{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25638/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25638","id":"gutenberg_25638","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25638","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","New Thought"],"text":"E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n   Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully\n   as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious\n   typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the\n   like) have been corrected. Corrections [in brackets] in the\n   text are explained in a note at the end of the book.\n\n   Numbers within curly brackets preceded by a carat character were\n   superscripted in the original. Example: X^{2}.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE HIDDEN POWER\n\nAnd Other Papers upon Mental Science\n\nby\n\nT. TROWARD\n\nLate Divisional Judge, Punjab. Honorary Member of the\nMedico-Legal Society of New York. First Vice-President\nInternational New Thought Alliance\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew York\nRobert M. McBride & Company\n\nCopyright, 1921, by S. A. Troward\nAll rights reserved\n\nSixth Printing September 1936\nPrinted in the United States of America\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHER'S NOTE\n\n\nThe material comprised in this volume has been selected from unpublished\nmanuscripts and magazine articles by Judge Troward, and \"The Hidden\nPower\" is, it is believed, the last book which will be published under\nhis name. Only an insignificant portion of his work has been deemed\nunworthy of permanent preservation. Whenever possible, dates have been\naffixed to these papers. Those published in 1902 appeared originally in\n\"EXPRESSION: A Journal of Mind and Thought,\" in London, and to some of\nthese have been added notes made later by the author.\n\nThe Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. Daniel M.\nMurphy of New York for his services in the selection and arrangement of\nthe material.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n CHAPTER                                                     PAGE\n\n      I The Hidden Power                                        1\n\n     II The Perversion of Truth                                42\n\n    III The \"I Am\"                                             59\n\n     IV Affirmative Power                                      63\n\n      V Submission                                             67\n\n     VI Completeness                                           74\n\n    VII The Principle of Guidance                              81\n\n   VIII Desire as the Motive Power                             85\n\n     IX Touching Lightly                                       92\n\n      X Present Truth                                          96\n\n     XI Yourself                                               99\n\n    XII Religious Opinions                                    105\n\n   XIII A Lesson from Browning                                113\n\n    XIV The Spirit of Opulence                                118\n\n     XV Beauty                                                123\n\n    XVI Separation and Unity                                  129\n\n   XVII Externalisation                                       141\n\n  XVIII Entering into the Spirit of It                        146\n\n    XIX The Bible and the New Thought\n          I. The Son                                          153\n         II. The Great Affirmation                            166\n        III. The Father                                       178\n         IV. Conclusion                                       185\n\n     XX Jachin and Boaz                                       192\n\n    XXI Hephzibah                                             197\n\n   XXII Mind and Hand                                         204\n\n  XXIII The Central Control                                   209\n\n   XXIV What is Higher Thought                                213\n\n    XXV Fragments                                             215\n\n\n\n\nTHE HIDDEN POWER AND OTHER ESSAYS\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE HIDDEN POWER\n\n\nTo realise fully how much of our present daily life consists in symbols\nis to find the answer to the old, old question, What is Truth? and in\nthe degree in which we begin to recognise this we begin to approach\nTruth. The realisation of Truth consists in the ability to translate\nsymbols, whether natural or conventional, into their equivalents; and\nthe root of all the errors of mankind consists in the inability to do\nthis, and in maintaining that the symbol has nothing behind it. The\ngreat duty incumbent on all who have attained to this knowledge is to\nimpress upon their fellow men that there is an _inner side_ to things,\nand that until this _inner_ side is known, the things themselves are not\nknown.\n\nThere is an inner and an outer side to everything; and the quality of\nthe superficial mind which causes it to fail in the attainment of Truth\nis its willingness to rest content with the outside only. So long as\nthis is the case it is impossible for a man to grasp the import of his\nown relation to the universal, and it is this relation which constitutes\nall that is signified by the word \"Truth.\" So long as a man fixes his\nattention only on the superficial it is impossible for him to make any\nprogress in knowledge. He is denying that principle of \"Growth\" which is\nthe root of all life, whether spiritual intellectual, or material, for\nhe does not stop to reflect that all which he sees as the outer side of\nthings can result only from some germinal principle hidden deep in the\ncentre of their being.\n\nExpansion from the centre by growth according to a necessary order of\nsequence, this is the Law of Life of which the whole universe is the\noutcome, alike in the one great solidarity of cosmic being, as in the\nseparate individualities of its minutest organisms. This great principle\nis the key to the whole riddle of Life, upon whatever plane we\ncontemplate it; and without this key the door from the outer to the\ninner side of things can never be opened. It is therefore the duty of\nall to whom this door has, at least in some measure, been opened, to\nendeavour to acquaint others with the fact that there is an inner side\nto things, and that life becomes truer and fuller in proportion as we\npenetrate to it and make our estimates of all things according to what\nbecomes visible from this interior point of view.\n\nIn the widest sense everything is a symbol of that which constitutes its\ninner being, and all Nature is a gallery of arcana revealing great\ntruths to those who can decipher them. But there is a more precise\nsense in which our current life is based upon symbols in regard to the\nmost important subjects that can occupy our thoughts: the symbols by\nwhich we strive to represent the nature and being of God, and the manner\nin which the life of man is related to the Divine life. The whole\ncharacter of a man's life results from what he really believes on this\nsubject: not his formal statement of belief in a particular creed, but\nwhat he realises as the stage which his mind has actually attained in\nregard to it.\n\nHas a man's mind only reached the point at which he thinks it is\nimpossible to know anything about God, or to make any use of the\nknowledge if he had it? Then his whole interior world is in the\ncondition of confusion, which must necessarily exist where no spirit of\norder has yet begun to move upon the chaos in which are, indeed, the\nelements of being, but all disordered and neutralising one another. Has\nhe advanced a step further, and realised that there is a ruling and an\nordering power, but beyond this is ignorant of its nature? Then the\nunknown stands to him for the terrific, and, amid a tumult of fears and\ndistresses that deprive him of all strength to advance, he spends his\nlife in the endeavour to propitiate this power as something naturally\nadverse to him, instead of knowing that it is the very centre of his own\nlife and being.\n\nAnd so on through every degree, from the lowest depths of ignorance to\nthe greatest heights of intelligence, a man's life must always be the\nexact reflection of that particular stage which he has reached in the\nperception of the divine nature and of his own relation to it; and as we\napproach the full perception of Truth, so the life-principle within us\nexpands, the old bonds and limitations which had no existence in reality\nfall off from us, and we enter into regions of light, liberty, and\npower, of which we had previously no conception. It is impossible,\ntherefore, to overestimate the importance of being able to realise the\nsymbol _for_ a symbol, and being able to penetrate to the inner\nsubstance which it represents. Life itself is to be realised only by the\nconscious experience of its livingness in ourselves, and it is the\nendeavour to translate these experiences into terms which shall suggest\na corresponding idea to others that gives rise to all symbolism.\n\nThe nearer those we address have approached to the actual experience,\nthe more transparent the symbol becomes; and the further they are from\nsuch experience the thicker is the veil; and our whole progress consists\nin the fuller and fuller translation of the symbols into clearer and\nclearer statements of that for which they stand. But the first step,\nwithout which all succeeding ones must remain impossible, is to convince\npeople that symbols _are_ symbols, and not the very Truth itself. And\nthe difficulty consists in this, that if the symbolism is in any degree\nadequate it must, in some measure, represent the form of Truth, just as\nthe modelling of a drapery suggests the form of the figure beneath. They\nhave a certain consciousness that somehow they are in the presence of\nTruth; and this leads people to resent any removal of those folds of\ndrapery which have hitherto conveyed this idea to their minds.\n\nThere is sufficient indication of the inner Truth in the outward form to\nafford an excuse for the timorous, and those who have not sufficient\nmental energy to think for themselves, to cry out that finality has\nalready been attained, and that any further search into the matter must\nend in the destruction of Truth. But in raising such an outcry they\nbetray their ignorance of the very nature of Truth, which is that it can\nnever be destroyed: the very fact that Truth is Truth makes this\nimpossible. And again they exhibit their ignorance of the first\nprinciple of Life--namely, the Law of Growth, which throughout the\nuniverse perpetually pushes forward into more and more vivid forms of\nexpression, having expansion everywhere and finality nowhere.\n\nSuch ignorant objections need not, therefore, alarm us; and we should\nendeavour to show those who make them that what they fear is the only\nnatural order of the Divine Life, which is \"over all, and through all,\nand in all.\" But we must do this gently, and not by forcibly thrusting\nupon them the object of their terror, and so repelling them from all\nstudy of the subject. We should endeavour gradually to lead them to see\nthat there is something interior to what they have hitherto held to be\nultimate Truth, and to realise that the sensation of emptiness and\ndissatisfaction, which from time to time will persist in making itself\nfelt in their hearts, is nothing else than the pressing forward of the\nspirit within to declare that inner side of things which alone can\nsatisfactorily account for what we observe on the exterior, and without\nthe knowledge of which we can never perceive the true nature of our\ninheritance in the Universal Life which is the Life Everlasting.\n\n\nII\n\nWhat, then, is this central principle which is at the root of all\nthings? It is Life. But not life as we recognise it in particular forms\nof manifestation; it is something more interior and concentrated than\nthat. It is that \"unity of the spirit\" which _is_ unity, simply because\nit has not yet passed into diversity. Perhaps this is not an easy idea\nto grasp, but it is the root of all scientific conception of spirit; for\nwithout it there is no common principle to which we can refer the\ninnumerable forms of manifestation that spirit assumes.\n\nIt is the conception of Life as the sum-total of all its undistributed\npowers, being as yet none of these in particular, but all of them in\npotentiality. This is, no doubt, a highly abstract idea, but it is\nessentially that of the centre from which growth takes place by\nexpansion in every direction. This is that last residuum which defies\nall our powers of analysis. This is truly \"the unknowable,\" not in the\nsense of the unthinkable but of the unanalysable. It is the subject of\nperception, not of knowledge, if by knowledge we mean that faculty which\nestimates the _relations_ between things, because here we have passed\nbeyond any questions of relations, and are face to face with the\nabsolute.\n\nThis innermost of all is absolute Spirit. It is Life as yet not\ndifferentiated into any specific mode; it is the universal Life which\npervades all things and is at the heart of all appearances.\n\nTo come into the knowledge of this is to come into the secret of power,\nand to enter into the secret place of Living Spirit. Is it illogical\nfirst to call this the unknowable, and then to speak of coming into the\nknowledge of it? Perhaps so; but no less a writer than St. Paul has set\nthe example; for does he not speak of the final result of all searchings\ninto the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of the inner side\nof things as being, to attain the knowledge of that Love which passeth\nknowledge. If he is thus boldly illogical in phrase, though not in fact,\nmay we not also speak of knowing \"the unknowable\"? We may, for this\nknowledge is the root of all other knowledge.\n\nThe presence of this undifferentiated universal life-power is the final\naxiomatic fact to which all our analysis must ultimately conduct us. On\nwhatever plane we make our analysis it must always abut upon pure\nessence, pure energy, pure being; that which knows itself and recognises\nitself, but which cannot dissect itself because it is not built up of\nparts, but is ultimately integral: it is pure Unity. But analysis which\ndoes not lead to synthesis is merely destructive: it is the child\nwantonly pulling the flower to pieces and throwing away the fragments;\nnot the botanist, also pulling the flower to pieces, but building up in\nhis mind from those carefully studied fragments a vast synthesis of the\nconstructive power of Nature, embracing the laws of the formation of all\nflower-forms. The value of analysis is to lead us to the original\nstarting-point of that which we analyse, and so to teach us the laws by\nwhich its final form springs from this centre.\n\nKnowing the law of its construction, we turn our analysis into a\nsynthesis, and we thus gain a power of building up which must always be\nbeyond the reach of those who regard \"the unknowable\" as one with\n\"not-being.\"\n\n_This_ idea of the unknowable is the root of all materialism; and yet no\nscientific man, however materialistic his proclivities, treats the\nunanalysable residuum thus when he meets it in the experiments of his\nlaboratory. On the contrary, he makes this final unanalysable fact the\nbasis of his synthesis. He finds that in the last resort it is energy of\nsome kind, whether as heat or as motion; but he does not throw up his\nscientific pursuits because he cannot analyse it further. He adopts the\nprecisely opposite course, and realises that the conservation of energy,\nits indestructibility, and the impossibility of adding to or detracting\nfrom the sum-total of energy in the world, is the one solid and\nunchanging fact on which alone the edifice of physical science can be\nbuilt up. He bases all his knowledge upon his knowledge of \"the\nunknowable.\" And rightly so, for if he could analyse this energy into\nyet further factors, then the same problem of \"the unknowable\" would\nmeet him still. All our progress consists in continually pushing the\nunknowable, in the sense of the unanalysable residuum, a step further\nback; but that there should be no ultimate unanalysable residuum\nanywhere is an inconceivable idea.\n\nIn thus realising the undifferentiated unity of Living Spirit as the\ncentral fact of any system, whether the system of the entire universe or\nof a single organism, we are therefore following a strictly scientific\nmethod. We pursue our analysis until it necessarily leads us to this\nfinal fact, and then we accept this fact as the basis of our synthesis.\nThe Science of Spirit is thus not one whit less scientific than the\nScience of Matter; and, moreover, it starts from the same initial fact,\nthe fact of a living energy which defies definition or explanation,\nwherever we find it; but it differs from the science of matter in that\nit contemplates this energy under an aspect of responsive intelligence\nwhich does not fall within the scope of physical science, as such. The\nScience of Spirit and the Science of Matter are not opposed. They are\ncomplementaries, and neither is fully comprehensible without some\nknowledge of the other; and, being really but two portions of one whole,\nthey insensibly shade off into each other in a border-land where no\narbitrary line can be drawn between them. Science studied in a truly\nscientific spirit, following out its own deductions unflinchingly to\ntheir legitimate conclusions, will always reveal the twofold aspect of\nthings, the inner and the outer; and it is only a truncated and maimed\nscience that refuses to recognise both.\n\nThe study of the material world is not Materialism, if it be allowed to\nprogress to its legitimate issue. Materialism is that limited view of\nthe universe which will not admit the existence of anything but\nmechanical effects of mechanical causes, and a system which recognises\nno higher power than the physical forces of nature must logically result\nin having no higher ultimate appeal than to physical force or to fraud\nas its alternative. I speak, of course, of the tendency of the system,\nnot of the morality of individuals, who are often very far in advance of\nthe systems they profess. But as we would avoid the propagation of a\nmode of thought whose effects history shows only too plainly, whether in\nthe Italy of the Borgias, or the France of the First Revolution, or the\nCommune of the Franco-Prussian War, we should set ourselves to study\nthat inner and spiritual aspect of things which is the basis of a system\nwhose logical results are truth and love instead of perfidy and\nviolence.\n\nSome of us, doubtless, have often wondered why the Heavenly Jerusalem is\ndescribed in the Book of Revelations as a cube; \"the length and the\nbreadth and the height of it are equal.\" This is because the cube is the\nfigure of perfect stability, and thus represents Truth, which can never\nbe overthrown. Turn it on what side you will, it still remains the\nperfect cube, always standing upright; you cannot upset it. This figure,\nthen, represents the manifestation in concrete solidity of that central\nlife-giving energy, which is not itself any one plane but generates all\nplanes, the planes of the above and of the below and of all four sides.\nBut it is at the same time a city, a place of habitation; and this is\nbecause that which is \"the within\" is Living Spirit, which has its\ndwelling there.\n\nAs one plane of the cube implies all the other planes and also \"the\nwithin,\" so any plane of manifestation implies the others and also that\n\"within\" which generates them all. Now, if we would make any progress in\nthe spiritual side of science--and _every_ department of science has its\nspiritual side--we must always keep our minds fixed upon this \"innermost\nwithin\" which contains the potential of all outward manifestation, the\n\"fourth dimension\" which generates the cube; and our common forms of\nspeech show how intuitively we do this. We speak of the spirit in which\nan act is done, of entering into the spirit of a game, of the spirit of\nthe time, and so on. Everywhere our intuition points out the spirit as\nthe true essence of things; and it is only when we commence arguing\nabout them from without, instead of from within, that our true\nperception of their nature is lost.\n\nThe scientific study of spirit consists in following up intelligently\nand according to definite method the same principle that now only\nflashes upon us at intervals fitfully and vaguely. When we once realise\nthat this universal and unlimited power of spirit is at the root of all\nthings and of ourselves also, then we have obtained the key to the whole\nposition; and, however far we may carry our studies in spiritual\nscience, we shall nowhere find anything else but particular developments\nof this one universal principle. \"The Kingdom of Heaven is _within_\nyou.\"\n\n\nIII\n\nI have laid stress on the fact that the \"innermost within\" of all things\nis living Spirit, and that the Science of Spirit is distinguished from\nthe Science of Matter in that it contemplates Energy under an aspect of\nresponsive intelligence which does not fall within the scope of physical\nscience, as such. These are the two great points to lay hold of if we\nwould retain a clear idea of Spiritual Science, and not be misled by\narguments drawn from the physical side of Science only--the livingness\nof the originating principle which is at the heart of all things, and\nits intelligent and responsive nature. Its livingness is patent to our\nobservation, at any rate from the point where we recognise it in the\nvegetable kingdom; but its intelligence and responsiveness are not,\nperhaps, at once so obvious. Nevertheless, a little thought will soon\nlead us to recognise this also.\n\nNo one can deny that there is an intelligent order throughout all\nnature, for it requires the highest intelligence of our most\nhighly-trained minds to follow the steps of this universal intelligence\nwhich is always in advance of them. The more deeply we investigate the\nworld we live in, the more clear it must become to us that all our\nscience is the translation into words or numerical symbols of that order\nwhich already exists. If the clear statement of this existing order is\nthe highest that the human intellect can reach, this surely argues a\ncorresponding intelligence in the power which gives rise to this great\nsequence of order and interrelation, so as to constitute one harmonious\nwhole. Now, unless we fall back on the idea of a workman working upon\nmaterial external to himself--in which case we have to explain the\nphenomenon of the workman--the only conception we can form of this power\nis that it is the Living Spirit inherent in the heart of every atom,\ngiving it outward form and definition, and becoming in it those\nintrinsic polarities which constitute its characteristic nature.\n\nThere is no random work here. Every attraction and repulsion acts with\nits proper force collecting the atoms into molecules, the molecules into\ntissues, the tissues into organs, and the organs into individuals. At\neach stage of the progress we get the sum of the intelligent forces\nwhich operate in the constituent parts, _plus_ a higher degree of\nintelligence which we may regard as the collective intelligence superior\nto that of the mere sum-total of the parts, something which belongs to\nthe individual _as a whole_, and not to the parts as such. These are\nfacts which can be amply proved from physical science; and they also\nsupply a great law in spiritual science, which is that in any collective\nbody the intelligence of the whole is superior to that of the sum of the\nparts.\n\nSpirit is at the root of all things, and thoughtful observation shows\nthat its operation is guided by unfailing intelligence which adapts\nmeans to ends, and harmonises the entire universe of manifested being in\nthose wonderful ways which physical science renders clearer every day;\nand this intelligence must be in the generating spirit itself, because\nthere is no other source from which it could proceed. On these grounds,\ntherefore, we may distinctly affirm that Spirit is intelligent, and that\nwhatever it does is done by the intelligent adaptation of means to ends.\n\nBut Spirit is also responsive. And here we have to fall back upon the\nlaw above stated, that the mere sum of the intelligence of Spirit in\nlower degrees of manifestation is not equal to the intelligence of the\ncomplex _whole_, as a whole. This is a radical law which we cannot\nimpress upon our minds too deeply. The degree of spiritual intelligence\nis marked by the wholeness of the organism through which it finds\nexpression; and therefore the more highly organised being has a degree\nof spirit which is superior to, and consequently capable of exercising\ncontrol over, all lower or less fully-integrated degrees of spirit; and\nthis being so, we can now begin to see why the spirit that is the\n\"innermost within\" of all things is responsive as well as intelligent.\n\nBeing intelligent, it _knows_, and spirit being ultimately all there is,\nthat which it knows is itself. Hence it is that power which recognises\nitself; and accordingly the lower powers of it recognise its higher\npowers, and by the law of attraction they are bound to respond to the\nhigher degrees of themselves. On this general principle, therefore,\nspirit, under whatever exterior revealed, is necessarily intelligent and\nresponsive. But intelligence and responsiveness imply personality; and\nwe may therefore now advance a step further and argue that _all_ spirit\ncontains the elements of personality, even though, in any particular\ninstance, it may not yet be expressed as that individual personality\nwhich we find in ourselves.\n\nIn short, spirit is always personal in its nature, even when it has not\nyet attained to that degree of synthesis which is sufficient to render\nit personal in manifestation. In ourselves the synthesis has proceeded\nfar enough to reach that degree, and therefore we recognise ourselves as\nthe manifestation of personality. The human kingdom is the kingdom of\nthe manifestation of that personality, which is of the essence of\nspiritual substance on every plane. Or, to put the whole argument in a\nsimpler form, we may say that our own personality must necessarily have\nhad its origin in that which is personal, on the principle that you\ncannot get more out of a bag than it contains.\n\nIn ourselves, therefore, we find that more perfect synthesis of the\nspirit into manifested personality which is wanting in the lower\nkingdoms of nature, and, accordingly, since spirit is necessarily that\nwhich knows itself and must, therefore, recognise its own degrees in its\nvarious modes, the spirit in all degrees below that of human personality\nis bound to respond to itself in that superior degree which constitutes\nhuman individuality; and this is the basis of the power of human thought\nto externalise itself in infinite forms of its own ordering.\n\nBut if the subordination of the lower degrees of spirit to the higher is\none of the fundamental laws which lie at the bottom of the creative\npower of thought, there is another equally fundamental law which places\na salutary restraint upon the abuse of that power. It is the law that we\ncan command the powers of the universal for our own purposes only in\nproportion as we first realise and obey their generic character. We can\nemploy water for any purpose which does not require it to run up-hill,\nand we can utilise electricity for any purpose that does not require it\nto pass from a lower to a higher potential.\n\nSo with that universal power which we call the Spirit. It has an\ninherent generic character with which we must comply if we would employ\nit for our specific purposes, and this character is summed up in the one\nword \"goodness.\" The Spirit is Life, hence its generic tendency must\nalways be lifeward or to the increase of the livingness of every\nindividual. And since it is universal it can have no particular\ninterests to serve, and therefore its action must always be equally for\nthe benefit of all. This is the generic character of spirit; and just as\nwater, or electricity, or any other of the physical forces of the\nuniverse, will not work contrary to their generic character, so Spirit\nwill not work contrary to its generic character.\n\nThe inference is obvious. If we would use Spirit we must follow the law\nof the Spirit which is \"Goodness.\" This is the only limitation. If our\noriginating intention is good, we may employ the spiritual power for\nwhat purpose we will. And how is \"goodness\" to be defined? Simply by the\nchild's definition that what is bad is not good, and that what is good\nis not bad; we all know the difference between bad and good\ninstinctively. If we will conform to this principle of obedience to the\ngeneric law of the Spirit, all that remains is for us to study the law\nof the proportion which exists between the more and less fully\nintegrated modes of Spirit, and then bring our knowledge to bear with\ndetermination.\n\n\nIV\n\nThe law of spirit, to which our investigation has now led us, is of the\nvery widest scope. We have followed it up from the conception of the\nintelligence of spirit, subsisting in the initial atoms, to the\naggregation of this intelligence as the conscious identity of the\nindividual. But there is no reason why this law should cease to operate\nat this point, or at any point short of the whole. The test of the\nsoundness of any principle is that it can operate as effectively on a\nlarge scale as on a small one, that though the nature of its field is\ndetermined by the nature of the principle itself, the extent of its\nfield is unlimited. If, therefore, we continue to follow up the law we\nhave been considering, it leads us to the conception of a unit of\nintelligence as far superior to that of the individual man as the unity\nof his individual intelligence is superior to that of the intelligence\nof any single atom of his body; and thus we may conceive of a collective\nindividuality representing the spiritual character of any aggregate of\nmen, the inhabitants of a city, a district, a country, or of the entire\nworld.\n\nNor need the process stop here. On the same principle there would be a\nsuperior collective individuality for the humanity of the entire solar\nsystem, and finally we reach the conception of a supreme intelligence\nbringing together in itself the collective individualities of all the\nsystems in the universe. This is by no means a merely fanciful notion.\nWe find it as the law by which our own conscious individuality is\nconstituted; and we find the analogous principle working universally on\nthe physical plane. It is known to physical science as the \"law of\ninverse squares,\" by which the forces of reciprocal attraction or\nrepulsion, as the case may be, are not merely equivalent to the sum of\nthe forces emitted by the two bodies concerned, but are equivalent to\nthese two forces multiplied together and divided by the square of the\ndistance between them, so that the resultant power continually rises in\na rapidly-increasing ratio as the two reciprocally exciting bodies\napproach one another.\n\nSince this law is so universal throughout physical nature, the doctrine\nof continuity affords every ground for supposing that its analogue holds\ngood in respect of spiritual nature. We must never lose sight of the\nold-world saying that \"a truth on one plane is a truth on all.\" If a\nprinciple exists at all it exists universally. We must not allow\nourselves to be misled by appearances; we must remember that the\nperceptible results of the working of any principle consist of two\nfactors--the principle itself or the active factor, and the\nsubject-matter on which it acts or the passive factor; and that while\nthe former is invariable, the latter is variable, and that the operation\nof the same invariable upon different variables must necessarily produce\na variety of results. This at once becomes evident if we state it\nmathematically; for example, _a_, _b_ or _c_, multiplied by _x_ give\nrespectively the results _ax_, _bx_, _cx_, which differ materially from\none another, though the factor _x_ always remains the same.\n\nThis law of the generation of power by attraction applies on the\nspiritual as well as on the physical plane, and acts with the same\nmathematical precision on both; and thus the human individuality\nconsists, not in the mere aggregation of its parts, whether spiritual or\ncorporeal, but in the _unity_ of power resulting from the intimate\nassociation into which those parts enter with one another, which unity,\naccording to this law of the generation of power by attraction, is\ninfinitely superior, both in intelligence and power, to any less fully\nintegrated mode of spirit. Thus a natural principle, common alike to\nphysical and spiritual law, fully accounts for all claims that have ever\nbeen made for the creative power of our thought over all things that\ncome within the circle of our own particular life. Thus it is that each\nman is the centre of his own universe, and has the power, by directing\nhis own thought, to control all things therein.\n\nBut, as I have said above, there is no reason why this principle should\nnot be recognised as expanding from the individual until it embraces\nthe entire universe. Each man, as the centre of his own world, is\nhimself centred in a higher system in which he is only one of\ninnumerable similar atoms, and this system again in a higher until we\nreach the supreme centre of all things; intelligence and power increase\nfrom centre to centre in a ratio rising with inconceivable rapidity,\naccording to the law we are now investigating, until they culminate in\nillimitable intelligence and power commensurate with All-Being.\n\nNow we have seen that the relation of man to the lower modes of spirit\nis that of superiority and command, but what is his relation to these\nhigher modes? In any harmoniously constituted system the relation of the\npart to the whole never interferes with the free operation of the part\nin the performance of its own functions; but, on the contrary, it is\nprecisely by means of this relation that each part is maintained in a\nposition to discharge all functions for which it is fitted. Thus, then,\nthe subordination of the individual man to the supreme mind, so far from\ncurtailing his liberty, is the very condition which makes liberty\npossible, or even life itself. The generic movement of the whole\nnecessarily carries the part along with it; and so long as the part\nallows itself thus to be carried onwards there will be no hindrance to\nits free working in any direction for which it is fitted by its own\nindividuality. This truth was set forth in the old Hindu religion as the\nCar of Jaggarnath--an ideal car only, which later ages degraded into a\nterribly material symbol. \"Jaggarnath\" means \"Lord of the Universe,\" and\nthus signifies the Universal Mind. This, by the law of Being, must\nalways move forward regardless of any attempts of individuals to\nrestrain it. Those who mount upon its car move onward with it to\nendlessly advancing evolution, while those who seek to oppose it must be\ncrushed beneath its wheels, for it is no respecter of persons.\n\nIf, therefore, we would employ the universal law of spirit to control\nour own little individual worlds, we must also recognise it in respect\nto the supreme centre round which we ourselves revolve. But not in the\nold way of supposing that this centre is a capricious Individuality\nexternal to ourselves, which can be propitiated or cajoled into giving\nthe good which he is not good enough to give of his own proper motion.\nSo long as we retain this infantile idea we have not come into the\nliberty which results from the knowledge of the certainty of Law.\nSupreme Mind is Supreme Law, and can be calculated upon with the same\naccuracy as when manifested in any of the particular laws of the\nphysical world; and the result of studying, understanding and obeying\nthis Supreme Law is that we thereby acquire the power to _use_ it. Nor\nneed we fear it with the old fear which comes from ignorance, for we can\nrely with confidence upon the proposition that the whole can have no\ninterest adverse to the parts of which it is composed; and conversely\nthat the part can have no interest adverse to the whole.\n\nOur ignorance of our relation to the whole may make us appear to have\nseparate interests, but a truer knowledge must always show such an idea\nto be mistaken. For this reason, therefore, the same responsiveness of\nspirit which manifests itself as obedience to our wishes, when we look\nto those degrees of spirit which are lower than her own individuality,\nmust manifest itself as a necessary inflowing of intelligence and power\nwhen we look to the infinity of spirit, of which our individuality is a\nsingular expression, because in so looking upwards we are looking for\nthe higher degrees of _ourself_.\n\nThe increased vitality of the parts means the increased vitality of the\nwhole, and since it is impossible to conceive of spirit otherwise than\nas a continually expanding principle of Life, the demand for such\nincreased vitality must, by the inherent nature of spirit, be met by a\ncorresponding supply of continually growing intelligence and power.\nThus, by a natural law, the demand creates the supply, and this supply\nmay be freely applied to any and every subject-matter that commends\nitself to us. There is no limit to the supply of this energy other than\nwhat we ourselves put to it by our thought; nor is there any limit to\nthe purposes we may make it serve other than the one grand Law of Order,\nwhich says that good things used for wrong purposes become evil. The\nconsideration of the intelligent and responsive nature of spirit shows\nthat there can be no limitations but these. The one is a limitation\ninherent in spirit itself, and the other is a limitation which has no\nroot except in our own ignorance.