unhappiness might be avoided to a marked degree in the marriage relation upon the lower planes of development if harmony were made one of the chief considerations of the union, and selfish considerations, in so far as it were possible, kept in the’ background. Two people thoroughly harmonious before marriage would be quite likely to remain so after, but there is little prospect, where lack of harmony exists before the union, that it should develop afterward.
No one should be deceived by the thought that things are going to adjust themselves after marriage when they do not adjust during courtship. There is a glamour about courtship which too often hides defects and inconsistencies that only become really known after marriage. There is some little excuse for this mental condition, but there is no excuse for two people who cannot agree and who are jealous or fault-finding with each other during courtship, yet who, nevertheless, enter into the marriage relation. Occasionally we find women who think that it is their duty to marry a man in order to reform him. To such I would say, reform him first and marry him afterward. This is your only hope, for in taking away the incentive of marriage you only make it the more difficult for him to change his established habits in life.
Parents make very grievous mistakes when they are thoughtful regarding worldly advantages and thoughtless about the advantages which would make their children really happy. Their own experience should show them the better way. No real marriage can have for its foundation lust, the desire for social position, money, or any worldly acquisition. God never sanctions such marriages, neither has He delegated His authority to man to make such unions sacred. Marriage is sacred only when it is whole, complete. Man’s law may sanction and uphold, but sorrow, shame and degradation must be the end of all such unholy marriages.
Throughout the universe harmony is the key-note of obedience to law, and where there is no harmony there can be no conformity to law. Many people who believe themselves to be in accord with the law of God would continue to perpetuate these unholy alliances by saying: “Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” Contending for the sacredness of the marriage rite, they violate such sacredness by prolonging a condition which is absolutely untenable and contrary to the law of the universe. All other mistakes in life we are told to correct, to substitute a true condition for a false one; but no matter how great the mistake two persons make in marrying, such a mistake, the divinely appointed say, must not and shall not be corrected.
Thus do men set at naught the laws of God, making of marriage a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. There are degrees of love on every plane, because God is made manifest on every plane. Then let love and harmony, as understood on the varying planes of existence, be the God-uniting power that shall link man and woman in the oneness of life. Such unions will result in happy homes, and children, seeing and feeling the harmony and love of father and mother, will greatly profit by their example. The world to-day is demanding the solution of this mystery; it cannot be set aside, no matter how much the ultra-conservative religionists may desire it. Their efforts to set aside will only cause the pendulum to swing far in the other direction where extreme radicalism may result in licentiousness, or conditions more unrighteous and contrary to law and order than the unholy marriages of the present.
No problem ever presents itself to man without a way of solving it. The solution of this one, however, will be found not in the do-nothing attitude, or in saying, “Let well enough alone,” but through a strong desire to know God’s law in relation to it, and through knowing how to bring the life into conformity with it. Let us study God’s revealed will, because this will is revealed to a far greater extent, even at the present, than most people think or care to know. When we realize the truth about the real meaning of marriage and all that it stands for, its sacred import and the joy and peace it brings when consummated in accord with divine law, the question will no longer be asked: “Is marriage a failure?” because marriage will be known as it truly is—the crowning act of life, wherein two souls unite and become one, wherein love and wisdom join hands; the at-one-ment wherein the soul becomes one with the universal soul.
The Rights of Children
It is no little thing, when a fresh soul
And a fresh heart, with their unmeasured scope
For good, not gravitating earthward yet,
But circling in diviner periods,
Are sent into the world.
“Children are God’s apostles, day by day
Sent forth to preach of love, and hope, and peace.
—James Russell Lowell
All heaven, in every baby born.
All absolute of earthly leaven,
Reveals itself, tho’ man may scorn
All heaven.
“Yet man might feel all sin forgiven,
All grief appeased, all pain outworn.
By this one revelation given.
“Soul, now forget thy burdens borne;
Heart, be thy joys now seven times seven;
Love shows in light more bright than morn
All heaven.
—Swinburne
Give him liberty, and keep his confidence. Let him choose his course; but be so good and close a friend that he will not think of making an important choice without asking your advice. Spend much time with him; talk much with him: but talk about his little interests, not your grand ideas. Never evade an honest question, or put off a legitimate curiosity. Make sure that his first intimations of the significance of sex are suffused with an atmosphere of reverence for its sacredness. Never weary of the interminable prattle about his exploits in play, the characteristics of playmates, the hardships of school, the mechanism of locomotives, the aspirations to become an engineer, a stage-driver, or a soldier. Undoubtedly this union of perfect liberty with, perfect confidence is rather an expensive process in the time, patience, and sympathy of the parents, but the reward is great and to be had with certainty on no cheaper terms. It is the one way to insure in the child a character which is at the same time strong and good.
—William DeWitt Hyde
Many volumes have been written concerning the duties of children to their parents, but very little has been said of the duties of parents to their children. A careful and thoughtful analysis of the whole question would show that parents are debtors to their children for more than has generally been supposed. Let parents once realize how much more there is in life because of their children, how child-life tends to call out the better side of their natures, how much happiness comes to them through their children, and how much the example of a child’s life means, and they will know for a very truth that the trouble of rearing children is more than offset by the blessings which they bring. The trustfulness and faith of the child-nature, the optimism which enjoys the present, forgetful of the past, careless of the future, is a necessary example for parents, who have lost sight of some of the vital conditions of well-being. Truly, the kingdom of God lies all about within and without the life of a child. A valuable lesson may be learned in the natural way in which children think and act, as well as in their true democracy, where race, creed, color, or previous conditions play no part. Whether the” lesson be heeded or not, the influence of children for good is of untold value.
Prenatal conditions must be taken into consideration when we approach the subject of the rights of children. A thoroughly harmonious marriage, in which there is freedom of thought and action on the part of both father and mother, is the first requisite for the true recognition of child-rights, and the only firm foundation on which to establish the rights of children. The ancient Greeks, understanding the value of prenatal influence far more than the people of the present, surrounded their wives with the most harmonious and beautiful conditions. Many lessons might be learned from their customs tending to raise the standard of moral and physical well-being.
Marriage and the bringing of a child into the world are the two most sacred mysteries of life, and are fraught with greater importance than all other events, and if thought and care are necessary in any phase of life, surely they are demanded here.
Parents need not expect harmonious children if they are inharmonious themselves; neither need they expect strong, healthy children if their minds are discordant; because their mental discord acting upon the life of the child, will produce mental and physical disturbances. Up to a certain stage in the development of the child, the minds of the parents act upon him in such a way that he reflects their varying thoughts and emotions, and is in no way responsible in his own little life for any mental discord or physical disturbances. As yet most parents do not realize the truth of this, but when they do they will understand that they are responsible to the very fullest degree for their children’s health.
There is a new life coming for mankind— one wherein the vital questions will be thought out and worked out as they never have been before; one wherein a knowledge of the inner life and its laws will give to us the key to the gate which leads to health and happiness. The old order of things is passing away, and a new order has come, or is near at hand, wherein man will realize that he has dominion and power, not alone in the external world, but dominion and power over his own thoughts, his own actions, and the power to control and direct the full force of his own life.
A shock may come to those who are dwelling continually on the wisdom and justice of God’s plan when they think of little children having to suffer for the wrong-doing of their parents. They may question such wisdom and such justice, but after all this condition only goes to prove that humanity is one, that we are parts one of another, that if one part suffers all suffer to some degree. It goes still further to show that if humanity is one body, happiness, health, and strength are not only for every part, but for the whole; that there is no real salvation for the whole if any part of the whole is excepted. The law that saves the part is the law that saves the whole.
