{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1398/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1398","id":"gutenberg_1398","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1398","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","New Thought"],"text":"Ver.04.29.93*END*\n\n\n\n\nDore Lectures on Mental Science, by Thomas Troward\nTHE DORE LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE\n\nby Thomas Troward\n\n\n\n\nENTERING INTO THE SPIRIT OF IT\nINDIVIDUALITY\nTHE NEW THOUGHT AND THE NEW ORDER\nTHE LIPS OF THE SPIRIT\nALPHA AND OMEGA\nTHE CREATIVE POWER OF THOUGHT\nTHE GREAT AFFIRMATIVE\nCHRIST THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW\nTHE STORY OF EDEN\nTHE WORSHIP OF ISHI\nTHE SHEPHERD AND THE STONE\nSALVATION IS OF THE JEWS\n\n\nFOREWORD.\n\nThe addresses contained in this volume were delivered by me at\nthe Dore Gallery, Bond Street, London, on the Sundays of the\nfirst three months of the present year, and are now published at\nthe kind request of many of my hearers, hence their title of \"The\nDore Lectures.\" A number of separate discourses on a variety of\nsubjects necessarily labours under the disadvantage of want of\ncontinuity, and also under that of a liability to the frequent\nrepetition of similar ideas and expressions, and the reader will,\nI trust, pardon these defects as inherent in the circumstances of\nthe work. At the same time it will be found that, although not\nspecially so designed, there is a certain progressive development\nof thought through the dozen lectures which compose this volume,\nthe reason for which is that they all aim at expressing the same\nfundamental idea, namely that, though the laws of the universe\ncan never be broken, they can be made to work under special\nconditions which will produce results that could not be produced\nunder the conditions spontaneously provided by nature. This is a\nsimple scientific principle and it shows us the place which is\noccupied by the personal factor, that, namely, of an intelligence\nwhich sees beyond the present limited manifestation of the Law\ninto its real essence, and which thus constitutes the\ninstru-mentality by which the infinite possibilities of the Law\ncan be evoked into forms of power, usefulness, and beauty.\n\nThe more perfect, therefore, the working of the personal factor,\nthe greater will be the results developed from the Universal Law;\nand hence our lines of study should be two-fold--on the one hand\nthe theoretical study of the action of Universal Law, and on the\nother the practical fitting of ourselves to make use of it; and\nif the present volume should assist any reader in this two-fold\nquest, it will have answered its purpose.\n\nThe different subjects have necessarily been treated very\nbriefly, and the addresses can only be considered as suggestions\nfor lines of thought which the reader will be able to work out\nfor himself, and he must therefore not expect that careful\nelabora-tion of detail which I would gladly have bestowed had I\nbeen writing on one of these subjects exclusively. This little\nbook must be taken only for what it is, the record of somewhat\nfragmentary talks with a very indulgent audience, to whom I\ngratefully dedicate the volume.\n\nJUNE 5, 1909.\n\nT.T.\n\n\n\nTHE DORE LECTURES\n\n\n\nENTERING INTO THE SPIRIT OF IT.\n\nWe all know the meaning of this phrase in our everyday life. The\nSpirit is that which gives life and movement to anything, in fact\nit is that which causes it to exist at all. The thought of the\nauthor, the impression of the painter, the feeling of the\nmusician, is that without which their works could never have come\ninto being, and so it is only as we enter into the IDEA which\ngives rise to the work, that we can derive all the enjoyment and\nbenefit from it which it is able to bestow. If we cannot enter\ninto the Spirit of it, the book, the picture, the music, are\nmeaningless to us: to appreciate them we must share the mental\nattitude of their creator. This is a universal principle; if we\ndo not enter into the Spirit of a thing, it is dead so far as we\nare concerned; but if we do enter into it we reproduce in\nourselves the same quality of life which called that thing into\nexistence.\n\nNow if this is a general principle, why can we not carry it to a\nhigher range of things? Why not to the highest point of all? May\nwe not enter into the originating Spirit of Life itself, and so\nreproduce it in ourselves as a perennial spring of livingness?\nThis, surely, is a question worthy of our careful consideration.\n\nThe spirit of a thing is that which is the source of its inherent\nmovement, and therefore the question before us is, what is the\nnature of the primal moving power, which is at the back of the\nendless array of life which we see around us, our own life\nincluded? Science gives us ample ground for saying that it is not\nmaterial, for science has now, at least theoretically, reduced\nall material things to a primary ether, universally distributed,\nwhose innumerable particles are in absolute equilibrium; whence\nit follows on mathematical grounds alone that the initial\nmovement which began to concentrate the world and all material\nsubstances out of the particles of the dispersed ether, could not\nhave originated in the particles themselves. Thus by a necessary\ndeduction from the conclusions of physical science, we are\ncompelled to realize the presence of some immaterial power\ncapable of separating off certain specific areas for the display\nof cosmic activity, and then building up a material universe with\nall its inhabitants by an orderly sequence of evolution, in which\neach stage lays the foundation for the development of the stage,\nwhich is to follow--in a word we find ourselves brought face to\nface with a power which exhibits on a stupendous scale, the\nfaculties of selection and adaptation of means to ends, and thus\ndistributes energy and life in accordance with a recognizable\nscheme of cosmic progression. It is therefore not only Life, but\nalso Intelligence, and Life guided by Intelligence becomes\nVolition. It is this primary originating power which we mean when\nwe speak of \"The Spirit,\" and it is into this Spirit of the whole\nuniverse that we must enter if we would reproduce it as a spring\nof Original Life in ourselves.\n\nNow in the case of the productions of artistic genius we know\nthat we must enter into the movement of the creative mind of the\nartist, before we can realize the principle which gives rise to\nhis work. We must learn to partake of the feeling, to find\nexpression for which is the motive of his creative activity. May\nwe not apply the same principle to the Greater Creative Mind with\nwhich we are seeking to deal? There is something in the work of\nthe artist which is akin to that of original creation. His work,\nliterary, musical, or graphic is original creation on a miniature\nscale, and in this it differs from that of the engineer, which is\nconstructive, or that of the scientist which is analytical; for\nthe artist in a sense creates something out of nothing, and\ntherefore starts from the stand-point of simple feeling, and not\nfrom that of a pre-existing necessity. This, by the hypothesis of\nthe case, is true also of the Parent Mind, for at the stage where\nthe initial movement of creation takes place, there are no\nexisting conditions to compel action in one direction more than\nanother. Consequently the direction taken by the creative impulse\nis not dictated by outward circumstances, and the primary\nmovement must therefore be entirely due to the action of the\nOriginal Mind upon itself; it is the reaching out of this Mind\nfor realization of all that it feels itself to be.\n\nThe creative process thus in the first instance is purely a\nmatter of feeling--exactly what we speak of as \"motif\" in a work\nof art.\n\nNow it is this original feeling that we need to enter into,\nbecause it is the fons et origo of the whole chain of causation\nwhich subsequently follows. What then can this original feeling\nof the Spirit be? Since the Spirit is Life-in-itself, its feeling\ncan only be for the fuller expression of Life--any other sort of\nfeeling would be self-destructive and is therefore inconceivable.\nThen the full expression of Life implies Happiness, and Happiness\nimplies Harmony, and Harmony implies Order, and Order implies\nProportion, and Proportion implies Beauty; so that in recognizing\nthe inherent tendency of the Spirit towards the production of\nLife, we can recognise a similar inherent tendency to the\nproduction of these other qualities also; and since the desire to\nbestow the greater fulness of joyous life can only be described\nas Love, we can sum up the whole of the feeling which is the\noriginal moving impulse in the Spirit as Love and Beauty--the\nSpirit finding expression through forms of beauty in centres of\nlife, in harmonious reciprocal relation to itself. This is a\ngeneralized statement of the broad principle by which Spirit\nexpands from the innermost to the outermost, in accordance with a\nLaw of tendency inherent in itself.\n\nIt sees itself, as it were, reflected in various centres of life\nand energy, each with its appropriate form; but in the first\ninstance these reflections can have no existence except within\nthe originating Mind. They have their first beginning as mental\nimages, so that in addition to the powers of Intelligence and\nSelection, we must also realise that of Imagination as belonging\nto the Divine Mind; and we must picture these powers as working\nfrom the initial motive of Love and Beauty.\n\nNow this is the Spirit that we need to enter into, and the method\nof doing so is a perfectly logical one. It is the same method by\nwhich all scientific advance is made. It consists in first\nobserving how a certain law works under the conditions\nspontaneously provided by nature, next in carefully considering\nwhat principle this spontaneous working indicates, and lastly\ndeducing from this how the same principle would act under\nspecially selected conditions, not spontaneously provided by\nnature.\n\nThe progress of shipbuilding affords a good example of what I\nmean. Formerly wood was employed instead of iron, because wood\nfloats in water and iron sinks; yet now the navies of the world\nare built of iron; careful thought showed the law of floatation\nto be that anything could float which, bulk for bulk, is lighter\nthan the mass of liquid displaced by it; and so we now make iron\nfloat by the very same law by which it sinks, because by the\nintroduction of the PERSONAL factor, we provide conditions which\ndo not occur spontaneously--according to the esoteric maxim that\n\"Nature unaided fails.\" Now we want to apply the same process of\nspecializing a generic Law to the first of all Laws, that of the\ngeneric life-giving tendency of Spirit itself. Without the\nelement of INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY the Spirit can only work\ncosmically by a GENERIC Law; but this law admits of far higher\nspecialization, and this specialization can only be attained\nthrough the introduction of the personal factor. But to introduce\nthis factor the individual must be fully aware of the PRINCIPLE\nwhich underlies the spontaneous or cosmic action of the law.\nWhere, then, will he find this principle of Life? Certainly not\nby contemplating Death. In order to get a principle to work in\nthe way we require it to, we must observe its action when it is\nworking spon\" taneously in this particular direction. We must ask\nwhy it goes in the right direction as far as it does--and having\nlearnt this we shall then be able to make it go further. The law\nof floatation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of\nthings, but by contemplating the floating of things which floated\nnaturally, and then intelligently asking why they did so.\n\nThe knowledge of a principle is to be gained by the study of its\naffirmative action; when we understand THAT we are in a position\nto correct the negative conditions which tend to prevent that\naction.\n\nNow Death is the absence of Life, and disease is the absence of\nhealth, so to enter into the Spirit of Life we require to\ncontemplate it, where it is to be found, and not where it is not-\n-we are met with the old question, \"Why seek ye the living among\nthe dead?\" This is why we start our studies by considering the\ncosmic creation, for it is there that we find the Life Spirit\nworking through untold ages, not merely as deathless energy, but\nwith a perpetual advance into higher degrees of Life. If we could\nonly so enter into the Spirit as to make it personally IN\nOURSELVES what it evidently is in ITSELF, the magnum opus would\nbe accomplished. This means realizing our life as drawn direct\nfrom the Originating Spirit; and if we now understand that the\nThought or Imagination of the Spirit is the great reality of\nBeing, and that all material facts are only correspondences, then\nit logically follows that what we have to do is to maintain our\nindividual place in the Thought of the Parent Mind.\n\nWe have seen that the action of the Originating Mind must needs\nbe GENERIC, that is according to types which include multitudes\nof individuals. This type is the reflection of the Creative Mind\nat the level of that particular GENIUS; and at the human level it\nis Man, not as associated with particular circumstances, but as\nexisting in the absolute ideal.\n\nIn proportion then as we learn to dissociate our conception of\nourselves from particular circumstances, and to rest upon our\nABSOLUTE nature, as reflections of the Divine ideal, we, in our\nturn, reflect back into the Divine Imagination its original\nconception of itself as expressed in generic or typical Man, and\nso by a natural law of cause and effect, the individual who\nrealizes this mental attitude enters permanently into the Spirit\nof Life, and it becomes a perennial fountain of Life springing up\nspontaneously within him.\n\nHe then finds himself to be as the Bible says, \"the image and\nlikeness of God.\" He has reached the level at which he affords a\nnew starting point for the creative process, and the Spirit,\nfinding a personal centre in him, begins its work de nova, having\nthus solved the great problem of how to enable the Universal to\nact directly upon the plane of the Particular.\n\nIt is in this sense, as affording the requisite centre for a new\ndeparture of the creative Spirit, that man is said to be a\n\"microcosm,\" or universe in miniature; and this is also what is\nmeant by the esoteric doctrine of the Octave, of which I may be\nable to speak more fully on some other occasion.\n\nIf the principles here stated are carefully considered, they will\nbe found to throw light on much that would otherwise be obscure,\nand they will also afford the key to the succeeding essays.\n\nThe reader is therefore asked to think them out carefully for\nhimself, and to note their connection with the subject of the\nnext article.\n\n\n\nINDIVIDUALITY.\n\nIndividuality is the necessary complement of the Universal\nSpirit, which was the subject of our consideration last Sunday.\nThe whole problem of life consists in finding the true relation\nof the individual to the Universal Originating Spirit; and the\nfirst step towards ascertaining this is to realize what the\nUniversal Spirit must be in itself. We have already done this to\nsome extent, and the conclusions we have arrived at are:--\n\nThat the essence of the Spirit is Life, Love, and Beauty.\n\nThat its Motive, or primary moving impulse, is to express the\nLife, Love and Beauty which it feels itself to be.\n\nThat the Universal cannot act on the plane of the Particular\nexcept by becoming the particular, that is by expression through\nthe individual.\n\nIf these three axioms are clearly grasped, we have got a solid\nfoundation from which to start our consideration of the subject\nfor to-day.\n\nThe first question that naturally presents itself is,\n\nIf these things be so, why does not every individual express the\nlife, love, and beauty of the Universal Spirit? The answer to\nthis question is to be found in the Law of Consciousness. We\ncannot be conscious of anything except by realizing a certain\nrelation between it and ourselves. It must affect us in some way,\notherwise we are not conscious of its existence; and according to\nthe way in which it affects us we recognize ourselves as standing\nrelated to it. It is this self-recognition on our own part\ncarried out to the sum total of all our relations, whether\nspiritual, intellectual, or physical, that constitutes our\nrealization of life. On this principle, then, for the REALIZATION\nof its own Livingness, the production of centres of life, through\nits relation to which this conscious realization can be attained,\nbecomes a necessity for the Originating Mind. Then it follows\nthat this realization can only be complete where the individual\nhas perfect liberty to withhold it; for otherwise no true\nrealization could have taken place. For instance, let us consider\nthe working of Love. Love must be spontaneous, or it has no\nexistence at all. We cannot imagine such a thing as mechanically\ninduced love. But anything which is formed so as to automatically\nproduce an effect without any volition of its own, is.nothing but\na piece of mechanism. Hence if the Originating Mind is to realize\nthe reality of Love, it can Only be by relation to some being\nwhich has the power to withhold love. The same applies to the\nrealization of all the other modes of livingness; so that it is\nonly in proportion, as the individual life is an independent\ncentre of action, with the option of acting either positively or\nnegatively, that any real life has been produced at all. The\nfurther the created thing is from being a merely mechanical\narrangement, the higher is the grade of creation. The solar\nsystem is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but to\nconstitute centres which can reciprocate the highest nature of\nthe Divine Mind, requires not a mechanism, however perfect, but a\nmental centre which is, in itself, an independent source of\naction. Hence by the requirements of the case man should be\ncapable of placing himself either in a positive or a negative\nrelation to the Parent Mind, from which he originates; otherwise\nhe would be nothing more than a clockwork figure.