\n\nIt is true that to maintain our healthy action within the circle of our\nown individual world we must continually move forward with the movement\nof the larger whole of which we form a part. But this does not imply any\nrestriction of our liberty to make the fullest use of our lives in\naccordance with those universal principles of life upon which they are\nfounded; for there is not one law for the part and another for the\nwhole, but the same law of Being permeates both alike. In proportion,\ntherefore, as we realise the true law of our own individuality we shall\nfind that it is one with the law of progress for the race. The\ncollective individuality of mankind is only the reproduction on a larger\nscale of the personal individuality; and whatever action truly develops\nthe inherent powers of the individual must necessarily be in line with\nthat forward march of the universal mind which is the evolution of\nhumanity as a whole.\n\nSelfishness is a narrow view of our own nature which loses sight of our\nplace in relation to the whole, not perceiving that it is from this very\nrelation that our life is drawn. It is ignorance of our own\npossibilities and consequent limitation of our own powers. If,\ntherefore, the evidence of harmonious correlation throughout the\nphysical world leads irresistibly to the inference of intelligent\nspirit as the innermost within of all things, we must recognise\nourselves also as individual manifestations of the same spirit which\nexpresses itself throughout the universe as that power of intelligent\nresponsiveness which is Love.\n\n\nV\n\nThus we find ourselves to be a necessary and integral part of the\nInfinite Harmony of All-Being; not merely recognising this great truth\nas a vague intuition, but as the logical and unavoidable result of the\nuniversal Life-principle which permeates all Nature. We find our\nintuition was true because we have discovered the law which gave rise to\nit; and now intuition and investigation both unite in telling us of our\nown individual place in the great scheme of things. Even the most\nadvanced among us have, as yet, little more than the faintest\nadumbration of what this place is. It is the place of _power_. Towards\nthose higher modes of spirit which we speak of as \"the universal,\" the\nlaw of man's inmost nature makes him as a lens, drawing into the focus\nof his own individuality all that he will of light and power in streams\nof inexhaustible supply; and towards the lower modes of spirit, which\nform for each one the sphere of his own particular world, man thus\nbecomes the directive centre of energy and order.\n\nCan we conceive of any position containing greater possibilities than\nthese? The circle of this vital influence may expand as the individual\ngrows into the wider contemplation of his unity with Infinite Being; but\nany more comprehensive law of relationship it would be impossible to\nformulate. Emerson has rightly said that a little algebra will often do\nfar more towards clearing our ideas than a large amount of poetic\nsimile. Algebraically it is a self-evident proposition that any\ndifference between various powers of _x_ disappears when they are\ncompared with _x_ multiplied into itself to infinity, because there can\nbe no ratio between any determinate power, however high, and the\ninfinite; and thus the relation between the individual and All-Being\nmust always remain the same.[1]\n\n    [Footnote 1: X^{2} : X^{n} :: X^{10} X^{n}.]\n\nBut this in no way interferes with the law of growth, by which the\nindividual rises to higher and higher powers of his own individuality.\nThe unchangeableness of the relation between all determinate powers of\n_x_ and infinity does not affect the relations of the different powers\nof _x_ between themselves; but rather the fact that the multiplication\nof _x_ into itself to infinity is mentally conceivable is the very proof\nthat there is no limit to the extent to which it is possible to raise\n_x_ in its determinate powers.\n\nI trust unmathematical readers will pardon my using this method of\nstatement for the benefit of others to whom it will carry conviction. A\nrelation once clearly grasped in its mathematical aspect becomes\nthenceforth one of the unalterable truths of the universe, no longer a\nthing to be argued about, but an axiom which may be assumed as the\nfoundation on which to build up the edifice of further knowledge. But,\nlaying aside mathematical formulae, we may say that because the Infinite\nis infinite there can be no limit to the extent to which the vital\nprinciple of growth may draw upon it, and therefore there is no limit to\nthe expansion of the individual's powers. Because we are _what_ we are,\nwe may _become_ what we will.\n\nThe Kabbalists tell us of \"the lost word,\" the word of power which\nmankind has lost. To him who discovers this word all things are\npossible. Is this mirific word really lost? Yes, and No. It is the open\nsecret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it. It tells\nus, \"The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.\" It is\nthe most familiar of all words, the word which in our heart we realise\nas the centre of our conscious being, and which is in our mouth a\nhundred times a day. It is the word \"I AM.\" Because I am what I am, I\nmay be what I will to be. My individuality is one of the modes in which\nthe Infinite expresses itself, and therefore I am myself that very power\nwhich I find to be the innermost within of all things.\n\nTo me, thus realising the great unity of all Spirit, the infinite is not\nthe indefinite, for I see it to be the infinite of _Myself_. It is the\nvery same I AM that I am; and this not by any act of uncertain favour,\nbut by the law of polarity which is the basis of all Nature. The law of\npolarity is that law according to which everything attains completion by\nmanifesting itself in the opposite direction to that from which it\nstarted. It is the simple law by which there can be no inside without an\noutside, nor one end of a stick without an opposite end.\n\nLife is motion, and all motion is the appearance of energy at another\npoint, and, where any work has been done, under another form than that\nin which it originated; but wherever it reappears, and in whatever new\nform, the vivifying energy is still the same. This is nothing else than\nthe scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy, and it is upon\nthis well-recognised principle that our perception of ourselves as\nintegral portions of the great universal power is based.\n\nWe do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have\ntaught that all power is in the \"I AM,\" and to accept this teaching by\nfaith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the\nmore excellent way is to know _why_ they taught thus, and to realise for\nourselves this first great law which all the master-minds have realised\nthroughout the ages. It is indeed true that the \"lost word\" is the one\nmost familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost,\nnot the word, but the realisation of its power. And as the infinite\ndepths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us,\nwe begin to realise the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very\npower which we seek.\n\nIt is the polarisation of Spirit from the universal into the particular,\ncarrying with it all its inherent powers, just as the smallest flame has\nall the qualities of fire. The I AM in the individual is none other than\nthe I AM in the universal. It is the same Power working in the smaller\nsphere of which the individual is the centre. This is the great truth\nwhich the ancients set forth under the figure of the Macrocosm and the\nMicrocosm, the lesser I AM reproducing the precise image of the greater,\nand of which the Bible tells us when it speaks of man as the image of\nGod.\n\nNow the immense practical importance of this principle is that it\naffords the key to the great law that \"as a man thinks so he is.\" We are\noften asked why this should be, and the answer may be stated as follows:\nWe know by personal experience that we realise our own livingness in two\nways, by our power to act and our susceptibility to feel; and when we\nconsider Spirit in the absolute we can only conceive of it as these two\nmodes of livingness carried to infinity. This, therefore, means infinite\nsusceptibility. There can be no question as to the degree of\nsensitiveness, for Spirit _is_ sensitiveness, and is thus infinitely\nplastic to the slightest touch that is brought to bear upon it; and\nhence every thought we formulate sends its vibrating currents out into\nthe infinite of Spirit, producing there currents of like quality but of\nfar vaster power.\n\nBut Spirit in the Infinite is the Creative Power of the universe, and\nthe impact of our thought upon it thus sets in motion a veritable\ncreative force. And if this law holds good of one thought it holds good\nof all, and hence we are continually creating for ourselves a world of\nsurroundings which accurately reproduces the complexion of our own\nthoughts. Persistent thoughts will naturally produce a greater external\neffect than casual ones not centred upon any particular object.\nScattered thoughts which recognise no principle of unity will fail to\nreproduce any principle of unity. The thought that we are weak and have\nno power over circumstances results in inability to control\ncircumstances, and the thought of power produces power.\n\nAt every moment we are dealing with an infinitely sensitive medium which\nstirs creative energies that give form to the slightest of our\nthought-vibrations. This power is inherent in us because of our\nspiritual nature, and we cannot divest ourselves of it. It is our truly\ntremendous heritage because it is a power which, if not intelligently\nbrought into lines of orderly activity, will spend its uncontrolled\nforces in devastating energy. If it is not used to build up, it will\ndestroy. And there is nothing exceptional in this: it is merely the\nreappearance on the plane of the universal and undifferentiated of the\nsame principle that pervades all the forces of Nature. Which of these is\nnot destructive unless drawn off into some definite direction?\nAccumulated steam, accumulated electricity, accumulated water, will at\nlength burst forth, carrying destruction all around; but, drawn off\nthrough suitable channels, they become sources of constructive power,\ninexhaustible as Nature itself.\n\nAnd here let me pause to draw attention to this idea of accumulation.\nThe greater the accumulation of energy, the greater the danger if it be\nnot directed into a proper order, and the greater the power if it be.\nFortunately for mankind the physical forces, such as electricity, do not\nusually subsist in a highly concentrated form. Occasionally\ncircumstances concur to produce such concentration, but as a rule the\nelements of power are more or less equally dispersed. Similarly, for the\nmass of mankind, this spiritual power has not yet reached a very high\ndegree of concentration. Every mind, it is true, must be in some measure\na centre of concentration, for otherwise it would have no conscious\nindividuality; but the power of the individualised mind rapidly rises as\nit recognises its unity with the Infinite life, and its\nthought-currents, whether well or ill directed, then assume a\nproportionately great significance.\n\nHence the ill effects of wrongly directed thought are in some degree\nmitigated in the great mass of mankind, and many causes are in operation\nto give a right direction to their thoughts, though the thinkers\nthemselves are ignorant of what thought-power is. To give a right\ndirection to the thoughts of ignorant thinkers is the purpose of much\nreligious teaching, which these uninstructed ones must accept by faith\nin bare authority because they are unable to realise its true import.\nBut notwithstanding the aids thus afforded to mankind, the general\nstream of unregulated thought cannot but have an adverse tendency, and\nhence the great object to which the instructed mind directs its power is\nto free itself from the entanglements of disordered thought, and to help\nothers to do the same. To escape from this entanglement is to attain\nperfect Liberty, which is perfect Power.\n\n\nVI\n\nThe entanglement from which we need to escape has its origin in the very\nsame principle which gives rise to liberty and power. It is the same\nprinciple applied under inverted conditions. And here I would draw\nparticular attention to the law that any sequence followed out in an\ninverted order must produce an inverted result, for this goes a long way\nto explain many of the problems of life. The physical world affords\nendless examples of the working of \"inversion.\" In the dynamo the\nsequence commences with mechanical force which is ultimately transformed\ninto the subtler power of electricity; but invert this order, commence\nby generating electricity, and it becomes converted into mechanical\nforce, as in the motor. In the one order the rotation of a wheel\nproduces electricity, and in the opposite order electricity produces the\nrotation of a wheel. Or to exhibit the same principle in the simplest\narithmetical form, if 10/2=5 then 10/5=2. \"Inversion\" is a factor of the\ngreatest magnitude and has to be reckoned with; but I must content\nmyself here with only indicating the general principle that the same\npower is capable of producing diametrically opposite effects if it be\napplied under opposite conditions, a truth which the so-called\n\"magicians\" of the middle ages expressed by two triangles placed\ninversely to one another. We are apt to fall into the mistake of\nsupposing that results of opposite character require powers of opposite\ncharacter to produce them, and our conceptions of things in general\nbecome much simplified when we recognise that this is not the case, but\nthat the same power will produce opposite results as it starts from\nopposite poles.\n\nAccordingly the inverted application of the same principle which gives\nrise to liberty and power constitutes the entanglement from which we\nneed to be delivered before power and liberty can be attained, and this\nprinciple is expressed in the law that \"as a man thinks so he is.\" This\nis the basic law of the human mind. It is Descarte's \"_cogito, ergo\nsum_.\" If we trace consciousness to its seat we find that it is purely\nsubjective. Our external senses would cease to exist were it not for the\nsubjective consciousness which perceives what they communicate to it.\n\nThe idea conveyed to the subjective consciousness may be false, but\nuntil some truer idea is more forcibly impressed in its stead it\nremains a substantial reality to the mind which gives it objective\nexistence. I have seen a man speak to the stump of a tree which in the\nmoonlight looked like a person standing in a garden, and repeatedly ask\nits name and what it wanted; and so far as the speaker's conception was\nconcerned the garden contained a living man who refused to answer. Thus\nevery mind lives in a world to which its own perceptions give objective\nreality. Its perceptions may be erroneous, but they nevertheless\nconstitute the very reality of life for the mind that gives form to\nthem. No other life than the life we lead in our own mind is possible;\nand hence the advance of the whole race depends on substituting the\nideas of good, of liberty, and of order for their opposites. And this\ncan be done only by giving some sufficient reason for accepting the new\nidea in place of the old. For each one of us our beliefs constitute our\nfacts, and these beliefs can be changed only by discovering some ground\nfor a different belief.\n\nThis is briefly the rationale of the maxim that \"as a man thinks so he\nis\"; and from the working of this principle all the issues of life\nproceed. Now man's first perception of the law of cause and effect in\nrelation to his own conduct is that the result always partakes of the\nquality of the cause; and since his argument is drawn from external\nobservation only, he regards external acts as the only causes he can\neffectively set in operation. Hence when he attains sufficient moral\nenlightenment to realise that many of his acts have been such as to\nmerit retribution he fears retribution as their proper result. Then by\nreason of the law that \"thoughts are things,\" the evils which he fears\ntake form and plunge him into adverse circumstances, which again prompt\nhim into further wrong acts, and from these come a fresh crop of fears\nwhich in their turn become externalised into fresh evils, and thus\narises a circulus from which there is no escape so long as the man\nrecognises nothing but his external acts as a causative power in the\nworld of his surroundings.\n\nThis is the Law of Works, the Circle of Karma, the Wheel of Fate, from\nwhich there appears to be no escape, because the complete fulfilment of\nthe law of our moral nature to-day is only sufficient for to-day and\nleaves no surplus to compensate the failure of yesterday. This is the\nnecessary law of things as they appear from external observation only;\nand, so long as this conception remains, the law of each man's\nsubjective consciousness makes it a reality for him. What is needed,\ntherefore, is to establish the conception that external acts are NOT the\nonly causative power, but that there is another law of causation,\nnamely, that of pure Thought. This is the Law of Faith, the Law of\nLiberty; for it introduces us to a power which is able to inaugurate a\nnew sequence of causation not related to any past actions.\n\nBut this change of mental attitude cannot be brought about till we have\nlaid hold of some fact which is sufficient to afford a reason for the\nchange. We require some solid ground for our belief in this higher law.\nUltimately we find this ground in the great Truth of the eternal\nrelation between spirit in the universal and in the particular. When we\nrealise that substantially there is nothing else _but_ spirit, and that\nwe ourselves are reproductions in individuality of the Intelligence and\nLove which rule the universe, we have reached the firm standing ground\nwhere we find that we can send forth our Thought to produce any effect\nwe will. We have passed beyond the idea of two opposites requiring\nreconciliation, into that of a duality in which there is no other\nopposition than that of the inner and the outer of the same unity, the\npolarity which is inherent in all Being, and we then realise that in\nvirtue of this unity our Thought is possessed of illimitable creative\npower, and that it is free to range where it will, and is by no means\nbound down to accept as inevitable the consequences which, if unchecked\nby renovated thought, would flow from our past actions.\n\nIn its own independent creative power the mind has found the way out of\nthe fatal circle in which its previous ignorance of the highest law had\nimprisoned it. The Unity of the Spirit is found to result in perfect\nLiberty; the old sequence of Karma has been cut off, and a new and\nhigher order has been introduced. In the old order the line of thought\nreceived its quality from the quality of the actions, and since they\nalways fell short of perfection, the development of a higher\nthought-power from this root was impossible. This is the order in which\neverything is seen from _without_. It is an inverted order. But in the\ntrue order everything is seen from _within_.\n\nIt is the thought which determines the quality of the action, and not\n_vice versa_, and since thought is free, it is at liberty to direct\nitself to the highest principles, which thus spontaneously reproduce\nthemselves in the outward acts, so that both thoughts and actions are\nbrought into harmony with the great eternal laws and become one in\npurpose with the Universal Mind. The man realises that he is no longer\nbound by the consequences of his former deeds, done in the time of his\nignorance, in fact, that he never was bound by them except so far as he\nhimself gave them this power by false conceptions of the truth; and thus\nrecognising himself for what he really is--the expression of the\nInfinite Spirit in individual personality--he finds that he is free,\nthat he is a \"partaker of Divine nature,\" not losing his identity, but\nbecoming more and more fully himself with an ever-expanding perfection,\nfollowing out a line of evolution whose possibilities are inexhaustible.\n\nBut there is not in all men this knowledge. For the most part they still\nlook upon God as an individual Being external to themselves, and what\nthe more instructed man sees to be unity of mind and identity of nature\nappear to the less advanced to be an external reconciliation between\nopposing personalities. Hence the whole range of conceptions which may\nbe described as the Messianic Idea. This idea is not, as some seem to\nsuppose, a misconception of the truth of Being. On the contrary, when\nrightly understood it will be found to imply the very widest grasp of\nthat truth; and it is from the platform of this supreme knowledge alone\nthat an idea so comprehensive in its adaptation to every class of mind\ncould have been evolved. It is the translation of the relations arising\nfrom the deepest laws of Being into terms which can be realised even by\nthe most unlearned; a translation arranged with such consummate skill\nthat, as the mind grows in spirituality, every stage of advance is met\nby a corresponding unfolding of the Divine meaning; while yet even the\ncrudest apprehension of the idea implied is sufficient to afford the\nrequired basis for an entire renovation of the man's thoughts concerning\nhimself, giving him a standing ground from which to think of himself as\nno longer bound by the law of retribution for past offences, but as free\nto follow out the new law of Liberty as a child of God.\n\nThe man's conception of the _modus operandi_ of this emancipation may\ntake the form of the grossest anthropomorphism or the most childish\nnotions as to the satisfaction of the Divine justice by vicarious\nsubstitution, but the working result will be the same. He has got what\nsatisfies him as a ground for thinking of himself in a perfectly new\nlight; and since the states of our subjective consciousness constitute\nthe realities of our life, to afford him a convincing ground for\n_thinking_ himself free, is to make him free.\n\nWith increasing light he may find that his first explanation of the\n_modus operandi_ was inadequate; but when he reaches this stage, further\ninvestigation will show him that the great truth of his liberty rests\nupon a firmer foundation than the conventional interpretation of\ntraditional dogmas, and that it has its roots in the great law of\nNature, which are never doubtful, and which can never be overturned. And\nit is precisely because their whole action has its root in the\nunchangeable laws of Mind that there exists a perpetual necessity for\npresenting to men something which they can lay hold of as a sufficient\nground for that change of mental attitude, by which alone they can be\nrescued from the fatal circle which is figured under the symbol of the\nOld Serpent.\n\nThe hope and adumbration of such a new principle has formed the\nsubstance of all religions in all ages, however misapprehended by the\nignorant worshippers; and, whatever our individual opinions may be as to\nthe historical facts of Christianity, we shall find that the great\nfigure of liberated and perfected humanity which forms its centre\nfulfils this desire of all nations in that it sets forth their great\nideal of Divine power intervening to rescue man by becoming one with\nhim. This is the conception presented to us, whether we apprehend it in\nthe most literally material sense, or as the ideal presentation of the\ndeepest philosophic study of mental laws, or in whatever variety of ways\nwe may combine these two extremes. The ultimate idea impressed upon the\nmind must always be the same: it is that there is a Divine warrant for\nknowing ourselves to be the children of God and \"partakers of the Divine\nnature\"; and when we thus realise that there is solid ground for\n_believing_ ourselves free, by force of this very belief we _become_\nfree.\n\nThe proper outcome of the study of the laws of spirit which constitute\nthe inner side of things is not the gratification of a mere idle\ncuriosity, nor the acquisition of abnormal powers, but the attainment of\nour spiritual liberty, without which no further progress is possible.\nWhen we have reached this goal the old things have passed away and all\nthings have become new. The mystical seven days of the old creation have\nbeen fulfilled, and the first day of the new week dawns upon us with its\nresurrection to a new life, expressing on the highest plane that great\ndoctrine of the \"octave\" which the science of the ancient temples traced\nthrough Nature, and which the science of the present day endorses,\nthough ignorant of its supreme significance.\n\nWhen we have thus been made free by recognising our oneness with\nInfinite Being, we have reached the termination of the old series of\nsequences and have gained the starting-point of the new. The old\nlimitations are found never to have had any existence save in our own\nmisapprehension of the truth, and one by one they fall off as we advance\ninto clearer light. We find that the Life-Spirit we seek is _in\nourselves_; and, having this for our centre, our relation to all else\nbecomes part of a wondrous living Order in which every part works in\nsympathy with the whole, and the whole in sympathy with every part, a\nharmony wide as infinitude, and in which there are no limitations save\nthose imposed by the Law of Love.\n\nI have endeavoured in this short series of articles to sketch briefly\nthe principal points of relation between Spirit in ourselves and in our\nsurroundings. This subject has employed the intelligence of mankind from\ngrey antiquity to the present day, and no one thinker can ever hope to\ngrasp it in all its amplitude. But there are certain broad principles\nwhich we must all grasp, however we may specialise our studies in\ndetail, and these I have sought to indicate, with what degree of success\nthe reader must form his own opinion. Let him, however, lay firm hold of\nthis one fundamental truth, and the evolution of further truth from it\nis only a question of time--that there is only One Spirit, however many\nthe modes of its manifestations, and that \"the Unity of the Spirit is\nthe Bond of Peace.\"\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE PERVERSION OF TRUTH\n\n\nThere is a very general recognition, which is growing day by day more\nand more widespread, that there is a sort of hidden power somewhere\nwhich it is within our ability, somehow or other, to use. The ideas on\nthis subject are exceedingly vague with the generality of people, but\nstill they are assuming a more and more definite form, and that which\nthey appear to be taking with the generality of the public is the\nrecognition of the power of suggestion. I suppose none of us doubts that\nthere is such a thing as the power of suggestion and that it can produce\nvery great results indeed, and that it is _par excellence_ a hidden\npower; it works behind the scenes, it works through what we know as the\nsubconscious mind, and consequently its activity is not immediately\nrecognisable, or the source from which it comes. Now there is in some\naspects, its usefulness, its benefit, but in other aspects there is a\nsource of danger, because a power of this kind is obviously one which\ncan be used either well or ill; in itself it is perfectly neutral, it\nall depends on the purpose for which it is used, and the character of\nthe agent who employs it.\n\nThis recognition of the power of suggestion is in many instances taking\na most undesirable form, and I commend to your notice, in support of\nthis observation, numerous advertisements in certain classes of\nmagazines--many of you must have seen many specimens of that\nkind--offering for a certain sum of money to put you in the way of\ngetting personal influence, mental power, power of suggestion, as the\nadvertisements very unblushingly put it, for any purpose that you may\ndesire. Some of them even go into further particulars, telling you the\nparticular sort of purposes for which you can employ this, all of them\ncertainly being such uses as no one should ever attempt to make of it.\n\nTherefore, this recognition of the power of suggestion, say even as a\nmere money-making power, to leave alone other misapplications of it, is\na feature which is taking hold, so to say, of certain sections of the\npublic who do not realise a higher platform in these things. It is\ndeplorable that it should be so, but it is in the nature of things\nunavoidable. You have a power which can be used affirmatively, and which\ncan be used negatively, which can be used for higher purposes, and can\nbe used for lower purposes, and consequently you will find numbers of\npeople who, as soon as they get hold of it, will at once think only of\nthe lower purposes, not of the higher.\n\nIn support of what I say--although this is by no means, I suppose,\nintended as a low application, probably it is intended as a high\napplication, but I cannot say I agree with it--but to show you that I\nam talking from actual facts I will read you a note which I have made\nfrom the _Daily Mail_, of the 20th January, that I daresay some of you\nmay have seen. It is an article headed \"Killing by Prayer,\" and the\narticle goes on to say that a certain circular has been sent round to\nthe different hospitals and other places where the study of vivisection\ngoes forward to this effect. In this circular, signed with the letters\n\"M. C.,\" the writer says that he accidentally heard of a person who was\nin the habit of praying from time to time for the death of one of our\nleading vivisectors and that always the man indicated died. That is what\nM. C. heard by chance during conversation at a hotel dinner. Then\nthinking over this, M. C. goes on to say that he (or she) tried praying\nthat the man most likely to cause suffering to innocent subjects by his\nexperiments might be removed, and the consequence was that about a\nfortnight later one of our most distinguished medical scientists died.\n\nI do not know who the scientist in question was; I daresay some of you\nmay be aware of the name. However, that is what the _Daily Mail_ tells\nus, and it also states that the Anti-Vivisection Societies were\nunanimous in condemning this circular, and very properly so. Now you see\nthe sender of that circular, whoever he was, obviously thought he was\ndoing a very good piece of work. I myself am by no means any friend of\nvivisection. I do not think any one can have a real knowledge of the\ntruth and remain in touch with it, but I certainly agreed with the\nAnti-Vivisection Societies in condemning such a circular as that. You\nsee there is the assumption that prayer, or mental power, can be used to\nremove a person from the stage of life, and M. C. claims that he did it\nin the case of this particular scientist.\n\nThat brings back another parallel, almost, I might say, an historical\nparallel, to our mind; that of Dr. Anna Kingsford, taking place perhaps\nsome forty years ago, who claimed--of course she was a very strong\nanti-vivisectionist--that by thought-power she caused the death of\nClaude Bernard, the great vivisection scientist of France. Certainly at\nthe time that she put out her forces he did die, but on the other hand,\nit has been remarked that it was from that very date that her own\nbreak-up commenced, and never ceased till she herself passed into the\nother world. So you see these actions are likely to revert to the\nsender, even if they are successful.\n\nNow in these two cases the ultimate object was not a low one, it was one\nwhich was supposed to be for the benefit of humanity and of the dumb\ncreation. But that does not justify the means. The maxim, \"The end\njustifies the means,\" is the greatest perversion of truth, and still\nmore so if this hidden power, the power of suggestion, is used to injure\nany one for a more personal motive than in these cases which I have\ncited. The lower the motive, the lower the action becomes, and to\nsuppose that because mental means are employed they make any difference\nin the nature of the act is a very great mistake.\n\nIt has been sometimes my painful duty to sentence people to death for\nmurder, and therefore I claim that I have a very fair knowledge of what\ndifferentiates murder from those cases in which life is taken which do\nnot amount to murder; and speaking from the judicial experience of a\ngreat many years, and the trial of a large number of cases which have\ninvolved the question whether the death penalty should be passed or not,\nI have no hesitation in saying that to kill by mental means is just as\nmuch murder as to kill by poison or the dagger. Speaking judicially, I\nshould have not the least hesitation in hanging any one who committed\nmurder by means of mental suggestion. Psychological crime, remember, is\ncrime just the same; possibly it is more deeply dyed crime, because of\nthe greater knowledge which must go along with it. I say that the\npsychological criminal is worse than the ordinary criminal.\n\nOne of the teachings of the Master is on this very point. I refer you to\nthe miracle of the fig tree. You know that he exhibited his power of\nkilling not a person, not even an animal, but a tree. And when the\ndisciples said to him, see how this tree which you cursed has withered\naway, he replied, Well, you can do exactly the same thing, and goes on\nto say, nothing shall be impossible to you. Therefore if you can kill\nfig trees, you can kill people, but, \"forgive, if you have aught\nagainst any,\" that your heavenly Father may forgive you.\n\nHe says in effect: now you have seen that this hidden power can be used\nto the destruction of life, at your peril use it otherwise than as a\nDivine power. Use it with prayer to God and with forgiveness of all\nagainst whom you have any sort of grudge or ill-feeling, and if its use\nis always prefaced in this way, according to the Master's directions,\nthen nobody can use it to injure another either in mind, body or estate.\n\nPerhaps some of you may be inclined to smile if I use the word\n\"sorcery,\" but at the present day, under one name or another, scientific\nor semi-scientific, it is nothing but the old-world sorcery which is\ntrying to find its way among us as the hidden power. Sorcery is the\ninverted use of spiritual power. That is the definition of it, and I\nspeak upon authority. I refer you to the Bible where you will find\nsorcery takes a prominent place among the list of those things which\nexclude from the heavenly Jerusalem; the heavenly Jerusalem not being a\ntown or a city in this place or that place, but the perfected state of\nman. Therefore, use sorcery, and you cannot reach that heavenly state.\n\nIt is on this account that we find in Revelations that wonderful\ndescription of two symbolical women; they represent two modes of the\nindividual soul. Of course they go further, they indicate national\nthings, race evolution and so on. Why? Because all national movements,\nall race evolutions, have their root in the development of the\nindividual. A nation or a race is only a collection of individuals, and\ntherefore if a principle once spreads from one individual to another, it\nspreads to the nation, it spreads to the race. So, therefore, these two\nsymbolical women represent primarily two modes of soul, two modes of\nthought. You know perfectly well the description of the two women. One,\nthe woman clothed with the sun, standing with the moon under her feet,\nand with a diadem of stars about her head; the other seated upon an\nearthly throne, holding a golden cup, and the cup is full of\nabominations. Those are the two women, and we know that one of them is\ncalled in the Scripture, Babylon, and we know which one that is. One of\nthe marks of this woman--mind you that means the class of\nindividuality--is the mark of sorcery, the mark of the inverted use of\nspiritual and mental powers.\n\nBut what is the end of it? The end is that this Babylon becomes the\nhabitation of devils, the hold--or, as the original Greek has it, the\nprison of evil, an unclean spirit, the cage of every unclean bird. That\nis the development which takes place in each individual who sets out to\nmisuse this mental power. The misuse may have a very small beginning, it\nmay be such as is taught in a certain school, which I am told exists in\nLondon, where shop assistants are trained in the use of magnetic power,\nin order to decoy or compel unknowing purchasers into buying what they\ndo not want. I am told there is such a school; I cannot quote you my\nauthority. That is a trifling matter. I go into a shop and spend two or\nthree shillings in buying something which, when I get home, I find\nabsolutely useless, and I say, \"How in the name of fortune did I come to\nbuy this rubbish?\" Well, I must have been hypnotised into it. It does\nnot make much difference to me, but it makes a great deal of difference\nto the young man or young woman who has hypnotised me, because it is the\nfirst step on the downward path. It may be only a matter of sixpence,\nbut it leads on step by step, and unless that path is retraced, the\nfinal end is that of Babylon. Therefore it is that St. John says, \"I\nheard a voice from Heaven saying, 'Come forth, my people, out of\nher'\"--and that is out of Babylon--\"come forth, my people, out of\nher\"--that is out of this inverted mode of using spiritual power--\"come\nforth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins\nand that ye shall receive not of her plague.\" Therefore, against this\ninverted use of the hidden power I warn every one from the first day\nwhen he begins to realise that there is such a thing as mental or\nspiritual power which can be exercised upon other persons.\n\nAre we then on this account to go continually in terror of suffering\nfrom malicious magnetism, fearing that some enemy here, or some enemy\nthere, is turning on this hidden power against us? If so, we should go\nin trepidation continually. No, I do not think there is the least\nreason for us to go in fear in this way. To begin with there are\ncomparatively few who know the law of suggestion sufficiently well to\nuse it either affirmatively or negatively, and of those who do know it\nsufficiently to make use of it, I am convinced that the majority would\nwish only to use it in all kindness, and for the benefit of the person\nconcerned. That, I am confident, is the attitude of nine-tenths, or I\nmight perhaps say ninety-nine hundredths, of the students of this\nsubject. They wish to do well, and look upon their use of mental power\nas an additional means of doing good. But after all, human nature is\nhuman nature, and there remains a small minority who are both able and\nwilling to use this hidden power injuriously for their own purposes.