There is one thing that parents cannot be too careful concerning, and that is filling the receptive mind of a child with false or unreal ideas of life. There are so many ways of doing this that one needs to be on his guard pretty much all the time when in the presence of children. As an illustration, almost anyone can go back in mind to the time of his childhood and remember some disagreeable story or tale told by some one that filled the little mind with fear and made it unhappy for weeks afterward. The habit that some parents have formed of talking about sickness, disease and pain when children are listening is harmful in the extreme, as it fills their little minds with morbid unreal thoughts. If a child has a vivid imagination he may often become really sick because of such conversation on the part of his parents. Let me impress on the minds of parents and all the necessity of always being as bright and as happy as circumstances will admit. And also to keep the conversation thoroughly wholesome and uplifting. If the state of fear is once established in the mind of a child, that in turn begets cowardice and lack of self-reliance and to a degree may affect all of his afterlife. While the boy or girl who is taught the real truth concerning life grows in knowledge and becomes self-reliant and courageous.
In the care and bringing up of children, in the present, the greater responsibility rests with the mother; but there is neither right nor justice in this. If perfect equality existed between husband and wife the responsibility would be shared equally. As it is, the greater burden of the care of children is placed on the mother, while the advantages necessary to the intelligent bringing up of children are denied her. The superficial mind may say that it rests with the mother to rear the child, and with the father to provide for the material wants; and when they do this that they are fulfilling the natural requirements of life. But if the mother is going to rear the child in the way he should go, then the more highly she is developed spiritually, intellectually, and physically, the more efficient she becomes in the care of both the minds and bodies of her children. It is not enough that the father should provide for the physical sustenance of the child. Some fathers excuse themselves by saying that having worked hard all day, when evening comes, they need rest.
Max O’Rell once related the following incident: “Some years ago I was spending Sunday afternoon in the house of a young married man in Chicago, who, I was told, possest twenty millions. The poor fellow! It was the twenty millions which possest him. He had a most beautiful and interesting wife, and the loveliest little girl of three or four years of age that I ever set my eyes on. That lovely little girl was kind enough to take to me at once—there’s no accounting for taste. We had a little flirtation in the distance at first. By and by she came toward me, nearer and nearer, then she stopped in front of me, and looked at me, hesitating, with her finger in her pretty little mouth. I knew what she wanted, and I said to her: ‘That’s all right, come on.’ She jumped on my knees, settled herself comfortably and asked me to tell her stories. I started at once. Now you understand I was not allowed to stop; but I took breath, and I said to her: ‘Does not your papa tell you long stories on Sundays?’ That lovely little round face grew sad and quite long. ‘Oh, no!’ she said, ‘papa is too tired on Sundays.’
If parents only knew it they could get far greater rest and more valuable knowledge from entering into child-life than in almost any other way. It is not sitting or lying down that rests one, but the power to change thought from one thing to something entirely different, and entering into the child-life would give both rest and recreation. It would tend to renew youth and in every way prove beneficial to father and child. It would be of untold assistance to the mother, who has been engaged throughout the day with the care of the children. It would introduce a new element into the life of the child, and children require change of thought quite as much as do older people. The monotony experienced by older people is also experienced by children.
A few words on the question of the temperament of parents will be timely. It may be said that temperament is a matter of heredity, but being born into this world with a certain temperament, the power is given to change it. A morbid, gloomy temperament may be made bright and hopeful, and the anxious, worrying temperament may become the peaceful, restful one. No matter what mental condition is brought into the world, it can be changed, modified, or eradicated. Children will thrive best where there is a spirit of hopefulness, where the mental sunshine of fearlessness, brightness, and gladness is diffused about them.
Parents should always be patient with children, remembering that the understanding of a child is only developed to a limited degree, and through being patient in showing the right course of thought and action, more can be accomplished than by manifesting a spirit of impatience.
Sometimes young dogs and kittens will play with a ball for hours at a time, but with children it is very different. Frequent change is necessary to their well-being. The mind of the child already gives evidence that it is not going to be satisfied with any one phase of life, but must know all there is to be known before it will ever rest content. The mind of the child is really the prophecy of all that is yet to come. Parents should never try to quell anything in the nature of normal activity in the mind of the child. It is only when the child thinks and acts far beyond his years that they should be careful not to in any way increase such activity of mind; because in such cases the head may become abnormally developed to the detriment of the rest of the physical organism.
Children should never be told that there are two ways of doing things; the right way only should be pointed out. Try to teach the child that there is only one way in life and one way to do everything, and it will make the child’s mind more harmonious and the life much easier to live than by having a right and a wrong way.
Parents owe it to their children never to do anything that will cause them to be fearful; never to threaten them with punishment for wrong-doing, but in so far as it is possible, keep their little minds filled with courage, brightness, kindness, gentleness, straightforwardness, politeness, and truthfulness. Parents should always think of their children as they would have them be and do. By keeping this uppermost in their minds, they will find that the life of the child will shape itself according to their highest ideal. What they think and see in their own minds concerning their children, if held to in a strong, steadfast way, will sooner or later be beautifully expressed in the life of the child.
Punishment meted out to children for their wrong-doing is seldom or never merited—if punishment ever can be said to be merited.
The child is acting out more the life of those about him than his own. The worry, the anger, or the fretfulness, is occasioned more by conditions thrown about the child than by anything wrought out by the child. If the punishment were meted out according to the true deserts, more often would it go to the parents. Punishment does not make children better, but serves to call out a certain sense of resentment, and when parents punish their children, they, themselves, become instrumental in the introduction of a false element in the life of the child.
Parents should teach their children how to think and reason for themselves. When a child is told to do a thing and asks the father or mother the reason for it, that reason should never be denied. It is not sufficient to say, “I told you to.” Such an example, if carried out, will be copied by the child, and in after life will show forth as a disagreeable trait of character. The child has a right to the reason for anything he is asked to do or refrain from.
Parents should be reasonable and consistent in their dealings with their children. Children should not be allowed to do a thing to-day and have the same thing refused them on the morrow with neither rhyme nor reason. In fact, it is better to deal with children in as reasonable and as straightforward a way as one would with adults. Make everything very simple and very clear.
Truthfulness, simplicity and directness once established in the mind of a child are going to be of untold benefit to him in his afterlife. The impressions received in early childhood are the abiding ones. The frank, straightforward, manly man is usually so because of his early training.
Do everything possible to direct the mind of the child into true channels. The child who is brought into the environment of parents who are fault-finding, intolerant, and selfish, who punish the child for misdemeanors which are often the direct result of their own thought and action, not only has a hard time in childhood, but will find it difficult in after life to overcome the wrong tendencies which were implanted in childhood. It is neither right nor just for parents to expect their children to express more than they themselves are expressing. The mental atmosphere surrounding the child will have a marked effect upon the harmony of the child’s mind and the well-being of his body.
Respect the rights of children, and when grown up they will respect the rights of others. Children are influenced, to a marked degree, by the example presented to them by their elders. Give them the very best of examples. Make it easy for them to be obedient and truthful; make it easy for them to be loving and kind, by being all these yourself. What you are in a thoroughly consistent way, that also they will become.
The Truth That Makes Free
Shall we make their truth our jailor, while our timid spirits flee
The rude grasp of that great impulse which drove them across the sea?
No I Before us gleam her camp-fires, we ourselves’ must pilgrims he,
Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.
—Lowell
Freedom is an ideal which fascinates us, and yet it is a blessing for which most men are loath to pay the price, for it costs all there is of a man.
The Master once said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
Now the great question rises involuntarily to the lips: “What is Truth?” It is no wonder Pilate asked the question, when men of his day were divided into various schools each exalting some great man or creed, and these authorities—personal and creedal—representing such contradictory ideas. But is the matter any simpler to-day? When we search diligently into the various modern sects or study the thought of the great philosophers and seers we oftentimes become utterly confused and discouraged, so conflicting are the different systems of truth. In very desperation the earnest seeker is driven to look within his own soul for light, and, lo! the path is so plain that even the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.