\n\nIn this necessity of the case, then, we find the reason why the\nlife, love, and beauty of the Spirit are not visibly reproduced\nin every human being. They ARE reproduced in the world of nature,\nso far as a mechanical and automatic action can represent them,\nbut their perfect reproduction can only take place on the basis\nof a liberty akin to that of the Originating Spirit itself, which\ntherefore implies the liberty of negation as well as of\naffirmation.\n\nWhy, then, does the individual make a negative choice? Because he\ndoes not understand the law of his own individuality, and\nbelieves it to be a law of limitation, instead of a Law of\nLiberty. He does not expect to find the starting point of the\nCreative Process reproduced within himself, and so he looks to\nthe mechanical side of things for the basis of his reasoning\nabout life. Consequently his reasoning lands him in the\nconclusion that life is limited, because he has assumed\nlimitation in his premises, and so-logically cannot escape from\nit in his conclusion. Then he thinks that this is the law and so\nridicules the idea of transcending it. He points to the sequence\nof cause and effect, by which death, disease, and disaster, hold\ntheir sway over the individual, and says that sequence is law.\nAnd he is perfectly right so far as he goes--it is a law; but not\nTHE Law. When we have only reached this stage of comprehension,\nwe have yet to learn that a higher law can include a lower one so\ncompletely as entirely to swallow it up.\n\nThe fallacy involved in this negative argument, is the assumption\nthat the law of limitation is essential in all grades of being.\nIt is the fallacy of the old shipbuilders as to the impossibility\nof building iron ships. What is required is to get at the\nPRINCIPLE which is at the back of the Law in its affirmative\nworking, and specialize it under higher conditions than are\nspontaneously presented by nature, and this can only be done by\nthe introduction of the personal element, that is to say an\nindividual intelligence capable of comprehending the principle.\nThe question, then, is, what is the principle by which we came\ninto being? and this is only a personal application of the\ngeneral question, How did anything come into being? Now, as I\npointed out in the preceding article, the ultimate deduction from\nphysical science is that the originating movement takes place in\nthe Universal Mind, and is analogous to that of our own\nimagination; and as we have just seen, the perfect ideal can only\nbe that of a being capable of reciprocating ALL the qualities of\nthe Originating Mind. Consequently man, in his inmost nature, is\nthe product of the Divine Mind imaging forth an image of itself\non the plane of the relative as the complementary to its own\nsphere of the absolute.\n\nIf we will therefore go to the INMOST principle in ourselves,\nwhich philosophy and Scripture alike declare to be made in the\nimage and likeness of God, instead of to the outer vehicles which\nit externalizes as instruments through which to function on the\nvarious planes of being, we shall find that we have reached a\nprinciple in ourselves which stands in loco dei towards all our\nvehicles and also towards our environment. It is above them all,\nand creates them, however unaware we may be of the fact, and\nrelatively to them it occupies the place of first cause. The\nrecognition of this is the discovery of our own relation to the\nwhole world of the relative. On the other hand this must not lead\nus into the mistake of supposing that there is nothing higher,\nfor, as we have already seen, this inmost principle or ego is\nitself the effect of an antecedent cause, for it proceeds from\nthe imaging process in the Divine Mind.\n\nWe thus find ourselves holding an intermediate position between\ntrue First Cause, on the one hand, and the world of secondary\ncauses on the other, and in order to understand the nature of\nthis position, we must fall back on the axiom that the Universal\ncan only work on the plane of the Particular through the\nindividual. Then we see that the function of the individual is to\nDIFFERENTIATE the undistributed flow of the Universal into\nsuitable directions for starting different trains of secondary\ncausation.\n\nMan's place in the cosmic order is that of a distributor of the\nDivine power, subject, however, to the inherent Law of the power\nwhich he distributes. We see one instance of this in ordinary\nscience, in the fact that we never create force; all we can do is\nto distribute it. The very word Man means distributor or\nmeasurer, as in common with all words derived from the Sanderit\nroot MN., it implies the idea of measurement, just as in the\nwords moon, month, mens, mind, and \"man,\" the Indian weight of 80\n1bs.; and it is for this reason that man is spoken of in\nScripture as a \"steward,\" or dispenser of the Divine gifts. As\nour minds become open to the full meaning of this position, the\nimmense possibilities and also the responsibility contained in it\nwill become apparent.\n\nIt means that the individual is the creative centre of his own\nworld. Our past experience affords no evidence against this, but\non the contrary, is evidence for it. Our true nature is always\npresent, only we have hitherto taken the lower and mechanical\nside of things for our starting point, and so have created\nlimitation instead of expansion. And even with the knowledge of\nthe Creative Law which we have now attained, we shall continue to\ndo this, if we seek our starting point in the things which are\nbelow us and not in the only thing which is above us, namely the\nDivine Mind, because it is only there that we can find\nillimitable Creative Power. Life is BEING, it is the experience\nof states of consciousness, and there is an unfailing\ncorrespondence between these inner states and our outward\nconditions. Now we see from the Original Creation that the state\nof consciousness must be the cause, and the corresponding\nconditions the effect, because at the starting of the creation no\nconditions existed, and the working of the Creative Mind upon\nitself can only have been a state of consciousness. This, then,\nis clearly the Creative Order--from states to conditions. But we\ninvert this order, and seek to create from conditions to states.\nWe say, If I had such and such conditions they would produce the\nstate of feeling which I desire; and in so saying we run the risk\nof making a mistake as to the correspondence, for it may turn out\nthat the particular conditions which we fixed on are not such as\nwould produce the desired state. Or, again, though they might\nproduce it in a certain degree, other conditions might produce it\nin a still greater degree, while at the same time opening the way\nto the attainment of still higher states and still better\nconditions. Therefore our wisest plan is to follow the pattern of\nthe Parent Mind and make mental self-recognition our starting\npoint, knowing that by the inherent Law of Spirit the corelated\nconditions will come by a natural process of growth. Then the\ngreat self-recognition is that of our relation to the Supreme\nMind. That is the generating centre and we are distributing\ncentres; just as electricity is generated at the central station\nand delivered in different forms of power by reason of passing\nthrough appropriate centres of distribution, so that in one place\nit lights a room, in another conveys a message, and in a third\ndrives a tram car. In like manner the power of the Universal Mind\ntakes particular forms through the particular mind of the\nindividual. It does not interfere with the lines of his\nindividuality, but works along them, thus making him, not less,\nbut more himself. It is thus, not a compelling power, but an\nexpanding and illuminating one; so that the more the individual\nrecognizes the reciprocal action between it and himself, the more\nfull of life he must become.\n\nThen also we need not be troubled about future conditions because\nwe know that the All-originating Power is working through us and\nfor us, and that according to the Law proved by the whole\nexisting creation, it produces all the conditions required for\nthe expression of the Life, Love and Beauty which it is, so that\nwe can fully trust it to open the way as we go along. The Great\nTeacher's words, \"Take no thought for the morrow\"--and note that\nthe correct translation is \"Take no anxious thought\"-- are the\npractical application of the soundest philosophy. This does not,\nof course, mean that we are not to exert ourselves. We must do\nour share in the work, and not expect God to do FOR us what He\ncan only do THROUGH us. We are to use our common sense and\nnatural faculties in working upon the conditions now present. We\nmust make use of them, AS FAR AS THEY GO, but we must not try and\ngo further than the present things require; we must not try to\nforce things, but allow them to grow naturally, knowing that they\nare doing so under the guidance of the All-Creating Wisdom.\n\nFollowing this method we shall grow more and more into the habit\nof looking to mental attitude as the Key to our progress in Life,\nknowing that everything else must come out of that; and we shall\nfurther discover that our mental attitude is eventually\ndetermined by the way in which we regard the Divine Mind. Then\nthe final result will be that we shall see the Divine Mind to be\nnothing else than Life, Love and Beauty--Beauty being identical\nwith Wisdom or the perfect adjustment of parts to whole--and we\nshall see ourselves to be distributing centres of these primary\nenergies and so in our turn subordinate centres of creative\npower. And as we advance in this knowledge we shall find that we\ntranscend one law of limitation after another by finding the\nhigher law, of which the lower is but a partial expression, until\nwe shall see clearly before us, as our ultimate goal, nothing\nless than the Perfect Law of Liberty--not liberty without Law\nwhich is anarchy, but Liberty according to Law. In this way we\nshall find that the Apostle spoke the literal truth, when he\nsaid, that we shall become like Him when we see Him AS HE IS,\nbecause the whole process by which our individuality is produced\nis one of reflection of the image existing in the Divine Mind.\nWhen we thus learn the Law of our own being we shall be able to\nspecialize it in ways of which we have hitherto but little\nconception, but as in the case of all natural laws the\nspecialization cannot take place until the fundamental principle\nof the generic law has been fully realized. For these reasons the\nstudent should endeavour to realize more and more perfectly, both\nin theory and practice, the law of the relation between the\nUniversal and the Individual Minds. It is that of RECIPROCAL\naction. If this fact of reciprocity is grasped, it will be found\nto explain both why the individual falls short of expressing the\nfulness of Life, which the Spirit is, and why he can attain to\nthe fulness of that expression; just as the same law explains why\niron sinks in water, and how it can be made to float. It is the\nindividualizing of the Universal Spirit, by recognizing its\nreciprocity to ourselves, that is the secret of the perpetuation\nand growth of our own individuality.\n\n\n\nTHE NEW THOUGHT AND THE NEW ORDER.\n\nIn the two preceding lectures I have endeavoured to reach some\nconception of what the All-originating Spirit is in itself, and\nof the relation of the individual to it. So far as we can form\nany conception of these things at all we see that they are\nuniversal principles applicable to all nature, and, at the human\nlevel, applicable to all men: they are general laws the\nrecognition of which is an essential preliminary to any further\nadvance, because progress is made, not by setting aside the\ninherent law of things, which is impossible, but by specializing\nit through presenting conditions which will enable the same\nprinciple to act in a less limited manner. Having therefore got a\ngeneral idea of these two ultimates, the universal and the\nindividual, and of their relation to one another, let us now\nconsider the process of specialization. In what does the\nspecialization of a natural law consist? It consists in making\nthat law or principle produce an effect which it could not\nproduce under the simply generic conditions spontaneously\nprovided by nature. This selection of suitable conditions is the\nwork of Intelligence, it is a process of consciously arranging\nthings in a new order, so as to produce a new result. The\nprinciple is never new, for principles are eternal and universal;\nbut the knowledge that the same principle will produce new\nresults when working under new conditions is the key to the\nunfoldment of infinite possibilities. What we have therefore to\nconsider is the working of Intelligence in providing specific\nconditions for the operation of universal principles, so as to\nbring about new results which will transcend our past\nexperiences. The process does not consist in the introduction of\nnew elements, but in making new combinations of elements which\nare always present; just as our ancestors had no conception of\ncarriages that could go without horses, and yet by a suitable\ncombination of elements which were always in existence, such\nvehicles are common objects in our streets today. How, then, is\nthe power of Intelligence to be brought to bear upon the generic\nlaw of the relation between the Individual and the Universal so\nas to specialize it into the production of greater results than\nthose which we have hitherto obtained?\n\nAll the practical attainments of science, which place the\ncivilized world of to-day in advance of the times of King Alfred\nor Charlemagne, have been gained by a uniform method, and that a\nvery simple one. It is by always enquiring what is the\naffirmative factor in any existing combination, and asking\nourselves why, in that particular combination, it does not act\nbeyond certain limits. What makes the thing a success, so far as\nit goes, and what prevents it going further? Then, by carefully\nconsidering the nature of the affirmative factor, we see what\nsort of conditions to provide to enable it to express itself more\nfully. This is the scientific method; it has proved itself true\nin respect of material things, and there is no reason why it\nshould not be equally reliable in respect of spiritual things\nalso.\n\nTaking this as our method, we ask, What is the affirmative factor\nin the whole creation, and in ourselves as included in the\ncreation, and, as we found in the first lecture, this factor is\nSpirit--that invisible power which concentrates-the primordial\nether into forms, and endows those forms with various modes of\nmotion, from the simply mechanical motion of the planet up to the\nvolitional motion in man. And, since this is so, the primary\naffirmative factor can only be the Feeling and the Thought of the\nUniversal Spirit.* Now, by the hypothesis of the case, the\nUniversal Spirit must be the Pure Essence of Life, and therefore\nits feeling and  thought can only be towards the continually\nincreasing expression of the livingness which it is; and\naccordingly the specialization, of which we are in search, must\nbe along the line of affording it a centre from which it may more\nperfectly realize this feeling and express this thought: in other\nwords the way to specialize the generic principle of Spirit is by\nproviding new mental conditions in consonance with its own\noriginal nature.\n\n* See my \"Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science.\"\n\n\nThe scientific method of enquiry therefore brings us to the\nconclusion that the required conditions for translating the\nracial or generic operation of the Spirit into a specialized\nindividual operation is a new way of THINKING mode of thought\nconcurring with, and not in opposition to, the essential forward\nmovement of the Creative Spirit itself. This implies an entire\nreversal of our old conceptions. Hitherto we have taken forms and\nconditions as the starting point of our thought and inferred that\nthey are the causes of mental states; now we have learnt that the\ntrue order of the creative process is exactly the reverse, and\nthat thought and feeling are the causes, and forms and conditions\nthe effects. When we have learnt this lesson we have grasped the\nfoundation principle on which individual specialization of the\ngeneric law of the creative process becomes a practical\npossibility.\n\nNew Thought, then, is not the name of a particular sect, but is\nthe essential factor by which our own future development is to be\ncarried on; and its essence consists in seeing the relation of\nthings in a New Order. Hitherto we have inverted the true order\nof cause and effect; now, by carefully considering the real\nnature of the Principle of Causation in itself--causa causans as\ndistinguished from cause causata--we return to the true order and\nadopt a new method of thinking in accordance with it.\n\nIn themselves this order and this method of thinking are not new.\nThey are older than the foundation of the world, for they are\nthose of the Creative Spirit itself; and all through the ages\nthis teaching has been handed down under various forms, the true\nmeaning of which has been perceived only by a few in each\ngeneration. But as the light breaks in upon any individual it is\na new light to him, and so to each one in succession it becomes\nthe New Thought. And when anyone reaches it, he finds himself in\na New Order. He continues indeed to be included in the universal\norder of the cosmos, but in a perfectly different way to what he\nhad previously supposed; for, from his new standpoint, he finds\nthat he is included, not so much as a part of the general effect,\nbut as a part of the general cause; and when he perceives this he\nthen sees that the method of his further advance must be by\nletting the General Cause flow more and more freely into his own\nspecific centre, and he therefore seeks to provide thought\nconditions which will enable him to do so.