\n\nNow how are we to deal with this minority? The answer is simple. Just\nsee them in their true light, see them for what they really are, that is\nto say, persons who are ignorant of the real spiritual power. They think\nthey have it, and they have not. That is what it is. See them in their\ntrue light and their power will fall away from them. The real and\nultimate power is that of the affirmative; the negative is destructive,\nthe affirmative is constructive. So this negative use of the hidden\npower is to be destroyed by the use of the affirmative, the constructive\npower. The affirmative destroys the negative always in one way, and that\nis not by attacking it, not by running at it like a bull in a china\nshop; but by building up life. It is always a building power--it is\nbuilding, building, building life and more life, and when that life\ncomes in, the negative of necessity goes out.\n\nThe ultimate affirmative position is that of conscious union with the\nsource of life. Realise this, and you need not trouble yourself about\nany action of the negative whatever. Seek conscious union with the\nultimate, the first cause, that which is the starting point of all\nthings, whether in the universe or in yourself as the individual. That\nstarting point is always present; it is the same yesterday, to-day and\nforever, and you are the world and the universe in miniature, and it is\nalways there working in you if you will recognise it. Remember the\nreciprocity between yourself and this truly hidden power. The power of\nsuggestion is _a_ hidden power, but the power which creates all things\nis _the_ hidden power which is at the back of all things. Now realise\nthat it is in yourselves and you need trouble about the negative no\nlonger. This is the Bible teaching regarding Christ; and that teaching\nis to bring about this conscious personal union with the Divine\nAll-creating Spirit as a present living power to be used day by day.\n\nThe Bible tells us there is such a thing as the mystery of iniquity,\nthat is to say, the mystery of the spiritual power used invertedly, used\nfrom the diabolical standpoint; and when the Bible speaks of the mystery\nof iniquity, it means what it says. It tells us there are powers and\nprincipalities in the invisible world which are using precisely these\nsame methods on an enormous scale; because, remember one thing, there is\nnever any departure in any part of the Universe from the universal rule\nof law; what is law upon earth is law in Heaven, law in Hell, law in the\ninvisible and law in the visible; that never alters. What is done by any\nspiritual power, whether it is a spiritual power of evil or of good, is\ndone through the mental constitution which you have. No power alters the\nlaw of your own mind, but a power which knows the law of your mind can\nuse it.\n\nTherefore, it is so essential that you should know the law of your own\nmind and realise its continual amenability to suggestion. That being so,\nthe great thing is to get a standard for fundamental, unchangeable, and\nsufficient suggestion to which you can always turn, and which is\nautomatically impressed upon your subconscious mind so deeply that no\ncounter-suggestion can ever take its place; and that is the mystery of\nChrist, the Son of God. That is why we are told of the mystery of\nChrist, the mystery of godliness in opposition to the mystery of\niniquity; it is because both the mystery of the Divine and the mystery\nof the diabolical are seeking to work through you, and they can only\nwork through you by the law of your own mental constitution, that is to\nsay, by the law of subconscious mind acting and re-acting upon your\nconscious mind and upon your body, and so upon your circumstances.\n\nThe mystery of Christ is no mere ecclesiastical fiction. People have\ndistorted it, and made it not clear, by trying to explain what at that\ntime and in those days was not properly known, by trying to explain what\nthey did not know; because what is commonly now known regarding the laws\nof mind was unknown then. But now this light has come we begin to see\nthat the Bible teaching regarding Christ has a great and a deep meaning,\nand it is for these reasons St. Paul said to the Corinthians: \"Little\nchildren of whom I travail again in birth, until Christ be formed in\nyou.\" That is why he speaks of \"Christ in you the hope of glory,\" that\nis to say, the Christ conception, the realisation of the Christ\nprinciple as exhibited in the Christ person, brings you in touch with\nthe personal element in the Universal Spirit, the divine creative, first\nmoving Spirit of the Universe.\n\nThen you see that realising this as your fundamental fact, it is\ncontinually impressed upon your subconscious mind, even when you are not\nthinking of it, because that is the action of the subconscious mind to\ntake in and reason and argue in its own deductive way upon things of\nwhich you are not at the moment consciously thinking. Therefore it is\nthat the realisation of that great promise of redemption, which is the\nbackbone of the Bible from the first chapter of Genesis to the last\nchapter of Revelations, is according to a scientific law. It is not a\nhocus-pocus business, it is not a thing which has been arranged this way\nand might just as well have been arranged in some other; it is not so\nbecause some arbitrary Authority has commanded it, and the Authority\nmight just as well have commanded it some other way.\n\nNo, it is so because the more you examine it, the more you will find\nthat it is absolutely scientific; it is based upon the natural\nconstitution of the human mind. And it is therefore that \"Christ,\" as\nset forth in the Bible--whether in the Old Testament symbology, or in\nthe New Testament personality--\"is the fulfilling of the law,\" in the\nsense of specialising in the highest degree that which is common to all\nhumanity. As we realise this more and more, and specialise it more and\nmore, so we shall rise to higher and higher intercourse and more and\nmore consciousness of reciprocal identity, reciprocal life with the\nUniversal Power, which will raise us above any possibility of being\ntouched by any sort of malicious suggestion.\n\nIf anybody should be, then, so ill-willed towards us and so lamentably\nignorant of spiritual truth himself as to seek to exercise the power of\nmalicious suggestion against us, I pity the person who tries to do it.\nHe will get nothing out of it, because he is firing peas out of a\npea-shooter against an iron-clad war vessel. That is what it amounts to;\nbut for himself it amounts to something more. It is a true saying that\n\"Curses return home to roost.\" I think if we study these things, and\nconsider that there is a reason for them, we need not be in the least\nalarmed about negative suggestion, or malicious magnetism, of being\nbrought under the power of other minds, of being got over in some way,\nof being done out of our property, of being injured in our health, or\nbeing hurt in our circumstances, and so on.\n\nOf course if you lay yourself open to that kind of thing, you will get\nit. \"Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.\" That is why the Scripture\nsays, \"He that breaketh through a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.\" That\nis the serpent that some of us know something about, that is our old\nenemy Nahash. Some of you, at any rate, are sufficiently trained in the\ninner sciences to know the serpent Nahash. Break down the hedge, that is\nto say, the conscious control of your own mind, and above all the hedge\nof the Divine love and wisdom with which God himself will surround you\nin the personality of His Son, break down this hedge and of course\nNahash comes in. But if you keep your hedge--and remember the old Hebrew\ntradition always spoke of the Divine Law as \"the hedge\"--if you keep\nyour hedge unbroken, nothing can come in except by the door. Christ\nsaid, \"I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.\"\n\nI have spoken of the two great mysteries, the mystery of godliness and\nthe mystery of iniquity, the mystery of Christ and the mystery of\nanti-Christ. Now, it is not necessary, mind you, that you should\nunderstand these mysteries in full in order to get into your right\nposition. If it were necessary that we should fully understand these\nmysteries, either to get away from the one or to get into the other, I\nthink all of us would have an uncommonly bad chance. I certainly should.\nI can touch only the fringe of these things, but we can realise the\nprinciple of the affirmative and the principle of the negative which\nunderlies them both; one is the mystery of light, the other is the\nmystery of darkness.\n\nI do not say do not study these mysteries; they are exactly what we\nought to study, but do not think that you remain in a state of danger\nuntil you have completely fathomed the mystery. Not a bit of it. You can\nquite get on the right side without understanding the whole thing,\nexactly as you travel on a railway without understanding the mechanism\nof the engine which takes you along.\n\nSo then we have these two mysteries, that of light and that of darkness,\nand therefore what we have to do is to exercise our will to receive the\nmystery of light, and then that will make for itself a centre in our own\nhearts and beings, and you will become conscious of that centre. Whether\nyou understand it or not, you will become conscious of it--and then from\nthat centre, that centre of light in yourself, you can start everything\nin your life, whether spiritual or temporal. You do not have to go\nfurther back; you do not have to analyse the why and the wherefore of\nthese things in order to get your starting point. It may interest you\nafterwards, it may strengthen you afterwards to do so, but for a\npractical starting point you must realise the Divine presence in\nyourself, which is the son of God manifested in you, that is the Divine\nprinciple of personality speaking within yourself.\n\nSo then, having realised this as your centre, you carry the\nall-originating affirmative power with you, all through everything that\nyou do and everything that you are; day and night it will be there, it\nwill protect you, it will guide you, it will help you. And when you want\nto do so you can consciously apply to it and it will give you\nassistance, and because you take this as your starting point, it will\nmanifest itself in all your conditions; because, remember, it is a very\nsimple law of logic that whatever you start with will manifest itself\nall down the sequence which comes from it. If you start with the colour\nred you can make all sorts of modifications and bring out orange, purple\nand brown, but the red basis will show itself all down the scale of\ncolour, and so if you start with a basis of blue, blue will show itself\nall down the scale of various colours.\n\nTherefore, if you start with the affirmative basis, the one starting\npoint of the Divine spirit, not taking it lower down the stream, but\ngoing to the fountain head, that affirmative principle of life will flow\nall through, showing its own quality to the very tips of your fingers\nand beyond that out into all your circumstances. So that the divine\npresence will be continuously with you, not as a consequence of your\njoining this Church or that, following this idea, or that teacher, but\nbecause you know the truth for yourselves, and you have realised it as\nan actual living experience in your own mind and in your own heart; and\ntherefore it is that this personal recognition of the Divine love and\nwisdom and power is what St. Paul calls \"Christ in you, the hope of\nglory.\"\n\nEach one who recognises this, is one who answers the Biblical\ndescription of a true Israelite indeed. That word \"Israelite\" in the\nBible is a very deeply symbolical word, and carries an immense amount of\nmeaning with it. So get this recognition as the real working fact that\neach one of you is an Israelite indeed, and if so, then make yourselves\nperfectly happy with the everlasting statement, which is as true now as\nit was on the day on which it was uttered: \"There is no divination or\nenchantment against Israel.\"\n\n1909.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE \"I AM\"\n\n\nWe often do not sufficiently recognise the truth of Walt Whitman's pithy\nsaying, \"I am not all contained between my hat and my boots,\" and forget\nthe two-fold nature of the \"I AM,\" that it is at once both the\nmanifested and the unmanifested, the universal and the individual. By\nlosing sight of this truth we surround ourselves with limitations; we\nsee only part of the self, and then we are surprised that the part fails\nto do the work of the whole. Factors crop up on which we had not\nreckoned, and we wonder where they come from, and do not understand that\nthey necessarily arise from that great unity in which we are all\nincluded.\n\nIt is the grand intelligence and livingness of Universal Spirit\ncontinually pressing forward to manifestation of itself in a glorious\nhumanity.\n\nThis must be effected by each individual's recognition of his power to\nco-operate with the Supreme Principle through an intelligent conception\nof its purpose and of the natural laws by which that purpose is\naccomplished--a recognition which can proceed only from the realisation\nthat he himself is none other than the same Universal Principle in\nparticular manifestation.\n\nWhen he sees this he sees that Walt Whitman's saying is true, and that\nhis source of intelligence, power, and purpose is in that Universal\nSelf, which is his as well as another's just because it is universal,\nand which is therefore as completely and entirely identified with\nhimself as though there were no other expression of it in the world.\n\nThe understanding which alone gives value to knowledge is the\nunderstanding that, when we employ the formula \"I am, therefore I can,\ntherefore I will,\" the \"I AM\" with which the series starts is a being\nwho, so to speak, has his head in heaven and his feet upon the earth, a\nperfect unity, and with a range of ideas far transcending the little\nideas which are limited by the requirements of a day or an hour. On the\nother hand, the requirements of the day and the hour are real while they\nlast, and since the manifested life can be lived only in the moment that\nnow is, whether it be to-day or ten thousand years hence, our need is to\nharmonise the life of expression with the life of purpose, and by\nrealising in ourselves the source of the highest purposes to realise\nalso the life of the fullest expression.\n\nThis is the meaning of prayer. Prayer is not a foolish seeking to change\nthe mind of Supreme Wisdom, but it is an intelligent seeking to embody\nthat wisdom in our thoughts so as more and more perfectly to express\n_it_ in expressing _ourselves_. Thus, as we gradually grow into the\nhabit of finding this inspiring Presence _within ourselves_, and of\nrealising its forward movement as the ultimate determining factor in all\ntrue healthful mental action, it will become second nature to us to have\nall our plans, down to the apparently most trivial, so floating upon the\nundercurrent of this Universal Intelligence that a great harmony will\ncome into our lives, every discordant manifestation will disappear, and\nwe shall find ourselves more and more controlling all things into the\nforms that we desire.\n\nWhy? Because we have attained to _commanding_ the Spirit and making it\nobey us? Certainly not, for \"if the blind lead the blind both shall fall\ninto the ditch\"; but because we are _companions_ of the Spirit, and by a\ncontinuous and growing intimacy have changed, not \"the mind of the\nSpirit,\" but our own, and have learned to think from a higher\nstandpoint, where we see that the old-world saying \"know thyself\"\nincludes the knowledge of all that we mean when we speak of God.\n\n\n      I AM IS ONE\n\nThis may seem a very elementary proposition, but it is one of which we\nare too apt to lose sight. What does it mean? It means everything; but\nwe are most concerned with what it means in regard to ourselves, and to\neach of us personally it means this. It means that there are not two\nSpirits, one which is myself and one which is another. It means that\nthere is not some great unknown power external to myself which may be\nactuated by perfectly different motives to my own, and which will,\ntherefore, oppose me with its irresistible force and pass over me,\nleaving me crushed and broken like the devotee over whom the car of\nJaggarnath has rolled. It means that there is only one mind, one motive,\none power--not two opposing each other--and that my conscious mind in\nall its movements is only the one mind expressing itself as (not merely\nthrough) my own particular individuality.\n\nThere are not two I AMS, but one I am. Whatever, therefore, I can\nconceive the Great Universal Life Principle to be, that I am. Let us try\nfully to realise what this means. Can you conceive the Great Originating\nand Sustaining Life Principle of the whole universe as poor, weak,\nsordid, miserable, jealous, angry, anxious, uncertain, or in any other\nway limited? We know that this is impossible. Then because the I AM is\none it is equally untrue of ourselves. Learn first to distinguish the\ntrue self that you are from the mental and physical processes which it\nthrows forth as the instruments of its expression, and then learn that\nthis self controls these instruments, and not vice versa. As we advance\nin this knowledge we know ourselves to be unlimited, and that, in the\nminiature world, whose centre we are, we ourselves are the very same\noverflowing of joyous livingness that the Great Life Spirit is in the\nGreat All. The I AM is One.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nAFFIRMATIVE POWER\n\n\nThoroughly to realise the true nature of affirmative power is to possess\nthe key to the great secret. We feel its presence in all the innumerable\nforms of life by which we are surrounded and we feel it as the life in\nourselves; and at last some day the truth bursts upon us like a\nrevelation that we can wield this power, this life, by the process of\nThought. And as soon as we see this, the importance of regulating our\nthinking begins to dawn upon us. We ask ourselves what this thought\nprocess is, and we then find that it is thinking affirmative force into\nforms which are the product of our own thought. We mentally conceive the\nform and then think life into it.\n\nThis must always be the nature of the creative process on whatever\nscale, whether on the grand scale of the Universal Cosmic Mind or on the\nminiature scale of the individual mind; the difference is only in degree\nand not in kind. We may picture the mental machinery by which this is\ndone in the way that best satisfies our intellect--and the satisfying of\nthe intellect on this point is a potent factor in giving us that\nconfidence in our mental action without which we can effect\nnothing--but the actual externalisation is the result of something more\npowerful than a merely intellectual apprehension. It is the result of\nthat inner mental state which, for want of a better word, we may call\nour emotional conception of ourselves. It is the \"self\" which we _feel_\nourselves to be which takes forms of our own creating. For this reason\nour thought must be so grounded upon knowledge that we shall _feel_\nthe truth of it, and thus be able to produce in ourselves that mental\nattitude of feeling which corresponds to the condition which we desire\nto externalise.\n\nWe cannot think into manifestation a different sort of life to that\nwhich we realise in ourselves. As Horace says, \"_Nemo dat quod non\nhabet_,\" we cannot give what we have not got. And, on the other hand, we\ncan never cease creating forms of some sort by our mental activity,\nthinking life into them. This point must be very carefully noted. We\ncannot sit still producing nothing: the mental machinery _will_ keep on\nturning out work of some sort, and it rests with us to determine of what\nsort it shall be. In our entire ignorance or imperfect realisation of\nthis we create negative forms and think life into them. We create forms\nof death, sickness, sorrow, trouble, and limitation of all sorts, and\nthen think life into these forms; with the result that, however\nnon-existent in themselves, to us they become realities and throw their\nshadow across the path which would otherwise be bright with the\nmany-coloured beauties of innumerable flowers and the glory of the\nsunshine.\n\nThis need not be. It is giving to the negative an affirmative force\nwhich does not belong to it. Consider what is meant by the negative. It\nis the absence of something. It is not-being, and is the absence of all\nthat constitutes being. Left to itself, it remains in its own\nnothingness, and it only assumes form and activity when we give these to\nit by our thought.\n\nHere, then, is the great reason for practising control over our thought.\nIt is the one and only instrument we have to work with, but it is an\ninstrument which works with the greatest certainty, for limitation if we\nthink limitation, for enlargement if we think enlargement. Our thought\nas feeling is the magnet which draws to us those conditions which\naccurately correspond to itself. This is the meaning of the saying that\n\"thoughts are things.\" But, you say, how can I think differently from\nthe circumstances? Certainly you are not required to say that the\ncircumstances _at the present moment_ are what they are not; to say so\nwould be untrue; but what is wanted is not to think from the standpoint\nof circumstances at all. Think from that interior standpoint where there\nare no circumstances, and from whence you can dictate what circumstances\nshall be, and then leave the circumstances to take care of themselves.\n\nDo not think of this, that, or the other particular _circumstances_ of\nhealth, peace, etc., but of health, peace, and prosperity themselves.\nHere is an advertisement from _Pearson's Weekly_:--\"Think money. Big\nmoneymakers _think_ money.\" This is a perfectly sound statement of the\npower of thought, although it is only an advertisement; but we may make\nan advance beyond thinking \"money.\" We can think \"Life\" in all its\nfulness, together with that perfect harmony of conditions which includes\nall that we need of money and a thousand other good things besides, for\nsome of which money stands as the symbol of exchangeable value, while\nothers cannot be estimated by so material a standard.\n\nTherefore think Life, illumination, harmony, prosperity,\nhappiness--think the things rather than this or that condition of them.\nAnd then by the sure operation of the Universal Law these things will\nform themselves into the shapes best suited to your particular case, and\nwill enter your life as active, living forces, which will never depart\nfrom you because you know them to be part and parcel of your own being.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nSUBMISSION\n\n\nThere are two kinds of submission: submission to superior force and\nsubmission to superior truth. The one is weakness and the other is\nstrength. It is an exceedingly important part of our training to learn\nto distinguish between these two, and the more so because the wrong kind\nis extolled by nearly all schools of popular religious teaching at the\npresent day as constituting the highest degree of human attainment. By\nsome this is pressed so far as to make it an instrument of actual\noppression, and with all it is a source of weakness and a bar to\nprogress. We are forbidden to question what are called the wise\ndispensations of Providence and are told that pain and sorrow are to be\naccepted because they are the will of God; and there is much eloquent\nspeaking and writing concerning the beauty of quiet resignation, all of\nwhich appeals to a certain class of gentle minds who have not yet learnt\nthat gentleness does not consist in the absence of power but in the\nkindly and beneficent use of it.\n\nMinds cast in this mould are peculiarly apt to be misled. They perceive\na certain beauty in the picture of weakness leaning upon strength, but\nthey attribute its soothing influence to the wrong element of the\ncombination. A thoughtful analysis would show them that their feelings\nconsisted of pity for the weak figure and admiration for the strong one,\nand that the suggestiveness of the whole arose from its satisfying the\nartistic sense of balance which requires a compensation of this sort.\nBut which of the two figures in the picture would they themselves prefer\nto be? Surely not the weak one needing help, but the strong one giving\nit. By itself the weak figure only stirs our pity and not our\nadmiration. Its form may be beautiful, but its very beauty only serves\nto enhance the sense of something wanting--and the something wanting is\nstrength. The attraction which the doctrine of passive resignation\npossesses for certain minds is based upon an appeal to sentiment, which\nis accepted without any suspicion that the sentiment appealed to is a\nfalse one.\n\nNow the healthful influence of the movement known as \"The Higher\nThought\" consists precisely in this--that it sets itself rigorously to\ncombat this debilitating doctrine of submission. It can see as well as\nothers the beauty of weakness leaning upon strength; but it sees that\nthe real source of the beauty lies in the strong element of the\ncombination. The true beauty consists in the power to confer strength,\nand this power is not to be acquired by submission, but by the exactly\nopposite method of continually asserting our determination not to\nsubmit.\n\nOf course, if we take it for granted that all the sorrow, sickness,\npain, trouble, and other adversity in the world is the expression of the\nwill of God, then doubtless we must resign ourselves to the inevitable\nwith all the submission we can command, and comfort ourselves with the\nvague hope that somehow in some far-off future we shall find that\n\n    \"Good is the final goal of ill,\"\n\nthough even _this_ vague hope is a protest against the very submission\nwe are endeavouring to exercise. But to make the assumption that the\nevil of life is the will of God is to assume what a careful and\nintelligent study of the laws of the universe, both mental and physical,\nwill show us is not the truth; and if we turn to that Book which\ncontains the fullest delineation of these universal laws, we shall find\nnothing taught more clearly than that submission to the evils of life is\nnot submission to the will of God. We are told that Christ was\nmanifested for this end, that he should destroy him that hath the power\nof death--that is, the devil. Now death is the very culmination of the\nNegative. It is the entire absence of all that makes Life, and whatever\ngoes to diminish the living quality of Life reproduces, in its degree,\nthe distinctive quality of this supreme exhibition of the Negative.\nEverything that tends to detract from the fulness of life has in it this\ndeathful quality.\n\nIn that completely renovated life, which is figured under the emblem of\nthe New Jerusalem, we are told that sorrow and sighing shall flee away,\nand that the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Nothing that obscures\nlife, or restricts it, can proceed from the same source as the Power\nwhich gives light to them that sit in darkness, and deliverance to them\nthat are bound. Negation can never be Affirmation; and the error we have\nalways to guard against is that of attributing positive power to the\nNegative. If we once grasp the truth that God is life, and that life in\nevery mode of expression can never be anything else than Affirmative,\nthen it must become clear to us that nothing which is of the opposite\ntendency can be according to the will of God. For God (the good) to will\nany of the \"evil\" that is in the world would be for Life to act with the\npurpose of diminishing itself, which is a contradiction in terms to the\nvery idea of Life. God is Life, and Life is, by its very nature,\nAffirmative. The submission we have hitherto made has been to our own\nweakness, ignorance, and fear, and not to the supreme good.\n\nBut is no such thing as submission, then, required of us under any\ncircumstances? Are we always to have our own way in everything?\nAssuredly the whole secret of our progress to liberty is involved in\nacquiring the habit of submission; but it is submission to superior\nTruth, and not to superior force. It sometimes happens that, when we\nattain a higher Truth, we find that its reception requires us to\nre-arrange the truths which we possessed before: not, indeed, to lay any\nof them aside, for Truth once recognised cannot be again put out of\nsight, but to recognise a different relative proportion between them\nfrom that which we had seen previously. Then there comes a submitting of\nwhat has hitherto been our highest truth to one which we recognise as\nstill higher, a process not always easy of attainment, but which must be\ngone through if our spiritual development is not to be arrested. The\nlesser degree of life must be swallowed up in the greater; and for this\npurpose it is necessary for us to learn that the smaller degree was only\na partial and limited aspect of that which is more universal, stronger,\nand of a larger build every way.\n\nNow, in going through the processes of spiritual growth, there is ample\nscope for that training in self-knowledge and self-control which is\ncommonly understood by the word \"submission.\" But the character of the\nact is materially altered. It is no longer a half-despairing resignation\nto a superior force external to ourselves, which we can only vaguely\nhope is acting kindly and wisely, but it is an intelligent recognition\nof the true nature of our own interior forces and of the laws by which a\nrobust spiritual constitution is to be developed; and the submission is\nno longer to limitations which drain life of its livingness, and against\nwhich we instinctively rebel, but to the law of our own evolution which\nmanifests itself in continually increasing degrees of life and strength.\n\nThe submission which we recognise is the price that has to be paid for\nincrease in any direction. Even in the Money Market we must invest\nbefore we can realise profits. It is a universal rule that Nature obeys\nus exactly in proportion as we first obey Nature; and this is as true in\nregard to spiritual science as to physical. The only question is whether\nwe will yield an ignorant submission to the principle of Death, or a\njoyous and intelligent obedience to the principle of Life.\n\nIf we have clearly grasped the fact of our identity with Universal\nSpirit, we shall find that, in the right direction, there is really no\nsuch thing as submission. Submission is to the power of another--a man\ncannot be said to submit to himself. When the \"I AM\" in us recognises a\ngreater degree of I AM-ness (if I may coin the word) than it has\nhitherto attained, then, by the very force of this recognition, it\n_becomes what it sees_, and therefore naturally puts off from itself\nwhatever would limit its expression of its own completeness.\n\nBut this is a natural process of growth, and not an unnatural act of\nsubmission; it is not the pouring-out of ourselves in weakness, but the\ngathering of ourselves together in increasing strength. There is no\nweakness in Spirit, it is all strength; and we must therefore always be\nwatchful against the insidious approaches of the Negative which would\ninvert the true position. The Negative always points to some external\nsource of strength. Its formula is \"I AM NOT.\" It always seeks to fix a\ngulf between us and the Infinite Sufficiency. It would always have us\nbelieve that that sufficiency is not our own, but that by an act of\nuncertain favour we may have occasional spoonfuls of it doled out to us.\nChrist's teaching is different. We do not need to come with our pitcher\nto the well to draw water, like the woman of Samaria, but we have _in\nourselves_ an inexhaustible supply of the living water springing up into\neverlasting life.\n\nLet us then inscribe \"No Surrender\" in bold characters upon our banner,\nand advance undaunted to claim our rightful heritage of liberty and\nlife.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nCOMPLETENESS\n\n\nA point on which students of mental science often fail to lay sufficient\nstress is the completeness of man--not a completeness to be attained\nhereafter, but here and now. We have been so accustomed to have the\nimperfection of man drummed into us in books, sermons, and hymns, and\nabove all in a mistaken interpretation of the Bible, that at first the\nidea of his completeness altogether staggers us. Yet until we see this\nwe must remain shut out from the highest and best that mental science\nhas to offer, from a thorough understanding of its philosophy, and from\nits greatest practical achievements.\n\nTo do any work successfully you must believe yourself to be a _whole_\nman in respect of it. The completed work is the outward image of a\ncorresponding completeness in yourself. And if this is true in respect\nof one work it is true of all; the difference in the importance of the\nwork does not matter; we cannot successfully attempt _any_ work until,\nfor some reason or other, we believe ourselves able to accomplish it; in\nother words, until we believe that none of the conditions for its\ncompletion is wanting in us, and that we are therefore complete in\nrespect of it. Our recognition of our completeness is thus the measure\nof what we are able to do, and hence the great importance of knowing the\nfact of our own completeness.\n\nBut, it may be asked, do we not see imperfection all around? Is there\nnot sorrow, sickness, and trouble? Yes; but why? Just for the very\nreason that we do not realise our completeness. If we realised _that_ in\nits fulness these things would not be; and in the degree in which we\ncome to realise it we shall find them steadily diminish. Now if we\nreally grasp the two fundamental truths that Spirit is Life pure and\nsimple, and that external things are the result of interior forces, then\nit ought not to be difficult to see why we should be complete; for to\nsuppose otherwise is to suppose the reactive power of the universe to be\neither unable or unwilling to produce the complete expression of its own\nintention in the creation of man.\n\nThat it should be unable to do so would be to depose it from its place\nas the creative principle, and that it should be unwilling to fulfil its\nown intention is a contradiction in terms; so that on either supposition\nwe come to a _reductio ad absurdum_. In forming man the creative\nprinciple therefore _must_ have produced a perfect work, and our\nconception of ourselves as imperfect can only be the result of our own\nignorance of what we really are; and our advance, therefore, does not\nconsist in having something new added to us, but in learning to bring\ninto action powers which already exist in us, but which we have never\ntried to use, and therefore have not developed, simply because we have\nalways taken it for granted that we are by nature defective in some of\nthe most important faculties necessary to fit us to our environment.\n\nIf we wish to attain to these great powers, the question is, where are\nwe to seek them? And the answer is _in ourselves_. That is the great\nsecret. We are not to go outside ourselves to look for power. As soon as\nwe do so we find, not power, but weakness. To seek strength from any\noutside source is to make affirmation of our weakness, and all know what\nthe natural result of such an affirmation must be.\n\nWe are complete _in ourselves_; and the reason why we fail to realise\nthis is that we do not understand how far the \"self\" of ourselves\nextends. We know that the whole of anything consists of _all_ its parts\nand not only of some of them; yet this is just what we do not seem to\nknow about ourselves. We say rightly that every person is a\nconcentration of the Universal Spirit into individual consciousness; but\nif so, then each individual consciousness must find the Universal Spirit\nto be the infinite expression of _itself_. It is _this_ part of the\n\"Self\" that we so often leave out in our estimate of what we are; and\nconsequently we look upon ourselves as crawling pygmies when we might\nthink of ourselves as archangels. We try to work with the mere shadows\nof ourselves instead of with the glorious substance, and then wonder at\nour failures. If we only understood that our \"better half\" is the whole\ninfinite of Spirit--that which creates and sustains the universe--then\nwe should know how complete our completeness is.\n\nAs we approach this conception, our completeness becomes a reality to\nus, and we find that we need not go outside ourselves for anything. We\nhave only to draw on that part of ourselves which is infinite to carry\nout any intention we may form in our individual consciousness; for there\nis no barrier between the two parts, otherwise they would not be a\nwhole. Each belongs perfectly to the other, and the two are one. There\nis no antagonism between them, for the Infinite Life can have no\ninterest against its individualisation of _itself_. If there is any\nfeeling of tension it proceeds from our not fully realising this\nconception of our own wholeness; we are placing a barrier somewhere,\nwhen in truth there is none; and the tension will continue until we find\nout where and how we are setting up this barrier and remove it.\n\nThis feeling of tension is the feeling that we are _not using our Whole\nBeing_. We are trying to make half do the work of the whole; but we\ncannot rid ourselves of our wholeness, and therefore the whole protests\nagainst our attempts to set one half against the other. But when we\nrealise that our concentration _out of_ the Infinite also implies our\nexpansion _into_ it, we shall see that our _whole_ \"self\" includes both\nthe concentration and the expansion; and seeing this first\nintellectually we shall gradually learn to use our knowledge practically\nand bring our whole man to bear upon whatever we take in hand. We shall\nfind that there is in us a constant action and reaction between the\ninfinite and the individual, like the circulation of the blood from the\nheart to the extremities and back again, a constant pulsation of vital\nenergy quite natural and free from all strain and exertion.