It is not the acceptance of something received from any other man that is going to free us and give us life; but it is the obeying of the word of Love which shall yet free us from all limitation. Truth is ever the same, but man’s comprehension of it is constantly enlarging.
Another’s vision of truth can help us only by stirring us to action, and action in its turn opens our eyes to the heavenly vision. “He that doeth the will (of God) shall know of the doctrine.”
The only truth that ever frees us is the truth that is lived out, to realize truth we must actualize it—that is, we must work it out concretely in this world.
The more I look into these matters, the more I appreciate the fact that material things are of value only as they express the life within us. A man may possess all earthly treasure and yet be only weakened and enslaved thereby; whereas another, who is freed from personal ambition and has renounced selfish activities, has all the wealth of the universe at his command.
He that willeth to do the will of universal Love is king indeed; nothing can hamper or hold him, for he is freed from the bondage of self and serves only Love.
The Jews placed all their dependence on what Abraham had been, or in what Moses said. Their question was always: “How is it written?” “What sayeth the law?” and so blind were they to the Word of God in their own souls that they actually could not see any incongruity in professing love to God while they devoured widows’ houses; financially as well as ceremonially binding heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, on the children of God.
All the saints, apostles, and prophets cannot take the place to any man of the Word written in his own soul; indeed, the inspired men of old themselves were great only in proportion to this same listening to the inward voice. It is by faithful response to the soul’s intuitions that the world has gradually been lifted to higher and higher standards.
As we climb the steep path of self-knowledge and self-unfolding, the things that used to seem so important—the little rules of the world, and all its conventionalities—dwindle into nothingness in the grand panorama of universal life that spreads out before us.
We soon come to see that it is only as we die to the things of the past and live earnestly and in the deepest sense to the things of the present that we enter to any degree into the fullness of life.
We must not allow the ideals and standards of the past to dominate us; we must walk in the new and living way, the way that is made plain only by our own fearless living out of all the truth we know.
No matter how much something has helped you in the past, if it does not stir you now into action it is not the Word of God for you. We do not like to clash with those around us, and so we shrink from working out boldly the new light that is breaking in upon us. We want to please the world as well as ourselves, and in the end we really please neither; for cowards are in the very gall of bitterness and can never satisfy themselves or the world.
Then is it not a great deal better to live in the strength of God, working out fearlessly every noble impulse we have, and leaving the responsibility with Him? Freedom may be any man’s on the condition that he conform to truth instead of the changing, unstable standards of the world.
Jesus found this to be the only way. He saw that the personal man was helpless, and it was only as He died to personal ambition that he could become free and full of power. He declared openly that “Of mine own self I can do nothing,” and He repudiated the idea that as a person He was any better than His brothers. “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.”
Now it is on the personal plane of life that men worship some outside authority either of State or church. This obedience or response to great men is all right in its place; it certainly plays a part in the great work of development. So long as men abide on the low plane of self it is better that they revere and obey another than that each should, in all his selfishness, be a law unto himself.
But the moment one sees the higher life of impersonal service, that moment outward authority loses its hold. It can henceforth only obstruct and injure the seer.
We cannot unfold to the highest and best that is in us if we obey any outside dictum. Verily, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature—old things have passed away; all things have become new.” The very path he has to tread is a new one, for his life is a unique life. He is individual—there is no other soul like him in the universe, and to unfold freely all there is of himself he must necessarily live his own life.
This obeying of the inner self, because of our love to our fellow men, is the freedom with which Christ doth set us free.
Heretofore we have been in bondage to selfish desires, but when the desire for universal good possesses us we enter into the life of the universe; time and place have passed out of consciousness. “For one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”If men could only realize it, all that there ever can be of eternity is the present. To the soul that truly loves, the present includes all the past and future, for life is seen to be an undivided whole. To be one with God, united to Him in thought, aim, and activity, is to include all other lives, past, present, and future in our own. There is nothing partial about the God-life; it is all-inclusive, common. Love is not a respecter of persons, but serves the interest of all men, winning them gently to the recognition of God’s great commonwealth, wherein all things are all men’s.
Is it-not strange that the one thing men fear the most of all is to literally fall into the hands of the living God? The old conception that it is “a fearful thing” has probably done more to retard the world’s progress than any other idea. Yet that is just what we must learn to let ourselves do: we must learn to let go of the personal, the earthly self, with all its false concepts of separate existence and separate interests, and let ourselves be carried out on the tide of our deepest instincts to rest forever on the bosom of God’s infinite ocean of love, life and peace.
Men have thought of the religious life as a life of sacrifices. But wherein does the sacrifice consist, if, in giving up one plane of being, you enter into a still higher life which comprehends more and more the fullness of God?
There is, however, the element of crucifixion. In order to enter into the life of the Spirit we must actually crucify the old man with all the lusts thereof—the lust for power over others, the lust for personal gratification, the lust for safety—we must die to all these earthly ambitions and live to the higher one of all-inclusive love. And then, too, just as soon as we begin to do this in any telling way, the world will rise up in wrath at our presumption, “for the preaching of the Cross is to them that are perishing, foolishness.” The genuine love-life is an affront to the personal man. The Christ mind differs from the mind of the world, and as long as the carnal mind obtains there must always be a clashing of personal and universal interests. The life of love is actually a sword cutting into the very heart of things and showing up the mean ambitions, the hypocrisies, the treasons of a self-seeking world; and as a result, the world turns on those who are serving mankind instead of men, and metes out all kinds of persecutions upon its saviors.
There is but one thing that stands between man and freedom, and that is personal will. Many people desire very much to be saved, they long for power, the physical, mental and spiritual health, but they want to be saved in their sins—not from them.
It is our divided minds that hold us down in weakness and disease. We want personal happiness, we desire earthly safety, ease, or fame, and we will not let go of ourselves; but this holding on is the very essence of slavery. To be dominated by the personal will is to be in bondage; it is to be the subject of the law of sin and death.
Man, by his false concept of separation, with all that that entails of strife among men, has actually made for himself a temporary law of sin and death. There is but one thing that can free him from it and that is the eternal law of the Spirit of Life. Only as we rise through meditation, concentration, and a free outpouring of inner wealth toward all men can we put all things under our feet.
Man is destined to have dominion in the very highest sense of the word, not by asserting himself against those who are weaker, but by bringing all things into subjection to the will of God.
Man is an epitome of the whole creation. Science is proving through its investigations in embryology that man actually is the summing up in abbreviated form of all the lower planes of development; and when he shall have learned to control himself in love, the ferocity of the animal kingdom will have been overcome. When the lion of self-will in man submits to the Love-Will” of the universe, the lion and the lamb of the outer world will lie down in peace.
The personal will, that will which seeks safety, ease, or pleasure at the cost of brother men, is responsible for the strife and sorrow in the outer world. Our disease, crime, poverty, are the fruits of selfishness; they are the natural outcome of the carnal mind.
In a very true sense this world of ours has a soul, a mind, and a body, and it is in the process of coming to itself; it is slowly awakening to self-consciousness.
The carnal mind—that temporary idea of physical mastery—has brought forth all our strife and atheistic control of men. But slowly this child of God, this world of ours, is awakening to its true nature; the soul of the world is stirring within, and when it has become fully conscious of its power of love, then will this earth begin to put on its garments of light. Then will freedom reign in the outward as well as the inner life, and the commonwealth of God be actualized on the earth.
The World Beautiful
Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.
—Emerson
After all, it is the divinity within that makes divinity without…
—Washington Irving
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
—H. B. Stowe
We sometimes think we are living in a world where there is much that is disagreeable, much that jars upon the mind and upon the nerves. We think the things we have to encounter make us nervous. We go into the street and see things that are not always pleasant to , look upon. We hear all kinds of noises and feel the spirit of rush and hurry, and lose sight of much good, because we are not looking for it.