\n\nThen, still employing the scientific method of following up the\naffirmative factor, he realizes that this universal causative\npower, by whatever name he may call it, manifests as Supreme\nIntelligence in the adaptation of means to ends. It does so in\nthe mechanism of the planet, in the production of supply for the\nsupport of physical life, and in the maintenance of the race as a\nwhole. True, the investigator is met at every turn with\nindividual failure; but his answer to this is that there is no\ncosmic failure, and that the apparent individual failure is\nitself a part of the cosmic process, and will diminish in\nproportion as the individual attains to the recognition of the\nMoving Principle of that process, and provides the necessary\nconditions to enable it to take a new starting point in his own\nindividuality. Now, one of these conditions is to recognize it as\nIntelligence, and to remember that when working through our own\nmentality it in no way changes its essential nature, just as\nelectricity loses none of its essential qualities in passing\nthrough the special apparatus which enables it to manifest as\nlight.\n\nWhen we see this, our line of thought will run something as\nfollows:--\"My mind is a centre of Divine operation. The Divine\noperation is always for expansion and fuller expression, and this\nmeans the production of something beyond what has gone before,\nsomething entirely new, not included in past experience, though\nproceeding out of it by an orderly sequence of growth. Therefore,\nsince the Divine cannot change its inherent nature, it must\noperate in the same manner in me; consequently in my own special\nworld, of which I am the centre, it will move forward to produce\nnew conditions, always in advance of any that have gone before.\"\nThis is a legitimate line of argument, from the premises\nestablished in the recognition of the relation between the\nindividual and the Universal Mind; and it results in our looking\nto the Divine Mind, not only as creative, but also as directive--\nthat is as determining the actual forms which the conditions for\nits manifestation will take in our own particular world, as well\nas supplying the energy for their production. We miss the point\nof the relation between the individual and the universal, if we\ndo not see that the Originating Spirit is a FORMING power. It is\nthe forming power throughout nature, and if we would specialize\nit we must learn to trust its formative quality when operating\nfrom its new starting point in ourselves.\n\nBut the question naturally arises, If this is so, what part is\ntaken by the individual? Our part is to provide a concrete centre\nround which the Divine energies can play. In the generic order of\nbeing we exercise upon it a force of attraction in accordance\nwith the innate pattern of our particular individuality; and as\nwe begin to realize the Law of this relation, we, in our turn,\nare attracted towards the Divine along the lines of least\nresistance, that is on those lines which are most natural to our\nspecial bent of mind. In this way we throw out certain\naspirations with the result that we intensify our attraction of\nthe Divine forces in a certain specific manner, and they then\nbegin to act both through us and around us in accordance with our\naspirations. This is the rationale of the reciprocal action be\ntween the Universal Mind and the individual mind, and this shows\nus that our desires should not be directed so much to the\nacquisition of particular THINGS as to the reproduction in\nourselves of particular phases of the Spirit's activity; and\nthis, being in its very nature creative, is bound to externalize\nas corresponding things and circumstances. Then, when these\nexternal facts appear in the circle of our objective life, we\nmust work upon them from the objective stand-point. This is where\nmany fall short of completed work. They realize the subjective or\ncreative process, but do not see that it must be followed by an\nobjective or constructive process, and consequently they are\nunpractical dreamers and never reach the stage of completed work.\nThe creative process brings the materials and conditions for the\nwork to our hands; then we must make use of them with diligence\nand common-sense--God will provide the food, but He will not cook\nthe dinner.\n\nThis, then, is the part taken by the individual, and it is thus\nthat he becomes a distributing centre of the Divine energy,\nneither on the one hand trying to lead it like a blind force, nor\non the other being himself under a blind unreasoning impulsion\nfrom it. He receives guidance because he seeks guidance; and he\nboth seeks and receives according to a Law which he is able to\nrecognize; so that he no more sacrifices his liberty or dwarfs\nhis powers, than does an engineer who submits to the generic laws\nof electricity, in order to apply them to some specific purpose.\nThe more intimate his knowledge of this Law of Reciprocity\nbecomes, the more he finds that it leads on to Liberty, on the\nsame principle by which we find in physical science that nature\nobeys us precisely in the same degree to which we first obey\nnature. As the esoteric maxim has it \"What is a truth on one\nplane is a truth on all.\" But the key to this enfranchisement of\nbody, mind, and circumstances is in that new thought which\nbecomes creative of new conditions, because it realizes the true\norder of the creative process. Therefore it is that, if we would\nbring a new order of Life, Light, and Liberty into our lives we\nmust commence by bringing a new order into our thought, and find\nin ourselves the starting point of a new creative series, not by\nthe force of personal will, but by union with the Divine Spirit,\nwhich in the expression of its inherent Love and Beauty, makes\nall things new.\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT.\n\nThe three preceding lectures have touched upon certain\nfundamental truths in a definite order--first the nature of the\nOriginating Spirit itself, next the generic relation of the\nindividual to this All-embracing Spirit, and lastly the way to\nspecialize this relation so as to obtain greater results from it\nthan spontaneously arise by its merely generic action, and we\nhave found that this can only be done through a new order of\nthought. This sequence is logical because it implies a Power, an\nIndividual who understands the Power, and a Method of applying\nthe power deduced from understanding its nature. These are\ngeneral principles without realizing which it is impossible to\nproceed further, but assuming that the reader has grasped their\nsignificance, we may now go on to consider their application in\ngreater detail.\n\nNow this application must be a personal one, for it is only\nthrough the individual that the higher specialization of the\npower can take place, but at the same time this must not lead us\nto suppose that the individual, himself, brings the creative\nforce into being. To suppose this is inversion; and we cannot\nimpress upon ourselves too deeply that the relation of the\nindividual to the Divine Spirit is that of a distributor, and not\nthat of the original creator. If this is steadily borne in mind\nthe way will become clear, otherwise we shall be led into\nconfusion.\n\nWhat, then, is the Power which we are to distribute? It is the\nOriginating Spirit itself. We are sure that it is this because\nthe new order of thought always begins at the beginning of any\nseries which it contemplates bringing into manifestation, and it\nis based upon the fact that the origin of everything is Spirit.\nIt is in this that its creative power resides; hence the person\nwho is in the true new order of thought assumes as an axiomatic\nfact that what he has to distribute, or differentiate into\nmanifestation is nothing else than the Originating Spirit. This\nbeing the case, it is evident that the PURPOSE of the\ndistribution must be the more perfect expression of the\nOriginating Spirit as that which it is in itself, and what it is\nin itself is emphatically Life. What is seeking for expression,\nthen, is the perfect Livingness of the Spirit; and this\nexpression is to be found, through ourselves, by means of our\nrenewed mode of thought. Let us see, then, how our new order of\nthought, with regard to the Principle of Life, is likely to\noperate In our old order of thought we have always associated\nLife with the physical body--life has been for us the supreme\nphysical fact. Now, however, we know that Life is much more than\nthis; but, as the greater includes the less, it includes physical\nlife as one mode of its manifestation. The true order does not\nrequire us to deny the reality of physical life or to call it an\nillusion; on the contrary it sees in physical life the completion\nof a great creative series, but it assigns it the proper place in\nthat series, which is what the old mode of thought did not.\n\nWhen we realize the truth about the Creative Process, we see that\nthe originating life is not physical: its livingness consists in\nthought and feeling. By this inner movement it throws out\nvehicles through which to function, and these become living forms\nbecause of the inner-principle which is sustaining them; so that\nthe Life with which we are primarily concerned in the new order\nis the life of thought and feeling in ourselves as the vehicle,\nor distributing medium, of the Life of the Spirit.\n\nThen, if we have grasped the idea of the Spirit as the great\nFORMING Power, as stated in the last lecture, we shall seek in it\nthe fountain-head of Form as well as of Power: and as a logical\ndeduction from this we shall look to it to give form to our\nthoughts and feelings. If the principle is once recognised the\nsequence is obvious. The form taken by our outward conditions,\nwhether of body or circumstance, depends on the form taken by our\nthoughts and feelings, and our thoughts and feelings will take\nform from that source from which we allow them to receive\nsuggestion. Accordingly if we allow them to accept their\nfundamental suggestions from the relative and limited, they will\nassume a corresponding form and transmit them to our external\nenvironment, thus repeating the old order of limitation in a\nceaselessly recurring round. Now our object is to get out of this\ncircle of limitation, and the only way to do so is to get our\nthoughts and feelings moulded into new forms continually\nadvancing to greater and greater perfection. To meet this\nrequirement, therefore, there must be a forming power greater\nthan that of our own unaided conceptions, and this is to be found\nin our realization of the Spirit as the Supreme Beauty, or\nWisdom, moulding our thoughts and feelings into shapes\nharmoniously adjusted to the fullest expression, in and through\nus, of the Livingness which Spirit is in itself.\n\nNow this is nothing more than transferring to the innermost plane\nof origination, a principle with which all readers who are \"in\nthe thought\" may be presumed to be quite familiar--the principle\nof Receptiveness. We all know what is meant by a receptive mental\nattitude when applied to healing or telepathy; and does it not\nlogically follow that the same principle may be applied to the\nreceiving of life itself from the Supreme Source? What is wanted,\ntherefore, is to place ourselves in a receptive mental attitude\ntowards the Universal Spirit with the intention of receiving its\nforming influence into our mental substance. It is always the\npresence of a definite intention that distinguishes the\nintelligent receptive attitude of mind from a merely sponge-like\nabsorbency, which sucks in any and every influence that may\nhappen to be floating round: for we must not shut our eyes to the\nfact that there are various influences in the mental atmosphere\nby which we are surrounded, and some of them of the most\nundesirable kind. Clear and definite intention is therefore as\nnecessary in our receptive attitude as in our active and creative\none; and if our intention is to have our own thoughts and\nfeelings moulded into such forms as to express those of the\nSpirit, then we establish that relation to the Spirit which, by\nthe conditions of the case, must necessarily lead us to the\nconception of new ideals vitalised by a power which will enable\nus to bring them into concrete manifestation. It is in this way\nthat we become differentiating centres of the Divine Thought\ngiving it expression in form in the world of space and time, and\nthus is solved the great problem of enabling the Universal to act\nupon the plane of the particular without being hampered by those\nlimitations which the merely generic law of manifestation imposes\nupon it. It is just here that subconscious mind performs the\nfunction of a \"bridge\" between the finite and the infinite as\nnoted in my \"Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science\" (page 31), and\nit is for this reason that a recognition of its susceptibility to\nimpression is so important.\n\nBy establishing, then, a personal relation to the life of the\nSpirit, the sphere of the individual becomes enlarged. The reason\nis that he allows a greater intelligence than his own to take the\ninitiative; and since he knows that this Intelligence is also the\nvery Principle of Life itself, he cannot have any fear that it\nwill act in any way to the diminution of his individual life, for\nthat would be to stultify its own operation--it would be\nself-destructive action which is a contradiction in terms to the\nconception of Creative Spirit. Knowing, then, that by its\ninherent nature this Intelligence can only work to the expansion\nof the individual life, we can rest upon it with the utmost\nconfidence and trust it to take an initiative which will lead to\nfar greater results than any we could forecast from the\nstand-point of our own knowledge. So long as we insist on\ndictating the particular form which the action of the Spirit is\nto take, we limit it, and so close against ourselves avenues of\nexpansion which might otherwise have been open to us; and if we\nask ourselves why we do this we shall find that in the last\nresort it is because we do not believe in the Spirit as a FORMING\npower. We have, indeed, advanced to the conception of it as\nexecutive power, which will work to a prescribed pattern, but we\nhave yet to grasp the conception of it as versed in the art of\ndesign, and capable of elaborating schemes of construction, which\nwill not only be complete in themselves, but also in perfect\nharmony with one another. When we advance to the conception of\nthe Spirit as containing in itself the ideal of Form as well as\nof Power, we shall cease from the effort of trying to force\nthings into a particular shape, whether on the inner or the outer\nplane, and shall be content to trust the inherent harmoniousness\nor Beauty of the Spirit to produce combinations far in advance of\nanything that we could have conceived ourselves. This does not\nmean that we shall reduce ourselves to a condition of apathy, in\nwhich all desire, expectation and enthusiasm have been quenched,\nfor these are the mainspring of our mental machinery; but on the\ncontrary their action will be quickened by the knowledge that\nthere is working at the back of them a Formative Principle so\ninfallible that it cannot miss its mark; so that however good and\nbeautiful the existing forms may be, we may always rest in the\nhappy expectation of something still better to come. And it will\ncome by a natural law of growth, because the Spirit is in itself\nthe Principle of Increase. They will grow out of present\nconditions for the simple reason that if you are to reach some\nfurther point it can only be by starting from where you are now.\nTherefore it is written, \"Despise not the day of small things.\"\nThere is only one proviso attached to this forward movement of\nthe Spirit in the world of our own surroundings, and that is that\nwe shall co-operate with it; and this co-operation consists in\nmaking the best use of existing conditions in cheerful reliance\non the Spirit of Increase to express itself through us, and for\nus, because we are in harmony with it. This mental attitude will\nbe found of immense value in setting us free from worry and\nanxiety, and as a consequence our work will be done in a much\nmore efficient manner. We shall do the present work FOR ITS OWN\nsake, knowing that herein is the principle of unfoldment; and\ndoing it simply for its own sake we shall bring to bear upon it a\npower of concentration which cannot fail of good results--and\nthis quite naturally and without any toilsome effort. We shall\nthen find that the secret of co-operation is to have faith in\nourselves because we first have faith in God; and we shall\ndiscover that this Divine self-confidence is something very\ndifferent from a boastful egotism which assumes a personal\nsuperiority over others. It is simply the assurance of a man who\nknows that he is working in accordance with a law of nature. He\ndoes not claim as a personal achievement what the Law does FOR\nhim: but on the other hand he does not trouble himself about\noutcries against his presumptuous audacity raised by persons who\nare ignorant of the Law which he is employing. He is therefore\nneither boastful nor timorous, but simply works on in cheerful\nexpectancy because he knows that his reliance is upon a Law which\ncannot be broken.\n\nIn this way, then, we must realize the Life of the Spirit as\nbeing also the Law of the Spirit. The two are identical, and\ncannot deny themselves. Our recognition of them gives them a new\nstarting point through our own mentality, but they still continue\nto be the same in their nature, and unless limited or inverted by\nour mental affirmation of limited or inverted conditions, they\nare bound to work out into fuller and continually fuller\nexpression of the Life, Love, and Beauty which the Spirit is in\nitself. Our path, therefore, is plain; it is simply to\ncontemplate the Life, Love, and Beauty of the Originating Spirit\nand affirm that we are already giving expression to it in our\nthoughts and in our actions however insignificant they may at\npresent appear. This path may be very narrow and humble in its\nbeginning, but it ever grows wider and mounts higher, for it is\nthe continually expanding expression of the Life of the Spirit\nwhich is infinite and knows no limits.