\n\nThis is the great secret of the livingness of Life, and it is called by\nmany names and set forth under many symbols in various religions and\nphilosophies, each of which has its value in proportion as it brings us\nnearer the realisation of this perfect wholeness. But the thing itself\nis Life, and therefore can only be suggested, but not described, by any\nwords or symbols; it is a matter of personal experience which no one can\nconvey to another. All we can do is to point out the direction in which\nthis experience is to be sought, and to tell others the intellectual\narguments which have helped us to find it; but the experience itself is\nthe operation of definite vital functions of the inner being, and no one\nbut ourselves can do our living for us.\n\nBut, so far as it is possible to express these things in words, what\nmust be the result of realising that the \"self\" in us includes the\nInfinite as well as the Individual? All the resources of the Infinite\nmust be at our disposal; we may draw on them as we will, and there is no\nlimit save that imposed by the Law of Kindness, a self-imposed\nlimitation, which, because of being _self_-imposed, is not bondage but\nonly another expression of our liberty. Thus we are free and all\nlimitations are removed.\n\nWe are also no longer ignorant, for since the \"self\" in us includes the\nInfinite we can draw thence all needed knowledge, and though we may not\nalways be able to formulate this knowledge in the mentality, we shall\n_feel_ its guidance, and eventually the mentality will learn to put this\nalso into form of words; and thus by combining thought and experience,\ntheory and practice, we shall by degrees come more and more into the\nknowledge of the Law of our Being, and find that there is no place in it\nfor fear, because it is the law of perfect liberty. And knowing what our\nwhole self really is, we shall walk erect as free men and women\nradiating Light and Life all round, so that our very presence will carry\na vivifying influence with it, because we realise ourselves to be an\nAffirmative Whole, and not a mere negative disintegration of parts.\n\nWe know that our whole self includes that Greater Man which is back of\nand causes the phenomenal man, and this Greater Man is the true human\nprinciple in us. It is, therefore, universal in its sympathies, but at\nthe same time not less individually _ourself_; and thus the true man in\nus, being at once both universal and individual, can be trusted as a\nsure guide. It is that \"Thinker\" which is behind the conscious\nmentality, and which, if we will accept it as our centre, and realise\nthat it is not a separate entity but _ourself_, will be found equal to\nevery occasion, and will lead us out of a condition of servitude into\n\"the glorious liberty of the sons of God.\"\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE PRINCIPLE OF GUIDANCE\n\n\nIf I were asked which of all the spiritual principles ranked first, I\nshould feel inclined to say the Principle of Guidance; not in the sense\nof being more essential than the others, for _every_ portion is equally\nessential to the completeness of a perfect whole, but in the sense of\nbeing first in order of sequence and giving value to all our other\npowers by placing them in their due relation to one another. \"Giving\nvalue to our _other_ powers,\" I say, because this also is one of our\npowers. It is that which, judged from the standpoint of personal\nself-consciousness, is above us; but which, realised from the point of\nview of the unity of all Spirit, is part and parcel of ourselves,\nbecause it is that Infinite Mind which is of necessity identified with\nall its manifestations.\n\nLooking to this Infinite Mind as a Superior Intelligence from which we\nmay receive guidance does not therefore imply looking to an external\nsource. On the contrary, it is looking to the innermost spring of our\nown being, with a confidence in its action which enables us to proceed\nto the execution of our plans with a firmness and assurance that are in\nthemselves the very guarantee of our success.\n\nThe action of the spiritual principles in us follows the order which we\nimpose upon them by our thought; therefore the order of realisation will\nreproduce the order of desire; and if we neglect this first principle of\nright order and guidance, we shall find ourselves beginning to put forth\nother great powers, which are at present latent within us, without\nknowing how to find suitable employment for them--which would be a very\nperilous condition, for without having before us objects worthy of the\npowers to which we awake, we should waste them on petty purposes\ndictated only by the narrow range of our unilluminated intellect.\nTherefore the ancient wisdom says, \"With all thy getting, get\nunderstanding.\"\n\nThe awakening to consciousness of our mysterious interior powers will\nsooner or later take place, and will result in our using them whether we\nunderstand the law of their development or not, just as we already use\nour physical faculties whether we understand their laws or not. The\ninterior powers are natural powers as much as the exterior ones. We can\ndirect their use by a knowledge of their laws; and it is therefore of\nthe highest importance to have some sound principle of guidance in the\nuse of these higher faculties as they begin to manifest themselves.\n\nIf, therefore, we would safely and profitably enter upon the possession\nof the great inheritance of power that is opening out before us, we\nmust before all things seek to realise in ourselves that Superior\nIntelligence which will become an unfailing principle of guidance if we\nwill only recognise it as such. Everything depends on our recognition.\nThoughts are things, and therefore as we _will_ our thoughts to be so we\n_will_ the thing to be. If, then, we will to use the Infinite Spirit as\na spirit of guidance, we shall find that the fact is as we have willed\nit; and in doing this we are still making use of our own supreme\nprinciple. And this is the true \"understanding\" which, by placing all\nthe other powers in their correct order, creates one grand unity of\npower directed to clearly defined and worthy aims, in place of the\ndispersion of our powers, by which they only neutralise each other and\neffect nothing.\n\nThis is that Spirit of Truth which shall guide us into all Truth. It is\nthe sincere Desire of us reaching out after Truth. Truth first and Power\nafterwards is the reasonable order, which we cannot invert without\ninjury to ourselves and others; but if we follow this order we shall\nalways find scope for our powers in developing into present realities\nthe continually growing glory of our vision of the ideal.\n\nThe ideal is the true real, but it must be brought into manifestation\nbefore it can be shown to be so, and it is in this that the _practical_\nnature of our mental studies consists. It is the _practical_ mystic who\nis the man of power; the man who, realising the mystical powers within,\nfits his outward action to this knowledge, and so shows his faith by his\nworks; and assuredly the first step is to make use of that power of\ninfallible guidance which he can call to his aid simply by desiring to\nbe led by it.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nDESIRE AS THE MOTIVE POWER\n\n\nThere are certain Oriental schools of thought, together with various\nWestern offshoots from them, which are entirely founded on the principle\nof annihilating all desire. Reach that point at which you have no wish\nfor anything and you will find yourself free, is the sum and substance\nof their teaching; and in support of this they put forward a great deal\nof very specious argument, which is all the more likely to entangle the\nunwary, because it contains a recognition of many of the profoundest\ntruths of Nature. But we must bear in mind that it is possible to have a\nvery deep knowledge of psychological facts, and at the same time vitiate\nthe results of our knowledge by an entirely wrong assumption in regard\nto the law which binds these facts together in the universal system; and\nthe injurious results of misapprehension upon such a vital question are\nso radical and far-reaching that we cannot too forcibly urge the\nnecessity of clearly understanding the true nature of the point at\nissue. Stripped of all accessories and embellishments, the question\nresolves itself into this: Which shall we choose for our portion, Life\nor Death? There can be no accommodation between the two; and whichever\nwe select as our guiding principle must produce results of a kind proper\nto itself.\n\nThe whole of this momentous question turns on the place that we assign\nto desire in our system of thought. Is it the Tree of Life in the midst\nof the Garden of the Soul? or is it the Upas Tree creating a wilderness\nof death all around? This is the issue on which we have to form a\njudgment, and this judgment must colour all our conception of life and\ndetermine the entire range of our possibilities. Let us, then, try to\npicture to ourselves the ideal proposed by the systems to which I have\nalluded--a man who has succeeded in entirely annihilating all desire. To\nhim all things must be alike. The good and the evil must be as one, for\nnothing has any longer the power to raise any desire in him; he has no\nlonger any feeling which shall prompt him to say, \"This is good,\ntherefore I choose it; that is evil, therefore I reject it\"; for all\nchoice implies the perception of something more desirable in what is\nchosen than in what is rejected, and consequently the existence of that\nfeeling of desire which has been entirely eliminated from the ideal we\nare contemplating.\n\nThen, if the perception of all that makes one thing preferable to\nanother has been obliterated, there can be no motive for any sort of\naction whatever. Endue a being who has thus extinguished his faculty of\ndesire with the power to create a universe, and he has no motive for\nemploying it. Endue him with all knowledge, and it will be useless to\nhim; for, since desire has no place in him, he is without any purpose\nfor which to turn his knowledge to account. And with Love we cannot\nendue him, for that is desire in its supreme degree. But if all this be\nexcluded, what is left of the man? Nothing, except the mere outward\nform. If he has actually obtained this ideal, he has practically ceased\nto be. Nothing can by any means interest him, for there is nothing to\nattract or repel in one thing more than in another. He must be dead\nalike to all feeling and to all motive of action, for both feeling and\naction imply the preference for one condition rather than another; and\nwhere desire is utterly extinguished, no such preference can exist.\n\nNo doubt some one may object that it is only evil desires which are thus\nto be suppressed; but a perusal of the writings of the schools of\nthought in question will show that this is not the case. The foundation\nof the whole system is that _all_ desire must be obliterated, the desire\nfor the good just as much as the desire for the evil. The good is as\nmuch \"illusion\" as the evil, and until we have reached absolute\nindifference to both we have not attained freedom. When we have utterly\ncrushed out _all_ desire we are free. And the practical results of such\na philosophy are shown in the case of Indian devotees, who, in pursuance\nof their resolve to crush out _all_ desire, both for good and evil\nalike, become nothing more than outward images of men, from which all\npower of perception and of action have long since fled.\n\nThe mergence in the universal, at which they thus aim, becomes nothing\nmore than a self-induced hypnotism, which, if maintained for a\nsufficient length of time, saps away every power of mental and bodily\nactivity, leaving nothing but the outside husk of an attenuated human\nform--the hopeless wreck of what was once a living man. This is the\nlogical result of a system which assumes for its starting-point that\ndesire is evil in itself, that every desire is _per se_ a form of\nbondage, independently of the nature of its object. The majority of the\nfollowers of this philosophy may lack sufficient resolution to carry it\nout rigorously to its practical conclusions; but whether their ideal is\nto be realised in this world or in some other, the utter extinction of\ndesire means nothing else than absolute apathy, without feeling and\nwithout action.\n\nHow entirely false such an idea is--not only from the standpoint of our\ndaily life, but also from that of the most transcendental conception of\nthe Universal Principle--is evidenced by the mere fact that anything\nexists at all. If the highest ideal is that of utter apathy, then the\nCreative Power of the universe must be extremely low-minded; and all\nthat we have hitherto been accustomed to look upon as the marvellous\norder and beauty of creation, is nothing but a display of vulgarity and\nignorance of sound philosophy.\n\nBut the fact that creation exists proves that the Universal Mind thinks\ndifferently, and we have only to look around to see that the true ideal\nis the exercise of creative power. Hence, so far from desire being a\nthing to be annihilated, it is the very root of every conceivable mode\nof Life. Without it Life could not be. Every form of expression implies\nthe selection of all that goes to make up that form, and the passing-by\nof whatever is not required for that purpose; hence a desire for that\nwhich is selected in preference to what is laid aside. And this\nselective desire is none other than the universal Law of Attraction.\n\nWhether this law acts as the chemical affinity of apparently unconscious\natoms, or in the instinctive, if unreasoned, attractions of the\nvegetable and animal worlds, it is still the principle of selective\naffinity; and it continues to be the same when it passes on into the\nhigher kingdoms which are ruled by reason and conscious purpose. The\nmodes of activity in each of these kingdoms are dictated by the nature\nof the kingdom; but the activity itself always results from the\npreference of a certain subject for a certain object, to the exclusion\nof all others; and all action consists in the reciprocal movement of the\ntwo towards each other in obedience to the law of their affinity.\n\nWhen this takes place in the kingdom of conscious individuality, the\naffinities exhibit themselves as mental action; but the principle of\nselection prevails without exception throughout the universe. In the\nconscious mind this attraction towards its affinity becomes desire; the\ndesire to create some condition of things better than that now existing.\nOur want of knowledge may cause us to make mistakes as to what this\nbetter thing really is, and so in seeking to carry out our desire we may\ngive it a wrong direction; but the fault is not in the desire itself,\nbut in our mistaken notion of what it is that it requires for its\nsatisfaction. Hence unrest and dissatisfaction until its true affinity\nis found; but, as soon as this is discovered, the law of attraction at\nonce asserts itself and produces that better condition, the dream of\nwhich first gave direction to our thoughts.\n\nThus it is eternally true that desire is the cause of all feeling and\nall action; in other words, of all Life. The whole livingness of Life\nconsists in receiving or in radiating forth the vibrations produced by\nthe law of attraction; and in the kingdom of mind these vibrations\nnecessarily become conscious out-reachings of the mind in the direction\nin which it feels attraction; that is to say, they become desires.\nDesire is therefore the mind seeking to manifest itself in some form\nwhich as yet exists only in its thought. It is the principle of\ncreation, whether the thing created be a world or a wooden spoon; both\nhave their origin in the desire to bring something into existence which\ndoes not yet exist. Whatever may be the scale on which we exercise our\ncreative ability, the motive power must always be desire.\n\nDesire is the force behind all things; it is the moving principle of\nthe universe and the innermost centre of all Life. Hence, to take the\nnegation of desire for our primal principle is to endeavour to stamp out\nLife itself; but what we have to do is to acquire the requisite\nknowledge by which to guide our desires to their true objects of\nsatisfaction. To do this is the whole end of knowledge; and any\nknowledge applied otherwise is only a partial knowledge, which, having\nfailed in its purpose, is nothing but ignorance. Desire is thus the\nsum-total of the livingness of Life, for it is that in which all\nmovement originates, whether on the physical level or the spiritual. In\na word, desire is the creative power, and must be carefully guarded,\ntrained, and directed accordingly; but thus to seek to develop it to the\nhighest perfection is the very opposite of trying to kill it outright.\n\nAnd desire has fulfilment for its correlative. The desire and its\nfulfilment are bound together as cause and effect; and when we realise\nthe law of their sequence, we shall be more than ever impressed with the\nsupreme importance of Desire as the great centre of Life.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nTOUCHING LIGHTLY\n\n\nWhat is our point of support? Is it in ourselves or outside us? Are we\nself-poised, or does our balance depend on something external? According\nto the actual belief in which our answer to these questions is embodied\nso will our lives be. In everything there are two parts, the essential\nand the incidental--that which is the nucleus and _raison d'etre_ of the\nwhole thing, and that which gathers round this nucleus and takes form\nfrom it. The true knowledge always consists in distinguishing these two\nfrom each other, and error always consists in misplacing them.\n\nIn all our affairs there are two factors, ourselves and the matter to be\ndealt with; and since _for us_ the nature of anything is always\ndetermined by our thought of it, it is entirely a question of our belief\nwhich of these two factors shall be the essential and which the\naccessory. Whichever we regard as the essential, the other at once\nbecomes the incidental. The incidental can never be absent. For any sort\nof action to take place there must be _some_ conditions under which the\nactivity passes out into visible results; but the same sort of activity\nmay occur under a variety of different conditions, and may thus produce\nvery different visible results. So in every matter we shall always find\nan essential or energising factor, and an incidental factor which\nderives its quality from the nature of the energy.\n\nWe can therefore never escape from having to select our essential and\nour incidental factor, and whichever we select as the essential, we\nthereby place the other in the position of the incidental. If, then, we\nmake the mistake of reversing the true position and suppose that the\nenergising force comes from the merely accessory circumstances, we make\n_them_ our point of support and lean upon _them_, and stand or fall with\nthem accordingly; and so we come into a condition of weakness and\nobsequious waiting on all sorts of external influences, which is the\nvery reverse of that strength, wisdom, and opulence which are the only\nmeaning of Liberty.\n\nBut if we would ask ourselves the common-sense question Where can the\ncentre of a man's Life be except in himself? we shall see that in all\nwhich pertains to us the energising centre must be in ourselves. We can\nnever get away from ourselves as the centre of our own universe, and the\nsooner we clearly understand this the better. There is really no energy\nin _our_ universe but what emanates from ourselves in the first\ninstance, and the power which appears to reside in our surroundings is\nderived entirely from our own mind.\n\nIf once we realise this, and consider that the Life which flows into us\nfrom the Universal Life-Principle is at every moment _new_ Life entirely\nundifferentiated to any particular purpose besides that of supporting\nour own individuality, and that it is therefore ours to externalise in\nany form we will, then we find that this manifestation of the eternal\nLife-Principle _in ourselves_ is the standpoint from which we can\ncontrol our surroundings. We must lean firmly on the central point of\nour own being and not on anything else. Our mistake is in taking our\nsurroundings too much \"_au grand serieux_.\" We should touch things more\nlightly. As soon as we feel that their weight impedes our free handling\nof them they are mastering us, and not we them.\n\nLight handling does not mean weak handling. On the contrary, lightness\nof touch is incompatible with a weak grasp of the instrument, which\nimplies that the weight of the tool is excessive relatively to the force\nthat seeks to guide it. A light, even playful handling, therefore\nimplies a firm grasp and perfect control over the instrument. It is only\nin the hands of a Grinling Gibbons that the carving tool can create\nmiracles of aerial lightness from the solid wood. The light yet firm\ntouch tells not of weakness, but of power held in reserve; and if we\nrealise our own out-and-out spiritual nature we know that behind any\nmeasure of power we may put forth there is the whole reserve of the\ninfinite to back us up.\n\nAs we come to know this we begin to handle things lightly, playing with\nthem as a juggler does with his flying knives, which cannot make the\nslightest movement other than he has assigned to them, for we begin to\nsee that our control over things is part of the necessary order of the\nuniverse. The disorder we have met with in the past has resulted\nprecisely from our never having attempted consciously to introduce this\nelement of our personal control as part of the system.\n\nOf course, I speak of the _whole_ man, and not merely of that part of\nhim which Walt Whitman says is contained between his hat and his boots.\nThe _whole_ man is an infinitude, and the visible portion of him is the\ninstrument through which he looks out upon and enjoys all that belongs\nto him, his own kingdom of the infinite. And when he learns that this is\nthe meaning of his conscious individuality, he sees _how_ it is that he\nis infinite, and finds that he is one with Infinite Mind, which is the\ninnermost core of the universe. Having thus reached the true centre of\nhis own being, he can never give this central place to anything else,\nbut will realise that relatively to this all other things are in the\nposition of the incidental and accessory, and growing, daily in this\nknowledge he will learn so to handle all things lightly, yet firmly,\nthat grief, fear, and error will have less and less space in his world,\nuntil at last sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and everlasting joy\nshall take their place. We may have taken only a few steps on the way as\nyet, but they are in the right direction, and what we have to do now is\nto go on.\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nPRESENT TRUTH\n\n\nIf Thought power is good for anything it is good for everything. If it\ncan produce one thing it can produce all things. For what is to hinder\nit? Nothing can stop us from thinking. We can _think_ what we please,\nand if to think is to form, then we can form what we please. The whole\nquestion, therefore, resolves itself into this: Is it true that to think\nis to form? If so, do we not see that our limitations are formed in\nprecisely the same way as our expansions? We think that conditions\noutside our thought have power over us, and so we think power into them.\nSo the great question of life is whether there is any _other_ creative\npower than Thought. If so, where is it, and what is it?\n\nBoth philosophy and religion lead us to the truth that \"in the\nbeginning\" there was no other creative power than Spirit, and the only\nmode of activity we can possibly attribute to Spirit is Thought, and so\nwe find Thought as the root of all things. And if this was the case \"in\nthe beginning\" it must be so still; for if all things originate in\nThought, all things must be modes of Thought, and so it is impossible\nfor Spirit ever to hand over its creations to some power which is not\nitself--that is to say, which is not Thought-power; and consequently all\nthe forms and circumstances that surround us are manifestations of the\ncreative power of Thought.\n\nBut it may be objected that this is God's Thought; and that the creative\npower is in God and not Man. But this goes away from the self-evident\naxiomatic truth that \"in the beginning\" nothing could have had any\norigin except Thought. It is quite true that nothing has any origin\nexcept in the Divine Mind, and Man himself is therefore a mode of the\nDivine Thought. Again, Man is self-conscious; therefore Man is the\nDivine Thought evolved into _individual_ consciousness, and when he\nbecomes sufficiently enlightened to realise this as his origin, then he\nsees that he is a reproduction _in individuality_ of the _same_ spirit\nwhich produces all things, and that his own thought in individuality has\nexactly the same quality as the Divine Thought in universality, just as\nfire is equally igneous whether burning round a large centre of\ncombustion or a small one, and thus we are logically brought to the\nconclusion that our thought must have creative power.\n\nBut people say, \"We have not found it so. We are surrounded by all sorts\nof circumstances that we do not desire.\" Yes, you _fear_ them, and in so\ndoing you _think_ them; and in this way you are constantly exercising\nthis Divine prerogative of creation by Thought, only through ignorance\nyou use it in a wrong direction. Therefore the Book of Divine\nInstructions so constantly repeats \"Fear not; doubt not,\" because we can\nnever divest our Thought of its inherent creative quality, and the only\nquestion is whether we shall use it ignorantly to our injury or\nunderstandingly to our benefit.\n\nThe Master summed up his teaching in the aphorism that knowledge of the\nTruth would make us free. Here is no announcement of anything we have to\ndo, or of anything that has to be done for us, in order to gain our\nliberty, neither is it a statement of anything _future_. Truth _is_ what\nis. He did not say, you must wait till something becomes true which is\nnot true _now_. He said: \"Know what _is_ Truth now, and you will find\nthat the Truth concerning yourself is Liberty.\" If the knowledge of\nTruth makes us free it can only be because in truth we are free already,\nonly we do not know it.\n\nOur liberty consists in our reproducing on the scale of the individual\nthe same creative power of Thought which first brought the world into\nexistence, \"so that the things which are seen were not made of things\nwhich do appear.\" Let us, then, confidently claim our birthright as\n\"sons and daughters of the Almighty,\" and by habitually thinking the\ngood, the beautiful, and the true, surround ourselves with conditions\ncorresponding to our thoughts, and by our teaching and example help\nothers to do the same.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nYOURSELF\n\n\nI want to talk to you about the livingness there is in being yourself.\nIt has at least the merit of simplicity, for it must surely be easier to\nbe oneself than to be something or somebody else. Yet that is what so\nmany are constantly trying to do; the self that is their own is not good\nenough for them, and so they are always trying to go one better than\nwhat God has made them, with endless strain and struggle as the\nconsequence. Of course, they are right to put before them an ideal\ninfinitely grander than anything they have yet attained--the only\npossible way of progress is by following an ideal that is always a stage\nahead of us--but the mistake is in not seeing that its attainment is a\nmatter of growth, and that growth must be the expansion of something\nthat already exists in us, and therefore implies our being what we are\nand where we are as its starting point. This growth is a continuous\nprocess, and we cannot do next month's growth without first doing this\nmonth's; but we are always wanting to jump into some ideal of the\nfuture, not seeing that we can reach it only by steadily going on from\nwhere we are now.\n\nThese considerations should make us more confident and more comfortable.\nWe are employing a force which is much greater than we believe ourselves\nto be, yet it is not separate from us and needing to be persuaded or\ncompelled, or inveigled into doing what we want; it is the substratum of\nour own being which is continually passing up into manifestation on the\nvisible plane and becoming that personal self to which we often limit\nour attention without considering whence it proceeds. But in truth the\nouter self is the surface growth of that individuality which lies\nconcealed far down in the deeps below, and which is none other than the\nSpirit-of-Life which underlies all forms of manifestation.\n\nEndeavour to realise what this Spirit must be in itself--that is to say,\napart from any of the conditions that arise from the various relations\nwhich necessarily establish themselves between its various forms of\nindividualisation. In its homogeneous self what else can it be but pure\nlife--Essence-of-Life, if you like so to call it? Then realise that as\nEssence-of-Life it exists in the innermost of _every one_ of its forms\nof manifestation in as perfect simplicity as any we can attribute to it\nin our most abstract conceptions. In this light we see it to be the\neternally self-generating power which, to express itself, flows into\nform.\n\nThis universal Essence-of-Life is a continual becoming (into form), and\nsince we are a part of Nature we do not need to go further than\nourselves to find the life-giving energy at work with all its powers.\nHence all we have to do is to allow it to rise to the surface. We do not\nhave to _make_ it rise any more than the engineer who sinks the\nbore-pipe for an artesian well has to make the water rise in it; the\nwater does that by its own energy, springing as a fountain a hundred\nfeet into the air. Just so we shall find a fountain of Essence-of-Life\nready to spring up in ourselves, inexhaustible and continually\nincreasing in its flow, as One taught long ago to a woman at a wayside\nwell.\n\nThis up-springing of Life-Essence is not another's--it is our own. It\ndoes not require deep studies, hard labours, weary journeyings to attain\nit; it is not the monopoly of this teacher or that writer, whose\nlectures we must attend or whose books we must read to get it. It is the\ninnermost of _ourselves_, and a little common-sense thought as to how\nanything comes to be anything will soon convince us that the great\ninexhaustible life must be the very root and substance of us, permeating\nevery fibre of our being.\n\nSurely to be this vast infinitude of living power must be enough to\nsatisfy all our desires, and yet this wonderful ideal is nothing else\nbut what we already are _in principio_--it is all there in ourselves\nnow, only awaiting our recognition for its manifestation. It is not the\nEssence-of-Life which has to grow, for that is eternally perfect in\nitself; but it is our recognition of it that has to grow, and this\ngrowth cannot be forced. It must come by a natural process, the first\nnecessity of which is to abstain from all straining after being\nsomething which at the present time we cannot naturally be. The Law of\nour Evolution has put us in possession of certain powers and\nopportunities, and our further development depends on our doing just\nwhat these powers and opportunities make it possible for us to do, here\nand now.\n\nIf we do what we are able to do to-day, it will open the way for us to\ndo something better to-morrow, and in this manner the growing process\nwill proceed healthily and happily in a rapidly increasing ratio. This\nis so much easier than striving to compel things to be what they are\nnot, and it is also so much more fruitful in good results. It is not\nsitting still doing nothing, and there is plenty of room for the\nexercise of all our mental faculties, but these faculties are themselves\nthe outcome of the Essence-of-Life, and are not the creating power, but\nonly that which gives direction to it Now it is this moving power at the\nback of the various faculties that is the true innermost self; and if we\nrealise the identity between the innermost and the outermost, we shall\nsee that we therefore have at our present disposal all that is necessary\nfor our unlimited development in the future.\n\nThus our livingness consists simply in being ourselves, only more so;\nand in recognising this we get rid of a great burden of unnecessary\nstraining and striving, and the place of the old _sturm und drang_ will\nbe taken, not by inertia, but by a joyous activity which knows that it\nalways has the requisite power to manifest itself in forms of good and\nbeauty. What matters it whither this leads us? If we are following the\nline of the beautiful and good, then we shall produce the beautiful and\ngood, and thus bring increasing joy into the world, whatever particular\nform it may assume.\n\nWe limit ourselves when we try to fix accurately beforehand the\nparticular form of good that we shall produce. We should aim not so much\nat having or making some particular thing as at expressing all that we\nare. The expressing will grow out of realising the treasures that are\nours already, and contemplating the beauty, the affirmative side, of all\nthat we are _now_, apart from the negative conceptions and detractions\nwhich veil this positive good from us. When we do this we shall be\nastonished to see what possibilities reside in ourselves as we are and\nwith our present surroundings, all unlovely as we may deem them: and\ncommencing to work at once upon whatever we find of affirmative in\nthese, and withdrawing our thought from what we have hitherto seen of\nnegative in them, the right road will open up before us, leading us in\nwonderful ways to the development of powers that we never suspected, and\nthe enjoyment of happiness that we never anticipated.\n\nWe have never been out of our right path, only we have been walking in\nit backwards instead of forwards, and now that we have begun to follow\nthe path in the right direction, we find that it is none other than the\nway of peace, the path of joy, and the road to eternal life. These\nthings we may attain by simply living naturally with ourselves. It is\nbecause we are trying to be or do something which is not natural to us\nthat we experience weariness and labour, where we should find all our\nactivities joyously concentrated on objects which lead to their own\naccomplishment by the force of the love that we have for them. But when\nwe make the grand discovery of how to live naturally, we shall find it\nto be all, and more than all, that we had ever desired, and our daily\nlife will become a perpetual joy to ourselves, and we shall radiate\nlight and life wherever we go.\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nRELIGIOUS OPINIONS\n\n\nThat great and wise writer, George Eliot, expressed her matured views on\nthe subject of religious opinions in these words: \"I have too profound a\nconviction of the efficacy that lies in all sincere faith, and the\nspiritual blight that comes with no faith, to have any negative\npropagandism left in me.\" This had not always been her attitude, for in\nher youth she had had a good deal of negative propagandism in her; but\nthe experience of a lifetime led her to form this estimate of the value\nof sincere faith, independently of the particular form of thought which\nleads to it.\n\nTennyson also came to the same conclusion, and gives kindly warning:--\n\n    \"O thou who after toil and storm\n      May'st seem to have reached a purer air,\n      Whose faith has centred everywhere,\n    Nor cares to fix itself to form.\n      Leave thou thy sister when she prays\n    Her early heaven, her happy views,\n    Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse\n      A life that leads melodious days.\"\n\nAnd thus these two great minds have left us a lesson of wisdom which we\nshall do well to profit by. Let us see how it applies more particularly\nto our own case.\n\nThe true presentment of the Higher Thought contains no \"negative\npropagandism.\" It is everywhere ranged on the side of the Affirmative,\nand its great object is to extirpate the canker which gnaws at the root\nof every life that endeavours to centre itself upon the Negative. Its\npurpose is constructive and not destructive. But we often find people\nlabouring under a very erroneous impression as to the nature and scope\nof the movement, and thus not only themselves deterred from\ninvestigating it, but also deterring others from doing so. Sometimes\nthis results from the subject having been presented to them unwisely--in\na way needlessly repugnant to the particular form of religious ideas to\nwhich they are accustomed; but more often it results from their\nprejudging the whole matter, and making up their minds that the movement\nis opposed to their ideas of religion, without being at the pains to\ninquire what its principles really are. In either case a few words on\nthe attitude of the New Thought towards the current forms of religious\nopinion may not be out of place.\n\nThe first consideration in every concern is, What is the object aimed\nat? The end determines the means to be employed, and if the nature of\nthe end be clearly kept in view, then no objectless complications will\nbe introduced into the means. All this seems too obvious to be stated,\nbut it is just the failure to realise this simple truth that has given\nrise to the whole body of _odium theologicum_, with all the persecutions\nand massacres and martyrdoms which disgrace the pages of history, making\nso many of them a record of nothing but ferocity and stupidity. Let us\nhope for a better record in the future; and if we are to get it, it will\nbe by the adoption of the simple principle here stated.\n\nIn our own country alone the varieties of churches and sects form a\nlengthy catalogue, but in every one of them the purpose is the same--to\nestablish the individual in a satisfactory relation to the Divine Power.