It is possible to live in a great city, to come in contact with all the energy, with all the beauty, all the strength of it, and instead of being filled with a sense of nervousness or a disagreeable feeling, to so adjust ourselves to it that it becomes an inspiration to our lives.
We often say that the country is an inspiration to life; that it is so wearying, so trying in the city. The wearying, the trying, part is the way we adjust ourselves to life, since we are sometimes thoroughly contented and happy in the city. Regardless of all the noises, of the strenuous life people live, they are sometimes restful and happy. It is the way we are related to everything in life that gives us the beauty, the strength, and the harmony of life. The country has its advantages; the city has also. While we are living in the city we should get all that is possible from the city life, and while we are living in the country we should get all that is possible from the country life.
Someone has said that God made the country and man-made the city. If we are living in a large city, then we are coming in touch with man’s handiwork. We are coming in touch with the brain that thought that handiwork into existence. In reality, in a great city we are getting very near the center of human life. We find that every phase of it, every grade of it, as we are related to it, may be helpful to us or the reverse. There are the noises and the rush. We sometimes feel when we get into them we are a part of them. We rush ourselves, to keep up, as we might say, with the procession. When I first came to New York many years ago, and found the people hurrying as I had never hurried in my life, I fell into the hurry, and was so carried away by it that I hurried too. By and by I asked myself what it all meant; what was the necessity of it? I found that men who, for instance, had apparently been hurrying to do something, stopped and looked into a store window, and spent perhaps minutes of time. It came to me that they were not in a great hurry to accomplish something, but that they had fallen into the spirit of hurry, and when something came up that arrested their attention for a few minutes they forgot about their hurry.
There come times when we should think quickly and act quickly without getting into the spirit of rush, and I found after a time, that when I needed to think quickly, or to act quickly, I could do it without getting into the spirit of hurry.
Again, I found it hard to get adjusted to the noise. It had its effect upon the nervous system, and I thought I should like to be where it was quiet. Then it came to me that this rush, hurry, and noise were all expressions of human energy, and that each was good in its right place; and that if I could get above it, instead of being unrestful and discordant, it would inspire me with a greater sense of strength. That if I could get at any real understanding of the noise it would no longer affect me nor produce any degree of nervousness, but rather the reverse. I began to feel that I was part of it in a way, yet not necessarily a discordant part.
So we can come closer to the great energy that permeates a large city. Then, if we begin to see and to think about the expression, about the wonderful buildings which tower away up into the heavens, we see that not all of them are beautiful, though conveying to the mind wonder, strength, and power. Occasionally we see that the beauty vies with the strength and power, as though the architect had expressed himself in as beautiful a way as he knew how, though realizing his limitations. He was able to express the strength and power, but was unable to express to the same degree the beauty. We see a more constant effort being made to express beauty in architecture in our public buildings, but the trouble with our people is that when they go abroad and see things that convey the sense of beauty and proportion, they return home and are not satisfied with a copy. They want to outdo it, and in the effort, make mistakes.
More and more, however, we are finding that it is not in trying to outdo, or in trying to copy after people that the true expression of beauty comes. It is rather through an effort to represent our own thoughts.
On every side of city life we see evidence of a greater desire to’ express the beautiful. If we look back twenty-five or thirty years and consider the architecture in our country, we find we have made wonderful progress. We see changes for the better in almost every direction. Many buildings in our cities cannot be called things of beauty, but they show that we are striving after beauty. There was a time when all our buildings looked very much alike. A brown-stone front was the thing to be desired, the essential thing. Now we are not satisfied with that. We want more of the beautiful, and in striving after it we go to an excess of the ornamental in architecture, and put in so much of it that it misrepresents beauty. Nevertheless these efforts give evidence of a striving for something more beautiful. Once in a while we see a really beautiful building come into existence, an effort of a master architect who has developed a love of the beautiful.
A beautiful building calls out the love of beauty in the minds of the people who see it. There is an increasing number of people who are awakening to the love of beauty. Every year more people go to our art galleries, and there is keener appreciation of good music. It is a great pity that we cannot have good music in this country without paying an exorbitant price for it, for in Europe it is possible for the very poor people to have the best music at a very small price.
It is this love of the beautiful in music, in art, and in every department of life which is the hope or evidence of progress among any people. Some enthusiasts have gone so far as to say that the love of beauty may constitute the religion of a future age, claiming that then there would be little likelihood of any disagreement, and there would be a greater unity of thought in the perception of beauty than could be brought to the worship of any other thing. I do not believe, however, that any religion can ever be founded upon the love of beauty alone. Beauty is only an outer manifestation that symbolizes something that is greater than itself, and the soul of man can never be content with the worship of symbols, no matter how great or how beautiful they may be. I believe this to be true, though that the love of beauty in the life of man shows decidedly his development, because the love of beauty is one sure indication of spiritual growth.
The love of beauty is a true radiation from the Heart of Love, but it is only one of an infinite number of rays.
It takes all of these rays to make a perfect religion. The soul will never be satisfied with anything less than perfection.
Every innate power must have outer expression. The more, however, that the mind dwells in a sense of beauty and comes in touch with the inner or higher states of life that correspond to beauty, the more beauty will mind express in the outer life. We should know that the world beautiful is our own conscious world. It expresses all that man has been or is now. It is the mirror of all that he has felt and thought. That which any individual sees or hears in this world is that which to some degree he must have helped to construct. The great outer world is man’s kingdom of expression, but before there could have been a world beautiful without, there must have been one within. There must be the world beautiful of thought and thought pictures to make that inner life, that life that is the source of our world beautiful. It is in this inner world that we construct our castles.
We afterward express them outwardly, but they live first of all in the inner life. Each castle that we build, or that comes into form, must first have existed in the inner world as an ideal building. Outer things only become beautiful as the mind is able to grasp and interpret the inner beauty. The development of beauty in outer form is an ever-changing one; nothing beautiful is ever lost, but, with the expanding ideal, something is always being added to the expression of beauty.
At one stage in mental development, beauty seems to be sacrificed to size. The supreme thought of the moment is one of size. Everything must be large. Every great nation passes through this period of what we might call the hugeness of things. We are passing through it now more than has any other nation in the past, not excepting the ancient Egyptian civilization. Yet, notwithstanding, the sense of beauty is also coming into the life of the people, and we grow better able to appreciate external beauty through each succeeding generation.
I use the term “external”; yet things are not so external to us as we think. Things are the result of heart, and head, and hand, and contain something of ourselves. It is not generally known that the things we handle, and the things we do are impressed by our thought-pictures; so that a sensitive person can take up something he has never seen, and tell much of the thought that is attached to it, by holding it in his hand or close to his forehead. We leave the impress of what we feel and what we think upon so-called inanimate matter—but there is nothing inanimate.
Energy goes into everything we do. With greater concentration, directed energy expresses itself in form. Into the sculptor’s statue goes something of his own life and intelligence. Remember that with his hammer and chisel he is using energy all the time, and that energy is expressing itself in, and upon the marble. It is a living, not a dead thing. He is giving it form, and to some degree, putting his life into it. We seldom stop to think how this is done. When one winds his watch he is putting some of his own life force into that watch, and until that life force has all escaped from it, the wheels revolve and the hands continue to go round. And as truly we are putting energy into everything we do in life. When a man paints a picture, and puts into it his best thought and feeling, he puts into it some of his own spirit. That is why the religious paintings of the past inspire us. Consider, as an illustration, the works of Fra Angelico—a man so inspired by the religious spirit within him that he was able to leave as a legacy to the world paintings that now, hundreds of years after he has passed from his work, still breathe with his spirit of love, veneration, and devotion. The religious paintings of the past inspire us with the feeling and sense of religion because that is the spirit in which they were worked out.