\n\n\n\nALPHA AND OMEGA.\n\nAlpha and Omega, the First and the Last. What does this mean? It\nmeans the entire series of causation from the first originating\nmovement to the final and completed result. We may take this on\nany scale from the creation of a cosmos to the creation of a\nlady's robe. Everything has its origin in an idea, a thought; and\nit has its completion in the manifestation of that thought in\nform. Many intermediate stages are necessary, but the Alpha and\nOmega of the series are the thought and the thing. This shows us\nthat in essence the thing already existed in the thought. Omega\nis already potential in Alpha, just as in the Pythagorean system\nall numbers are said to proceed from unity and to be resolvable\nback again into it. Now it is this general principle of the\nalready existence of the thing in the thought that we have to lay\nhold of, and as we find it true in an architect's design of the\nhouse that is to be, so we find it true in the great work of the\nArchitect of the Universe. When we see this we have realized a\ngeneral principle, which we find at work everywhere. That is the\nmeaning of a general principle: it can be applied to any sort of\nsubject; and the use of studying general principles is to give\nthem particular application to anything we may have to deal with.\nNow what we have to deal with most of all is ourselves, and so we\ncome to the consideration of Alpha and Omega in the human being.\nIn the vision of St. John, the speaker of the words, \"I am Alpha\nand Omega, the First and the Last,\" is described as \"Like unto a\nson of man\"--that is, however transcendent the appearance in the\nvision, it is essentially human, and thus suggests to us the\npresence of the universal principle at the human level. But the\nfigure in the apocalyptic vision is not that of man as we\nordinarily know him. It is that of Omega as it subsists enshrined\nin Alpha: it is the ideal of humanity as it subsists in the\nDivine Mind which was manifested in objective form to the eyes of\nthe seer, and therefore presented the Alpha and Omega of that\nidea in all the majesty of Divine glory.\n\nBut if we grasp the truth that the thing is already existent in\nthe thought, do we not see that this transcendent Omega must be\nalready existent in the Divine ideal of every one of us? If on\nthe plane of the absolute time is not, then does it not follow\nthat this glorified humanity is a present fact in the Divine\nMind? And if this is so, then this fact is eternally true\nregarding every human being. But if it is true that the thing\nexists in the thought, it is equally true that the thought finds\nform in the thing; and since things exist under the relative\nconditions of time and space, they are necessarily subject to a\nlaw of Growth, so that while the subsistence of the thing in the\nthought is perfect ab initio, the expression of the thought in\nthe thing is a matter of gradual development. This is a point\nwhich we must never lose sight of in our studies; and we must\nnever lose sight of the perfection of the thing in the thought\nbecause we do not yet see the perfection of the thought in the\nthing. Therefore we must remember that man, as we know him now,\nhas by no means reached the ultimate of his evolution. We are\nonly yet in the making, but we have now reached a point where we\ncan facilitate the evolutionary process by conscious co-operation\nwith the Creative Spirit. Our share in this work commences with\nthe recognition of the Divine ideal of man, and thus finding the\npattern by which we are to be guided. For since the person to be\ncreated after this pattern is ourself, it follows that, by\nwhatever processes the Divine ideal transforms itself into\nconcrete reality, the place where those processes are to work\nmust be within ourselves; in other words, the creative action of\nthe Spirit takes place through the laws of our own mentality. If\nit is a true maxim that the thing must take form in the thought\nbefore the thought can take form in the thing, then it is plain\nthat the Divine Ideal can only be externalized in our objective\nlife in proportion as it is first formed in our thought; and it\ntakes form in our thought only to the extent to which we\napprehend its existence in the Divine Mind. By the nature of the\nrelation between the individual mind and the Universal Mind it is\nstrictly a case of reflection; and in proportion as the mirror of\nour own mind blurs or clearly reflects the image of the Divine\nideal, so will it give rise to a correspondingly feeble or\nvigorous reproduction of it in our external life.\n\nThis being the rationale of the matter, why should we limit our\nconception of the Divine ideal of ourselves? Why should we say,\n\"I am too mean a creature ever to reflect so glorious an image\"--\nor \"God never intended such a limitless ideal to be reproduced in\nhuman beings.\" In saying such things we expose our ignorance of\nthe whole Law of the Creative Process. We shut our eyes to the\nfact that the Omega of completion already subsists in the Alpha\nof conception, and that the Alpha of conception would be nothing\nbut a lying illusion if it was not capable of expression in the\nOmega of completion. The creative process in us is that we become\nthe individual reflection of what we realize God to be relatively\nto ourselves, and therefore if we realize the Divine Spirit as\nthe INFINITE potential of all that can constitute a perfected\nhuman being, this conception must, by the Law of the Creative\nProcess, gradually build up a corresponding image in our mind,\nwhich in turn will act upon our external conditions.\n\nThis, by the laws of mind, is the nature of the process and it\nshows us what St. Paul means when he speaks of Christ being\nformed in us (Gal. iv. 19) and what in another place he calls\nbeing renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us\n(Col. iii. 10). It is a thoroughly logical sequence of cause and\neffect, and what we require is to see more clearly the Law of\nthis sequence and use it intelligently--that is why St. Paul says\nit is being \"renewed in knowledge\": it is a New Knowledge, the\nrecognition of principles which we had not previously\napprehended. Now the fact which, in our past experience, we have\nnot grasped is that the human mind forms a new point of departure\nfor the work of the Creative Spirit; and in proportion as we see\nthis more and more clearly, the more we shall find ourselves\nentering into a new order of life in which we become less and\nless subject to the old limitations. This is not a reward\narbitrarily bestowed upon us for holding dogmatically to certain\nmere verbal statements, but it is the natural result of\nunderstanding the supreme law of our own being. On its own plane\nit is as purely scientific as the law of chemical reaction; only\nhere we are not dealing with the interaction of secondary causes\nbut with the Self-originating action of Spirit. Hence a new force\nhas to be taken into account which does not occur in physical\nscience, the power of Feeling. Thought creates form, but it is\nfeeling that gives vitality to thought. Thought without feeling\nmay be constructive as in some great engineering work, but it can\nnever be creative as in the work of the artist or musician; and\nthat which originates within itself a new order of causation is,\nso far as all pre-existing forms are concerned, a creation ex\nnihilo, and is therefore Thought expressive of Feeling. It is\nthis indissoluble union of Thought and Feeling that distinguishes\ncreative thought from merely analytical thought and places it in\na different category; and therefore if we are to afford a new\nstarting-point for carrying on the work of creation it must be by\nassimilating the feeling of the Originating Spirit as part and\nparcel of its thought--it is that entering into the Mind of the\nSpirit of which I spoke in the first address.\n\nNow the images in the Mind of the Spirit must necessarily be\nGENERIC. The reason for this is that by its very nature the\nPrinciple of Life must be prolific, that is, tending to\nMultiplicity, and therefore the original Thought-image must be\nfundamental to whole races, and not exclusive to particular\nindividuals. Consequently the images in the Mind of the Spirit\nmust be absolute types of the true essentials of the perfect\ndevelopment of the race, just what Plato meant by architypal\nideas. This is the perfect subsistence of the thing in the\nthought. Therefore it is that our evolution as centres of\nCREATIVE activity, the exponents of new laws, and through them of\nnew conditions, depends on our realizing in the Divine Mind the\narchitype of mental perfection, at once as thought and feeling.\nBut when we find all this in the Divine Mind, do we not meet with\nan infinite and glorious Personality? There is nothing lacking of\nall that we can understand by Personality, excepting outward\nform; and since the very essence of telepathy is that it\ndispenses with the physical presence, we find ourselves in a\nposition of interior communion with a Personality at once Divine\nand Human. This is that Personality of the Spirit which St. John\nsaw in the apocalyptic vision, and which by the very conditions\nof the case is the Alpha and Omega of Humanity.\n\nBut, as I have said, it is simply GENERIC in itself, and it\nbecomes active and specific only by a purely personal relation to\nthe individual. But once more we must realize that nothing can\ntake place except according to Law, and therefore this specific\nrelation is nothing arbitrary, but arises out of the generic Law\napplied under specific conditions. And since what makes a law\ngeneric is precisely the fact that it does not supply the\nspecific conditions, it follows that the conditions for the\nspecializing of the Law must be provided by the individual. Then\nit is that his recognition of the originating creative movement,\nas arising from combined Thought and Feeling, becomes a practical\nworking asset. He realizes that there is a Heart and Mind of the\nSpirit reciprocal to his own heart and mind, that he is not\ndealing with a filmy abstraction, nor yet with a mere\nmathematical sequence, but with something that is pulsating with\na Life as warm and vivid and full of interest as his own--nay,\nmore so, for it is the Infinite of all that he himself is. And\nhis recognition goes even further than this, for since this\nspecialization can only take place through the individual\nhimself, it logically follows that the Life, which he thus\nspecializes, become HIS OWN life. Quoad the individual it does\nnot know itself apart from him. But this self-recognition through\nthe individual cannot in any way change the inherent nature of\nthe Creative Spirit, and therefore to the extent to which the\nindividual perceives its identification with himself, he places\nhimself under its guidance, and so he becomes one of those who\nare \"led by the Spirit.\" Thus he begins to find the Alpha and\nOmega of the Divine ideal reproduced in himself--in a very small\ndegree at present, but containing the principle of perpetual\ngrowth into an infinite expansion of which we can as yet form no\nconception.\n\nSt. John sums up the whole of this position in his memorable\nwords:--\"Beloved now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet\nappear what we SHALL be; but we know that when He shall appear\n(i.e., become clear to us) we shall be like Him; for (i.e., the\nreason of all this) we shall see Him as He is\" (I. John iii. 2).\n\n\n\nTHE CREATIVE POWER OF THOUGHT.\n\nOne of the great axioms in the new order of ideas, of which I\nhave spoken, is that our Thought possesses creative power, and\nsince the whole superstructure depends on this foundation, it is\nwell to examine it carefully. Now the starting point is to see\nthat Thought, or purely mental action, is the only possible\nsource from which the existing creation could ever have come into\nmanifestation at all, and it is on this account that in the\npreceding addresses I have laid stress on the origin of the\ncosmos. It is therefore not necessary to go over this ground\nagain, and we will start this morning's enquiry on the assumption\nthat every manifestation is in essence the expression of a Divine\nThought. This being so, our own mind is the expression of a\nDivine Thought. The Divine Thought has produced something which\nitself is capable of thinking; but the question is whether its\nthinking has the same creative quality as that of the Parent\nMind.\n\nNow by the very hypothesis of the case the whole Creative Process\nconsists in the continual pressing so forward of the Universal\nSpirit for expression through the individual and particular, and\nSpirit in its different modes is therefore the Life and Substance\nof the universe. Hence it follows that if there is to be an\nexpression of thinking power it can only be by expressing the\nsame thinking power which subsists latent in the Originating\nSpirit. If it were less than this it would only be some sort of\nmechanism and would not be thinking power, so that to be thinking\npower at all it must be identical in kind with that of the\nOriginating Spirit. It is for this reason that man is said to be\ncreated in the image and likeness of God; and if we realize that\nit is impossible for him to be otherwise, we shall find a firm\nfoundation from which to draw many important deductions.\n\nBut if our thought possesses this creative power, why are we\nhampered by adverse conditions? The answer is, because hitherto\nwe have used our power invertedly. We have taken the starting\npoint of our thought from external facts and consequently created\na repetition of facts of a similar nature, and so long as we do\nthis we must needs go on perpetuating the old circle of\nlimitation. And, owing to the sensitiveness of the subconscious\nmind to suggestion--(See Edinburgh Lectures, chapter V.)--we are\nsubject to a very powerful negative influence from those who are\nunacquainted with affirmative principles, and thus race-beliefs\nand the thought-currents of our more immediate environment tend\nto consolidate our own inverted thinking. It is therefore not\nsurprising that the creative power of our thought, thus used in a\nwrong direction, has produced the limitations of which we\ncomplain. The remedy, then, is by reversing our method of\nthinking, and instead of taking external facts as our starting\npoint, taking the inherent nature of mental power as our starting\npoint. We have already gained two great steps in this direction,\nfirst by seeing that the whole manifested cosmos could have had\nits origin nowhere but in mental power, and secondly by realizing\nthat our own mental power must be the same in kind with that of\nthe Originating Mind.\n\nNow we can go a step further and see how this power in ourselves\ncan be perpetuated and intensified. By the nature of the creative\nprocess your mind is itself a thought of the Parent Mind; so, as\nlong as this thought of the Universal Mind subsists, you will\nsubsist, for you are it. But so long as you think this thought it\ncontinues to subsist, and necessarily remains present in the\nDivine Mind, thus fulfilling the logical conditions required for\nthe perpetuation of the individual life. A poor analogy of the\nprocess may be found in a self-influencing dynamo where the\nmagnetism generates the current and the current intensifies the\nmagnetism with the result of producing a still stronger current\nuntil the limit of saturation is reached; only in the substantive\ninfinitude of the Universal Mind and the potential infinitude of\nthe Individual Mind there is no limit of saturation. Or we may\ncompare the interaction of the two minds to two mirrors, a great\nand a small one, opposite each other, with the word \"Life\"\nengraved on the large one. Then, by the law of reflection, the\nword \"Life\" will also appear on the image of the smaller mirror\nreflected in the greater. Of course these are only very imperfect\nanalogies; but if you car once grasp the idea of your own\nindividuality as a thought in the Divine Mind which is able to\nperpetuate itself by thinking of itself as the thought which it\nis, you have got at the root of the whole matter, and by the same\nprocess you will not only perpetuate your life but will also\nexpand it.\n\nWhen we realize this on the one hand, and on the other that all\nexternal conditions, including the body, are produced by thought,\nwe find ourselves standing between two infinites, the infinite of\nMind and the infinite of Substance--from both of which we can\ndraw what we will, and mould specific conditions out of the\nUniversal Substance by the Creative Power which we draw in from\nthe Universal Mind. But we must recollect that this is not by the\nforce of personal will upon the substance, which is an error that\nwill land us in all sorts of inversion, but by realizing our mind\nas a channel through which the Universal Mind operates upon\nsubstances in a particular way, according to the mode of thought\nwhich we are seeking to embody. If, then, our thought is\nhabitually concentrated upon principles rather than on particular\nthings, realizing that principles are nothing else than the\nDivine Mind in operation, we shall find that they will\nnecessarily germinate to produce their own expression in\ncorresponding facts, thus verifying the words of the Great\nTeacher, \"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness\nand all these things shall be added unto you.