\nThe very fact of any religious profession at all implies the recognition\nof God as the Source of life and of all that goes to make life; and\ntherefore the purpose in every case is to draw increasing degrees of\nlife, whether here or hereafter, from the Only Source from which alone\nit is to be obtained, and therefore to establish such a relation with\nthis Source as may enable the worshipper to draw from It all the life he\nwants. Hence the necessary preliminary to drawing consciously at all is\nthe confidence that such a relation actually has been established; and\nsuch a confidence as this is exactly all that is meant by Faith.\n\nThe position of the man who has not this confidence is either that no\nsuch Source exists, or else that he is without means of access to It;\nand in either case he feels himself left to fight for his own hand\nagainst the entire universe without the consciousness of any Superior\nPower to back him up. He is thrown entirely upon his own resources, not\nknowing of the interior spring from which they may be unceasingly\nreplenished. He is like a plant cut off at the stem and stuck in the\nground without any root, and consequently that spiritual blight of which\nGeorge Eliot speaks creeps over him, producing weakness, perplexity, and\nfear, with all their baleful consequences, where there should be that\nstrength, order, and confidence which are the very foundation of all\nbuilding-up for whatever purpose, whether of personal prosperity or of\nusefulness to others.\n\nFrom the point of view of those who are acquainted with the laws of\nspiritual life, such a man is cut off from the root of his own Being.\nBeyond and far interior to that outer self which each of us knows as the\nintellectual man working with the physical brain as instrument, we have\nroots penetrating deep into that Infinite of which, in our ordinary\nwaking state, we are only dimly conscious; and it is through this root\nof our own individuality, spreading far down into the hidden depths of\nBeing, that we draw out of the unseen that unceasing stream of Life\nwhich afterwards, by our thought-power, we differentiate into all those\noutward forms of which we have need. Hence the unceasing necessity for\nevery one to realise the great truth that his whole individuality has\nits foundation in such a root, and that the ground in which this root\nis embedded is that Universal Being for which there is no name save that\nof the One all-embracing I AM.\n\nThe supreme necessity, therefore, for each of us is to realise this\nfundamental fact of our own nature, for it is only in proportion as we\ndo so that we truly live; and, therefore, whatever helps us to this\nrealisation should be carefully guarded. In so far as any form of\nreligion contributes to this end in the case of any particular\nindividual, for him it is true religion. It may be imperfect, but it is\ntrue so far as it goes; and what is wanted is not to destroy the\nfoundation of a man's faith because it is narrow, but to expand it. And\nthis expanding will be done by the man himself, for it is a growth from\nwithin and not a construction from without.\n\nOur attitude towards the religious beliefs of others should, therefore,\nnot be that of iconoclasts, breaking down ruthlessly whatever from _our_\npoint of view we see to be merely traditionary idols (in Bacon's sense\nof the word), but rather the opposite method of fixing upon that in\nanother's creed which we find to be positive and affirmative, and\ngradually leading him to perceive in what its affirmativeness consists;\nand then, when once he has got the clue to the element of strength which\nexists in his accustomed form of belief, the perception of the contrast\nbetween that and the non-essential accretions will grow up in his mind\nspontaneously, thus gradually bringing him out into a wider and freer\natmosphere. In going through such a process as this, he will never have\nhad his thoughts directed into any channel to suggest separation from\nhis spiritual root and ground; but he will learn that the rooting and\ngrounding in the Divine, which he had trusted in at first, were indeed\ntrue, but in a sense far fuller, grander, and larger every way than his\nearly infantile conception of them.\n\nThe question is not how far can another's religious opinions stand the\ntest of a remorseless logic, but how far do they enable him to realise\nhis unity with Divine Spirit? That is the living proof of the value of\nhis opinion to himself, and no change in his opinions can be for the\nbetter that does not lead him to a greater recognition of the livingness\nof Divine Spirit in himself. For any change of opinion to indicate a\nforward movement, it must proceed from our realising in some measure the\ntrue nature of the life that is already developed in us. When we see\n_why_ we are _what_ we are _now_, then we can look ahead and see what\nthe same life principle that has brought us up to the present point is\ncapable of doing in the future. We may not see very far ahead, but we\nshall see where the next step is to be placed, and that is sufficient to\nenable us to move on.\n\nWhat we have to do, therefore, is to help others to grow from the root\nthey are already _living_ by, and not to dig their roots up and leave\nthem to wither. We need not be afraid of making ourselves all things to\nall men, in the sense of fixing upon the affirmative elements in each\none's creed as the starting-point of our work, for the affirmative and\nlife-giving is always true, and Truth is always _one_ and consistent\nwith itself; and therefore we need never fear being inconsistent so long\nas we adhere to this method. It is worse than useless to waste time in\ndissecting the negative accretions of other people's beliefs. In doing\nso we run great risks of rooting up the wheat along with the tares, and\nwe shall certainly succeed in brushing people up the wrong way;\nmoreover, by looking out exclusively for the life-giving and affirmative\nelements, we shall reap benefit to ourselves. We shall not only keep our\ntemper, but we shall often find large reserves of affirmative power\nwhere at first we had apprehended nothing but worthless accumulations,\nand thus we shall become gainers both in largeness of mind and in stores\nof valuable material.\n\nOf course we must be rigidly unyielding as regards the _essence_ of\nTruth--_that_ must never be sacrificed--but as representatives, in\nhowever small a sphere, of the New Thought, we should make it our aim to\nshow others, not that their religion is wrong, but that all they may\nfind of life-givingness in it is life-giving because it is part of the\nOne Truth which is always the same under whatever form expressed. As\nhalf a loaf is better than no bread, so ignorant worship is better than\nno worship, and ignorant faith is better than no faith. Our work is not\nto destroy this faith and this worship, but to lead them on into a\nclearer light.\n\nFor this reason we may assure all inquirers that the abandonment of\ntheir customary form of worship is no necessity of the New Thought; but,\non the contrary, that the principles of the movement, correctly\nunderstood, will show them far more meaning in that worship than they\nhave ever yet realised. Truth is one; and when once the truth which\nunderlies the outward form is clearly understood, the maintenance or\nabandonment of the latter will be found to be a matter of personal\nfeeling as to what form, or absence of form, best enables the particular\nindividual to realise the Truth itself.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nA LESSON FROM BROWNING\n\n\nPerhaps you know a little poem of Browning's called \"An Epistle\nContaining the Strange Medical Experiences of Karshish, the Arab\nPhysician.\" The somewhat weird conception is that the Arab physician,\ntravelling in Palestine soon after the date when the Gospel narrative\ncloses, meets with Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead, and in this\nletter to a medical friend describes the strange effect which his vision\nof the other life has produced upon the resuscitated man. The poem\nshould be studied as a whole; but for the present a few lines selected\nhere and there must do duty to indicate the character of the change\nwhich has passed upon Lazarus. After comparing him to a beggar who,\nhaving suddenly received boundless wealth, is unable to regulate its use\nto his requirements, Karshish continues:--\n\n    \"So here--we call the treasure knowledge, say,\n    Increased beyond the fleshly faculty--\n    Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth,\n    Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven:\n    The man is witless of the size, the sum,\n    The value in proportion of all things.\"\n\nIn fact he has become almost exclusively conscious of\n\n    \"The spiritual life around the earthly life:\n    The law of that is known to him as this,\n    His heart and brain move there, his feet stay here,\"\n\nand the result is a loss of mental balance entirely unfitting him for\nthe affairs of ordinary life.\n\nNow there can be no doubt that Browning had a far more serious intention\nin writing this poem than just to record a fantastic notion that flitted\nthrough his brain. If we read between the lines, it must be clear from\nthe general tenor of his writings that, however he may have acquired it,\nBrowning had a very deep acquaintance with the inner region of spiritual\ncauses which give rise to all that we see of outward phenomenal\nmanifestation. There are continual allusions in his works to the life\nbehind the veil, and it is to this suggestion of some mystery underlying\nhis words that we owe the many attempts to fathom his meaning expressed\nthrough Browning Societies and the like--attempts which fail or succeed\naccording as they are made from \"the without\" or from \"the within.\" No\none was better qualified than the poet to realise the immense benefits\nof the inner knowledge, and for the same reason he is also qualified to\nwarn us of the dangers on the way to its acquisition; for nowhere is it\nmore true that\n\n    \"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,\"\n\nand it is one of the greatest of these dangers that he points out in\nthis poem.\n\nUnder the figure of Lazarus he describes the man who has practically\ngrasped the reality of the inner side of things, for whom the veil has\nbeen removed, and who knows that the external and visible takes its rise\nfrom the internal and spiritual. But the description is that of one\nwhose eyes have been so dazzled by the light that he has lost the power\nof accommodating his vision to the world of sense. He now commits the\nsame error from the side of \"the within\" that he formerly committed from\nthe side of \"the without,\" the error of supposing that there is no vital\nreality in the aspect of things on which his thoughts are not\nimmediately centered. This is want of mental balance, whether it shows\nitself by refusing reality to the inward or the outward. To be so\nabsorbed in speculative ideas as to be unable to give them practical\napplication in daily life, is to allow our highest thoughts to evaporate\nin dreams.\n\nThere is a world of philosophy in the simple statement that there can be\nno inside without an outside, and no outside without an inside; and the\ngreat secret in life is in learning to see things in their wholeness,\nand to realise the inside and the outside simultaneously. Each of them\nwithout the other is a mere abstraction, having no real existence, which\nwe contemplate separately only for the purpose of reviewing the logical\nsteps by which they are connected together as cause and effect. Nature\ndoes not separate them, for they are inseparable; and the law of nature\nis the law of life. It is related of Pythagoras that, after he had led\nhis scholars to the dizziest heights of the inner knowledge, he never\nfailed to impress upon them the converse lesson of tracing out the steps\nby which these inner principles translate themselves into the familiar\nconditions of the outward things by which we are surrounded. The process\nof analysis is merely an expedient for discovering what springs in the\nrealm of causes we are to touch in order to produce certain effects in\nthe realm of manifestation. But this is not sufficient. We must also\nlearn to calculate how those particular effects, when produced, will\nstand related to the world of already existing effects among which we\npropose to launch them, how they will modify these and be modified by\nthese in turn; and this calculation of effects is as necessary as the\nknowledge of causes.\n\nWe cannot impress upon ourselves too strongly that reality consists of\nboth an inside and an outside, a generating principle and a generated\ncondition, and that anything short of the reality of wholeness is\nillusion on one side or the other. Nothing could have been further from\nBrowning's intention than to deter seekers after truth from studying the\nprinciples of Being, for without the knowledge of them truth must always\nremain wrapped in mystery; but the lesson he would impress on us is that\nof guarding vigilantly the mental equilibrium which alone will enable\nus to develop those boundless powers whose infinite unfolding is the\nfulness of Life. And we must remember above all that the soul of life is\nLove, and that Love shows itself by service, and service proceeds from\nsympathy, which is the capacity for seeing things from the point of view\nof those whom we would help, while at the same time seeing them also in\ntheir true relations; and therefore, if we would realise that Love which\nis the inmost vitalising principle even of the most interior powers, it\nmust be kept alive by maintaining our hold upon the exterior life as\nbeing equally real with the inward principles of which it is the\nmanifestation.\n\n1902.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF OPULENCE\n\n\nIt is quite a mistake to suppose that we must restrict and stint\nourselves in order to develop greater power or usefulness. This is to\nform the conception of the Divine Power as so limited that the best use\nwe can make of it is by a policy of self-starvation, whether material or\nmental. Of course, if we believe that some form of self-starvation is\nnecessary to our producing good work, then so long as we entertain this\nbelief the fact actually is so _for us_. \"Whatsoever is not of\nfaith\"--that is, not in accordance with our honest _belief_--\"is sin\";\nand by acting contrary to what we really believe we bring in a\nsuggestion of opposition to the Divine Spirit, which must necessarily\nparalyse our efforts, and surround us with a murky atmosphere of\ndistrust and want of joy.\n\nBut all this exists in, and is produced by, our _belief_; and when we\ncome to examine the grounds of this belief we shall find that it rests\nupon an entire misapprehension of the nature of our own power. If we\nclearly realise that the creative power in ourselves is _unlimited_,\nthen there is no reason for limiting the extent to which we may enjoy\nwhat we can create by means of it. Where we are drawing from the\n_infinite_ we need never be afraid of taking more than our share. That\nis not where the danger lies. The danger is in not sufficiently\nrealising our own richness, and in looking upon the externalised\nproducts of our creative power as being the true riches instead of the\ncreative power of spirit itself.\n\nIf we avoid this error, there is no need to limit ourselves in taking\nwhat we will from the infinite storehouse: \"All things are yours.\" And\nthe way to avoid this error is by realising that the true wealth is in\nidentifying ourselves with the _spirit_ of opulence. We must be opulent\nin our _thought_. Do not \"think money,\" as such, for it is only one\nmeans of opulence; but _think opulence_, that is, largely, generously,\nliberally, and you will find that the means of realising this thought\nwill flow to you from all quarters, whether as money or as a hundred\nother things not to be reckoned in cash.\n\nWe must not make ourselves dependent on any particular _form_ of wealth,\nor insist on its coming to us through some particular channel--that is\nat once to impose a limitation, and to shut out other forms of wealth\nand to close other channels; but we must enter into the _spirit_ of it.\nNow the spirit is Life, and throughout the universe Life ultimately\nconsists in _circulation_, whether within the physical body of the\nindividual or on the scale of the entire solar system; and circulation\nmeans a continual flowing around, and the _spirit_ of opulence is no\nexception to this universal law of all life.\n\nWhen once this principle becomes clear to us we shall see that our\nattention should be directed rather to the giving than the receiving. We\nmust look upon ourselves, not as misers' chests to be kept locked for\nour own benefit, but as centres of distribution; and the better we\nfulfil our function as such centres the greater will be the\ncorresponding inflow. If we choke the outlet the current must slacken,\nand a full and free flow can be obtained only by keeping it open. The\nspirit of opulence--the opulent mode of thought, that is--consists in\ncultivating the feeling that we possess all sorts of riches which we can\n_bestow upon others_, and which we can bestow _liberally_ because by\nthis very action we open the way for still greater supplies to flow in.\nBut you say, \"I am short of money, I hardly know how to pay for\nnecessaries. What have I to give?\"\n\nThe answer is that we must always start from the point where we are; and\nif your wealth at the present moment is not abundant on the material\nplane, you need not trouble to start on that plane. There are other\nsorts of wealth, still more valuable, on the spiritual and intellectual\nplanes, which you can give; and you can start from this point and\npractise the spirit of opulence, even though your balance at the bank\nmay be nil. And then the universal law of attraction will begin to\nassert itself. You will not only begin to experience an inflow on the\nspiritual and intellectual planes, but it will extend itself to the\nmaterial plane also.\n\nIf you have realised the _spirit_ of opulence you _cannot help_ drawing\nto yourself material good, as well as that higher wealth which is not to\nbe measured by a money standard; and because you truly understand the\n_spirit_ of opulence you will neither affect to despise this form of\ngood, nor will you attribute to it a value that does not belong to it;\nbut you will _co-ordinate_ it with your other more interior forms of\nwealth so as to make it the material instrument in smoothing the way for\ntheir more perfect expression. Used thus, with understanding of the\nrelation which it bears to spiritual and intellectual wealth, material\nwealth becomes _one with them_, and is no more to be shunned and feared\nthan it is to be sought for its own sake.\n\nIt is not money, but the _love_ of money, that is the root of evil; and\nthe _spirit_ of opulence is precisely the attitude of mind which is\nfurthest removed from the love of money for its own sake. It does not\nbelieve in money. What it does believe in is the generous feeling which\nis the intuitive recognition of the great law of circulation, which does\nnot in any undertaking make its first question, How much am I going to\n_get_ by it? but, How much am I going to _do_ by it? And making _this_\nthe first question, the getting will flow in with a generous profusion,\nand with a spontaneousness and rightness of direction that are absent\nwhen our first thought is of receiving only.\n\nWe are not called upon to give what we have not yet got and to run into\ndebt; but we are to give liberally of what we _have_, with the knowledge\nthat by so doing we are setting the law of circulation to work, and as\nthis law brings us greater and greater inflows of every kind of good, so\nour out-giving will increase, not by depriving ourselves of any\nexpansion of our own life that we may desire, but by finding that every\nexpansion makes us the more powerful instruments for expanding the life\nof others. \"Live and let live\" is the motto of the true opulence.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nBEAUTY\n\n\nDo we sufficiently direct our thoughts to the subject of Beauty? I think\nnot. We are too apt to regard Beauty as a merely superficial thing, and\ndo not realise all that it implies. This was not the case with the great\nthinkers of the ancient world--see the place which no less a one than\nPlato gives to Beauty as the expression of all that is highest and\ngreatest in the system of the universe. These great men of old were no\nsuperficial thinkers, and, therefore, would never have elevated to the\nsupreme place that which is only superficial. Therefore, we shall do\nwell to ask what it is that these great minds found in the idea of\nBeauty which made it thus appeal to them as the most perfect outward\nexpression of all that lies deepest in the fundamental laws of Being. It\nis because, rightly apprehended, Beauty represents the supremest living\nquality of Thought. It is the glorious overflowing of fulness of Love\nwhich indicates the presence of infinite reserves of Power behind it. It\nis the joyous profusion that shows the possession of inexhaustible\nstores of wealth which can afford to be thus lavish and yet remain as\nexhaustless as before. Read aright, Beauty is the index to the whole\nnature of Being.\n\nBeauty is the externalisation of Harmony, and Harmony is the\nco-ordinated working of all the powers of Being, both in the individual\nand in the relation of the individual to the Infinite from which it\nsprings; and therefore this Harmony conducts us at once into the\npresence of the innermost undifferentiated Life. Thus Beauty is in most\nimmediate touch with the very arcanum of Life; it is the brightness of\nglory spreading itself over the sanctuary of the Divine Spirit. For if,\nviewed from without, Beauty is the province of the artist and the poet,\nand lays hold of our emotions and appeals directly to the innermost\nfeelings of our heart, calling up the response of that within us which\nrecognises itself in the harmony perceived without, this is only because\nit speeds across the bridge of Reason with such quick feet that we pass\nfrom the outmost to the inmost and back again in the twinkling of an\neye; but the bridge is still there and, retracing our steps more\nleisurely, we shall find that, viewed from within, Beauty is no less the\nprovince of the calm reasoner and analyst. What the poet and the artist\nseize upon intuitionally, he elaborates gradually, but the result is the\nsame in both cases; for no intuition is true which does not admit of\nbeing expanded into a rational sequence of intelligible factors, and no\nargument is true which does not admit of being condensed into that rapid\nsuggestion which is intuition.\n\nThus the impassioned artist and the calm thinker both find that the only\ntrue Beauty proceeds naturally from the actual construction of that\nwhich it expresses. It is not something added on as an afterthought, but\nsomething pre-existing in the original idea, something to which that\nidea naturally leads up, and which presupposes that idea as affording it\nany _raison d'etre_. The test of Beauty is, What does it express? Is it\nmerely a veneer, a coat of paint laid on from without? Then it is indeed\nnothing but a whited sepulchre, a covering to hide the vacuity or\ndeformity which needs to be removed. But is it the true and natural\noutcome of what is beneath the surface? Then it is the index to\nsuperabounding Life and Love and Intelligence, which is not content with\nmere utilitarianism hasting to escape at the earliest possible point\nfrom the labour of construction, as though from an enforced and\nunwelcome task, but rejoicing over its work and unwilling to quit it\nuntil it has expressed this rejoicing in every fittest touch of form and\ncolour and exquisite proportion that the material will admit of, and\nthis without departing by a hairbreadth from the original purpose of the\ndesign.\n\nWherever, therefore, we find Beauty, we may infer an enormous reserve of\nPower behind it; in fact, we may look upon it as the visible expression\nof the great truth that Life-Power is infinite. And when the inner\nmeaning of Beauty is thus revealed to us, and we learn to know it as the\nvery fulness and overflowing of Power, we shall find that we have\ngained a new standard for the guidance of our own lives. We must begin\nto use this wonderful process which we have learnt from Nature. Having\nlearnt how Nature works--how God works--we must begin to work in like\nmanner, and never consider any work complete until we have carried it to\nsome final outcome of Beauty, whether material, intellectual, or\nspiritual. Is my intention good? That is the initial question, for the\nintention determines the nature of the essence in everything. What is\nthe most beautiful form in which I can express the good I intend? That\nis the ultimate question; for the true Beauty which our work expresses\nis the measure of the Power, Intelligence, Love--in a word, of the\nquantity and quality of our own life which we have put into it. True\nBeauty, mind you--that which is beautiful because it most perfectly\nexpresses the original idea, not a mere ornamentation occupying our\nthoughts as a thing apart from the use intended.\n\nNothing is of so small account but it has its fullest power of\nexpression in some form of Beauty peculiarly its own. Beauty is the law\nof perfect Thought, be the subject of our Thought some scheme affecting\nthe welfare of millions, or a word spoken to a little child. True Beauty\nand true Power are the correlatives one of the other. Kindly expression\noriginates in kindly thought; and kindly expression is the essence of\nBeauty, which, seeking to express itself ever more and more perfectly,\nbecomes that fine touch of sympathy which is artistic skill, whether\napplied in working upon material substances or upon the emotions of the\nheart. But, remember, first Use, then Beauty, and neither complete\nwithout the other. Use without Beauty is ungracious giving, and Beauty\nwithout Use is humbug; never forgetting, however, that there is a region\nof the mind where the use is found in the beauty, where Beauty itself\nserves the direct purpose of raising us to see a higher ideal which will\nthenceforward permeate our lives, giving a more living quality to all we\nthink and say and do.\n\nSeen thus the Beautiful is the true expression of the Good. From\nwhichever end of the scale we look we shall find that they accurately\nmeasure each other. They are the same thing in the outermost and the\ninnermost respectively. But in our search for a higher Beauty than we\nhave yet found we must beware of missing the Beauty that already exists.\nPerfect harmony with its environment, and perfect expression of its own\ninward nature are what constitute Beauty; and our ignorance of the\nnature of the thing or its environment may shut our eyes to the Beauty\nit already has. It takes the genius of a Millet to paint, or a Whitman\nin words, to show us the beauty of those ordinary work-a-day figures\nwith which our world is for the most part peopled, whose originals we\npass by as having no form or comeliness. Assuredly the mission of every\nthinking man and woman is to help build up forms of greater beauty,\nspiritual, intellectual, material, everywhere; but if we would make\nsomething grander than Watteau gardens or Dresden china shepherdesses,\nwe must enter the great realistic school of Nature and learn to\nrecognise the beauty that already surrounds us, although it may have a\nlittle dirt on the surface. Then, when we have learnt the great\nprinciples of Beauty from the All-Spirit which is it, we shall know how\nto develop the Beauty on its own proper lines without perpetuating the\ndirt; and we shall know that all Beauty is the expression of Living\nPower, and that we can measure our power by the degree of beauty into\nwhich we can transform it, rendering our lives,\n\n    \"By loveliness of perfect deeds,\n    More strong than all poetic thought.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVI\n\nSEPARATION AND UNITY\n\n\nI\n\n\"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me\" (John xiv,\n30). In these words the Grand Master of Divine Science gives us the key\nto the Great Knowledge. Comparison with other passages shows that the\nterms here rendered \"prince\" and \"world\" can equally be rendered\n\"principle\" and \"age.\" Jesus is here speaking of a principle of the\npresent age so entirely opposed to that principle of which he himself\nwas the visible expression, as to have no part in him. It is the utter\ncontradiction of everything that Jesus came to teach and to exemplify.\nThe account Jesus gave of himself was that he came \"to bear witness to\nthe Truth,\" and in order that men \"might have life, and that they might\nhave it more abundantly\"; consequently the principle to which he refers\nmust be the exact opposite of Truth and Life--that is, it must be the\nprinciple of Falsehood and Death.\n\nWhat, then, is this false and destructive principle which rules the\npresent age? If we consider the gist of the entire discourse of which\nthese are the concluding words, we shall find that the central idea\nwhich Jesus has been most strenuously endeavouring to impress upon his\ndisciples at their last meeting before the crucifixion, is that of the\nabsolute identity and out-and-out oneness of \"the Father\" and \"the Son,\"\nthe principle of the perfect unity of God and Man. If this, then, was\nthe great Truth which he was thus earnestly solicitous to impress upon\nhis disciples' minds when his bodily presence was so shortly to be\nremoved from them--the Truth of Unity--may we not reasonably infer the\nopposing falsehood to be the assertion of separateness, the assertion\nthat God and man are not one? The idea of separateness is precisely the\nprinciple on which the world has proceeded from that day to this--the\nassumption that God and man are not one in being, and that the matter is\nof a different essence from spirit. In other words, the principle that\nfinds favour with the intellectuality of the present age is that of\nduality--the idea of two powers and two substances opposite in kind,\nand, therefore, repugnant to each other, permeating all things, and so\nleaving no wholeness anywhere.\n\nThe entire object of the Bible is to combat the idea, of two opposing\nforces in the world. The good news is said to be that of\n\"reconciliation\" (2 Cor. v. 18), where also we are told that \"all things\nare from God,\" hence leaving no room for any other power or any other\nsubstance; and the great falsehood, which it is the purpose of the Good\nNews to expose, is everywhere in the Bible proclaimed to be the\nsuggestion of duality, which is some other mode of Life, that is not the\nOne Life, but something separate from it--an idea which it is impossible\nto state distinctly without involving a contradiction in terms.\nEverywhere the Bible exposes the fiction of the duality of separation as\nthe great lie, but nowhere in so emphatic and concentrated a manner as\nin that wonderful passage of Revelations where it is figured in the\nmysterious Number of the Beast. \"He that hath understanding let him\ncount the number of the Beast ... and his number is six hundred and sixty\nand six\" (Rev. xiii, 18, R.V.). Let me point out the great principle\nexpressed in this mysterious number. It has other more particular\napplications, but this one general principle underlies them all.\n\nIt is an established maxim that every unity contains in itself a\ntrinity, just as the individual man consists of body, soul, and spirit.\nIf we would perfectly understand anything, we must be able to comprehend\nit in its threefold nature; therefore in symbolic numeration the\nmultiplying of the unit by three implies the completeness of that for\nwhich the unit stands; and, again, the threefold repetition of a number\nrepresents its extension to infinity. Now mark what results if we apply\nthese representative methods of numerical expression to the principles\nof Oneness and of separateness respectively. Oneness is Unity, and\n1 x 3 = 3, which, intensified to its highest expression, is written\nas 333. Now apply the same method to the idea of separateness. Separateness\nconsists of one and another one, each of which, according to the\nuniversal law, contains a trinity. In this view of duality the totality\nof things is two, and 2 x 3 = 6, and, intensifying this to its highest\nexpression, we get 666, which is the Number of the Beast.\n\nWhy of the Beast? Because separateness from God, or the duality of\nopposition, which is also a duality of polarity, which is Dual-Unity,\nrecognises something as having essential being, which is not the One\nSpirit; and such a conception can be verbally rendered only by some word\nthat in common acceptance represents something, not only lower than the\ndivine, but lower than the human also. It is because the conception of\noneself as a being apart from God, if carried out to its legitimate\nconsequences, must ultimately land all who hold it in a condition of\nthings where open ferocity or secret cunning, the tiger nature or the\nserpent nature, can be the only possible rule of action.\n\nThus it is that the principle of the present age can have no part in\nthat principle of Perfect Wholeness which the Great Master embodied in\nHis teaching and in Himself. The two ideas are absolutely incompatible,\nand whichever we adopt as our leading principle, it must be to the\nentire exclusion of the other; we cannot serve God and Mammon. There is\nno such thing as partial wholeness. Either we are still in the\nprinciple of Separateness, and our eyes are not yet open to the real\nnature of the Kingdom of Heaven; or else we have grasped the principle\nof Unity without any exception anywhere, and the One Being includes all,\nthe body and the soul alike, the visible form and the invisible\nsubstance and life of all equally; nothing can be left out, and we stand\ncomplete here and now, lacking no faculty, but requiring only to become\nconscious of our own powers, and to learn to have confidence in them\nthrough \"having them exercised by reason of use.\"\n\nThe following communication from \"A Foreign Reader,\" commenting on the\nNumber of the Beast, as treated by Judge Troward in \"Separation and\nUnity,\" is taken from _EXPRESSION_ for 1902, in which it was first\npublished. Following is Judge Troward's reply to this letter.\n\n    Dear Mr. Editor.--A correspondent in the current number of\n    _Expression_ points out the reference in the Book of\n    Revelation to the number 666 as the mark of the Beast,\n    because the trinity of mind, soul, and body, if considered as\n    unity, may be expressed by the figures 333, and therefore\n    duality is 333 x 2 = 666.\n\n    I think the inverse of the proposition is still more\n    startling, and I should like to point it out. Instead of\n    multiplying let us try dividing. First of all take unity as\n    the unit one and divide by three (representing of course the\n    same formula, viz., mind, soul and body). Expressed by a\n    common fraction it is merely 1/3, which is an incomplete\n    mathematical figure. But take the decimal formula of one\n    divided by three, and we arrive at .3 circulating, i. e.,\n    .3333 on to infinity. In other words, the result of the\n    proposition by mathematics is that you divide this formula of\n    spirit, soul, and body into unity, and it remains true to\n    itself ad infinitum.\n\n    Now we come to consider it as a duality in the same way.\n    Expressed as a vulgar fraction it is 2/3; but as a decimal\n    fraction it is .6666 ad infinitum. I think this is worth\n    noting.\n\n        Yours very faithfully,\n              A Foreign Reader.\n\n      Brussels, Aug. 14, 1902.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Dear Editor.--I return with many thanks the very interesting\n    letter received with yours, and I am very glad that my\n    article should have been instrumental in drawing forth this\n    further light on the subject.\n\n    This, moreover, affords an excellent illustration of one\n    great principle of Unity, which is that the Unity repeats\n    itself in every one of its parts, so that each part taken\n    separately is an exact reproduction (in principles) of the\n    greater Unity of which it is a portion. Therefore, if you\n    take the individual man as your unit (which is what I did),\n    and proceed by multiplication, you get the results which were\n    pointed out in my article. And conversely, if you take the\n    Great Unity of All-Being as your unit, and proceed by\n    division, you arrive at the result shown by your foreign\n    correspondent. The principle is a purely mathematical one,\n    and is extremely interesting in the present application as\n    showing the existence of a system of concealed mathematics\n    running through the whole Bible. This bears out what I said\n    in my article that there were other applications of the\n    principle in question, though this one did not at the time\n    occur to me.\n\n    I am much indebted to your correspondent for the further\n    proof thus given of the correctness of my interpretation of\n    the Number of the Beast. Both our interpretations support\n    each other, for they are merely different ways of stating the\n    same thing, and they have this advantage over those generally\n    given, that they do not refer to any particular form of evil,\n    but express a general principle applicable to all alike.\n\n        Yours sincerely,\n                       T.\n\n      London, Aug. 30, 1902.\n\n\nII\n\nIt may perhaps emphasize my point if I remind my readers that it was the\nconflict between the principles of Unity and separation that led to the\ncrucifixion of Jesus. We must distinguish between the charge which\nreally led to his death, and the merely technical charge on which he was\nsentenced by the Roman Governor. The latter--the charge of opposition to\nthe royal authority of Caesar--has its significance; but it is clear from\nthe Bible record that this was merely formal, the true cause of\nconviction being contained in the statement that of the chief priests:\n\"We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself\nthe Son of God.\"\n\nThe antagonism of the two principles of Unity and separation had first\nbeen openly manifested on the occasion when Jesus made the memorable\ndeclaration, \"I and my Father are one.