That is why Millet, one of the very greatest of all French painters, a peasant among peasants, impresses so deeply. Because he was one with the people he painted; he understood them and put their life and his own into his pictures. By putting his own thought-feeling into his paintings they became among the most famous of the modern world. When an artist does not have enough to eat, nor fire to warm himself by, but has to go out and gather a little stubble and light a fire to warm his fingers in order to paint his pictures, one can readily understand how much of his own life he puts into them. That is what Millet had to do many a time while he was creating his most wonderful masterpieces. He put so much of his life into his work, and thought so much of it, that his physical body was not sufficiently cared for, and the time came when it could work no longer. But Millet lives in the world through his paintings more than he did when here in form.
So, into everything we do, we put a part of our life and of ourselves. If we put in the beautiful part, it will not only be perceived, but will be of help to others in their unfolding, and may be the means of calling out the beautiful in those in whom the sense of beauty is not yet awakened.
We do not at first, by looking at them, appreciate the beauty in sunrise or sunset, but the looking at them often will serve to awaken in us beauty of thought, which in turn reveals the beauty in the sunset. So, when looking at a beautiful picture, the mind dwells upon it, and thus brings itself into touch with what the picture was t meant to represent—the more beautiful side of life—and in doing so, seems to call out the latent beauty which is potential in all life.
So all thought that is beautiful serves, in a sense, to educate the mind and call out the potential beauty in the life of man. That is why, no matter what we may do, we should be careful to make it as beautiful as we are capable of, for it is a symbol of what we feel and think, and therefore of our inner selves. It shows something of the life of the one making it, and serves to call out a corresponding sense of beauty and inspiration in the lives of others.
When we go into the country there are many things that attract us to them as being beautiful, while certain other things we may overlook. The flowers in the springtime perhaps appeal to us strongly, but we “do not always think of the beauty of the growing grass; we do not always think of the beauty that is to be found in what we call weeds. A few years ago the field daisy was looked upon as a weed, and there was little idea of beauty connected with it. All these things have their own beauty; in fact, if we examine anything carefully we will find that it has a certain beauty all its own that has hitherto been invisible to us. While we see the beauty in the trees, yet some of them appeal to us as being more beautiful than others. The beauty of one tree is not that of another, but each has a peculiar beauty of its own. So no two people express life the same way, yet there is something beautiful to be found in the life of every person; but we do not always find it, because we do not seek it. So often, in looking at things in nature, if some things appeal to us as being beautiful, we give all our thought and attention to them, and lose sight of many others that are equally beautiful.
Then let us strive to find beauty in the things in which we have not as yet discovered it. Sometimes we are delighted with the songs of the birds. There are other birds that do not sing, and we are not as much interested in them. A bird that has no song has certain other things to commend it to us, and we will find beauty of form or of plumage instead. And so you will find beauty in everything if you look for it, because beauty is written into everything in this world. If anything appears homely, look deeper into it, and you will certainly find beauty in it somewhere. You will find beauty of color, when perhaps beauty of form as we understand it is lacking, and if there is neither beauty of color or of form, there is always to be found something else, such as a faithful or a kind nature, which may mean far more than any beauty of form or of color. There is nothing in all the great universe that totally lacks beauty; therefore” “seek, and ye shall find.”
And now, in order to be practical, what is this love of beauty going to do for us? In what way is it going to help us to find a fuller and more complete life? It is going to help us, first of all, in this way: We cannot find beauty in anything without that beauty having been unfolded in ourselves; therefore, the more of beauty we see in the external world, the more wonderfully we have developed and brought ourselves into a condition of mind whereby we can actually become helpful to others.
The sense of beauty should always convey to the mind the sense of harmony. Sometimes a thing that is beautiful conveys the idea of harmony and strength, or it may sometimes combine that of beauty and joy. There is always a union of beauty with something else, but we are not able to make the distinction unless we have first made it in ourselves. One may apparently talk intelligently on a subject without having any realization of the vital truth of what he is talking about, though he may in time awake to a realization of the inner truth. We are brought back to the point that everything outside of us is as it is, because of that which is within us; there must always be the inner understanding of life before there is an outer understanding. We come in touch with things in the outer world without knowing anything about the wonder and mystery of their life and beauty, until a knowledge of that life and beauty has unfolded in ourselves. Then we see the wonder and mystery of the great outer world in which we live.
So this love of the beautiful shows us something of our own development, and it helps to bring about a state of mental harmony. One can never get a beautiful thought of life when the mind is unrestful or discordant, therefore the sense of beauty brings rest and harmony into the mind, and keeps it open for a still larger degree of beauty. That is the reason why we should cultivate this sense of beauty in life and why we should seek for it in everything.
We should never allow the mind to become distracted, or to have its attention turned from the beautiful by anything which mars beauty. Some people, when looking at a beautiful picture, will see a slight imperfection in it. Whenever they look at that picture again, the first thing they see and point out to others is that imperfection. We want to let go of that side. We want to get the whole picture, and the spirit behind it, and not fix our attention on the little technical mistakes which are but superficial. It is the beauty of color, of form, of conception, of the composition as a whole, that should appeal to us. If we allow the mind to pick flaws in people or in things, we lose all sense of proportion. We see only the little flaw, and miss the beauty that is the real picture; and when we let the small error creep into the mind, we miss the beauty of the character of the person. So the mind is taken up in looking for the motes, as we might say, and the motes cause the mind to become unrestful. How often in listening to music, if the performer or singer strikes a false note, it is that note of which we remember to talk about. That note has apparently made the greater impression, and not the beauty of song or of expression that is the real part of the music. Annoyance at the small thing has made us close our ears to that which is infinitely greater.
We get out of life all the harmony, all the joy, all the perfection, all the beauty, that we put into it or bring to it. We cannot find the beauty in the outer world until we find it in the inner one. Everything will become beautiful to us if our quest for beauty is thorough, for as we find the inner beauty we shall find its expression in everything without.
We shall feast our eyes in the beauty of the springtime; we shall rejoice in the beauty of summer; be glad in the beauty of autumn; and delight our minds in the beauty of winter. We shall see beauty when the sun is shining, when the birds sing, when the flowers blossom, and all life will sing its wondrous song of beauty. And we shall give forth beauty in our own lives, for these various expressions of it in nature are in man’s life—written deep into his own character.
The Religion of Life
There was never so great a. thought laboring in the breasts of men as now. It almost seems as if what was afore-time spoken fabulously and hieroglyphically, was now spoken plainly, the doctrine, namely, of the indwelling of the Creator in man.
What is the scholar, what is the man for, but for hospitality to every new thought of his time? Have you leisure, power, property, friends? You shall be the asylum and patron of every new thought, every unproven opinion, every untried project which proceeds out of good-will and honest seeking. All the newspapers, all the tongues of to-day will of course defame what is noble, but you who hold not of to-day, not of the times, but of the Everlasting, are to stand for it; and the highest compliment ever received from Heaven is the sending to him its disguised and discredited angels.
—Emerson
The above quotation is one from Emerson’s lecture on “The Times,” and what is said of the receptivity of the mind of his day can be even more truly said of the popular mind at the present time. The light, that then only a few saw brightly is now shedding its effulgence over the minds of the many. The world is coming to see and understand life as it has never done in the past. Multitudes are reaching out for greater knowledge and understanding. The mysteries of the past are being unfolded. The things that were held secret are being disclosed. Life is in a state of ferment. Never was such mental activity displayed in the past. The world is writing its history—its book of life—with a rapidity that is simply bewildering to him who is not abreast of the times. Destruction and construction go hand in hand; the tearing down of the things that were held sacred in past generations and the building on their ruins of more enduring structures is taking place on every side.