\"\n\nBut we must never lose sight of the reason for the creative power\nof our thought, that it is because our mind is itself a thought\nof the Divine Mind, and that consequently our increase in\nlivingness and creative power must be in exact proportion to our\nperception of our relation to the Parent Mind. In such\nconsiderations as these is to be found the philosophical basis of\nthe Bible doctrine of \"Sonship,\" with its culmination in the\nconception of the Christ. These are not mere fancies but the\nexpression of strictly scientific principles, in their\napplication to the deepest problems of the individual life; and\ntheir basis is that each one's world, whether in or out of the\nflesh, must necessarily be created by his own consciousness, and,\nin its turn, his mode of consciousness will necessarily take its\ncolour front his conception of his relation to the Divine Mind--\nto the exclusion of light and colour, if he realizes no Divine\nMind, and to their building up into forms of beauty in proportion\nas he realizes his identity of being with that All-Originating\nSpirit which is Light, Love, and Beauty in itself. Thus the great\ncreative work of Thought in each of us is to make us consciously\n\"sons and daughters of the Almighty,\" realizing that by our\ndivine origin we can never be really separated from the Parent\nMind which is continually seeking expression through us, and that\nany apparent separation is due to our own misconception of the\ntrue nature of the inherent relation between the Universal and\nthe Individual. This is the lesson which the Great Teacher has so\nluminously out before us in the parable of the Prodigal Son.\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT AFFIRMATIVE.\n\nThe Great Affirmative appears in two modes, the cosmic and the\nindividual. In its essence it is the same in both, but in each it\nworks from a different standpoint. It is always the principle of\nBeing--that which is, as distinguished from that which is not;\nbut to grasp the true significance of this saying we must\nunderstand what is meant by \"that which is not.\" It is something\nmore than mere non-existence, for obviously we should not trouble\nourselves about what is non-existent. It is that which bath is\nand is not at the same time, and the thing that answers to this\ndescription is \"Conditions.\" The little affirmative is that which\naffirms particular conditions as all that it can grasp, while the\ngreat affirmative grasps a wider conception, the conception of\nthat which gives rise to conditions. Cosmically it is that power\nof Spirit which sends forth the whole creation as its expression\nof itself, and it is for this reason that I have drawn attention\nin the preceding lectures to the idea of the creation ex nihilo\nof the whole visible universe. As Eastern and Western Scriptures\nalike tell us it is the breathing-forth of Original Spirit; and\nif you have followed what I have said regarding the reproduction\nof this Spirit in the individual--that by the very nature of the\ncreative process the human mind must be of the same quality with\nthe Divine Mind--then we find that a second mode of the\nOriginating Spirit becomes possible, namely that of operation\nthrough the individual mind. But whether acting cosmically or\npersonally it is always the same Spirit and therefore cannot lose\nits inherent character which is-that of the Power which creates\nex nihilo. It is the direct contradiction of the maxim \"ex nihilo\nnihil fit\"--nothing can be made out of nothing; and it is the\nrecognition of the presence in ourselves of this power, which can\nmake something out of nothing, that is the key to our further\nprogress. As the logical outcome of the cosmic creative process,\nthe evolutionary work reaches a point where the Originating Power\ncreates an image of itself; and thus affords a fresh point of\ndeparture from which it can work specifically, just as in the\ncosmic process it works generically. From this new standpoint it\ndoes not in any way contradict the laws of the cosmic order, but\nproceeds to specialize them, and thus to bring out results\nthrough the individual which could not be otherwise attained.\n\nNow the Spirit does this by the same method as  in the Original\nCreation, namely by creating em nihilo; for otherwise it would be\nbound by the limitations necessarily inherent in the cosmic form\nof things, and so no fresh creative starting point would have\nbeen attained. This is why the Bible lays such stress on the\nprinciple of Monogenesis, or creation from a single power instead\nof from a pair or syzegy; and it is on this account that we are\ntold that this One-ness of God is the foundation of all the\ncommandments, and that the \"Son of God\" is declared to be\n\"monogenes\" or one-begotten, for that is the correct translation\nof the Greek word. The immense importance of this principle of\ncreation from a single power will become apparent as we realize\nmore fully the results proceeding from the assumption of the\nopposite principle, or the dualism of the creative power; but as\nthe discussion of this great subject would require a volume to\nitself, I must, at present, content myself with saying that this\ninsistence of the Bible upon the singleness of the Creative Power\nis based upon a knowledge which goes to the very root of esoteric\nprinciples, and is therefore not to be set aside in favour of\ndualistic systems, though superficially the latter may appear\nmore consonant to reason.\n\nIf, then, it is possible to put the Great Affirmation into words\nit is that God is ONE and that this ONE finds centre in\nourselves; and if the full meaning of this statement is realized,\nthe logical result will be found to be a new creation both in and\nfrom ourselves. We shall realize in ourselves the working of a\nnew principle whose distinguishing feature is its simplicity. It\nis ONE-ness and is not troubled about any second. Hence what it\ncontemplates is not how its action will be modified by that of\nsome second principle, something which will compel it to work in\na particular manner and so limit it; but what it contemplates is\nits own Unity. Then it perceives that its Unity consists in a\ngreater and a lesser movement, just as the rotation of the earth\non its axis does not interfere with its rotation round the sun\nbut are both motions of the same unit, and are definitely related\nto each other. In like manner we find that the Spirit is moving\nsimultaneously in the macrocosm of the universe and in the\nmicrocosm of the individual, and the two movements harmonize\nbecause they are that of the same Spirit, and the latter is\nincluded in the former and pre-supposes it. The Great\nAffirmation, therefore, is the perception that the \"I AM\" is ONE,\nalways harmonious with itself, and including all things in this\nharmony for the simple reason that there is no second creative\npower; and when the individual realizes that this always-single\npower is the root of his own being, and therefore has centre in\nhimself and finds expression through him, he learns to trust its\nsingleness and the consequent harmony of its action in him with\nwhat it is doing AROUND him. Then he sees that the affirmation \"I\nand my Father are ONE\" is a necessary deduction from a correct\napprehension of the fundamental principles of being; and then, on\nthe principle that the less must be included in the greater, he\ndesires that harmonious unity of action be maintained by the\nadaptation of his own particular movement to the larger movement\nof the Spirit working as the Creative Principle through the great\nwhole. In this way we become centres through which the creative\nforces find specialization by the development of that personal\nfactor on which the specific application  of general laws must\nalways depend. A specific sort of  individuality is formed,\ncapable of being the link between  the great Spiritual Power of\nthe universal and the manifestation of the relative in time and\nspace because it consciously partakes of both; and because the\nindividual of this class recognizes the singleness of the Spirit\nas the starting  point of all things, he endeavours to withdraw\nhis mind from all arguments derived from external conditions,\nwhether past or present, and to fix it upon the forward movement\nof the Spirit which he knows to be always identical both in the\nuniverse and in himself. He ceases the attempt to dictate to the\nSpirit, because he does not see in it a mere blind force, but\nreveres it as the Supreme Intelligence: and on the other hand he\ndoes not grovel before it in doubt and fear, because he knows it\nis one with himself and is realizing itself through him, and\ntherefore cannot have any purpose antagonistic to his own\nindividual welfare. Realizing this he deliberately places his\nthoughts under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, knowing that\nhis outward acts and conditions must thereby be brought into\nharmony with the great forward movement of the Spirit, not only\nat the stage he has now reached, but at all future stages. He\ndoes not at all deny the power of his own thought as the creative\nagent in his own personal world,--on the contrary it is precisely\non the knowledge of this fact that his perception of the true\nadjustment between the principles of Life is based; but for this\nvery reason he is the more solicitous to be led by that Wisdom\nwhich can see what he cannot see, so that his personal control\nover the conditions of his own life may be employed to its\ncontinual increase and development.\n\nIn this way our affirmation of the \"I am\" ceases to be the\npetulant assertion of our limited personality and becomes the\naffirmation that the Great I AM affirms its own I AM-ness both in\nus and through us, and thus our use of the words becomes in very\ntruth the Great Affirmative, or that which is the root of all\nbeing as distinguished from that which has no being in itself but\nis merely externalized by being as the vehicle for its\nexpression. We shall realize our true place as subordinate\ncreative centres, perfectly independent of existing conditions\nbecause the creative process is that of monogenesis and requires\nno other factor than the Spirit for its exercise, but at the same\ntime subordinate to the Divine Spirit in the greatness of its\ninherent forward movement because there is only ONE Spirit and it\ncannot from one centre antagonize what it is doing from another.\nThus the Great Affirmation makes us children of the Great King,\nat once living in obedience to that Power which is above us, and\nexercising this same power over all that world of secondary\ncausation which is below us.\n\nThus in our measure and station each one of us will receive the\nmission of the I AM.\n\n\n\nCHRIST THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW.\n\n\"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the proph.ets: I\nam not come to destroy but to fulfil.\" (Matt. v. 17.)\n\n\"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that\nbelieveth.\" (Rom. x. 4.)\n\nIf these words are the utterance of a mere sectarian superstition\nthey are worthless; but if they are the statement of a great\nprinciple, then it is worth our while to enquire what that\nprinciple is. The fulfilling of anything is the bringing into\ncomplete realization of all that it potentially contains, and so\nthe filling of any law to its fulness means bringing out all the\npossibilities which are hidden in it. This is precisely the\nmethod which has brought forth all the advances of material\ncivilization. The laws of nature are the same now that they were\nin the days of our rugged Anglo-Saxon ancestors, but they brought\nout only an infinitesimal fraction of the possibilities which\nthose laws contain: now we have brought out a good deal more, but\nwe have by no means exhausted them, and so we continue to\nadvance, not by contradicting natural laws, but by more fully\nrealizing their capacity. Why should we not, then, apply the same\nmethod to ourselves and see whether there are no potentialities\nhidden away in the law of our own being which we have not as yet\nby any means brought to their fulfilment? We talk of a good time\ncoming and of the ameliorating of the race; but do we reflect\nthat the race is composed of individuals and that therefore real\nadvance is to be made only by individual improvement, and not by\nAct of Parliament? and if so, then the individual with whom to\nbegin is ourself.\n\nThe complete manifestation of the Law of Individuality is the end\nor purpose of the Bible teaching concerning Christ. It is a\nteaching based upon Law, spiritual and mental, fully recognizing\nthat no effect can be produced except by the operation of an\nadequate cause, and Christ is set before us both as explaining\nthe causes and exhibiting the full measure of the effects. All\nthis is according to Law; and the importance of its being\naccording to Law is that Law is universal, and the potentialities\nof the Law are therefore inherent in everyone there is no special\nlaw for anybody, but anybody can specialize the law by using it\nwith a fuller understanding of how much can be got out of it; and\nthe purpose of the Scripture teaching regarding Christ is to help\nus to do this.\n\nThe preceding lectures have led us step by step to see that the\nOriginating Spirit, which first brought the world into existence,\nis also the root of our own individuality, and is therefore\nalways ready, by its inherent nature, to continue the creative\nprocess from this individual stand-point as soon as the necessary\nconditions are provided, and these conditions are\nthought-conditions. Then by realizing the relation of Christ to\nthe Originating Mind, the Parent Spirit or \"Father,\" we receive a\nSTANDARD of thought which is bound to act creatively bringing out\nall the potentialities of our hidden being. Now the relation of\nChrist to the \"Father\" is that of the Architypal Idea in the\nAll-creating Mind of which I have previously spoken, and so we\narrive at the conception of the Christ-idea as a universal\nprinciple, and as being an idea therefore capable of reproduction\nin the individual Mind, thus explaining St. Paul's meaning when\nhe speaks of Christ being formed in us. It is here that the\nprinciple of monogenesis comes in, that principle which I have\nendeavoured to describe in the earlier part of the present series\nas originating the whole manifested creation by an internal\naction of the Spirit upon itself; and it is the entire absence of\ncontrol by any second power that renders the realization in\nexternal actuality of a purely mental ideal possible. For this\nreason systematic spiritual study commences with the\ncontemplation of the existing cosmos, and we then transfer the\nconception of the monogenetic power of the Spirit from the cosmos\nto the individual and realize that the same Spirit is able to do\nthe same thing in ourselves. This is the New Thought which in\ntime will fulfil itself in the New Order, and we thus provide new\nthought-conditions which enable the Spirit to carry on its\ncreative work from a new stand-point, that of our own\nindividuality. This attainment by the Spirit of a new\nstarting-point is what is meant by the esoteric doctrine of the\nOctave. The Octave is the starting-point of a new series\nreduplicating the starting-point of the previous series at a\ndifferent level, just as does the octave note in music. We find\nthis principle constantly referred to in Scripture--the\ncompletion of a prior series in the number Seven, and the\nstarting of a new series by the number Eight, which takes the\nsame place in the second series that the number One did in the\nfirst. The second series comes out of the first by natural growth\nand could not come into existence without it, hence the First or\nOriginating number of the second series is the Eighth if we\nregard the second series as the prolongation of the first. Seven\nis the numerical correspondence of complete manifestation because\nit is the combination of three and four, which respectively\nrepresent the complete working of the spiritual and material\nfactors--involution and evolution--and thus together constitute\nthe finished whole. Students of the Tarot will here realize the\nprocess by which the Yod of Yod becomes the Yod of He. It is for\nthis reason that the primary or cosmic creation terminates in the\nrest of the Seventh Day, for it can proceed no further until a\nfresh starting-point is found; But when this fresh starting-point\nis found in Man realizing his relation to the \"Father,\" we start\na new series and strike the Creative Octave and therefore the\nResurrection takes place, not on the Sabbath or Seventh Day, but\non the Eighth day which then becomes the First day of the new\ncreak five week. The principle of the Resurrection is the\nrealization by man of his individualization of the Spirit and his\nrecognition of the fact that, since the Spirit is always the same\nSpirit, it becomes the Alpha of a new creation from his own\ncentre of being.\n\nNow all this is necessarily an interior process taking place on\nthe mental plane; but if we realize that the creative process is\nalways primarily one of involution, or formation in the spiritual\nworld, we shall grasp something of the meaning of Christ as \"The\nSon of God\"--the concentration of the Universal Spirit into a\nPersonality on the spiritual plane correlatively to the\nindividuality of each one who affords the necessary\nthought-conditions. To all who apprehend it there is then\ndiscovered in the Universal Spirit the presence of a Divine\nIndividuality reciprocal to that of the individual man, the\nrecognition of which is the practical solution of all\nmetaphysical problems regarding the emanation of the individual\nsoul from the Universal Spirit and the relations arising\ntherefrom; for it takes these matters out of the region of\nintellectual speculation, which is never creative but only\nanalytical, and transfers it to the region of feeling and\nspiritual sensation which is the abode of the creative forces.\nThis personal recognition of the Divine then affords us a new\nbasis of Affirmation, and we need no longer trouble to go further\nback in order to analyze it, because we know experimentally that\nit is there; so now we find the starting-point of the new\ncreation ready-made for us according to the architypal pattern in\nthe Divine Mind itself and therefore perfectly correctly formed.\nWhen once this truth is clearly apprehended, whether we reach it\nby an intellectual process or by simple intuition, we can make it\nour starting-point and claim to have our thought permeated by the\ncreative power of the Spirit on this basis.