\" The Jews took up stones to stone\nhim. Then said Jesus unto them, \"Many good works have I shown you from\nmy Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me?\" The Jews replied,\n\"For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that\nthou, being a man, makest thyself God.\" Jesus said, \"Is it not written\nin your law, I said ye are gods? If He called them gods, unto whom the\nWord of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken), say ye of him,\nwhom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou\nblasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?\" Here we have the\nfirst open passage of arms between the two opposing principles which led\nto the scene of Calvary as the final testimony of Jesus to the principle\nof Unity. He died because he maintained the Truth; that he was one with\nthe Father. That was the substantive charge on which he was executed.\n\"Art thou the son of the Blessed?\" he was asked by the priestly\ntribunal; and the answer came clear and unequivocal, \"I am.\" Then said\nthe Council, \"He hath spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of\nwitnesses?\" And they all condemned him to be worthy of death.\n\nJesus did not enter into a palpably useless argument with judges whose\nminds were so rooted in the idea of dualism as to be impervious to any\nother conception; but with a mixed multitude, who were not officially\ncommitted to a system, the case was different. Among them there might\nbe some still open to conviction, and the appeal was, therefore, made to\na passage in the Psalms with which they were all familiar, pointing out\nthat the very persons to whom the Divine word was addressed were styled\n\"gods\" by the Divine Speaker Himself. The incontrovertibleness of the\nfact was emphasised by the stress laid upon it as \"Scripture which\ncannot be broken;\" and the meaning to be assigned to the statement was\nrendered clear by the argument which Jesus deduced from it. He says in\neffect, \"You would stone me as a blasphemer for saying of myself what\nyour own Scriptures say concerning each of you.\" The claim of unity with\n\"the Father,\" he urges, was no unique one, but one which the Scripture,\nrightly understood, entitled every one of his hearers to make for\nhimself.\n\nAnd so we find throughout that Jesus nowhere makes any claim for himself\nwhich he does not also make for those who accept his teaching. Does he\nsay to the Jews, \"Ye are of this world; I am not of this world?\" Equally\nhe says of his disciples, \"They are not of the world, even as I am not\nof the world.\" Does he say, \"I am the light of the world?\" Equally, he\nsays, \"Ye are the light of the world.\" Does he say, \"I and my Father are\none?\" Equally he prays that they all might be one, even as we are one.\nIs he styled \"the Son of God?\" Then St. John writes, \"To them gave he\npower to become sons of God, even to as many as believe on his name;\"\nand by belief on the name we may surely understand belief in the\nprinciple of which the name is the verbal representation.\n\nThe essential unity of God and man is thus the one fact which permeates\nthe whole teaching of Jesus. He himself stood forth as its living\nexpression. He appealed to his miracles as the proofs of it: \"it is the\nFather that doeth the works.\" It formed the substance of his final\ndiscourse with his disciples in the night that he was betrayed. It is\nthe Truth, to bear witness to which, he told Pilate, was the purpose of\nhis life. In support of this Truth he died, and by the living power of\nthis Truth he rose again. The whole object of his mission was to teach\nmen to realise their unity with God and the consequences that must\nnecessarily follow from it; to draw them away from that notion of\ndualism which puts an impassable barrier between God and man, and thus\nrenders any true conception of the Principle of Life impossible; and to\ndraw them into the clear perception of the innermost nature of Life, as\nconsisting in the inherent identity of each individual with that\nInfinite all-pervading Spirit of Life which he called \"the Father.\"\n\n\"The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine;\" the power of\nbearing fruit, of producing and of giving forth, depends entirely on the\nfact that the individual is, and always continues to be, as much an\norganic part of Universal Spirit as the fruit-bearing branch is an\norganic part of the parent stem. Lose this idea, and regard God as a\nmerely external Creator who may indeed command us, or even sometimes be\nmoved by our cries and entreaties, and we have lost the root of\nLivingness and with it all possibility of growth or of liberty. This is\ndualism, which cuts us off from our Source of Life; and so long as we\ntake this false conception for the true law of Being, we shall find\nourselves hampered by limitations and insoluble problems of every\ndescription: We have lost the Key of Life and are consequently unable to\nopen the door.\n\nBut in proportion as we abide in the vine, that is, consciously realise\nour perpetual unity with Originating Spirit, and impress upon ourselves\nthat this unity is neither bestowed as the reward of merit, nor as an\nact of favour--which would be to deny the Unity, for the bestowal would\nat once imply dualism--but dwell on the truth that it is the innermost\nand supreme principle of our own nature; in proportion as we consciously\nrealise this, we shall rise to greater and greater certainty of\nknowledge, resulting in more and more perfect externalisation, whose\nincreasing splendour can know no limits; for it is the continual\noutflowing of the exhaustless Spirit of Life in that manifestation of\nitself which is our own individuality.\n\nThe notion of dualism is the veil which prevents men seeing this, and\ncauses them to wander blindfolded among the mazes of endless perplexity;\nbut, as St. Paul truly says, when this veil is taken away we shall find\nourselves changed from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit. \"His\nname shall be called Immanuel,\" that is \"God _in_ us,\" not a separate\nbeing from ourselves. Let us remember that Jesus was condemned by the\nprinciple of separation because he himself was the externalisation of\nthe principle of Unity, and that, in adhering to the principle of Unity\nwe are adhering to the only possible root of Life, and are maintaining\nthe Truth for which Jesus died.\n\n\n\n\nXVII\n\nEXTERNALISATION\n\n\nWho would not be happy in himself and his conditions? That is what we\nall desire--more fulness of life, a greater and brighter vitality in\nourselves, and less restriction in our surroundings. And we are told\nthat the talisman by which this can be accomplished is Thought. We are\ntold, Change your modes of thought, and the changed conditions will\nfollow. But many seekers feel that this is very much like telling us to\ncatch birds by putting salt on their tails. If we can put the salt on\nthe bird's tail, we can also lay our hand on the bird. If we can change\nour thinking, we can thereby change our circumstances.\n\nBut how are we to bring about this change of cause which will in its\nturn produce this changed effect? This is the practical question that\nperplexes many earnest seekers. They can see their way clearly enough\nthrough the whole sequence of cause and effect resulting in the\nexternalisation of the desired results, if only the one initial\ndifficulty could be got over. The difficulty is a real one, and until it\nis overcome it vitiates all the teaching and reduces it to a mere paper\ntheory. Therefore it is to this point that the attention of students\nshould be particularly directed. They feel the need of some solid basis\nfrom which the change of thought can be effected, and until they find\nthis the theory of Divine Science, however perfect in itself, will\nremain for them nothing more than a mere theory, producing no practical\nresults.\n\nThe necessary scientific basis exists, however, and is extremely simple\nand reasonable, if we will take the pains to think it out carefully for\nourselves. Unless we are prepared to support the thesis that the Power\nwhich created the universe is inherently evil, or that the universe is\nthe work of two opposite and equal powers, one evil and the other\ngood--both of which propositions are demonstrably false--we have no\nalternative but to say that the Originating Source of all must be\ninherently good. It cannot be partly good and partly evil, for that\nwould be to set it against itself and make it self-destructive;\ntherefore it must be good altogether. But once grant this initial\nproposition and we cut away the root of all evil. For how can evil\nproceed from an All-originating Source which is good altogether, and in\nwhich, therefore, no germ for the development of evil is to be found?\nGood cannot be the origin of evil; and since nothing can proceed except\nfrom the one Originating Mind, which is only good, the true nature of\nall things must be that which they have received from their\nSource--namely, good.\n\nHence it follows that evil is not the true nature of anything, and that\nevil must have its rise in something external to the true nature of\nthings. And since evil is not in the true nature of the things\nthemselves, nor yet in the Universal Mind which is the Originating\nPrinciple, there remains only one place for it to spring from, and that\nis our own personal thought. First we suppose evil to be as inherent in\nthe nature of things as good--a supposition which we could not make if\nwe stopped to consider the necessary nature of the Originating\nPrinciple. Then, on this entirely gratuitous supposition, we proceed to\nbuild up a fabric of fears, which, of course, follow logically from it;\nand so we nourish and give substance to the Negative, or that which has\nno substantial existence except such as we attribute to it, until we\ncome to regard it as having Affirmative power of its own, and so set up\na false idea of Being--the product of our own minds--to dispute the\nclaims of true Being to the sovereignty of the universe.\n\nOnce assume the existence of two rival powers--one good and the other\nevil--in the direction of the universe, and any sense of harmony becomes\nimpossible; the whole course of Nature is thrown out of gear, and,\nwhether for ourselves or for the world at large, there remains no ground\nof certainty anywhere. And this is precisely the condition in which the\nmajority of people live. They are surrounded by infinite uncertainty\nabout everything, and are consequently a prey to continual fears and\nanxieties; and the only way of escape from this state of things is to\ngo to the root of the matter, and realise that the whole fabric of evil\noriginates in our own inverted conception of the nature of Being.\n\nBut if we once realise that the true conception of Being necessarily\nexcludes the very idea of evil, we shall see that, in giving way to\nthoughts and fears of evil, we are giving substance to that which has no\nreal substance in itself, and are attributing to the Negative an\nAffirmative force which it does not possess--in fact, we are creating\nthe very thing we fear. And the remedy for this is always to recur to\nthe original nature of Being as altogether Good, and then to speak to\nourselves thus: \"My thought must continually externalise something, for\nthat is its inherent quality, which nothing can ever alter. Shall I,\nthen, externalise God or the opposite of God? Which do I wish to see\nmanifested in my life--Good or its opposite? Shall I manifest what I\nknow to be the reality or the reverse?\" Then comes the steady resolve\nalways to manifest God, or Good, because that is the only true reality\nin all things; and this resolve is with power because it is founded upon\nthe solid rock of Truth.\n\nWe must refuse to know evil; we must refuse to admit that there is any\nsuch thing to be known. It is the converse of this which is symbolised\nin the story of the Fall. \"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou\nshalt surely die\" was never spoken of the knowledge of Good, for Good\nnever brought death into the world. It is eating the fruit of the tree\nof a so-called knowledge which admits a second branch, the knowledge of\nevil, that is the source of death. Admit that evil has a substantive\nentity, which renders it a subject of knowledge, and you thereby create\nit, with all its consequences of sorrow, sickness and death. But \"be\nsure that the Lord He is God\"--that is, that the one and Only Ruling\nPrinciple of the universe, whether within us or around us, is Good and\nGood only--and evil with all its train sinks back into its original\nnothingness, and we find that the Truth has made us free. We are free to\nexternalise what we will, whether in ourselves or our surroundings, for\nwe have found the solid basis on which to make the needed change of\nmental attitude in the fact that the Good is the only reality of Being.\n\n1902.\n\n\n\n\nXVIII\n\nENTERING INTO THE SPIRIT OF IT\n\n\n\"Entering into the spirit of it.\" What a common expression! And yet how\nmuch it really means, how absolutely everything! We enter into the\nspirit of an undertaking, into the spirit of a movement, into the spirit\nof an author, even into the spirit of a game; and it makes all the\ndifference both to us and to that into which we enter. A game without\nany spirit is a poor affair; and association in which there is no spirit\nfalls to pieces; and a spiritless undertaking is sure to be a failure.\nOn the other hand, the book which is meaningless to the unsympathising\nreader is full of life and suggestion to the one who enters into the\nspirit of the writer; the man who enters into the spirit of the music\nfinds a spring of refreshment in some fine recital which is entirely\nmissed by the cold critic who comes only to judge according to the\nstandard of a rigid rule; and so on in every case that we can think of.\nIf we do not enter the spirit of a thing, it has no invigorating effect\nupon us, and we regard it as dull, insipid and worthless. This is our\neveryday experience, and these are the words in which we express it.\nAnd the words are well chosen. They show our intuitive recognition of\nthe spirit as the fundamental reality in everything, however small or\nhowever great. Let us be right as to the spirit of a thing, and\neverything else will successfully follow.\n\nBy entering into the spirit of anything we establish a mutual vivifying\naction and reaction between it and ourselves; we vivify it with our own\nvitality, and it vivifies us with a living interest which we call its\nspirit; and therefore the more fully we enter into the spirit of all\nwith which we are concerned, the more thoroughly do we become _alive_.\nThe more completely we do this the more we shall find that we are\npenetrating into the great secret of Life. It may seem a truism, but the\ngreat secret of Life is its Livingness, and it is just more of this\nquality of Livingness that we want to get hold of; it is that good thing\nof which we can never have too much.\n\nBut every fact implies also its negative, and we never properly\nunderstand a thing until we not only know what it is, but also clearly\nunderstand what it is not. To a complete understanding the knowledge of\nthe negative is as necessary as the knowledge of the affirmative; for\nthe perfect knowledge consists in realising the relation between the\ntwo, and the perfect power grows out of this knowledge by enabling us to\nbalance the affirmative and negative against each other in any\nproportion that we will, thus giving flexibility to what would otherwise\nbe too rigid, and form to what would otherwise be too fluid; and so, by\nuniting these two extremes, to produce any result we may desire. It is\nthe old Hermetic saying, \"_Coagula et solve_\"--\"Solidify the fluid and\ndissolve the solid\"; and therefore, if we would discover the secret of\n\"entering into the spirit of it,\" we must get some idea of the negative,\nwhich is the \"not-spirit.\"\n\nIn various ages this negative phase has been expressed in different\nforms of words suitable to the spirit of the time; and so, clothing this\nidea in the attire of the present day, I will sum up the opposite of\nSpirit in the word \"Mechanism.\" Before all things this is a mechanical\nage, and it is astonishing how great a part of what we call our social\nadvance has its root in the mechanical arts. Reduce the mechanical arts\nto what they were in the days of the Plantagenets and the greater part\nof our boasted civilisation would recede through the centuries along\nwith them. We may not be conscious of all this, but the mechanical\ntendency of the age has a firm grip upon society at large. We habitually\nlook at the mechanical side of things by preference to any other.\nEverything is done mechanically, from the carving on a piece of\nfurniture to the arrangement of the social system. It is the mechanism\nthat must be considered first, and the spirit has to be fitted to the\nmechanical exigencies. We enter into the mechanism of it instead of into\nthe Spirit of it, and so limit the Spirit and refuse to let it have its\nown way; and then, as a consequence, we get entirely mechanical action,\nand complete our circle of ignorance by supposing that this is the only\nsort of action there is.\n\nYet this is not a necessary state of things even in regard to \"physical\nscience,\" for the men who have made the greatest advances in that\ndirection are those who have most clearly seen the subordination of the\nmechanical to the spiritual. The man who can recognise a natural law\nonly as it operates through certain forms of mechanism with which he is\nfamiliar will never rise to the construction of the higher forms of\nmechanism which might be built up upon that law, for he fails to see\nthat it is the law which determines the mechanism and not vice versa.\nThis man will make no advance in science, either theoretical or applied,\nand the world will never owe any debt of gratitude to him. But the man\nwho recognises that the mechanism for the application of any principle\ngrows out of the true apprehension of the principle studies the\nprinciple first, knowing that when _that_ is properly grasped it will\nnecessarily suggest all that is wanted for bringing it into practical\nuse.\n\nAnd if this is true in regard to so-called physical science, it is _a\nfortiori_ true as regards the Science of Spirit. There is a mechanical\nattitude of mind which judges everything by the limitations of past\nexperiences, allowing nothing for the fact that those experiences were\nfor the most part the results of our ignorance of spiritual law. But if\nwe realise the true law of Being we shall rise above these mechanical\nconceptions. We shall not deny the reality of the body or of the\nphysical world as facts, knowing that they also are Spirit, but we shall\nlearn to deny their power as causes. We shall learn to distinguish\nbetween the _causa causta_ and the _causa causans_, the secondary or\napparent physical cause and the primary or spiritual cause, without\nwhich the secondary cause could not exist; and so we shall get a new\nstandpoint of clear knowledge and certain power by stepping over the\nthreshold of the mechanical and entering into the spirit of it.\n\nWhat we have to do is to maintain our even balance between the two\nextremes, denying neither Spirit nor the mechanism which is its form and\nthrough which it works. The one is as necessary to a perfect whole as\nthe other, for there must be an _outside_ as well as an _inside_; only\nwe must remember that the creative principle is always _inside_, and\nthat the outside only exhibits what the inside creates. Hence, whatever\nexternal effect we would produce, we must first enter into the spirit of\nit and work upon the spiritual principle, whether in ourselves or\nothers; and by so doing our insight will become greatly enlarged, for\nfrom without we can see only one small portion of the circumference,\nwhile from the centre we can see the whole of it. If we fully grasp the\ntruth that Spirit is Creator, we can dispense with painful\ninvestigations into the mechanical side of all our problems. If we are\nconstructing from without, then we have to calculate anxiously the\nstrength of our materials and the force of every thrust and strain to\nwhich they may be subjected, and very possibly after all we may find\nthat we have made a mistake somewhere in our elaborate calculations. But\nif we realise the power of creating from within, we shall find all these\ncalculations correctly made for us; for the same Spirit which is Creator\nis also that which the Bible calls \"the Wonderful Numberer.\"\nConstruction from without is based upon analysis, and no analysis is\ncomplete without accurate quantitative knowledge; but creation is the\nvery opposite of analysis, and carries its own mathematics with it.\n\nTo enter into the spirit of anything, then, is to make yourself one in\nthought with the creative principle that is at the centre of it; and\ntherefore why not go to the centre of all things at once, and enter into\nthe Spirit of Life? Do you ask where to find it? _In yourself_; and in\nproportion as you find it there, you will find it everywhere else.\nLook at Life as the one thing that is, whether in you or around you; try\nto realise the livingness of it, and then seek to enter into the Spirit\nof it by affirming it to be the whole of what you are. Affirm this\ncontinually in your thoughts, and by degrees the affirmation will grow\ninto a real living force within you, so that it will become a second\nnature to you, and you will find it impossible and unnatural to think in\nany other way; and the nearer you approach this point the greater you\nwill find your control over both body and circumstances, until at last\nyou shall so enter into the Spirit of it--into the Spirit of the Divine\ncreative power which is the root of all things--that, in the words of\nJesus, \"nothing shall be impossible to you,\" because you have so entered\ninto the Spirit of it that you discover yourself to be _one with it_.\nThen all the old limitations will have passed away, and you will be\nliving in an entirely new world of Life, Liberty and Love, of which you\nyourself are the radiating centre. You will realise the truth that your\nThought is a limitless creative power, and that you yourself are behind\nyour Thought, controlling and directing it with Knowledge for any\npurpose which Love motives and Wisdom plans. Thus you will cease from\nyour labours, your struggles and anxieties, and enter into that new\norder where perfect rest is one with ceaseless activity.\n\n1902.\n\n\n\n\nXIX\n\nTHE BIBLE AND THE NEW THOUGHT\n\n\nI\n\n_The Son_\n\nA deeply interesting subject to the student of the New Thought movement\nis to trace how exactly its teaching is endorsed by the teaching of the\nBible. There is no such thing as new thought in the sense of new Truth,\nfor what is truth now must have been truth always; but there is such a\nthing as a new presentment of the old Truth, and it is in this that the\nnewness of the present movement consists. But the same Truth has been\nrepeatedly stated in earlier ages under various forms and in various\nmeasures of completeness, and nowhere more completely than in the\nScriptures of the Old and New Testaments. None of the older forms of\nstatement is more familiarly known to our readers than that contained in\nthe Bible, and no other is entwined around our hearts with the same\nsacred and tender associations: therefore, I have no hesitation in\nsaying that the existence of a marked correspondence between its\nteaching and that of the New Thought cannot but be a source of strength\nand encouragement to any of us who have been accustomed in the past to\nlook to the old and hallowed Book as a storehouse of Divine wisdom. We\nshall find that the clearer light will make the rough places smooth and\nthe dim places luminous, and that of the treasures of knowledge hidden\nin the ancient volume the half has not been told us.\n\nThe Bible lays emphatic stress upon \"the glorious liberty of the sons of\nGod,\" thus uniting in a single phrase the twofold idea of filial\ndependence and personal liberty. A careful study of the subject will\nshow us that there is no opposition between these two ideas, but that\nthey are necessary correlatives to each other, and that whether stated\nafter the more concentrated method of the Bible, or after the more\ndetailed method of the New Thought, the true teaching proclaims, not our\nindependence of God, but our independence in God.\n\nSuch an enquiry naturally centres in an especial manner around the\nsayings of Jesus; for whatever may be our opinions as to the nature of\nthe authority with which he spoke, we must all agree that a peculiar\nweight attaches to those utterances which have come down to us as the\n_ipsissima verba_ from which the entire New Testament has been\ndeveloped; and if an identity of conception in the New Thought movement\ncan be traced here at the fountain-head, we may expect to find it in the\nlower streams also.\n\nThe Key to the Master's teaching is to be found in his discourse with\nthe Woman of Samaria, and it is contained in the statement that \"the\nFather\" is Spirit, that is, Spirit in the absolute and unqualified sense\nof the word, as appears from the original Greek, and not \"A Spirit\" as\nit is rendered in the Authorised Version: and then as the natural\ncorrelative to \"the Father\" we find another term employed, \"the Son.\"\nThe relation between these two forms the great subject of Jesus'\nteaching, and, therefore, it is most important to have some definite\nidea of what he meant by these terms if we would understand what it was\nthat he really taught.\n\nNow if \"the Father\" be Spirit, \"the Son\" must be Spirit also; for a son\nmust necessarily be of the same nature as his father. But since \"the\nFather\" is Spirit, Absolute and Universal, it is evident that \"the Son\"\ncannot be Spirit, Absolute and Universal, because there cannot be two\nUniversal Spirits, for then neither would be universal. We may,\ntherefore, logically infer that because \"the Father\" is Universal\nSpirit, \"the Son\" is Spirit not universal; and the only definition of\nSpirit not-universal is Spirit individualised and particular. The\nScripture tells us that \"the Spirit is Life,\" and taking this as the\ndefinition of \"Spirit,\" we find that \"the Father\" is Absolute,\nOriginating, Undifferentiated Life, and \"the Son\" is the same Life\ndifferentiated into particular forms. Hence, in the widest sense of the\nexpression, \"the Son\" stands for the whole creation, visible or\ninvisible, and in this sense it is the mere differentiation of the\nuniversal Life into a multiplicity of particular modes. But if we have\nany adequate idea of the intelligent and responsive nature of\nSpirit[2]--if we realise that because it is Pure Being it must be\nInfinite Intelligence and Infinite Responsiveness--then we shall see\nthat its reproduction in the particular admits of innumerable degrees,\nfrom mere expression as outward form up to the very fullest expression\nof the infinite intelligence and responsiveness that Spirit is.\n\n    [Footnote 2: _Intelligence_ and _Responsiveness_ is the\n    Generic Nature of Spirit in _every_ Mode, and it is the\n    _concentration_ of this into centres of consciousness that\n    makes personality, i. e., _self_-conscious individuality.\n    This varies immensely in degree, from its first adumbration\n    in the animal to its intense development in the Great Masters\n    of Spiritual Science. Therefore it is called \"The Power that\n    Knows Itself\"--It is the power of _Self_-recognition that\n    makes _personality_, and as we grow to see that our\n    personality is not all contained between our hat and our\n    boots, as Walt Whitman says, but _expands_ away into the\n    Infinite, which we then find to be _the Infinite of\n    ourselves_, the _same_ I AM that I am, so _our personality_\n    expands and we become conscious of ever-increasing degrees of\n    Life-in-ourselves.]\n\nThe teachings of Jesus were addressed to the hearts and intelligences of\nmen, and therefore the grade of sonship of which he spoke has reference\nto the expression of Infinite Being in the human heart and intellect.\nBut this, again, may be conceived of in infinite degrees; in some men\nthere is the bare potentiality of sonship entirely undeveloped as yet,\nin others the beginnings of its development, in others a fuller\ndevelopment, and so on, until we can suppose some supreme instance in\nwhich the absolutely perfect reproduction of the universal has been\nattained. Each of these stages constitutes a fuller and fuller\nexpression of sonship, until the supreme development reaches a point at\nwhich it can be described only as the perfect image of \"the Father\"; and\nthis is the logical result of a process of steady growth from an inward\nprinciple of Life which constitutes the identity of each individual.\n\nIt is thus a necessary inference from Jesus' own explanation of \"the\nFather\" as Spirit or Infinite Being that \"the Son\" is the Scriptural\nphrase for the reproduction of Infinite Being in the individual,\ncontemplated in that stage at which the individual does in some measure\nbegin to recognise his identity with his originating source, or, at any\nrate, where he has capacity for such a recognition, even though the\nactual recognition may not yet have taken place. It is very remarkable\nthat, thus defining \"the Son\" on the direct statement of Jesus himself,\nwe arrive exactly at the definition of Spirit as \"that power which knows\nitself.\" In the capacity for thus recognising its identity of nature\nwith \"the Father\" is it that the potential fact of sonship consists, for\nthe prodigal son was still a son even before he began to realise his\nrelation to his \"Father\" in actual fact. It is the dawning of this\nrecognition that constitutes the spiritual \"babe,\" or infant son; and by\ndegrees this consciousness grows till he attains the full estate of\nspiritual manhood. This recognition by the individual of his own\nidentity with Universal Spirit is precisely what forms the basis of the\nNew Thought; and thus at the outset the two systems radiate from a\ncommon centre.\n\nBut I suppose the feature of the New Thought which is the greatest\nstumbling-block to those who view the movement from the outside is the\nclaim it makes for Thought-power as an active factor in the affairs of\ndaily life. As a mere set of speculative opinions people might be\nwilling to pigeon-hole it along with the philosophic systems of Kant or\nHegel; but it is the practical element in it which causes the\ndifficulty. It is not only a system of Thought based upon a conception\nof the Unity of Being, but it claims to follow out this conception to\nits legitimate consequences in the production of visible and tangible\nexternal results by the mere exercise of Thought-power. A ridiculous\nclaim, a claim not to be tolerated by common sense, a trespassing upon\nthe Divine prerogative, a claim of unparalleled audacity: thus the\ncasual objector. But this claim is not without its parallel, for the\nsame claim was put forward on the same ground by the Great Teacher\nHimself as the proper result of \"the Son's\" recognition of his relation\nto \"the Father.\" \"Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you\";\n\"Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, and\nnothing shall be impossible unto you\"; \"All things are possible to him\nthat believeth.\" These statements are absolutely without any note of\nlimitation save that imposed by the seeker's want of faith in his own\npower to move the Infinite. This is as clear a declaration of the\nefficacy of mental power to produce outward and tangible results as any\nnow made by the New Thought, and it is made on precisely the same\nground, namely, the readiness of \"the Father\" or Spirit in the Universal\nto respond to the movement of Spirit in the individual.\n\nIn the Bible this movement of individualised Spirit is called \"prayer,\"\nand it is synonymous with Thought, formulated with the intention of\nproducing this response.\n\n    \"Prayer is the heart's sincere desire,\n     Uttered or unexpressed,\"\n\nand we must not let ourselves be misled by the association of particular\nforms with particular words, but should follow the sound advice of\nOliver Wendell Holmes, and submit such words to a process of\ndepolarisation, which brings out their real meaning. Whether we call our\nact \"prayer\" or \"thought-concentration,\" we mean the same thing; it is\nthe claim of the man to move the Infinite by the action of his own mind.\n\nIt may be objected, however, that this definition omits an important\nelement of prayer, the question, namely, whether God will hear it. But\nthis is the very element that Jesus most rigorously excludes from his\ndescription of the mental act. Prayer, according to the popular notion,\nis a most uncertain matter. Whether we shall be heard or not depends\nentirely upon another will, regarding whose action we are completely\nignorant, and therefore, according to this notion, the very essence of\nprayer consists of utter uncertainty. Jesus' conception of prayer was\nthe very opposite. He bids us believe that we have already in fact\nreceived what we ask for, and makes this the condition of receiving; in\nother words, he makes the essential factor in the mental action to\nconsist in Absolute Certainty as to the corresponding response in the\nInfinite, which is exactly the condition that the New Thought lays down\nfor the successful operation of Thought-power.\n\nIt may, however, be objected that if men have thus an indiscriminate\npower of projecting their thought to the accomplishment of anything they\ndesire, they can do so for evil as easily as for good. But Jesus fully\nrecognised this possibility, and worked the only destructive miracle\nrecorded of him for the express purpose of emphasising the danger. The\nreason given by the compilers of the Gospel for the destruction of the\nfig-tree is clearly inadequate, for we certainly cannot suppose Jesus so\nunreasonable as to curse a tree for not bearing fruit out of season. But\nthe record itself shows a very different purpose. Jesus answered the\ndisciples' astonished questioning by telling them that it was in their\nown power, not only to do what was done to the fig-tree, but to produce\neffects upon a far grander scale; and he concludes the conversation by\nlaying down the duty of a heart-searching forgiveness as a necessary\npreliminary to prayer. Why was this precept so particularly impressed in\nthis particular connection? Obviously because the demonstration he had\njust given of the valency of thought-power in the hands of instructed\npersons laid bare the fact that this power can be used destructively as\nwell as beneficially, and that, therefore, a thorough heart-searching\nfor the eradication of any lurking ill-feeling became an imperative\npreliminary to its safe use; otherwise there was danger of noxious\nthought-currents being set in motion to the injury of others. The\nmiracle of the fig-tree was an object-lesson to exhibit the need for the\ncareful handling of that limitless power which Jesus assured his\ndisciples existed as fully in them as in himself. I do not here attempt\nto go into this subject in detail, but enough has, I think, been shown\nto convince us that Jesus made exactly the same claim for the power of\nThought as that made by the New Thought movement at the present day. It\nis a great claim, and it is, therefore, encouraging to find such an\nauthority committed to the same assertion.\n\nThe general principle on which this claim is based by the exponents of\nthe New Thought is the identity of Spirit in the individual with spirit\nin the universal, and we shall find that this, also, is the basis of\nJesus' teaching on the subject. He says that \"the Son can do nothing of\nhimself, but what he seeth the Father do these things doeth the Son in\nlike manner.\" It must now be sufficiently clear that \"the Son\" is a\ngeneric appellation, not restricted to a particular individual, but\napplicable to all; and this statement explains the manner of \"the Son's\"\nworking in relation to \"the Father.\" The point this sentence\nparticularly emphasises is that it is what he sees the Father doing that\nthe Son does also. His doing corresponds to his seeing. If the seeing\nexpands, the doing expands along with it. But we are all sufficiently\nfamiliar with this principle in other matters. What differentiates an\nEdison or a Marconi from the apprentice who knows only how to fit up an\nelectric bell by rule of thumb? It is their capacity for seeing the\nuniversal principles of electricity and bringing them into particular\napplication. The great painter is the one who sees the universal\nprinciples of form and colour where the smaller man sees only a\nparticular combination; and so with the great surgeon, the great\nchemist, the great lawyer--in every line it is the power of insight that\ndistinguishes the great man from the little one; it is the capacity for\nmaking wide generalisations and perceiving far-reaching laws that raises\nthe exceptional mind above the ordinary level. The greater working\nalways results from the greater seeing into the abstract principles from\nwhich any art or science is generated; and this same law carried up to\nthe universal principles of Life is the law by which \"the Son's\" working\nis proportioned to his seeing the method of \"the Father's\" work. Thus\nthe source of \"the Son's\" power lies in the contemplation of \"the\nFather,\" the endeavour, that is, to realise the true nature of Being,\nwhether in the abstract or in its generic forms of manifestation.[3]\nThis is Bacon's maxim, \"Work as God works\"; and similarly the New\nThought consists before all things in the realisation of the laws of\nBeing.\n\n    [Footnote 3: Everything depends on this principle of\n    Reciprocity. By contemplation we come to realize the true\n    nature of \"Spirit\" or \"the father.