One of the greatest lessons of life perhaps—or the one that may be the hardest to learn—is that there must constantly be new adjustments made by man, both to environment and to his fellow man. Every new ideal brings with it a new work to accomplish, and in the accomplishing of that work there will inevitably be the destruction of all that is no longer essential to the new ends and purposes of the now larger life.
The conservative man views with alarm the overthrow of his cherished ideals. To him the world seems to be going all wrong, and the very foundations of Religion and Morality being destroyed. But this view exists solely because he is not attuned to the new order of things. The evolution now in progress is largely a conscious one. To him who is unconscious of the inner changes, the destruction taking place on the outer plane may seem revolutionary in its effect, but once let him become attuned to the Spirit of Life and, lo! he will see that everything has been working together for good. Mankind is beginning to perceive that law and order obtain throughout God’s Universe, and that conformity to this law and order is the one object of life, and so men are consciously using the power that is within them to create a new world, to manifest a kingdom of God on earth, to bring the hidden power and glory into external existence, and so prove that the soul is not dependent on things, but the soul makes things, that the religion of life is disclosed by life itself. Realization comes through action.
We are beginning to perceive, too, that the soul of God and the soul of man are essentially one. As man realizes his relation to the oversoul he will come to understand that he is the creator of the world and the things of the world in which he lives; that the Divine Ideal is written into his life and through his own effort must take form on earth. He is the Word of God, the Logos, seeking to become manifest in the flesh. In him is the light which is to enlighten the world. And all external things must come into conformity to his will. The new heaven he has discovered in his own life is but the plan of the new heaven on the earth. You can never make a new earth without an ideal to pattern it after. It is necessary to perceive the divine pattern in order to create the perfect and complete human expression. First we must have the vision—”where there is no vision the people perish”—then we must bring down this vision to the level of every day—interpret it according to the needs of each succeeding moment—weave it into the life in loving service to our fellow men. He to whom the vision has once come can never wholly forget. The beauty and the glory of it will by degrees transfigure his life. “Old things shall pass away and all things shall become new.”
We are in a state of transition wherein there is a seeming conflict between the night of the past and the coming of to-morrow’s dawn. To the superficial observer the very foundations of life seem to be shaken. But nothing can pass away but the scaffolding, as it were, of to-day’s greater building—the old conditions were only stepping-stones to the new and better ones.
Change is the great law of mental and physical growth. Everything in man’s outer life is subject to it; everything in the great outer world responds to this law of change. Nothing is permanent—the mountains grow old and pass away, the valleys are filled up. Change is as inevitable in the mind of man, as it is in the outer world. Mental development only takes place, and is evidenced, through change. Man’s ideals must make way for the incoming of greater ideals. What people are pleased to term consistency is often but a superficial barrier erected to obstruct the light of truth. The mind, to be courageous should be unencumbered by authority or traditions of the past, and should not place any limitations upon its own growth. The thing which may prove of incalculable assistance today may, on the morrow, if still held to, prove a mill-stone. Life is a constant process of adjustment to environment, and the helpful thing of one day may become the fatal thing of the next. In order to live one must grow and every stage of growth has its change, and each change is fitting to its place. Let the one who longs for permanency know that the thing desired is unattainable, that a height attained is followed by the vision of still greater heights, that life is forever upward and onward.
What the world needs most to-day is a willingness to change in order to meet the demands of the age, a readjustment from the old, dead things of the past to the vital purposes of the living present. Many people are still living in the graves of the dead thoughts of bygone ages. These thoughts may have met the requirements of the past, but no longer fill the needs of the present. The inevitable results are that we have numerous organizations apparently for the sole purpose of charitable and religious effort, which are lifeless bodies without soul or spirit, sepulchers filled with the phantoms of a dead past and superficial modern conventions. If change is needed anywhere, surely it is needed now among those who think they are in the van of human progress, but who in reality are living in the dark ages, a thousand years behind the times. And yet, I want to say at the same time that the quality of stability is as necessary as that of change. This may seem contradictory, but stability has to do with the soul, while change concerns thoughts, words, and outer forms. Love is as eternal as Life; the world may change and pass away, but Hope abides. The sun may grow cold and lose its light, but Faith lives eternally. While in the inmost recesses of life all is steadfast, on the surface all is change. God never changes, life never changes, truth never changes, but our mental conceptions concerning all three change constantly.
As the mind of man comes in closer touch with the divine in man, it attains to the wider, grander vision, as one who stands on the mountain top is able to view the whole horizon. The mind which has immediate access to God becomes fixed in the eternal principles underlying all life, and there comes to it a greater stability of thought and purpose, changing the outer expression to a thing symmetrically beautiful, increasingly so with each succeeding change, until the very outermost takes on something of the stability and permanency of the inner. Let the mind be founded in the eternal verities of life.
The mind should become so centered in principles which change not, that only the highest ideals would find expression.
A purely intellectual conception of the kingdom that is latent in every soul is an impossible thing. The servant cannot comprehend in all its fullness the Master’s will, and intellect is but the servant of the Master. What a man feels is greater than what he thinks, and thoughts and words are but feeble instruments to express the inmost depths of man’s feeling. The light that is coming into the world, that is shining over the threshold of the new day, shows that a man to be great should feel after God, and come into vital touch with his fellow man through his deepest and truest feelings. This being the case, the true thought, word, and deed will follow as a natural sequence, and man will thus truly express himself from the center to the circumference of life. The love and adoration of the people of both the past and the present time, for the Christ or the Buddha, have not been for their intellectual conceptions of life, have not been for what they have taught, but rather for what they have revealed and what they have lived. Their loving service to humanity has endeared them more to humanity than any one, or all other things. Loving service comes from what a man feels. The new commandment of life, which is just as new now as it was two thousand years ago, is “that ye love one another,” that love is the fulfilling of the law, and that only by it and through it can come the fullness of life.
Let the individual remember that that which is true of the nation or the race holds good equally for himself; that each man epitomizes, as it were, the whole feeling and thought of the world, and in his life passes through every phase that it is possible for the race or the individual to experience. Hence, in the consideration of a religion of life, the personal application is the initial one—perhaps the only one that is of immediate profit. The kingdom of God is brought upon earth through individual effort, and every individual is responsible for its coming to the extent of his knowledge. In fulfilling the law of life, it will be found that it requires far more a development of heart than of intellect.
The intellectual reconstruction of the world is an impossible thing. No matter how clearly men may see the truth, if such truth is held only as an intellectual conception of right, wrongs will be perpetrated by man upon his fellow man regardless even of true thought conceptions. Intellectually, man knows a hundredfold more of the right than he lives, but if a man feels, he lives what he feels. A thousand men have written books on the cruelty and injustice of man to his fellow man, but the love of a Jesus or a Buddha would outweigh in its productiveness of good all the logic and mental reasonings of the thousand. What the world needs more than all else is kindness of heart, good-will, more brightness and hope, more joy and gladness, more faith in mankind and its ideals, and, greatest of all, more love. Through the expression of all these feelings the mind of man would become renewed, quickened, strengthened, made whole, and the world would rejoice in the springtime of a new age, an age wherein “righteousness would cover the face of the earth, as the waters cover the face of the great deep.”
The prophets for this new age are needed more than they ever were in the past, because humanity as a whole is more ready to receive a life-giving gospel than ever before. Humanity is hungering and thirsting, and the desire for a fuller life is being everywhere expressed.
What the prophet Emerson believed he saw in his day is being fulfilled in our own. But there is a mightier power at work than Emerson’s intellectual conception of life. It is not man’s intellect that creates the world, it is not man’s intellect that renews life, and not by any thought or reasoning process do we find God. Let the prophets of the new age proclaim not what a man should think, but rather what he should feel. Let them make a new departure, no matter what ridicule or censure they may bring upon themselves from those who do not understand what they are trying to do. The true reformer in every new departure has had to contend with all manner of persecutions, coming even from those to whom he would do the greatest good. Let no obstacle, great or small, stand in the way of this gospel—that what a man feels, makes him what he is. When we look about on every side, and see the dried and withered forms of people, misshapen and shriveled up by their thoughts, because of the lack of vital feeling, we feel constrained to cry out: “Oh, that God would fill the minds of people with the spirit of his love and goodness!”