\n\nBut vast as is the conception thus reached we must remember that\nit is still a starting-point. It, indeed, transcends our previous\nrange of ideas and so presents a culmination of the cosmic\ncreative series which passes beyond that series and thus brings\nus to number Eight or the Octave; but on this very account it is\nthe number One of a new creative series which is personal to the\nindividual.\n\nThen, because the Spirit is always the same, we may look for a\nrepetition of the creative process at a higher level, and, as we\nall know, that process consists first of the involution of Spirit\ninto Substance, and consequently of the subsequent evolution of\nSubstance into forms continually increasing in fitness as\nvehicles for Spirit: so now we may look for a repetition of this\nuniversal process from its new starting-point in the individual\nmind and expect a corresponding externalization in accordance\nwith our familiar axiom that thoughts are things.\n\nNow it is as such an external manifestation of the Divine ideal\nthat the Christ of the Gospels is set before us. I do not wish to\ndogmatize, but I will only say that the more clearly we realize\nthe nature of the creative process on the spiritual side the more\nthe current objections to the Gospel narrative lose their force;\nand it appears to me that to deny that narrative as a point-blank\nimpossibility is to make a similar affirmation with regard to the\npower of the Spirit in ourselves. You cannot affirm a principle\nand deny it in the same breath; and if we affirm the\nexternalizing power of the Spirit in our own case, I do not see\nhow we can logically lay down a limit for its action and say that\nunder highly specialized conditions it could not produce highly\nspecialized effects. It is for this reason that St. John puts the\nquestion of Christ manifest in the flesh as the criterion of the\nwhole matter (I. John iv., 2). If the Spirit can create at all\nthen you cannot logically limit the extent or method of its\nworking; and since the basis of our expectation of individual\nexpansion is the limitless creative power of the Spirit, to\nreject the Christ of the Gospels as an impossibility is to cut\naway the ground from under our own feet. It is one thing to say\n\"I do not understand why the Spirit should have worked in that\nway\"--that is merely an honest statement of our present stage of\nknowledge, or we may even go the length of saying that we do not\nfeel convinced that it did work in that way--that is a true\nconfession of our intellectual difficulty--but certainly those\nwho are professedly relying on the power of the Spirit to produce\nexternal results cannot say that it does not possess that power,\nor possesses it only in a limited degree: the position is\nlogically self-destructive. What we should do therefore, is to\nsuspend judgment and follow the light as far as we can see it,\nand bye-and-bye it will become clearer to us. There are, it\nappears to me, occult heights in the doctrine of Christ designed\nby the Supreme Wisdom to counteract corresponding occult depths\nin the Mystery of Darkness. I do not think it is at all\nnecessary, or even possible, for us to scale these heights or\nfathom those depths, with our present infantile intelligence, but\nif we realize how completely the law of our being receives its\nfulfilment in Christ as far as we know that law, may we not well\nconceive that there are yet deeper phases of that law the\nexistence of which we can only faintly surmise by intuition?\nOccasionally just the fringe of the veil is lifted for some of\nus, but that momentary glance is enough to show us that there are\npowers and mysteries beyond our present conception. But even\nthere Law reigns supreme, and therefore taking Christ as our\nbasis and starting-point, we start with the Law already\nfulfilled, whether in those things which are familiar to us or in\nthose realms which are beyond our thought, and so we need have nc\nfear of evil. Our starting-point is that of a divinely ordained\nsecurity from which we may quietly grow into that higher\nevolution which is the fulfilment of the law of our own being.\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF EDEN.\n\nThe whole Bible and the whole history of the world, past, present\nand future, are contained in embryo in the story of Eden, for\nthey are nothing else than the continuous unfolding of certain\ngreat principles which are there allegorically stated. That this\nis by no means a new notion is shown by the following quotation\nfrom Origen:--\"Who is there so foolish and without common-sense\nas to believe that God planted trees in the Garden of Eden like a\nhusbandman; and planted therein the tree of life perceptible to\nthe eyes and to the senses, which gave life to the eater; and\nanother tree which gave to the eater a knowledge of good and\nevil? I believe that everybody must regard these as figures under\nwhich a recondite sense is concealed.\" Let us, then, follow up\nthe suggestion of this early Father of the Church, and enquire\nwhat may be the \"recondite sense\" concealed under this figure of\nthe two trees. On the face of the story there are two roots, one\nof Life and the other of Death, two fundamental principles\nbringing about diametrically opposite results. The distinctive\nmark of the latter is that it is the knowledge of good and evil,\nthat is to say, the recognition of two antagonistic principles,\nand so requiring a knowledge of the relations between them to\nenable us to continually make the needful adjustments to keep\nourselves going. Now, in appearance this is exceedingly specious.\nIt looks so entirely reasonable that we do not see its ultimate\ndestructiveness; and so we are told that Eve ate the fruit\nbecause she \"saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes.\" But\ncareful consideration will show us in what the destructive nature\nof this principle consists. It is based on the fallacy that good\nis limited by evil, and that you cannot receive any good except\nthrough eliminating the corresponding evil by realizing it and\nbeating it back. In this view life becomes a continual combat\nagainst every imaginable form of evil, and after we have racked\nour brains to devise precautions against all possible evil\nhappenings, there remains the chance, and much more than the\nchance, that we have by no means exhausted the category of\nnegative possibilities, and that others may arise which no amount\nof foresight on our part could have imagined. The more we see\ninto this position the more intolerable it becomes, because from\nthis stand-point we can never attain any certain basis of action,\nand the forces of possible evil multiply as we contemplate them.\nTo set forth to out-wit all evil by our own knowledge of its\nnature is to attempt a task the hopelessness of which becomes\napparent when we see it in its true light.\n\nThe mistake is in supposing that Life can be generated in\nourselves by an intellectual process; but, as we have seen in the\npreceding lectures, Life is the primary movement of the Spirit,\nwhether in the cosmos or in the individual. In its proper order\nintellectual knowledge is exceedingly important and useful, but\nits place in the order of the whole is not that of the\nOriginator. It is not Life in itself, but is a function of life;\nit is an effect and not the cause. The reason why this is so is\nbecause intellectual study is always the study of the various\nlaws which arise from the different RELATIONS of things to one\nanother; and it therefore presupposes that these things together\nwith their laws are already in existence. Consequently it does\nnot start from the truly creative stand-point, that of creating\nsomething entirely new, creation ex nihilo as distinguished from\nCONSTRUCTION, or the laying-together of existing materials, which\nis what the word literally means. To recognize evil as a force to\nbe reckoned with is therefore to give up the creative stand-point\naltogether. It is to quit the plane of First Cause and descend\ninto the realm of secondary causation and lose ourselves amid the\nconfusion of a multiplicity of relative causes and effects\nwithout grasping any unifying principle behind them.\n\nNow the only thing that can release us from the inextricable\nconfusion of an infinite multiplicity is the realization of an\nunderlying unity, and at the back of all things we find the\npresence of one Great Affirmative principle without which nothing\ncould have existence. This, then, is the Root of Life; and if we\ncredit it with being able, not only to supply the power, but also\nthe form for its manifestation we shall see that we need not go\nbeyond this SINGLE Power for the production of anything. It is\nSpirit producing Substance out of its own essence, and the\nSubstance taking Form in accordance with the movement of the\nSpirit. What we have to realize is, not only that this is the way\nin which the cosmos is brought into existence, but also that,\nbecause the Spirit finds a new centre in ourselves, the same\nprocess is repeated in our own mentality, and therefore we are\ncontinually creating ex nihilo whether we know it or not.\nConsequently, if we look upon evil as a force to be reckoned\nwith, and therefore requiring to be studied, we are in effect\ncreating it; while on the other hand if we realize that there is\nonly ONE force to be considered, and that absolutely good, we are\nby the law of the creative process bringing that good into\nmanifestation. No doubt for this affirmative use of our creative\npower it is necessary that we start from the basic conception of\na SINGLE originating power which is absolutely good and\nlife-giving; but if there were a self-originating power which was\ndestructive then no creation could ever have come into existence\nat all, for the positive and negative self-originating powers\nwould cancel each other and the result would be zero. The fact,\ntherefore, of our own existence is a sufficient proof of the\nsingleness and goodness of the Originating Power, and from this\nstarting-point there is no second power to be taken into\nconsideration, and consequently we do not have to study the evil\nthat may arise out of existing or future circumstances, but\nrequire to keep our minds fixed only upon the good which we\nintend to create. There is a very simple reason for this. It is\nthat every new creation necessarily carries its own law with it\nand by that law produces new conditions of its own. A balloon\naffords a familiar illustration of my meaning. The balloon with\nits freight weighs several hundredweight, yet the introduction of\na new factor, the gas, brings with it a law of its own which\nentirely alters the conditions, and the force of gravity is so\ncompletely overcome that the whole mass rises into the air. The\nLaw itself is never altered, but we have previously known it only\nunder limiting conditions. These conditions, however, are no part\nof the Law itself; and a clearer realization of the Law shows us\nthat it contains in itself the power of transcending them. The\nlaw which every new creation carries with it is therefore not a\ncontradiction of the old law but its specialization into a higher\nmode of action.\n\nNow the ultimate Law is that of production ex nihilo by the\nmovement of the Spirit within itself, and all subordinate laws\nare merely the measurements of the relations which spontaneously\narise between different things when they are brought into\nmanifestation, arid therefore, if an entirely new thing is\ncreated it must necessarily establish entirely new relations and\nso produce entirely new laws. This is the reason why, if we take\nthe action of pure unmanifested Spirit as our starting-point, we\nmay confidently trust it to produce manifestations of law which,\nthough perfectly new from the stand-point of our past experience,\nare quite as natural in their own way as any that have gone\nbefore. It is on this account that in these addresses I lay so\nmuch stress on the fact that Spirit creates ex nihilo, that is,\nout of no pre-existing forms, but simply by its own movement\nwithin itself. If, then, this idea is clearly grasped, it\nlogically follows from it that the Root of Life is not to be\nfound in the comparison of good and evil, but in the simple\naffirmation of the Spirit as the All-creating power of Good. And\nsince, as we have already seen, this same all-creating Spirit\nfinds a centre and fresh starting-point of operation in our own\nminds, we can trust it to follow the Law of its own being there\nas much as in the creation of the cosmos.\n\nOnly we must not forget that it is working through our own minds.\nIt thinks through our mind, and our mind must be made a suitable\nchannel for this mode of its operation by conforming itself to\nthe broad generic lines of the Spirit's thinking. The reason for\nthis is one which I have sought to impress throughout these\nlectures, namely, that the specialization of a law is never the\ndenial of it, but on the contrary the fuller recognition of its\nbasic principles; and if this is the case in ordinary physical\nscience it must be equally so when we come to specialize the\ngreat Law of Life itself. The Spirit can never change its\nessential nature as the essence of Life, Love, and Beauty; and if\nwe adopt these characteristics, which constitute the Law of the\nSpirit, as the basis of our own thinking, and reject all that is\ncontrary to them, then we afford the broad generic conditions for\nthe specialized thinking of the Spirit through our own minds: and\nthe thinking of the Spirit is that INVOLUTION, or passing of\nspirit into form, which is the whole being of the creative\nprocess.\n\nThe mind which is all the time being thus formed is our own. It\nis not a case of control by an external individuality, but the\nfuller expression of the Universal through an organized mentality\nwhich has all along been a less perfect expression of the\nUniversal; and therefore the process is one of growth. We are not\nlosing our individuality, but are coming into fuller possession\nof ourselves by the conscious recognition of our personal share\nin the great work of creation. We begin in some slight measure to\nunderstand what the Bible means when it speaks of our-being\n\"partakers of the Divine nature\" (II. Peter i. 4) and we realize\nthe significance of the \"unity of the Spirit\" (Ephesians iv. 3).\nDoubtless this will imply changes in our old mode of thinking;\nbut these changes are not forced upon us, they are brought about\nnaturally by the new stand-point from which we now see things.\nAlmost imperceptibly to ourselves we grow into a New Order of\nThought which proceeds, not from a knowledge of good and evil,\nbut from the Principle of Life itself. That is what makes the\ndifference between our old thought and our new thought. Our old\nthought was based upon a comparison of limited facts: our new\nthought is based upon a comprehension of principles. The\ndifference is like that between the mathematics of the infant,\nwho cannot count beyond the number of apples or marbles put\nbefore him, and that of the senior wrangler who is not dependent\nupon visible objects for his calculations, but plunges boldly\ninto the unknown because he knows that he is working by\nindubitable principles. In like manner when we realize the\ninfallible Principle of the Creative Law we no longer find we\nneed to see everything cut and dried beforehand, for if so, we\ncould never get beyond the range of our old experiences; but we\ncan move steadily forward because we know the certainty of the\ncreative principle by which we are working, or rather, which is\nworking through us, and that our life, in all its minutes\"\ndetails, is its harmonious expression. Thus the Spirit thinks\nthrough our thought only its thought is greater than ours. It is\nthe paradox of the less containing the greater. Our thought will\nnot be objectless or unintelligible to ourselves. It will be\nquite clear as far as it goes. We shall know exactly what we want\nto do and why we want to do it, and so will act in a reasonable\nand intelligent manner. But what we do not know is the greater\nthought that is all the time giving rise to our smaller thought,\nand which will open out from it as our lesser thought progresses\ninto form. Then we gradually see the greater thought which\nprompted our smaller one and we find ourselves working along its\nlines, guided by the invisible hand of the Creative Spirit into\ncontinually increasing degrees of livingness to which we need\nassign no limits, for it is the expansion of the Infinite within\nourselves.\n\nThis, as it appears to me, is the hidden meaning of the two trees\nin Eden, the Garden of the Soul. It is the distinction between a\nknowledge which is merely that of comparisons between different\nsorts of conditions, and a knowledge which is that of the Life\nwhich gives rise to and therefore controls conditions. Only we\nmust remember that the control of conditions is not to be\nattained by violent self-assertion which is only recognizing them\nas substantive entities to be battled with, but by conscious\nunity with that All-creating Spirit which works silently, but\nsurely, on its own lines of Life, Love, and Beauty.\n\n\"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of\nHosts.\"\n\n\n\nTHE WORSHIP OF ISHI.\n\nIn Hosea ii. 16 we find this remarkable statement:--\"And it shall\nbe at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi, and\nshalt no more call Me Baali\"; and with this we may couple the\nstatement in Isaiah lxii. 4:--\"Thou shalt be called Hephzibah,\nand thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy\nland shall be married.\"\n\nIn both these passages we find a change of name; and since a name\nstands for something which corresponds to it, and in truth only\namounts to a succinct description, the fact indicated in these\ntexts is a change of condition answering to the change of name.\n\nNow the change from Baali to Ishi indicates an important\nalteration in the relation between the Divine Being and the\nworshipper; but since the Divine Being cannot change, the altered\nrelation must result from a change in the stand-point of the\nworshipper: and this can only come from a new mode of looking at\nthe Divine, that is, from a new order of thought regarding it.