\" We learn to disengage the\n    _variable_ factors of particular _Modes_ from the\n    _invariable_ factors which are the essential qualities of\n    Spirit underlying _all_ Modes. Then when we realize these\n    essential qualities we see that we can apply them under any\n    mode that we will: in other words _we_ supply the _variable_\n    factor of the combination by the action of our Thought, as\n    Desire or Will, and thus combine it with the _invariable_\n    factor or \"constant\" of the _essential_ law of spirit, thus\n    producing what result we will. This is just what we do in\n    respect to physical nature--e. g., the electrician supplies\n    the _variable_ factor of the particular Mode of application,\n    and the _constant_ laws of Electricity _respond_ to the\n    nature of the invitation given to them. This _Responsiveness_\n    is _inherent_ in Spirit; otherwise Spirit would have no means\n    of expansion into manifestation. Responsiveness is the\n    principle of Spirit's Self-expression. We do not have to\n    create responsive action on the part of electricity. We can\n    safely take this Responsiveness for granted as pure natural\n    law. Our desire first works on the Arupa level and thence\n    concentrates itself through the various Rupa levels till it\n    reaches complete external manifestation.]\n\nAnd the result of the seeing is that \"the Son\" does the same things as\n\"the Father\" \"in like manner.\" The Son's action is the reproduction of\nthe universal principles in application to specific instances. The\nprinciples remain unaltered and work always in the same manner, and the\noffice of \"the Son\" is to determine the particular field of their\noperation with regard to the specific object which he has in view; and\ntherefore, so far as that object is concerned, the action of \"the Son\"\nbecomes the action of \"the Father\" also.\n\nAgain, there is no concealment on the part of \"the Father.\" He has no\nsecrets, for \"the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that\nhimself doeth.\" There is perfect reciprocity between Spirit in the\nUniversal and in Individualisation, resulting from the identity of\nBeing; and \"the Son's\" recognition of Love as the active principle of\nthis Unity gives him an intuitive insight into all those inner workings\nof the Universal Life which we call the arcana of Nature. Love has a\ndivine gift of insight which cannot be attained by intellect alone, and\nthe old saying, \"Love will find out the way,\" has greater depths of\nmeaning than appear on the surface. Thus there is not only a seeing, but\nalso a showing; and the three terms--\"looking, seeing, showing\"--combine\nto form a power of \"working\" to which it is impossible to assign any\nlimit.\n\nHere, again, the teaching of Jesus is in exact correspondence with that\nof the New Thought, which tells us that limitations exist only where we\nourselves put them, and that to view ourselves as beings of limitless\nknowledge, power, and love is to become such in outward manifestation of\nvisible fact. Any objection, therefore, to the New Thought teaching\nregarding the possibilities latent in Man apply with equal force to the\nteachings of Jesus. His teaching clearly was that the perfect\nindividuality of Man is a Dual-Unity, the polarisation of the Infinite\nin the Manifest; and it requires only the recognition of this truth for\nthe manifested element in this binary system to demonstrate its identity\nwith the corresponding element which is not externally visible. He said\nthat He and his Father were One, that those who had seen him had seen\nthe Father, that the words which he spoke were the Father's, and that it\nwas the Father who did the works. Nothing could be more explicit.\nAbsolute unity of the manifested individuality with the Originating\nInfinite Spirit is asserted or implied in every utterance attributed to\nJesus, whether spoken of himself or of others. He recognises only one\nradical difference, the difference between those who know this truth and\nthose who do not know it. The distinction between the disciple and the\nmaster is one only of degree, which will be effaced by the expansive\npower of growth; \"the disciple, when he is perfected, shall be as his\nMaster.\"\n\nAll that hinders the individual from exercising the full power of the\nInfinite for any purpose whatever is his lack of faith, his inability to\nrealise to the full the stupendous truth that he himself is the very\npower which he seeks. This was the teaching of Jesus as it is that of\nthe New Thought; and this truth of the Divine Sonship of Man once taken\nas the great foundation, a magnificent edifice of possibilities which\n\"eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart\nof man to conceive,\" grows up logically upon it--a glorious heritage\nwhich each one may legitimately claim in right of his common humanity.\n\n\nII\n\n_The Great Affirmation_\n\nI take it for granted that my readers are well acquainted with the part\nassigned to the principle of Affirmation in the scheme of the New\nThought. This is often a stumbling-block to beginners; and I feel sure\nthat even those who are not beginners will welcome every aid to a deeper\napprehension of this great central truth. I, therefore, purpose to\nexamine the Bible teaching on this important subject.\n\nThe professed object of the Bible is to establish and extend \"the\nKingdom of God\" throughout the world, and this can be done only by\nrepeating the process from one individual to another, until the whole\nmass is leavened. It is thus an individual process; and, as we have seen\nin the last chapter, God is Spirit and Spirit is Life, and, therefore,\nthe expansion of \"the Kingdom of God\" means the expansion of the\nprinciple of Life in each individual. Now Life, to be life at all, must\nbe Affirmative. It is Life in virtue of what it is, and not in virtue of\nwhat it is not. The quantity of life in any particular case may be very\nsmall; but, however small the amount, the quality is always the same:\nit is the quality of Being, the quality of Livingness, and not its\nabsence, that makes it what it is. The distinctive character of Life,\ntherefore, is that it is Positive and not Negative; and every degree of\nnegativeness, that is, every limitation, is ultimately traceable to\ndeficiency of Life-power.\n\nLimitations surround us because we believe in our inability to do what\nwe desire. Whenever we say \"I cannot\" we are brought up sharp by a\nlimitation, and we cease to exercise our thought-power in that direction\nbecause we believe ourselves stopped by a blank wall of impossibility;\nand whenever this occurs we are subjected to bondage. The ideal of\nperfect Liberty is the converse of all this, and follows a sequence\nwhich does not thus lead us into a _cul-de-sac_. This sequence consists\nof the three affirmations: I am--therefore I can--therefore I will; and\nthis last affirmation results in the projection of our powers, whether\ninterior or external, to the accomplishment of the desired object. But\nthis last affirmation has its root in the first; and it is because we\nrecognise the Affirmative nature of the Life that is in us, or rather of\nthe Life which we are, that the power to will or to act positively has\nany existence; and, therefore, the extent of our power to will and to\nact positively and with effect, is exactly measured by our perception of\nthe depth and livingness of our own Being. Hence the more fully we learn\nto affirm that, the greater power we are able to exercise.\n\nNow the ideal of perfect Liberty is the entire absence of all\nlimitation, and to have no limitation in Being is to be co-extensive\nwith All-Being. We are all grammarians enough to know that the use of a\npredicate is to lead the mind to contemplate the subject as represented\nby that predicate; in other words, it limits our conception for the time\nbeing to that particular aspect of the subject. Hence every predicate,\nhowever extensive, implies some limitation of the subject. But the ideal\nsubject, the absolutely free self, is, by the very hypothesis, without\nlimitation; and, therefore, no predicate can be attached to it. It\nstands as a declaration of its own Being without any statement of what\nthat Being consists in, and therefore it says of itself, not \"I am this\nor that,\" but simply I am. No predicate can be added, because the only\ncommensurate predicate would be the enumeration of Infinity. Therefore,\nboth logically and grammatically, the only possible statement of a fully\nliberated being is made in the words I am.\n\nI need hardly remind my readers of the frequency with which Jesus\nemployed these emphatic words. In many cases the translators have added\nthe word \"He,\" but they have been careful, by putting it in italics, to\nshow that it is not in the original. As grammarians and theologians they\nthought something more was wanted to complete the sense, and they\nsupplied it accordingly; but if we would get at the very words as the\nMaster himself spoke them, we must strike out this interpolation. And as\nsoon as we have done so there flashes into light the identity of his\nstatement with that made to Moses at the burning bush, where the full\nsignificance of the words is so obvious that the translators were\ncompelled to leave the place of the predicate in that seeming emptiness\nwhich comes from filling all things.\n\nSeen thus, a marvellous light shines forth from the instruction of the\nGreat Teacher: for in whatever sense we may regard him as a Great\nException to the weak and limited aspect of humanity with which we are\nonly too familiar, we must all agree that his mission was not to render\nmankind hopeless by declaring the path of advance barred against them,\nbut \"to give light to them that sit in darkness,\" and liberty to them\nthat are bound, by proclaiming the unlimited possibilities that are in\nman waiting only to be called forth by knowledge of the Truth. And if we\nsuppose any personal reference in his words, it can, therefore, be only\nas the Great Example of what man has it in him to become, and not as the\nexample of something which man can never hope to be; an Exception,\ntruly, to mankind as we see them now, but the Exception that proves the\nrule, and sets the standard of what each one may become as he attains to\nthe measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\n\nLet us, therefore, by striking out this interpolation, restore the\nMaster's words as they stand in the original: \"Except ye believe that I\nam, ye shall die in your sins.\" This is an epitome of his teaching.\n\n\"The last enemy that shall be overcome is death,\" and the \"sting,\" or\nfatal power, of death is \"sin.\" Remove that, and death has no longer any\ndominion over us; its power is at an end. And \"the strength of sin is\nthe Law\": sin is every contradiction of the law of Being; and the law of\nBeing is infinitude; for Being is Life, and Life in its innermost\nessence is the limitless I am. Dying in our sins is thus not a\npunishment for doubting a particular theological dogma, but it is the\nunavoidable natural consequence of not realising, not believing in, the\nI am. So long as we fail to realise its full infinitude in ourselves, we\ncut ourselves off from our conscious unity with the Infinite Life-Spirit\nwhich permeates all things. Without this principle we have no\nalternative but to die--and this because of our sin, that is, because of\nour failure to conform to the true Law of our Being, which is Life, and\nnot Death. We affirm Death and Negation concerning ourselves, and\ntherefore Death and Negation are externalised, and thus we pay the\npenalty of not believing in the central Law of our own Life, which is\nthe Law of all Life. The Bible is the Book of Principles, and therefore\nby \"dying\" is meant the acceptance of the principle of the Negative\nwhich culminates in Death as the sum-total of all limitations, and which\nintroduces at every step those restrictions which are of the nature of\nDeath, because their tendency is to curtail the outflowing fulness of\nLife.\n\nThis, then, is the very essence of the teaching of Jesus, that unbelief\nin the limitless power of Life-in-ourselves--in each of us--is the one\ncause of Death and of all those evils which, in greater or lesser\nmeasure, reproduce the restrictive influences which deprive Life of its\nfulness and joy. If we would escape Death and enter into Life, we must\neach believe in the I am in ourselves. And the ground for this belief?\nSimply that nothing else is conceivable. If our life is not a portion of\nthe life of Universal Spirit, whence comes it? We are because that is.\nNo other explanation is possible. The unqualified affirmation of our own\nlivingness is not an audacious self-assertion: it is the only logical\noutcome of the fact that there is any life anywhere, and that we are\nhere to think about it. In the sense of Universal Being, there can be\nonly One I am, and the understanding use of the words by the individual\nis the assertion of this fact. The forms of manifestation are infinite,\nbut the Life which is manifested is One, and thus every thinker who\nrecognises the truth regarding himself finds in the I am both himself\nand the totality of all things; and thus he comes to know that in\nutilising the interior nature of the things and persons about him, he\nis, in effect, employing the powers of his own life.\n\nSometimes the veil which Jesus drew over this great truth was very\ntransparent. To the Samaritan woman he spoke of it as a spring of Life\nforever welling up in the innermost recesses of man's being; and again,\nto the multitude assembled at the Temple, he spoke of it as a river of\nLife forever gushing from the secret sources of the spirit within us.\nLife, to be ours at all, must be ourselves. An energy which only passed\nthrough us, without being us, might produce a sort of galvanic activity,\nbut it would not be Life. Life can never be a separate entity from the\nindividuality which manifests it; and therefore, even if we conceive the\nlife-principle in a man so intensified as to pulsate with what might\nseem to us an absolutely divine vitality, it would still be no other\nthan the man himself. Thus Jesus directs us to no external source of\nlife, but ever teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, and that\nwhat is wanted is to remove those barriers of ignorance and ill-will\nwhich prevent us from realising that the great I am, which is the\ninnermost Spirit of Life throughout the universe, is the same I am that\nI am, whoever I may be.\n\nOn another memorable occasion Jesus declared again that the I am is the\nenduring principle of Life. It is this that is the Resurrection and the\nLife; not, as Martha supposed, a new principle to be infused from\nwithout at some future time, but an inherent core of vitality awaiting\nonly its own recognition of itself to triumph over death and the grave.\nAnd yet, again hear the Master's answer to the inquiring Thomas. How\nmany of us, like him, desire to know the way! To hear of wonderful\npowers latent in man and requiring only development is beautiful and\nhopeful, if we could only find out the way to develop them; but who will\nshow us the way? The answer comes with no uncertain note. The I am\nincludes everything. It is at once \"the Way, the Truth, and the Life\":\nnot the Life only, or the Truth only, but also the Way by which to reach\nthem. Can words be plainer? It is by continually affirming and relying\non the I am in ourselves as identical with the I am that is the One and\nOnly Life, whether manifested or unmanifested, in all places of the\nuniverse, that we shall find the way to the attainment of all Truth and\nof all Life. Here we have the predicate which we are seeking to complete\nour affirmation regarding ourselves. I am--what? the Three things which\ninclude all things: Truth, which is all Knowledge and Wisdom; Life,\nwhich is all Power and Love; and the unfailing Way which will lead us\nstep by step, if we follow it, to heights too sublime and environment\ntoo wide for our present juvenile imaginings to picture.\n\nAs the New Testament centres around Jesus, so the old Testament centres\naround Moses, and he also declares the Great Affirmation to be the\nsame.[4] For him God has no name, but that intensely living universal\nLife which is all in all, and no name is sufficient to be its\nequivalent. The emphatic words I am are the only possible statement of\nthe One-Power which exhibits itself as all worlds and all living beings.\nIt is the Great I am which forever unfolds itself in all the infinite\nevolutionary forces of the cosmic scheme, and which, in marvellous\nonward march, develops itself into higher and higher conscious\nintelligence in the successive races of mankind, unrolling the scroll of\nhistory as it moves on from age to age, working out with unerring\nprecision the steady forward movement of the whole towards that ultimate\nperfection in which the work of God will be completed. But stupendous\nas is the scale on which this Providential Power reveals itself to Moses\nand the Prophets, it is still nothing else than the very same Power\nwhich Jesus bids us realise in ourselves.\n\n    [Footnote 4: The Old Testament and the New treat the I AM\n    from its opposite poles. The Old Testament treats it from the\n    relation of the _Whole to the Part_, while the New Testament\n    treats it from the relation of the _Part to the Whole_. This\n    is important as explaining the relation between the Old and\n    New Testaments.\n\n    (a) \"My Word shall not return unto me void but shall\n    accomplish that whereunto I send it.\"\n\n    (b) The Principle here indicated is that of the Alternation\n    and Equation between Absorption and Radiation--a taking-in\n    before, and a giving-out.\n\n    (c) \"_Order_\"--Whatever betrays this is \"Disorder.\"\n\n    (d) \"_Conscious_\"--It is the degree of _consciousness_ that\n    always marks the transition from a lower to a higher Power of\n    Life. The _Life_ of _All Seven_ Principles _must_ always be\n    present in us, otherwise we should not exist at all;\n    therefore it is the degree in which we learn to _consciously_\n    function in each of them that marks our advance into higher\n    kingdoms within ourselves, and frequently outside ourselves\n    also.\n\n    (e) The Central Radiating Point of our Individuality is _One_\n    with All-Being.\n\n    (f) _Equilibrium_--Note the difference between the Living\n    Equilibrium of Alternate Rhythmic _Pulsation_ (the whole\n    Pulsation Doctrine) and the dead equilibrium of merely\n    _running down_ to a _dead level_. The former implies the\n    Doctrine of the Return, the Upward Arc compensating the\n    Downward Arc--The deadness of the latter results from the\n    absence of any such compensation. The Upward Arc results from\n    the contemplation of the Highest Ideal.\n\n    (g) Spirit cannot leave any portion of its Nature behind it.\n    It _must_ always have _all_ the qualities of Spirit in it,\n    even though the lower parts of the individuality are not yet\n    conscious of it.\n\n    (h) The Great Affirmation is The Guide to the whole Subject.]\n\nThe theatre of its operations may be expanded to the magnificent\nproportions of a world-history, or contracted to the sphere of a single\nindividuality: the difference is only one of scale; but the\nLife-principle is always the same. It is always the principle of\nconfident Affirmation in the calm knowledge that all things are but\nmanifestations of itself, and that, therefore, all must move together in\none mighty unity which admits of no discordant elements. This \"unity of\nthe spirit\" once clearly grasped, to say I am is to send the vibrations\nof our thought-currents throughout the universe to do our bidding when\nand where we will; and, conversely, it is _to_ draw in the vitalising\ninfluences of Infinite Spirit as from a boundless ocean of Life, which\ncan never be exhausted and from which no power can hold us back. And all\nthis is so because it is the supreme law of Nature. It is not the\nintroduction of a new order, but simply the allowing of the original and\nonly possible order to flow on to its legitimate fulfilment. A Divine\nOrder, truly, but nowhere shall we find anything that is not Divine; and\nit is to the realisation of this Divine and Living Order that it is the\npurpose of the Bible to lead us. But we shall never realise it around us\nuntil we first realise it within us. We can see God outside only by the\nlight of God inside; and this light increases in proportion as we\nbecome conscious of the Divine nature of the innermost I am which is the\ncentre of our own individuality.\n\nTherefore, it is that Jesus tells us that the I am is \"the door.\" It is\nthat central point of our individual Being which opens into the whole\nillimitable Life of the Infinite. If we would understand the old-world\nprecept, \"know thyself,\" we must concentrate our thought more and more\nclosely upon our own interior Life until we touch its central radiating\npoint, and there we shall find that the door into the Infinite is indeed\nopened to us, and that we can pass from the innermost of our own Being\ninto the innermost of All-Being. This is why Jesus spoke of \"the door\"\nas that through which we should pass in and out and find pasture.\nPasture, the feeding of every faculty with its proper food, is to be\nfound both on the within and the without. The livingness of Life\nconsists in both concentration and externalisation: it is not the dead\nequilibrium of inertia, but the living equilibrium of a vital and\nrhythmic pulsation. Involution and evolution must forever alternate, and\nthe door of communication between them is the I am which is the living\npower in both. Thus it is that the Great Affirmation is the Secret of\nLife, and that to say I am with a true understanding of all that it\nimplies is to place ourselves in touch with all the powers of the\nInfinite.\n\nThis is the Universal and Eternal Affirmation to which no predicate is\nattached; and all particular affirmations will be found to be only\nspecial differentiations of this all-embracing one. I will this or that\nparticular thing because I know that I can bring it into\nexternalisation, and I know that I can because I know that I am, and so\nwe always come back to the great central Affirmation of All-Being.\nSearch the Scriptures and you will find that from first to last they\nteach only this: that every human soul is an individualisation of that\nUniversal Being, or All-Spirit, which we call God, and that Spirit can\nnever be shorn of its powers, but like Fire, which is its symbol, must\nalways be fully and perfectly itself, which is Life in all its unlimited\nfulness.\n\nIn assigning to Affirmation, therefore, the importance which it does,\nthe New Thought movement is at one with the teaching of Jesus and Moses\nand of the entire Bible. And the reason is clear. There is only one\nTruth, and therefore careful seeking can bring men only to the same\nTruth, whether they be Bible-writers or any other. The Bible derives its\nauthority from the inherent truth of the things it tells of, and not\nvice versa; and if these things be true at all, they would be equally\ntrue even though no Bible had ever been written. But, taking the Great\nAffirmation as our guide, we shall find that the system taught by the\nBible is scientific and logical throughout, and therefore any other\nsystem which is scientifically true will be found to correspond with it\nin substance, however it may differ from it in form; and thus, in their\nstatements regarding the power of Affirmation, the exponents of the New\nThought broach no new-fangled absurdity, but only reiterate a great\ntruth which has been before the world, though very imperfectly\nrecognised, for thousands of years.\n\n\nIII\n\n_The Father_\n\nIf, as we have seen, \"the Son\" is the differentiating principle of\nSpirit, giving rise to innumerable individualities, \"the Father\" is the\nunifying principle by which these innumerable individualities are bound\ntogether into one common life, and the necessity for recognising this\ngreat basis of the universal harmony forms the foundation of Jesus'\nteaching on the subject of Worship. \"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,\nwhen neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall ye worship\nthe Father. Ye worship that which ye know not; we worship that which we\nknow; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is\nwhen the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth\"\n(Revised Version). In these few words the Great Teacher sums up the\nwhole subject. He lays particular stress on the kind of worship that he\nmeans. It is, before all things, founded upon knowledge.\n\n\"We worship that which we know,\" and it is this knowledge that gives the\nworship a healthful and life-giving quality. It is not the ignorant\nworship of wonderment and fear, a mere abasement of ourselves before\nsome vast, vague, unknown power, which may injure us if we do not find\nout how to propitiate it; but it is a definite act performed with a\ndefinite purpose, which means that it is the employment of one of our\nnatural faculties upon its proper object in an intelligent manner. The\nignorant Samaritan worship is better than no worship at all, for at\nleast it realises the existence of some centre around which a man's life\nshould revolve, something to prevent the aimless dispersion of His\npowers for want of a centripetal force to bind them together; and even\nthe crudest notion of prayer, as a mere attempt to induce God to change\nhis mind, is at least a first step towards the truth that full supply\nfor all our needs may be drawn from the Infinite. Still, such worship as\nthis is hampered with perplexities, and can give only a feeble answer to\nthe atheistical sneer which asks, \"What is man, that God should be\nmindful of him, a momentary atom among unnumbered worlds?\"\n\nNow the teaching of Jesus throws all these perplexities aside with the\nsingle word \"knowledge.\" There is only one true way of doing anything,\nand that is knowing exactly what it is we want to do, and knowing\nexactly why we want to do it. All other doing is blundering. We may\nblunder into the right thing sometimes, but we cannot make this our\nprinciple of life to all eternity; and if we have to give up the blunder\nmethod eventually, why not give it up now, and begin at once to profit\nby acting according to intelligible principle? The knowledge that \"the\nSon,\" as individualised Spirit, has his correlative in \"the Father,\" as\nUniversal Spirit, affords the clue we need.\n\nIn whatever way we may attempt to explain it, the fact remains that\nvolition is the fundamental characteristic of Spirit. We may speak of\nconscious, or subconscious or super-conscious action; but in whatever\nway we may picture to ourselves the condition of the agent as\ncontemplating his own action, a general purposeful lifeward tendency\nbecomes abundantly evident on any enlarged view of Nature, whether seen\nfrom without or from within, and we may call this by the general name of\nvolition. But the error we have to avoid is that of supposing volition\nto take the same form in Universal Spirit as in individualised Spirit.\nThe very terms \"universal\" and \"individual\" forbid this. For the\nuniversal, as such, to exercise specific volition, concentrating itself\nupon the details of a specific case, would be for it to pass into\nindividualisation, and to cease to be the Absolute and Infinite; it\nwould be no longer \"the Father,\" but \"the Son.\" It is therefore exactly\nby not exercising specific volition that \"the Father\" continues to be\n\"the Father,\" or the Great Unifying Principle. But the volitional\nquality is not on this account absent from Spirit in the Universal; for\notherwise whence would that quality appear in ourselves? It is present;\nbut according to the nature of the plane on which it is acting. The\nUniversal is not the Specific, and everything on the plane of the\nUniversal must partake of the nature of that plane. Hence volition in\n\"the Father\" is not specific; and that which is not specific and\nindividual must be generic. Generic volition, therefore, is that mode of\nvolition which belongs to the Universal, and generic volition is\ntendency. This is the solution of the enigma, and this solution is\ngiven, not obscurely, in Jesus' statement that \"the Father\" seeks those\ntrue worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth.\n\nFor what do we mean by tendency? From the root of tendere, to stretch;\nit signifies a pushing out in a certain definite direction, the tension\nof some force seeking to expand itself. What force? The Universal\nLife-Principle, for \"the Spirit is Life.\" In the language of modern\nscience this \"seeking\" on the part of \"the Father\" is the expansive\npressure of the Universal Life-Principle seeking the line of least\nresistance, along which to flow into the fullest manifestation of\nindividualised Life. It is a tendency which will take manifested form\naccording to the degree in which it meets with reception.\n\nSt. John says, \"This is the boldness that we have towards him, that if\nwe ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know\nthat He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the\npetitions that we have asked of Him\" (1 John v. 14). Now according to\nthe popular notion of \"the will of God,\" this passage entirely loses its\nvalue, because it makes everything depend on our asking \"according to\nHis will,\" and if we start with the idea of an individual act of the\nDivine volition in each separate case, nothing short of a special\nrevelation continually repeated could inform us what the Divine will in\neach particular instance was. Viewed in this light, this passage is a\nmere jeering at our incapacity. But when once we realise that \"the will\nof God\" is an invariable law of tendency, we have a clear standard by\nwhich to test whether we may rightly expect to get what we desire. We\ncan study this law of tendency as we would any other law, and it is this\nstudy that is the essence of true worship.\n\nThe word \"worship\" means to count worthy; to count worthy, that is, of\nobservation. The proverb says that \"imitation is the sincerest form of\nflattery\" more truly we may say that it is the sincerest worship. Hence\nthe true worship is the study of the Universal Life-Principle \"the\nFather,\" in its nature and in its modes of action; and when we have thus\nrealised \"the Law of God,\" the law that is inherent in the nature of\nInfinite Being, we shall know that by conforming our own particular\naction to this generic law, we shall find that this law will in every\ninstance work out the results that we desire. This is nothing more or\nless miraculous than what occurs in every case of applied science. He\nonly is the true chemist or engineer who, by first learning how to obey\nthe generic tendency of natural laws, is able to command them to the\nfulfilment of his individual purposes; no other method will succeed.\nSimilarly with the student of the divine mystery of Life. He must first\nlearn the great laws of its generic tendency, and then he will be in a\nposition to apply that tendency to the working of any specific effect he\nwill.\n\nCommon sense tells us what the law of this tendency must be. The Master\ntaught that a house divided against itself cannot stand; and for the\nLife-Principle to do anything restrictive of the fullest expansion of\nlife, would be for it to act to its own destruction. The test,\ntherefore, in every case, whether our intention falls within the scope\nof the great law, is this: Does it operate for the expansion or for the\nrestriction of life? and according to the answer we can say positively\nwhether or not our purpose is according to \"the will of God.\" Therefore\nso long as we work within the scope of this generic \"will of the Father\"\nwe need have no fear of the Divine Providence, as an agency, acting\nadversely to us. We may dismiss this bugbear, for we ourselves are\nmanifestations of the very power which we call \"the Father.\" The I am is\none; and so long as we preserve this unity by conforming to the generic\nnature of the I am in the universal, it will certainly never destroy the\nunity by entering upon a specific course of action on its own account.\n\nHere, then, we find the secret of power. It is contained in the true\nworship of \"the Father,\" which is the constant recognition of the\nlifegivingness of Originating Spirit, and of the fact that we, as\nindividuals, still continue to be portions of that Spirit; and that\ntherefore the law of our nature is to be perpetually drawing life from\nthe inexhaustible stores of the Infinite--not bottles of water-of-life\nmixed with other ingredients and labelled for this or that particular\npurpose, but the full flow of the pure stream itself, which we are free\nto use for any purpose we desire. \"Whosoever will, let him take the\nwater of life freely.\" It is thus that the worship of \"the Father\"\nbecomes the central principle of the individual life, not as curtailing\nour liberty, but as affording the only possible basis for it. As a\nplanetary system would be impossible without a central controlling sun,\nso harmonious life is impossible without the recognition of Infinite\nSpirit as that Power, whose generic tendency serves to control each\nindividual being into its proper orbit. This is the teaching of the\nBible, and it is also the teaching of the New Thought, which says that\nlife with all its limitless possibilities is a continual outflow from\nthe Infinite which we may turn in any direction that we desire.\n\nBut, it may be asked, what happens if we go counter to this generic law\nof Spirit? This is an important question, and I must leave the answer\nfor further consideration.\n\n\nIV\n\n_Conclusion_\n\nI concluded my last chapter with the momentous question, What happens if\nwe go counter to the generic law of Spirit? What happens if we go\ncounter to any natural law? Obviously, the law goes counter to us. We\ncan use the laws of Nature, but we cannot alter them. By opposing any\nnatural law we place ourselves in an inverted position with regard to\nit, and therefore, viewed from this false standpoint, it appears as\nthough the law itself were working against us with definite purpose. But\nthe inversion proceeds entirely from ourselves, and not from any change\nin the action of the law. The law of Spirit, like all other natural\nlaws, is in itself impersonal; but we carry into it, so to speak, the\nreflection of our own personality, though we cannot alter its generic\ncharacter; and therefore, if we oppose its generic tendency towards the\nuniversal good, we shall find in it the reflection of our own opposition\nand waywardness.\n\nThe law of Spirit proceeds unalterably on its course, and what is spoken\nof in popular phraseology as the Divine wrath is nothing else than the\nreflex action which naturally follows when we put ourselves in\nopposition to this law. The evil that results is not a personal\nintervention of the Universal Spirit, which would imply its entering\ninto specific manifestation, but it is the natural outcome of the\ncauses that we ourselves have set in motion. But the effect to ourselves\nwill be precisely the same as if they were brought about by the volition\nof an adverse personality, though we may not realise that in truth the\npersonal element is our own. And if we are at all aware of the\nwonderfully complex nature of man, and the various interweavings of\nprinciples which unite the material body at one end of the scale to the\npurely spiritual Ego at the other, we shall have some faint idea of on\nhow vast a field these adverse influences may operate, not being\nrestricted to the plane of outward manifestation, but acting equally on\nthose inner planes which give rise to the outer and are of a more\nenduring nature.\n\nThus the philosophic study of Spirit, so far from affording any excuse\nfor laxity of conduct, adds an emphatic definiteness to the Bible\nexhortation to flee from the wrath of God. But, on the other hand, it\ndelivers us from groundless terrors, the fear lest our repentance should\nnot be accepted, the fear lest we should be rejected for our inability\nto subscribe to some traditional dogma, the fear of utter uncertainty\nregarding the future--fears which make life bitter and the prospect of\ndeath appalling to those who are in bondage to them. The knowledge that\nwe are dealing with a power which is no respecter of persons, and in\nwhich is no variableness, which is, in fact, an unalterable Law, at\nonce delivers us from all these terrors.\n\nThe very unchangeableness of Law makes it certain that no amount of past\nopposition to it, whether from ignorance or wilfulness, will prevent it\nfrom working in accordance with its own beneficent and life-giving\ncharacter as soon as we quit our inverted position and place ourselves\nin our true relation towards it. The laws of Nature do not harbour\nrevenge; and once we adapt our methods to their character, they will\nwork for us without taking any retrospective notice of our past errors.\nThe law of Spirit may be more complex than that of electricity, because,\nas expressed in us, it is the law of conscious individuality; but it is\nnone the less a purely natural law, and follows the universal rule, and\ntherefore we may dismiss from our minds, as a baseless figment, the fear\nof any Divine power treasuring up anger against us on account of\nbygones, if we are sincerely seeking to do what is right now. The new\ncauses which we put in motion now will produce their proper effect as\nsurely as the old causes did; and thus by inaugurating a new sequence of\ngood we shall cut off the old sequence of evil. Only, of course, we\ncannot expect to bring about the new sequence while continuing to repeat\nthe old causes, for the fruit must necessarily reproduce the nature of\nthe seed. Thus we are the masters of the situation, and, whether in this\nworld or the next, it rests with ourselves either to perpetuate the\nevil or to wipe it out and put the good in its place. And it may be\nnoticed in passing that the great central Christian doctrine is based\nupon the most perfect knowledge of this law, and is the practical\napplication to a profound problem of the deepest psychological science.\nBut this is a large subject, and cannot be suitably dealt with here.