The mind of man makes its own divisions in religion—its creeds and its dogmas—and of these divisions there seems no end. The soul knows no division—has no sense of separateness or limitation; for it, none of these things exist, because religion—” the homing instinct of the Soul “—is one—a common need, a common impulse among all peoples. It may be summed up in two words—Love and Service. Love is the divine element, service the human expression. Before these two conditions of life every creed shall pass away, because the time is coming when the world will know the truth and enter into its true inheritance—a kingdom of God on earth where peace and good-will reign supreme. The Spirit of Love lives in every life and is ever seeking perfect expression. Through it every thought becomes beautified, through it every ideal is realized. Thought becomes great only as it expresses truly the feeling beneath it, as it is filled with the spirit of love. The mind becomes illumined only as it draws its vitality from the soul-feeling. The barriers which now separate mankind and keep men of different faiths apart, will be forgotten when the real religion of life finds its place in the hearts and minds of mankind. We will have a new symbolism—one which will truly represent a universal religion; and we will no longer, then, worship the symbol, for it will serve only to indicate in an outer way what man knows and believes in his heart. And man’s creed, if there be any, will be the recognition of human rights, of justice for all, from the least even unto the greatest. There will be everywhere that fraternal expression of life, too, which will make the brotherhood of man something more than a name—a living, vital thing. There will no longer be any desire to oppress the weak. The strong nations of the earth will lend of their strength for the upbuilding of the weaker. There will no longer be the very rich and consequently there will no longer be the very poor, but each will have enough to supply all mental and physical needs.
The love of the beautiful, too, will become a part of the new religion of life, and the handicraft of the world will be more beautiful because of it. Each man’s work will be his religion, and whatever his hand finds to do he will do with the might of a beautiful ideal as well as an earnest purpose. Health, strength, and happiness will be the natural outcome of such a religion—a religion which will dispense with all outworn creeds and empty forms, which will not even ask whether a man be a Roman Catholic or a Protestant, a Jew or a Mohammedan. The balance of true fellowship will so unite its members that each one will become a law unto himself as regards what he thinks. No one will be taken to task or questioned about his beliefs or unbeliefs, because where love is, there is freedom, there is unity, there is peace and satisfaction of life, wherein a man comes into at-one-ment with God and man.
The Realization of Power
Life is to wake, not sleep—
Rise and not rest, but press
From earth’s level, where blindly creep
Things perfected, more or less,
To heaven’s height, far and steep.
I have faith such end shall be.
From the first Power was, I knew
Life has made clear to me,
Strive but for closer view,
Love’s just as plain to see.
—Browning
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist;
Not its semblance but itself; no beauty nor good nor power
Whose voice has gone forth but each survives for the melodist,
When eternity confirms the conception of an hour.
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard
Enough that He heard it once—we shall hear it by and by.”
—Browning
It would be difficult, I think, to find many agreed on any single definition of power. Some take a very limited view, and deny the existence of power if it is not clearly demonstrated externally—in word and deed. But there are those who realize in themselves as well as in others far greater power than is at the moment expressed, a power which in a sense should come under the direction of one’s thought, and yet a power which is greater than any reach of the mentality. Now in reality all power is the same—that is, from the same source. But there are as many degrees and expressions of power as there are degrees and expressions of life. We can understand any phase of power—in fact, anything—only as we ourselves come into possession of it. We may perceive power, but that is a different thing from the true understanding of it. The real understanding of power goes far deeper than any surface knowledge—it touches the springs of wisdom itself. Now, the direction power takes is dependent on a man’s thought. The dynamo of direction, however, is back of thought. To develop power on any plane there are certain requirements to be met.
There is a law governing this as well as everything else. If this law is complied with, the attainment of power is inevitable. Even on the physical side of life, where it would seem as if all might attain, there are few who live up to their privileges and opportunities, and enjoy perfect physical power. But development on this plane is as necessary as on any other—one may say, it is inevitable, because there must be development and realization on every plane. Real religion is living in accordance with the law of one’s being. Belief is of small, if any, service. We must study carefully to discover the laws of life. At one stage it is very well that the life should be regulated from without. If we eat or drink too much we suffer physically, if we transgress any law on the material plane we suffer materially. In this early stage of development there is no possibility of evading the pressure of environment. At this point the life has to be adjusted to surrounding conditions.
The higher has, it seems, to be subjected to the lower—lower, only in the sense of being immature. Man on this plane is but little higher than the highest order of animals. The biologist tells us that there is not as much difference between primitive man and the animals as there is between the highest and the lowest of the animal creation. In so far as man succeeds in keeping in harmony with his environment, power is the result. This keeping in harmony with one’s environment may, to some further on in the path, seem but a poor achievement— indeed, actually bad in some phases. But we must make allowance for, the difference in point of view. It is sometimes difficult for one to recall and have patience with the experiences and demands of lower stages.
The very fact that they were once our own is apt to make us intolerant of them. When we come into the possession of power on the higher plane it should embrace power on all lower planes as well. People are keenly alive to-day to the value and pleasure of athletics. Some phases of these sports are positively brutal. Animals would not indulge in any such pastimes. But this simply shows the desire to exercise power in some degree. This desire for action, the expression—the realization of power—would better take this form than none at all. But directed control of effort toward a high goal is the thing to be striven for. Suppression is not control. Suppression is never good or helpful. Even hate in the mind is better expressed than hidden and covered over. Hate, you know, is only inverted love—misdirected energy. To let our emotions, whatever they may be, come to the light, is like letting off steam when the pressure is at the extreme point. To suppress means disintegration—destruction.
One may say, “I am suppressing my feeling toward that other person because I do not wish to hurt him,” but the truth is that conscious hatred is even more subtle and baneful in this form than the open, outspoken word. Because people who are sensitive will feel it, and, not knowing from whence the influence comes, will either give it undue consideration or misinterpret its meaning. Expression is the law— any expression is better than none. This is written in the constitution of things. On the intellectual plane of being there are not the same forces to be confronted as on the lower plane, but where there was one obstacle there, on the mental plane there are a score—not only external things, but subtle, intangible difficulties. Here are encountered all the numberless traits of the mentality with their distorted counterparts. These distortions, of course, eventually merely show by contrast the right path, but a certain amount of energy is expended—even lost in the experience.
There is another difficulty, too: on this plane we are frequently not nearly so much concerned with the directing and living of our own lives as we are with the lives of other people, and we spend far more time thinking over and dwelling on other people’s shortcomings than our own. Such a habit of mind saps our powers, and continually makes for limitations. We are not in a position to think clearly and see things as they really are when our minds are filled with distorted and critical views of others. You see, we are really not capable of judging any one. We cannot know all the circumstances from every point of view regarding another’s action. And even if we could, we cannot say of any course that it is absolutely wrong. It may be wrong for us, or, under certain conditions, for others; but under other conditions, it might be perfectly justifiable. If we could ever be sure of our premise, we could reach some logical conclusion in our judgment of other people.
But however faultless our reasoning might be, we can never be sure we are giving just judgment, because we can never be absolutely sure of our basis of reasoning. We waste a great deal of time reasoning out theories of life and trying to adapt them to other people’s lives. If we ever hope for a realization of our latent powers, then we must set ourselves to intelligently using those powers for ourselves and let other people alone, both as to thought and action. But someone may say: “Is it not right to try to influence others for good?” Certainly; but we can be of more use through living our own lives, and perfecting them and realizing our own powers, than ever we can by trying to share our own immaturity and imperfect theorizing with all we meet. We can be of far greater service to the world by contributing to it our own lives, lived in the best way that we know, than we could in any other way. Whatever we see and know of truth, it is for us to give out again .in action—in our lives.