\nBaali means Lord, and Ishi means husband, and so the change in\nrelation is that of a female slave who is liberated and married\nto her former master. We could not have a more perfect analogy.\nRelatively to the Universal Spirit the individual soul is\nesoterically feminine, as I have pointed out in \"Bible Mystery\nand Bible Meaning,\" because its function is that of the receptive\nand formative. This is necessarily inherent in the nature of the\ncreative process. But the individual's development as the\nspecializing medium of the Universal Spirit will depend entirely\nupon his own conception of his relation to it. So long as he only\nregards it as an arbitrary power, a sort of slave owner, he will\nfind himself in the position of a slave driven by an inscrutable\nforce, he knows not whither or for what purpose. He may worship\nsuch a God, but his worship is only the worship of fear and\nignorance, and there is no personal interest in the matter except\nto escape some dreaded punishment. Such a worshipper would gladly\nescape from his divinity, and his worship, when analyzed, will be\nfound to be little else than disguised hatred. This is the\nnatural result of a worship based upon UNEXPLAINED traditions\ninstead of intelligible principles, and is the very opposite of\nthat worship in Spirit and in truth which Jesus speaks of as the\ntrue worship.\n\nBut when the light begins to break in upon us, all this becomes\nchanged. We see that a system of terrorism cannot give expression\nto the Divine Spirit, and we realize the truth of St. Paul's\nwords, \"He hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power,\nand of love, and of a sound mind.\" As the true nature of the\nrelation between the individual mind and the Universal Mind\nbecomes clearer, we find it to be one of mutual action and\nre-action, a perfect reciprocity which cannot be better\nsymbolized than by the relation between an affectionate husband\nand wife. Everything is done from love and nothing from\ncompulsion, there is perfect confidence on both sides, and both\nare equally indispensable to each other. It is simply the\ncarrying out of the fundamental maxim that the Universal cannot\nact on the plane of the Particular except through the Particular;\nonly this philosophical axiom develops into a warm living\nintercourse.\n\nNow this is the position of the soul which is indicated by the\nname Hephzibah. In common with all other words derived from the\nSemitic root \"hafz\" it implies the idea of guarding, just as in\nthe East a hasfiz is one who guards the letter of the Koran by\nhaving the whole book by heart, and in many similar expressions.\nHephzibah may therefore be translated as \"a guarded one,\" thus\nrecalling the New Testament description of those who are \"guarded\ninto salvation.\" It is precisely this conception of being guarded\nby a superior power that distinguishes the worship of Ishi from\nthat of Baali. A special relation has been established between\nthe Divine Spirit and the individual soul, one of absolute\nconfidence and personal intercourse. This does not require any\ndeparture from the general law of the universe, but is due to\nthat specializing of the law through the presentation of special\nconditions personal to the individual, of which I have spoken\nbefore. But all the time there has been no change in the\nUniversal Spirit, the only change has been in the mental attitude\nof the individual--he has come into a new thought, a clearer\nperception of God. He has faced the questions, What is God? Where\nis God? How does God work? and he has found the answer in the\napostolic statement that God is \"over all, through all, and in\nall,\" and he realises that \"God\" is the root of his (the\nindividual's) own being, ever present IN him, ever working\nTHROUGH him, and universally present around him.\n\nThis realization of the true relation between the Originating\nSpirit and the individual mind is what is esoterically spoken of\nas the Mystical Marriage in which the two have ceased to be\nseparate and have become one. As a matter of fact they always\nwere one, but since we can apprehend things only from the\nstand-point of our own consciousness, it is our recognition of\nthe fact that makes it a practical reality for ourselves. But an\nintelligent recognition will never make a confusion of the two\nparts of which the whole consists, and will never lead the\nindividual to suppose that he is handling a blind force or that a\nblind force is handling him. He will neither dethrone God, nor\nlose himself by absorption in deity, but he will recognize the\nreciprocity of the Divine and the human as the natural and\nlogical outcome of the essential conditions of the creative\nprocess.\n\nAnd what is the Whole which is thus created? It is our conscious\nPERSONALITY; and therefore whatever we draw from the Universal\nSpirit acquires in us the quality of personality. It is that\nprocess of differentiation of the universal into the particular\nof which I have so often spoken, which, by a rude analogy, we may\ncompare to the differentiation of the universal electric fluid\ninto specific sorts of power by its passage through suitable\napparatus. It is for this reason that relatively to ourselves the\nUniversal Spirit must necessarily assume a personal aspect, and\nthat the aspect which it will assume will be in exact\ncorrespondence with our own conception of it. This is in\naccordance with mental and spiritual laws inherent in our own\nbeing, and it is on this account that the Bible seeks to build up\nour conception of God on such lines as will set us free from all\nfear of evil, and thus leave us at liberty to use the creative\npower of our thought affirmatively from the stand-point of a calm\nand untroubled mind. This stand-point can only be reached by\npassing beyond the range of the happenings of the moment, and\nthis can only be done by the discovery of our immediate relation\nto the undifferentiated source of all good. I lay stress on these\nwords \"immediate\" and \"undifferentiated\" because in them is\ncontained the secret of the whole position. If we could not draw\nimmediately from the Universal Spirit our receiving would be\nsubject to the limitations of the channel through which it\nreached us; and if the force which we receive were not\nundifferentiated in itself it could not take appropriate form in\nour own minds and become to each of us just what we require it to\nbe. It is this power of the human soul to differentiate\nlimitlessly from the Infinite that we are apt to overlook, but as\nwe come to realize that the soul is itself a reflection and image\nof the Infinite Spirit--and a clear recognition of the cosmic\ncreative process shows that it cannot be anything else--we find\nthat it must possess this power, and that-in fact it is our\npossession of this power which is the whole raison d'etre of the\ncreative process: if the human soul did not possess an unlimited\npower of differentiation from the Infinite, then the Infinite\nwould not be reflected in it, and consequently the Infinite\nSpirit would find no outlet for its CONSCIOUS recognition of\nitself as the Life, Love, and Beauty which it is. We can never\ntoo deeply ponder the old esoteric definition of Spirit as \"the\nPower which knows itself\": the secret of all things, past,\npresent, and future is contained in these few words. The self\n-recognition or self-contemplation of Spirit is the primary\nmovement out of which all creation proceeds, and the attainment\nin the individual of a fresh centre for self-recognition is what\nthe Spirit GAINS in the process--this GAIN accruing to the Spirit\nis what is referred to in the parables where the lord is\nrepresented as receiving increase from his servants.\n\nWhen the individual perceives this relation between himself and\nInfinite Spirit, he finds that he has been raised from a position\nof slavery to one of reciprocity. The Spirit cannot do without\nhim any more than he can do without the Spirit: the two are as\nnecessary to each other as the two poles of an electric battery.\nThe Spirit is the unlimited essence of Love, Wisdom, and Power,\nall three in one undifferentiated and waiting to be\ndifferentiated by APPROPRIATION, that is, by the individual\nCLAIMING to be the channel of their differentiation. It only\nrequires the claim to be made with the recognition that by the\nLaw of Being it is bound to be answered, and the right feeling,\nthe right seeing, and the right working for the particular matter\nwe have in hand will flow in quite naturally. Our old enemies,\ndoubt and fear, may seek to bring us back under bondage to Baali,\nbut our new stand-point for the recognition of the\nAll-originating Spirit as being absolutely unified with ourselves\nmust always be kept resolutely in mind; for, short of this, we\nare not working on the creative level--we are creating, indeed,\nfor we can never divest ourselves of our creative power, but we\nare creating in the image of the old limiting and destructive\nconditions, and this is merely perpetuating the cosmic Law of\nAverages, which is just what the individual has to rise superior\nto. The creative level is where new laws begin to manifest\nthemselves in a new order of conditions, something transcending\nour past experiences and thus bringing about a real advance; for\nit is no advance only to go on in the same old round even if we\nkept at it for centuries: it is the steady go-ahead nature of the\nSpirit that has made the world of to-day an improvement upon the\nworld of the pterodactyl and the icthiosaurus, and we must look\nfor the same forward movement of the Spirit from its new\nstarting-point in ourselves.\n\nNow it is this special, personal, and individual relation of the\nSpirit to ourselves which is typified by the names Ishi and\nHephzibah. From this stand-point we may say that as the\nindividual wakes up to the oneness with the Spirit, the Spirit\nwakes up to the same thing. It becomes conscious of itself\nthrough the consciousness of the individual, and thus is solved\nthe paradox of individual self-recognition by the Universal\nSpirit, without which no new-creative power could be exercised\nand all things would continue to proceed in the old merely cosmic\norder. It is of course true that in the merely generic order the\nSpirit must be present in every form of Life, as the Master\npointed out when He said that not a sparrow falls to the ground\nwithout \"the Father.\" But as the sparrows He alluded to had been\nshot and were on sale at a price which shows that this was the\nfate of a good many of them, we see here precisely that stage of\nmanifestation where the Spirit has not woke up to individual\nself-recognition, and remains at the lower level of\nself-recognition, that of the generic or race-spirit. The\nMaster's comment, \"Ye are of more value than many sparrows\"\npoints out this difference: in us the generic creation has\nreached the level which affords the conditions for the waking up\nof the Spirit to self-recognition in the Individual.\n\nAnd we must bear in mind that all this is perfectly natural.\nThere is no posing or straining after effect about it. If YOU\nhave to pump up the Life, who is going to put the Life into you\nto pump it? Therefore it is spontaneous or nothing. That is why\nthe Bible speaks of it as the free gift of God. It cannot be\nanything else. You cannot originate the originating force; it\nmust originate you: but what you can do is to distribute it.\nTherefore immediately you experience any sense of friction be\nsure there is something wrong somewhere; and since God can never\nchange, you may be sure that the friction is being caused by some\nerror in your own thinking--you are limiting the Spirit in some\nway: set to work to find out what it is. It is always LIMITING\nthe Spirit that does this. You are tying it down to conditions\nsomewhere, saying it is bound by reason of some existing forms.\nThe remedy is to go back to the original starting point of the\nCosmic Creation and ask, Where were the pre-existing forms that\ndictated to the Spirit then? Then because the Spirit never\nchanges it is STILL THE SAME, and is just as independent of\nexisting conditions now as it was in the beginning; and so we\nmust pass over all existing conditions, however apparently\nadverse, and go straight to the Spirit as the originator of new\nforms and new conditions. This is real New Thought, for it does\nnot trouble about the old things, but is going straight ahead\nfrom where we are now. When we do this, just trusting the Spirit,\nand not laying down the particular details of its action--just\ntelling it what we want without dictating HOW we are to get it--\nwe shall find that things will open out more and more clearly day\nby day both on the inner and the outer plane. Remember that the\nSpirit is alive and working here and now, for if ever the Spirit\nis to get from the past into the future it must be by passing\nthrough the present; therefore what you have to do is to acquire\nthe habit of living direct -from the Spirit here and now. You\nwill soon find that this is a matter of personal intercourse,\nperfectly natural and not requiring any abnormal conditions for\nits production. You just treat the Spirit as you would any other\nkind-hearted sensible person, remembering that it is always\nthere--\"closer than hands and feet,\" as Tennyson says--and you\nwill gradually begin to appreciate its reciprocity as a very\npractical fact indeed.\n\nThis is the relation of Hephzibah to Ishi, and is that worship in\nSpirit and in truth which needs neither the temple in Jerusalem\nnor yet in Samaria for its acceptance, for the whole world is the\ntemple of the Spirit and you yourself its sanctuary. Bear this in\nmind, and remember that nothing is too great or too small, too\ninterior or too external, for the Spirit's recognition and\noperation, for the Spirit is itself both the Life and the\nSubstance of all things and it is also Self-recognition from the\nstand-point of your own individuality; and therefore, because the\nSelf-recognition of Spirit is the Life of the creative process,\nyou will, by simply trusting the Spirit to work according to its\nown nature, pass more and more completely into that New Order\nwhich proceeds from the thought of Him who says, \"Behold I make\nall things new.\"\n\n\n\nTHE SHEPHERD AND THE STONE.\n\nThe metaphor of the Shepherd and the Sheep is of constant\noccurrence throughout the Bible and naturally suggests the idea\nof the guiding, guarding, and feeding both of the individual\nsheep and of the whole flock and it is not difficult to see the\nspiritual correspondence of these things in a general sort of\nway. But we find that the Bible combines the metaphor of the\nShepherd with another metaphor that of \"the Stone,\" and at first\nsight the two seem rather incongruous.\n\n\"From thence is the Shepherd the Stone of Israel,\" says the Old\nTestament (Genesis xlix. 24), and Jesus calls himself both \"The\nGood Shepherd\" and \"The Stone which the builders rejected.\" The\nShepherd and the Stone are thus identified and we must therefore\nseek the interpretation in some conception which combines the\ntwo. A shepherd suggests Personal care for the welfare of the\nsheep, and an intelligence greater than theirs. A stone suggests\nthe idea of Building, and consequently of measurement, adaptation\nof parts to whole, and progressive construction according to\nplan. Combining these two conceptions we get the idea of the\nbuilding of an edifice whose stones are persons, each taking\ntheir more or less conscious part in the construction--thus a\nbuilding, not constructed from without, but self-forming by a\nprinciple of growth from within under the guidance of a Supreme\nWisdom permeating the whole and conducting it stage by stage to\nultimate completeness. This points to a Divine Order in human\naffairs with which we may more or less consciously co-operate:\nboth to our personal advantage and also to the furtherance of the\ngreat scheme of human evolution as a whole; the ultimate purpose\nbeing to establish in ALL men that principle of \"The Octave\" to\nwhich I have already alluded; and in proportion as some\nadumbration of this principle is realized by individuals and by\ngroups of individuals they specialize the law of\nrace-development, even though they may not be aware of the fact,\nand so come under a SPECIALIZED working of the fundamental Law,\nwhich thus differentiates them from other individuals and\nnationalities, as by a peculiar guidance, producing higher\ndevelopments which the merely generic operation of the Law could\nnot.\n\nNow if we keep steadily in mind that, though the purpose, or Law\nof Tendency, or the Originating Spirit must always be universal\nin its nature, it must necessarily be individual in its\noperation, we shall see that this universal purpose can only be\naccomplished through the instrumentality of specific means. This\nresults from the fundamental proposition that the Universal can\nonly work on the plane of the Particular by becoming the\nindividual and particular; and when we grasp the conception that\nthe merely generic operation of the Creative Law has now brought\nthe human race as far as it can, that is to say it has completely\nevolved the merely natural GENUS home, it follows that if any\nfurther development is to take place it can only be by the\nco-operation of the individual himself. Now it is the spread of\nthis individual co-operation that the forward movement of the\nSpirit is leading us to, and it is the gradual extension of this\nuniversal principle that is alluded to in the prophecy of Daniel\nregarding the Stone cut out without hands that spreads until it\nfills the whole earth (Daniel ii. 34 and 44). According to the\ninterpretation given by Daniel, this Stone is the emblem of a\nspiritual Kingdom, and the identity of the Stone and the Shepherd\nindicates that the Kingdom of the Stone must be also the Kingdom\nof the Shepherd; and the Master, who identified himself with both\nthe Stone and the Shepherd, emphatically declared that this\nKingdom was, in its essence, an interior Kingdom--\"the Kingdom of\nHeaven is within you.