\n\nMuch has been written and said on the origin of evil, and a volume might\nbe filled with the detailed study of the subject; but for all practical\npurposes it may be summed up in the one word limitation. For what is the\nultimate cause of all strife, whether public or private, but the notion\nthat the supply of good is limited? With the bulk of mankind this is a\nfixed idea, and they therefore argue that because there is only a\ncertain limited quantity of good, the share in their possession can be\nincreased only by correspondingly diminishing some one else's share. Any\none entertaining the same idea, naturally resents the attempt to deprive\nhim of any portion of this limited quantity; and hence arises the whole\ncrop of envy, hatred, fraud, and violence, whether between individuals,\nclasses, or nations. If people only realised the truth that \"good\" is\nnot a certain limited quantity, but a stream continuously flowing from\nthe exhaustless Infinite, and ready to take any direction we choose to\ngive it, and that each one is able by the action of his own thought to\ndraw from it indefinitely, the substitution of this new and true idea\nfor the old and false one of limitation would at one stroke remove all\nstrife and struggle from the world; every man would find a helper\ninstead of a competitor in every other, and the very laws of Nature,\nwhich now so often seem to war against us, would be found a ceaseless\nsource of profit and delight.\n\n\"They could not enter into rest because of unbelief,\" \"they limited the\nHoly One of Israel\": in these words the Bible, like the New Thought,\ntraces all the sorrow of the world--that terrible _Weltschmerz_ which\nexpresses itself with such direful influence through the pessimistic\nliterature of the day--to the one root of a false belief, the belief in\nman's limitation. Only substitute for it the true belief, and the evil\nwould be at an end. Now the ground of this true belief is that clear\napprehension of \"the Father\" which, as I have shown, forms the basis of\nJesus' teaching. If, from one point of view, the Intelligent Universal\nLife-Principle is a Power to be obeyed, in the same sense in which we\nhave to obey all the laws of Nature, from the opposite point of view, it\nis a power to be used. We must never lose sight of the fact that\nobedience to any natural law in its generic tendency necessarily carries\nwith it a corresponding power of using that law in specific application.\nThis is the old proverb that knowledge is power. It is the old paradox\nwith which Jesus posed the ignorant scribes as to how David's Lord could\nalso be his Son. The word \"David\" means \"Beloved\" and to be beloved\nimplies that reciprocal sympathy which is intuitive knowledge. Hence\nDavid, the Beloved, is the man who has realised his true relation as a\nSon to his Father and who is \"in tune with the Infinite.\" On the other\nhand, this \"Infinite\" is his \"Lord\" because it is the complex of all\nthose unchangeable Laws from which it is impossible to swerve without\nsuffering consequent loss of power; and on the other, this knowledge of\nthe innermost principles of All-Being puts him in possession of\nunlimited powers which he can apply to any specific purpose that he\nwill; and thus he stands towards them in the position of a father who\nhas authority to command the services of his son. Thus David's \"Lord,\"\nbecomes by a natural transition his \"Son.\"\n\nAnd it is precisely in this that the principle of \"Sonship\" consists. It\nis the raising of man from the condition of bondage as a servant by\nreason of limitation to the status of a son by the entire removal of all\nlimitations. To believe and act on this principle is to \"believe on the\nSon of God,\" and a practical belief in our own sonship thus sets us free\nfrom all evil and from all fear of evil--it brings us out of the kingdom\nof death into the kingdom of Life. Like everything else, it has to grow,\nbut the good seed of liberating Truth once planted in the heart is sure\nto germinate, and the more we endeavour to foster its growth by seeking\nto grasp with our understanding the reason of these things and to\nrealise our knowledge in practice, the more rapidly we shall find our\nlives increase in livingness--a joy to ourselves, a brightness to our\nhomes, and a blessing expanding to all around in ever-widening circles.\n\nEnough has now been said to show the identity of principle between the\nteaching of the Bible and that of the New Thought. Treated in detail,\nthe subject would extend to many volumes explanatory of the Old and New\nTestaments, and if that great work were ever carried out I have no\nhesitation in saying that the agreement would be found to extend to the\nminutest particulars. But the hints contained in the foregoing papers\nwill, I hope, suffice to show that there is nothing antagonistic between\nthe two systems, or, rather, to show that they are one--the statement of\nthe One Truth which always has been and always will be. And if what I\nhave now endeavoured to put before my readers should lead any of them to\nfollow up the subject more fully for themselves, I can promise them an\ninexhaustible store of wonder, delight, and strength in the study of the\nOld Book in the light of the New Thought.\n\n1902.\n\n\n\n\nXX\n\nJACHIN AND BOAZ\n\n\n\"And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand,\nand the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand\nJachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.\" (II Chron. iii, 17.)\n\nVery likely some of us have wondered what was the meaning of these two\nmysterious pillars set up by Solomon in front of his temple, and why\nthey were called by these strange names; and then we have dropped the\nsubject as one of those inexplicable things handed down in the Bible\nfrom old time which, we suppose, can have no practical interest for us\nat the present day. Nevertheless, these strange names are not without a\npurpose. They contain the key to the entire Bible and to the whole order\nof Nature, and as emblems of the two great principles that are the\npillars of the universe, they fitly stood at the threshold of that\ntemple which was designed to symbolise all the mysteries of Being.\n\nIn all the languages of the Semitic stock the letters J and Y are\ninterchangeable, as we see in the modern Arabic \"Yakub\" for \"Jacob\" and\nthe old Hebrew \"Yaveh\" for \"Jehovah.\" This gives us the form \"Yachin,\"\nwhich at once reveals the enigma. The word Yak signifies \"one\"; and the\ntermination \"hi,\" or \"him,\" is an intensitive which may be rendered in\nEnglish by \"only.\" Thus the word \"Jachin\" resolves itself into the words\n\"one only,\" the all-embracing Unity.\n\nThe meaning of Boaz is clearly seen in the book of Ruth. There Boaz\nappears as the kinsman exercising the right of pre-emption so familiar\nto those versed in Oriental law--a right which has for its purpose the\nmaintenance of the Family as the social unit. According to this\nwidely-spread custom, the purchaser, who is not a member of the family,\nbuys the property subject to the right of kinsmen within certain degrees\nto purchase it back, and so bring it once more into the family to which\nit originally belonged. Whatever may be our personal opinions regarding\nthe vexed questions of dogmatic theology, we can all agree as to the\ngeneral principle indicated in the role acted by Boaz. He brings back\nthe alienated estate into the family--that is to say, he \"redeems\" it in\nthe legal sense of the word. As a matter of law his power to do this\nresults from his membership in the family; but his motive for doing it\nis love, his affection for Ruth. Without pushing the analogy too far we\nmay say, then, that Boaz represents the principle of redemption in the\nwidest sense of reclaiming an estate by right of relationship, while the\ninnermost moving power in its recovery is Love.\n\nThis is what Boaz stands for in the beautiful story of Ruth, and there\nis no reason why we should not let the same name stand for the same\nthing when we seek the meaning of the mysterious pillar. Thus the two\npillars typify Unity and the redeeming power of Love, with the\nsignificant suggestion that the redemption results from the Unity. They\ncorrespond with the two \"bonds,\" or uniting principles spoken of by St.\nPaul, \"the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace,\" and \"Love,\nwhich is the Bond of Perfectness.\"\n\nThe former is Unity of Being; the latter, Unity of Intention: and the\nprinciple of this Dual-Unity is well illustrated by the story of Boaz.\nThe whole story proceeds on the idea of the Family as the social unit,\nthe root-conception of all Oriental law, and if we consider the Family\nin this light, we shall see how exactly it embodies the two-fold idea of\nJachin and Boaz, unity of Being and unity of Thought. The Family forms a\nunit because all the members proceed from a common progenitor, and are\nthus all of one blood; but, although this gives them a natural unity of\nBeing of which they cannot divest themselves, it is not enough in itself\nto make them a united family, as unfortunately experience too often\nshows. Something more is wanted, and that something is Love. There must\nbe a personal union brought about by sympathetic Thought to complete the\nnatural union resulting from birth. The inherent unity must be expressed\nby the Individual volition of each member, and thus the Family becomes\nthe ideally perfect social unit; a truth to which St. Paul alludes when\nhe calls God the Father from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is\nnamed. Thus Boaz stands for the principle which brings back to the\noriginal Unity that which has been for a time separated from it. There\nhas never been any separation of actual Being--the family right always\nsubsisted in the property even while in the hands of strangers,\notherwise it could never have been brought back; but it requires the\nLove principle to put this right into effective operation.\n\nWhen this begins to work in the knowledge of its right to do so, then\nthere is the return of the individual to the Unity, and the recognition\nof himself as the particular expression of the Universal in virtue of\nhis own nature.\n\nThese two pillars, therefore, stand for the two great spiritual\nprinciples that are the basis of all Life: Jachin typifying the Unity\nresulting from Being, and Boaz typifying the Unity resulting from Love.\nIn this Dual-Unity we find the key to all conceivable involution or\nevolution of Spirit; and it is therefore not without reason that the\nrecord of these two ancient pillars has been preserved in our\nScriptures. And finally we may take this as an index to the character of\nour Scriptures generally. They contain infinite meanings; and often\nthose passages which appear on the surface to be most meaningless will\nbe found to possess the deepest significance. The Book, which we often\nread so superficially, hides beneath its sometimes seemingly trivial\nwords the secrets of other things. The twin pillars Jachin and Boaz bear\nwitness to this truth.[5]\n\n    [Footnote 5: The following comment was made by Judge Troward,\n    after the publication of this paper in _Expression_:\n\n    \"_The Two Pillars_ of the Universe are Personality and\n    Mathematics, represented by Boaz and Jachin respectively.\n    This is the broadest simplification to which it is possible\n    to reduce things. Balance consists in preserving the\n    Equilibrium or Alternating Current between these two\n    Principles. Personality is the Absolute Factor. Mathematics\n    are the Relative Factor, for they merely Measure different\n    Rates or Scales. They are absolute in this respect. A\n    particular scale having been selected all its sequences will\n    follow by an inexorable Law of Order and Proportion; but the\n    selection of the scale and the change from one scale to\n    another rests entirely with Personality. What Personality can\n    not do is to make one Scale produce the results of another,\n    but it can set aside one scale and substitute another for it.\n    Hence Personality contains in itself the Universal Scale, or\n    can either accommodate itself to lower rates of motion\n    already established, or can raise them to its own rate of\n    motion. Hence Personality is the grand Ultimate Fact in all\n    things.\n\n    \"Different personalities should be regarded as different\n    degrees of consciousness. They are different degrees of\n    emergence of The Power that knows Itself.\"]\n\n\n\n\nXXI\n\nHEPHZIBAH\n\n\n\"Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more\nbe termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land\nBeulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married\"\n(Isaiah lxii, 4). The name Hephzibah--or, as it might be written,\nHafzbah--conveys a very distinct idea to any one who has lived in the\nEast, and calls up a string of familiar words all containing the same\nroot _hafz_, which signifies \"guarding\" or \"taking care of,\" such as\n_hafiz_, a protector, _muhafiz_, a custodian, as in the word _muhafiz\ndaftar_, a head record-keeper; or again, _hifazat_, custody, as\n_bahifazat polis_, in custody of the police; or again, _daim-ul-hafz_,\nimprisonment for life, and other similar expressions.\n\nAll words from this root suggest the idea of \"guarding,\" and therefore\nthe name Haphzibah at once speaks its own meaning. It is \"one who is\nguarded,\" a \"protected one.\" And answering to this there must be some\npower which guards, and the name of this power is given in Hosea ii, 16,\nwhere it is called \"Ishi.\" \"And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord,\nthat thou shalt call me Ishi; and thou shalt call me no more Baali.\"\n\"Baali\" means \"lord,\" \"Ishi\" means \"husband,\" and between the two there\nis a whole world of distinction.\n\nTo call the Great Power \"Baali\" is to live in one world, and to call it\n\"Ishi\" is to live in another. The world that is ruled over by Baali is a\nworld of \"miserable worms of the dust\" and such crawling creatures; but\nthe world that is warmed and lightened by \"Ishi\" is one in which men and\nwomen walk upright, conscious of their own divine nature, instead of\ndodging about to escape being crushed under the feet of Moloch as he\nstrides through his dominions. If the name Baali did not suggest a wrong\nidea there would be no need to change it for another, and the change of\nname therefore indicates the opening of the mind to a larger and sounder\nconception of the true nature of the Ruling Principle of the universe.\nIt is no imperious autocrat, the very apotheosis of self-glorification,\nill-natured and spiteful if its childish vanity be not gratified by\nhearing its own praises formally proclaimed, often from lips opened only\nby fear; nor is it an almighty extortioner desiring to deprive us of\nwhat we value most, either to satisfy its greed or to demonstrate its\nsovereignty. This is the image which men make of God and then bow\nterrified before it, offering a worship which is the worship of Baal,\nand making life blank because all the livingness has been wiped\nout of it.\n\nIshi is the embodiment of the very opposite conception, a wise and\naffectionate husband, instead of a taskmaster exploiting his slaves. In\nits true aspect the relation of husband and wife is entirely devoid of\nany question of relative superiority or inferiority. As well ask whether\nthe front wheel or the back wheel of your bicycle is the more important.\nThe two make a single whole, in which the functions of both parts are\nreciprocal and equally necessary; yet for this very reason these\nfunctions cannot be identical.\n\nIn a well-ordered home, where husband and wife are united by mutual love\nand respect, we see that the man's function is to enter into the larger\nworld and to provide the wife with all that is needed for the\nmaintenance and comfort of the home, while the function of the woman is\nto be the distributor of what her husband provides, in doing which she\nfollows her own discretion; and a sensible man, knowing that he can\ntrust a sensible wife, does not want to poke his finger into every pie.\nThus all things run harmoniously--the woman relieved of responsibilities\nwhich are not naturally hers, and the man relieved of responsibilities\nwhich are not naturally his. But let any perplexity or danger arise, and\nthe woman knows that from her husband she will receive all the guidance\nand protection that the occasion may require, he being the wise and\nstrong man that we have supposed him, and having this assurance she is\nable to pursue the avocations of her own sphere undisturbed by any fears\nor anxieties.\n\nIt is this relation of protection and guidance that is implied by the\nword Hephzibah. It is the name of those who realise their identity with\nthe all-ordering Divine Spirit. He who realises this unity with the\nSpirit finds himself both guided and guarded. And here we touch the\nfringe of a deep natural mystery, which formed the basis of all that was\nmost valuable in the higher mysteries of the ancients, and the substance\nof which we must realise if we are to make any progress in the future,\nwhatever form we may adopt to convey the idea to ourselves or others. It\nis the relation of the individual mind to the Universal Mind, the\ncombination of unity with independence which, though quite clear when we\nknow it by personal experience, is almost inexpressible in words, but\nwhich is frequently represented in the Bible under the figure of the\nmarriage relations.\n\nIt is a basic principle, and in various modes pervades all Nature, and\nhas been symbolised in every religion the world has known; and in\nproportion as the individual realises this relation he will find that he\nis able to _use_ the Universal Mind, while at the same time he is guided\nand guarded by it. For think what it would be to wield the power of the\nUniversal Mind without having its guidance. It would be the old story of\nPhaeton trying to drive the chariot of the Sun, which ended in his own\ndestruction; and limitless power without corresponding guidance would be\nthe most terrible curse that any one could bring upon his head.\n\nThe relation between the individual mind and the Universal Mind, as\nportrayed in the reciprocally connected names of Hephzibah and Ishi,\nmust never be lost sight of; for the Great Guiding Mind, immeasurably\nas it transcends our intellectual consciousness, is not another than\n_ourselves_. It is The One Self which is the foundation of all the\nindividual selves, and which is, therefore, in all its limitlessness, as\nentirely one with each individual as though no other being existed.\nTherefore we do not have to go out of ourselves to find it, for it is\nthe expansion to infinity of all that we truly _are_, having, indeed, no\nplace for those negative forms of evil with which we people a world of\nillusion, for it is the very Light itself, and in it all illusion is\ndispelled; but it is the expansion to infinity of all in us that is\nAffirmative, all that is really living.\n\nTherefore, in looking for its guiding and guarding we are relying upon\nno borrowed power from _without_, held at the caprice and option of\nanother, but upon the supreme fact of our own nature, which we can use\nin what direction we will with perfect freedom, knowing no limitation\nsave the obligation not to do violence to our own purest and highest\nfeelings. And this relation is entirely _natural_. We must steer the\nhappy mean between imploring and ignoring. A natural law does not need\nto be entreated before it will work; and, on the other hand, we cannot\nmake use of it while ignoring its existence.\n\nWhat we have to do, therefore, is to take the working of the law for\ngranted, and make use of it accordingly; and since that is the law of\nMind, and Mind is Personality, this Power, which is at once _ourselves_\nand above ourselves, may be treated as a Person and may be spoken with,\nand its replies received by the inner ear of the heart. Any scheme of\nphilosophy that does not result in this personal intercourse with the\nDivine Mind falls short of the mark. It may be right so far as it goes,\nbut it does not go far enough, and fails to connect us with our vital\ncentre. Names are of small importance so long as the intercourse is\nreal. The Supreme Mind with which we converse is only to be met in the\nprofoundest depths of our own being, and, as Tennyson says, is more\nperfectly ourselves than our own hands and feet. It is our natural Base;\nand realising this we shall find ourselves to be in very truth \"guarded\nones,\" guided by the Spirit in all things, nothing too great and nothing\ntoo trivial to come within the great Law of our being.\n\nThere is another aspect of the Spirit in which it is seen as a Power to\nbe used; and the full flow of life is in the constant alternation\nbetween this aspect and the one we have been considering, but always we\nare linked with the Universal Mind as the flower lives by reason of its\nroot. The connection itself is intrinsic, and can never be severed; but\nit must be consciously realised before it can be consciously used. All\nour development consists in the increasing consciousness of this\nconnection, which enables us to apply the higher power to whatever\npurpose we may have in hand, not merely in the hope that it _may_\nrespond, but with the certain knowledge that by the law of its own\nnature it is bound to do so, and likewise with the knowledge that by\nthe same law it is bound also to guide us to the selection of right\nobjects and right methods.\n\nExperience will teach us to detect the warning movement of the inner\nGuide. A deepseated sense of dissatisfaction, an indescribable feeling\nthat somehow everything is not right, are the indications to which we do\nwell to pay heed; for we are \"guarded ones,\" and these interior\nmonitions are the working of that innermost principle of our own being\nwhich is the immediate outflowing of the Great Universal Life into\nindividuality. But, paying heed to this, we shall find ourselves\nguarded, not as prisoners, but as a loved and honoured wife, whose\nfreedom is assured by a protection which will allow no harm to assail\nher; we shall find that the Law of our nature is Liberty, and that\nnothing but our own want of understanding can shut us out from it.\n\n\n\n\nXXII\n\nMIND AND HAND\n\n\nI have before me a curious piece of ancient Egyptian symbolism. It\nrepresents the sun sending down to the earth innumerable rays, with the\npeculiarity that each ray terminates in a hand. This method of\nrepresenting the sun is so unusual that it suggests the presence in the\ndesigner's mind of some idea rather different from those generally\nassociated with the sun as a spiritual emblem; and, if I interpret the\nsymbol rightly, it sets forth the truth, not only of the Divine Being as\nthe Great Source of all Life and of all Illumination, but also the\ncorrelative truth of our individual relation to that centre. Each ray is\nterminated by a hand, and a hand is the emblem of active working; and I\nthink it would be difficult to give a better symbolical representation\nof innumerable individualities, each working separately, yet all\nderiving their activity from a common source. The hand is at work upon\nthe earth, and the sun, from which it is a ray, is shining in the\nheavens; but the connecting line shows whence all the strength and skill\nof the hand are derived.\n\nIf we look at the microcosm of our own person we find this principle\nexactly reproduced. Our hand is the instrument by which all our work is\ndone--literary, artistic, mechanical, or household--but we know that all\nthis work is really the work of the mind, the will-power at the centre\nof our system, which first determines what is to be done, and then sets\nthe hand to work to do it; and in the doing of it the mind and hand\nbecome one, so that the hand is none other than the mind working. Now,\ntransferring this analogy to the microcosm, we see that we each stand in\nthe same relation to the Universal Mind that our hand does to our\nindividual mind--at least, that is our normal relation; and we shall\nnever put forth our full strength except from this standpoint.\n\nWe rightly realise our will as the centre of our individuality, but we\nshould do better to picture our individuality as an ellipse rather than\na circle, a figure having two \"conjugate foci,\" two equilibriated\ncentres of revolution rather than a single one, one of which is the\nwill-power or faculty of _doing_, and the other the consciousness or\nperception of _being_. If we realise only one of these two centres we\nshall lose both mental and moral balance. If we lose sight of that\ncentre which is our personal will, we shall become flabby visionaries\nwithout any backbone; and if, in our anxiety to develop backbone, we\nlost sight of the other centre, we shall find that we have lost that\nwhich corresponds to the lungs and heart in the physical body, and that\nour backbone, however perfectly developed, is rapidly drying up for\nwant of those functions which minister vitality to the whole system, and\nis only fit to be hung up in a museum to show what a rigid, lifeless\nthing the strongest vertebral column becomes when separated from the\norganisation by which alone it can receive nourishment. We must realise\nthe one focus of our individuality as clearly as the other, and bring\nboth into equal balance, if we would develop all our powers and rise to\nthat perfection of Life which has no limits to its glorious\npossibilities.\n\nKeeping the ancient Egyptian symbol before used, and considering\nourselves as the hand, we find that we derive all our power from an\ninfinite centre; and because it is infinite we need never fear that we\nshall fail to draw to ourselves all that we require for our work,\nwhether it be the intelligence to lay hold of the proper tool, or the\nstrength to use it. And, moreover, we learn from the symbol that this\ncentral power is generic. This is a most important truth. It is the\ncentre from which all the hands proceed, and is as fully open to any one\nhand as to any other. Each hand is doing its separate work, and the\nwhole of the central energy is at its disposal for its own specific\npurpose. The work of the central energy, as such, is to supply vitality\nto the hands, and it is they that differentiate this universal power\ninto all the varied forms of application which their different aptitudes\nand opportunities suggest. We, as the hands, live and work because the\nCentral Mind lives and works in us. We are one with it, and it is one\nwith us; and so long as we keep this primal truth before us, we realise\nourselves as beings of unlimited goodness and intelligence and power,\nand we work in the fulness of strength and confidence accordingly; but\nif we lose sight of this truth, we shall find that the strongest will\nmust get exhausted at last in the unequal struggle of the individual\nagainst the universe.\n\nFor if we do not recognise the Central Mind as the source of our\nvitality, we are literally \"fighting for our own hand,\" and all the\nother hands are against us, for we have lost the principle of connection\nwith them. This is what must infallibly happen if we rely on nothing but\nour individual will-power. But if we realise that the will is the power\nby which we give out, and that every giving out implies a corresponding\ntaking in, then we shall find in the boundless ocean of central living\nSpirit the source from which we can go on taking in _ad infinitum_, and\nwhich thus enables us to give out to any extent we please. But for wise\nand effective giving out a strong and enlightened will is an absolute\nnecessity, and therefore we do well to cultivate the will, or the active\nside of our nature. But we must equally cultivate the receptive side\nalso; and when we do this rightly by seeing in the Infinite Mind the one\nsource of supply, our will-power becomes intensified by the knowledge\nthat the whole power of the Infinite is present to back it up; and with\nthis continual sense of Infinite Power behind us we can go calmly and\nsteadily to the accomplishment of any purpose, however difficult,\nwithout straining or effort, knowing that it shall be achieved, not by\nthe hand only, but by the invincible Mind that works through it. \"Not by\nmight, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.\"\n\n1902.\n\n\n\n\nXXIII\n\nTHE CENTRAL CONTROL\n\n\nIn contemplating the relations between body, soul, and spirit, between\nUniversal Mind and individual mind, the methodised study of which\nconstitutes Mental Science, we must never forget that these relations\nindicate, not the separateness, but the unity of these principles. We\nmust learn not to attribute one part of our action to one part of our\nbeing, and another to another. Neither the action nor the functions are\nsplit up into separate parts. The action is a whole, and the being that\ndoes it is a whole, and in the healthy organism the reciprocal movements\nof the principles are so harmonious as never to suggest any feeling than\nthat of a perfectly whole and undivided self. If there is any other\nfeeling we may be sure that there is abnormal action somewhere, and we\nshould set ourselves to discover and remove the cause of it. The reason\nfor this is that in any perfect organism there cannot be more than one\ncentre of control.\n\nA rivalry of controlling principles would be the destruction of the\norganic wholeness; for either the elements would separate and group\nthemselves round one or other of the centres, according to their\nrespective affinities, and thus form two distinctive individualities,\nor else they would be reduced to a condition of merely chaotic\nconfusion; in either case the original organism would cease to exist.\nSeen in this light, therefore, it is a self-evident truth that, if we\nare to retain our individuality; in other words, if we are to continue\nto exist, it can be only by retaining our hold upon the central\ncontrolling principle in ourselves; and if this be the charter of our\nbeing, it follows that all our future development depends on our\nrecognising and accepting this central controlling principle. To this\nend, therefore, all our endeavours should be directed; for otherwise all\nour studies in Mental Science will only lead us into a confused\nlabyrinth of principles and counter-principles, which will be\nconsiderably worse than the state of ignorant simplicity from which we\nstarted.\n\nThis central controlling principle is the Will, and we must never lose\nsight of the fact that all the other principles about which we have\nlearnt in our studies exist only as its instruments. The Will is the\ntrue self, of which they are all functions, and all our progress\nconsists of our increased recognition of the fact. It is the Will that\nsays \"I AM\"; and therefore, however exalted, or even in their higher\ndevelopments apparently miraculous, our powers may be, they are all\nsubject to the central controlling power of the Will. When the\nenlightened Will shall have learnt to identify itself perfectly with the\nlimitless powers of knowledge, judgment, and creative thought which are\nat its disposal, then the individual will have attained to perfect\nwholeness, and all limitations will have passed away for ever.\n\nAnd nothing short of this consciousness of Perfect Wholeness can satisfy\nus. Everything that falls short of it is in that degree an embodiment of\nthe principle of Death, that great enemy against which the principle of\nLife must continue to wage unceasing war, in whatever form or measure it\nmay show itself, until \"death is swallowed up in victory.\" There can be\nno compromise. Either we are affirming Life, as a principle, or we are\ndenying it, no matter on how great or how small a scale; and the\ncriterion by which to determine our attitude is our realisation of our\nown Wholeness. Death is the principle of disintegration; and whenever we\nadmit the power of any portion of our organism, whether spiritual or\nbodily, to induce any condition _independently of the intention of the\nWill_, we admit that the force of disintegration is superior to the\ncontrolling centre in ourselves, and we conceive of ourselves as held in\nbondage by an adversary, from which bondage the only way of release is\nby the attainment of a truer way of thinking.\n\nAnd the reason is that, either through ignorance or carelessness, we\nhave surrendered our position of control over the system as a whole, and\nhave lost the element of _Purpose_, around which the consciousness of\nindividuality must always centre. Every state of our consciousness,\nwhether active or passive, should be the result of a distinct _purpose_\nadopted by our own free will; for the passive states should be quite as\nmuch under the control of the Will as the active. It is the lack of\n_purpose_ that deprives us of power. The higher and more clearly defined\nour purpose, the greater stimulus we have for realising our control over\n_all_ our faculties for its attainment; and since the grandest of all\npurposes is the strengthening and ennobling of Life, in proportion as we\nmake this our aim we shall find ourselves in union with the Supreme\nUniversal Mind, acting each in our individual sphere for the furtherance\nof the same purpose which animates the ruling principle of the Great\nWhole, and, as a consequence, shall find that its intelligence and\npowers are at our disposal.\n\nBut in all this there must be no strain. The true exercise of the Will\nis not an exercise of unnatural force. It is simply the leading of our\npowers into their natural channels by intelligently recognising the\ndirection in which those channels go. However various in detail, they\nhave one clearly defined common tendency towards the increasing of\nLife--whether in ourselves or in others--and if we keep this steadily in\nview, all our powers, whether interior or exterior, will be found to\nwork so harmoniously together that there will be no sense of independent\naction on the part of any one of them. The distinctions drawn for\npurposes of study will be laid aside, and the Self in us will be found\nto be the realisation of a grand ideal being, at once individual and\nuniversal, consciously free in its individual wholeness and in its\njoyous participation in the Life of the Universal Whole.\n\n\n\n\nXXIV\n\nWHAT IS HIGHER THOUGHT?\n\n\nResolution passed October, 1902, by the Kensington Higher Thought\nCentre.\n\n    _\"That the Centre stands for the definite teaching of\n    absolute Oneness of Creator and Creation--Cause and\n    Effect--and that nothing which may contradict or be in\n    opposition to the above principles be admitted to the 'Higher\n    Thought' Centre Platform._\n\n    _\"By Oneness of Cause and Effect is meant, that Effect (man)\n    does consist only of what Cause is; but a part (individual\n    personality) is not therefore co-extensive with the whole.\"_\n\nThis Resolution is of the greatest importance. Once admit that there is\n_any_ Power outside yourself, however beneficent you may conceive it to\nbe, and you have sown the seed which must sooner or later bear the fruit\nof \"_Fear_\" which is the entire ruin of Life, Love and Liberty. There is\nno _via media_. Say we are only reflections, however accurate, of The\nLife, and in the admission we have given away our Birthright. However\nsmall or plausible may be the germ of thought which admits that we are\nanything less in principle than The Life Itself, it must spring up to\nthe ultimate ruin of the Life-Principle itself. We _are_ It itself. The\ndifference is only that between the generic and the specific of the\n_same_ thing. We must contend earnestly, both within ourselves and\noutwardly, for the _one great foundation_ and never, now on to all\neternity, admit for a single instant any thought which is opposed to\nthis, the Basic Truth of Being.\n\nThe leading ideas connected with Higher Thought are (I) That Man\ncontrols circumstances, instead of being controlled by them, and (II) as\na consequence of the foregoing, that whatever teaches us to _rely_ on\npower _borrowed_ from a source _outside_ ourselves is _not_ Higher\nThought; and that whatever explains to us the _Infinite_ source of _our\nown inherent_ power and the consequent _limitless_ nature of that power\n_is_ Higher Thought. This avoids the use of terms which may only puzzle\nthose not accustomed to abstract phraseology, and is substantially the\nsame as the resolution of October, 1902.\n\n\n\n\nXXV\n\nFRAGMENTS\n\n\n  1. God is Love.\n     Man, having the understanding of God, speaks the Word of Power.\n\n  2. Man gives utterance to God.\n\n  3. The Father is Equilibrium.\n     The Son is Concentration of the _same_ Spirit.\n     The Spirit is Projection.\n\n_The Tri-une Relation_--always consists of these Three:\n\n(I) The Potential--(II) The Ideal--(III) The Concrete.\n\n(I) The Potential is Life in its most highly abstract mode not yet\nbrought into Form even as Thought. Not particularised in _any_ way.\n\n(II) The Ideal is the particularising of the Potential into a certain\nFormulated Thought.\n\n(III) The Concrete is the Manifestation of the Formulated Thought in\nVisible Form.\n\nWhat everybody wants is to become _more alive_--as Jesus said, \"I am\ncome that they might have Life and might have it more abundantly\"--and\nit is only on the basis of realising ourselves as a _perfect unity\nthroughout_, not made up of opposing parts, and that unity _Spirit_,\nthat we can realise in ourselves the _Livingness_ which _Spirit is_, and\nwhich we _as Spirit_ ought to be.\n\n\nHENCE PERFECT DEMONSTRATION.\n\n    \"The Truth shall make you Free\"\n    Life    :\n    Love    : = The Truth\n    Liberty :\n\nThe Ultimate Truth will always be found to consist of these three, and\nanything that is contrary to them is contrary to Fundamental Truth.\n\n\nWORSHIP\n\nWorship consists in the recognition of the _Personal_ Nature of Holy\nSpirit, and in the Continual Alternation (Pulsation) between the two\npositions of \"I am the Person that Thou art,\" and \"Thou art the Person\nthat I am.\" The Two Personalities are One.\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n\nCorrections [in brackets] in the text are noted below:\n\n   page 64: extra word removed\n\n      that we shall _feel_ the [the] truth of it,\n\n   page 102: typographical error corrected\n\n      straining and striving, and the place of the old\n      _strum[sturm] und drang_ will be taken, not by inertia, but\n      by a joyous activity which knows that it\n\n   page 151: extra word removed\n\n      in proportion as you find it there, you will [will] find it\n      everywhere else.","title":"The Hidden Power, and Other Papers upon Mental Science","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":53293}