This is our message, our mission, to the world. Our own right adjustment brings more harmony to others than a whole lifetime of trying to set them straight. We rarely know ourselves more than superficially—how can we expect to know others? An honest study of our own lives will teach us much. We fritter away our energy day after day, and yet we wonder why we cannot accomplish more—why we are so depleted when the day is over, and still so tired when we wake again in the morning. Our strength is dissipated by all sorts of idle thoughts and words. Some energy goes into the thinking of every thought. We can never realize power until we learn to expend energy only with a purpose, and to conserve our strength.
When the mind is centered and engrossed on the purely objective side of life, when we live too much on the mental plane, there is a loss of energy because it is all output, and there is no ingathering or inner refreshment, as there would be if we lived more on the spiritual plane. That is where our refreshment comes from; it is at the center of our being that we rest and realize power. In listening to a lecture, for instance, if the exercise is a purely mental one we are apt to be tired afterward. But this should not be so. It should be as in enjoying music— there should be no mental effort to understand, but in entering into the spirit of it and becoming one with the lecturer we would absorb, as it were, all that was of any service to us. Whereas, if we assume a critical attitude, or even if we tax ourselves to remember what is said, we will thereby expend a certain amount of energy, and in a way defeat the real object of the lecturer. The words that were used are not the important thing. We can get far more benefit by simply holding the mind receptive and letting it naturally assimilate its own as it comes than we can by “thinking hard,” as the phrase is.
This should serve as a test of the usefulness of anything to us—if we thereby get a fuller realization of power, for us it is a good thing. No matter how good or wise anything may seem to others, or may really be for others, if it does not, in the doing, increase our power and, in this way, the harmony of our whole lives, it is not, for us, the best thing. We generate energy in our states of restfulness, either when we are asleep or awake. But the continued receiving of energy depends upon how we use it. We live in a world of cause and effect. On this plane the law is inexorable. Even the least things produce a definite effect. There is no such thing as getting a good effect from a bad cause. Every so-called evil or hurtful thing that comes to us has its corresponding cause, and this cause is not external to us, as it may seem, but primarily in ourselves. Nothing returns to us that has not gone out from us. It affected the minds of others, and prompted them to do just these things we now complain of. Now how can we come to such a realization of power so that we can nullify evil effects, prevent evil causes, throw off all disease, and make a thoroughly harmonious life? This will depend largely on our use of power.
There is no limit to the power that may be realized in us. Our knowledge or application may be limited, but the power to which we have access is not. At this very moment each and every one of us has power sufficient to become whole and harmonious on every plane. But we must use the power we have in the right way. There are some things that we do almost daily, perhaps, which invariably make us feel worn out and depleted, while after others we feel well and buoyant. Now such results prove conclusively when we are using our powers rightly and when we are not. Harmony as a result is a pledge and seal. A wrong cause could not produce a harmonious action. We limit our realization of power a great deal by our moods and feelings. It is impossible to realize power in a morbid atmosphere. It is not difficult to distinguish the real from the false when our desire to do so is earnest. The actions and states of mind that result in a feeling of gladness and freedom, we may be reasonably sure, are the right actions and mental states for us. Joy, you know, brings us very close to the heart of things—very close to God. When we are morbid and unrestful we are getting away from God, and seeing things in a partial way. When we feel a certain pressure from others on our lives we resent it; we feel unkindly toward them, and have the impulse to express this unkindness in action.
And we do not realize that we are injuring only ourselves when we yield to these impulses. No earthly good can come to us or to anybody else from disliking other people. From every standpoint—even the very most practical and detailed life—it is better to love our enemies. We are members one of another, and we only deprive ourselves of the greatest benefit and the realization of our greatest powers when we do not see this or are not willing to act in accordance with it. We must learn to feel for others as we feel for ourselves. The Golden Rule is the greatest law of life. It might just as well have been translated another way—” Whatsoever ye do to men, men will do to you,” and this would have been quite as true. This is the law, and it is a very just law. Now if we could only learn to live in accordance with that law we would come to know the realization of great power. I venture to say that a literal and invariable adherence to this law would make whole, mentally, physically, and spiritually, everyone who truly tested it. The greatest law of God is summed up in those few words. We all know so much better than we do. But simply to know is not the thing. We must feel and do.
If we feel, we cannot fail to do. And what we do for ourselves we do for others as well. We must let our light so shine that others will see it. We must not want everyone to do as we do. There is only one way to truly influence people, and that is to be our best—ourselves. After all, it is the inner life that gives the power. And we can learn a great deal of the inner life in a very few years of outer life. When we look about we see this one and that one—someone, perhaps, who calls out love on every side, and we wonder why this is. Is it because that one gives out hate? No; but because love has been given, and so love only can come back again. It is a beautiful thing to be loved, but it is an even more beautiful thing to love. And our love to others must come first. This is the law. It is only as we give that we receive. If we do not feel that we are getting all the joy and happiness and love out of life that we might get, it is for us to stop and consider why this is so. The fullness of life comes to us only as we give out, live out, the fullness that is in us. This is the only way to attain realization of power. In benefitting another—any other—we ourselves receive the inflow.
If this is not so, invariably and evidently, then there is something wrong in us. I do not mean that it is possible or even desirable for us to go through life without making any mistakes. We learn by our mistakes. But more and more I believe that we can come into the way of such complete guidance that we will make no serious misstep. We all of us want health, but we must bring more than our thoughts to bear on the bringing of health. We must feel as well as think. One does not interfere with the other. The feeling must be the inspiration that directs the thought. This is not visionary. It is the most practical thing in life. We need the vision in order to be truly practical. We must hold ourselves open to every influence of good, and remember that we are all members one of another. “If any man will do my will he shall know of the doctrine.” Through doing good to others we will come into realization. There is no other way. We never get any satisfaction from trying any other way. Sometimes we say: “So and so did me an evil turn; shall I, then, do him good?” Yes, even more so than ever. Life is a continual adjustment and overcoming of false conditions by the real. We make a great deal too much of what we call evil in other people’s lives. Altogether too much is made of the transitory and immature on the surface of life. These are only as contrast to the real and abiding. Kindness in ourselves begets kindness in others. These are the real things, the real riches—kindness and gentleness and faith. These are the things that we store up eternally, and that none can take from us. We are only wasting our time when we work for what is not real and lasting. It is when we become one with, not only those who love us, but with those who hate and distrust us, that we realize the greatest power.
This is the real success in life—this is the living of the larger life. If we can only put away from us all sense of separateness! We can never feel near to any one while we distrust or dislike him. The person we hate or dislike is just as much a part of us as the one we like—just as much as our hand is a part of our body. And when we feel ourselves separate from another, we cut off, as it were, a part of ourselves—a vital part. The more we ourselves develop the more we see to love in others, and the closer we come to what is real and good in these others. Our relations with others prove our own development, and how far we have traveled in this journey of life. When we come to the point where we feel no unkindness toward any living creature, it seems to me we will have reached one of the highest possible planes of development in this world. If we would only be willing to give— give all—without thought of reward—give our very selves! Then we would come quickly into the life of love. When we have learned to give of ourselves—to give the real things of life—our giving will be of the truest. Life is too short to waste it in condemning—too short to sit in judgment. We have only time enough to see the good, and our greatest realization of power will come as we realize our oneness with all others, for only in this way can we realize our oneness with God, and attain to real Dominion and Power which comes alone from living the complete, the whole life, the life wherein the Spirit of Love guides and directs in the way of all truth, bringing at last the full realization that man is a son of God endowed with eternal life.
The End