\" We must look for its foundation therefore,\nin a spiritual principle or mental law inherent in the\nconstitution of all men but waiting to be brought into fuller\ndevelopment by more accurate compliance with its essential\nrequirements; which is precisely the method by which science has\nevoked powers from the laws of nature which were undreamt of in\nformer ages; and in like manner the recognition of our true\nrelation to the Universal Spirit, which is the source of all\nindividual being, must lead to an advance both for the race and\nfor the individual such as we can at present scarcely form the\nfaintest idea of, but which we dimly apprehend through the\nintuition and speak of as the New Order. The approach of this New\nOrder is everywhere making itself vaguely felt; it is, as the\nFrench say, in the air, and the very vagueness and mystery\nattending it is causing a feeling of unrest as to what form it\nmay assume. But to the student of Spiritual Law this should not\nbe the case. He knows that the Form is always the expression of\nthe Spirit, and therefore, since he is in touch with the forward\nmovement of the Spirit, he knows that he himself will always be\nharmoniously included in any form of development which the Great\nForward Movement may take. This is the practical and personal\nbenefit arising from the realization of the Principle which is\nsymbolized under the two-fold metaphor of the Shepherd and the\nStone. and in all those new developments which are perhaps even\nnow within measurable distance, we can rest on the knowledge that\nwe are under the care of a kind Shepherd, and under the formation\nof a wise Master Builder.\n\nBut the principle of the Shepherd and the Stone is not something\nhitherto unheard of which is only to conne into existence in the\nfuture. If there were no manifestations of this principle in the\npast, we might question whether there were any such principle at\nall; but a careful study of the subject will show us that it has\nbeen at work all through the ages, sometimes in modes more\nimmediately bearing the aspect of the Shepherd, and sometimes in\nmodes more immediately bearing the aspect of the Stone, though\nthe one always implies the other, for they are the same thing\nseen from different points of view. The subject is one of immense\ninterest, but covering such a wide range of study that all I can\ndo here is to point out that such a field of investigation exists\nand is worth exploration; and the exploration brings its reward\nwith it, not only by putting us in possession of the key to the\nhistory of the past, but by showing us that it is the key to the\nhistory of the future also, and furthermore by making evident on\na large scale the working of the same principle of Spiritual Law\nby cooperation with which we may facilitate the process of our\nown individual evolution. It thus adds a vivid interest to life,\ngiving us something worth looking forward to and introducing us\nto a personal future which is not limited by the proverbial\nthree-score years and ten.\n\nNow, we have seen that the first stage in the Creative Process is\nalways that of Feeling--a reaching-out by the Spirit in a\nparticular direction, and therefore we may look for something of\nthe same kind in the development of the great principle which we\nare now considering. And we find this first vague movement of\nthis great principle in the intuitions of a particular race which\nappears from time immemorial to have combined the two\ncharacteristics of nomad wandering with their flocks and herds\nand the symbolization of their religious beliefs in monuments of\nstone. The monuments themselves have taken different forms in\ndifferent countries and ages, but the identity of their symbolism\nbecomes clear under careful investigation. Together with this\nsymbolism we always find the nomad character of the builders and\nthat they are invested with an aura of mystery and romance such\nas we find nowhere else, though we always find it surrounding\nthese builders, even in countries so far apart as India and\nIreland. Then, as we pass beyond the merely monumental stage, we\nfind threads of historical evidence connecting the different\nbranches of this race, increasing in their complexity and\nstrengthening in their cumulative force as we go on, until at\nlast we are brought to the history of the age in which we live;\nand finally most remarkable affinities of language put the\nfinishing touch to the mass of proofs which can be gathered along\nall these different lines. In this magic circle countries so\nremote from one another as Ireland and Greece, Egypt and India,\nPalestine and Persia, are brought into close contiguity--a\nsimilar tradition, and even a similar nomenclature, unite the\nmysterious builders of the Great Pyramid with the equally\nmysterious builders of the Round Towers of Ireland--and the Great\nPyramid itself, perhaps antedating the call of Abraham,\nre-appears as the official seal of the United States; while\ntradition traces the crowning-stone in Westminster Abbey back to\nthe time of Solomon's temple and even earlier. For the most part\nthe erewhile wanderers are now settled in their destined homes,\nbut the Anglo-Saxon race--the People of the Corner-Stone--are\nstill the pioneers among the nations, and there is something\nesoteric in the old joke that when the North Pole is reached a\nScotchman will be found there. And not least in the chain of\nevidence is the link afforded by a tribe who are wanderers still,\nthe Gipsies with their duplicate of the Pyramid in the pack of\ncards--a volume which has been called \"The Devil's Picture Book\"\nby those who know it only in its misuse and inversion, but which\nwhen interpreted in the light of the knowledge we are now\ngaining, affords a signal instance of that divine policy by which\nas St. Paul says, God employs the foolish things of this world to\nconfute the wise; while a truer apprehension of the Gipsies\nthemselves indicates their unmistakable connection with that race\nwho through all its wanderings has ever been the guardian of the\nStone.\n\nIn these few paragraphs I have only been able to point out very\nbriefly the broad lines of enquiry into a subject of national\nimportance to the British and American peoples, and which\ninterests us personally, not only as members of these nations,\nbut as affording proof on the largest scale of the same\nspecialization of universal laws which each of us has to effect\nindividually for ourself. But whether the process be individual\nor national it is always the same, and is the translation to the\nvery highest plane--that of the All-originating Life itself--of\nthe old maxim that \"Nature will obey us exactly in proportion as\nwe first obey Nature\"; it is the old parable of the lord who,\nfinding his servants girt and awaiting him, then girds himself\nand serves them (Luke xii. 35 to 37). The nation or the\nindividual who thus realizes the true principle of the Shepherd\nand the Stone, comes under a special Divine guidance and\nprotection, not by a favouritism incompatible with the conception\nof universal Law, but by the very operation of the Law itself.\nThey have come into touch with its higher possibilities, and to\nrecur to an analogy which I have already employed, they learn to\nmake their iron float by the very same law by which it sinks; and\nso they become the flock of the Great Shepherd and the building\nof the Great Architect, and each one, however insignificant his\nor her sphere may appear, becomes a sharer in the great work, and\nby a logical consequence begins to grow on new lines of\ndevelopment for the simple reason that a new principle\nnecessarily produces new modes of manifestation. If the reader\nwill think over these things he will see that the promises\ncontained in the Bible whether national or personal, are nothing\nelse than statements of the universal law of Cause and Effect\napplied to the inmost principles of our being, and that therefore\nit is not mere rhapsody, but the figurative expression of a great\ntruth when the Psalmist says `\"The Lord is my Shepherd,\" and\n\"Thou art my God and the Rock of my salvation.\"\n\n\n\nSALVATION IS OF THE JEWS.\n\nWhat does this saying of the Master's mean? Certainly not a mere\narrogant assumption in favour of His own nationality--such an\nidea is negatived, not only by the universality of all His other\nteaching, but also by the very instruction in which these words\noccur, for He declared that the Jewish temple was equally with\nthe Samaritan of no account in the matter. He said that the true\nworship was purely spiritual and entirely independent of places\nand ceremonies, while at the same time He emphasized the Jewish\nexpectation of a Messiah, so that in this teaching we are met by\nthe paradox of a universal principle combined with what at first\nsight appears like a tribal tradition quite incompatible with any\nrecognition of the universal reign of law. How to reconcile these\napparent opposites, therefore, seems to be the problem which He\nhere sets before us. Its solution is to be found in that\nprinciple which I have endeavoured to elucidate throughout these\nlectures, the specializing of universal law. Opinions may differ\nas to whether the Bible narrative of the birth of Christ is to be\ntaken literally or symbolically, but as to the spiritual\nprinciple involved there can, I think, be no difference of\nopinion. It is that of the specialization by the individual of\nthe generic relation of the soul to the Infinite Spirit from\nwhich it proceeds. The relation itself is universal and results\nfrom the very nature of the creative process, but the law of the\nuniversal relation admits of particular specialization exactly in\nthe same way as all other natural laws--it is simply applying to\nthe supreme Law of Life the same method by which we have learnt\nto make iron float, that is to say by a fuller recognition of\nwhat the Law is in itself. Whatever other meanings we may apply\nto the name Messiah, it undoubtedly stands for the absolutely\nperfect manifestation in the individual of all the infinite\npossibilities of the Principle of Life.\n\nNow it was because this grand ideal is the basis on which the\nHebrew nationality was founded that Jesus made this statement.\nThis foundation had been lamentably misconceived by the Jewish\npeople; but nevertheless, however imperfectly, they still held by\nit, and from them this ideal has spread throughout the Christian\nworld. Here also it continues to be lamentably misconceived,\nnevertheless it is still retained, and only needs to be\nrecognized in its true light as a universal principle, instead of\nan unintelligible dogma, to become the salvation of the world.\nHence, as affording the medium through which this supreme ideal\nhas been preserved and spread, it is true that \"Salvation is of\nthe Jews.\"\n\nTheir fundamental idea was right but their apprehension of it was\nwrong--that is why the Master at the same time sweeps away the\nnational worship of the temple and preserves the national idea of\nthe Messiah; and this is equally true of the Christian world at\nthe present day. If salvation is anything real it must have its\ncause in some law, and if there is a law it must be founded upon\nsome universal principle: therefore it is this principle which we\nmust seek if we would understand this teaching of the Master's.\n\nNow whether we take the Bible story of the birth of Christ\nliterally or symbolically, it teaches one great lesson. It\nteaches that the All-originating Spirit is the true Parent of the\nindividual both in soul and body. This is nothing else than\nrealizing from the stand-point of the individual what we cannot\nhelp realizing in regard to the original creation of the cosmos--\nit is the realization that the All-originating Spirit is at once\nthe Life and the Substance in each individual here and now, just\nas it must have been in the origin of all things. Human parentage\ncounts for nothing--it is only the channel through which\nUniversal Spirit has acted for the concentration of an individual\ncentre; but the ultimate cause of that centre, both in life and\nsubstance, continues at every moment to be the One same\nOriginating Spirit.\n\nThis recognition cuts away the root of all the power of the\nnegative, and so in principle it delivers us from all evil, for\nthe root of evil is the denial of the power of the Spirit to\nproduce good. When we realize that the Spirit is finding its own\nindividualization in us in its two-fold essence as Life and\nSubstance, then we see that it must be both able and willing to\ncreate for us all good. The only limit is that which we ourselves\nimpose by denying its operation, and when we realize the inherent\ncreativeness of Spirit we find that there is no reason why we\nshould stop short at any point and say that it can go no further.\nOur error is in looking on the life of the body as separate from\nthe life of the Spirit, and this error is met by the\nconsideration that, in its ultimate nature, Substance must\nemanate from Spirit and is nothing else than the record of\nSpirit's conception of itself as finding expression in space and\ntime. And when this becomes clear it follows that Substance need\nnot be taken into calculation at all. The material form stands in\nthe same relation to Spirit that the image projected on the\nscreen stands to the slide in the lantern. If we wish to change\nthe exhibited subject we do not manipulate the reflection on the\nscreen, but we alter the slide; and in like manner, when we come\nto realize the true nature of the creative process, we learn that\nthe exterior things are to be changed by a change of the interior\nspiritual attitude. Our spiritual attitude will always be\ndetermined by our conception of our relation to God or Infinite\nSpirit; and so when we begin to see that this relation is one of\nabsolute reciprocity--that it is the self-recognition of Infinite\nSpirit from our own centre of consciousness--then we find that\nthe whole Secret of Life consists in simple reliance upon the\nAllcreating Spirit as consciously identifying itself with us. It\nhas, so to say, awakened to a new mode of self-recognition\npeculiar to ourselves, in which we individually form the centre\nof its creative energy. To realize this is to specialize the\nPrinciple of Life. The logic of it is simple. We have found that\nthe originating movement of Spirit from which all creation\nproceeds can only be Self-contemplation. Then, since the Original\nSpirit cannot change its nature its self-contemplation through\nour own minds must be as creative in, for, and through us as it\never was in the beginning; and consequently we find the original\ncreative process repeated in ourselves and directed by the\nconscious thought of our own minds.\n\nIn all this there is no place for the consideration of  outward\nconditions, whether of body or  circumstances; for they are only\neffects and not the  cause; and therefore when we reach this\nstand-point  we cease to take them into our calculations. Instead\nwe employ the method of self-contemplation knowing  that this is\nthe creative method, and so we  contemplate ourselves as allied\nto the infinite Love  and Wisdom of the Divine Spirit which will\ntake form  through our conscious thought, and so act creatively\nas a Special Providence entirely devoted to guarding,  guiding,\nproviding for, and illuminating us. The whole  thing is perfectly\nnatural when seen from a clear  recognition of what the creative\nworking of Spirit  must be in itself; and when it is realized in\nthis  perfectly natural manner all strain and effort to  compel\nits action ceases--we are at one with the All-creating Power\nwhich has now found a new centre in  ourselves from which to\ncontinue its creative work to  more perfect manifestation than\ncould be attained  through the unspecialized generic conditions\nof the  merely cosmic order.\n\nNow this is what Messiah stands for, and therefore it is written\nthat \"to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to as\nmany as believe on His Name.\" This \"belief\" is the recognition of\na universal principle and personal reliance upon it as a law\nwhich cannot be broken; for it is the Law of the whole creative\nprocess specialized in our own individuality. Then, too, however\ngreat may be the mystery, the removal and cleansing away of all\nsin follows as an essential part of this realization of new life;\nand it is in this sense that we may read all that the Bible tells\nus on this aspect of the subject. The PRINCIPLE of it is Love;\nfor when we are reunited to the Parent Spirit in mutual\nconfidence and love, what room is there on either side for any\nremembrance of our past failures?\n\nThis, then is what Messiah stands for to the individual; but if\nwe can conceive a nation based upon such a recognition of its\nspecial relation to the Directing Power of the Universe, such a\npeople must of necessity become the leader of the nations, and\nthose who oppose it must fail by a self-destructive principle\ninherent in the very nature of the position they take up. The\nleadership resulting from such a national self-recognition, will\nnot be based upon conquest and compulsion, but will come\nnaturally. Other nations will enquire the reason for the\nphenomenal success and prosperity of the favoured people, and\nfinding this reason in a universal Law, they will begin to apply\nthe same law in the same manner, and thus the same results will\nspread from country to country until at last the whole earth will\nbe full of the glory of the Lord. And such a nation, and rather\ncompany of nations, exists. To trace its present development from\nits ancient beginnings is far beyond the scope of this volume,\nand still more to speculate upon its further growth; but to my\nreaders on both sides of the Atlantic I may say that this people\nis the Anglo-Saxon race throughout the world. I write these lines\nupon the historic Hill of Tara; this will convey a hint to many\nof my readers. At some future time I may enlarge upon this\nsubject; but at present my aim is merely to suggest some lines of\nthought arising from the Master's saying that \"Salvation is of\nthe Jews.\"","title":"The Dor\u00e9 Lectures: Being Sunday addresses at the Dor\u00e9 Gallery, London, given in connection with the Higher Thought Centre","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":25195}